K. Srinivas Patnaik

Category: Discipline & Willpower

  • Run the Right Race, Not the Rat Race

    Run the Right Race, Not the Rat Race

    A 1-minute reflection

    Every athlete who enters a race carries the desire to win.

    They may eventually receive gold, silver, bronze — or nothing at all. But no serious participant begins by saying, “I am not here to win.”

    Beyond the prize, recognition, and reward, there is something deeper.

    The inexplicable joy of knowing:

    “I gave myself fully to this.”

    Life is somewhat like that.

    Events keep coming. Races begin and end. Sometimes we win. Sometimes we lose. Sometimes we fall. Sometimes we have to start again.

    But one question remains:

    What is the gold medal we are all running after?

    Honestly, I do not fully know.

    Maybe nobody can define it for another person.

    But there is one quiet clue — the unexplained satisfaction we feel when we are doing something that feels aligned with who we are.

    That inner satisfaction is a guide.

    The problem is, many of us stop listening to it.

    The world pulls us away. Peers distract us. Society pushes us towards comparison, status, packages, and external validation.

    Even young people today often choose their subjects, careers, and futures based mainly on what “package” they may get — not necessarily on what they are naturally designed for.

    But can a sprinter win gold if he or she is unsure, distracted, or running someone else’s race?

    No.

    Each person has their own race to run.

    The purpose of life is not written in one common book.

    It is your journey.

    Your destination.

    Your decision.

    Human instinct is built to race.

    But wisdom lies in this:

    Run the right race.

    Not the rat race.

    Are you running your race, or someone else’s?

  • The Air, the Soul, and the Purpose of Birth

    The Air, the Soul, and the Purpose of Birth

    A 3-minute reflection

    The air around us does not understand the difference between stench and scent.

    It carries both without judgement, without preference, and without knowing what it is carrying.

    But when that air is breathed in by a person, the person immediately recognises whether it carries a bad smell or a beautiful fragrance.

    The air remains detached.

    It only carries.

    In the same way, the soul may carry impressions, tendencies, and subtle ingredients gathered through its journey. It may not judge them as good or bad. It simply carries them.

    But when that soul enters a new body, the individual begins to experience those tendencies through behaviour, likes, dislikes, fears, attractions, reactions, and repeated patterns.

    Some tendencies are easy to understand.

    Some are very difficult to explain.

    For example, my younger son has always had an unusual discomfort with stickers of any kind.

    Once, I had borrowed a friend’s car for a day. When I was dropping my son to school, he refused to sit in the front seat. When I asked him why, he simply pointed to the stickers on the dashboard.

    He is now sixteen years old, and this tendency has been there from his baby days.

    Where does such a tendency come from?

    It is difficult to say.

    But it makes me reflect deeply on how certain impressions may travel with the soul, even before the individual fully understands them.

    The tendencies carried by the soul may remain with a person throughout life. But they are not necessarily permanent in their existing form.

    With sincere effort, they can be observed, refined, converted, and elevated.

    That effort is Sadhana.

    To understand ourselves, we need Swadhyay — self-study.

    To practise what we learn, we need Seva — service.

    And to remain steady in this path, we need Satsang — the company of those who are also walking in the same direction.

    In the modern world, identifying our tendencies has become difficult.

    There is too much distraction, too much noise, and very little space for inner observation.

    But perhaps this is one of the deeper purposes of life.

    The purpose of this birth may not be only to achieve, possess, or succeed externally.

    Perhaps it is also to refine what the soul carries.

    If we carry tendencies that are destructive — hatred, anger, jealousy, cruelty, short temper, or anything that causes pain to ourselves or others — we must make sincere efforts to recognise them and gradually release them.

    If we carry tendencies that are constructive — love, patience, kindness, discipline, compassion, courage, and peace — we must strengthen them, enhance them, and offer them back to existence in a better form.

    So perhaps the purpose of this birth is simple, yet profound.

    To reduce the stench.

    To enhance the fragrance.

    And when the time comes to leave this body, to release a better-quality soul back into the vast space from where it came.

    What fragrance are we cultivating within ourselves?

  • Good Stress & Bad Stress

    From the Archives

    Originally written on 24 January 2014 on my earlier blog “Just felt like it!”. Refined and republished on 27 April 2026 for clarity and readability, while preserving the original thought and intent.

    Good stress is an essential ingredient in every successfully completed project or assignment.

    It provides orientation, alertness, and steady focus as we move towards a desired result.

    What Is Bad Stress?

    The term “bad stress” may sound strange.

    After all, stress is usually assumed to be bad. So how can stress be good?

    Let us consider a project or activity that is coming up. Completing it on time and doing it effectively is important to you.

    At the start, you may feel a slight pressure. This pressure comes from the accountability you feel towards successful completion.

    That is good stress.

    Good stress is essential because it helps an individual focus on the task at hand. It pushes us to prepare, plan, identify bottlenecks, and mitigate risks where possible.

    Every project or activity has certain factors that are outside an individual’s control — nature, public movements, politics, linked activities, associated deliverables, and many other external circumstances.

    Good stress helps us become aware of these factors without becoming paralysed by them.

    When Stress Becomes Bad

    Bad stress begins when worry extends far beyond the project itself.

    Questions start multiplying in the mind:

    “Will I get a raise?”

    “What if the outcome gets messed up?”

    “Will I lose my job?”

    “Will this become a bad mark on my appraisal?”

    “What if someone else takes advantage if this goes wrong?”

    “What will my colleagues think of me?”

    “Will my girlfriend walk away if I lose the job?”

    And believe me, that list can extend for pages.

    At this stage, the mind is no longer focused only on completing the task. It starts wandering into imagined consequences, fears, comparisons, and insecurities.

    That is when stress changes its nature.

    The Language of Bad Stress

    Bad stress often speaks through restless thoughts:

    “I need a break; this stress is killing me.”

    “Let me go down and have a smoke.”

    “When will this project come to an end?”

    “I cannot wait to see the end of this.”

    “I hope all goes well.”

    “Let me go for a stroll.”

    “Life is so maddening.”

    “I hate this job.”

    “My boss can be such a pain in the neck.”

    This is what I call bad stress.

    It is made up of things we need not worry about, but still get dragged into.

    Bad stress is the kind that causes trouble in our life. It drains our energy. It affects our health. Our pains do not heal quickly. Our wounds take longer to recover. New ailments may begin to appear.

    Separating the Two

    The important thing is to pause and examine the situation.

    Take a short time out.

    Breathe deeply.

    Look at your anxiety and worries more carefully.

    Then ask yourself:

    What part of this pressure is useful?

    What part is helping me prepare?

    What part is making me responsible?

    And what part is only creating fear, imagination, comparison, or unnecessary suffering?

    Final Reflection

    Good stress helps us focus.

    Bad stress pulls us away from focus.

    Good stress prepares us for action.

    Bad stress traps us in worry.

    The task before us is not to avoid all stress. The task is to recognise the difference between the kind of stress that sharpens us and the kind that weakens us.

    Throw the bad stress out of the window.

    And embrace the good one.