Today’s story comes to us via a former colleague in the company I used to work for – to say we were colleagues is accurate. However, we did not interact with or know each other back then!

Interestingly, it is via LinkedIn that he learned about my Effective Leadership program. Initially, Arun Alex was skeptical and hesitant mainly because there weren’t any apparent burning issues 🔥 in his life.

But isn’t it that the slow ember♨️ that take the joy away from everyday life are more detrimental?

At least so was the case with him, which he soon realized after a few conversations, eventually leading him to join the program even before I could complete the details!

Post the first few sessions, with some idea of Mindfulness, he practiced a few of the techniques and the meditation process as part of the program, and I could sense the “lightbulb” 💡 moment in him. He realized that the techniques were relevant to not only his professional but personal life as well!

In conversations we had later, he explained that he could see an immediate change in his body and mind.

One of the critical things he could see with applying mindfulness was to get out of the “Rat Race” of life 🏃, appreciate precious moments of life as they happened, and not get bogged down by the stress of what’s coming tomorrow, which helped him enjoy the present.

Going through our program helped him-

• Come to terms with this fear and haunting – One of the things he stated has stayed with me and encapsulates one of Life’s great challenges brilliantly. He said that going through our program helped him realize that we go through life haunted by things that have happened in our past or petrified by events that may or may not happen in the future.
• Manage his ego & Practice acceptance and Self-empathy, enabling him to come to terms with the inevitability of falling short. One could fall short of one’s expectations or those of the organization/boss we are working for. Still, he learned to take such things in his stride and remain motivated and calm even when such things happen in his professional life. He also felt he could set more realistic, practical goals for himself going forward.
• Achieve physical Fitness- By articulating internally about the consequences of eating unhealthy food whenever he was tempted, he developed the willpower to reject such cravings and lost 15kgs in 3Mths! This, in turn, added to his general confidence.
• Increase His focus in a professional environment, in meetings and gatherings; he learned to focus on the discussion and not get distracted by other emails or texts.
• Prioritize his time and avoid getting dragged into unnecessary meetings that did not add any value to him and/or he had no contribution.
• Handle Situations with more maturity– By taking a bit more time to react to what someone said or something happened, he reacted proportionately, creating a relatively more relaxed environment at home and at work.
• Stop the need to chase the myth of “Multitasking” – Instead of fighting fires everywhere, he learned to focus on one task at a time, which helped improve his productivity.
• Accepting oneself – Another learning he mentioned was self-improvement through self-acceptance.

By accepting and facing his mistakes and being motivated to keep working on himself, he found the program to be highly beneficial to his personal and professional life and so much so that his journey continues.

Arun also achieved higher career growth in his professional life by aligning himself with his natural strengths.

As for me, one of the key takeaways from his initial hesitancy was that, in many cases, people may not even be aware that their life could be so much more meaningful and beautiful even while attaining all professional and personal success.

Creating that awareness in people is a more significant challenge before they can start their transformation journey…