Understanding Human Psychology

  2025: From Awareness to Influence — A Year That Changed How I Operate As 2025 draws to a close, I find myself pausing, first, to measure the year by milestones, and second to measure it by movement . Inner movement, Relational movement, and finally, Systemic movement. If I were to describe 2025 in two halves, the first half was about awareness and connection, and the second half was about stakeholder management and collective momentum. What’s interesting is that the second half could only exist because of the first. It Started With Awareness - Early 2025 gently but firmly nudged me inward. Awareness of self, patterns, what energizes me and what drains me. That awareness naturally led to a deeper connection with self, my intent, my values, my way of being in the world. And once that connection with self strengthened, my connection with others became more authentic, more grounded, and more meaningful. Conversations felt less transactional and more intentional. Listening became dee...

  As professionals, we often talk about qualities as if they are switches, like either on or off. One is confident or not, decisive or hesitant, strong or vulnerable. But I feel reality doesn’t work in binaries. I feel qualities exist on a continuum. Confidence, for instance, ranges from self-doubt on one end to arrogance on the other. Somewhere in the middle lies grounded and sound-minded confidence, like the one that listens, adapts, and still takes a stand when needed. Too little confidence can hold you back. Too much can shut others down. Haven’t we all experienced people who are holding themselves back in their professional career and are loosing out on opportunities to shine because of the lack of confidence. And similarly experienced people because of their over confidence, nearly arrogance, they can turn off their colleagues or push them into a shell. The same is true for vulnerability. At the right moment, vulnerability builds trust, deepens connection, and makes leaders...

  There are days when my work feels like walking a tightrope. One moment, I’m expected to follow processes exactly as they are — templates, standards, formats, quality checks. Don’t miss a step. Don’t improvise. Consistency matters. And I completely agree. In many situations, standardisation is what keeps work efficient, reliable, and safe. But a few hours later, I’m asked a very different question: “Can you think differently?” “Can you make this more innovative?” “Can you bring a fresh perspective?” And suddenly, the same system that demanded conformity now expects creativity. I’ve often found myself thinking — which version of me do you want today? This is the reality for many of us. The world asks for quality — which usually means standardisation — and at the same time asks for creativity and innovation, which often means breaking away from those very standards. Both are valuable. Both are necessary. But managing the shift between the two is not easy. As a leader, I’ve realised ...

 A Quiet Lesson From a Stormed-Out Afternoon It started on one of those afternoons when nothing feels steady. I was sitting by the window, watching the sky turn from blue to grey in a matter of minutes. The wind had picked up, the trees were bending, and everything outside felt restless, unsettled. And somewhere inside me, I felt the same. A little stormy. A little shaky. I was reading a story Max Lucado shares in Anxious for Nothing. A father and his young daughter were flying home when the aircraft hit severe turbulence. The child looked up, slightly startled by the shaking plane, but the father sat calmly, even smiling. The daughter asked, “Aren’t you scared?” He said, “No, sweetheart… the pilot is my friend.” That sentence stayed with me longer than I expected. Because so often, anxiety feels like turbulence — sudden, unpredictable, and completely out of our control. The world shakes, our thoughts race, and we instinctively hold on to anything that feels stable. But Max Lucado’...

 What it really means to get Educated  She grew up in a world where the mountains were her only teachers and the boundaries of her life were drawn long before she could question them. Her days were filled with chores, silence, and a set of beliefs so deeply rooted that they felt like the only truth. She didn’t know what school felt like. She didn’t know what a classroom looked like. And she definitely didn’t know that asking questions was even allowed. But somewhere inside this girl — Tara — a small spark of curiosity refused to die. It flickered quietly, almost fearfully, every time she wondered why the world outside her home was off-limits. It glowed a little brighter when she secretly listened to people talk about things she had never heard of. And one day, it burned strongly enough for her to take the first step: to educate herself. Her journey was not just about learning math or history or grammar. It was about challenging her own reality. Every new idea she encountered d...