Convincing Ourselves

The Instagram fueled modern times of ours has lead to so many fad diets that it's hard to keep count. From Atkins and Keto to Vegan and even raw food, there is so much misleading information out there and people are so hungry for a quick fix, as well as for validation and acceptance, that most have tried at least one of these. The reality, however, is not that different from the early days of the exercise machine fad. Since the 80s late-night commercials have promised us the holy grail of fitness by selling us some cheap plastic exercise machine. Those days are well behind us as most have realized that the answer to fitness has been all around us. The bottom line was that there is no easy or painless way to health and everyone's path truly differs. The same goes for food. There truly is no holy grail where one can follow a diet and achieve glowing skin, muscular strength, excellent mood, and longevity. Even reading this sentence makes it obvious how diets have sold t...

Businesses are increasingly becoming visual. Not just in how they communicate with customers, but all stakeholders for that matter. Training videos have been around for decades, graphics to present financials have become increasingly complex yet explanatory. Even yearly end financial of listed companies sometimes looks like colorful magazines. Business processes have been visualized since the beginning. Instead of just visualizing strategic tools, whole corporate strategies are now presented in visuals. As the world moves into a more media-rich environment, we display screens everywhere, we can only expect this trend to accelerate.  When one looks at the 'self', the usefulness and utility of visualization can actually be even more important. Visualization is a common tool in performance psychology such as when dealing with Athletes. It helps one condition and acclimatizes to a future event and it can also help motivate oneself to achieve a...

Anxiety is everywhere and for some people all the time. We get anxious if we have to talk in a social setting, anxious for assignments, anxious sometimes for no reason at all. However, there is a way to use anxiety for our advantage. A wonderful 2014 research study by Alison Wood Brooks from the Harvard Business School revealed something very interesting. Alison asked participants to either say and feel, ‘I am anxious', ‘I am excited’ and nothing at all, before a task. The results were shocking. Those that were asked to say and believe that they are excited we're able to perform better on various tasks, from singing to a math problem. According to Alison, it is easier to go from one arousal state (anxiety) to another (excited) rather than cooling down and therefore this helps individuals perform better. Now this research can be critiqued for many reasons, however, the implications can be impressive. When feeling anxious, all we need to do is to say out loud, and b...

Failure is inevitable. I have seen many wonderful and talented people be surprised by failure. No matter how good of a student you are, or how good of a sportsperson you are, you will face failure. You will have a bad day. That is the nature of life. Those who do not accept it, are ignoring reality. This can have a disastrous effect on people’s stress levels as well as self-worth. High performing individuals equate their self-worth, their purpose, from doing well. The day they fail, and sometimes they go through a prolonged period of failure, they lose self-esteem, confidence and sometimes even the will to continue. But when we realize that failure is as much a part of life as a success, we can carry on working towards our goals. It is easy to see that even the highest performing athletes, businesspeople, etc have gone through failure. It is they who everyone remembers. In any scenario, we can only control our actions, not the outcome. Therefore we can only try our best...

We are continuously bombarded by images of perfect people all around us. The perfect Supermodel ,Gigi Hadid, who never seems to get fat no matter what she eats. The perfect business person, Jeff Bezos, who seems to be able to grow his net worth almost effortlessly. Then there are the social media personalities. Influencers who give the apparence of recording their everyday lives, yet they seem to be always travelling, always eating great food and always looking great. At at the same time, our brains seem to focus on ‘perfection’. We have a friend who seems to never study but always get the best marks in school. We all have a friend who enjoys to eat but always remains skinny. We all have a couple of friend who’s life seems perfect. Yet the reality is that perfection simply doesnt exist. There is no one who has the perfect life. There is no one who has not been through depression, axniety, or even failure of some sort. This is something we know intutively, yet chose to...

Mantras, incantations, prayer or affirmations, repeated over and over again have been used in the east since eternity and are still in practice today. Having seen them being used first hand, I wondered if they were really useful or not. Mantras and Psychological interventions: Before we talk about Mantras in a negative manner it is important to note their similarity to other interventions in psychology, the most obvious of which are affirmations and therapeutic statements. Affirmations are a common self help technique taught to clients undergoing not only therapy but also life coaching. Affirmations aim to disrupt habitual thinking and instill a new, more productive thought. Although affirmations can be more tailored to a particular need, than an affirmation, the principles of repetition are fairly consistent. There is also another difference as a Mantra may not be legible even to the person saying it as it may be in another language, while affirmations are generally in the p...

The Mind Game of Health Is losing weight and/or being healthy really that difficult? Well, everyone knows how to lose weight or/and be healthy, its not rocket science, yet very few it seems tend to reach their goals. Here,  I will discuss here the mindset that is required to be healthy and/or lose weight. Remind yourself why  It is important that you remind yourself all the time why it is important to be healthy. Whenever you have low motivation, or whenever you might be having doubts, remind yourself why its important to be healthy, be strong, have good mood, and be around for the people you love. Remind yourself how the benefits of health go beyond just cosmetics, and can actually help you achieve all your dreams! The benefits in terms of energy,  positivism and the learning one can experience from the health journey itself, will make you a much stronger person. All this will ensure you keep health a priority. Convince yourself that its possible Most people ha...

All day, everyday, we face negative feelings coming from work, family, friends, chores and what not. We go around hoping from one problem to the other, getting through one deadline to the next. As strong as we may be, no one is totally immune to work, stress and anxiety. Either its too much work, or too little work, or things not working out, whatever the case there is always something out there to turn our mood sour. There is no way around the daily grind, we cannot run away from it and in fact, we all may even need it. However there surely are ways one can manage their mood. Friend/Family First Aid Reminder: All mental health and many alternative medicine techniques, including meditation, are usually about convincing yourself of a new belief. Some use a therapist, some use meditation apps, some use affirmations, however a great technique would be for friends/family to send reminders to each other. These are not generic social media feel good messages that we  send to all...

I believe in the power of convincing yourself that you can do anything. This alone is the most fundamental belief, the most powerful idea, anyone can have for themselves. It is not about succeeding, as success has luck/chance as a component, but the fact that you will try your very best. No where can this rule be applied more than in Public Speaking. Background One of the first times I was to give a presentation I went on to youtube and watched a business guru speak. He was so active on stage, so smooth and so confident. His attitude showed that he was 'damn sure' that everything he said was true. His confidence was idiotically high and inspiring. Of course, his advice was highly regarded and was truly valuable, but he also knew how to 'sell' that advice. It was brilliant. I watched his videos again and again for a week, practicing my presentation on his behaviour. I emulated him totally. When it came to giving the presentation I was very nervous. Once the present...

Well, I am not going to give a solution as to what to do when you are confused and afraid. The idea of writing this blog was not to explain solutions to problem but to show how solutions usually reside within us already. It is we who cannot get out of our internal struggle and make things happen, even when we know the solutions already. We set block up to our growth by imagining an easier, better or simpler solution. By waiting for a magical event or someone out there to help us. If that does not happen, many of us just do into depression and feel victimized. There is nothing worse than feeling victimized. Warriors cannot be victims. We are all warriors after all. How you may ask? well, we may be confused about a future work plan or confused about simple things eg what to eat? or which university to join? All complex decisions [and as frustrating as these moments are], we can always get over these and make a decision. We cannot predict the right outcome, obviously, but we can...

Let us get fit!!! Everyone wants to get fit nowadays. If they are thin, they want to bulk up. If they are fat, they want to slim down. Whatever the issue, no one is really happy with their body. Now I can take the very common 'New Age' concept and say that we should be happy with our body, however sometimes changing our bodies become necessary.I myself was obese and suffered greatly. Many in families had to get heart surgery, because of their lifestyle choices, which included bad eating habits and obesity. However, even when we know that something is bad for us and can actually kill us, we might not change our habits. This is true. Even when smokers known that smoking causes cancer, they know that is long way of and they go for the immediate pleasure and discount the risk. What to do? What to do when you feel you really cannot do anything? your will, your idea of time/delay of pain and pleasure, simply do not let you get through that barrier. The Solution I believe...