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day, in a monthly Potentialife masterclass, she told us her DVNHG WR ͤOO WKH YRLG LQ DGGLWLRQ WR IXOͤOOLQJ KLV UROH̵V
story: Three years ago, she started undergoing mild obligations. What he did amaze me. He kept a daily journal
depression. Her entire life was colored grey, and things of his stress experiences, his default response, and his
were unsurprisingly not going well at work. But from there, desired response. And he realized that his stress response
she rose again by learning that the rat-racing doesn’t work started to change: He was taking time to recover from
for her. She reconnected with her old passion for the piano tense conversations, and talking positively of these
and started performing again. This gave her a mindful challenging weeks. Using the simple technique of
DFWLYLW\ ZLWK VRFLDO UDPLͤFDWLRQV $QG D VHQVH RI EHLQJ journaling, he started modifying the narrative in his mind.
successful, while maintaining her identity. He started rewiring his neural pathways.

2. Health: Recovering from an injury by reducing stress 4. Relationships: Upping solidarity during a sprint,
Ashok is a CXO who attended our launch workshop with a high-stakes project
broken arm. Working too hard, around the clock and 0LWDOL UHFHQWO\ VSHQW D PRQWK ORFNHG XS LQ WKH RͦFH ZLWK
traveling excessively, he kept mindlessly getting hurt at her team, handling a once-in-a-lifetime marketing project
KRPH RU DW WKH RͦFH +H KDG KDUGO\ UHFRYHUHG WKDW KH involving one of the greatest athletes that have ever lived
sprained his wrist by falling in the bathroom. That’s when RQ WKLV SODQHW 7KH WHDP KDQGOHG WKLV H[WUDRUGLQDU\ GLͦFXOW
he decided that he would reduce his stress levels by project by making a collective commitment that (1)
replacing multi-tasking by serial monotasking. He Whatever happened, they would make it, and (2) They
would be there for each other. The relationships grew
closer and deeper within the team as a result. This
corroborates my own experience working on tough
In the steady state, we consulting projects while at McKinsey: Long-lasting
relationships consistently emerged from the toughest
automatically learn from projects when the cohesiveness of the team was declared
paramount.
unwanted circumstances;
while in the intermediary 5. Purpose: Reconnecting to our core values to recover
from hectic weeks
state, we are learning to get /XF\ KHDGV D ODUJH GHSDUWPHQW DW DQ 01&̵V RͦFH LQ
Mumbai. The organization is growing fast, and things get
to that state of automatic hectic, if not messy. The day’s schedule consistently slips

learning. Since most of us RZLQJ WR ͤUHͤJKWLQJ IRU FROOHDJXHV ZKR IDFH LVVXHV WKH\
don’t know how to resolve. But every weekend, Lucy takes
are in the intermediary state, time to herself and reconnects with her core values, which
she framed and hung on her study room’s wall a couple of
how can we train our brains years ago. She remembers why she is doing this work, and
to become more anti-fragile? how she wants to show up in challenging circumstances.

Meena, Ashok, Neeraj, Mitali and Lucy are growing stronger
and stronger each time they weather a storm. This is because
they practice their passions, they journal, they simplify sensory
explained to all his colleagues that his response time on LQSXWV WKH\ FRPPLW WR WKHLU WHDPV DQG WKH\ UHͥHFW
WhatsApp would be 12 hours while working from home methodically and periodically. There are probably many other
during recovery. It worked well for him, as he was, in fact, WKLQJV ZH FRXOG GR EXW ZK\ QRW VWDUW ZLWK WKHVH ͤYH"
getting more work done than before the injury. Today, he is
D WUHQGVHWWHU LQ WKH RͦFH +H KDV FUHDWHG D SUHFHGHQW IRU Cyrille Kozyreff is India Country Head
people freeing themselves from the tyranny of instant at Potentialife and a leadership coach.
messaging. Potentialife was started by
Dr Tal Ben-Shahar, a Harvard professor
3. Absorption: Learning from stress through journaling and McKinsey & Company former
Neeraj was going to co-facilitate a monthly masterclass on EMA Head of Strategy, Angus Ridgway.
the topic of stress, with us. But there was a slight issue: Currently, many of our SLP participants
Neeraj was facing the most challenging 3 weeks of his life, at Mahindra Partners are also going
as his boss had unexpectedly resigned and he had been through this program.

t .BIJOESB 1BSUOFST 19