Harsha's Life Blog
400+ articles on life, career and change
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Do you feel heard in your life?
To be truly heard is one of the greatest gifts that someone could receive. And despite its apparent simplicity, it is also one of the rarest. Fortunately, listening deeply is something we can all cultivate. To be heard, acknowledged and understood is a deep human...
What would you do if money was of no consequence?
"What would you do if money was of no consequence" is one of those questions that is at the same time light-hearted and profound. In my days before being a coach, I would sometimes use it as a mildly entertaining dinner party topic, but now I am beginning to...
Coaching: A way of being
(Different to my other blog posts, this is a long essay on my coaching model) At a very fundamental level, I believe the purpose of coaching is to support the individual to live in a manner that embraces their wellbeing, is fully engaged with the world and in harmony...
Self-awareness: The gateway to everything
Self-awareness is what makes human beings as a species fundamentally different to others. It is self-awareness that allows us to go beyond simply doing; to reflect on what it is we are doing, how we are doing it and why we might be doing it. It is self-awareness...
Creative problem solving: Beyond words
As an executive coach, I am always seeking new ways in which I can support my clients to look at problems from a fresh perspective. Recently, I have become very interested in the role of language as a tool for problem solving. Limitations of language We live in a...
Our power to change
What is the key to personal change? As I dwelled on this somewhat tricky question, I recalled the words of Huineng, the 7th century zen master who spoke of "self awakening to self nature" and "sudden practice with sudden awakening". What Huineng was referring to is...
Mindfulness: Becoming a fad?
I was first introduced to mindfulness as a young boy growing up in Sri Lanka, and I can tell you that being asked to sit for hours in the lotus position and focus on your breathing is simply not fun, particularly when you are seven! Even as a child, I intuitively knew...
Why we fail to change: Lessons from a Nobel laureate
I first had the opportunity to hear Daniel Kahneman speak in a cramped lecture theatre. This was when I was a fresh faced economics undergraduate grappling with the ideas of so called human rationality. Now reading Kahneman's latest book, Thinking Fast and Slow, I now...
Have you found your calling? Time to start looking
I have long puzzled over the idea of purpose and calling in life. What I have come to realise is that while some may find contentment and joy in the beauty of living generally, most of us need something (or things) to occupy ourselves with! Everyone will have...
The myth about creativity
"I am just not creative" is a claim I often hear from people as they talk about themselves. And, every single time I know that this hides a false belief — a myth about creativity. How do I know this? It is because we are human. And to be human, is to be creative. The...
Why people use big words
I was recently at an event where the discussion in my group quickly descended into the use of jargon. Into what I would describe as unnecessarily complex language — using big words for no apparent reason. It reminded me of my City days and how much I loathed such...
What we can learn from children
For better or for worse, I have always found myself taking a general interest in many things. What I never expected to find though is a connection between music (my longtime passion), martial arts (my hobby) and investing (my ex-career). That connection is none other...
The illusion of control and our bias towards it
Urban living is increasingly associated with high levels of stress and anxiety. Indeed, the U.K. Mental Health Foundation estimates that one in four people will experience a mental health problem in a given year - a sobering statistic. While this could be partly...
Are we in danger of conveyor belt living?
I first started thinking about conveyor belt living towards the middle of my 9-year career in the City. This is the human tendency to follow a somewhat preordained path in life. A path not dissimilar to being on a conveyor belt. Pre-ordained Our socioeconomic and...