Redefining Success: The Metric That Matters Most to Me

What drives me is the ability to impact millions of people and give them better, longer lives. This ambition to push the boundaries within healthcare led me to leave home, family, and friends in India and move to the USA in 2013. Since then, this country has offered me amazing experiences and the opportunity to work at some of the most innovative organizations. I helped launch the first-ever comprehensive FDA approved test for cancer patients, worked on commercializing AI algorithms to detect heart disease and developed launch strategy for the first genetically targeted drug for ALS. All that to say, I feel deeply grateful to have these opportunities in my career. With all these accomplishments to be proud of, where even though on paper my life looked perfect, my internal reality felt different.

I had reached a tipping point whereby I realized that even though society had taught me to prioritize success and wealth, they were not the most important metrics for measuring my life. I needed to re-evaluate the desire to keep chasing one thing after the other and have a more grounded approach to life. I was clearly living my life with the ‘if, then’ model – if I get this promotion, I will be happy; if I get a bigger house, I would be happy and so on. I realize that virtually our entire life is a quest to be happy. I hadn’t questioned this model up until recently. So, I decided to dedicate the next few years of my life to self-growth and transformation.

The quest for higher purpose and meaning pushed me out of my comfort zone. I decided to take a long hard look at my model of the world, my beliefs and question whether they were working for me. How could I make them better? I shifted my identity to a growth mindset – living with intention and purpose with a need to grow continuously in all dimensions of life – mission, career, relationships, finances, self.? I spent most of my free time diving deep into concepts by thought leaders and gurus enriching my mind and questioning every hard-wired belief that I had been holding onto since childhood. Srikumar Rao totally changed my perspective on happiness and how to hardwire it into your brain. He teaches personal mastery and creativity at the top business schools in America. I connected deeply with Srikumar’s teachings since I felt the need to go back to my roots, connect with ancient cultural teachings that I had forgotten on the way to ‘hustle-culture’ in the west. I discovered that my career provides me with a great vehicle for growth and impact, it’s not about what I achieve but more about “who I become” in achieving that.

We continuously upgrade our phones and software, but what about upgrading ourselves and our beliefs? One of the most transformational tools I picked up along the way has been breathwork since it allowed me to sink in deep within myself, rethink my self-identity and everything I set out to achieve in my life. It was so different than the relaxing breathing patterns I had learnt in yoga and was quite challenging to practice! It seemed like an emotional workout that I really needed. It led me to a tremendous amount of self-discovery in a short period of time. ?I ended up loving it so much that I decided to certify as a trauma-informed breathwork instructor. It allowed me to reprogram my mind, building resilience that I need to overcome any problem that came my way. I developed an ability to not get impacted by external circumstances, rather being in total control of the equanimity inside. In a lot of ways, it felt like going back to my roots where we were taught about karma – putting in the hard work, letting go of the result and looking for the silver lining in every situation. As I continue my quest for growth, I leave you with my three key takeaways:

1. Life is not about what one achieves, but who one becomes in achieving that.
2. Measure life with the rate of self-evolution and growth.
3. One cannot solve an internal lack with external things.