If you want to have unwavering focus but have struggled to achieve it, this Buddhist story has an answer. Once a king gave one of his subjects a challenge. He said, "You have to walk around the palace carrying a bucket full of hot oil on your head, with one condition...

When you are overwhelmed, what do you do? Read this quote from Anne Lamott's book 'Bird by Bird.' "Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the...

Sometimes, life feels like an out-of-control mess. We want to fix it, but we don't know where to start. If it feels like all bad habits have descended on us at once -- procrastination, smartphone addiction, lethargy, low energy, lack of confidence -- what do we do? We...

Many years ago, after late-night work and minimal sleep for a few days, I was struggling to stay alert. But there was a ton of work to be done. So a colleague suggested taking espresso shots. I don't normally consume coffee or tea. But on his advice, I took two...

Even after running for a decade, my 10km morning run today felt just as hard. But then, should habitual actions not become effortless? Why bother building a habit if the task is going to still feel hard? Because even though I find running hard, my desire to run is...

Unpopular opinion: VVIPs visiting sites of accidents and natural disasters is counterproductive. It looks good on cameras but it actually hurts relief and rescue. VVIP visits distract officials, who, instead of doing relief and rescue, have to: Take care of VVIP...

You have potential. So do I. But even a rock sitting on a hilltop has potential energy. Yet, there is nothing it can do until it starts rolling down the hill. Movement unleashes the rock's potential energy. Our potential is very much like that. Whether we realize it...

"9-to-5 jobs are slavery. You work on someone else's dream -- and have no freedom, no flexibility. It is a shitty life. "I was also like that once. But look at me now! I quit my job and work a few hours a day. And I earn a 7-figure income, live on a beach, and no...

In the summer of 2006, I was doing my summer internship with McKinsey in New York. My manager was an MD from a top medical school. One day, he and I were waiting for a cab to visit our client's office. Soon, a cab arrived. But before us, a woman standing next to us...

You don't have to hustle -- if you don't want to. There is no law of nature that says -- "Everyone in the world has to hustle all the time." No doubt, hustle has value. But there are a lot of things in the world that have value -- are you seeking all of them? We...

In my B-school course on 'Negotiations', we were split into groups of two and given a $10 bill each.  The person who got the $10, had to split it with his partner in whichever way he wanted. If the partner agreed to the proposal, they got to keep the $10.  Else, the...

The writer who produces the perfect first draft, produces nothing. The entrepreneur who 'makes sure' that his first startup is a unicorn, never starts. The person who 'makes sure' that everything he does is perfect, does nothing. There is no magic in writing the first...

I write nearly every day. And I have done it for years. Because in my mind, writing is not optional. It is something I do on good days and bad, on busy days and idle days. Most importantly, I do it whether I feel like it or not. If something is optional, our mind will...

Had it been left to me, I suspect I would probably still be sitting on my 1st-year electrical engineering courses without completing them. Ok, I am exaggerating a bit. But without the external pressure of exams and getting a degree, few of us would voluntarily go...

I went to IIT for the brand and the academics, but what I loved the most about the place was its simplicity. On campus, there was no show-off, no flashiness. Students attached zero (in fact, negative) value to how you dressed or how you looked. Whether your dad was an...