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I feel great about it. Because if it happened, it was meant to happen. And I am glad that it did when it did. I am meant to make the best out of it. -Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is The Way

You're in control of things. You don't blame time, fate or anything like that. What can you do better?

i remember how painful this is. unlike other things, i never quite build a tolerance for this. does one really ever? to learn how to close doors to rooms we should no longer enter

Pope Francis recently appeared at a TED Talk with a message of inclusion, and kindness among others. On Connectedness and Inclusion "We all need each other." "We don’t think about it often, but everything is connected, and we need to restore our connections to a healthy state. Even the harsh judgment I hold in my heart against my brother or my sister, the open wound that was never cured, the offense that was never forgiven, the rancor that is only going to hurt me, are all instances of a fight that I carry within me, a flare deep in my heart that needs to be extinguished before it goes up in flames, leaving only ashes behind." On Solidarity "How wonderful would it be, while we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters orbiting around us. How wonderful would it be if solidarity, this beautiful and, at times, inconvenient word, were not simply reduced to social work, and became, instead, the default attitu...

A Managerial bubble is when as a leader, what you hear is already filtered, and it may not be representative of actual concerns of the people. It is when you are inaccessible. It is when you are never wrong. From the HBR Ideacast episode with Hal Gregersen: How much time are you out of the office? Where are you out of the office? Who are you with? (To gauge how many physical interactions you have other than CEO’s) How many barriers do people have to cross for people to be able to talk to you? (Your accessibility to the people) When was the last time you were dead wrong about something? (If it’s been awhile, you’re in a bubble) How often do people ask you uncomfortable questions at work? (If seldom, you’re definitely in a bubble) How often do you wait silently for 3-4 seconds after you ask a question? (If you’re not asking questions that people wait 3-4 seconds to answer, they’re leading questions)

Drive (2009) Three or four years ago, I stumbled upon one of the most watched videos in TED’s YouTube page. The talk was about Motivation by Dan Pink. In the talk he makes a case about Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivations, and why there is a disconnect in what science knows and what business does.

The Honest Truth About Dishonesty (2012) This was the first book I read that was written by Dan Ariely, which was around 2 years ago. Since I’ve had some time away from it, the one that remains salient is that people don’t evaluate dishonesty on a rational model of weighing the cost versus the benefit of an act, comparing positive and negative outcomes. The much more related model is that which is related to a person’s view of him/herself. People will fudge results only to the extent that they do not feel bad about themselves.

A point of view of a college kid who finds himself in a friends with benefits relationship. He falls in love the with the girl but does not tell her. He finds himself the recipient of the news that the girl is pregnant, but not his own.  He spends time trying to "forget"; going to a bar, getting a prostitute, throwing up at a bus. It doesn't quite resolve, or maybe it's designed that way.

There’s a line between the old and the new. One field to have that is Psychology. Between the line: Martin Seligman. And that line is ever evolving. A number of years ago the standard of Psychology was alleviating pain, an ailment that has to be managed. Then it shifted. It was the birth of Positive Psychology: to elevate positive emotions, a focus from how to make people less miserable, to how to make people happier. But once again the ground it was built shook. From merely increasing positive emotions, it aims to increase human flourishing. The Well-Being Theory