Rajan’s Linkedin posts

The Power of Knowledge

In school, I hated biology with a passion. And once I decided to pursue engineering, I thought of the subject as a waste of time. But I was wrong. Today, for my startup HabitStrong, as I research neuroscience, psychology, and human behavior, I am learning the same...

Happiness: An Endless Chase

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...

Rewire Your Brain

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?...

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Rajan shares insights from his own life journey to help you build better habits in yours.

Focused work

The hyperactivity and constant busyness at work are placebos -- they lull you into believing that you are making progress. No, you are not. Most of the real progress you make in life happens only during deep, focused work. Focus is the real deal. So get rid of the...

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Perfect job

When I saw how much some of the most coveted jobs suck, I realized that there is no perfect job. And if no job is perfect, how can our life be perfect? Everybody with a perfect life is sharing their story selectively. Be careful in what you choose to believe. -...

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Benefits of meditation

Today morning when I woke up, I was not feeling good. But after an almost hour-long meditation, I felt like a different person – calm, mindful, and in control. A long run does exactly the same thing to me – it virtually flips a switch, brightening my mood, driving...

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Biggest revenge

Some guy wrote an abusive comment accusing me of joining the Civil Services because I enjoyed the crumbs of power. And he said many other nasty things. So how did I take my revenge? I did nothing. He wasn't worthy of even my revenge. In your life journey, some people...

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Motivation

For some reason, I don’t feel super motivated today. So what? Our goals are still alive, and so are we. Then what is there to wait for? Time won’t stop flowing, nor will the clock stop ticking for us to find the right mood. The world waits for no one. I have never...

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Cherish everyone

During my stint in the IPS, once my IGP (Inspector General of Police) flared at me in anger because he did not get a good seat at a cultural event. It was a celebration to mark South India’s film star Mohanlal’s 25 years in films. With almost 40,000 people jampacked...

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Prioritize substance over hype

When I launched my current startup, HabitStrong, I decided to not go the conventional route of painting a growth story and trying to impress the VCs. Instead, here is the startup guide I followed: 1. Don’t worry about scale – instead focus on impact. 99% of the time,...

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Focus

If you keep hearing that startup life is about non-stop hustle and working 16 hours a day, rarely sleeping before 2 am, let me assure you – that is total nonsense. Of course, if you choose to go that crazy, nobody can stop you. But there is absolutely no need. I have...

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Lessons from Policing

One fine morning in 2001, when I was heading the Trivandrum City Police, students from a particular political union in Trivandrum’s University College went on a rampage. But since we were anticipating the violence, we were ready. With a good number of police teams...

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Acknowledge your mistakes

During my stint with a private equity firm, we lost hundreds of millions of dollars because of a simple reason: We could not accept the truth when it was unpleasant. One of our investments was in a tech company that was blowing up money from day one. It was impossible...

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Recipe for simplifying life

Over the years, I have discovered this recipe for simplifying life and getting rid of melodrama. Allow me to share it: 1. Don't chase goals at the cost of 'peace of mind.' 2. Your health comes first – mental and physical. Everything else comes fifth (or lower). 3....

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Living without regrets

After serving a few years in the Indian Police Service (IPS), I felt like a (very comfortable) frog in a well, missing out on so many experiences the world has to offer. So instead of living with regret, I quit IPS. What followed was a long struggle, first as a...

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Specialization

I would attribute half of my struggles and disappointments in my startup journey to just one factor: "Doing too many things." This may seem weird – aren’t you supposed to do a lot of things in a startup? No, no, no. Don’t do that, please. And this applies to all of...

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Focused Work

Last Friday, I figured that 24 hrs was not enough for me – there was way too much to do. So I ran this experiment: 1. I picked a priority task (something I absolutely had to get done). 2. I told myself, ‘Let everything else wait – let me just do this one task for...

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The joy of lifelong learning

I started my MBA 10 years after completing my B Tech. And since most of my classmates were much younger, I felt a bit like a dinosaur (in a not-so-cool way). If fact, I did derive some mischievous pleasure when I found classmates even more experienced – and therefore...

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Rajan shares insights from his own life journey to help you build better habits in yours.