Recognizing and Addressing Emotional Pain
The following is the transcript from the conversation. Hi. Welcome back to Stronger with Rakesh Shukla and hopefully we’ll take another step today to make you stronger – emotionally, physically,…
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Feeling Low on Motivation?
Here’s how to stay on top, even in the face of the most trying circumstances. What was your New Year’s resolution this year? Do you sustain it? Did you have…
How to have a Difficult Adult Conversation
The best time to have a conversation is right now. Setting an expectation, listening, reflecting, and observing are fundamental. A whole category of adult-to-adult conversations is hard — you focus…
Self-help must be ‘Usable’, not just ‘Feelgood’
Why ‘Stronger with Rakesh Shukla’™ is more than just self-help psychobabble. Life is a complex journey and growing up is a painful process — one that often leaves us feeling…
Step One to regain control over your life and health
Replace “I must” with “I want to” to break through procrastination My struggle with lack of motivation, procrastination, or activity paralysis due to depression had been very real for over…
Stop judging yourself
…instead, become kinder and forgiving to yourself I have written earlier in one of my blog posts on how one of my life’s greatest lessons was when I started forgiving…
Staying with Negative Emotions is the best way to deal with them
Turning away from negative emotions is unhealthy; positive action is the antidote — is the principle approach Rakesh Shukla uses What happened the last time you looked pensive, worried, or…
Resilience is how fast you can Recover
… not how long you can endure Have you felt low in energy and motivation and wished you could be tougher? You’re not alone if you do. We all believe…
Developing Stronger Self-Esteem
Start small and focus on the next step, instead of the overall result Self-esteem quite simply is the opinion we have of ourselves. It stands to reason that it should…
From Chronic Procrastination to Dynamic Action
… getting started is everything! I have been a classic procrastinator for most of my life. In school (including BE, MBA, etc), I was the guy who never did his…
Be Mindful of Grief to Overcome it Quickly
The drive to power through loss comes from mindfulness of grief and acceptance Grief is an overwhelming emotion. At some point, we all will lose a loved one, lose a…
Failing ‘Intelligently’ can make you Succeed
Learn from previous mistakes, and review feedback to achieve goals I know about failing spectacularly, and I know even more about succeeding after you’ve failed spectacularly. In my comeback over…
If you’ve given up on your childhood dream – dream a midlife one!
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Mid-life is not a career rut, but a launchpad
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Look for meaning, not just a reason, in tragedy
A better question to ask when tragedy befalls — what meaning does it give to my life? Over the last three days, three interesting things happened to me. On Sunday,…
What I Learnt by Beating Acute Clinical Depression
“Depression is a disease like the others I have, and I’m not ashamed of it” — Rakesh Shukla Clinical Depression is not something people talk about in the first person.…
Lessons I Learnt From My Catastrophic Failure
What I learnt from failure and why it was the best thing that happened to me I could say I have had an eventful life. I’ve had no problems sleeping…
Rakesh Shukla’s take on the key to professional and personal growth
He believes that synthesising conflicting or diverse views is the key to growth Companies across India are looking at how to have diversity at the leadership level, and mostly they…
‘I created a $100 million business with zero employees’
… Rakesh Shukla at a talk in IIM Bangalore This is my third entrepreneurial innings. With the first, I managed to create a bootstrapped world leader called TWB or The Writers…
Finding Purpose and Meaning at work
With the right purpose and approach, your work and life can be meaningful Dreading work is common. That’s why weekends were invented. Ah, it’s the weekend! Oh no, it’s Monday!…
Moving from a Technical to Management role could be a Career Breakthrough
Technical managers moving into management roles is a script that plays out every day in large tech companies. Managers with the best technical expertise and ability to reach performance goals…
Learn to tell a great story about your life and work
Leadership is about communication, and the most powerful skill is ‘storytelling’ How many of your management team are true leaders — those who can inspire the organisation, set a vision,…
12 Stages of Burnout and what you can do About it
Stop before you hit the point of diminishing returns, says Rakesh Shukla Burnout / noun / meaning physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress. I just came back from taking time off,…
To Define Change, you Need to Define Yourself
Read excerpts from Rakesh Shukla’s talk on July 4, 2018, at the ANZ Bangalore “The one great advantage of losing everything is that it gives you great clarity on what…
Myth of Happiness: Why a little dissatisfaction is good
How you can be motivated and Stronger with RAKESH SHUKLA™ by dispelling the notion of “happily ever after” From when you’re very young you start getting the message — you should…
The Path to Shiva was Paved With Dogs
Rakesh Shukla wrote, on Shivaratri in 2017, a first-person account of his encounter with God and dogs “Why are you looking so far up the mountains? You are the only…
The Experience of Dying Teaches you to Live Well
Rakesh Shukla explains how he conquered the fear of death, to live a better life A few weeks ago, I discovered a growth/tumour on my lowest right rib. Painful to…
Fight Like a Dog: TEDx Talk by Rakesh Shukla
Read the unaltered text of the talk by Rakesh Shukla at TEDxICT, Mumbai 2017 (Edit note: 17 April ’17. This accompanying video is illustrative. The official TEDx video will be…
Do Women Handle Stress Better Than Men?
Understanding our genetic and social programming to avoid stress (Stress has been part of the recipe of human survival and growth. A ‘manageable’ level of stress acts as a motivator,…