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Let’s take a problem. A man named Lincoln Abraham works as a lawyer in a city. He has to ride hundreds of miles over many weeks and move through towns in numerous states to try cases. It’s a hard job and wastes a lot of time. One fine day Mr. Abraham decides to optimise his route. He asks himself, how I can visit all the necessary towns while covering as few miles as possible and without going to any town twice? Mr. Abraham soon realises that this is gonna be harder than he initially thought. What he is trying to solve is a popular (intractable) problem known as the travelling salesman problem.

The question isn’t whether we can find the shortest route. One can simply crank out a list of all the possibilities and measure each one. The real issue is that as the number of towns grows, the list of possible routes connecting them explodes. As the scale increases this problem is beyond the reach by even the most powerful computers.

In simple terms, a route is just an ordering of the towns. Trying to find all of them by brute force is the equivalent of sorting a deck of cards by throwing them in the air until they land in order. This works only in theory.

The travelling salesman problem is an example of an intractable problem. One that is practically impossible to solve! But this isn’t the end of the story. This is an opportunity for us to learn something: how to best approach problems whose optimal answers are unreachable. How to relax problems.

The simplest way to relax any problem is to relax one or more of its constraints. In other words, instead of solving the real problem we try solving the problem we wish we had.

For instance, you can relax the travelling salesman problem by letting the salesman visit the same town more than once, thereby letting Mr. Abraham retrace his steps for free. You’ll soon see that solving this looser problem takes no time at all.

While this loose solution isn’t the answer to the real problem, it is quite useful all the same. It’s the next best thing you have to an ideal solution. Trying to solve it any further may have diminishing returns—the effort for accuracy far outweighs the benefit of the difference. In practical problems, the next best solution is the best solution.

We often relax problems in real life without knowing it. If you have ever asked yourself, “If money wasn’t a problem would I be doing what I’m about to do?” you’ve engaged in relaxation. What you are doing here is making the intractable real life problem tractable by removing some of its constraints. These questions help you make progress in a loose form of the problem before porting it back to reality. If not a practical solution, this loose version gives you direction.

We may not have to face Mr. Abraham’s routing problem but there are multiple cases in real life where relaxation in necessary. For example, when you have to deliver a five-day-work in two days, or when you have to squeeze a one-hour presentation in 10 minutes.

You can either relax the quality of the output, for example deliver a less-than-ideal solution within time. Or, you can take more time and face the consequences. Both are strategies of relaxation and chances are you already use them in real life.

Relaxation is the best way to mitigate analysis paralysis. An answer at least half as good as the perfect solution in less time is a more practical solution. Always! Businesses that move fast and deal with a lot of ambiguity follow this method. Rather than wasting time searching for a perfect answer, they simply ask, “How close can we get to the perfect solution with a relaxed problem?” Turns out, pretty close!

Unless you’re willing to waste aeons striving for perfection every time you encounter a hitch, hard problems demand that you imagine easier versions and tackle those first. When applied correctly, it’s one of the best ways of making progress.

The message is simple but profound: if you’re willing to accept solutions that are close enough, then even some of the hairiest problems can be tamed with the right techniques. We all practise it in some form. This essays helps us create a system that codifies the decision-making process.

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As much as everybody—starting from productivity gurus, bloggers, YouTubers, authors, advisors, conference speakers, and ballroom attendees—would like to tell us how unproductive it is, multitasking is here to stay.

In a utopia you can set your own schedule, beat resistance, get into a state of flow, and get things done by following a set of ideas, principles, guidelines, and hacks. Unless you are delusional you are pretty sure this isn’t the case in the real world. Real world is very different from the one painted in productivity books.

Maybe the people with these grand ideas have the luxury of setting their own schedule. Their ideas may apply to a niche who have the same luxury, but us common folks don’t have much of a choice, do we?

No matter how logical these ideas sound on paper, they are absurd in real life. But not all hope is lost. While we cannot have the perfect solution, we can definitely have an optimal one. In the real world, that is good enough.

Unlike that in self-help books, schedules aren’t fixed in real world. In the real world, scopes aren’t defined, time estimates are never perfect, and everything is of utmost priority.

In such a chaotic, unorganised, and unstructured world, the only sensible strategy is the ability to pause, leave something midway, and switch to another task, i.e., multitask.

Experts scorn this vehemently, but despite its side-effects, multitasking gets a lot of things done.

Before delving into the benefits, let’s understand the side-effects. For starters, multitasking is not doing things simultaneously, but rapid switching of tasks. And none of this back and forth switching is real work. It’s metawork. And metawork doesn’t really advance the state of the actual work being done.

Secondly, real work requires a good amount of “context setting”— playing with an idea in your head before actually writing it down, or meditating on a problem before attempting to solve it. For me, it takes 30 minutes to get into the zone before I can get any actual writing done. For all of us, it takes some time to heat up a metal before it’s malleable.

If I’m interrupted after getting in the zone, I’ll need a good amount of time to rediscover the zone again. Constant “context switching” leads to a series of, “Now, where was I?” moments where we waste time trying to figure out what we were actually doing.

Reaching a state of flow is hard work, and subsequent context-switching makes it impossible to get any real work done. This not only leads to delays in work, but also errors. If I interrupt you few times an hour, you are not going to get any real work done.

Despite its side-effects, metawork is important. It’s a necessary evil. The question is, how do we tame this monster so that it doesn’t turn on us.

Time will always be lost in metawork, but we have to prevent it from reaching its nightmarish extreme when all the time is spent in doing metawork, and none spent in doing real work. This happens when you take on more work than you should and there’s (theoretically) infinite overhead.

If you’ve ever had a moment where you wanted to stop doing everything just to have the chance to write down everything you were supposed to be doing, but couldn’t spare the time, you recognise this state very well.

When merely remembering everything we need to be doing occupies our full attention, or prioritising every task consumes all the time we had to do them, or our train of thought is continually interrupted before those thoughts can translate to action—it feels like panic. This is when your system (literally) crashes.

A simple tactic to avert this fate is to master the art of saying no so that you don’t have more than necessary overhead. But it has its limitations. You cannot say no to everything, especially when it comes from your boss.

The other tactic is to act dumber instead of smarter. Choosing how to schedule your day or figuring out what to do next is overwhelming enough to crash your system. It’s also time consuming. Therefore simply do things at random.

Instead of answering the “most important” emails first—which requires an assessment of the whole picture that may take longer than the work itself—just answer the emails in random order, or in whatever order they appear in your inbox.

This isn’t the smartest way, but compared to your system crashing—where you’re making no progress whatsoever—doing tasks inefficiently in the wrong order is better than doing nothing at all.

Getting real work done involves a negotiation between two principles—responsiveness (how quickly you can respond to things) and productivity(how much you can get done overall)—that aren’t fully compatible. That’s why the whole issue is so complex! And that’s the reason people hire assistants so that they can be productive while their assistants remain responsive. But all of us cannot afford assistants.The best strategy for those of us who cannot afford assistants is to slow down to an optimum level.

Commit to a task for a minimum amount of time (productivity) before you even think about context-switching (responsiveness). This way you avoid getting overwhelmed. This is what pomodoro technique is based on—commit to something for a given amount of time before thinking about anything else. As mainstream as this may sound, it’s actually very effective.

But how much time should you allocate? Although it appears tricky—because the more productive you are, the less responsive you are—it has a straightforward answer. Decide how responsive you need to be—the minimum amount—and then, if you want to get things done, be no more responsive than that.

If you don’t require to respond to emails in less than twenty-four hours, limit yourself to checking your messages only once a day. Don’t pay your credit card bills as they arrive. Instead take care of them all in one go when the last bill comes. This is planned procrastination. Procrastinate as long as you should, but not more than that.

Software startups do fixathons. They tolerate buggy products in favour of moving fast. But once it gets beyond a certain limit that it starts to hurt growth, they conduct fixathons—hackathons to crush bugs.

The secret to graceful context switching is minimum responsiveness to get most productivity. Holding office hours is a way of coalescing interruptions from students. Weekly standups is another example. Whatever their drawbacks, regularly scheduled meetings are one of our best defences against spontaneous interruptions and unplanned context switching.

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During the lazy summer of July 2001, Arizona-based FBI field agent Ken Williams wrote a six-page memo about a suspicious pattern he observed. A large number of people of “investigative interest” had registered for various flight schools in Arizona. He suspected a larger conspiracy behind it.

Williams suggested that the FBI should assemble a comprehensive list of all flight schools around the country, and flag anyone attempting to obtain a visa to attend one of these schools.

The memo was labelled as “speculative and not very significant”—or in layman terms “just a hunch”—by FBI analysts, and remained largely ignored. Few weeks later two passenger planes crashed into two New York buildings.

It’s true that if the FBI would start treating every other hunch with equal urgency, they’ll spend bulk of their time chasing ghosts and dead ends. But dismissing Williams’ idea only on those grounds misses a fundamental point. Williams’ hunch might have been speculative, but it wasn’t completely random or reactive—such as a gut feeling. It was an idea that slowly took shape over time, a pattern detected after countless hours of observation and inquiry. It was a Slow Hunch.

Most great ideas come into the world half-baked—more hunch than revelation. Charles Darwin didn’t think of the idea of natural selection the moment he arrived at the Galapagos. In fact, his notebook talks more about the geology of the Galapagos than its zoology. Unlike Darwin the trained geologist who was consciously processing and interpreting the facts as he gathered them, it was simply a fact-recording mission for Darwin the amateur naturalist. It took him several months after the Beagle voyage ended to realise the actual importance of his notes.

Snap discoveries based on intuition—as dramatic as they sound—are rarities. All hunches that turn into important innovations unfold over much longer time frames. As Steven Johnson writes, “They start with a vague, hard-to-describe sense that there’s an interesting solution to a problem that hasn’t yet been proposed, and they linger in the shadows of the mind, sometimes for decades, assembling new connections and gaining strength.”

When Joseph Priestley decided to isolate a mint twig in a sealed glass—an experiment that ultimately proved that plants can create oxygen, he was building on a slow hunch that he’d been cultivating for twenty years, dating back to his boyhood obsession with trapping spiders in glass jars.

But he didn’t pursue his hunch doggedly. During those twenty years, Priestley dabbled in a dozen different fields and concocted hundreds of experiments in his home lab. A minuscule percentage of that time was devoted directly to the problem of plant respiration. He just kept his hunch alive in the back of his mind.

Because slow hunches need so much time to develop, they are easily lost and often replaced by more immediate needs, but at the same time the lazy incubation period is also their strength. Developing slow hunches is less a matter of perspiration than of cultivation.

Stories of aha moments and serendipitous breakthroughs often blur out the details of the slow hunches in service of narrative pleasure. Unlike eureka moments, slow hunches are hard to convey, but the irony is that Archimedes didn’t simply get into a bathtub and stumbled on the original eureka moment just like that. It was the culmination of years of effort, spent dabbling in multiple fields such as mathematics, physics, engineering, astronomy, and cultivating multiple slow hunches in the back of the mind.

True insights require you to think something that no one has thought before in quite the same way. True insights take time. True insights come from slow hunches. In the story of intellectual discovery, a slow hunch isn’t an exception, it’s the rule.

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On 26 April 1986, a group of nuclear engineers wanted to test a simulation of an electrical power outage to create a safety procedure in a nuclear power plant. They wanted to test if it was possible to maintain the nuclear reactor cooling water circulation until the back-up electrical generators could provide power. The goal was to make sure the reactor won’t have to be completely shut down during power outage.

Three such tests had been conducted in the previous four years, but they had failed to provide a solution. This fourth attempt didn’t happen as scheduled. An unplanned 10-hour delay caused a completely unprepared operating shift to handle the job.

The reactor power had to be decreased as part of the test. This meant disabled the safety system. But the power unexpectedly dropped to near-zero during the process. The operators could partially restore the power, but this put the reactor in an unstable condition.

Since the safety system was off, the risk wasn’t evident. Moreover, the operating instructions didn’t cover this use case, so the operators proceeded with the planned test.

Upon completion of the test, when they triggered the reactor to shut down, a combination of unstable conditions and reactor design flaws caused an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction. The rest, as they say, was the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

On 28 March, seven years back and 7,600 km away, a group of nuclear power plant technicians accidentally got a bubble stuck in a sensor during a routine cleaning procedure. This stopped the coolant pumps from circulating water. There were auxiliary pumps to handle this situation, but they were closed for maintenance (in violation of the plant’s operating procedure).

Even though the reactor detected a problem and went into emergency shutdown mode, there was no water circulation and the heat in the system had nowhere to go. The pressure relief valve—whose job was to let out the excess pressure—suffered a mechanical failure and got stuck open, thereby permitting coolant water to escape from the system.

This wasn’t detected by the technicians because the control room indicator light showed if the valve closing mechanism was powered on or off, not if the valve itself was open or closed. The open valve slowly leaked water necessary to cool the reactor and there was no extra water coming in.

There was, however, one coolant temperature sensor that was spiking in the control room. But the crew’s training for abnormal incidents directed them to refer other sensors, not this one. This chain of events caused the reactor to overheat for 11 hours. This led to a partial meltdown of the reactor and subsequent radiation leak in the Three Mile Island of the US.

When we do postmortems of both big and small failures, we heavily suffer from hindsight bias. Informed by Chaos Theory, we assume that avoiding the “root cause” of the disaster—the technicians being unprepared, or bubble getting stuck in the sensor—could have avoided the meltdown. What if they hadn’t done that? What if they were more careful? This assumption is wrong.

In theory, yes, a buttery flapping its wings in Brazil can set off a tornado in Texas, but it doesn’t mean that it will. There aren’t as many tornadoes as butterfly flaps in real life—this bit is clear. By that logic, any random event can set off a series of events that can lead to some other event. But this knowledge doesn’t help us in any way practically.

In real life, the human body, the environment, a society, an organisation, a business strategy, or a space shuttle, are examples of complex systems. Errors are normal in a complex system. They happen every day. Bubbles get stuck, coolant systems fail, technicians ignore procedures. But there’s enough redundancy and margin of error in place to make sure such errors don’t collapse the whole system.

Catastrophic failures happen only when enough of these small errors line up, leading to a compounding effect via a chain reaction. Catastrophic failures—whenever they occur—happen regardless of a “root cause”.

By that logic, the Challenger disaster didn’t happen simply because of the O-ring seals failure. The second wave of the Coronavirus didn’t take over India simply due to lack of adequate healthcare in the country. A marketing strategy doesn’t fail simply because you didn’t include animal photos.

These so called “root causes” are part of many reasons, and they are definitely not the main reason. If you look closely, there are 500 other things that were erroneous but didn’t contribute to the disaster. In a complex system—where there are multiple moving parts—there is no “root cause”. In other words, avoiding them wouldn’t have been enough to avoid the disaster. It might have been delayed, but not prevented.

Catastrophic failures are usually due to a combination of bad system design, human error, human-computer interaction flaws, poor training, miscommunication, bad process, and countless other major and minor contributing factors. There’s seldom one major factor which has a cascading effect.

The same is true for success as well. A company doesn’t become successful just because it has a great CEO. You don’t have a healthy relationship just because you are a nice person. You don’t win a competition just because you worked hard. There are multiple other factors—some of which are outside your control.

Therefore, the goal isn’t to make completely error-free systems. It’s impossible to make them completely free of error anway. It’s hubris to even attempt that—be it a personal fitness regime, or the product development process in a startup, or the service design of an airport. What you should thrive for is to make them error-proof. Systems that work regardless of errors.

A good system helps you stay healthy regardless of occasional drinking and partying. A good system helps you get more done regardless of procrastination. A good system helps you ship the MVP regardless of developmental hiccups.

Every day, between one and five of your cells in your body turn cancerous. But your immune system is efficient enough to capture and kill them. Think of that. A couple of dozen times a week, well over a thousand times a year, you get the most dreaded disease of our age, and each time your body self-corrects.

The body works regardless of errors. So should the systems we design.

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Emotional Intelligence: What Teachers Can Do

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Emotional Intelligence: What Teachers Can Do

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Even if your school has not instituted a formal program in support of social and emotional learning, there are plenty of activities you can initiate right in your own classroom. To begin, recognize that an emotionally intelligent teacher is the first step to an emotionally intelligent classroom. Consider how your own communication with and treatment of students models emotional intelligence.

Here are some student-centered activities and resources you can use in support of your classroom efforts:

Institute morning meetings. Starting your day with a morning class meeting provides numerous opportunities to support social and emotional learning: It helps build a sense of community, creates a climate of trust, encourages respectful communication, and much, much more. You'll find information about morning meetings, as well as other strategies for fostering emotional intelligence, at the Web site Responsive Classroom. (See more information about this resource below.)

Introduce journal writing. This familiar educational tool can be an effective way to help students develop self-awareness. For an introduction to several journal-based activities in support of social and emotional learning, read, "Emotional Intelligence Toolbox: Expression Journals," one of many useful articles in EQ Today.

Emphasize responsibility. Formalize tasks in your classroom, such as maintaining chalkboards or whiteboards, bringing papers to the school office, or handing out playground equipment at recess. Such duties help encouraging a sense of responsibility among your students and provides everyone with the opportunity to contribute to daily classroom management.

Encourage creativity. Joshua Freedman, director of programs for Six Seconds, a nonprofit organization supporting emotional intelligence in families, schools, corporations, and communities, suggests that creativity is most necessary in times of emotional hardship, such as when we're frustrated or angry. By providing your students with ongoing opportunities to express their creativity, you'll also be helping them handle the inevitable curve balls that life throws at them. You'll find a helpful article on ideas and activities for using creativity to foster emotional intelligence in the KidSource Online article "Encouraging Creativity in Early Childhood Classrooms

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Emotional Intelligence: What Teachers Can Do

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3 Exercises for Developing and Improving EI

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3 Exercises for Developing and Improving EI

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1. Emotional Intelligence Assessment for Leaders

Leaders have a big job to do in any organization: they need to shape, communicate, and contribute to the organizational vision. Naturally, emotional intelligence helps immensely in this role.

This is an activity that leaders can do to assess their own emotional intelligence, which is the first step towards improving it.This activity consists of 10 descriptions of vision-killing behaviors that a leader may engage in, and a scale upon which to rate your own engagement in each behavior from ‘very seldom’ to ‘very often.’

The vision-killing behaviors include:

1. Treating people badly⁠—such as not showing people they care, forgetting to say thank you, not respecting people, not making people feel valued;

2. Living by the adage “Do as I say, not as I do,” and not setting good examples;

3. Focusing on too many things at once;

4. Pushing too hard on the task and forgetting the people;

5. Not giving clear direction;

6. Giving inconsistent direction;

7. Not taking responsibility for failure;

8. Focusing on the detail and forgetting to tell the “whys” or the big picture;

9. Showing little or no personal commitment to the vision;

10. Allowing people who aren’t performing the job to remain. If you find yourself frequently engaging in these behaviors, that’s a good indication that your leader EQ is low. Pay close attention to the three behaviors you engage in the most often and commit to working on reducing or removing those behaviors entirely.

2. Temperament Analysis

Another good assessment activity is the temperament analysis. It was designed to help participants learn about temperament, understand their own temperament, and learn how to work with it.

To get started, keep in mind that our temperament is made up of tendencies and feelings that are influenced by four factors or parameters: Describe your temperament with three adjectives. Choose the ones that describe you best.

1. Suggest three adjectives that others use to describe your temperament.

2. Go through each of the adjectives identified in the above two questions and see if each one is because of (or how much each one is driven by) Genetic Inheritance, Physical Attributes, Life Experiences, or Environmental Conditions.

3. How does each of the temperamental factors affect you on a personal level?

4. How does each of the temperamental factors affect you on a leadership role level?

5. Which of these factors do you want to change and why?

Think about each of the questions in detail and try discussing with a friend to maximize the learning opportunity.

3. Be the Fog (Regulate Your Emotions)

It can be very difficult for many of us to accept criticism, especially if receiving criticism provokes strong emotions. This simple exercise will help you “be the fog” and learn how to regulate and modulate your emotions in a difficult situation. Here’s what to do:

“Act like a fog! Imagine you are a fog. When someone throws a stone at you, you absorb that stone without throwing the stone back. This is a very easy and effective technique to use against people who keep criticizing you repeatedly.”

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1. Reflect on your own emotions;

2. Ask others for perspective;

3. Be observant (of your own emotions);

4. Use “the pause” (e.g., taking a moment to think before speaking);

5. Explore the “why” (bridge the gap by taking someone else’s perspective);

6. When criticized, don’t take offense. Instead, ask: What can I learn?

7. Practice, practice, practice

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Even if the most dire predictions about AI fail to materialize, there's no doubt that its arrival raises big questions about the purpose of K-12 education. Most existentially: What skills do students need for an uncertain future?

My experience and research suggest that the answer isn't much different than it was: Students need the triple skill set of communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. And more than ever, they need the opportunity to grapple with real-world problems. The best structure I've seen for teaching, developing, and assessing the skills that students are going to need in an AI world is problem-based learning.

Real-World Problems

We know that students engaged in problem-based learning perform better academically, but we also know that they're more career-ready, better collaborators, and more equipped to confront the challenges of tomorrow. AI's promise is efficiency, optimization, a frictionless life. But that's not a lived experience. "In recent years, society has been conditioned to see friction not as a teacher but as a flaw-something to be optimized away in the name of efficiency," technology executive Raffi Krikorian writes in The Atlantic. "But friction is where discernment lives. It's where thinking starts." Well-planned and executed problem-based learning has the potential to be this teacher, to let students experience the friction required for the kind of learning that prepares them for the future.

Authentic, real-world problems matter. But so does how we approach them. I've worked with problem-based learning-both in my own classroom and as part of two programs based on it-and the most successful projects are the ones in which the problems are real and students actually have to try to solve them. Not theoretically and not in a slide show presented to their teachers. ChatGPT can do that if that's all we want. What students need to be able to do is navigate the hundreds of tiny obstacles that exist between a problem and its solution.

AI can't understand the application of school policy, or culture or personality clashes. AI can't know who holds the knowledge that students need or the state of equipment they require. Students must have the space and time to actually try to implement their ideas, fail, and try again. And for this they need creativity.

Critical Thinking

Problem-based learning offers a space for ideation, iteration, and exploration of perspectives. This is the type of creativity that students need to practice, that they need to become comfortable with to tackle actual issues. But creativity doesn't happen in a void. It requires context and information and the ability to make sense of that information. In other words, students also need to be able to think critically about their topic.

The best explanation of critical thinking I've seen is from Kaveh Akbar's novel, Martyr! "Well, of course I changed my mind, I was presented with new information," a character says, "that's the definition of critical thinking." AI is going to present new information and will (hopefully) get more and more accurate with this information. But are we developing students who are nimble enough to shift their thinking as they learn more, as they confront obstacles, as the context that they're working with changes? If not, we need to rethink how we're structuring their learning.

Collaboration

Another key component of problem-based learning that I see as essential for existing in an AI future is collaboration. In my years in these programs, this is the skill in which I've seen the most growth and the most interdisciplinary transfer. We can't just ask students to do group work and expect good things to happen anymore than we can give them a math problem and simply say, "Solve it." Decision-making strategies, conflict resolution, team-skill analysis: These all need to be explicitly taught.

With teaching and practice, students learn each other's strengths, learn to trust each other, learn to work with people who are different from themselves. AI can be a thought partner (despite its current sycophantic tendencies), and it can build and guide a process. But it can't achieve the kind of collaboration that happens when there's tension and healthy conflict and competing perspectives. It can't know that one approach is better than another because of the dynamics and passions of that exact combination of students.

Communication

The final component of problem-based learning that I see as being necessary to developing future-ready students is the ability to communicate their ideas to an audience of experts. Often, this experience is mimicked with peers and teachers acting as experts, and that can be OK. But presenting to real experts requires a richer understanding of the topic, of the vocabulary, of the challenges in that field. It forces a more refined and specific message.

And most important, it forces students to grapple with real feedback. Instead of the final component of a project, it becomes an opportunity to deepen their understanding and continue to solve the problem. In the most enriching projects I've seen, students "end" with a whole new set of questions that they couldn't possibly have predicted at the outset.

Problem-based learning is not a magical cure-all. But it is the most authentic approach to preparing students for an uncertain future, especially when projects are designed with the space for students to hit real-life obstacles and work through them. The threat of AI-completed tasks and assessments is real, but I think a much bigger threat is allowing students to enter a future that no longer values the skills acquired in a traditional classroom. We can't put the AI genie back in the bottle and pretend that this is not having a dramatic and immediate impact on our world. So we need to develop the kinds of units, courses, and programs that give students the best chance of navigating the future ahead.

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Problem-Based Learning and Future-Ready Skills

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Problem-based learning helps students build skills that will be important in the future: communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.

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Even in schools that have not invited AI into classroom instruction, many student writers are using this technology at home. Some may not even realize that tools they have already embedded into their writing process, like Microsoft Word's Editor or Google Docs's Help Me Write tool, are AI hiding in plain sight. But to imagine that the only use student writers want to find for AI is cheating, evading all intellectual engagement, demeans and underestimates them.

In my high school English classroom, I am centering curiosity. In order for that curiosity about AI to be fruitful (instead of harmful), my students and I must be honest with each other. Creating a classroom environment rooted in transparency-through open conversations, consistent reflection, and tools like transparency surveys-helps students map the ever-changing landscape of AI use while building the discernment to navigate it thoughtfully.

Creating a Solid Foundation for Transparency

Class discussions are at the heart of AI transparency. I've found that demonstrating a curious but cautious approach communicates that I'm happy to navigate AI's complexities together while building trust. Our conversations about when and how students might use AI in their writing process revolve around two basic principles:

Prior to and during class discussions about AI, consider:

What do your students think about AI?

How do you/your students use AI for nonacademic purposes outside of school?

What do students need to know about AI to reason on their decisions responsibly and develop discernment?

Before even introducing transparency surveys for students, there are several things you can do to model transparency and reflection:

Explain your own use and/or non-use: Be specific about when and why you use AI (or why not) for certain tasks. Model transparency when you use AI to help create anything student-facing.

Listen, listen, listen: Ask students about their experiences and reasoning. Treat their insights as valuable and welcomed, even when they differ from your own.

"I'm still learning": Be honest about the fact that you are learning alongside them and that your thoughts and feelings are in-progress, incomplete, and evolving.

Is It Cheating?

I take a retired essay assignment (something analogous to the project we are working on but not quite the same) and demonstrate various prompts a student might use to invite AI into their process on a large screen.

In one prompt, I ask Microsoft Copilot to create a list of ideas I can write about; in the next, I brainstorm ideas first before asking Copilot to identify gaps in my thinking. I then model a prompt that asks for the first two paragraphs of an essay, followed by one that asks for organizational strategy suggestions based on a thesis statement I composed.

For each use, we consider the prompt, the output, and then the question, "Is it cheating?" We also consider the fact that AI will almost always offer to do even more than we prompt it to at first: "Would you like me to write that for you?"

These are ongoing conversations, not just one-and-done, often paired with some short reflective writing in paper notebooks to more deeply engage our brains.

The consensus we reach in class discussions inspires me every time: Students know when interactions cross boundaries of academic integrity and they can articulate why.

Transparency Surveys

Transparency surveys are not a substitute for quality writing instruction. For example, all of my major writing assignments begin with some thinking on paper, as well as lesson plans on how to organize our thinking and craft strong sentences. Check-ins along the way communicate the idea that learning to write is about developing a process, not just a product. So an AI transparency survey on the back of the rubric is part of a broader message that writing takes time, attention, iteration, and voice.

Students already know that prompting AI to write a finished essay for them is off the table. But by giving them the opportunity to reflect on the potential (and perils) of inviting AI into their process in limited, judicious ways, we explore and define boundaries together.

The opening question on the survey positions assistance from an AI tool within a spectrum of available supports:

I got feedback from another person (peer/teacher/tutor/parent).

I used writing suggestions from embedded AI tools like Microsoft Editor (built-in writing tools).

I used AI tools in some parts of my writing process.

I did not use AI tools at all.

Next, a more open-ended questiongives students the chance to tell the story of their learning and provide a window into their reasoning: "If you used AI at all, please describe HOW you used it and WHY you used it. Give me the gist of any prompt language you used and how you used the output, if at all." This gives me enough information to ask more questions during a conference, if needed. I am careful to craft this question so that students understand they do not need to be using AI to complete an assignment well, and some do choose to avoid it entirely. Encouraging those who choose to use AI to describe how they used it helps me more accurately diagnose how an overstep happened when it occurs.

I close with yes/no questions that get at the crux of what students need to self-evaluate as writers:

Do you feel that this piece of writing accurately represents your work and your voice?

Did use of AI in any way harm your learning or take away opportunities to think deeply?

Did use of AI in any way help your learning or give you opportunities to think deeply?;

Do you want to talk more about understanding when and why AI is acceptable or not?

Since I have, from the beginning of the course, cast myself as a curious learner about AI, a candid dabbler, and a person who values their reasoning, when students turn in a transparency survey with a major assignment, I usually get honest replies, fostering trust between us.

What Students Say

Student responses consistently broaden my perspective.

A good number of student writers choose to abstain from AI: Cassie writes that she feels using AI would be "cheating myself out of my learning," and Olivia does not want to "depersonalize" her writing.

Others are open to using AI but do not feel it will benefit them on a particular assignment: Reflecting on his essay about why volleyball deserves more respect as a sport, Max explains, "Other than Editor in [Microsoft] Word to clean it up a little bit, I didn't use AI in any other way because this is a topic I know well and love a lot."

Still others identified specific reasons for inviting artificial intelligence into their process.

Callen riffed off one of our demonstrations in the "Is It Cheating?" lesson: "I didn't like how one of my sentences sounded, so I asked AI if it could make it sound smoother in three different ways. I looked at the ways it gave me and combined them, overall making the sentence sound better, while still letting me learn and think deeply."

Perry even used AI to clarify my written feedback on his draft: "I asked ChatGPT, 'What did Mr. Vogelsinger mean in this feedback?'... so that I could understand it better and apply his feedback into my final copy of my essay."

'Ruthlessly Reflective'

My friend and colleague Marcus Luther once described my approach to AI as "ruthlessly reflective," and that's exactly the type of mindset I'd like my students to cultivate as they write. Transparency is a foundational step to impactful reflection in a world where AI is at our fingertips.

I expect that transparency surveys will be adaptable as I modify them to respond to the new curiosities, responsibilities, and choices that emerge for writers as technology evolves.

Writing builds relationships and helps us clarify our thoughts. These human pursuits are not going anywhere, and with ongoing conversations with our students and frequent opportunities for transparency, we can help high school writers to thrive in this new terrain.

AI Transparency Statement for This Article: This piece is human crafted. I used some grammar suggestions built into Microsoft Word and the assistance of Microsoft Copilot in rewording a sentence in the opening section, much like what my student Callen describes later in the article.

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AI Transparency Surveys: A Tool for Navigating Student Choices Together

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A high school English teacher wondered: What happens when students can openly discuss AI boundaries, then reflect on their own use through a simple survey?

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11 Classroom Management Tweaks You Don’t Learn in Teacher Prep

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Over time, every teacher makes small changes that have a big impact on how their classes run. A veteran teacher shares the hacks that work for him.

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7 Hobbies Scientifically Linked to Lower Stress and a Better Mood

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7 Hobbies Scientifically Linked to Lower Stress and a Better Mood

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7 Hobbies Scientifically Linked to Lower Stress & a Better Mood (Choose 1)

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A New Way to use 12 Week Year (That Actually works for High Performers)

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A New Way to use 12 Week Year (That Actually works for High Performers)

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A New Way to Use The 12 Week Year (That Actually Works for High Performers)

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The Difference Between Being Busy and Being Effective

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The Difference Between Being Busy and Being Effective

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The Difference Between Being Busy and Being Effective

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13 ways to be your authentic self at work

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13 ways to be your authentic self at work

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1. Listen to others

While being yourself at work often means focusing on your own forms of self-expression, it's also important to listen to others in order to build relationships. Listening to others also helps your coworkers express themselves authentically. In order to demonstrate to your coworker that you're listening to them, consider asking them questions or reacting nonverbally to their stories with an action such as nodding your head.

2. Follow up with conversations

After sharing personal information about yourself or listening to a coworker's stories, consider following up with the conversation later. For example, if you tell a coworker about a new band you've started listening to, consider messaging the coworker later to share a music video if they seemed interested in the band as well. This helps you establish a relationship and allows you to share your interests.

3. Start small

If you are a more private or reserved person, you may find it challenging to tell your coworkers about your life or act authentically around other professionals. In order to still be your authentic self, start by sharing small or basic details about your life. For example, you could mention if you have a partner in conversation, place family photos on your desk or share your pronouns on your name tag or email signature.

4. Share your experiences

When appropriate, consider sharing your experiences, both personally and professionally. This may help others relate to you or establish your expertise in a certain topic. When sharing your experiences, try to consider the timing of your story and whether it's helpful to share it at that moment.

5. Establish relationships

When sharing information about yourself, it's important to recognize the relationship you have with that person. It's natural to be closer to some colleagues than others, which may change which stories and experiences you share. For example, if you are meeting a colleague for the first time, it may not be appropriate to tell them personal aspects about your life. Instead, start by sharing something basic, as mentioned earlier.

6. Build trust

As you establish relationships, you may start to trust your colleagues with more personal information. In order for other professionals to reciprocate this trust, try to actively listen to their stories and build a relationship with them. Often, sharing your authentic personality with them can help them feel comfortable doing the same. This builds trust between you and your coworkers, which helps foster a more positive work environment.

7. Be honest

Being your authentic self often requires being honest with others. It's important to only share stories about yourself that are true and to share your honest, respectful opinion if a coworker asks for it. Being honest also may include setting boundaries with your coworkers. For example, if they ask you a question that you do not feel comfortable answering, explain that you're uncomfortable and politely decline to answer. Being honest and setting boundaries helps establish your true personality in your workplace.

8. Show appreciation

Show appreciation for others when they share their personality or help you with a task. This helps to establish a workplace culture that values individuality, honesty and positive reinforcement. Expressing your appreciation for your coworkers also may help them feel more comfortable around you, which allows you to establish a deeper relationship with them.

9. Develop emotional intelligence skills

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, regulate and express your emotions in a healthy and accurate manner. These skills help you act more authentically and allow you to discover more about your own identity. Emotional intelligence skills also help you develop professional relationships and manage your emotions while at work.

10. Look for opportunities for growth

Throughout your life, you're likely to experience changes in your mindset and personality. Being able to recognize and adapt to these changes not only helps you be your authentic self but also provides you with opportunities for growth. Embracing opportunities for growth, both personally and professionally, often allows you to form deeper relationships and maintain a healthier and happy work life.

11. Consider the context

While it's important to be yourself, there may be some situations where you can adjust your behavior to be both authentic and professional. Consider the context you are in before sharing personal stories, jokes or interests because, in some work situations, it may not be relevant to the current task. For example, if you and a coworker are working on a project together with a tight deadline, it may not be appropriate to spend your working hours sharing stories about your life. Instead, it may be beneficial to take breaks together to maintain a relationship while still being productive.

12. Invite coworkers to events outside of work

If you feel comfortable with your coworkers and have a well-established relationship with them, consider inviting colleagues to events outside of work. This may include getting dinner together or going to a social gathering. Spending time with your coworkers outside of work allows you to strengthen your relationship with them and also gives you an opportunity to act authentically outside of a professional setting.

13. Express yourself with your attire

One way you can be your authentic self at work is by dressing in clothing that allows you to display your personality. Refer to your company's dress code in order to choose an outfit that both expresses your personality and follows the workplace rules. Expressing yourself with your professional attire can help you display your personality without having to share personal stories with your coworkers and may act as a conversation starter in some cases.

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Balancing the Masculine & Feminine Energy Guided Meditation

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The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word authentic as ‘of undisputed origin and not a copy: genuine.’ The word has traditionally been applied to documents, works of art or antiques, however more recently the word has been applied to people, who are seen as authentic or fake, particularly in a work setting or online. Think Chandler Bing’s work laugh in Friends and you get the idea.

In this recent context, being an authentic person means knowing who you are and what you stand for and creating a space for yourself in the world where you feel happy and confident to be yourself at all times – a space where you can be unapologetically you, showing your personality and being the same at work as you are away from it.

Sounds easy huh? However many people have experienced situations where they feel unable to be themselves. You may, like Chandler, have felt you need to act a certain way around your boss and colleagues, telling people what you think they want to hear, so that you will be liked, accepted or promoted. You may have hidden aspects of yourself and developed survival mechanisms to get through the day, so instead of being yourself, you have played a role. It can be exhausting and in doing so you are living inauthentically. In order to be authentic you need to identify and live according to your values and be willing to live your life proudly, displaying your true colours, regardless of pressure you may be under to act otherwise. Being authentic isn’t easy. People may fear rejection, getting hurt or being ridiculed, so the fear of being judged and the need to fit in often prevents this. However, authenticity has many benefits for both employers and employees.  Benefits of being authentic

Relationships
People who are able to be their authentic self, tend to attract people to them. Honest, open, character traits generally make it easier for people to trust and build long term relationships with you and in return they will be more likely to be the same with you.

Love what you do
A passion for work is more likely to lead to success than doing work you don’t enjoy. Following your passions will enable you to do what you love, leaving you motivated and eager to achieve.

Confidence
If you are being authentic at work, it will enable you to be more productive, confident in your opinions, happy to share your ideas and unafraid to speak up.

Happiness
If you are happy in your work because you have good working relationships, you are confident in your role and you love what you do, you will feel safe and secure in your working environment.

Overall being authentic is much more fulfilling than trying to be the person you think other people will approve of or trying to please everyone. As the saying goes ‘You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.’

Tips for being authentic

Think you would like to be more authentic at work? Below are some things to try out.

Identify your values and aim to live by them at all times.

Identify who you are and don’t try to be someone that you are not. If you feel there is a difference between who you are at work and who you are outside of it, consider what you can do to bridge the gap.

Communicate honestly, respect the feelings of others but don’t play games or use passive aggressive behaviour to get what you want and don’t make promises you cannot keep.

Develop self confidence – being authentic is not for the faint hearted. Developing a strong sense of yourself and being assertive, will give you the necessary tools to get you through challenging situations.

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As the year ends, people of all ages are setting new goals to prepare for the new year. While many may plan around this time, few people often manage to maintain their newly set routines and lifestyle changes. For those who seem to abandon their goals by the end of the first month, a common question is formed of why New Year’s resolutions never seem to stick.

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As the year ends, people of all ages are setting new goals to prepare for the new year. While many may plan around this time, few people often manage to maintain their newly set routines and lifestyle changes. For those who seem to abandon their goals by the end of the first month, a common question is formed of why New Year’s resolutions never seem to stick.

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Neuroplasticity and habit formation

The most effective way to stick to a new habit or goal is understanding the neuroscience behind forming new habits.

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change and adapt in response to new experiences. As a result, the brain is constantly evolving.

“These changes can involve the creation of new neural connections or the weakening of existing ones,” Beas said. “This adaptability is the foundation for how we acquire new skills, form memories and establish new habits.”

However, sticking to new habits is often where people fall short. Beas explains that the brain strengthens through consistent, intentional practice. When a behavior is repeated with intention, the neural pathways that support that habit grow stronger and more efficient over time.

“When you consistently engage in a thought or action, the neural connections supporting those behaviors become stronger,” Beas said. “Over time, this makes the action more automatic and efficient, requiring less conscious thought and effort.”

Breaking myths about the brain and habits

When goals or habits do not stick, people often blame or confuse the brain’s ability. However, Beas explains that this can lead many to form misconceptions about the brain and discourage them from trying to change.

One common misconception is that learning abilities peak in youth and decline in adulthood. But research shows that adults can continue to learn and form new habits just as someone of a young age.

Another common misconception is that a person’s environment has little impact on the brain and its actions.

“Our environment has a significant impact on our emotions and actions,” Beas said. “Elements within our surroundings, such as our home or workplace, act as ‘cues’ that have a tremendous influence on our behavior.”

An example Beas gives is a person who frequently works in bed. This causes the brain to begin associating the bed with work, leading to difficulties when it is time to sleep. This is a result of the brain’s being conditioned to link the bed with work. Beas advises to pay attention to the environment and the signals inadvertently being sent to the brain.

Some believe that achieving a goal requires radical changes. This, however, is not the case.

“Creating change and achieving goals is more manageable when approached incrementally,” Beas said. “If your goal is to lift 100 pounds, you wouldn’t start by attempting to lift that weight immediately.”

Instead, Beas suggests breaking down large goals and habits into smaller, more manageable ones.

Neuroscientist approved brain hacks to make resolutions stick

When creating new goals or habits, apply these “brain hacks” to rewire the brain and make new behaviors stick.

Leverage environmental cues: Create your own “habit loop”:

Cue: Identify what triggers a behavior.

Routine: The behavior itself.

Reward: The positive outcome that reinforces it.

To create a habit, design this loop; to break one, disrupt a component of it.

Link a new habit to an established one: Use an existing habit as a cue.

Example: Letting your pet out can cue a morning walk.

Let your present self help your future self: Make the habit easier.

Example: Place your walking shoes by the door the night before.

Be consistent and do not get discouraged: Setbacks are part of the process. When stressed or tired, the brain tends to revert to established habits and patterns.

Connect new goals and habits with your core values: For example, if being a good parent is a core value, you might link not working from bed to better sleep, which makes you more pleasant to be around for your kids and family.

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Ready to start the new year with clarity and purpose? 

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Ready to start the new year with clarity and purpose? 

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10 reflection questions for 2025

1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year?

There’s so much that can happen in one year and so often it all flies by in the blink of an eye. Take some time to think about a moment you felt really proud of yourself and how it impacted the rest of your year. There’s no wrong answers here. Big or small, it all counts.

2. What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?

No one wants to dwell on the negative but reflecting on tough times can show you just how strong and resilient you are. Maybe make a list of a few things that were tough and how you dealt with them. What did you learn? And how will you handle tough moments in the new year?  (If this was a particularly tough year, you may want to check out 15 mindful tips for overcoming adversity.)

3. What moments brought you the most joy?

Once you’ve reflected on the tough moments, move on and get into the joy! Think about the times you laughed, felt loved, or had a great day. What were the circumstances? Were you with loved ones? Who had your back? (Maybe it was you!) Whatever the details, take a few moments to bask in the glow of the good times.

4. What did you learn about yourself this year?

This isn’t always an easy question to answer, but whether it was a good, bad, or just okay year, you probably learned a lot about yourself. Maybe you discovered a new strength, a passion, or a habit that needs changing. Maybe you learned that you’re more resilient than you thought you were. Take some time to jot it all down.

5. Who made a positive impact on your life, and how did they help you?

No (wo)man is an island and our people can really make tough times brighter. Take a moment to appreciate the people who supported and inspired you this past year. Maybe they were people you know personally, or maybe they were artists or public figures who inspired you.

6. What are you most grateful for as the year ends?

Gratitude shifts your focus to the good things, no matter how small they may seem. Take some time to think of what you were grateful for in the last year. It could be a relationship you have with someone, your pet, or even your local barista. Grateful is grateful!

7. How did you spend your time, and did it align with your priorities?

As the year flies by we might miss how much of our time we spend working, socializing, playing, working on personal growth, etc… Looking at where your time went can help you decide what to focus on next year. Take a look back at your calendar or even your camera roll to facilitate this reflection if needed.

8. What habits served you well, and which ones didn’t?

Did you quit biting your nails this past year? Or take up daily mindful walks? Reflecting on your routines can help you decide what to keep and what to change. Pro tip: Sometimes it helps to list out the good habits you picked up, and the not-so-god habits you want to kick. Remember it’s all about growth, not just achieving goals.

9. What are you proud of that you didn’t expect to achieve?

We all have goals or dreams we’re working towards—and to do lists to get there—but so often life unfolds in pretty unexpected ways. Scan back through the past year for surprising events and accomplishments that you found yourself in, and how they made you feel. These could be big or small, it all counts.

10. If you could sum up this year in one word, what would it be?

Find a single word that captures the essence of your year. It may not be easy, but trying to zero in on the theme or overall feeling of the last 365 days allows you to see common threads that you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. Once you have your word, reflect on all the ways it showed up in your days and months.

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What do you do to reflect going into a new year?

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What do you do to reflect going into a new year?

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1. Flick through the photos on your phone

This is a great way to reflect on all your best moments and random bits from the past year (travel, laughs, screenshots etc.) Create a short reel or TikTok highlighting your best moments and share with others if you wish.

2.Cleanse your social media

Review who you follow, who you ought to follow based on your goals and desired skills and even who follows you. Who do you want to carry with you into 2022 and whose thoughts, energy and commentary should be left behind in the past?

3. Digital detox

Even if just for a day or two, take a break from personal & work emails, social media and ideally the internet generally. Take the time to recognise other things you can do in a spare 10mins you normally would spend scrolling. For instance, get some fresh air or read instead.

4. Read an autobiography

Nothing like a good autobiography to give you some inspiration for the year to come…

5. Gratitude

Send a couple of texts to people who made you smile this year or people who particularly supported you through tough situations. Everyone loves to feel acknowledged and it is free.

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6. Relax and treat your body

Book a massage or buy some nice candles or massage oils. Enjoy several unlimited lie-ins, go on at least one long idle walk, run a bath etc.

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What does it mean to be happy? What things make us happy? Why should we care? And, why should we care if our friends are happy? We talk about all this and more on this episode of The Digital Dreamer.

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HAPPINESS IS A NATURAL INCLINATION

First and foremost, pursuing happiness is a natural inclination that drives us to fulfill our individual needs and desires. It encourages us to explore our passions, nurture our relationships, and make choices that align with our values. When we prioritize our happiness, we’re more likely to experience a sense of purpose and contentment. So, when we are feeling happy and fulfilled, this will, in turn, positively impact others around us; it becomes contagious. When we are genuinely happy, it tends to rub off on others. Our positive energy and enthusiasm can inspire and uplift those in our social circles. By pursuing our own happiness, we can create a ripple effect that spreads joy and optimism to our family, friends, and even strangers. It’s a beautiful way to contribute to the well-being of others and create a happier and more harmonious world.

HAPPINESS NEEDS BALANCE

However, it’s essential to strike a balance between our pursuit of happiness and its potential impact on others. Sometimes, in our quest for personal happiness, we may inadvertently overlook the needs and feelings of those around us. It can be very easy to become selfish with your time, only looking to your needs and desires and not taking time to listen to others and their journey and struggles. The proliferation of smartphones and earbuds effectively prevents you from interacting with others. You may be feeding your soul, but you are not present to others and their needs. We have to actively look at others to connect and ‘see’ them; being present to others is a gift to them. Cultivating empathy and compassion is crucial, considering how our choices and actions may affect others. Being mindful of our interactions and finding ways to support and uplift others can enhance our happiness while creating a more inclusive and compassionate society.

ALIGNING OUR HAPPINESS WITH GLOBAL NEEDS

Another aspect to consider is how our pursuit of happiness interacts with the suffering of others on a global level. While it’s natural to focus on our own well-being, it’s equally important to acknowledge and address the hardships faced by others. This requires cultivating a sense of social responsibility, promoting sustainable practices, and making charitable initiatives. How can we align our pursuit of happiness with making a positive impact on a broader scale? Are we wasting resources that others less fortunate could put to better use? Do we live with surpluses when others have deficits? How do we balance our happiness with that of others?

HAPPINESS IS ALSO RELATIONSHIPS

The cons of the pursuit of happiness lie in its potential to foster a sense of individualism and self-centeredness. In our quest for personal fulfillment, we may inadvertently neglect the collective well-being of society. This can lead to a culture of materialism, where the pursuit of happiness is equated with the accumulation of wealth and possessions. However, true happiness often lies in experiences, relationships, and a sense of purpose rather than material wealth alone. How can we use our wealth, talents, and position to uplift others and provide resources for them to pursue their happiness? Remember that people don’t just need money to be happy; they need relationships; how much time do you spend nurturing and building relationships? When a sense of community is built with healthy relationships in that community, it thrives. When people’s genuine needs are not seen, it is difficult for them to pursue their happiness, and neighborhoods break down, as we see here in Washington, DC.

WE CAN’T ALWAYS BE HAPPY

It is also crucial to acknowledge that happiness is not a constant state. Life is full of ups and downs, and suffering is an inevitable part of the human experience. Pursuing happiness does not mean avoiding or ignoring the suffering of others but rather finding ways to alleviate it. By cultivating empathy, showing kindness, and supporting those in need, we can create a more compassionate world where everyone has an opportunity to pursue happiness.

Pursuing happiness is a deeply personal and essential aspect of our lives. It brings joy, fulfillment, and a sense of purpose. However, considering their needs and well-being, we must strike a balance between our happiness and its impact on others. By cultivating empathy, compassion, and social responsibility, we can ensure that our pursuit of happiness is not just self-centered but also contributes to the happiness and well-being of others on a local and global scale.

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The Pursuit of Happiness: Balancing Self-Fulfillment and Global Impact

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 The pursuit of usefulness vs. happiness:

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 The pursuit of usefulness vs. happiness:

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Ecosystem scientist Yadvinder Malhi takes us on a jaw-dropping journey through the hidden flows of energy that make life on Earth tick. From sun-soaked forests to tropical islands, he shows how his team measures the vibrancy of ecosystems across the world. This complex web of energy isn't just nature's masterpiece, he says — it's a lifeline for all of us that call this planet home.

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Ecosystem scientist Yadvinder Malhi takes us on a jaw-dropping journey through the hidden flows of energy that make life on Earth tick. From sun-soaked forests to tropical islands, he shows how his team measures the vibrancy of ecosystems across the world. This complex web of energy isn't just nature's masterpiece, he says — it's a lifeline for all of us that call this planet home.

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Ecosystem scientist Yadvinder Malhi takes us on a jaw-dropping journey through the hidden flows of energy that make life on Earth tick. From sun-soaked forests to tropical islands, he shows how his team measures the vibrancy of ecosystems across the world. This complex web of energy isn’t just nature’s masterpiece, he says — it’s a lifeline for all of us that call this planet home.

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 How climate shocks could break the economy

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 How climate shocks could break the economy

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Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

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Edmond Rhys Jones: How climate shocks could break the economy

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Climate change isn't just reshaping our planet - it's also shaking the very foundations of the economy, says sustainability expert Edmond Rhys Jones. He explores the massive gap between what science tells us about the climate crisis and how the economy measures its impact, advocating for economists to borrow tools from science (like simulations and digital twins) to prepare for the turbulence ahead.

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Mount Teide is one of the world’s largest active volcanoes, and there may be a way to use the basalt rock inside it to save humanity. Obviously, destroying an ancient volcano would cause catastrophic and unpredictable ecological fallout. But what if we harvested only some of that basalt— could it really stop climate change? 

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Mount Teide is one of the world’s largest active volcanoes, and there may be a way to use the basalt rock inside it to save humanity. Obviously, destroying an ancient volcano would cause catastrophic and unpredictable ecological fallout. But what if we harvested only some of that basalt— could it really stop climate change? 

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The surprising way we can cool the planet

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Mount Teide is one of the world’s largest active volcanoes, and there may be a way to use the basalt rock inside it to save humanity. Obviously, destroying an ancient volcano would cause catastrophic and unpredictable ecological fallout. But what if we harvested only some of that basalt— could it really stop climate change? Elise Cutts explores the fascinating science of enhanced rock weathering. [Directed by Ivana Volda, narrated by Susan Zimmerman, music by Stephen LaRosa].

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As of 2022, humans have deforested 17% of the Amazon, and scientists warn that we may be approaching a tipping point. It’s like removing bricks from a house: take a few and the house remains standing; remove too many and the whole thing will collapse. So, what would happen if the entire Amazon disappeared? Anna Rothschild explores the relationship between this ecosystem and the rest of the planet. [Directed by Upamanyu Bhattacharyya, Otter Studios, narrated by Christina Greer, music by Salil Bhayani, cAMP Studio].

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How AI is unearthing hidden scientific knowledge

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How AI is unearthing hidden scientific knowledge

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How AI is unearthing hidden scientific knowledge

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Scientists estimate that 80 percent of life on Earth is still unknown to humanity. But as global temperatures rise, habitats shrink and food and water sources dry up, we’re losing these species faster than we can discover them. AI naturalist Sara Beery reveals how the knowledge to study (and save) the natural world may already exist, buried in millions of images, recordings and observations. We just need to learn how to read them before it’s too late.

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23. NASA's Curiosity Rover

In the kind of PR masterpiece we’ve come to expect from NASA, they didn’t play down the difficulty of landing their Curiosity rover on Mars. Instead, they called it their “seven minutes of terror” and explained that in those 420 seconds, it had to go from a speed of close to 21,000km/h (13,000mph) to zero in order to land safely on the planet’s surface.

When they achieved that, the mission’s place in history was all but secured, especially since they had used an innovative ‘sky crane’ landing system, which guided the rover to a much more precise landing than any previous planetary mission.

Then came the science.

Curiosity looks back to capture an image of the Marker Band Valley, where it found signs of an ancient lake. - Photo credit: NASA/JPL

Since 2012, Curiosity has made ground-breaking discoveries on Mars that help paint a more detailed picture of the planet’s past environment, its previous habitability and even its present ability to support life.

It found chemicals and minerals in Gale Crater that indicated the past presence of liquid water, clearly a pre-requisite for life. It then found various organic molecules that serve as the building blocks for life and can be used as food by microbial organisms.

While they don’t prove that life existed on the planet, they at least show that the correct molecules were present.

But perhaps the rover’s most tantalising discovery has been the detection of a seasonal release of methane from beneath the planet’s surface. Every Martian summer, the gas has welled up from Gale Crater.

While water-rock interactions could be responsible, scientists can’t rule out biological activity. The next generation of Mars rovers, such as ESA’s Rosalind Franklin will carry subsurface drills to investigate further.

Put together, Curiosity's longevity and its extraordinary scientific results significantly enhance our understanding of Mars, paving the way for future human missions and the search for extraterrestrial life.

To seal its place in 21st-century culture, Curiosity also took a selfie.

By Dr Stuart Clark (Astronomer, science journalist and author; Author of The Search for Earth's Twin)

24. NASA's DART mission

This entry made one of the biggest impacts both figuratively and literally. On 26 September 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission smashed into the asteroid Dimorphos.

The collision destroyed the spacecraft completely and shifted the orbit of the asteroid – all on purpose. DART was a ground-breaking test of our ability to alter the orbit of a small asteroid, should we detect one on a collision course with Earth – and it succeeded spectacularly.

For the first time in history, humankind changed the trajectory of a celestial object and in so doing, proved a method for averting a natural disaster.

The asteroid in question was the smaller component of a double asteroid. The larger of the two is called Didymos. Originally discovered in 1996, Didymos is a chunk of rock with dimensions of roughly 851 x 848 x 620m (2,792 x 2,782 x 2,034ft).

Its companion, eventually named Dimorphos, was confirmed in 2003. With a dimension of just 177 x 174 x 116m (580 x 570 x 38ft), it was the perfect test subject for the mission.

Being locked into orbit around Didymos meant that the amount by which it had been moved would show up in a change of the time it took to circle the larger asteroid.

Before the impact, Dimorphos took just under 12 hours to orbit Didymos. After the impact, this time had decreased by just over half an hour, showcasing a viable method for deflecting potentially hazardous asteroids from Earth.

DART's accomplishments extend beyond planetary defence, though.

The mission has provided critical data on asteroid composition and impact mechanics, not to mention celestial navigation by hitting a 100m-wide (328ft) target at speeds of kilometres per second while having travelled millions of kilometres from Earth. SC

25. SpaceX's reusable rockets

SpaceX's reusable rockets are bringing down the costs associated with launching people and tech into space. - Photo credit: Getty Images

For decades, the biggest roadblock to the exploration and utilisation of space has been the cost of launching objects and people into space.

The enormous Saturn V, used to transport astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s, achieved a cost of around $5,000 (about £3,950) per kilogram lofted into space, but since the 1990s, smaller disposable rockets have only managed to achieve costs of around $10,000 (approx £7,900) per kilogram.

SpaceX has blown that figure out of the water and is currently in the process of revolutionising spaceflight. The game changer was the introduction of the Falcon 9 reusable rocket in 2015.

With a first stage booster that could return to Earth and land upright, the cost of launching people, supplies and technology into space started to tumble.

The reusability enabled more frequent launches, again expanding the range of commercial and scientific opportunities that space could offer. For example, it has made SpaceX’s Starlink project viable. This endeavour aims to fly thousands of smaller satellites in low-Earth orbit to provide unbreakable global internet coverage.

With Falcon 9, the cost of reaching orbit is around $2,000 (£1,500) per kilogram. The giant Starship rocket that SpaceX is now test-flying is estimated to slash the cost to an extraordinary $200 (£158) per kilogram.

SpaceX’s achievements have reshaped the global aerospace industry and mark a pivotal step toward humankind permanently extending its presence throughout the Solar System. But such progress doesn’t come without a cost.

The ability to launch so much into space threatens to dramatically increase the amount of space debris, which imperils working satellites and interferes with astronomical observations of the night sky.

Hence the innovation that these rockets allow must be understood in relation to the 'environmental damage’ that it could bring to Earth’s orbits and the night sky in general.

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I believe the most important mathematical breakthrough this century is the solution to the long-standing ‘einstein’ (one-stone) problem.

The einstein problem asks whether there is a shape that can tile an infinitely large horizontal surface so that the pattern never repeats.

ogether they came up with computer-based and analytic proofs for a whole family of shapes, and their preprint study was greeted with international acclaim in March 2023 – even though the ‘hat’ occasionally needed to be flipped over to successfully tile the plane.

But no sooner had the preprint of their work been released, than David came up with the ‘spectre’ – a chiral aperiodic monotile, which didn’t need flipping.

Even more impressive, the ‘spectre’ was a member of a larger class of such tiles that allows the straight edges to be wavy.

Again, his colleagues proved the truth of his intuition. This was a beautiful achievement, led by an extraordinary mathematical hobbyist.

8. The cure for HIV

There was a time when HIV was a death sentence. Then anti-retroviral drugs came along and prospects improved. More and more people became able to live with the disease, but a cure still seemed like a distant dream.

Then in 2007, an HIV-positive man called Timothy Ray Brown received a bone marrow transplant for his leukaemia. Chemotherapy had failed and Brown was running out of options.

His doctor, Dr Gero Hütter, thought that the treatment might be able to cure his cancer, but he also realised that if he could find a donor who was genetically resistant to HIV, there was a chance that the same treatment might also cure his HIV.

Some people are naturally HIV-resistant. They carry a mutation in a gene called CCR5, which codes for a receptor protein that HIV uses to enter host cells.

After scouring the register, Hütter found a donor who not only matched Brown’s immune profile, but also carried two copies of the mutated gene.

The transplant went ahead and a few years later, researchers could find no trace of HIV in Brown’s body. Brown came off his anti-retroviral meds and went on to live the rest of his life HIV-free.

He was the first person to be cured of HIV.

Since then, at least six more people with cancer have been cured of HIV using bone marrow transplants.

The treatment, however, is brutal, with risks so great that it’s unlikely ever to become a routine procedure, but it has taught researchers a great deal about HIV and given hope to the world that a cure for HIV will, one day, be possible.

Brilliant minds had searched for decades for such shapes. Then in 2022, David Smith, a retired print technician and amateur maths enthusiast, began working with software and cardboard cut-outs at his home in Bridlington, Yorkshire.

Smith had worked for years on tiling patterns and had a strong intuition his shape, nicknamed the ‘hat’, would both tile the surface and never repeat.

He didn’t have the mathematical tools to prove his hunch, however, so he turned to the community of tiling enthusiasts and got help from Prof Craig Kaplan at the University of Waterloo, Canada; Prof Chaim Goodman-Strauss from the University of Arkansas; and software engineer Dr Joseph Myers from Cambridge.

9. Transformers and large language models

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been in the news for more than a decade, largely because one key AI technology – neural networks – finally started to work at scale.

The new AI era was heralded by the advent of ‘deep learning’ around 2005, driven by cheap computer power and plentiful data for ‘training’ neural nets.

The field exploded and we began to see a host of impressive applications. AI hit the headlines.

And then, something unexpected happened. In 2017, a Google team published a scientific paper describing a new architecture for organising neural nets – the so-called ‘transformer architecture.’

The transformer architecture is a neural network architecture for token prediction: taking as input a sequence of tokens (words) and then predicting the next token (word) to appear.

They’re trained by feeding them ordinary human text, and given a ‘prompt’ (for example: ‘a summary of Winston Churchill’s life’). They’ll then try to predict the word most likely to appear next. They do this one word at a time, but the process can be repeated over and over.

It wasn’t obvious in 2017 that transformers would be so… transformative. To realise their full power, you had to be prepared to build them on an unprecedented scale, throw mind-boggling quantities of training data at them and train them with AI supercomputers running for months.

Google didn’t make that bet; it was a little-known organisation called OpenAI, supported by Microsoft. And it paid off, spectacularly.

The first real hint that we were entering a new era was the release of GPT-3 in June 2020. Those with access to OpenAI’s new program seemed genuinely startled by how capable it was.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Just as remarkable for AI researchers was its emergent capabilities: the ability to do things that it wasn’t designed to do.

Questions, like the famous Turing Test, which had been of strictly philosophical interest previously, suddenly became practical experimental questions.

The unprecedented success of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT took Silicon Valley by surprise and now the world’s richest companies are pivoting to try to embed this remarkable new technology everywhere, in the hope that they’ll find the killer application.

For all their success, LLMs aren’t the end of the road for AI; the dream of a helpful household robot that can clear your dinner table and load the dishwasher still seems frustratingly distant.

But the technology is astonishing nonetheless. We’re living at a remarkable time in technological history: our history will be divided into pre-GPT and post-GPT.

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As the 21st century gathers pace, it’s clear we’re living through a golden age of scientific discovery. From rewiring our understanding of the Universe to reshaping the tools of everyday life, breakthroughs once thought impossible are now shaping the world around us.

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As the 21st century gathers pace, it’s clear we’re living through a golden age of scientific discovery. From rewiring our understanding of the Universe to reshaping the tools of everyday life, breakthroughs once thought impossible are now shaping the world around us.

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To reflect on the progress so far, we asked some of the world's leading thinkers to spotlight the groundbreaking scientific breakthroughs that have transformed our world since the turn of the millennium.

1. Dream engineering

Until the turn of the last century, psychologists often argued that dreaming was a meaningless experience best confined to the fringes of science. But the 21st century has witnessed a surge of scientific interest in our nocturnal adventures and produced a steady stream of articles exploring the psychology of dreaming.

Some of this work has explored how dreaming can help people process negative emotions and prepare them for challenging events in the real world. Another strand of research has explored the link between dreams and creativity, and has shown that our dreaming minds often come up with new and innovative solutions to pressing problems.

There’s also work that has looked at the social side of dreaming, with psychologists arguing that discussing a dream with others is an effective way of forming and maintaining caring relationships.

Other scientists have taken a different approach and developed techniques that allow them to communicate with people experiencing a lucid dream.

Finally, there’s dream engineering, wherein researchers use smells, sounds and suggestions to manipulate our dreaming minds.

For years, trying to convince scientists to take dreams seriously was a nightmare. Now the tide has turned and we’re starting to uncover the many ways in which dreaming makes a vital contribution to our waking lives.

2. A new type of stem cell

Before 2006, if researchers wanted to work with human embryonic stem cells, they had to work with human embryos. This was ethically charged territory – the embryos were leftovers from fertility treatments and were destroyed in the process.

Then Prof Shinya Yamanaka from Kyoto University devised a way to make embryonic stem cells without using embryos.

By adding a handful of genes into cultured skin cells and nurturing them with certain nutrients, adult cells could be reprogrammed to become ‘induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.’

‘Pluripotent’ means that these lab-made stem cells can turn – or ‘differentiate’ – into many other types of cells, including heart cells and neurons.

Now researchers can take cells from an adult animal, turn them into iPS cells and then turn them into the specialised cells of their choice. iPS cells are now routinely used to help test new drugs and therapies, but perhaps their most exciting use is in the field of regenerative medicine.

Imagine a patient with heart disease. Now imagine taking some of their skin cells and using iPS technology to create a pool of healthy heart cells.

The replacement tissue could then be transplanted into the patient’s heart to repair it, and because the cells are the patient’s own, there would be no danger of the tissue being rejected.

The same method could be applied to other conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and kidney failure, raising the prospect of cures for currently incurable diseases.

3. Global heating

Only by looking into the past can we get an inkling of the seriousness of today’s climate predicament.

The terrifying reality is that the global average temperature rise, which is now teetering on the edge of the 1.5°C dangerous climate breakdown guardrail, is occurring 50 times faster than when the world warmed after the Ice Age.

That was 56 million years ago, during the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).

The episode of rapid heating saw dead, oxygen-depleted oceans and sea levels 50m higher than they are now. And the global temperature today is ramping-up at least ten times faster than during the PETM.

We’re in the middle of a unique climate experiment, continually pumping out 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, and hoping that it’ll be fine. I can tell you now, it won’t be.

By Prof Bill McGuire, Professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards, UCL; Author of Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant's Guide

4. Attribution analysis

In a nutshell, attribution analysis seeks to determine the extent to which global heating has influenced a particular extreme weather event, such as increasing its intensity or raising its likelihood.

It involves running two computer simulations. One assumes today’s artificially heated climate, the other assumes a pre-industrial climate with all the human influences removed.

Comparison reveals whether global heating had an effect and, if so, what it was. The first-ever attribution analysis determined that the 2003 European heatwave (which claimed 70,000 lives and saw temperatures breach the 37°C/98°F mark for the first time in the UK) was made twice as likely by global heating.

Attribution analysis sheds light on the growing impact global heating is having on our weather patterns, while also loudly undermining the climate deniers – a win all round.

5. mRNA vaccines

5. mRNA vaccines

The use of mRNA for various medical applications has been in development for decades. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that the impact of the technology was first felt, however.

mRNA vaccines allow for the development of vaccines far more quickly than was previously possible – two months for COVID-19 compared to the previous record of four years.

It’s estimated that the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines saved nearly 20 million lives in their first year of use.

In the coming years, we’ll likely have a range of new mRNA vaccines for other viruses that change regularly, like the flu, as well as for viruses that haven’t responded well to previous vaccine technology, like HIV.

6. The Human Genome Project

In 1990, scientists began to sequence the human genome. It took until 2022 to produce a complete sequence.

This achievement has profoundly changed biomedical science, allowing for research and technology that wouldn’t be possible otherwise, like using CRISPR to modify genetic diseases.

We’re just starting to feel the impact of this achievement on medical practice. By knowing our genome, it’s possible to find changes in genes that are associated with, or even cause, various diseases.

This increases our understanding of those diseases, as well as our ability to diagnose and treat them.

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My letter to the children of my school (and all other children elsewhere) on the occasion of Children's Day

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My letter to the children of my school (and all other children elsewhere) on the occasion of Children's Day

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Every adult looks back at their childhood as a time of innocence, purity, and happiness. Everyone feels a yearning to return to it. Other than the selective memory-bias, which erases unpleasant experiences and keeps the happy ones, and hence makes our past life appear better than it truly was – what really lies at the heart of this appeal of childhood?

When I look back on my childhood, various images flash by in my mind: playing with my friends in the vast fields near Samanwaypalli; sitting down beside the small window of our Dangalpara house during the rainy days; waiting eagerly in certain afternoons for the fortnightly children’s magazine Anadamela to arrive; sitting on a madur with my father on the roof at night during those frequent power-cuts while he sang one song after another.

Regardless of the external circumstances, everything felt idyllic. The fact that our rented house in Samanwaypalli just had one small room where four of us had to live, sleep, and cook made no difference. Rather, what mattered was our landlord had three children of our age, and we could run around the house and play. My parents didn’t have much money, but I had access to the vast fields outside, and plenty of boys of my age from nearby houses. I was rich.

When we returned to our family house in Dangalpara, the size of our room didn’t change. It was still a very small room and my mother still had to cook inside that room. In spite of that, my best memories are from that house. Regardless of the size of the room, I could be immersed reading a story book sitting on the bed, or watch the rain from the tiny window.

Every child, untainted by the world, has in him to find joy in the smallest things: in the sunrays coming through the window in a winter afternoon, in the fierce breeze hitting his face during a train journey, in getting together with other children of the house when studies are suspended due to a power-cut, in playing with friends with a paper ball and a chappal as an improvised bat, in returning home together after a school day.

As an adult, in the middle of our hectic days, endless striving, worldly pursuits, we sometimes feel this unexplained yearning to return to those simple joys of life: sometimes our childhood calls us during a dream, sometimes during the dead of night when everything is silent, or sometimes when we are alone by a window during a rainy day. In such times, we vaguely remember something that we left behind – which we can fleetingly feel but cannot any more touch.

Where did we lose that version of ourselves who could find joy in everything, who didn’t have any worldly needs, who could be completely immersed in many activities?

For me, personally, it happened imperceptibly, stealthily. After my tenth standard, when I automatically chose to study science and sit for engineering entrances, I took the first step towards becoming an adult, becoming ordinary. My first worldly decision was not even a decision – it felt like a natural course of action; after all, every one of my friends, and everyone who was any good at studies chose that path – how could I be different?

For the first time in my life, I led a compromised life – I didn’t enjoy learning, and overall didn’t like the IIT experience. New needs were born: I desperately needed to reverse this mistake. The cycle of adult life had begun.

I studied for CAT and went to IIM-A but I didn’t learn from my mistake. After finishing my MBA, I wanted to become an investment banker. Why? Because it sounded good, and because most of my friends – particularly the toppers of the class –  all wanted to become one. It sounds hilarious now, but I even chose a niche for myself within the broader investment banking work: I wanted to be a bond-trader.

Again, I was miserable during my short investment banking career in Mumbai, and spent the year desperately trying to reverse this mistake. By sheer luck, I then got into a role that worked for me. I didn’t choose it – it just happened to come my way. For a while, I did well and I almost had my childlike excitement towards back – this time directed towards work.

But on the personal front, I kept on making mistakes of the similar nature. World tells you to marry and have kids, and I didn’t give it a second thought – those steps seemed like the most natural steps one takes after a few years into a job. Very soon, my world became small: like all modern men, it became limited to my family. I did the routine things like going out with my wife to shopping malls to buy grocery, and playing with my daughter after returning from office.

So this is the way the world gnaws at you. It comes at you stealthily: when myths devour you, they don’t advertise themselves as myths. They pose as the most natural courses of action. And within a few decades, the pure child changes into a contaminated adult, who wants to increase his bank balance, wants to get a better designation, wants to do better than his batchmates, wants to get his child admitted to the best school, wants to live at a fashionable address, wants to post foreign vacation photos on social media, and wants to buy an expensive car.

At the altar of those so-called ambitions, the true ambition of life – to enjoy every moment, to be immersed in every activity, and hence to realise one’s full potential – is lost. I have finally realized that people who develop those worldly ambitions actually sell themselves short – they are the ambitionless ones, because life offers us far greater prizes than those small dreams.

So what must one do to remain a child? Unfortunately, ‘remaining’ a child is not an option. The pure childhood, that everyone is endowed with, will inevitably be lost when one comes into contact with the adult world of needs and pursuits. The childhood that you cannot lose is the one that is on the other side of adulthood.

There are some people who could indeed return to a childhood on the other side of adulthood: for example, authors like Rabindranath or Sunil Gangopadhyay who wrote until the very last day of their lives rather than trying to earn more money, fame, or power. They resisted the worldly pursuits and continued to do what they loved to do. However, even people like them must have gone through a phase where worldly pursuits shackled them for a while, but they actively wanted to resist it, scrub it off, purify themselves, and return to their purer selves. A lot of Rabindaranath’s songs actually talk about this struggle of his.

Once you are aware of how myths can imprison you, and once you can strike at the root of it – worldly needs and ego – then they lose their power over you. They cannot stealthily sneak back upon you any more. Then there is a possibility of returning to a purer self, which is as joyful and pure as our first childhood, but possibly more permanent, to the extent anything in this world is permanent.

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So why is connecting with your inner child so important?

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So why is connecting with your inner child so important?

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#1: You will deepen your level of self-discovery and personal growth.

A lot of us don’t know that the inner child exists, let alone that we have access to it. When you begin to do inner child work, it’s like you open a door to a whole new world that you didn’t know existed. There are so many different facets to explore – so many different things to learn – about yourself as an evolved woman, and your inner child. And there are endless ways to make that connection thrive.

#2: It’s like giving yourself permission to play.

When you connect with your inner child, you realize that that playful, carefree part of yourself never went away. She’s been with you all along. Sadly, as we grow older, many of us spend a majority of our time hustling and checking various responsibilities off of our To Do Lists day in and day out. We make very little time for genuine fun, play, or expression. But those are things that we always want. They are almost like foundational spiritual needs when it comes to being truly happy and fulfilled.

#3: It’s a way to heal parent wounding.

Many of us get to a place, as adults ourselves, when we realize that our parents were doing the best they could when they raised us. But that doesn’t just erase any pain, trauma, or wounding that they may have inflicted on us when we were children. That type of wounding can fester over time and even hold us prisoner to our unhappiness as full grown adults.

When you begin to develop a relationship with your inner child, you will discover her wounding, and you–as an evolved woman–will be able to heal it and nurture her. This in turn will help you heal your own parent wounding that affects you to this day.

Connecting with your inner child is an amazing way to work on yourself at a deeper level. It’s also a pathway to further spiritual and personal exploration and development. When you’re more aligned with your inner child, you are better equipped to uncover and heal any emotional pain that may be doing you a disservice, such as issues with food and body.

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One of the most important things in life is to never lose your sense of curiosity and wonder. These two things can unfortunately feel dulled as we get into a routine of adult life, especially when we have rebellious children to take care of and perhaps the day to day necessities of a career to attend to.

No matter what kind of life you’ve built for yourself, there’s a blunting effect that happens in adulthood, where we feel that we’ve seen everything before and nothing is new. That, of course, isn’t true, and there’s an inner child in you somewhere just waiting to feel curious in the face of new experience once again.

Silly Fun

Roald Dahl, famous British children’s author, once said that “A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” This of course, is true. This is why you might find that running a family talent show for mother’s day could be a great way to enjoy some silly performances with your kids. Or, perhaps the silly fun could involve going to a large playframe area for adults (yes, they exist).

Silly fun could also mean just spending some time drawing your own comic book, or making time for writing like you did as a kid. Kicking a ball around with your children in the garden is a great place to start, too. What matters is making fun the goal, not worrying about being productive, or cool, or serious, or anything of that nature. Kids are fantastic at knowing how to play for the sake of playing. There’s no ulterior motive. In adulthood, we lose that. So, perhaps some silly fun is the best place to start gathering it back again.

Crafts & Hobbies

Crafts and hobbies can take on all shapes and sizes, which is why it’s important to find something that helps you geek out a little and spend time enjoying yourself. For instance, if you enjoy model trains, you may wish to visit online the best manufacturer of model replica steam models, allowing you to craft a perfect circuit in your garden or home.

For others, it might just be that painting a wonderful landscape with a few water colours in the park gives them the chance to see nature from a new perspective. It could also be that you decide to head to an event that provides you with much in the way of childlike fun, such as visiting a classic car convention, or even a board game gathering. As children we have time for our hobbies, as adults, they tend to take a back seat. Take one activity, and allow it to provide you the love you used to appreciate!

Irreverent Humor

Irreverent humor is the best. Dad jokes, kid jokes, it’s all the same. In fact, if you’re looking for some great humor, check out our fake news page. When it comes to dealing with the heaviness of the world around us, it can be good to crack wise from time to time, and to laugh it off. This is a healthy means of being able to emotionally process even the toughest times, provided we remain sincere.

Learning to laugh, not just at others but also yourself, can make a huge difference in the long run. You may even find that after you do that, you tend to feel so much more clear-headed. So – if you find that you’ve been a little uptight recently, dedicate yourself to a little more humor in your life. Head to a comedy show or just pick up a joke book at random. If there’s one thing children know how to do – it’s laugh.

With this advice, we hope you can keep your inner child alive in the best possible way. It might take just a little time to get right, but over time, it will make a major difference to how you feel about yourself, how you relate to your family, and how well you’re able to chart adult life.

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Let's Go Outside and Play | Janelle Lin | TEDxGrandviewHeights

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Innovate for the Future by Developing a Makers Mindset | Berton Yang | TEDxYouth@GrandviewHeights

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Innovate for the Future by Developing a Makers Mindset | Berton Yang | TEDxYouth@GrandviewHeights

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Innovate for the Future by Developing a Makers Mindset | Berton Yang | TEDxYouth@GrandviewHeights

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Learning Beyond the Walls | AGNIV VINOTH | TEDxAnuragU

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Learning Beyond the Walls | AGNIV VINOTH | TEDxAnuragU

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Learning Beyond the Walls | AGNIV VINOTH | TEDxAnuragU

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How to Make Learning as Addictive as Social Media | Duolingo's Luis Von Ahn | TED

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How to Make Learning as Addictive as Social Media | Duolingo's Luis Von Ahn | TED

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How to Make Learning as Addictive as Social Media | Duolingo's Luis Von Ahn | TED

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The Power of Continuous Learning in the Workplace

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The Power of Continuous Learning in the Workplace

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1. Continuous Learning Improves Performance

Again, this much is obvious — but the impact to performance is certainly worth a quick mention.

According to Gallup, strength-based training and learning — a key tenet of continuous learning — can lead up to an 18% increase in employee performance. In focusing individual learners on their unique strengths and abilities, you’ll help facilitate growth in the areas that will have the highest possible impact on performance.

(And, of course, it won’t hurt for them to constantly be seeking out ways to improve on their weaknesses, either.)

2. Continuous Learning Makes Employees Adaptable

To be continuously learning is to be continuously adapting to new knowledge and information as it becomes available.

In short, adaptability is baked into continuous learning.

By adopting an “always learning” mentality, your employees will always be:

Building on their current skill set and learning new things

Working to overcome challenges and find new solutions

Ready to change direction or tweak a process when necessary

Especially in fast-paced industries, this is an invaluable skill for modern employees to possess (and to continue flexing over time).

3. Continuous Learning Leads to Career Advancement

The more talented, knowledgeable, and adaptable an employee becomes, the more marketable they’ll be.

Ideally, you’ll provide the opportunities these ever-evolving employees are looking for in terms of career advancement. That way, you’re not only giving them the training they need to advance, but also providing a clear path to growth along the way.

If you can make that happen, they’ll have every reason to want to grow with your company.

4. Continuous Learning Increases Job Satisfaction

Having copious, ongoing opportunities to learn and grow is essential to overall job satisfaction for top-performing employees.

It goes hand-in-hand with pretty much everything we’ve said thus far:

If employees can continuously learn and grow — both in their current position and in their career — and are consistently enabled to do their best work, it’ll go a long way toward keeping them satisfied with their job.The Impact of Continuous Learning on Business

As with the above, the overarching benefits continuous learning can have on your company are pretty obvious.

But the impact of being so open to ongoing learning is much further reaching that you might expect.

1. Continuous Learning Improves Employee and Team Productivity

As your employees continue honing their skills and learning more, they’ll become more productive both individually and as a team.

Individually, you’ll be fostering growth in all the right areas for each of your employees. This will lead to the development of a high-quality and well-rounded team of specialists whose talents complement and empower one another.

With the above in place, your teams can focus on improving collaboration and cohesion amongst themselves — through both formal and informal learning methods.

2. Continuous Learning Helps Teams Stay Aligned

Speaking of cohesion, a focus on continuous learning allows team members to stay aligned with each other.

Your ever-curious employees will always be up-to-date on team progress, changes to processes, and other important information. Similarly, you can be sure all team members follow best practices when working together or individually — and are always double-checking themselves at every step.

In a wider sense, continuous learning can lead employees to become more invested in helping the company achieve its larger goals. They’ll gain a better understanding of their role in the company — and can then channel this knowledge into focused action moving forward.

3. Continuous Learning Enhances Employee Engagement

Going along with the above, continuous learning all but ensures employees stay engaged — both with their teammates and with their work.

Effective social learning practices open unlimited doors for colleagues to share ideas, provide guidance, and simply learn from one another.

As this open communication is practiced over time, engaging for the sake of teaching and learning will become the natural way of things for your team.

By definition, continuous learners are more engaged in their work than those who stagnate. Strengthening your employees’ drive to learn more and do more at every turn will inherently get them more engaged in their work — and create opportunities for them to dive even deeper as they grow stronger.

4. A Culture of Learning Improves Talent Acquisition and Retention

Companies that offer ongoing opportunities for learning and professional development are likely to attract high-value talent — and keep them around for good.

Regarding talent acquisition, Gallup recently found that 66% of workers ages 18-24 rank learning new skills as the third-most important perk when evaluating new job opportunities. Driven workers want to learn and do more — and will actively look to work with companies that will cater to these needs.

Providing ongoing professional development opportunities also helps you reduce employee attrition of your top talent over the years. As BetterBuys found, learning-focused teams see 34% higher retention rates — with 75% of employees saying they’re likely to stay for at least five years.

(We also need to mention how crucial it can be to attract and retain those who are always looking to learn and do more as opposed to those who are not.)

5. Continuous Learning Leads to Improved Customer Satisfaction

A team that’s always learning will always be doing more to satisfy their customers — both directly and indirectly.

For one, your customer-facing teams will continuously strive to know more about your audience, and always be looking for ways to better serve them. Staying on top of your customers’ needs, and of the dynamic landscape of your industry, will be a top concern for your team.

Internally, your teams will consistently be working to streamline processes and otherwise keep things running smoothly — which ultimately improves your ability to effectively serve your customers.

6. Continuous Learning Makes Teams More Competitive

As we said at the beginning, the team that’s always learning and growing more knowledgeable and competent will outperform those that aren’t at every turn.

At the very least, you’ll measure up to your industry’s standards across the board. Really, knowing standard best practices for your most important processes will be table stakes for the team that’s constantly learning and diving deeper into their niche.

It’s more likely that your team will go even further than the industry’s status quo — and instead strive to become the leader of the pack. And, because they’ll never be truly satisfied with knowing what they know, they’ll continue growing more knowledgeable even after you’ve reached the top of your industry.

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Personalization and Flexibility:

Learners can set their own pace, revisit complex topics, and skip ahead on familiar material, tailoring the experience to their individual needs and learning styles.

Enhanced Knowledge Retention:

The ability to learn at one's own speed, take time to understand fully, and repeat lessons as needed significantly improves memory and long-term knowledge retention.

Increased Confidence and Independence:

Learners gain confidence by mastering content without pressure and develop a sense of ownership and responsibility for their own education, fostering greater independence.

Reduced Stress:

Eliminating the pressure of strict deadlines and fixed class schedules creates a less stressful learning environment.

Greater Engagement:

When learners have control over their educational path, they tend to be more engaged and motivated, leading to better outcomes.

Convenience and Accessibility:

Self-paced learning, often delivered through online platforms, offers the convenience of studying anytime, anywhere, making it an accessible option for those with work or family responsibilities.

Career Advancement:

Professionals can acquire new skills and knowledge to advance their careers or transition to new roles without having to leave their current jobs.

Supports Different Learning Styles:

This method allows learners to choose content and pathways that align with their preferred way of learning, making education more effective.

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Bappa is worshipped far away in Japan too?
In the Asakusa area of Tokyo, Japan, ancient wooden Buddhist temples house Kangiten, the Japanese version of Lord Ganesha. The 8th-century Matsuchiyama Shoden temple is one of the oldest in Japan and a major tourist attraction, especially for Indian visitors.
Lord Ganesha, known as ‘Kangiten,’ ‘Shoten,’ ‘Ganabachi’ (Ganapathy), or ‘Binayakaten,’ has been worshipped in Japan since the 8th-9th centuries CE.  ..
Upon returning to Japan, Kukai introduced Hindu deities and tantric Buddhism. Initially a minor figure in Shingon Buddhism, Kangiten grew in significance by the Heian Period, eventually becoming an independent deity. References to Kangiten appear in texts like the ‘Besson Guides’ and ‘Sho Kangiten Shikiho,’ which outline rituals for his worship.
Kangiten idols in Japan depict him with muscular limbs, armor, tusks, and weapons, often shown embracing a female elephant.
One of the most famous Kangiten temples is Hozanji, located on the eastern side of Mount Ikoma. According to legend, a 17th-century monk named Tankai built the temple to please Kangiten after the god repeatedly interrupted his spiritual quest. Worshipers offer rice beer and radishes at the temple for good fortune and prosperity.

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Brief overview of these countries where Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated other than India:

1. Nepal

In Nepal, Ganesh Chaturthi is also known locally as Vinayaka Chaturthi. It is celebrated in temples such as Maru Ganesh and Surya Vinayak.

Families conduct pujas at home, share festive meals, and participate in temple ceremonies. Since Hinduism is widely practised in Nepal, the traditions are quite similar to those seen in India.

2. Indonesia

Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated in a very special way in Bali, Indonesia, also. lord Ganesha is an integral part of the island’s Hindu traditions.

Many temples of Indonesia host special prayers during Ganesh Chaturthi, blending ancient Balinese customs with Indian rituals.

Archaeological findings, including old statues and carvings, reflect the long history of Ganesha worship in the region.

3. Thailand

Other countries other than India are Thailand, where Ganesha is venerated as Phra Phikanet, which is believed to bless devotees with success in the arts, business, and personal life.

On Ganesh Chaturthi, temples such as Wat Phra Sri Umadevi hold elaborate festivals where devotees gather to seek his blessings with music, prayers, and offerings.

4. Japan

Another Southeast Asian country is Japan, where the honours of Lord Ganesha are paid in the form of Kangiten, a deity revered in both Buddhist and Hindu traditions.

The celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi is very unique to Japan; there are many devotees, and for them, daikon radishes are a symbol of purity and good fortune.

The celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi was also celebrated in Matsuchiyama Shoden in Tokyo and Hozanji in Nara, ar celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi was celebrated in these temples of Japan.

5. Cambodia

The worship of Ganesha in Cambodia can be traced back to the Khmer Empire, where carvings of the deity still adorn temples like Angkor Wat.

Even today, Cambodian Hindus mark Ganesh Chaturthi with prayers and offerings, keeping alive a tradition that has lasted for centuries.

6. Malaysia

In Malaysia, the Hindu community celebrates Ganesh Chaturthi with great enthusiasm. Temples such as Sri Sithi Vinayagar in Kuala Lumpur host multi-day events featuring community prayers, cultural programs, and festive meals. Here, Ganesha is especially worshipped as the god of new beginnings.

Conclusion

Ganesh Chaturthi is devoted to all religions and celebrated across India, but the celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi is not limited to India, but also crosses India's geographical borders and reaches many NorthEast Asian countries like Nepal, Japan, Cambodia and other countries.Each countries have its own and unique cultural significance for celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi, but their wisdom toward devotion of Lord Ganesh is the same for all.

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Whenever people hear of Ganesh Chaturthi, they automatically think of the grand Maharashtra festivities with over-the-top processions and high-voltage street parties. But nestled within the green environs of Goa is a little-known, heartful version of the festival— Chovoth as Ganesh Chaturthi in Goa goes by here, this one assumes a persona of its own and unlike its over-the-top relative on the other side of the border, the festival is a private, down-to-earth, and community-focused affair. For those who is wanting to experience Goa beyond its well-known beaches and nightlife, Ganesh Chaturthi in Goa boons a cultural experience that is real, friendly, and unforgettable.

The Beauty of the Matoli

Matoli happens to be the most eye-catching thing about Ganesh Chaturthi in Goa. It is a ceremonial canopy built above the idol of Lord Ganesha with seasonal fruits and vegetables, coconuts, wildflowers, medicinal herbs, and forest products. They all have philosophical meanings, and acquisition is typically a family matter that is completed in days. To enter the Goan home during Goan Ganesh Chaturthi is like to enter a nature’s wonderland as the matoli serves as a rainbow-colored ceiling of abundance, mixing art with worship. In contrast to plastic decorations found elsewhere, this is a living art form specific to Goa that is learned through generations. Goa has never believed in throwing things away. Sustainable environment-friendly clay idols created by local craftspeople are the preferred option for most families. These idols are simple yet elegant, embodying religious simplicity that off-the-shelf idols typically cannot offer. Supporting these craftsmen is also the way of supporting Goa's cultural economy. Every idol possesses its own unique personality, treated with dignity and love.

A Festival of Flavors

No Indian festival is complete without food, and even this is no exception with some of Goa's most scrumptious festive fare. Patoli, a steamed rice rolls stuffed with coconut and jaggery, wrapped in turmeric leaves, which impart a unique aroma. Modak which happens to be Lord Ganesha's favourite the traditional sweet dumpling. Neureos a deep-fried pastries filled with nuts coconut and jaggery giving it a marvellous taste. Aluchi Patal Bhaji, often prepared as part of the festive meal, a tangy flavoured curry made from Colocasia leaves. Families exchange these sweets with neighbors, strengthening bonds within the community. For food lovers, this is one of the best times to explore Goa’s culinary traditions beyond seafood and beach shacks.

Celebration with Bhajans, Aartis, and Togetherness

If you want to feel a different aura of Goa, step into a Goan village during Goan Ganesh Chaturthi. Instead of loudspeakers and huge crowds, nights are filled with softness of bhajans and aartis. Neighbors and family gather to sing devotional songs, light oil lamps, and exchange prasad. There is laughter, gossiping, and that feeling of community that is both celebratory and peaceful. Temples and community halls also organize cultural events—dance, music, and folk plays—that help retain Goa's traditional arts. Visitors are received warmly, so it becomes an opportunity to really experience the local culture.

Why Go to Goa During The festival?

Most visitors consider Goa a summer or winter destination, but Goa in monsoon is magical—and that magic gets enriched with this celebration. You get to see Cascading waterfalls, a dazzling green paddy field, and misty hills providing a postcard-perfect setting. Instead of tourist-populated beach parties, you get to experience local customs firsthand. Traditional Goan sweets and seasonal foods that won't be available in restaurants. The Spiritual Vibe of the festival is more embracing, and less commercialized is something that make it worth visiting for all those who want to discover Goa beyond beaches, Ganesh Chaturthi is the best time to visit.

Staying in Goa during The festival

To fully experience The festival, stay in a private luxury villa in Goa. Villas are more private than hotels, provide comfort, and the feeling of being at home—facilitating easier balancing of cultural experience and relaxation. Spend your day discovering village festivals, indulging in festive pastries, and gazing at matolis. And then come back to your villa in the evening, where you can relax by the pool, drink a hot cup of chai as rain showers down, and immerse yourself in peacefulness. It's the perfect way to blend Goa's lively traditions with contemporary comfort.

Travel Tips for Enjoying The festive Season in Goa

Since the festival dates follow the Hindu calendar, so check before booking your trip. One should not leave without tasting patoli and neureos made in Goan homes, it tastes heavenly. Try to buy eco-friendly clay idols or souvenirs from local markets to support small artists and help in preserving the culture. Villages like Ponda, Quepem, and Bicholim, where celebrations are especially vibrant are the must visited place if one happens to be in Goa During the festival.

The festival: Goa’s Best-Kept Secret

Ganesh Chaturthi can perhaps be one of India's best-known festivals, but in Goa is a best-kept secret. It's a festival where tradition merges with nature, family ties are the focal point, and spirituality becomes an integral part of life. For tourists, this is not another festival—it's an opportunity to discover Goa in a different way. Away from beaches and nightlife is a Goa that is green, spiritual, and traditional. So, next time you plan to visit Goa, make sure this experience is in itinerary. Experience this festival in the way Goans do it, and take back memories of a side of Goa few ever get to witness.

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Ganesh Chaturthi (guh-NESH cha-TUR-thee) is a festival that pays homage to Lord Ganesh, the remover of obstacles, and celebrates the day of his birth. Many recognize that Lord Ganesh brings order in this universe and worship him before embarking on a new endeavor, intellectual journey, or business enterprise. Therefore, it is common to see images or statues of him in these places.

One of Hinduism’s most revered personalities, Ganesha is widely recognized for having the head of an elephant and is the son of Shiva (the God of Transformation) and his wife Parvati.

Every year, his birth is celebrated with a 10-day festival, during which four main rituals, namely Prana Pratishta, Shodashopachara, Uttarpuja, and Ganpati Visarjan are performed.

Festivities begin as Ganesha deities, generally made of clay and decorated with flowers and lights, are set up in private homes and/or temporary public stages called pandals. Priests then conduct Prana Pratishta, a ceremony in which mantras are recited, invoking Ganesha’s presence into the clay deity, after which he is offered formal prayers in a 16-step worship called Shodashopachara.

During each day of the celebration, prasad, or food blessed by the deity, is distributed throughout the community. Followers also meditate on the many aspects of his form, which symbolize deeper spiritual truths, while many choose to observe fasts.

On the last day of the festival, Uttarpuja is performed, a ritual bidding Ganesha farewell. After, he is carried in a public procession with kirtan (devotional music) to a nearby body of water in which he is immersed. This custom is Ganpati Visarjan, and it symbolizes his return to Mount Kailash, a peak in the Himalayas where Shiva and Parvati are said to reside.

Though no one really knows exactly how far back in history Ganesha Chaturthi has been observed, some historians believe the festival became a major public event in the 1600s when Indian king, Shivaji Bhosale I, first sponsored the celebration.

The festival is said to have been revitalized later in the 19th century as a symbol of India’s independence movement, by freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

In 1892, the cities of Pune and Mumbai became packed with devotees, despite the fact that such large gatherings were not allowed by the British. The 10-day festival was celebrated with a patriotic gusto fueled by a united deep devotion and love for Ganesha.

To this day, Hindu festivals continue to be celebrated with similar pomp and fervor, signifying the everlasting power such devotion can generate.

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To all Ashokites,

Happy 79th Independence Day!

As we celebrate this significant day, let's take a moment to reflect on the values of freedom, unity, and progress that our nation was built upon. The spirit of Independence Day is a powerful reminder of the strength we find in coming together, working towards a common goal, and building a brighter future.

Here at Ashoka, we see this spirit reflected in our own teams every day. Your dedication, hard work, and collaborative spirit are what drive our collective success and make our organization a place of growth and innovation.

May this day bring you and your families joy and a renewed sense of purpose. We are incredibly proud of all that we've accomplished together.

Wishing you a wonderful and memorable Independence Day!

Warmly,

Team QAG

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Operation Sindoor’s success will be celebrated at the Independence Day celebrations this year, including its logo on the view cutter at Gyanpath, and themed floral decorations.

Defence personnel selected for the awards will be seated at the Red Fort rampart, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver his address to the nation. The PM’s address to the nation is expected to highlight the success of Operation Sindoor and the contributions of defence personnel.

The celebrations will commemorate “the continuing rise of a prosperous, secure and bold ‘Naya Bharat’”, the theme of this year’s festivities, “as the nation is making giant strides towards realising the government’s vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047”, the MoD stated, adding the celebration will “provide renewed power to surge further ahead on the path to progress”..

The Indian Air Force will stage a special flypast over the Red Fort, with three helicopters flying in formation carrying the National Flag as well as the Operation Sindoor flag. As in previous years, the aircraft will shower flower petals over the public.

Invitations to the event also feature Operation Sindoor on the top right corner, with a sketch of the Chenab railway bridge in the middle replacing the image of the Central Vista previously embossed on the cards. Recently inaugurated by Mr. Modi, the bridge connects the Kashmir Valley to the rest of the country by rail for the first time.

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operation sindoor operation by indian defence\

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Airbus

Airbus is deepening its presence in India through a broad-based expansion spanning manufacturing, engineering, training, and supply chain development, in alignment with the government's 'Make in India' initiative.² This expansion plan is fueled by rising demand for aircraft, components, and servicing in India's civil aviation and defence sectors. In the civil sector, Airbus plans to source nearly $2 billion worth of components and services from India by 2030 to support the country's domestic aviation ecosystem.³ On the defence front, Airbus is actively advancing key programmes in collaboration with homegrown companies. For instance, Airbus recently joined forces with Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) to produce the C295 military transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force.⁴

Microsoft

The company has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to investing in India, including a $3 billion investment over the next two years, primarily focused on expanding its cloud and AI infrastructure.⁵ As more businesses and government departments move to the cloud, India's data centre capacity is set to surpass 4,500 MW by 2030.⁶ To support the growing demand, Microsoft is building new data centres in India and aligning its goals just in time to leverage the country's digital push.

Apple

Apple Inc. has significantly increased its iPhone production in India, registering over $22 billion worth of assembling in April 2025 alone, marking a 60% rise compared to the previous year.⁷ This shift aims to diversify manufacturing operations, taking into account the current global market's instability. Manufacturing in India is helping Apple stabilise its operations and effectively meet its ever-growing business demands. India has become a fertile ground for mobile manufacturing, with over 300 manufacturing units,⁸ capable of manufacturing mobile phones, including iPhones!

Foxconn

Following in Apple's footsteps, Foxconn, a major electronics manufacturer, is expanding its operations in India. The company is constructing three new manufacturing plants in southern India, including facilities near Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. Foxconn has also received clearance to build India's first semiconductor manufacturing unit in Uttar Pradesh in collaboration with HCL.¹⁰

Amazon

Amazon has invested nearly $11 billion in its India businesses over the last decade.¹¹ It is also one of the largest employers in India and is directly responsible for hiring over 100,000 people.¹²

Recently, Amazon's cloud division announced additional investments of $8.2 billion in Maharashtra in the next few years.¹³ This FDI (foreign direct investment) in India is driven by the demand for local data storage due to the rise of AI-driven technologies. Recently the company also announced to invest $233 million in 2025 to enhance Amazon India's operations infrastructure, improve associate safety and well-being programmes, and develop new tools and technology for its fulfilment network.¹⁴

Samsung

Samsung is among the leading multinational companies in India, working with utmost dedication to expand its manufacturing presence in the country's electronics industry. It has established two of the world's largest mobile manufacturing plants in India, one in Noida and the other in Chennai.¹⁵ According to reports, Samsung is seeking to enhance its manufacturing capabilities in India further and diversify away from Vietnam, which is facing increasing tariffs from the US.

NTT Data

NTT Data, a global cloud service provider, is one of the most prominent multinational companies in India in the tech sector., a next-generation All-Photonics Network (APN) technology that has been used to interconnect data centres in the Mumbai region, facilitating higher performance data transmission at lower costs. This will likely support India's AI mission, which aims to develop indigenous foundational models trained on local Indian data.¹⁶

Vinfast

VinFast LLC is a Vietnamese automotive manufacturer that is rapidly expanding its operations in India. The company has invested over $2 billion in recent years to establish an EV manufacturing plant in Thoothukudi,Tamil Nadu.¹⁷ It is also considering further expansion with additional plants in Andhra Pradesh, aiming to produce electric cars locally for the Indian market. As part of its strategy, in addition to manufacturing electric cars locally, the company will concentrate its sales efforts on tier 2 and tier 3 cities, where the demand for affordable EVs is increasing. Operations in India are expected to commence by late 2025.

Nissan/Renault

Nissan and Renault are among the top global companies investing in India. They plan to expand their operations by FY27 with a planned investment of over ₹5,300 crores.¹⁸ This investment is being utilised to devise a bold product development strategy that will introduce new automobiles for the Indian market and enhance their manufacturing capabilities in the country. The company's focus will remain on increasing its exports from India and expanding its presence in the local Indian automobile market.

Nestlé

Nestle has been a significant investor in the Indian market for decades. Nestlé is among the top companies expanding in India to meet local and international demand for food products. The Swiss company has allocated ₹4,200 crore to establish a new manufacturing plant in Odisha, aiming to strengthen its supply chain, by this year. Additionally, Nestle SA recently bought a stake in Drools, a pet food firm, turning it into India's latest unicorn.¹⁹

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India, currently the world's fifth-largest economy, is on track to become the third-largest economy by FY 2030-31.¹ The country has experienced a meteoric rise in global stature in recent years and continues to attract investors and entrepreneurs from around the globe.

1. Rapid economic growth

Several reports indicate that India’s economic growth and stability are poised to continue well into the future. With sectors such as manufacturing, construction and services expanding rapidly.

2. Private consumption growth

The growing middle class in India has been one of the key factors driving a considerable increase in private consumption, creating unprecedented economic opportunities. This surge in private consumption is transforming India’s economic landscape and establishing a broad consumer base for a wide range of goods and services.

3. Demographic dividend

India presents several demographic and market advantages that make it an attractive investment destination. One key advantage is its youthful population. As of 2024, nearly 65% of the country’s population is between the ages of 15 and 64, positioning India uniquely to leverage its substantial working-age demographic.⁶ With a median age of 28.4 years, India’s young population is expected to reach its highest proportion of the total population by 2036, making it increasingly appealing to global investors seeking expansion opportunities.⁷

4. Supportive government initiatives

The Government of India has implemented several initiatives and reforms to streamline processes, reduce regulatory hurdles and create an appealing ecosystem for foreign investments. Notable among these are:

1. Make in India
Launched in 2014, the Make in India⁸ programme intends to establish India as a worldwide manufacturing hub by providing simplified regulations, including tax reductions and subsidies, for establishing manufacturing plants for domestic and international manufacturers. It focuses on essential manufacturing sub-sectors such as defence, automobiles, biotechnology and electronics. The scheme has been instrumental in catalysing domestic production and technological innovation.

2. Digital India
The Digital India programme, launched in 2015, aims to build a digitally enabled economy by improving the internet infrastructure and connectivity across the nation.⁹ It promotes digital literacy, leading to a more tech-savvy workforce and customer base. India’s digital economy contributed 11.74% to the country’s GDP in 2022-23, amounting to $402 billion. The initiative remains crucial to India’s vision of building a Viksit Bharat by 2047.

3. Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme
PLI scheme was announced in 2020 to make domestic manufacturing globally competitive and to create domestic leaders in manufacturing. The scheme provides incentives — in 14 key sectors like electronics medical devices, pharma drugs, telecom, food products, automobiles and auto components, advance chemistry cell, textile etc. — to companies for increasing their manufacturing capabilities by spending on plant, machinery, equipment and associated utilities, R&D and transfer of technology. As of July 30, last year, 755 applications have been approved across these sectors, leading to an investment realisation of ₹1.23 lakh crore by March 2024.

5. Expanding industries

From cutting-edge technology to life-saving drugs and aerospace, India’s industrial ecosystem offers appealing opportunities for multinational companies looking to expand their operations. The services sector, manufacturing, automobiles and construction are traditionally the key sectors driving foreign direct investment in India. However, the IT & ITeS, electric mobility, FinTech, renewable energy and MedTech sectors are rewriting the new chapters in India’s growth story by propelling innovation and attracting investments.

6. Geographic location

Situated in the heart of Asia, India provides a gateway to a 3.2 billion consumer market, connecting supply chains across South Asia, Middle East and Africa. India is ideally positioned for investors seeking not only a large consumer base but also new supply chain routes and sourcing hubs.

7. Infrastructural advantages

India’s well-developed port, railway and road infrastructure offers distinct advantages to global investors seeking ready infrastructure. The nation has the world’s second-largest road network, fourth-largest rail network, third-largest domestic aviation market and a 7,500-kilometre coastline with 12 main and 200 non-major ports.¹⁰ Besides civic infrastructure, India’s ready industrial infrastructure, including 280 operational Special Economic Zones (SEZs)¹¹, is a big draw among investors. The PM Gati Shakti, Sagarmala Programme, Bharatmala Pariyojana, National Infrastructure Pipeline, Regional Connectivity Scheme (Udan) and India Industrial Land Bank are some of the key initiatives transforming India’s logistics and infrastructure.

8. Technological advancements

India’s rapid digital transformation has also revolutionised business operations. With over 900 million¹² internet users, India is the world’s second-largest online market. Growth in related sectors such as gaming, media and entertainment, e-commerce, fintech, education, MedTech and others are testament to the untapped potential of India’s digital economy. Moreover, the rising adoption of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is marking a digital payment revolution, asserting the nation’s adoption of technological advancements and its advantages for increased market access.

9. Export incentives

India also offers several export promotion schemes to encourage international trade and exports. The Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP), implemented in January 2021, attempts to repay taxes and tariffs incurred by exporters.¹³ Meanwhile, the Trade Infrastructure for Export (TIES)¹⁴ and the Market Access Initiatives (MAI)¹⁵ aim to boost exports and strengthen trade infrastructure. Promoting manufacturing in India, the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG)¹⁶ Scheme facilitates the import of capital goods to produce quality goods and services.

10. FDI Reforms

The government has implemented an investor-friendly FDI policy—allowing most sectors, except certain strategically important ones—to be open to 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) under the automatic route. FDI policy provisions have been progressively liberalised and simplified across various sectors such as pension, other financial services, asset reconstruction companies, broadcasting, pharmaceuticals, single brand retail trading, construction and development, power exchanges, e-commerce activities, coal mining, contract manufacturing, digital media and civil aviation. Recent reforms in the FDI policy have been undertaken in sectors, such as defence, insurance, petroleum and natural gas, telecom and space.

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India crossed a significant milestone in its economic growth story, with cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows crossing the $1 trillion mark since April 2000.¹ For FY'25, India recorded $40,672 million in FDI till December 2024², a 27% increase over the same period last year—a testimony to the continued global investor confidence in India's market potential.

1. Maharashtra

Maharashtra continued to be India's leading destination for FDI in FY'25, recording inflows worth $16,651 million during FY 2025 till December 2024.⁴ The state accounts for 31% of India's total FDI equity inflows. A consistent performer, Maharashtra's robust industrial infrastructure, investor-friendly policies and business-friendly environment make the state a frontrunner in the FDI league. It boasts dedicated sectoral facilities and availability of the highest employable workforce (70%).⁵ Championing the Make in India initiative, the state has a strong presence of global investors in sectors such as automobiles, defence manufacturing, textiles, IT-BPM and food processing.⁶

Learn more about investment opportunities in Maharashtra here.

2. Karnataka

Karnataka, a thriving technology and startup ecosystem, attracted $4,496 million in FDI equity inflows during FY 2025 till December 2024.⁷ Accounting for 20% of India's FDI quity inflow, the state has robust economic fundamentals, driven by strong economic growth, increased consumer demand, better governance and a business-friendly environment.⁸ Karnataka's growing appeal in sectors such as IT, services and telecom reinforces the state's position as a global investment hub. The state received FDI equity inflow from Mauritius with a 25% share, Singapore at 24% and the US at 10%.⁹

Learn more about investment opportunities in Karnataka here.

3. Gujarat

Gujarat, India's third highest FDI recipient, clocked an FDI equity inflow of $5,566 million during FY 2025 till December 2024.¹⁰ Gujarat presents every possible mechanism that facilitates investments and businesses, ranging from state-of-the-art industrial infrastructure to business-friendly government policies.¹¹ It accounts for ~31% of India's total merchandise exports in FY 2023-24. Textiles and apparel, ESDM, food processing, ports and shipping and IT-BPM are the key sectors driving investments in the state.¹² As India accelerates its trajectory towards becoming a global manufacturing and innovation hub, Gujarat is leading the charge, turning investment into impact and potential into performance.

Learn more about investment opportunities in Gujarat here.

4. Delhi

The National Capital Region, encompassing Delhi, continued to be a favourable destination for foreign investors with $4,453 million in FDI equity inflows during FY 2025 till December 2024.¹³ This inflow is not incidental but a result of a strategic blend of location, policy, infrastructure and innovation. Sectors such as manufacturing, IT-BPM, tourism and healthcare are the frontrunners in attracting investor interest.¹⁴ As India continues to draw the world's attention as a key investment destination, Delhi remains at the forefront, bridging global ambition with Indian opportunity.

Learn more about investment opportunities in Delhi here.

5. Tamil Nadu

As the fifth largest recipient, Tamil Nadu demonstrated a positive trend in attracting FDI. The state attracted $2,903 million in FDI equity inflows till December 2024.¹⁵ Among the major states, Tamil Nadu consistently ranks among the top three in the Credit-Deposit Ratio (CDR), reflecting its high economic activity. The state is also well-positioned to tackle climate challenges through its 2023-2030 action plan, which focuses on emissions reduction, sustainable agriculture and water management.¹⁶ The reasons mentioned above and Tamil Nadu's blend of economic resilience, progressive governance and sustainability-driven initiatives, place it at the forefront of India's FDI landscape. As global investors seek stability, innovation and long-term value, the state continues to stand out as a hub that offers all and more.

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The Power of Energy: How Your Human Aura Shapes and Influences Your Reality

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The Power of Energy: How Your Human Aura Shapes and Influences Your Reality

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1. Understanding the Human Aura:

The human aura is an electromagnetic field that surrounds and permeates the physical body. Composed of various layers, each corresponding to different aspects of our being, the aura is thought to reflect our emotions, thoughts, and overall state of well-being. This invisible force is dynamic, responding to internal and external stimuli.

2. Vibrational Frequencies and Colors:

Energy within the aura is often described in terms of vibrational frequencies and colors. Each color is associated with specific emotions, qualities, or states of consciousness. For instance, a vibrant blue may signify clarity and communication, while a warm, golden hue may represent spiritual awakening. Observing these colors can offer insights into our mental and emotional states.

3. Energetic Imprints and Emotional Residue:

The aura is believed to act as a repository of our experiences, emotions, and thoughts. Negative experiences or unprocessed emotions can leave energetic imprints, creating a residue that lingers in the aura. Awareness and intentional energy work can help cleanse and release these imprints, promoting emotional and spiritual well-being.

4. The Law of Attraction and the Aura:

According to the theory behind the law of attraction, like attracts like. In the realm of the aura, this principle takes on a tangible form. The energies we emit through our thoughts and emotions are believed to resonate with similar energies in the universe, influencing the circumstances and people that manifest in our lives.

5. Intuition and Energetic Sensitivity:

A vibrant and balanced aura is thought to enhance our intuitive abilities and energetic sensitivity. As we become more attuned to the subtle energies around us, we gain insights into the intentions and emotions of others. This heightened awareness can guide us in making informed decisions and navigating interpersonal dynamics.

6. Energetic Healing and Self-Care:

Understanding the power of the aura opens the door to various energy healing practices. Reiki, meditation, and crystal healing are among the modalities that aim to balance and cleanse the aura. Engaging in regular self-care practices contributes to the maintenance of a healthy and vibrant energy field.

7. Manifesting Positive Change:

By actively working on our aura and cultivating positive energies, we have the potential to influence the course of our lives. Manifesting positive change becomes a conscious process, aligning our energies with our aspirations and creating a harmonious flow between our inner and outer worlds.

8. Daily Practices for Aura Maintenance:

Incorporating daily practices such as meditation, visualization, and mindfulness can contribute to the well-being of your aura. Surrounding yourself with positive environments, engaging in activities that bring joy, and expressing gratitude are simple yet powerful ways to maintain a radiant energy field.

Conclusion:

In the symphony of existence, the human aura emerges as a silent conductor, orchestrating the energies that shape our reality. By delving into the realms of our energetic essence, we unlock the potential for self-discovery, healing, and the conscious creation of a reality that resonates with the highest vibrations of our being. Embrace the power of your aura, and witness the transformative impact it can have on the tapestry of your life.

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5 ways to live a life of passion and purpose

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5 ways to live a life of passion and purpose

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Finding your passion is a significant milestone in the self-discovery journey. By following these steps, you create a nurturing environment for your passion to flourish. When you make your passion a natural part of your daily life, it can contribute to living a life full of purpose, bringing you a profound sense of fulfillment.

1. Set aside time regularly to engage with your passion

Dedicate time in your schedule to engage with your passion. Being consistent with your passions nurtures their growth and cultivates a deeper bond between you and what you love doing.

2. Connect with like-minded individuals

Join communities or groups of people who share your passion. Engage in discussions, attend events, and share your experiences. Connecting with others can enrich your journey and provide different perspectives. A sense of belonging is also important for your mental health and can provide you with support if your motivation wanes.

3. Continue learning and growing

Be open to learning and expanding your knowledge about your passions. Read books, take courses, or attend workshops. Continuous learning allows your passion to thrive and evolve.

4. Share your passion with others

Share your passion with family, friends, or through social platforms. Expressing and sharing your enthusiasm can be fulfilling and may also inspire others.

5. Be patient and kind to yourself

Understand that nurturing a passion is a journey and takes time. It’s not a race to the finish line, as there is no end. Passions are ongoing. Be patient with your progress and kind to yourself along the way.

1. Engage in self-reflection

Reflect on your core values, strengths, and interests. Ask yourself what activities or topics spark your enthusiasm. Look at your existing hobbies and interests for clues. Think about what brings you joy. If you’re experiencing burnout, this can be difficult, so you might also need to discover the barriers to your growth, such as anxiety, depression, and overwhelm.

Journaling your thoughts can help you delve deeper into what matters to you so you can take the time to understand what makes you feel alive and why.

💙 Get the most out of what you’re taking in with The Power of Reflection led by Jay Shetty.

2. Experiment and explore

Explore different activities, topics, or fields that pique your interest. Don’t hesitate to step outside your comfort zone (it can be worth pushing through the anxiety). If you have enough free time, attend workshops, read books, and join clubs or community groups. If time is scarce, you could listen to relevant podcasts on your commute or watch instructional videos online in your break. This phase is about discovery and opening yourself up to new experiences (even if they’re just micro-experiences right now).

💙 Move past your boundaries and step outside of your Comfort Zone with this mindfulness practice to help you take the leap.

3. Embrace trial and error

Try out lots of activities to find what resonates with you. It’s okay if you don’t find the thing that clicks right away — the process of elimination is just as valuable in leading you to your passion.

Thoughts like “I’m not good enough,” or “I’m wasting my time,” will probably arise at this stage because our brains try to protect us from change. Mindfulness techniques can help you to recognize and dismantle the power of these negative thoughts, allowing you to explore passions with a clear and peaceful mind.

💙 Ditch the idea of Trying to Be Perfect and learn the art of embracing the moment with Jeff Warren.

4. Seek guidance from those who have specific passions

Connect with mentors, friends, or other people who inspire you. Seek their advice and learn from their experiences. This is more than just career advice. This is about working out what truly resonates with you. Engaging in discussions can provide new perspectives and may spark ideas that lead you closer to finding your passion.

💙 Learn why and how Community can change your life in this guided meditation with Tamara Levitt.

5. Be consistent in your commitment to your passion

Once you find a potential passion, commit to it. Dive deeper, learn, and grow within it. And keep trying, even when challenges arise. Your dedication to nurturing your passion will boost your self-esteem and overall wellbeing. Just remember to always prioritize your mental health and take breaks if you need them.

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Where all you need to have enthusiasm - In fact, I have yet to identify, one single positive outcome or desire or task – where you don't need enthusiasm.

Do you sometimes feel enthusiastic, motivated and energetic when you start something new, but after some time lose your enthusiasm and interest. Most of us would have experienced this phenomenon.

If you want to understand the definition of living life young forever, you only have to look at how to create zest and zeal for life's mundane.

Watch my video on YouTube "Impossible Achiever" of Dr. Bhagwati Oza, the 80+ years old who can show what enthusiasm and living life fully means.

You would have come across [or read about or can google to find] numerous people like her or those who have had worst of situations, misfortune, hardships, obstacles – still they accomplished mind-boggling feats and became example for generations to come.

You can have everything materialistic yet if you don't have enthusiasm for life, you are living dead.

When we are born, all of us are born with a large amount of enthusiasm, but in the way in our journey towards adulthood, we pick up many negative beliefs[which are only our interpretations and may not be the absolute truth] – which tells us why something can't be done or why to give-up* and what are possible and impossible etc.

We get burned-out, when our internal reserves of enthusiasm gets exhausted, and we do not consciously recharge it.

People with high levels of energy and enthusiasm often have a number of characteristics in common. They have sparkly eyes, their skin looks healthy, and they tend to smile a lot. There are also certain things they do, which help them to maintain their energy levels

Enthusiasm isn't just more fun, it's more attractive and more productive.

If you're dissatisfied with where you are right now and if You continue to do what you are doing – you will never get different results.

In my opinion, for the following aspects of your life you need enthusiasm, you can add any other areas where you need to have enthusiasm

1.As an employee [irrespective of whether you are a senior, junior or peer]
2.To you wake-up in the morning
3.As parent for parenting
4.As spouse [also for all your important relationships]
5.For your customers [also as a customer]
6.For your learning* and education
7.For building a really meaningful present and future
8.For overcoming odds, setbacks, failures*, hurts, mistakes, crises, shocks of life
9.For bouncing back*
10.For living a happy*, healthy* and successful*
11.Want to be a leader
12.Want to stand out and create legacy
13.Want to feel fulfilled, blissful and contended
14.Help others and make the world a better place for yourself as well as for others
15.Enjoying the journey of life, in spite of all the hard-knocks that life throws at you

Those who lack enthusiasm in any aspect of life, only go through the motion and many may do what needs to be done, but not with all their heart.

Having continuous supply of enthusiasm, needs disciplined practice and actions.

So how can you create enthusiasm - when you don't feel like being enthusiastic.

Tips for creating a self-propelling generator of enthusiasm - Putting the spark back into life

1.Learn from your past mistakes and change your approach
2.Learn from other's mistakes – this can only be done when you have had lots of failures and by experience you know the worth of learning from those, who are there where you want to be
3.Ask yourself these questions
4.Are you stuck in any part of life
5.Which areas of life you have given up or about to give up
6.Which areas of your life are working out well and where you are just dragging
7.Which are the things you want to do but yet to take action as been you are waiting for the right moment
8.What are the things you are not interested in, but still doing it
9.What are the things those are not working
10.What's missing which if present would make significant difference
11.Note How the above 7 points affecting you, What are you missing out on, What are your loved ones and the people who care about you are missing
12.Are you focusing your energies, time, efforts on challenges, worries, bad-luck OR you are taking action to get out of this whirlpool
13.What can you do to set yourself on a path, which is action-oriented and focused only on making things better rather than focus on what was wrong
14.What habits*, what discipline*, what skills*, what plan you need to create – in order to overcome the obstacles and steadily move towards your big picture
15.The scheduling and taking action, small actions everyday
16.Monitoring, tracking, improvising what does not work, till you get what you want or when your desired goals changes
17.Celebrating your milestones and successes
18.Exercise and get plenty of sleep. Be healthy. It takes energy to be enthusiastic. If you feel good about yourself in your health and your appearance, it's going to be a lot easier to be enthusiastic. So get enough sleep, eat well, and get your exercise in. Drink plenty of water
19.Surround yourself with enthusiastic people
20. Get rid of Toxic* & insecure* people and all those who bring you down ASAP
21.Devote 10 minutes a day to reading and thinking about the benefits of what you want to do or accomplish.
22. Every day, read about people who achieved success by being tenacious and persistence
23. Learn when to give up* and when to go on
24. Learn when your will power will not work*
25. Find a cause that fire you up
26. Share your vision with people who are your genuine well-wishers
27.Set audacious goals
28. Listen to motivational podcasts / audio program
29. Learn a new language and playing musical instrument
30. Focus on, work for and enjoy creating Excellence* in your life
31.Change your life* upside-down, purposefully
32. Changing your own appearance with a new haircut and some new clothes
33. Be Open to Opportunities, create your own opportunities*
34. Get your health checked-up, especially if you are feeling lack of energy
35. Manage your energies*
36. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH INSPIRATION, join new hobby clubs, professional forums
37.Mix with new culture people
38. Travel to newer places
39. Take challenging vacations – like going back-packing on very low budget and managing your expenses by doing any work that you can find in unknown places
40. Understanding the changes and trends and upskilling* yourself to be future ready and job-proof*
41.At times have a DO-NOTHING period
42. Declutter your house, your table, your wardrobe
43. Ask yourself - What Are Your Next Steps, When you're stuck, it's often because you haven't figured out what you need to do next. Try to work out a few next steps:
44. Find Who Can Help You, get yourself a mentor*
45. BE Authentically Yourself*
46. Learn to be humorous and practice witticism*
47.PLAY Outdoor sport Games
48. Be Grateful
49. Accept personal responsibility life so far and FUTURE
50. Devote few hours every week helping the underprivileged
51.Go deeper, learn more, expand your awareness about many things
52. Engage, Empower, and Enrich Your Employees
53. Create a Work Environment that Fosters Creativity and Innovation
54. Appreciate and Reward Your Employees
55.Focus on the Things that Inspire Your People
56. Be passionate*
57.Get out of victim-mode
58. Learn to Ask powerful questions*
59. Challenge your assumptions*
60. Learn to handle difficult* people
61.Learn to manage your stress*
62. Don't try to solve the entire world's problems at
63. Perform random acts of kindness*
64. Derive strength from your role models and mentors*
65. Take 30 minutes a day to do something you love
66. Get enough sleep
67.There's a prevalent notion in our "go-go-go" culture that sleep is for wimps. "You can
68. Meditate*
69. Learn to say no & be assertive*
70. Get over your fear by taking actions in your fear areas*
71.Try new things, experiment
72.Keep learning

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Zeal is a powerful force that drives individuals to pursue their dreams, live life to the fullest, and continuously seek new knowledge. This inner enthusiasm can be transformative, turning ordinary experiences into extraordinary journeys. Here’s a deeper look into how vigor can play a role in various aspects of life and why it’s essential to cultivate it.

The Power of Passion: Unleashing Enthusiasm and Passion in Everyday Life

Zeal is a powerful force that drives individuals to pursue their dreams, live life to the fullest, and continuously seek new knowledge. This inner enthusiasm can be transformative, turning ordinary experiences into extraordinary journeys.

Zeal to Chase Dreams

When someone has passion for chasing their dreams, they are filled with a relentless energy and determination. This type of zeal:

Inspires Action: It propels individuals to take steps toward their dreams, regardless of the obstacles in the way. Whether it’s starting a new business, writing a book, or traveling the world, zeal provides the fuel to keep moving forward.

Fosters Resilience: The road to achieving dreams can be challenging. Zeal helps people bounce back from setbacks and stay focused on the bigger picture, even when things get tough.

Encourages Creativity: With a zeal for chasing dreams, individuals are more likely to think outside the box and find innovative solutions to problems. This creativity is key to overcoming barriers and reaching new heights.

Fervor for Life

Having zeal for life means approaching each day with a sense of enthusiasm and a desire to make the most of every moment. This type of zeal:

Promotes Positivity: When you’re passionate about life, it radiates to those around you, creating a positive environment. This energy is infectious and can lead to stronger connections with others.

Boosts Well-Being: A zest for life often translates into healthier lifestyle choices, a greater sense of purpose, and improved mental health. It encourages people to engage in activities that bring joy and satisfaction.

Encourages Exploration: Zeal for life drives individuals to explore new experiences, whether it’s trying new foods, traveling to different places, or meeting new people. This sense of adventure enriches life and leads to personal growth.

Passion for Learning

Zeal for learning involves a genuine curiosity and passion for gaining knowledge. This type of zeal:

Facilitates Growth: A constant desire to learn fosters personal and professional development. It allows individuals to stay relevant in their careers and adapt to changing environments.

Improves Problem-Solving: When you’re enthusiastic about learning, you’re more likely to develop critical thinking skills and find effective solutions to complex problems.

Creates Opportunities: A zeal for learning opens doors to new opportunities, whether it’s career advancements, networking possibilities, or personal enrichment. It can lead to discovering new passions and interests.

How to Cultivate Zeal

If you’re looking to develop more zeal in your life, here are some steps you can take:

Identify Your Passions: Start by identifying what excites you. What are you passionate about? What activities or goals make you lose track of time?

Set Goals: Establish clear goals that align with your passions. This will give you a sense of direction and a reason to maintain your enthusiasm.

Surround Yourself with Positivity: Seek out positive influences, whether it’s supportive friends, inspirational books, or uplifting media. Being in a positive environment helps to maintain zeal.

Practice Gratitude: Reflecting on what you’re grateful for can boost your overall outlook on life, reinforcing your zeal for living.

Embrace Challenges: Instead of avoiding challenges, embrace them as opportunities for growth. The more you overcome, the more you’ll appreciate the journey.

Eagerness is a life skill that can lead to profound changes in your life. By fostering zeal in various areas, from chasing dreams to learning, you can create a more fulfilling and rewarding experience. Let zeal be the driving force that propels you toward your aspirations and makes every day an adventure.

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The Power of Zeal: Unleashing Enthusiasm and Passion in Everyday Life

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The Power of Zeal: Unleashing Enthusiasm and Passion in Everyday Life

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Zeal is a powerful force that drives individuals to pursue their dreams, live life to the fullest, and continuously seek new knowledge. This inner enthusiasm can be transformative, turning ordinary experiences into extraordinary journeys. Here’s a deeper look into how vigor can play a role in various aspects of life and why it’s essential to cultivate it.

The Power of Passion: Unleashing Enthusiasm and Passion in Everyday Life

Zeal is a powerful force that drives individuals to pursue their dreams, live life to the fullest, and continuously seek new knowledge. This inner enthusiasm can be transformative, turning ordinary experiences into extraordinary journeys.

Zeal to Chase Dreams

When someone has passion for chasing their dreams, they are filled with a relentless energy and determination. This type of zeal:

Inspires Action: It propels individuals to take steps toward their dreams, regardless of the obstacles in the way. Whether it’s starting a new business, writing a book, or traveling the world, zeal provides the fuel to keep moving forward.

Fosters Resilience: The road to achieving dreams can be challenging. Zeal helps people bounce back from setbacks and stay focused on the bigger picture, even when things get tough.

Encourages Creativity: With a zeal for chasing dreams, individuals are more likely to think outside the box and find innovative solutions to problems. This creativity is key to overcoming barriers and reaching new heights.

Fervor for Life

Having zeal for life means approaching each day with a sense of enthusiasm and a desire to make the most of every moment. This type of zeal:

Promotes Positivity: When you’re passionate about life, it radiates to those around you, creating a positive environment. This energy is infectious and can lead to stronger connections with others.

Boosts Well-Being: A zest for life often translates into healthier lifestyle choices, a greater sense of purpose, and improved mental health. It encourages people to engage in activities that bring joy and satisfaction.

Encourages Exploration: Zeal for life drives individuals to explore new experiences, whether it’s trying new foods, traveling to different places, or meeting new people. This sense of adventure enriches life and leads to personal growth.

Passion for Learning

Zeal for learning involves a genuine curiosity and passion for gaining knowledge. This type of zeal:

Facilitates Growth: A constant desire to learn fosters personal and professional development. It allows individuals to stay relevant in their careers and adapt to changing environments.

Improves Problem-Solving: When you’re enthusiastic about learning, you’re more likely to develop critical thinking skills and find effective solutions to complex problems.

Creates Opportunities: A zeal for learning opens doors to new opportunities, whether it’s career advancements, networking possibilities, or personal enrichment. It can lead to discovering new passions and interests.

How to Cultivate Zeal

If you’re looking to develop more zeal in your life, here are some steps you can take:

Identify Your Passions: Start by identifying what excites you. What are you passionate about? What activities or goals make you lose track of time?

Set Goals: Establish clear goals that align with your passions. This will give you a sense of direction and a reason to maintain your enthusiasm.

Surround Yourself with Positivity: Seek out positive influences, whether it’s supportive friends, inspirational books, or uplifting media. Being in a positive environment helps to maintain zeal.

Practice Gratitude: Reflecting on what you’re grateful for can boost your overall outlook on life, reinforcing your zeal for living.

Embrace Challenges: Instead of avoiding challenges, embrace them as opportunities for growth. The more you overcome, the more you’ll appreciate the journey.

Eagerness is a life skill that can lead to profound changes in your life. By fostering zeal in various areas, from chasing dreams to learning, you can create a more fulfilling and rewarding experience. Let zeal be the driving force that propels you toward your aspirations and makes every day an adventure.

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We don’t know what we don’t know, but with help that can change. Feedback is key to learning. Growth occurs when someone offers a perspective that causes a person to reconsider his or her current stance. The impact of high-quality assessments is partially lost unless feedback is targeted and timely so that the information received is purposeful to the individual’s needs. The same principle applies for students. Here are some ideas on ensuring great returns on formative assessments.

Be Constructive, Kind, and Specific

What if during a professional evaluation, a supervisor spent the entire meeting discussing the problems in performance? How would the employee likely feel? Answer: diminished and lacking confidence in his or her capabilities. This is how students feel when they are only told about their errors. Soon they will likely tune out of the conversation and miss what’s needed.

When receiving constructive feedback, learners need to know what they did well and whether their understanding is on target. Recognizing what’s working reinforces those practices. Too often the inclination is to focus only on what’s missing or underdeveloped. These concerns do need to be addressed, but receiving the message is just as important as delivering it.

Start with what’s working: This is a much kinder approach because individuals feel that their efforts are productive and their time is well spent. They become more receptive to dialogue about what skills and concepts are missing. Word choice is important to feedback. Consider using these starter stems to frame coaching students on giving constructive feedback:

I like...

I notice...

I wonder...

What if...?

Kindness doesn’t mean avoiding critique: Ask, “What kinds of details—facts, examples, or illustrations—would help your reader better understand your position?” That’s more helpful than saying, “You need to show more effort in your writing if you want readers to value your position.” How we phrase feedback impacts how it’s received.

Relevant feedback makes the most sense: Specificity of feedback helps the person understand its relevance. Focusing on the specific kinds of details that will be most helpful illuminates a clear direction. Vague feedback leaves behind confusion and resentment.

Combining these three components—constructiveness, kindness, and specificity—helps establish a strong working relationship between those giving and receiving feedback.

Reflections, Then Revisions

A common concern expressed by teachers is that when students are given back assignments they’ve handed in, they don’t look at the comments. We need to teach them how to reflect on feedback. For years, students are conditioned to look for a grade as the only value of a returned assignment. This tends to occur when no time for thoughtful reflection is provided. Consider taking five to 10 minutes to have students review comments through a think-pair-reflect activity, or using guiding questions or thinking maps for students to review and reflect on feedback.

One teacher passes back assignments with no grades, just comments. Students reflect on the feedback. The grade is provided later. Reflection in small groups, alone, or with the teacher helps students find areas to replicate what they know and address areas that are missing what’s needed.

Revision opportunities lead to learning once reflection occurs with sufficient time. The act of making changes after reflection gives students the chance to re-evaluate what they now understand. If we break the cycle of accepting assignments without requiring revisions, students will develop a new culture for practice. First drafts are rough caricatures of achievement. True learning results from reflections, then revisions.

Next-Day Service

Feedback should be within 24 to 48 hours. This idea seems overwhelming for a teacher who sees 150 to 200 students in a day. But if students wait too long for feedback, they risk losing the context for the valued learning of the work. Strive to attain this response time as a goal, not a policy. With diligence, successes will happen when students need them most.

feedback doesn’t have to come solely from the teacher. For example, there could be informal conversations or peer reflections. Technology supports feedback via discussion boards, comments, and videoconferences. Formal feedback needs to be strategically used for greatest impact. Stagger assignments to give yourself manageable, daily portions of student work for review. For greater learning impact, if the turnaround response time is longer than 48 hours, consider rethinking the assessment or narrowing the focus of the outcome.

In The 47th Samurai, Stephen Hunter writes, “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” This point  about skill building is wisdom for building a culture that shifts students’ value of feedback. Incorporating these elements take patience and time both in practice and buy-in. Start slow if you feel that need. For many grade levels, teachers must undo a mindset that’s become well established from years of being a student whose first draft is the final draft. Undoing this mindset and that of the posted grade as the only valuable data means providing the rationale for the power of feedback and committing the time for powerful feedback experiences.

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Feedback is an essential aspect of any professional relationship. It is a means of communication that helps individuals or organizations to improve their performance, correct their mistakes, and achieve their goals. Feedback can be given in different forms, such as positive or negative, written or oral, formal or informal, and timely or delayed. Timely feedback is critical as it helps ensure corrective action can be taken quickly, leading to improved performance and better outcomes. In this Leadership Brief, we will explore the importance of timely feedback and provide some tips on delivering it effectively.

Understanding the importance of timely feedback

Timely feedback is critical in any professional relationship because it helps individuals or organizations to take corrective measures quickly. When feedback is given promptly, it is easier to identify and address the issues before they become significant problems. Timely feedback also helps to build trust and credibility between the giver and the receiver. When feedback is given promptly, the receiver understands that the giver is invested in their success and is committed to helping them achieve their goals.

In addition to the above, timely feedback helps individuals stay motivated and engaged. When feedback is given promptly, it provides individuals with a sense of direction and purpose. They understand what they need to do to improve their performance, which helps them stay focused and motivated. Giving feedback promptly gives individuals a clear understanding of what is expected of them, which can help prevent misunderstandings and conflicts.

The benefits of providing timely feedback

Providing timely feedback has several benefits. First, it helps to improve performance. When feedback is given promptly, individuals can take corrective measures quickly, leading to improved performance.

Second, prompt feedback ensures the receiver understands that the giver is invested in their success, which helps build trust and credibility.

Third, it gives individuals a clear understanding of what is expected of them, which can help prevent misunderstandings and conflicts.

Fourth, it helps to motivate and engage individuals. When feedback is given promptly, it provides individuals with a sense of direction and purpose. They understand what they need to do to improve their performance, which helps them stay focused and motivated. Fifth, it helps to promote learning and development. When feedback is given promptly, individuals can learn from their mistakes and develop their skills and knowledge.

Conclusion

Timely feedback is essential for growth and development in any professional relationship. Providing feedback can be challenging, but it doesn't have to be. By using strategies for effective feedback delivery, tips for providing constructive feedback, and best practices for giving feedback to different types of recipients, individuals can provide timely, constructive, and supportive feedback. By providing timely feedback, individuals can improve their performance, build trust and credibility, prevent misunderstandings and conflicts, motivate and engage individuals, and promote learning and development.

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Products, technologies, and workplaces change so quickly today that everyone is continually learning. Many of us are also teaching, even when it's not in our job descriptions. Whether it's giving a presentation, writing documentation, or creating a website or blog, we need and want to share our knowledge with other people. But if you've ever fallen asleep over a boring textbook, or fast-forwarded through a tedious e-learning exercise, you know that creating a great learning experience is harder than it seems.

InDesign For How People Learn, Second Edition, you'll discover how to use the key principles behind learning, memory, and attention to create materials that enable your audience to both gain and retain the knowledge and skills you're sharing. Updated to cover new insights and research into how we learn and remember, this new edition includes new techniques for using social media for learning as well as two brand new chapters on designing for habit and best practices for evaluating learning, such as how and when to use tests. Using accessible visual metaphors and concrete methods and examples,Design For How People Learn, Second Editionwill teach you how to leverage the fundamental concepts of instructional design both to improve your own learning and to engage your audience.

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Sprout Labs, Robin Petterd

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Think Like a Marketer with Bianca Baumann and Mike Taylor

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Podcast · Sprout Labs, Robin Petterd · Listen to the Learning While Working podcast to hear how learning and development is transforming. The episodes are interviews with leading thinkers in learning. Common themes on the podcast include trends in eLearning and digital learning, performance driven instructional and learning design and learning data. Each podcast is packed with ideas, tips and insights about how to make learning at work succeed.

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Reasons Employees Should Attend Seminars and Other Trainings Written in News,Workplace

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Reasons Employees Should Attend Seminars and Other Trainings Written in News,Workplace

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1. Sharpen Existing Skills

Maybe you already know how to do your job, and maybe you do it well. But what if there were aspects of your job that could be made easier, and you just didn’t realize it? Oftentimes, an outsider looking in on your work world can see things you overlook. Being open to input from outside sources always leads to new ways of seeing things, even when you’ve been following the same routine for several years.

For example, if you work in sales, wouldn’t it be nice if landing sales came a little bit easier? There are multiple ways to sharpen your sales skills, and as times change and technology advances, so do the strategies you should employ. If you were to continue using the knowledge you have today, the same knowledge you gained during your first week of work when you were training and shadowing other employees, and you didn’t take time to build on that knowledge each year, it wouldn’t take long before you were falling behind and those that were receiving fresh trainings were outperforming you.

Attending training and conferences allows you to see new ways of performing the same task. Not only does it benefit you in the workplace, but you could gain a new perspective to carry with you in every aspect of your life.

2. Learn New Skills

Training is great for sharpening existing skills, but they can also introduce you to new skills. If your workplace acquires a new type of machinery or employs a new software and you aren’t familiar with it and don’t know how to use it, are you going to figure it out on your own? Surprisingly, many people would. But, just as getting to a new destination without a map could take you all over the country, attempting to know a new tool without instructions could eat up valuable time and you still won’t know the right path. Formal training gives you an overview of everything the new tool is capable of doing.

Learning new skills makes your value as an employee greater. There’s a bonus that comes with training that offers new skills. They often also offer a certification.

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3. Increased Productivity

Maybe you don’t care about increased productivity, because after all, it’s not your business. However, maybe you should. When you become a part of the reason productivity is increased, you also become indispensable. Good output gets you recognized by everyone in the company. It can also get you bonuses.

The best way to increase your productivity is to continually sharpen your skill set. Training offers you ways to increase your focus, better time management, and workplace safety. Grab every training opportunity that is offered to you. In time, you’ll be a well-oiled machine the company couldn’t afford to operate without.

4. Increased Work Quality

Training not only increases your productivity, they increase your quality of work. That’s because when you attend training you’re gaining all kinds of tools to perform your job better. Training as simple as how to deal with difficult people are capable of improving the quality of your work, because if you can deal with difficult people, you won’t overheat and become distracted when a co-worker offends you. Efficiency may be important, but quality tops the list when it comes to employee performance.

When employees attend training, they don’t just improve their own work performance. Whether they know it or not, they bring the knowledge they have gained back to the workplace and share it with their co-workers.

5. Resume Building

The training you attend develops you professionally. Over time, you’re going to have skills that make you an asset to other companies as well. Remember that certification you received for learning how to operate that new piece of equipment? You can now add it to your resume.

Workshops and training you attend, whether they come with a certification or not, look good on your resume. They show employers you are willing to learn new skills and apply them. Even something as simple as workplace harassment can give your resume value. Not only did you attend the training, but you took it serious enough that you included it on your resume.

6. Advancement and Compensation

For every training you attend, you should make sure a copy of your completion certificate finds its way into your employee file. When your annual review comes up, your manager will have to take notice of all your accomplishments over the past year as well as the time you’ve been with the company.

Even if you have a college degree, you should still attend training. Though your degree has served you well, your college courses don’t fully prepare you for every nuance of the job you’re performing today.

Trainings is your opportunity to start thinking ahead. They prepare you for career advancement. Be sure to attend seminars and training that prepare you for leadership and management roles. Not only do these look good in your employee file, they will actually prepare you for how to effectively handle new situations you might not otherwise have been prepared to handle.

Your manager or a manager from another department will also want to review your file when considering you for positions of career advancement. Your training could be the deciding factor between you and another employee who opted out of training.

7. Employee Retention

When your employer invests in your career goals and objectives, it increases your satisfaction in the workplace. That’s because you feel valued enough that you’re worth the investment. That investment includes time off work to attend that training, as well as cost of the training. Employers offer these opportunities and invest in them because they yield a high return.

The next time a training is offered and you’re tempted to pass it up, think again. Training isn’t a waste, but not attending is a wasted opportunity. Think of training as your doorway to boundless opportunities. It offers career progression, job satisfaction, knowledge to make tasks easier, and knowledge that can be applied to all avenues of your life. As outlined above, when you sharpen your existing skills, or develop new ones, your value as an employee strengthens. If you’re thinking of your career as long term, then mix in some supervisory training as well. Learning new skills never hurt anyone. Not learning them certainly held many people back. The only thing training is costing you is time, but even your employer has you covered there.

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Lessons from Pandharpur Wari for Every Business Leader

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Lessons from Pandharpur Wari for Every Business Leader

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🌿 A Pilgrimage Beyond Limits 🌿

This past week, I completed the Wari to Pandharpur, a journey of 120 kilometers walked over four days alongside my wife, from Miraj to the revered town of Pandharpur. Beginning on November 6, 2024, and culminating with darshan on November 9, the experience was beyond anything I could have imagined. The journey tested physical endurance, mental resilience, and, most profoundly, spiritual faith.

For me, this was no ordinary walk; it was a lesson in discipline, strategic planning, and resilience—concepts central not only to a pilgrimage but to leadership and business as well. I had found out only earlier this year that I had heart blockages, and after undergoing two surgeries, the question loomed: was I fit enough for this physically and mentally demanding journey? Instead of letting fear answer, I turned to strategy and preparation.

Preparing for the Journey: A Lesson in Strategic Thinking

To evaluate my readiness, I created a plan. First, I undertook a 21-day fasting regimen, adjusting my body to the rigors of limited sustenance, much like a business lean period that tests operational strength. I followed this by incorporating a week of running, training my stamina incrementally, akin to stress-testing in business to ensure operational resilience.

This experience taught me a valuable lesson: every goal, whether personal or professional, demands preparation. Leaders, before embarking on ambitious projects, must strategize, evaluate their resources, and make calculated moves.

1. Discipline and Resilience: The Cornerstones of Success

Walking 120 kilometers in four days was not easy. Every step felt like a small victory. It’s easy to relate this with the journey of entrepreneurship and leadership—moments of exhaustion, moments of doubt, and, above all, moments of perseverance. In business, challenges often test our limits, demanding resilience and unyielding discipline. Those who succeed are those who persist, trusting the process and staying the course.

In every organization, discipline in execution and resilience in overcoming obstacles can be the difference between a dream realized and a plan left incomplete. When leaders embody these qualities, they inspire their teams to press on, even when the path seems long and challenging.

2. Faith and Vision: Walking with Purpose

The pilgrimage was more than just a physical journey; it was a journey of faith, much like the vision every leader must carry. Just as each Varkari (pilgrim) walks with a singular purpose, leaders must have an unwavering belief in their vision. Faith, whether spiritual or strategic, is essential—it keeps us moving forward, grounded in purpose and unshaken by obstacles.

Just as I walked with my heart and soul toward Pandharpur, every business leader must walk with conviction toward their vision, inspiring their teams to embrace and support that purpose.

3. Community and Support: No Journey is Made Alone

The Wari to Pandharpur isn’t a solitary journey. Thousands of pilgrims walk together, sharing stories, supporting each other, and uplifting one another when the going gets tough. This reminded me of how essential community is in business. Whether through mentorship, partnerships, or simply the camaraderie of a dedicated team, our journeys are fueled by the support of others.

As leaders, it’s vital to remember that we achieve our greatest successes not alone but with the collective strength of those around us. Community isn’t just a support system; it’s an integral part of achieving any vision.

4. Strategic Preparation: The Foundation of Success

I wouldn’t have undertaken this pilgrimage without a plan, given my recent heart surgeries. To prepare, I monitored my health, fasting for three weeks and testing my stamina through a running regimen. This was my way of ensuring I was ready, both physically and mentally. In business, too, success isn’t achieved by chance but through strategic planning and incremental steps that test readiness for future challenges.

By focusing on small, consistent actions, I created a foundation that allowed me to complete the journey. Likewise, businesses should focus on steady, incremental progress to build momentum and prepare for larger objectives.

Grateful Beyond Words

Reflecting on the journey, I’m filled with gratitude for every moment, every blessing, and every person who was part of this experience. To those who followed along and shared words of encouragement on social media—thank you. Your support made every step feel lighter. This pilgrimage reinforced an essential truth: no journey, personal or professional, is made alone.

As leaders, may we continue to walk forward with resilience, purpose, and the strength of community, knowing that with preparation and belief, any journey is possible.

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This week I witnessed perhaps the world’s largest and oldest pilgrimage; that begins from Alandi with a forward journey of 250km on foot till Pandharpur over a period of 11 days. Today it has more than 3 lakh warkaris (‘wari’ means pilgrimage, and ‘Kari’ is the one who undertakes it) Though we didn’t even accompany them 1/15 th of the journey we where astounded by the management which I found noteworthy to share on a corporate level.

Focus on one common goal: People from various walks of life, castes and socio-economic backgrounds participate in the Wari, with the common goal to reach Pandharpur. There is no other expectation, perks or benefits in return. In fact, it teaches one the journey is equally important and not just the destination. So focus on the process of work, enjoy the challenges of the assignment and not on the outcome (don’t think how much money or recognition it would get)

No hierarchy: Participants should lose their individual identities, egos, their positions in society and just experience the positivity energy generated by this unbiased ‘unity’. This equality and humanity for all rejecting discrimination, strengthens personality and deciphers the true purpose of life.

Co-ordination & team building : I am sure the true warkaris don’t even know these corporate jargons, but right from the time management of which group leaves at what time to the synchronization of abhangs (hymns) with co-ordinated dance steps and the accelerating rhythm and pace is something that onlookers behold in awe.

Sequence and Fleet management: Each route has approximately 200 Dindis (sub groups) with 400-500 trucks. With the main palkhi (palanquins) at the center of the procession, each group have an ascribed number and sequence position which is strictly followed. Each group have a truck where their luggage and food material is kept. These trucks need to quietly exit at the break of dawn…and yes again a designated sequence without GPRS and no whatsapp groups. Also the dindi management ensure that tents, food is ready before their respective group arrives at the location.

Start work early, embed a good discipline: Early to bed and early to rise, seems to be the secret energy formula for them. Every morning a Tutari (small trumpet) is blown thrice to alert all. At the first signal, all Warkaris get ready to leave. At the second signal, the dindis stand in the queue as per designated sequence and at the third signal, the procession begins. Lesson taught: By, punctuality and starting your day early you will realize you can achieve 50% of your targeted work.

Minimalism: Less is more and travel light is something all affirm by. The less baggage- emotional and materialistic means less worry and less backache. Its wonderful to see these simple people just carry 2-3changes in a bag and enroute spread out their sarees to dry.

Take a power nap: Its said you can judge a man by his sleep how rich he is. Truly I feel envious as we dragged our tired feet and see warkaris having a blissful cat nap under the shade of a tree, to get up rejuvenated and catch up with the rest of the journey or task.

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Leadership Lessons from the Pandharpur Wari: A Spiritual Journey of Unity and Devotion

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Leadership Lessons from the Pandharpur Wari: A Spiritual Journey of Unity and Devotion

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The Pandharpur Wari is an annual pilgrimage in Maharashtra, India. It’s a 700+ year old tradition, where millions of devotees embark on a long journey, walking several hundred kilometers to reach the town of Pandharpur. This spiritual gathering not only demonstrates immense faith but also imparts valuable leadership lessons. The Wari is a testament to unity, devotion, and the power of selfless service. Here are some key leadership lessons we can learn from this extraordinary event:

Vision and Purpose:

The Wari is driven by a clear vision and purpose: to seek blessings and express devotion to Lord Vitthal. Similarly, effective leaders establish a compelling vision for their teams or organizations, providing a sense of direction and purpose that motivates others to work towards a common goal.

Inclusive Leadership:

The Wari transcends barriers of caste, creed, and social status, bringing people from diverse backgrounds together. It exemplifies the power of inclusive leadership, where leaders embrace and respect differences, creating an environment where everyone feels valued and included.

Servant Leadership:

During the Wari, devotees engage in selfless service by providing food, water, and shelter to fellow pilgrims. This act of servitude highlights the importance of servant leadership, where leaders prioritize the needs of their team members and actively support their growth and well-being.

Resilience and Perseverance:

Covering long distances on foot, enduring physical hardships, and facing adverse weather conditions, the Wari demands tremendous resilience and perseverance. Leaders must possess these qualities to navigate challenges, overcome setbacks, and inspire others to keep pushing forward, even in difficult times.

Teamwork and Collaboration:

The Wari is a collective endeavor that relies on teamwork and collaboration. Devotees work together to ensure the smooth functioning of the pilgrimage, from organizing logistics to supporting fellow participants. Leaders should foster a culture of collaboration, encouraging teamwork and leveraging the strengths of each team member to achieve shared objectives.

Trust and Faith:

The Wari exemplifies trust and faith in the divine. Leaders must cultivate trust among their team members, empowering them to make decisions and take risks. Trust strengthens relationships and encourages open communication, enabling teams to overcome challenges and achieve remarkable results.

Emotional Intelligence:

The Wari is an emotionally charged event, evoking deep feelings of devotion, unity, and compassion. Leaders with high emotional intelligence understand and manage their own emotions while empathizing with others. They create an environment where individuals feel supported, valued, and motivated to give their best.

Continuous Learning and Improvement:

The Wari provides an opportunity for personal reflection and introspection. Similarly, effective leaders are lifelong learners, constantly seeking ways to grow, adapt, and improve their leadership skills. They encourage a culture of learning within their teams, fostering innovation and embracing change.

In conclusion, the Pandharpur Wari serves as a profound source of inspiration for leadership. It teaches us valuable lessons about vision, inclusivity, servant leadership, resilience, teamwork, trust, emotional intelligence, and continuous learning. By embracing these principles, leaders can create an environment where individuals thrive, and organizations achieve extraordinary success. As we reflect on the Wari's teachings, let us strive to become better leaders, making a positive impact on the lives of those we lead.

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STANISLAS LAJUGIE explains how we can cultivate the habit of happiness, even though our nervous system is wired for negativity. He gives us 3 simple steps to cultivate a happier disposition.

Let me ask this question: 10 things happened to you today – 9 good, one bad. Which one do you remember and share with your family members once you are back home? The bad one, right?

Negativity sticks to the brain, while positivity flows like water through the brain. Hence, happiness may not always be natural or easy to cultivate. We need to learn to take in the good! You can watch this video by Dr. Rick Hanson to learn more about this.

40% Margin of Happiness

Sonja Lyubomirksy, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Riverside, defined happiness as “the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile.”¹

She conducted a meta-analysis of over 200 studies on the effects of happiness, and observed that happy people have stronger health, longer life, and better careers; plus they are more creative, have stronger relationships, and even have healthier cultures and communities.

If happiness is so beneficial, she wondered why we are not excelling in it! In her article, “Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change,”² she found that:

50% of happiness comes from our genetic baseline, i.e. how predisposed we are to happiness. This is related to biological and personality traits which do not change much through life. We cannot do much about them.

Only 10% comes from external factors, e.g. our health, bank account, relationships, new phone or tablet, new boss, etc. That surprisingly low percentage is due to the phenomenon of habituation. We tend to revert to our happiness baseline, whether an important good or bad event happens to us. For instance, if you win the lottery, you will tend to come back to the same level of happiness after one year.

40% comes from intentional activity, i.e. our choices. Thus, the quality of our mindset is responsible for 40% of our happiness. This is actually where we can contribute to a happy life.

Whether or not we were lucky enough to have a positive joyful childhood,
we can all learn how to bring about positive deep inner transformation.

While most people spend the majority of their time improving their material life, which is accountable for only 10% of happiness, we have a 40%margin of happiness that is dependent on our choices.

We cannot take happiness for granted! Happiness is intentional, effortful, and trainable. How can we develop this mindset and cultivate the habit of happiness?

Learn to Take in the Good

Dr. Rick Hanson explains that the brain has the natural tendency to retain negative experiences and forget positive ones as a survival mechanism. Therefore simple positive thinking strategies are not the answer.

Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change its structure and functioning due to its activities. Positive neuroplasticity consists in intentionally engaging in those activities that develop positive changes of the brain. In short, we need to learn to take in the good!

In his book, Hardwiring Happiness,³ Hanson suggests 3 steps to ensure long-lasting transformation and to learn to take in the good:

Pause: take distance from negative information.
Focus: on positive experience and let in positive feelings.
Absorb: savor the experience by feeling the thoughts, emotions and sensations associated with the positive experience.

The longer that experience is held in awareness, and the more emotionally stimulating it is, the more neurons wire-in those pathways. By letting the moments spread across the emotional and mind-body system, small shifts are created, and overtime this weaves positive experiences into the fabric of the brain.

This is exactly what we are doing in the Heartfulness practices. We meditate on the heart, and this trains the brain to absorb positive feelings and experiences associated with the heart – love, compassion, care, kindness, appreciation, harmony, patience, courage, and many more qualities that support happiness.

We may only have a 40% margin of happiness, so let’s take up that opportunity. We can cultivate the habit of happiness.

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How to Be Happy: 12 Habits to Add to Your Routine

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How to Be Happy: 12 Habits to Add to Your Routine

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Daily habits

The following daily habits may help you achieve more happiness in your life.

1. Exercise

Exercise isn’t just for your body. Regular exercise can help balance brain chemicals involved in stress, anxiety, and depression while boosting happiness and life satisfaction.

The trick is to avoid overexerting yourself. If you suddenly engage in a strenuous routine, you may just end up frustrated (and sore).

You can start small, such as a walk around the block or 5 minutes of stretching. In time, you’ll notice the added benefits and may want to step it up a gear.

2. Get plenty of sleep

Most adults need at least 7 hoursTrusted Source of sleep every night. If you find yourself fighting the urge to nap during the day or just generally feel like you’re in a fog, your body may be telling you it needs more rest.

No matter how much our modern society steers us toward less sleep, we know that adequate sleep is vitalTrusted Source to good health, brain function, and emotional well-being.

Learn some tips to help you sleep better.

3. Practice gratitude

Simply being grateful can give your mood a big boost, among other benefits.

They don’t always need to be big things.

For example, it could be something small, such as a co-worker offering you a cup of coffee or a neighbor who waved to you. It could even just be the warmth of the sun on your skin.

Over time, you’ll find yourself noticing more and more positive things.

Weekly habits

The following tips include weekly habits that may help you feel happier.

4. Declutter

Decluttering sounds like a big project, but setting aside just 20 minutes a week can have a big impact.

Set a timer on your phone and tidy up a specific area of one room — say, your closet or that out-of-control junk drawer. Put everything in its place and toss or give away any extra clutter that’s not serving you anymore.

Keep a designated box for giveaways to make things a little easier (and avoid creating more clutter).

You can use this trick anytime you feel like your space is getting out of control.

5. See friends

Humans are largely considered social beings, and it’s generally thought that having social relationships can make us happy.

In adulthood, it can feel next to impossible to make new friends. But it’s not about how many friends you have. It’s about having meaningful relationships — even if it’s just with one or two people.

If you don’t know where to start, you could try getting involved in a local volunteer group or taking a class. Both can help connect you with like-minded people in your area. And it’s likely they’re looking for friends, too.

6. Get into nature

Spending 30 minutes or more a week in green spaces can help boost your mood.

Your green space could be anything, such as your neighborhood park, your own backyard, or a rooftop garden — anywhere you can appreciate and enjoy nature and fresh air.

Better yet, add some outdoor exercise into the mix for extra benefit. The same aforementioned study found that people who spent time in green spaces were also more likely to exercise more frequently and for longer each time.

Monthly habits

You might want to give these monthly habits to improve your happiness a try.

7. Give back

Some people find that giving back to the community can help boost their mood.

Maybe that’s helping out at a food bank on the third weekend of every month or offering to watch your friend’s kids one night per month.

If that isn’t something you have time for currently, you can always try giving small compliments to people to spread the joy. People often feel benefits from small acts of kindness.

8. Take yourself out

No one to go out with? Well, what rule says you can’t go out alone?

Consider going to your favorite restaurant, watching a movie, or taking that trip you’ve always wanted to take.

Even if you’re a social butterfly, spending some deliberate time alone can help you reconnect with the activities that truly make you happy.

9. Create a thought list

You arrive for an appointment with 10 minutes to spare. What do you do with that time? Pick up your cellphone to scroll through social media? Worry about the busy week you have ahead of you?

Trying to take control of your thoughts during these brief windows of time can offer benefits.

You might try making a short list of happy memories or things you’re looking forward to on a small piece of paper or on your phone.

Yearly habits

Try following habits once a year or more to reflect and plan for happiness.

10. Take time to reflect

While the start of a new year is a good time to stop and take inventory of your life, you can set up yearly habits at any point in the year. Try setting aside some time to catch up with yourself the way you would with an old friend:

How are you doing?

What have you been up to?

Are you happier than you were a year ago?

But try to avoid judging yourself too harshly for your answers. You’ve made it to another year, and that’s a reason to celebrate.

11. Reevaluate your goals

People change, so try thinking about where you’re heading and consider if that’s still where you want to go. There’s no shame in changing your plans.

Let go of any goals that no longer serve you, even if they sound nice on paper.

12. Take care of your body

You’ve likely heard this before, but your physical and mental health are closely intertwined.

As you build habits to improve your happiness, it’s important to follow up with routine appointments to help take care of your body, such as:

seeing a primary care physician for an annual physical

seeing a dentist for an oral cleaning and dental exam, and follow-up as recommended

getting your vision checked

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Happiness has become a mainstream concept these days. Does happiness hinge on meeting society’s expectations? How often do superficial trappings such as social status, physical appearance, and financial success determine happiness? We’ve often heard the old adage, “Money can’t buy happiness,” but do only the wealthy come to that conclusion? For a person stuck in poverty, money could offer happiness in the form of a well-fed belly and a roof over their head. And consider social media. The number of Instagram followers and “retweets” electrifies the young and propels them to seek spotlight as their source of happiness, while the older generations look on in bemusement. So, who gets to decide what it means to be happy?

Over the past couple of years, as I took stock of the pandemic that brought the modern world to its knees and left people in isolation, I reached the conclusion that the power to create happiness lies within me. Within you. Within each of us. That might seem obvious, but upon further reflection, very few of us actually utilize the power we wield. As I struggled to make sense of the tragedies occurring around the world and in my own personal sphere, happiness seemed both a distant memory and an unlikely future. Realizing that I needed an outlet, I sought therapy and spent the Covid lockdown trying to navigate my troubled past and conquer my fears about the future, with the hope that I might learn to live fully in the present.

Because of the decision to focus on well-being, I developed a heightened sense of self-awareness, which led me to understand more about the source of happiness. All too often, we either look to others to define our happiness or hold them responsible for it. I realized that as long as I continue to blame my parents for my lifelong anxieties or expect my spouse to provide the cure for my discontent, I will never achieve true happiness. I began to contemplate what “happy” meant to me.

Before long, I could admit that happiness meant more than just my roles as a mother and a spouse, and that I had never felt entirely fulfilled in my career as a lawyer. I wanted more. I wanted to live life on my terms for the first time, not on everyone else’s. Happiness wasn’t just about the big-ticket items, but trickled down to the details, like how much sleep I was getting each night, and how much time I was allotting for simple acts of self-care. “Happy” now seemed attainable, and I felt transformed. That transformation manifested visibly to my family and friends, much to their wonder and awe.

If it’s so obvious that the way to happiness rests at our own feet, then why do we not exercise our autonomy? With everyone so interconnected through technology, the pressure of conforming places an enormous burden on the choices that we make. We’re so busy taking cues from everyone else that we don’t take the time to stop and reflect on what we need. Many of us hide behind fears of rejection, failure, and ostracization. And when we find ourselves disappointed or thwarted, it’s far easier to point fingers at others and deflect responsibility.

A recent interaction with my eldest son, a high school senior, comes to mind. His teenage self has been a force to be reckoned with over the past couple of years. One day he stormed into my room, frustrated and angry about the restrictions on his screen time during the school year. Insisting that no other parents exerted that kind of control, he declared that we were making his life miserable. At first, I tried to reason with him, explaining that his oversleeping and lax attitude about his homework had resulted in those restrictions. I assured him that all parents want their children to thrive in school and that we were hardly the exceptions.

When my words fell on deaf ears, I waited until his anger was spent. Then, I told him that while we had his best interest at heart, he alone could decide whether to stay mired in his frustrations or alter the landscape. Eager to give him the benefit of what I had started to embrace, I told him that he could continue to complain and remain miserable or figure out a way to be happy. Calling attention to his desire for freedom, I hinted that he could show his maturity by acting more responsibly, earning the right to manage his time without supervision. I’m happy to say that he went on to do just that, with some stumbles along the way, ultimately resulting in a happier kid and happier parents.

This leads me to another observation – cultivating happiness inevitably fosters a happy environment and leads to healthier relationships with family, friends, and colleagues.

In essence, we forget that what makes us human is our beautifully complex brain and the ability to reason and think for ourselves. Happiness is so very individual and cannot be designed by anyone else. Creating our own happiness takes courage. It requires an unshakeable commitment to stay true to ourselves, and a fierce determination to follow through with our passions, regardless of the outcome and in the face of adversity. Happiness demands that we place self-worth and well-being as priorities in our life so that we be authentic. Whether we live more than one lifetime or not remains a mystery, so with that uncertainty we would do well to remember another old saying, “Life isn’t a dress rehearsal.” Choose to be happy now and be the architect of your own happiness. You are in the driver’s seat.

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science-approved ways to achieve your new year’s resolution

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science-approved ways to achieve your new year’s resolution

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1. Dream big, but be realistic

When setting your goals, you need to walk the tightrope between big ambitions and what’s actually possible.

According to Harvard research, dream too big, and you risk disappointment and fatigue, dream too small, and you will never push your boundaries.

2. Reflect on what you did, or didn’t achieve, in 2021

It’s no coincidence that a lot of people have the same resolutions on repeat. Common things like; losing weight, getting fit, starting a business, quitting smoking or saving more money. While there’s nothing necessarily wrong with these pursuits, they can be repetitive and vague.

Instead, consider reflecting on the year that was to personalise the year ahead. As 2021 was another tumultuous twelve months, there are lots to reflect on.

3. Understand the motivation behind your goals

Even if it’s not responsive to last year, understanding the reasoning behind your goals is key.

When the going gets tough as you work towards your resolution, it’s not the work ahead of you that will keep you motivated. It’s the payoff at the end.

When you’re establishing your goals for 2022, think about why you want them. This can stop you falling into that common trap of reaching for a goal that doesn’t align with your personal values.

Say your goal is to save $10,000. Why? Is it for a deposit for a property to make a home in? Is it to go towards your dream wedding? Is it for the motorbike you’ve always wanted?

Know your why, and you can reach for it when you feel like giving up.

4. Write down your goals

“People who write down their goals feel a greater sense of accountability and have a much higher chance of accomplishing them,” psychologist Elizabeth Ward told Self.

It’s one of the oldest tricks in the (note)book, but making a note of your goals is essential. It’s annoying but true; If you don’t write down your goals from the get-go, you’ll likely have forgotten them within a few days.

5. Keep your goals and motivations visible

As the old saying goes – out of sight, out of mind.

We’re all guilty of writing down our goals with every intention of ticking them off one by one. But what about after the new years’ refresh wears off. More than once, I’ve found the note of my goals months later, gathering dust.

Writing down your goals is one thing, but where you display your goals also matters. Home offices are the perfect place to put them on the wall in a highly visible spot. Display them in an obvious place, and use colours or big letters so that they consistently catch your attention.

As a wise person (me) once said;

“a note of a goal gathering dust is as good as a goal itself gathering dust.”

6. Make it fun

When we are trying to achieve our goals, we can sometimes summon a sort of ‘punishment’ mentality.

Getting fit is a good example. We might decide that we want to exercise more, and hours on the treadmill or stationary bike is the easiest way to do that. Well, it might be the simplest approach, but it’s also probably the most boring, and you’ll most likely disengage pretty quickly.

Instead, you should take the time to look for something that you actually enjoy doing. Whether it’s salsa dancing or a pilates class, rock climbing or ocean swimming – finding something you genuinely enjoy will make it more achievable.

Remember, just because it’s the end goal that you want to achieve, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the path to it.

7. Assist others with their goals

Just as someone will be a great accountability partner to you, playing the same role for someone else will help you stay inspired.

Being there for others not only makes us feel great and forge wonderful relationships, it can galvanise us to carry on down our own path. Either talk to your own accountability partner about returning the favour, or help someone else pay it forward. Who doesn’t love sharing success?

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Dear Staff,

Welcome back everyone! We hope you had a wonderful and refreshing vacation. While we’re happy you took a break, we’re even more pleased to have you back.

As we step into a new academic year, let's bring that renewed enthusiasm and motivation to everything we do. We're truly looking forward to a productive and fruitful year ahead, filled with growth, learning, and success.

Here's to a great start!

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10 Mistakes To Avoid When Returning to Work After Vacation

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10 Mistakes To Avoid When Returning to Work After Vacation

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What is re-entry anxiety?

Before going back to work after a vacation, you may experience anxious thoughts, worries, sleep problems, headaches, and more. All of these symptoms are very common. Some call this state re-entry anxiety or stress, others — post-vacation blues, and even post-vacation depression.

Why do you feel this way? The abrupt change of routine and having to go back to a stricter set of tasks instead of doing whatever you want make returning to work stressful. 31% of people dread catching up on administrative tasks, 27% find busy work overwhelming, and 26% feel especially anxious about unread emails and messages.

But there are other reasons as well. Some may feel unsatisfied with their vacation and regret going back without a proper reset. Others don’t want to return to an unwelcome work environment.

Mistake 1: Leaving in a hurry

Were you so excited about a vacation that you shut your laptop closed without planning a return? Well, that’s one reason why coming back may not be smooth. On your first day, you may need to tackle new tasks, remember where exactly you left off, and try to tie up some loose ends.

If you still can, plan your return beforehand.

Mistake 2: Making a harsh transition

When we do leave on vacation, we all want to make the most out of what we got. If you travel, you may even want to postpone heading home till the last moment. But being in mid-air 8 hours before your work starts isn’t such a great idea.

In fact, you should give your mind and body time to recover.

Mistake 3: Settling right into your previous routine

During your vacation, you enjoyed waking up early. But when you return home and go back to work, you get up 5 minutes before the morning call just like you used to do before? Well, one of the most insidious mistakes you can make is to ignore your vacation experience and follow your habitual routine without a change.

Vacations are so much more than just periods of rest. They can help you reflect on your life, try something new, and learn more about yourself. It all goes to waste if you don’t put what you discovered into practice.

In fact, we are especially susceptible to trying things differently when we return from a vacation. And who knows, maybe a different routine is exactly what you need!

Mistake 4: Losing yourself

It’s possible that your vacation changed you in more ways than you expected. So coming back to the office, your coworkers wouldn’t even recognize you. But being on this side of the spectrum isn’t good either.

Try sticking to the middle: don’t neglect everything you’ve learned and experienced during the vacation but don’t forget what your life at home is as well.

Mistake 5: Staying in your shell

Did you update your Slack status to “Leave me alone” as soon as you’re back to work? Closing yourself off and trying to navigate the changes in your workplace alone isn’t a good idea. If you want to ease into work and quickly learn what’s new — simply talk to your colleagues! You will learn the latest news and also make the day go by faster.

Mistake 6: Just winging it

So, you open your laptop on the first day back. You check your inbox and start tackling tasks in the order that they arrived, or maybe even in no particular order, just whatever catches your eye first. Right? Wrong!

If you start working right away, without understanding everything that needs to be done, you risk losing time and not coming around to the most important tasks. Instead, take time to assess tasks that piled up while you were gone and prioritize them.

Mistake 7: Tackling everything on your first day

So you made a to-do list, and it’s probably quite lengthy. What’s the next logical step?

If you think it’s trying to fit everything into the first day, you’re wrong. You probably won’t finish everything in one day. And even if you do, you risk running yourself dry. That means you will get overwhelmed and tired quicker and start the next day without a smile on your face, to say the least.

Mistake 8: Turning into a couch potato

During your vacation, you climbed every mountain, forded every stream, and followed every rainbow? No wonder you don’t want to get off the bed!

But after resting for a couple of days, you should really go outside or spend some time exercising. Trust us, it will improve your health and well-being!

Mistake 9: Having tunnel vision

When you return from vacation, it’s tempting to ignore everything except the tasks you have at hand. It might be a good initial strategy, but it can also create tunnel vision and even lead to messaging and communication mistakes. For example, you might mention something that has become irrelevant or create unintentional associations with an event you were unaware of.

Mistake 10: Walking in someone else’s flip-flops

Following advice is good and all, but taking it at face value isn’t going to help you much. Some things just aren’t for you, and before stepping into someone else’s shoes (or post-vacation flip-flops), reflect on your needs, values, and desires.

Some people prefer to forget about work entirely on vacation or even give a digital or dopamine detox a go. But it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Some members of the Selzy team don’t unplug from work, so they never have to truly go back from a vacation.

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1. Only keep the things you need

2. Organize your office based on practicality

3. Sort by “keep,” “recycle/trash,” and “belongs elsewhere”

4. Get your cables under control

5. Digitize your notes and documents

6. Develop stronger organizational habits

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As we approach the end of our academic year, today marks our final Friday Forum for the 2024-2025 session.

Throughout the year, we've shared various training updates, insights, and articles through this platform, aiming to connect with each of you and keep you informed. We believe that as a team, we've been able to reach you through these Friday Forums.

We extend our sincere gratitude to everyone for your engagement and for making the Friday Forum a successful initiative. Your readership and participation have been invaluable.

We will be taking a break from the Friday Forum now and look forward to relaunching it in the new academic year 2025-2026 with fresh themes and engaging articles.

We would also love to hear from you! Please feel free to suggest topics or themes you would be interested in reading about in the next academic year. Your feedback will help us tailor the Friday Forum to your interests and needs.

As you all prepare for your well-deserved summer vacation, we wish you a truly amazing and rejuvenating break. May this time bring you joy, relaxation, and renewed enthusiasm for the upcoming academic year 2025-2026.

Thank you once again for being a part of the Friday Forum. We look forward to connecting with you again in the new academic year!

Warmly,

TEAM QAG

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Trainings Conducted in the year 2024-2025

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Trainings Conducted in the year 2024-2025

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Chami Murmu: Padma Shri Triumph of the Tribal Warrior Championing Mother Nature

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Chami Murmu: Padma Shri Triumph of the Tribal Warrior Championing Mother Nature

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Chami Murmu, an inspiring Indian environmentalist, has earned the well-deserved title of "Tribal Warrior" after dedicating her life to protecting the environment and uplifting the status of rural women.

With her extraordinary achievements, she has become a symbol of hope and strength, inspiring millions of individuals across the country. In 2024, her hard work and determination were recognized when she was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri. 🏅

Chami Murmu's story is a powerful example of how a single individual can drive significant change. Let’s take a closer look at her journey, the hurdles she overcame, and the impressive environmental contributions she made, all while empowering women and transforming her community. 🌱

🔹 A Humble Beginning: The Making of a Green Crusader 🔹

Born in 1973 in Bagraisai village, Rajnagar block, Seraikela Kharsawan district, Jharkhand, Chami’s early life was marked by hardship.

After losing her father and elder brother at a young age, she became the primary caretaker for her three younger siblings and her ailing mother. Forced to leave school after completing the 10th grade, Chami worked as a laborer to support her family. Despite these challenges, she never lost sight of her dreams. 💪

Her life would take a pivotal turn in 1988, when a life-changing encounter sparked her passion for environmental conservation. This meeting introduced her to the significance of tree planting and protecting the natural resources of her region. Determined to make a difference, Chami set out on a mission to rejuvenate the green cover of Jharkhand. 🌳

🔹 A Vision for a Greener Future: Sahayogi Mahila Bagraisai 🔹

In 1996, Chami founded Sahayogi Mahila Bagraisai, a women-led organization dedicated to environmental preservation and women’s empowerment.

What started with just 11 members soon grew into a robust group of over 3,000 active participants. Their mission? To plant trees, conserve water, promote organic farming, and most importantly, uplift the rural women of Jharkhand. 🚺🌿

But Chami's path wasn’t smooth sailing. She faced stiff resistance from male community members who didn’t initially support her tree-planting efforts.

She also battled the notorious timber mafia, which posed a serious threat to the success of her mission. However, her determination and passion drove her forward. In the face of opposition, Chami and her team persisted, and slowly but surely, they started seeing the fruits of their labor. 🌱

🔹 Overcoming Challenges: A True Tribal Warrior 🔹

Chami’s fight for the environment wasn’t just about planting trees; it was about empowering the people of her community.

She believed in the strength of collective action and knew that it would take a united effort to restore the green cover of Jharkhand.

Her work with self-help groups, especially focusing on empowering women, became a cornerstone of her activism. She provided women with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to take control of their futures. 💚

Despite facing countless hurdles, Chami’s resolve never wavered. She continued her work with an unwavering belief in her cause, eventually transforming her community from one of environmental degradation to one of hope and sustainability.

Her group has planted more than 3 million trees across over 500 villages in Jharkhand, ensuring that future generations will benefit from her hard work. 🌍🌳

🔹 The Recognition: Padma Shri and Beyond 🔹

In recognition of her groundbreaking work, Chami Murmu was awarded the Padma Shri in 2024, one of India’s highest civilian honors. This recognition was a testament to the significant impact she has made not only in Jharkhand but across India.

Her tireless efforts have been acknowledged at both national and international levels, with numerous awards such as the Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra Award in 1996 and the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2019. 🏆

Chami’s life story is a powerful example of what one person, with a vision and determination, can achieve.

From a poor village girl to a nationally recognized environmental activist, she has demonstrated that true warriors don’t fight battles with weapons, but with passion, perseverance, and an unwavering belief in their mission. 💪🌍

🔹 Impact Beyond Trees: A Legacy of Women Empowerment 🔹

Chami Murmu’s contribution goes beyond just planting trees. Through her organization, Sahayogi Mahila Bagraisai, she has empowered over 30,000 women through self-help groups, giving them the tools to improve their lives and their communities.

By teaching them about organic farming, water conservation, and environmental protection, Chami has not only helped save the environment but has also uplifted countless women in rural Jharkhand. 🌱

Her work has created a ripple effect, inspiring others to follow in her footsteps. Chami’s dedication to environmental activism and women’s empowerment has sparked a movement that continues to grow. She has shown that when women are empowered, entire communities can be transformed. 👩‍🌾💚

🔹 The "Lady Tarzan" of Jharkhand: A Role Model for Future Generations 🔹

Chami Murmu has been aptly called the "Lady Tarzan of Jharkhand" for her extraordinary achievements in environmental conservation. Alongside fellow activist Jamuna Tudu, Chami’s story serves as a powerful reminder of the transformative power of passion, perseverance, and love for the planet. 🌍

Her work has left a lasting legacy not only in Jharkhand but across India. As a woman who has fought against the odds, empowered countless others, and made a profound impact on the environment, Chami Murmu is truly a role model for future generations. Her story will continue to inspire individuals to take action and make a difference in the world around them. 💪🌳

🌿 Join the Green Revolution: What We Can Learn from Chami Murmu 🌿

Chami Murmu’s journey proves that no matter how humble your beginnings, with dedication and a passion for change, you can leave an indelible mark on the world.

Her life teaches us that environmental conservation isn’t just about planting trees—it's about fostering a sense of community, empowering others, and creating a sustainable future for generations to come. 🌱

Let Chami Murmu's incredible journey inspire you to take action in your own life. Whether it’s planting a tree, empowering others, or simply spreading awareness, we all have a part to play in protecting Mother Nature. Together, we can create a better, greener world. 🌍💚

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 Meet “Eco-Baba,” India’s River-Cleaning Environmental Hero

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 Meet “Eco-Baba,” India’s River-Cleaning Environmental Hero

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Meet Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal. He’s the man, the myth, the legend--or most commonly known as, “Eco-Baba” in India for his environmental conservation efforts.

His project to rejuvenate of the Kali Bein river is more than an amateur environmentalist stunt.

Almost 100 miles long, the Kali Bein river is a tributary of Beas in Doaba region of Punjab. It was filled with waste materials that reduced it to a small drain a decade ago. The river water dried up in several places and the water became alarmingly scarce.

The river poses both an environmental and economic crisis for farmers and the people of Punjab.

In 2000, without the help of government, Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal set out on a mission to clean the Kali Bein river. He knew he couldn’t do it alone. He wanted to teach the importance and benefits of protecting and cleaning the river water to others so he gathered a large number of volunteers.

Taking nearly a decade, Sant Balbir Seechewal and his trusty team of volunteers cleared the hyacinth and silt out, restoring the river’s normal flow of clean water. They also planted trees and made an effort to beautify the area.

The team did not stop at the Kali Bein river, they proceeded to restore river banks all over.

Through this simple restoration, the water problems in the Doaba area of Punjab were solved. The project that was once a man’s wish, turned into an incredible economical and environmental success.

Hearing of his efforts, the local government collaborated with Sant Balbir in creating a low-cost sewage model. The underground sewerage system model stores sewage waters in ponds and treats it in a natural way for usage in agriculture and irrigation. Around 50 villages have benefited in using the Seechewal model and farmers have been able to participate in organic farming because of it.

The Eco Baba was even approached by the Central Government to help clean the Ganges River, a river that poses an even larger environmental and economic risk because it flows through many rural areas and is historically very important to a wide range of communities.

Sant Balbir has also worked with the global community in the fight to eliminate extreme poverty, ignorance, superstition, and work towards a world with true gender equality. He has established schools, technical centres and degree colleges, where advanced and technical education is provided at a very low cost to the girls and those experiencing poverty.

Other than being known as the “Eco Baba”, Time magazine crowned Sant Balbir as a “Hero of Environment”, claiming him as the only Indian and the only Asian to get this honor.

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Meet the 8-Year-Old Climate Activist Cleaning Up India

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Meet the 8-Year-Old Climate Activist Cleaning Up India

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Licypriya Kangujam is the 8-year-old Indian climate activist taking the world by storm.

As the founder of the Child Movement and one of the youngest climate activists to date, Kangujam is known for calling on world leaders and global organizations to take immediate action to combat climate change.

She first began her activism two years ago at the age of 6. She started out by urging the Indian government to change its climate policies to help curb the amount of air pollution in the country.

After attending the Asian Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction in July 2018, Kangujam knew she wanted to get more involved in climate change activism.

Since then, she has founded an organization, traveled to 32 countries, attended her first parliament strike, and called on world leaders to take direct action on climate change at the 2019 United Nations Climate Conference (COP25) in Madrid.

She has also advocated to include climate lessons in school curriculums, which will be implemented in schools in Rajasthan and Gujarat at the start of the next academic year.

Kangujam’s main areas of focus are climate justice and climate education, and she has a list of demands for her government that must be fulfilled to achieve those goals. She also wants fossil fuel and carbon emissions to be regulated.

"This will bring transparency and accountability to our leaders. This will benefit people, especially millions of poor people in the country," Kangujam told Global Citizen.

She wants every student in India to plant a total of 10 trees each upon passing their final exams. With around 350 million students in the country, doing so would result in the planting of 3.5 billion new trees every year.

"All the above ... policies are possible," she said. "This can help to fight climate change and also change the system of the world. This can go a long way."

As a youth activist, Kangujam has had to take some extra steps to make sure that her voice is heard.

Social media, particularly Twitter, has placed an important role in amplifying her voice and ensuring that her message is spread to world leaders and other activists across the globe. The UN has also given her a platform to raise her concerns about the future of the planet.

In doing so, she has been able to meet with political leaders to discuss various climate issues plaguing India, like air pollution and its links to poor health and illness.

"I’m pressuring the government to ensure the health of every child in India. I will continue to put more pressure on our world leaders," Kangujam said. "The future is the children. The world needs to make a better planet for us. Our leaders need to act now before it’s too late."

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This 105-Year-Old Woman Has Planted Hundreds of Trees in India

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This 105-Year-Old Woman Has Planted Hundreds of Trees in India

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When life doesn’t give you children, plant hundreds of trees and save the planet. At least that’s what Saalumarada Thimmakka, a poor woman living in an arid region of southern India, did after she was unable to conceive a child with her husband more than 70 years ago.

Thimmakka, now 105-years-old, began her environmental crusade during World War II and has not showed many signs of slowing down. She’s responsible for single-handedly planting and tending to an estimated 300-400 Banyan trees — and her environmental activism has gone a long way toward sparking large-scale change in India.

According to the Saalumarada Thimmakka International Foundation, Thimmakka grew up in Gubbi, a small, rural area in southern India. Because her town did not have proper educational facilities, she began working as a coolie (an unskilled laborer) at age 10, and eventually married into another poor family.

After 25 years of trying unsuccessfully to conceive a child with her husband, Sri Bikkala Chikkayya, Thimmakka found a different way to bring life into the world. She began to plant trees, hundreds of them, in rows that stretched on for about four kilometers.

Despite the fact that an estimated 15% of couples worldwide are affected by infertility, according to the World Health Organization, many women who are unable to bear a child face discrimination and stigmas throughout their lives on account of a natural occurrence they are unable to influence.

Luckily for Thimmakka, her husband was supportive of her desire to plant trees, and faithfully helped her in her endeavor until he passed away in 1991.

Though fame was not what she sought by planting trees, she became a bit of a legend in India and throughout the world, winning at least 50 awards for environmentalism and receiving international press coverage for her work.

“As the trees she planted grew in height, her stature as well as a legend has grown,” Al Jazeera wrote in 2013.

Thimmakka herself is no longer planting trees, but her protege and foster son Umesh B N, is now the president of the Saalumarada Thimmakka International Foundation, which was founded in 2014 in her honor.

Along with focusing on preserving the environment, it serves as an educational resource for poor Indians, provides poverty-relief programs, and even aims to establish a maternity hospital in the region.

Thimmakka’s environmental activism falls in line with the direction the country of 1.25 billion people has headed in recent years. India has placed a renewed focus on environmentalism, formally signing on to the Paris Agreement in October of last year, and pledging that at least 40% of its energy will come from renewable sources by 2030.

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The Global Financial Crisis: Opportunities for Change

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The Global Financial Crisis: Opportunities for Change

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The global financial crisis has implications that go far beyond the financial and economic sectors. Below are nine thoughts in an attempt to see the opportunities in what currently looks like a pretty grim picture.

Thought 1: The West is in trouble and has become a potential source of instability for the world.

During the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, the West’s political leadership has been squandered. But now the economic fundamentals of the Western way of life are also being squandered. This is serious. Barack Obama’s election will reestablish the credibility of the United States in the world but it will not reverse the trend of decline. The challenge ahead is to manage a peaceful decline of the West while rescuing as many of the West’s liberal political and economic values as possible. This will only work if the multipolar world is accepted as a reality and as an opportunity for a new style of global cooperation and governance.

Thought 2: The troubles of the West are contagious.

Even in decline, the West will weather the financial crisis and a recession better than emerging and developing countries. It can be hoped that solid democracies should be better equipped to deal with economic instability. But how will Russia and China behave in a recession? Despite systemic differences, there is no room for complacency if Russia, China, and other emerging economies suffer economically, as instability there will have huge political (and economic) repercussions for the West. Economically stable times are usually better for settling differences.

Thought 3: Leverage requires sound and credible resources.

The world is still celebrating the Obama revolution in the U.S. But the hard times ahead will require hard decisions from the new U.S. president. He has a large bank of goodwill from people around the world and he should use this credit wisely and responsibly. The financial crisis has also taught a useful lesson: in international politics, it is possible to leverage support and resources successfully only if your resources are sound and credible; for example, leveraging support from others on human rights and democracy only works if your own house is in order. Otherwise, playing with other people’s credit can and will backfire.

Thought 4: Global issues have to come to a boiling point before global action is taken.

But if they boil over and a global interdependent system is close to a standstill, global leaders can and do act. Who would have thought that trillions of euros would be found within a matter of weeks to deal with the global financial crisis? This should be a lesson for other global issues such as climate change and poverty. How much would the recommendations in Nicholas Stern’s review of climate change cost to implement? How many G8 summits were spent talking about “making poverty history,” without the required follow-through? The question is whether we will have to come to boiling (or drowning) point before such dramatic government action will be taken on climate change and poverty reduction. On climate change, global leaders cannot afford to wait until the system comes to a standstill, because it will then—even with all the money in the world—be too late to get it going again.

Thought 5: Globalization is here to stay.

We are interdependent, no question. Naomi Klein’s No Logo was fun; “No Lehman Brothers” is the hard reality of globalization. On the opportunities side, the attempts of major countries to work together shows that hardcore globalization can force global government action. Will history books mark the collapse of Lehman Brothers as the start of building a 21st century global-governance system?

Thought 6: Global governance has made a comeback.

A new opening for global governance in the 21st century has emerged, and it is created by awareness that “it’s the economy, stupid.” We need new global governance which can both manage the ascent of China, India, Russia, Brazil as well as the relative decline of the United States and Europe. Europe and the U.S. must concentrate on shaping this new global governance and enshrine its progressive values within it, while they still have some power to do so.

Thought 7: The early European Union: a model for 21st century global governance.

The EU started as a coal-and-steel community, not as the value community of today. While the architects of the EU had a value-driven vision of Europe in mind, they started pragmatically with coal and steel. This can be a lesson for global governance. Can we rebuild global governance based on global financial governance and then move ahead in ways that echo the EU’s evolution? Could this be an example for building a global open society? This would certainly be in line with the EU’s founding father Jean Monnet, who thought that “the community we have created is not an end in itself. The community itself is only a stage on the way to the organized world of tomorrow.” The conclusions of the EU financial summit of 7 November 2008 are a step—albeit timid—in this direction.

Thought 8: Yes we can create a new energy revolution.

While we are still in the midst of the financial crisis, global leaders are already turning to the fast approaching recession in the real economy. After major bailout packages for the banks, major economic stimulus packages are now in preparation. This is the right approach. But these packages should be targeted and used to stimulate the new, renewable-energy growth sector and help to initiate an energy revolution which creates sustainable growth now and in the future. The trillions of euros which will likely be spent on fighting the global recession should be spent on fighting climate change at the same time. It’s a question of efficiency and forward thinking. And it combines the urgent with the important. The European Union’s structural funds model, based on EU co-funding of up to 80 percent, can be used to disburse the EU’s new energy-stimulation package, making it attractive also for east-central European member-states to join the new energy revolution.

Thought 9: A tightening of funds in the development and nonprofit sector makes reforms essential.

Development money will be scarce, at the least in the short term. This will apply to governments’ development aid but also the nonprofit sector in general. The outcome may be a consolidation in this sector—but also lots of broken promises. However, rather than competing for scarce resources, the development community should use the crunch in development aid to assess approaches and structures, to reform in a way that allows letting go of ineffective models. Competition for creativity should result in doing things better with less. Undoubtedly there are many more sophisticated angles to the global financial crisis. The importance is to understand the crisis as an opportunity which should not be wasted.

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Global growth is projected at 3.3 percent both in 2025 and 2026, below the historical (2000–19) average of 3.7 percent. The forecast for 2025 is broadly unchanged from that in the October 2024 World Economic Outlook (WEO), primarily on account of an upward revision in the United States offsetting downward revisions in other major economies. Global headline inflation is expected to decline to 4.2 percent in 2025 and to 3.5 percent in 2026, converging back to target earlier in advanced economies than in emerging market and developing economies.

Medium-term risks to the baseline are tilted to the downside, while the near-term outlook is characterized by divergent risks. Upside risks could lift already-robust growth in the United States in the short run, whereas risks in other countries are on the downside amid elevated policy uncertainty. Policy-generated disruptions to the ongoing disinflation process could interrupt the pivot to easing monetary policy, with implications for fiscal sustainability and financial stability. Managing these risks requires a keen policy focus on balancing trade-offs between inflation and real activity, rebuilding buffers, and lifting medium-term growth prospects through stepped-up structural reforms as well as stronger multilateral rules and cooperation.

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Bitcoin was born out of the 2008 financial crisis, will die in the 2025 crisis, says Peter Schiff

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Bitcoin was born out of the 2008 financial crisis, will die in the 2025 crisis, says Peter Schiff

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Renowned gold advocate and Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff has reignited debate around the future of cryptocurrencies, claiming that the very crisis that birthed Bitcoin in 2008 may lead to its downfall in 2025.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Schiff wrote, “Bitcoin was born out of the financial crisis of 2008. Ironically, the financial crisis of 2025 will kill it.”

Schiff's assertion comes as Bitcoin experiences significant volatility amid escalating global trade tensions. Recently, the U.S. imposed a 145% tariff on Chinese imports, prompting retaliatory measures from China. This escalation has led to concerns about global economic growth and increased market volatility.

Bitcoin's price has reflected this uncertainty. After reaching an all-time high of over $100,000 in January 2025, it has since declined by approximately 27%, trading around $75,000 as of April 10. This downturn has also impacted crypto-related stocks, with companies like Coinbase and MicroStrategy experiencing notable losses.

In response to the economic instability, President Donald Trump announced a 90-day suspension of additional tariffs on many countries, aiming to ease market tensions. This move provided temporary relief, with Bitcoin briefly rebounding above $82,000. However, the broader concerns about the global economy persist.

Schiff has also criticized the U.S. government's recent decision to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. He argues that this move is ill-timed, especially as the value of Bitcoin held in the reserve has declined by over 12% since its inception in March 2025. Schiff suggests that investing in gold would have been a more prudent choice, noting that gold prices have seen modest gains during the same period.

While Schiff's predictions are contentious, they underscore the ongoing debate about Bitcoin's role in the global financial system, especially during periods of economic stress. As markets continue to grapple with uncertainty, the cryptocurrency's performance in the coming months will be closely watched by investors and critics alike.

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"The Art of Being Indispensable at Work" by Bruce Tulgan

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"The Art of Being Indispensable at Work" by Bruce Tulgan

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What it’s about:

Bruce Tulgan's book is a guide to thriving in the modern workplace by becoming indispensable. Tulgan provides actionable insights on how individuals can contribute value, stay relevant, and stand out in their professional roles.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

It can help you learn practical strategies for adding tangible value to your role, making yourself indispensable in the workplace.

It can help you gain insights on staying agile and relevant in a rapidly changing work environment, enhancing your professional longevity and success.

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"The Art of Being Indispensable at Work" by Bruce Tulgan

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The Happiness Advantage: the 7 Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work" by Shawn Anchor

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The Happiness Advantage: the 7 Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work" by Shawn Anchor

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What it’s about:

Conventional wisdom ties success to happiness: the more successful we are, the happier we’ll be. In this book, Harvard lecturer Shawn Anchor explores the possibility that happiness fuels success. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work. He outlines seven actionable principles that lead to success, backed by research in psychology, neuroscience, and management studies. He highlights how to reap the benefits of a happier and more positive mind-set to achieve the extraordinary in our work and in our lives.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

It can help you apply positive psychology principles to enhance workplace success and professional development.

It can help you integrate happiness strategies to enhance overall productivity,

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The Happiness Advantage: the 7 Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work" by Shawn Anchor

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"Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny" by Anthony Robbins

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"Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny" by Anthony Robbins

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What it’s about:

Renowned expert Tony Robbins teaches you how to master your mind, body, relationships, and money so you can take control of your life and find your purpose. Through practical steps, you can learn how to propel your career forward and reach your true potential in your professional life through the power of self-mastery, goal setting, and perseverance.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

It can empower individuals to set and achieve personal and professional goals, laying the foundation for long-term success.

It offers insights into financial destiny, guiding readers on achieving financial goals and fostering a holistic approach to professional development.

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"Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny" by Anthony Robbins

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"Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI" by Ethan Mollick

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"Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI" by Ethan Mollick

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What it’s about:

Ethan Mollick explores how artificial intelligence is transforming the way we live and work, offering actionable strategies for leveraging AI as a partner in creativity, productivity, and decision-making. This book provides a balanced view of the opportunities and challenges AI brings, equipping readers with the knowledge to thrive in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. Mollick combines cutting-edge research, practical tools, and engaging examples to show how AI can augment human potential rather than replace it.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

It empowers readers to integrate AI tools into their workflows, enhancing efficiency and innovation.

It offers insights into the evolving relationship between humans and machines, helping professionals adapt to future workplace dynamics.

By embracing "co-intelligence," readers can stay ahead in their fields, fostering a mindset of collaboration and lifelong learning in the AI era.

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"Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI" by Ethan Mollick

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"Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World" by Cal Newport

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"Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World" by Cal Newport

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What it’s about:

What Cal Newport calls a “valuable” and “increasingly rare” skill, having the ability to deep work will not only allow you to feel truly fulfilled, but to be better at your job and to be more successful in both work and life. With practical and actionable advice, Newport teaches you how to transform your mind and your daily habits so that you can learn the life-changing art of deep work and become the professional you have always wanted to be.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

It provides rules and strategies for navigating a distracted world, empowering professionals to maintain focus and achieve meaningful results.

It can help readers learn to achieve professional excellence through concentrated, focused efforts, promoting sustained success in the workplace.

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"Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World" by Cal Newport

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"Unforgettable Presence: Get Seen, Gain Influence, and Catapult Your Career" by Lorraine K. Lee

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"Unforgettable Presence: Get Seen, Gain Influence, and Catapult Your Career" by Lorraine K. Lee

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What it’s about:

In today’s workplace, talent and hard work alone aren’t enough — you need to stand out, command attention, and leave a lasting impression if you want to get ahead. Unforgettable Presence is your practical guide to building executive presence, confidence, and influence.

Drawing from over a decade of experience as a founding editor at top tech firms like LinkedIn and Prezi, Lorraine K. Lee shares actionable strategies to help you go from overlooked to unforgettable. Through relatable stories and expert insights, she teaches you how to communicate with impact, lead meetings with authority, present with confidence, and build a powerful personal brand — so you can create a presence that is truly unforgettable.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

It focuses on small but powerful shifts that instantly enhance how others perceive you.

It features authentic stories and 140+ expert insights from three dozen top business leaders, content creators, and bestselling authors.

It offers practical exercises to boost credibility, influence, and leadership presence — and includes a dedicated chapter on elevating your LinkedIn presence, an often-overlooked career accelerator.

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"Unforgettable Presence: Get Seen, Gain Influence, and Catapult Your Career" by Lorraine K. Lee

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Have you ever thought of your kitchen as a little pharmacy? While it’s no replacement for professional medical advice, it’s fascinating to consider how many common spices not only enhance the flavor of our food but also offer impressive medicinal benefits. From soothing an upset stomach to fighting inflammation, the humble spice rack in your kitchen is loaded with natural remedies that have been used in folk and traditional medicines for centuries. Here’s a look at some everyday kitchen spices and their surprising health benefits.

Turmeric: This golden spice is not only a staple in cooking but also a powerhouse of medicinal benefits. It has strong anti-inflammatory effects that help soothe everything from menstrual cramps to toothaches. Traditionally used as a natural antibiotic, turmeric promotes wound healing and can improve skin health. Additionally, it’s an affordable solution for treating hyperpigmentation. Most notably, turmeric is currently being researched for its potential cancer-preventing properties.

Cumin: More than just a tasty seasoning, cumin’s aromatic seeds are loaded with beneficial volatile oils. In traditional Indian medicine, cumin is used to alleviate toothaches, aid digestion, and treat conditions like jaundice. This spice is widely cultivated in India and exported globally in forms such as seeds, powder, and essential oil, finding uses even in pharmaceutical products due to its extensive health benefits.

Fenugreek: Known for its culinary uses in Indian cuisine, fenugreek stands about 2-3 feet tall and offers impressive health advantages beyond the kitchen. It is valued in alternative medicine for its ability to moderate sugar absorption and boost insulin production, making it a valuable tool for managing blood sugar levels. Historically used in ancient China to treat skin conditions, fenugreek is now also popular for promoting natural hair growth.

Coriander: An indispensable herb in Indian kitchens, coriander does much more than enhance flavors. It belongs to the family that includes parsley and carrots and offers numerous health benefits. It can help lower blood sugar levels, improve intestinal health, and boost heart and brain functions. Coriander is also known for its antimicrobial properties and its ability to promote healthy skin.

Clove: Recognized for more than its strong flavor, the buds of clove trees have a broad spectrum of medicinal uses. Clove oil, derived from these buds, is famed for its analgesic properties, providing relief from joint and muscle pain, including discomfort caused by rheumatoid arthritis. Moreover, clove oil is beneficial for soothing skin irritations, combating bacterial infections, and addressing acne.

While these spices offer great health benefits, they are most effective when used consistently as part of a balanced diet. Here’s how you can seamlessly integrate these powerhouse ingredients into your daily meals and reap their medicinal benefits:

1. Blend into Smoothies

Adding spices like turmeric and cinnamon to your morning smoothie can provide a significant health boost. Turmeric offers anti-inflammatory benefits, while cinnamon can help manage blood sugar levels. These spices blend well with a variety of fruits and vegetables, enhancing the nutritional profile of your smoothies without overpowering the taste.

2. Brew as Teas

Spices such as ginger, clove, and cardamom are perfect for brewing into soothing teas. Ginger tea can help alleviate nausea and boost digestive health, clove tea is known for its pain-relieving properties, especially for dental issues, and cardamom tea can soothe the stomach and freshen breath. Simply steep these spices in boiling water, alone or combined, to make a comforting herbal brew.

3. Cook with Spices

Incorporate a range of spices into your cooking to enhance flavor and nutritional value. Spices can be added to soups, stews, marinades, and even desserts. For example, add black pepper to curries to enhance absorption of nutrients, or sprinkle some cardamom into baked goods for a flavor boost and digestive aid.

4. Create Spice Rubs and Marinades

Mix various spices to create dry rubs for meats, poultry, or vegetables. Spices such as turmeric, black pepper, and ginger are excellent for inflammatory conditions and can enhance the taste and health benefits of your grilled or roasted dishes. Marinades with a base of olive oil, garlic, and your choice of spices not only tenderize but also infuse deep flavors and increase the nutritional content of your meals.

5. Season Salads and Sauces

Elevate your salads and sauces with a dash of spices. Cinnamon can add a sweet touch to a fresh fruit salad, while turmeric and black pepper can give a health-boosting kick to homemade salad dressings. Spices like garlic and ginger work wonderfully in sauces and dressings, offering both flavor and heart health benefits.

6. Spice Up Your Snacks

Sprinkle cinnamon on your oatmeal, add turmeric to your popcorn, or create a spicy trail mix with nuts, seeds, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. These simple additions make your snacks not only tastier but also healthier.

7. Use in Baking

Spices such as nutmeg, clove, and cinnamon can be incorporated into baking recipes for cookies, cakes, and other treats. Not only do they add unique flavors, but they also bring antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties to your baked goods.

By integrating these common kitchen spices into your diet, you can enhance the medicinal value of your meals and contribute to a healthier lifestyle. Remember, while spices are beneficial, they should complement, not replace, a balanced diet and professional medical advice when necessary. Enjoy the journey of discovering the flavors and health benefits of your spice rack as part of a holistic approach to wellness.

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Creating a medicinal kitchen garden is an excellent way to enhance your cooking while harnessing the healing properties of various herbs. Not only do these plants add flavor to your dishes, but they also offer numerous health benefits. In this blog, we will explore five versatile and medicinal plants that you can easily grow in your kitchen garden: Sage, Stevia, Ajwain, Thyme, and Rosemary. Each of these plants has unique properties that can contribute to your well-being, making them invaluable additions to your garden and kitchen.

Sage

Growing Sage

Sage is a perennial herb known for its earthy aroma and silvery-green leaves. It's relatively easy to grow, thriving in well-drained soil with plenty of sunlight. Sage prefers a slightly alkaline soil, so adding some lime can be beneficial. Plant sage in a spot where it can receive at least six hours of direct sunlight daily. It can be grown in pots or directly in the ground, making it suitable for various garden sizes.

Uses and Benefits

1. Digestive Health: Sage has been traditionally used to aid digestion. It can help alleviate bloating, gas, and indigestion. Drinking sage tea after meals can promote digestive health.

2. Anti-inflammatory Properties: Sage contains rosmarinic acid, which has anti-inflammatory properties. This makes it useful for reducing inflammation in conditions like arthritis and asthma.

3. Cognitive Function: Sage is believed to enhance memory and cognitive function. Studies have shown that it can improve concentration and mental clarity, making it beneficial for students and professionals alike.

4. Sore Throat Relief: A sage tea gargle can soothe a sore throat and reduce inflammation. Its antimicrobial properties can also help fight infections.

Culinary Uses

Sage pairs well with poultry, pork, and sausages, adding a robust flavor to your dishes. It's commonly used in stuffing, soups, and stews. Sage butter, made by infusing butter with sage leaves, is a delicious topping for meats and vegetables.

Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana)

Growing Stevia

Stevia is a natural sweetener that is significantly sweeter than sugar but has no calories. It thrives in warm, sunny environments and well-drained soil. Stevia can be grown in containers or directly in the ground. It requires regular watering but ensure the soil does not become waterlogged.

Uses and Benefits

1. Natural Sweetener: Stevia is a healthy alternative to sugar, ideal for those managing diabetes or looking to reduce calorie intake. It does not raise blood glucose levels, making it safe for diabetics.

2. Weight Management: As a zero-calorie sweetener, stevia can help with weight management by reducing the overall calorie intake without sacrificing sweetness.

3. Antioxidant Properties: Stevia contains compounds that have antioxidant properties, which help combat oxidative stress and reduce the risk of chronic diseases.

4. Dental Health: Unlike sugar, stevia does not contribute to tooth decay. It can be used in various recipes and beverages to maintain oral health.

Culinary Uses

Stevia can be used in baking, beverages, and desserts. It is available in powdered, liquid, and dried leaf forms. When using stevia in recipes, remember that it is much sweeter than sugar, so a small amount goes a long way.

Ajwain (Trachyspermum ammi)

Growing Ajwain

Ajwain, also known as carom seeds, is a hardy plant that can be grown from seeds. It prefers a warm climate and well-drained soil. Ajwain plants need plenty of sunlight and should be watered regularly but not overwatered.

Uses and Benefits

1. Digestive Aid: Ajwain is renowned for its digestive benefits. It helps alleviate indigestion, gas, and flatulence. Consuming ajwain water or chewing ajwain seeds can provide quick relief from stomach discomfort.

2. Respiratory Health: Ajwain has bronchodilatory properties, making it effective for treating respiratory conditions such as asthma, bronchitis, and cold.

3. Anti-inflammatory: The thymol present in ajwain has anti-inflammatory properties that can help reduce inflammation and pain.

4. Antimicrobial: Ajwain exhibits strong antimicrobial activity, which makes it useful in fighting infections and promoting overall health.

Culinary Uses

Ajwain is a staple in Indian cuisine, adding a distinctive flavor to dishes. It is commonly used in bread, pastries, and savory snacks. Ajwain seeds can also be used to flavor soups, curries, and pickles.

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)

Growing Thyme

Thyme is a low-growing perennial herb that is easy to cultivate. It thrives in well-drained soil and full sun. Thyme is drought-tolerant once established, making it suitable for xeriscaping. It can be grown in pots, garden beds, or as ground cover.

Uses and Benefits

1. Antimicrobial Properties: Thyme has potent antimicrobial properties due to its high thymol content. It can be used to treat minor cuts and wounds.

2. Respiratory Health: Thyme is effective in treating respiratory ailments such as coughs, bronchitis, and chest congestion. Thyme tea or steam inhalation can provide relief.

3. Digestive Health: Thyme aids digestion and helps alleviate gastrointestinal issues such as bloating, gas, and cramping.

4. Skin Health: Thyme's antiseptic properties make it useful for treating skin conditions like acne and eczema. Thyme-infused oil can be applied topically to affected areas.

Culinary Uses

Thyme is a versatile herb used in a variety of dishes, including soups, stews, roasted meats, and vegetables. It pairs well with other Mediterranean herbs like rosemary, oregano, and basil. Fresh or dried thyme can be used to enhance the flavor of marinades, dressings, and sauces.

Rosemary

Growing Rosemary

Rosemary is a fragrant evergreen herb that is relatively easy to grow. It prefers well-drained soil and full sun. Rosemary can be grown in pots or garden beds, and it requires minimal watering once established. Pruning regularly helps maintain its shape and encourages new growth.

Uses and Benefits

1. Cognitive Health: Rosemary is known for its ability to enhance memory and concentration. Inhaling rosemary essential oil or drinking rosemary tea can improve cognitive function.

2. Anti-inflammatory: Rosemary has anti-inflammatory properties that can help reduce pain and swelling. It is beneficial for conditions such as arthritis and muscle pain.

3. Antioxidant: The antioxidant properties of rosemary help protect the body against free radicals, reducing the risk of chronic diseases and aging.

4. Hair Health: Rosemary oil is often used to promote hair growth and reduce dandruff. Massaging the scalp with rosemary oil can improve blood circulation and nourish hair follicles.

Culinary Uses

Rosemary is a popular herb in Mediterranean cuisine, adding a piney, slightly peppery flavor to dishes. It pairs well with roasted meats, potatoes, and vegetables. Rosemary can be used to infuse oils, vinegars, and marinades, and it also makes a flavorful addition to bread and crackers.

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As much as everybody—starting from productivity gurus, bloggers, YouTubers, authors, advisors, conference speakers, and ballroom attendees—would like to tell us how unproductive it is, multitasking is here to stay.

In a utopia you can set your own schedule, beat resistance, get into a state of flow, and get things done by following a set of ideas, principles, guidelines, and hacks. Unless you are delusional you are pretty sure this isn’t the case in the real world. Real world is very different from the one painted in productivity books.

Maybe the people with these grand ideas have the luxury of setting their own schedule. Their ideas may apply to a niche who have the same luxury, but us common folks don’t have much of a choice, do we?

No matter how logical these ideas sound on paper, they are absurd in real life. But not all hope is lost. While we cannot have the perfect solution, we can definitely have an optimal one. In the real world, that is good enough.

Unlike that in self-help books, schedules aren’t fixed in real world. In the real world, scopes aren’t defined, time estimates are never perfect, and everything is of utmost priority.

In such a chaotic, unorganised, and unstructured world, the only sensible strategy is the ability to pause, leave something midway, and switch to another task, i.e., multitask.

Experts scorn this vehemently, but despite its side-effects, multitasking gets a lot of things done.

Before delving into the benefits, let’s understand the side-effects. For starters, multitasking is not doing things simultaneously, but rapid switching of tasks. And none of this back and forth switching is real work. It’s metawork. And metawork doesn’t really advance the state of the actual work being done.

Secondly, real work requires a good amount of “context setting”— playing with an idea in your head before actually writing it down, or meditating on a problem before attempting to solve it. For me, it takes 30 minutes to get into the zone before I can get any actual writing done. For all of us, it takes some time to heat up a metal before it’s malleable.

If I’m interrupted after getting in the zone, I’ll need a good amount of time to rediscover the zone again. Constant “context switching” leads to a series of, “Now, where was I?” moments where we waste time trying to figure out what we were actually doing.

Reaching a state of flow is hard work, and subsequent context-switching makes it impossible to get any real work done. This not only leads to delays in work, but also errors. If I interrupt you few times an hour, you are not going to get any real work done.

Despite its side-effects, metawork is important. It’s a necessary evil. The question is, how do we tame this monster so that it doesn’t turn on us.

Time will always be lost in metawork, but we have to prevent it from reaching its nightmarish extreme when all the time is spent in doing metawork, and none spent in doing real work. This happens when you take on more work than you should and there’s (theoretically) infinite overhead.

If you’ve ever had a moment where you wanted to stop doing everything just to have the chance to write down everything you were supposed to be doing, but couldn’t spare the time, you recognise this state very well.

When merely remembering everything we need to be doing occupies our full attention, or prioritising every task consumes all the time we had to do them, or our train of thought is continually interrupted before those thoughts can translate to action—it feels like panic. This is when your system (literally) crashes.

A simple tactic to avert this fate is to master the art of saying no so that you don’t have more than necessary overhead. But it has its limitations. You cannot say no to everything, especially when it comes from your boss.

The other tactic is to act dumber instead of smarter. Choosing how to schedule your day or figuring out what to do next is overwhelming enough to crash your system. It’s also time consuming. Therefore simply do things at random.

Instead of answering the “most important” emails first—which requires an assessment of the whole picture that may take longer than the work itself—just answer the emails in random order, or in whatever order they appear in your inbox.

This isn’t the smartest way, but compared to your system crashing—where you’re making no progress whatsoever—doing tasks inefficiently in the wrong order is better than doing nothing at all.

Getting real work done involves a negotiation between two principles—responsiveness (how quickly you can respond to things) and productivity(how much you can get done overall)—that aren’t fully compatible. That’s why the whole issue is so complex! And that’s the reason people hire assistants so that they can be productive while their assistants remain responsive. But all of us cannot afford assistants.The best strategy for those of us who cannot afford assistants is to slow down to an optimum level.

Commit to a task for a minimum amount of time (productivity) before you even think about context-switching (responsiveness). This way you avoid getting overwhelmed. This is what pomodoro technique is based on—commit to something for a given amount of time before thinking about anything else. As mainstream as this may sound, it’s actually very effective.

But how much time should you allocate? Although it appears tricky—because the more productive you are, the less responsive you are—it has a straightforward answer. Decide how responsive you need to be—the minimum amount—and then, if you want to get things done, be no more responsive than that.

If you don’t require to respond to emails in less than twenty-four hours, limit yourself to checking your messages only once a day. Don’t pay your credit card bills as they arrive. Instead take care of them all in one go when the last bill comes. This is planned procrastination. Procrastinate as long as you should, but not more than that.

Software startups do fixathons. They tolerate buggy products in favour of moving fast. But once it gets beyond a certain limit that it starts to hurt growth, they conduct fixathons—hackathons to crush bugs.

The secret to graceful context switching is minimum responsiveness to get most productivity. Holding office hours is a way of coalescing interruptions from students. Weekly standups is another example. Whatever their drawbacks, regularly scheduled meetings are one of our best defenses against spontaneous interruptions and unplanned context switching.

Graceful context-switching is the only antidote to an ASAP culture where everything is expected in Realtime which in turn gets no real work done.

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Journaling is simply the act of thinking about your life and writing it down. That’s it. Nothing more is needed. But despite its simplicity, the daily journal has played a key role in the careers of many prolific people.

As you might expect, journaling is a favorite habit of many writers. From Mark Twain to Virginia Woolf, Francis Bacon to Joan Didion, John Cheever to Vladimir Nabokov. A journal was rarely far from any of these artists. Susan Sontag once claimed that her journal was where she “created herself.”

Journaling has been utilized by scores of brilliant thinkers and inventors. Charles Darwin. Marie Curie. Leonardo da Vinci. Thomas Edison. Albert Einstein. Similarly, leaders and politicians throughout history have kept journals in one form or another. People like George Washington, Winston Churchill, and Marcus Aurelius.In the sporting world, athletes like Katie Ledecky, winner of multiple gold medals, and Eliud Kipchoge, the world record holder in the marathon, rely on journals to reflect on their daily workouts and improve their training.

Why have so many of history’s greatest thinkers spent time journaling? What are the benefits?

What Journaling Can Do for You

Nearly anyone can benefit from getting their thoughts out of their head and onto paper. There are more benefits to journaling than I have time to cover here, but allow me to point out a few of my favorites.

Journaling provides the opportunity to learn new lessons from old experiences. When looking back on her previous journal entries, Virginia Woolf remarked that she often “found the significance to lie where I never saw it at the time.”

Reading your old journal entries is a bit like reading a great book for a second time. You pick up on new sentences and see the past in a different way. Only this time, you are re-reading the story of your life.

Journaling sharpens your memory. When Cheryl Strayed wrote her hit book, Wild, she relied heavily on her journal. She recalled, “My journal provided the who, what, how, when, and why with a specificity that memory might have blurred, but it also did something more: it offered me a frank and unvarnished portrait of myself at 26 that I couldn’t have found anywhere else.”

Time will change your face without you noticing, but it will also change your thoughts without you realizing it. Our beliefs shift slowly as we gain experience and journal entries have the ability to freeze your thoughts in time. Seeing an old picture of yourself can be interesting because it reminds you of what you looked like, but reading an old journal entry can be even more surprising because it reminds you of how you thought.

Journaling motivates you to make the most of each day. There is something about knowing that your day will be recorded that makes you want to make at least one good choice before the sun sets. I will sometimes find myself thinking, “I want to have something good to write down tonight.”

Journaling provides proof of your progress. Writing down one sentence about what went well today gives you something powerful to look at when you’re feeling down. When you have a bad day, it can be easy to forget how much progress you have made. But with a journal, it’s easier to keep a sense of perspective. One glance at your previous entries and you have proof of how much you have grown over the months and years.

Of course, despite the numerous benefits of journaling, there is one problem.

Many people like the idea of journaling, but few people stick with the act of journaling. It sounds great in theory, but making it a habit is another matter.

This is where we return to Oprah’s story.

The Challenge of Making Journaling a Habit

In November 2012, after wrapping up her 25-year television career, Oprah wrote, “For years I’ve been advocating the power and pleasure of being grateful. I kept a gratitude journal for a full decade without fail—and urged you all to do the same. Then life got busy. My schedule overwhelmed me. I still opened my journal some nights, but my ritual of writing down five things I was grateful for every day started slipping away.”

She picked up one of her old journals.

“I wondered why I no longer felt the joy of simple moments,” Oprah said. “Since 1996 I had accumulated more wealth, more responsibility, more possessions; everything, it seemed, had grown exponentially—except my happiness. How had I, with all my options and opportunities, become one of those people who never have time to feel delight? I was stretched in so many directions, I wasn’t feeling much of anything. Too busy doing.”

She admitted, “But the truth is, I was busy in 1996, too. I just made gratitude a daily priority. I went through the day looking for things to be grateful for, and something always showed up.”

Most people know that journaling is helpful, but they never get around to making it a priority. How can we make journaling frictionless? What is the simplest way that to get the benefits of journaling without it feeling like another obligation?

How to Make Journaling Easy

I’ve spent a fair bit of time thinking about how to make journaling easy over the past year. In fact, I thought so much about it that I partnered with the premium notebook maker Baron Fig to create the Clear Habit Journal—a combination dot grid notebook, daily journal, and habit tracker that not only makes it easier to journal, but also easier to build any habit.

But before I start hawking my wares, let’s get something straight.

Here’s the truth: There’s no one “right” way to journal. You can do it wherever you want and in whatever way you want. All you need is a piece of paper or a blank document. However, although there is no right way to journal, there is an easy way to journal…

Write one sentence per day.

The primary advantage of journaling one sentence each day is that it makes journaling fun. It’s easy to do. It’s easy to feel successful. And if you feel good each time you finish journaling, then you’ll keep coming back to it.

A habit does not have to be impressive for it to be useful.

Journaling Prompts That Make Journaling Easy

Let’s talk about the process I designed to make journaling a cinch.

Every Habit Journal is designed to make the process of keeping a daily journal as easy as possible. It starts with a section called One Line Per Day.

At the top of each One Line Per Day page is space for a journaling prompt. Here are a few examples of journaling prompts you could use:

What happened today? (Daily journal)

What am I grateful for today? (Gratitude journal)

What is my most important task today? (Productivity journal)

How did I sleep last night? (Sleep journal)

How do I feel today? (Mood journal)

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The ultimate productivity hack is saying no.

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The ultimate productivity hack is saying no.

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Not doing something will always be faster than doing it. This statement reminds me of the old computer programming saying, “Remember that there is no code faster than no code.”

The same philosophy applies in other areas of life. For example, there is no meeting that goes faster than not having a meeting at all.

This is not to say you should never attend another meeting, but the truth is that we say yes to many things we don’t actually want to do. There are many meetings held that don’t need to be held. There is a lot of code written that could be deleted.

How often do people ask you to do something and you just reply, “Sure thing.” Three days later, you’re overwhelmed by how much is on your to-do list. We become frustrated by our obligations even though we were the ones who said yes to them in the first place.

It’s worth asking if things are necessary. Many of them are not, and a simple “no” will be more productive than whatever work the most efficient person can muster.

But if the benefits of saying no are so obvious, then why do we say yes so often?

The Role of No

Saying no is sometimes seen as a luxury that only those in power can afford. And it is true: turning down opportunities is easier when you can fall back on the safety net provided by power, money, and authority. But it is also true that saying no is not merely a privilege reserved for the successful among us. It is also a strategy that can help you become successful.

Saying no is an important skill to develop at any stage of your career because it retains the most important asset in life: your time. As the investor Pedro Sorrentino put it, “If you don’t guard your time, people will steal it from you.”

You need to say no to whatever isn’t leading you toward your goals. You need to say no to distractions. As one reader told me, “If you broaden the definition as to how you apply no, it actually is the only productivity hack (as you ultimately say no to any distraction in order to be productive).”

Nobody embodied this idea better than Steve Jobs, who said, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”

There is an important balance to strike here. Saying no doesn’t mean you’ll never do anything interesting or innovative or spontaneous. It just means that you say yes in a focused way. Once you have knocked out the distractions, it can make sense to say yes to any opportunity that could potentially move you in the right direction. You may have to try many things to discover what works and what you enjoy. This period of exploration can be particularly important at the beginning of a project, job, or career.

Upgrading Your No

Over time, as you continue to improve and succeed, your strategy needs to change.

The opportunity cost of your time increases as you become more successful. At first, you just eliminate the obvious distractions and explore the rest. As your skills improve and you learn to separate what works from what doesn’t, you have to continually increase your threshold for saying yes.

You still need to say no to distractions, but you also need to learn to say no to opportunities that were previously good uses of time, so you can make space for great uses of time. It’s a good problem to have, but it can be a tough skill to master.

In other words, you have to upgrade your “no’s” over time.

Upgrading your no doesn’t mean you’ll never say yes. It just means you default to saying no and only say yes when it really makes sense. To quote the investor Brent Beshore, “Saying no is so powerful because it preserves the opportunity to say yes.”

The general trend seems to be something like this: If you can learn to say no to bad distractions, then eventually you’ll earn the right to say no to good opportunities.

How to Say No

Most of us are probably too quick to say yes and too slow to say no. It’s worth asking yourself where you fall on that spectrum.

If you have trouble saying no, you may find the following strategy proposed by Tim Harford, the British economist I mentioned earlier, to be helpful. He writes, “One trick is to ask, “If I had to do this today, would I agree to it?” It’s not a bad rule of thumb, since any future commitment, no matter how far away it might be, will eventually become an imminent problem.”

If an opportunity is exciting enough to drop whatever you’re doing right now, then it’s a yes. If it’s not, then perhaps you should think twice.

This is similar to the well-known “Hell Yeah or No” method from Derek Sivers. If someone asks you to do something and your first reaction is “Hell Yeah!”, then do it. If it doesn’t excite you, then say no.

It’s impossible to remember to ask yourself these questions each time you face a decision, but it’s still a useful exercise to revisit from time to time. Saying no can be difficult, but it is often easier than the alternative. As writer Mike Dariano has pointed out, “It’s easier to avoid commitments than get out of commitments. Saying no keeps you toward the easier end of this spectrum.”

What is true about health is also true about productivity: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Why We Say Yes

We agree to many requests not because we want to do them, but because we don’t want to be seen as rude, arrogant, or unhelpful. Often, you have to consider saying no to someone you will interact with again in the future—your co-worker, your spouse, your family and friends.

The Difference Between Yes and No

The words “yes” and “no” get used in comparison to each other so often that it feels like they carry equal weight in conversation. In reality, they are not just opposite in meaning, but of entirely different magnitudes in commitment. No is a decision. Yes is a responsibility.

The Power of No

More effort is wasted doing things that don’t matter than is wasted doing things inefficiently. And if that is the case, elimination is a more useful skill than optimization.

I am reminded of the famous Peter Drucker quote, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”