Vietnamese meditation master Thich Nhat Hanh said, “When you have a toothache you think that you will be happy when the toothache is gone. But when you don't have the toothache you are still not happy.” Because when the toothache goes, something else comes up. There...

If you want to break any addiction, here is an action roadmap. Let us first understand what addiction is. It is a compulsive habit – an action you can’t stop yourself from taking even though it harms you. But should our brains not find a harmful action undesirable?...

When building a habit we sometimes get bored in a few weeks. But a pianist may practice 20,000 hours for over a decade to qualify for an orchestra. To be a meditation master, you need 10,000 to 20,000 hours of practice. In fact, Mingyur Rinpoche had completed 62,000...

I have worked in two diametrically opposite work environments. In firms like McKinsey, there was no social hierarchy. Even a senior partner could not overrule a junior analyst using the force of authority. Dissent was not a right, but an obligation – at least, that...

During my four years in college, I was late for classes almost every single day. And after a while, it became a hardwired habit. So much so that if some day I got ready for class on time, I would feel like something was off – I would worry that maybe, I forgot...

Here is how to break the habit of stress eating. Every time you unthinkingly shove some snack into your mouth, ask yourself: Am I hungry? Or just bored and anxious? Stress eating is a classic mindless action that we do on autopilot. Here is a simple way to override...

Today, it is not enough to eat healthy and exercise -- you have to hack your metabolism. You have to hack your brain, hack your sleep, hack your energy levels... Thankfully, I haven't seen anyone 'hack meditation to attain bliss in 5 minutes,' though I am pretty sure...

Chronic worrying is a habit. And like any habit, it can be broken. But let us first understand how this habit is formed. When our brain feels some threat or uncertainty, it creates this dreadful feeling in our head that we call ‘anxiety.’ And we desperately want to...

I have been part of two very different recruitments: Drivers in the police force and consultants at McKinsey 🙂 And yet, from both the recruitments, I learned the same lesson – we totally underestimate the role of luck in our life. During my stint with McKinsey, the...

When I was working as a consultant with McKinsey, I wanted to become an investor. And I was convinced that investing would be a cakewalk. After all, we were trained in problem-solving and logical thinking. What else would you need? I then joined a private equity...

My co-founder at HabitStrong, has one Buddha-like quality I have never seen in anyone – she is absolutely not affected by envy, FOMO, or the disease of comparing ourselves with other people. She has never cared about how much money her classmates are making. Whenever...

I fear that lack of sleep is killing people. We lost a security guard at our apartment, who died of a heart attack. Barely 52, he was very gentle and friendly, and looked fairly healthy. While there could be many reasons for a heart attack, one thing I did notice is...

If I could go back and change one thing about my professional journey, it would be this – I would worry less and live more. For most of my life, I have been too caught up in the drama of success and failure. I have worried too much about the catastrophe that would...

When Sharon Salzberg, a renowned meditation teacher, came to India in 1970 looking for a solution to her life’s suffering, she was very disappointed. After weeks of grueling travel, she reached Bodh Gaya to attend a vipassana retreat run by Mr. SN Goenka. She was...

Here is the common advice I got from my seniors on joining the Indian Police Service – “You have to extract work from the sub-inspectors.” Like you would extract oil from coconut, squeezing out every drop. In fact, one otherwise well-meaning officer told me, “Don’t...