#1 — Kindness is always the right response — Stoicism offers practical wisdom to live well. Most of us agree that our current tendencies don’t serve us well. Our behavior is lemming-like— we silence our inner voice of reason and willingly walk toward the gates of doom. Stoicism offers hard-hitting lessons to help us help ourselves. Ryan Holiday offers…

Writing online can give you unexpected and surprising benefits — The benefits of writing online are well-documented. You earn income on the side. You may even make it your full-time pursuit. You meet like-minded people. It is therapeutic. There are intangible benefits to writing online. For starters, it is a creative pursuit — you’re directing your energies in a productive…

Watching their simple meal made me reflect — The husband, wife, and their two lovely children were eating a meal in a roadside food cart in Salem, India. I would never eat from that food cart. “Is his food hygienic?” would be my first thought. …

#1 — You let things go. — You are your worst critic. Your inner voice is quick to criticize and tell you “You’re the worst”. A stray outburst. A dose of procrastination. Choosing a petty thrill knowing very well it will not serve you well. These are enough to make you doubt yourself again. Have you relapsed…

Happiness is a skill that can be learned — Look to your left and then to your right — the odds are you will find at least one unhappy person. We live in an age of comforts our ancestors could never dream about. Our standards of living are staggeringly high. …

#1 — Respect Everyone — I came to the United States in 2002 to attend college at the University of Maryland. To say that I loved the US is an understatement. I loved everything about America. I had a painful college experience in India, I had just committed social suicide by quitting college. America felt…

#1 — Soak in the beauty — The four years you spend at college are some of the best years of your life. The joy of youth and the thirst to acquire knowledge combine to form a powerful combination. Sadly, many students don’t come close to taking full advantage of the college experience. They either get stressed…

Make it issue-based, not person-based — “He’s such a jerk.” “She’s a bad human being.” “What a <fill in the blanks with your favorite invective of choice>.” “You’re a bad apple.” We’ve all heard people make such statements. Why, we’ve made these statements ourselves. …

An Anecdote on Perspective from ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ — Life is all about framing our narratives. So I’ve learned over the last decade. Complaining is an option. So is gratitude. We have an option to be jealous of their success. Or to be happy for them. Or even to seek them out and learn from their success. The choice…