LifeStyle & Sustainable Living

  Work-life balance has always been a challenge and every one of us are trying different approaches if not to master it, finding ways to balance it. Pandemic may have contributed a bit with more calls due to new ways of working from home which otherwise would have avoided a few calls with 10 minute tea time conversation at office.  Microsoft Viva gives me an insight that I spend on average 80% of my time in calls, emails and chat with little focus time left to get things done. Is there anything that I need to improve here? Am I not doing proper delegation ?   No, I have written about the   4D(Do-Drop-Delay-Delegate) principle of delegation   and follow it to the best of my abilities. Am I not getting support from my leadership?   No, I am fortunate to have autonomy and fully empowered to run my portfolio on my own. Do I not have appreciative customers?   No, to the contrary my customers are so understanding and helpful in defining my priorities and mov...

Positive Parenting - A conversation with daughters An interesting conversation happened during the kids mid-term holiday with my 10-year-old daughter. I  called her 10 times from a different room to get her out of comfort zone away from the laptop. She was furious and crazy asking why you are calling many times - I said don't overdo the same thing but try to do diverse things - read books, paint, practice music, dance, keyboard etc. I got a book recently   "This is Vegan Propaganda" , from author Ed Winters. I said it's simple English you can read if you like and ask if you don't understand something. She said it's propaganda I don't like to read. I said don't judge the book by it's cover, read the first 2 pages at least. My younger daughter took it and read the first page. The elder one continued on the 2nd page. I observed that her opinion was not the same after reading 2 pages. I might have instilled some thinking into her to respect a differe...

Choice vs Chance “I am here by chance not by choice” sounds familiar? Many of us might have experienced this at some point in our life. Both of them are good and situational, but we have to be mindful about subtle differences and opt one as situation demands. As they say choices are what we make and chances are what we take. Choices are usually thought through evaluating options or guided by elders or by expert opinion. On the other hand, chances are navigating through unknown territories that involves an amount of uncertainty. Sometimes chances are taken when there are no choices left or when we are not prepared ourselves well enough on what we wanted to be.  As kids we are guided by the choices of our parents or elders, but as we mature we make our own choices. Depending on environment in which we grow, we may not have got any occasions to take chances. However it is very important to experience both at early age as they nurture different qualities and characteristics. Choices i...

  As the saying goes “ In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not ” (Albert Einstein),  I wanted to put my 3P model to real test. Although I had initialsuccess in learning with 3P model, there is an inner feeling in me always tells that something more tangible and practical can be achieved with this. I decided to experiment on 2 aspects of my life: Personal and Professional. Personal Aspect: In personal aspect, I wanted to run, run consistently and run better. As per the Planning phase , I needed an initial steer which came from my friend who wanted to shred some weight and feel better and looking for a company. It all started at the end of spring and beginning of summer 2020. Although I had prior experience of weekly 5k park runs, I set myself a goal of 5k every time I run. We had wearables that tracked and reminded of our goals every day and we decided to run in the evenings after work, thanks to the summer and permitted rules to run during COVI...

  I have recently seen World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji and wanted to share the experience as there is so much to learn and it’s was fantastic to know from people who made history from their own journey. Bear Grylls hosted this 671 Km – 11 day brutal course comprises of Mountains, Jungles, Rivers, Ocean and Swamp where teams have to finish without modern technology but just with wit, experience and counting on each other. 66 teams participated from 30 different countries with 264 athletes that were tested physically, mentally and emotionally with hot, dry, humid, windy, chilling cold, wet and muddy conditions. It has 5 Legs: Ocean Leg, Jungle Leg, River Leg, Highland Leg and Island Leg with 31 checkpoints each has cut off time after which teams will be disqualified. Here are some of my thoughts on what we all can learn from this adventurous expedition:   Never afraid of shaky starts - Don’t go too fast – Worlds famous team had a shaky start in first hour with t...

  Of all the inspiring quotes that I have seen during the COVID situation, this one struck in my mind. It is indeed true and applies to the vast majority of the people who have the luxury of time working from home in “new-normal” saving at least 30 min of their daily routine in commuting to office and it could be much more for many (may be up to 6 hours). Although this model is not intended only during COVID times, there is no better time than now in banking on this opportunity .   There are different ways to attain discipline, but before going into details of my own experience, let’s look at most widely seen zones of learning. Most of us would have gone through this or struggling to reach learning zone and thereafter growth zone. If you are the one who is thinking that everything is hunky-dory and feel safe about what you have then you are in comfort zone, you better come out of complacency sooner rather than later. But if you are thinking and have an initial fear or confusio...