How to Find Your Inner Motivation

Today, during a Q&A session I was conducting at Nokia, someone asked — “How do I find motivation for a task?” A part of the answer is hidden in plain sight — in your own life. Take this example: Nobody likes filling out forms, waiting in...

The Pain of Growth

Talking about growth mindset has become such a cliche that not a day goes without hearing it. Then why aren’t we all adopting that mindset? Because growth does not come free. Take the example of muscle growth — how does it happen? You go to the gym and...

The Yerkes-Dodson Law

Why do deadlines improve performance? It makes no sense because deadlines create anxiety, which is the enemy of focus and productivity. For that, we need to understand Yerkes-Dodson law. When we have a deadline, our brain releases an alerting chemical called...

Pain is Private While Success is Public

What happens when you take a risk? If you succeed, people will sing folklore about you on LinkedIn. And if you get really lucky, Harvard will write a case study, which MBA students will interpret in all kinds of funny ways. But if you fail, you will bear the pain all...

Not Everything Can Be Intellectualized

Today, I saw an article in ‘The Print’ in which the author explained why he quit the 10-day Vipassana course run by Sri SN Goenka’s organization. He criticized many aspects of the program such as the ‘noble silence’ and the lack of...