It starts as a whisper and slowly gets louder and louder. Before you know it, it crowds out all your other thoughts. Soon, you have no choice but to listen to it humbly. I’m referring to the voices in our head telling us to back off when we’re about to exert ourselves in challenging situations. … Read more

Having an open mind or getting someone else to open up their mind to a different point of view is hard work. But it can be done. The Galileo affair from the 17th century has some classic lessons and some do’s, but mostly don’ts, on how to get someone to change their perspective, especially when … Read more

When people say, “I’d rather get a root canal than look at my unpaid bills,” they are actually exhibiting a universally favorite coping mechanism in the face of fear—avoidance. (Also, they probably have never had a root canal.) Burying your head in the sand will not make you invisible. It will simply make it harder … Read more

Have you ever checked every item on your to-do list, hustled all day, only to feel a sense of disquiet when you go to bed? The feeling that you haven’t done enough or could do more and be more can be very disheartening. On the other hand, you may struggle to admit that you are … Read more

There are few things in life we universally detest. Change is one of them. As we get older, our resistance to change seems only to increase. We become stubborn and resistant, throwing toddler-like tantrums whenever life deviates in any way from how it’s “supposed” to be. Why is it such a struggle for us to … Read more

Almost every day, I find a reference to a news article or a social media post extolling the need for work-life balance. By no means a recent topic of discussion, work-life balance, or for that matter, balance in life, in general, has long been the subject of much contention. The Covid-19 pandemic has simply catapulted … Read more

See if you can relate to this scenario: Exhausted after a long day, you stumble into bed at 11 p.m. It seems just a few minutes have passed, but then you are wide awake at 3 a.m. running through a mental list of problems from the present, the past, and potential future problems as well. … Read more

Not all of us may have had opportunities to meet celebrities. But, I can say with conviction that every single one of us has had the chance to meet a person (or people, if we are lucky) we consider interesting. And equally likely, we’ve also managed to meet someone who could bore the life out … Read more

I’ve seen this saying bandied about a lot: “Don’t ask for permission. Ask for forgiveness, instead.” It seems to be a culturally lit and, dare I say, a Silicon-valley-appropriate phrase (especially when there’s VC money involved.) Half-kidding! In all seriousness, though, the saying is well-intentioned and has its heart in the right place. Without realizing … Read more

If someone told us to do nothing, most of us would jump for joy. We’d assume it as carte blanche to doomscroll on our devices or mindlessly binge-watch TV shows (even bad ones.) But, doing nothing and focusing on just one thing are two sides of the same coin. It is an art form we … Read more

The English language, or for that matter, most other cultures, have some version of the saying, “Don’t throw good money after bad.” Yet, we do it. We continue to sink in perfectly good time and resources into ventures that aren’t working for us, hoping for miracles to occur. Today’s post is about knowing when to … Read more

Before the tie-break rule was instituted, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut were engaged in the longest Tennis match ever played, a game that lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes. They had to duel it out on the courts for that long because Tennis is a zero-sum sport: one player has to lose for the other … Read more

A research study proved that when people read or hear horror stories such as school shootings, they come home earlier from work and tend to hug their kids tighter that night. But then, a few days later, it’s back to the same busy lives as before. It’s not news to any of us that life … Read more

We are culturally driven to feel grateful for and say yes to every opportunity. But taking on too much can create its own set of problems. Learning to say “no” more often is a skill that will leave us energized and prepared to say a resounding yes, when the right opportunity comes along. TV queen … Read more

The path of least resistance is what makes rivers run crooked – Elbert Hubbard When you ask Google Maps for directions, the first recommended choice is often the fastest route between two points. John Atanasoff built the first electronic digital computer because it was too much work for him to perform calculations manually. Water tends … Read more

What if the TV character you love or the singer whose music you adore turns out to be a flawed human being? Will you continue to love the show or listen to the music once you learn about the unsavory character attributes of its creator? In other words, should you, and more importantly, can you … Read more

Whoever came up with the expression easy as pie probably never made one. So many rules to follow when making a pie: don’t overwork the dough, keep the butter chilled, coat every part of the flour with fat, and on and on. I wouldn’t describe any of that as easy. Similarly, self-learning sounds like fun … Read more

What would you do if you had a blank slate and could design your day any way you choose? What does your ideal day, or for that matter, your ideal life look like? And no, this isn’t a pointless exercise at creating a pie-in-the-sky vision of a world where you have a zillion dollars and … Read more

When you see the words self and improvement together, it’s not uncommon to visualize a drill sergeant barking in your ear about what you should and shouldn’t do. But it needn’t be that way. Like Disney movies, we can cloak our self-improvement efforts in the warm fuzzies and expect happy endings. How? Through the less … Read more