Essays on living an intentional life.
We think about our past more than we think about the future (never mind being in the present). Living in the past could be a way of escaping the present due to the challenges we might be facing in our lives. In other words, we cling to the past by resisting the present. Part of [ ]
There is a story of a Chinese farmer. One day, his horse runs away and the villagers come to him and say, That s too bad! and he responds, Maybe. The next day, the horse returns with more horses, and the villagers come to the farmer and say, That s great. And, he says, Maybe. The next [ ]
Sometime ago, my friend and I were talking about how his daughter was considering going to graduate school for learning design (after having worked for a design firm for a while). At the time, she was conflicted between starting her own practice and going to school. I went off tangent telling him why it wasn t [ ]
I write almost every day in the am for a couple of hours. My day is incomplete without it, so much so that on days I miss writing (which happens occasionally when I m traveling), it feels something s amiss. Spending that daily time doing creative work (writing, thinking, learning) is quite satisfying; I consider this daily [ ]
Most nights, I give myself an hour before going to bed. I call it the daily debrief. It s a way for me to check in with myself to see how I am doing. It gives me the space to take a step back and reflect. Doing the debrief helps me bring closure to my day [ ]
We perennially distract ourselves most of the time, because we are afraid to be alone with our mind. It s why prisoners are kept in solitary confinement (as punishment), because then, there s nothing to distract them with. Alone in the dark, there is only their mind. They are forced to face what s inside, which can be [ ]
This piece is a followup to the previous one, so you might want to read that first for context. There was a point in my life when I wondered if it was possible to be happy all of the time. I didn t think so, but I was wrong. By the way, being happy doesn t have [ ]
Have you ever complained about the weather wanting it to not rain or snow or heat up, so you can go out and do whatever it is you wanted to do? Have you ever complained about the driver driving in front of you, who is driving 5 miles under the speed limit, when the driver [ ]
I moved to a different space not too long ago. I took this opportunity to take an inventory of the various things I owned to figure out what I truly needed. I d do a purge every quarter, irrespective of the move. Anyway, I took stock by classifying things I had into three buckets: using right [ ]
Not too long ago, I did some tech shopping that was long overdue. As I was setting up these devices, I found myself disabling a bunch of notifications on them. The only ones I kept on were the time-sensitive reminders (for obvious reasons). This setup experience reminded me how the devices we get today are [ ]