-
This pandemic time there has been a lot of discussions on work hours and work days and working from home and so on. The conversation will continue as people hash out various aspects of the future of work. In a recent call that I did with a group of college students over zoom I told…
-
And finally after more than a year and a half, I had a chance to go to the movie theaters. They opened last month. In fact I had not planned but something happened. So I have this monthly pass for 24 dollars or so that allows me to see 3 movies every week in the…
-
This is not an advertisement for shoes. It is just an experience I had that I want to share. I walk on a daily basis. More in the recent one year than before. And the habit of listening to podcasts also helps in walking. That does not mean I don’t have days I don’t do…
-
After almost one and a half year of not traveling we made a short trip to Oregon. Not in flight though We took the road and stayed in the small University town of Eugene a couple hours before reaching Portland. We drove to Portland one of the days. it was pretty hot and we also…
-
I end all my podcasts this way..“Be Content.. Be Penpositive… Be safe and please be kind…” and that has been my routine irrespective of the language the podcast is in. but I just realized I never speak much about Kindness. So let us spend some time on that.. I have been blessed with random acts…
-
I always used to tell people that we should be ourselves and there are so many quotes out there that say so. But then I wonder, why is it difficult for us all. Why do we always succumb to what others want us to be. Why is there a constant struggle for someone to be…
-
The world is changing.. some changes are good and some are not so. Either way we adapt to survive. This has been happening for thousands of years. Yes the change now is more accelerated than before and so should our ability to adapt. In earlier days the world needed a bit of shaking because it…
-
We live in a world that is getting more and more individualistic. I am not against that but when it also rides at the cost of community, I think we should start talking. One important book I read last year was ‘The Lonely Century’ by Noreena Hertz The book is more on how lonely we…
-
I think there was a time when people used to say they want to succeed and the general consensus was that if you become successful you will be happy. Over the last several years I have personally seen that thought change. The people who say they want to be happy has increased. Does that mean…
-
There are so much happening around us. Some are good and some are bad as we look at it. but the question that I have heard being discussed is if there can be a good in everything. Can everything have a good side to it. I know that sounds so cliched and motivation kind, and…
-
Everyone of us have plans. Some work some don’t work. I had a lot of items in my plan just before pandemic, some of which I had to shelve and others I had to postpone and a few I was still able to continue. Making a plan alone will not solve the problem, but it…
-
I run a company called Penpositive, but I am not always a positive person. And I also have an issue with toxic positivity. I mean I don’t believe that just talking positive would solve problems. May be I am skeptic because I have read so much motivational books and somewhere down the line I felt…
-
The world celebrates success more than failure and we all can understand that. We all want to succeed. But that does not mean ignoring the existence of failure. Not just existence, I mean ignoring the fact of how important failures are. If we raise kids without them knowing what failure is… without them knowing how…
-
So it has been 30 days since I started this project. It is not a 30 day challenge by a 365 days. The question is Can we have it all? There are so many things we want. And we all want it now. If you have followed by posts I would have sounded overwhelmed at…
-
In this year and age saying Goals are important will be an understatement. But the fact is even today many people struggle in this area. And the struggles are both genuine and varied in my opinion. I personally struggle with it. It is not setting Goals, but setting them really long term and also prioritizing…
-
I am not sure about you, but I have always misplaced things and then it was in places I never thought it would be. or in other words I always look for it in places that I think they should be. Like they know where to go and hide. Such is the case with us…
-
I know this is now a weekly podcast and you might be wondering why I am doing this today. There is a reason. I have detailed that in the Podcast. I am going to continue these small bits everyday. I needed, hope you will join me as well. I don’t know how long I will…
-
So does that mean I wake up daily without a purpose. Well I think I wake up daily with a clue of what to do. I have my daily routine and rituals but purpose. I am not sure. So why is today different? I wake up in the morning and I think to myself, why…
-
Only if Love should pierce you is a poem by Salvatore Quasimodo the Italian Poet. I read the poem towards the end. But first the retrospective as always. The week was ok and I do have some stuff for improvements Share your thoughts on the Podcast’s Website. You can listen to Penpositive Outclass on Spotify,…
-
So today on the 26th day of the project, I have realized I need prompts to move ahead. So did I run out of ideas to write. Not really I just have lost the space inside me to think. Why ? It has to do with the topic of yesterday, too much things on plate.…
-
Today I feel a bit exhausted. And this has everything to do with the various extra work I have taken up. I know it does not suit a person who preaches to go light on things. But that is life. Yesterday I read an Article in The Atlantic that speaks of leisure and how we…
-
I am not saying there is one such good time to start a writing project. One can start anytime. That said I also believe this could be a better time. And here is why. Across the world the last one and a half years have been quite different from what we all have experienced. During…
-
Have you ever felt moments life when you think it is about to change. That feeling that you are totally unprepared. You know something can change but don’t know yet. And unless you know what it is, how can you prepare. We live at a time where a lot of future is ambiguous and uncertain…
-
The Pandemic has taken so many lives. Many people we know have left us. Last month I lost someone I knew very closely some twenty years back. There is no one day that passes when I don’t recognize my privilege. Over the past one and a half year we have not just lost people to…
-
I am not a very disciplined person and I know that. My mom is very disciplined and she did try teaching me a lot of discipline while I was a kid and I don’t think I really learned much. But last few years for some reason I started noticing some patterns. There are things I…
-
It has been 20 days since I started this project and the format was that I write the blog and do a podcast on the same topic in my Malayalam Podcast. That was going all fine till two days back I felt that approach is in a way limiting what I write here. This is…
-
My Podcast has started to feel a lot like a meditation when weekly I get to look back at my week and without being aware this will be public analyze it. Welcome to my retrospective this week. As the title says none of my improvements worked this week. But a few things did go well.…
-
The urge to be famous has created a sorts of trap in the social media era. Earlier in order to be famous one had to do something in life. May be accomplish something that had to do a lot with talent and hard work but now it is different and anyone can be famous. Sometimes…
-
Unlike before we are not just connected to just a few people. We are connected to many and we also get to know new people every week. The question is should we get close and be connected with so many. I think it is our responsibility to keep some people as far away from us…
-
When my daughter was in high school I had done a year long writing project with her and it was mostly a Q&A. I post a question and she answers me and then we would discuss about it and so on. We did that for 365 days. This was around 7 years back I guess.…
-
My reading over the past year and a half has been all Non fiction. May be I did read one or two novels in malayalam. I have been mostly reading on social sciences, economics, anthropology, Tech and Business, Data and so on. And to be honest while it was fun, I am slowly getting overwhelmed…
-
It has been more than a month that I stopped viewing the regular news that I used to watch. No YouTube, No following news channels on TV, No Social Media News outlets… nothing. That does not mean I don’t consume news. My news consumption has moved to Podcasts. very focused and as per my choice.…
-
Changing this Podcast to a Retrospective format. Answering three questions every week… I think this is a very important exercise and doing that in public would be fun. What Went Well? What did not go well? What will I improve? That is not all…. please listen and leave some good reviews. Share your thoughts on the…
-
We are going through a time when how our life looks to others is more important than how it really feels. Constantly opening ourselves to the eyes of others. Ready to be judged, liked, shared and disliked… it has become all about how it looks. But feeling is a real thing if any of us…
-
Time is that only resource we all have in equal quantities. It is also one resource that we have some control over. Control over what value it generates. And yet we end up wasting a lot of it. I personally have lost time and also made good use of it over my lifetime like any…
-
I am of the opinion that we all should be ourselves and should not care for what other people think. That thought comes from the basic premise that there is so much that the society and others impose on our free thought. That said there is also a trap in here which we should address.…
-
Finding fault is a behavior we come across in people. I will not say this is only a trait we can see in others but we are equally susceptible to this behavior. I personally have found fault and in some cases tried to find fault and later found out I was wrong. I often wonder…
-
I use the same time everyday to write this blog, but today that changed. I got buys in the morning and then had to go for some other engagement and I only got time in the evening. Usually after my morning walk, I make my coffee. Then I sit down with my coffee to write…
-
It is not that infrequent that I feel lost and I wonder if it is an issue with me. Am I getting lost because of a lack of clarity. And then as I always like to do, I decide to get a bit more lost in that thought. If it is all the same familiar…
-
The answer is a big NO and I am sure that is the answer most if not all people would have. But…. but… but.. but… I want to state something else here. Though I don’t hate people there are some specific individuals in this world that I do dislike. I use dislike as I think…
-
“Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it” said the French Poet Jacques Prevert and his poem also we read today. Here is what I have in the Episode. The news of the sad demise of a friend How can we be more relaxed and less stressed? How can we…
-
I have had friends who like poems and those who don’t. Even among those who like poems I have seen who can go much deep into it and understand it. Not just understand it but also explain and speak about it in such captivating ways. I had nothing to do with poems till I started…
-
Today we live through a time when we are the product be it in business or in the job market or in the society. Social Media has given a whole new push to the concept of Personal Branding. Even if you don’t plan to do anything with it, building your Personal Brand around what you…
-
When we take a stand on something we have to understand that there will be people who will not agree with us. The more the stand goes against the accepted the norm, the more the number of people who can come against us. And people don’t easily forget what they disagree on especially with social…
-
Since I started using clubhouse my goal has been to find ways to use it in such a way that I can use it both as a Learner and an Educator. Today I experimented something in my Penpositive Club on Clubhouse. A Public Retrospective and Coaching exercise. Here are my thoughts. If you want to…
-
This was a question that came to my Instagram Penpositive inbox today and I thought let us take this topic. I did reply to the person but thought a post can be better. First of all I am not super rich… not even rich by many standards… but I am privileged and better of than…
-
When you decide to do something new there are many thoughts that would come to mind and since I am embarking on this ambitious learning project.. let us start there. The first few hours of deciding was an excitement and a bit of pride that you are able to confidently decide on something and even…
-
To the first question the answer is yes.. yes I can. Now should I? that is a personal question. I will try answering from my POV. I have been writing for a while and been doing blogs and writing on LinkedIn Facebook and so on. After moving to Videos and Podcasts over the past two…
-
On this week’s episode there is a lot to unpack and here you go. Now at 100K on Clubhouse. Father’s day Thoughts A Parallel Curriculum in schools Difference between a Habit and a project. When Covid gets very close to you. Podcast mentioned in this Episode. It’s been a minute With Sam Sanders Act up…
-
This week we have a packed episode and here are some of the things that are on my mind menu served on this week’s Podcast. Using Social Media and my Time Daily Writing Exercise started. Started reading the Book Hype by Gabrielle Bluestone World Environment Day, What Am I doing ? Is startup for everyone?…
-
I have been having clubhouse for five months now, but I have used more of it in the last one week since the Android version was launched. Why..? And what does that mean now. Here is what I think. Here is what I have in the Podcast, No poems this Episode. Why I Joined Clubhouse (&…
-
Today I complete 50 years of existence… or living I guess… No this is not an episode on that… but just that it happen coincidentally on the day I am recording this Podcast. I also decided to structure the Podcast in a different format. Here is what you have in this Episode… What’s Happening in…
-
In Today’s Outclass we have a lot to cover. Here is a Glimpse of what we have Today. What is an Outclass? The Need for us all to be Healthcare Literate. We all Walk in Different Woods – Some Thoughts Who is a Professional in Your Opinion? What Seth Godin Says about Professionals in his…
-
This Blog was started a few years back and then as many other things one day it stopped. I had ventured into videos and then Podcasts and now decided to have this Blog used to update the Weekly Podcast and write a small note on the same. Here is the Spotify Link to the Podcast.…
Penpositive 