This New Year, Listen to Your Heart

If you’ve been doing something for years, you eventually become very good at it. You become known for it. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒔.

Because while you continue to grow: take courses, earn more degrees, reskill, upskill, learn entirely new domains: at the workplace, you’re often still seen doing 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈.

You could be an accountant who understands strategy.

A finance professional pursuing marketing.

Someone with years of experience and a fresh, trending perspective.

However, within the organisation, the label persists.

Organisations still tend to view people in fixed boxes based on what they 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆, rather than what they 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆.

Experience, ironically, becomes a box instead of a bridge.

In India, we often discuss the demographic dividend, emphasizing the need for opportunities among young professionals.

Yet a large number of experienced professionals in their 30s, 40s, 50s are often under-utilised, not under-qualified.

Over 53% of graduates and 36% of postgraduates are underemployed in jobs below their qualifications.

Only about 4.7% of the workforce has formal skill training, contributing to an underutilised labour force.

Even after retirement, many senior citizens still want to contribute meaningfully.

They have decades of institutional memory, decision-making wisdom, and problem-solving skills.

However, the system mostly asks them to step aside instead of taking a different approach.

When organisations don’t tap into the full potential of experience, they lose twice: once by not leveraging what people already know; and again by ignoring what they are still capable of becoming.

Yes, experience 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 be your biggest asset.

But when it becomes the only lens through which you’re seen, it quietly turns into a limitation.

According to LinkedIn’s 2025 Work Change Report, by 2030 as much as 70% of the skills used in most jobs will change, reshaping how organisations view talent, roles and experience in the future.

This means that experience shouldn’t be a label that limits you, it should be a foundation for ongoing evolution: the kind that helps you grow horizontally as well as vertically in your career.

If 2025 offered us a Big Idea for 2026, it is that the future of work won’t be defined by what you’ve always done, but by what you can keep becoming.

Growth sometimes simply means being allowed to evolve within one.

Talent doesn’t expire. It just gets quieter when it’s not heard.

PS: This New Year, listen to your heart.

EI: The Skill Nobody Tells You Is Critical

“I was angry because I got stuck in traffic and reached class late.

I was anxious because I had a presentation.

I was irritated after a fight with a friend.

I was jealous because someone scored higher than me.”

These weren’t confessions from a therapy circle, but everyday emotions openly shared by Gen Z at a recent gathering.

What started as a generic conversation shifted into something far more real:

Communication isn’t just about speaking well. It’s about understanding what you feel and expressing it without hurting others or yourself.

I then heard them discussing emotional intelligence, conflict management, and why feelings that seem insignificant are actually the ones that shape how we think, work, collaborate, and lead.

Because truth is:

A traffic jam is not just a delay; it’s a trigger.

A bad mark is not just a score; it’s a test of self-worth.

A conflict isn’t just an argument; it’s an unresolved need.

Jealousy isn’t weakness; it’s information.

And when we learn to identify the emotion beneath the reaction, we stop throwing fuel on the fire and start learning to listen, empathize, and respond.

A good human being isn’t born in boardrooms and by delivering big speeches.

A good human is built from moments when we choose understanding over ego, clarity over chaos, conversation over silence, and being there for others over selfishness.

Also, keep trying to have conversations – even with the difficult people – because in the end, they’re also humans.

Anyway, if you fail, remember: Sometimes even good intentions get dramatic responses – take it gracefully.

Paws Before You Respond!

“𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒐𝒓, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒏.”

My mom warned me. I didn’t pay attention.

A brown cat I met recently who reminded me of that very lesson – loud, dramatic, and simply asking to be understood.

Thirty seconds later, a brownish stray cat came in from the tree outside our room’s balcony – and four-year-old me sat there terrified with my one-year-old brother, sleeping happily. 

Ever since I was a toddler, our home has always had animals in it.

Growing up in a joint family meant constant chaos – cousins everywhere, doors always open, and a huge tree outside our balcony that acted like a grand highway for cats from the neighbor’s roof straight into our house.

They would stroll in like they owned the place, eat a bit, nap a bit, and leave when they felt like it.

Dogs, too, mostly strays who found a home in our hearts long before they found shelter in our house. 

One memory has stayed with me vividly.

I was four. My brother was one. My mother had asked me to make sure the door stayed locked so no cats wandered in while she stepped away for two minutes. I forgot.

A cat suddenly leaped in from the window, landed right next to my baby brother, and let out the 𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒘.

Before I could cry, my mom rushed in – she was calm, gentle, completely unfazed. She picked up the cat, stroked it, smiled, and said, “𝑰𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒅. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒍.”

And somehow, even at four, that stayed with me.

Not every loud voice is a threat. Sometimes it’s simply someone asking to be understood. It’s about pausing long enough to understand intention.

Today, every time my dogs bark at the door or a cat meows demanding attention, I remember that lesson: Listen before you judge. Decode before you defend. Respond with empathy, not panic.

Because in life, sometimes all someone needs is the quiet reassurance that they are heard.

PS: Here’s another brown cat I met recently who reminded me of that very lesson – loud, dramatic, and simply asking to be understood. Don’t shut people out… learn when to 𝒑𝒂𝒘𝒔 and listen.