How to Trick our Mind and Body to do What We Want
Pushing Beyond the Obvious - Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed
Release Date: 12/29/2025
Pushing Beyond the Obvious - Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed
Premise In this podcast episode, we host India's biggest and best Executive Coach Shital Kakkar Mehra. She has trained more than 1000 CxO's and more than 40000 leaders about how to develop their executive presence. We talk about how the we lead and what is expected from us shifts as we continue to grow in our careers and what makes us successful early in our career is no longer enough when we become managers (managing people) and it changes again, when we start leading managers and agains shifts when we start leading functions and organisations. Apart from all the technical skills and the...
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Premise: Almost all leaders today lead in an environment that is ripe with disruptions and ever changing competitive landscape. The challenges of leading in this constantly evolving landscape are very different from that of leading in a stable environment where the current management practices are rooted in. So, if we have to succeed in this new world, we need to change the lens through which we view leadership and management practices. That begs the questions - where can we draw inspiration for the new way of leading. Thankfully, we don't need to look far. We can learn from . Leading an...
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In this episode, I want to share a brilliant story written by one of my favorite marketers, Dave Trott, titled "Strategy is Sacrifice". The story takes us back to World War II. At the time, standard military strategy assumed that for a bomber to survive, it needed more armor, more guns, and a larger crew. Planes like the British Lancaster and the American B-17 were massive, heavy, and slow because they were weighed down by defenses. But Geoffrey de Havilland had a different idea—a creative strategy. He asked a simple question: What if the enemy couldn't catch you?. Instead of adding more...
info_outlinePushing Beyond the Obvious - Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed
Welcome back to another episode of Pushing Beyond the Obvious. I recently read a blog post from the MIT Sloan Management Review titled "Your people are not all right," which highlights the immense overwhelm and stress employees are currently facing. This inspired me to talk about a critical responsibility we have as leaders: having a clear understanding of what is happening in our team members' lives, not to spy on them, but to genuinely ensure their wellbeing. In this video, I break down the subtle but vital differences between an average leader, a good leader, and a leader worth following....
info_outlinePushing Beyond the Obvious - Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed
Standing out starts with choosing to see, think, and act differently from the default, and then designing your work, relationships, and systems around that choice. This means intentionally questioning “how things are done here” and repeatedly experimenting with better ways that reflect who you are and what you care about.youtube Why being different matters Most environments quietly push people to conform, to not make waves, and to follow existing templates for success. If you obey those pressures blindly, you become invisible, even when you are talented and hardworking.youtube ...
info_outlinePushing Beyond the Obvious - Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed
Teams that are engaged perform better, collaborate more, and stay longer. I often talk about how employee engagement sits at the heart of every high-performing team. The real question is: how do leaders actually build it in day-to-day work? Hire for Attitude Before Skills Engagement starts much earlier than most people realise — right at the hiring stage. I believe that while skills can be developed over time, attitude is much harder to change. Hiring people who naturally align with the team’s values and energy creates a stronger foundation for engagement. At the same time, we need to...
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Premise: In today's fast-paced world, every organization and leader feels the relentless pressure to innovate. We're taught to hunt for that game-changing idea, that single "Eureka!" moment that will redefine our market. But waiting for a random stroke of genius is an ineffective and stressful strategy. The myth of the lone visionary struck by a sudden, brilliant insight is just that—a myth. True innovation isn't about luck; it's about process. Generating breakthrough ideas can be a systematic, repeatable activity. By moving beyond passive inspiration and adopting active methods, you...
info_outlinePushing Beyond the Obvious - Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed
Introduction Confidence doesn’t always come naturally, especially when you grow up rarely seeing people like you represented in leadership, media, or success stories. In a world where visibility often determines opportunity, learning how to show up fully becomes essential. Sheena Yap Chan, a keynote speaker, leadership strategist, and author, shares powerful insights on confidence, identity, and visibility, particularly for Asian women navigating personal and professional spaces. Why Representation Matters More Than We Think? Growing up in Canada, Sheena often felt the absence of...
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Premise The real job of a leader is not decision-making. It is decision capability-building and this can be done by creating better leaders from those that they lead. Bad leaders manage how work is being done, good leaders manage whether the work is being done and great leaders create capacity so that the work gets done. This is possible only when we are able to find ways to train them, to coach them and to get them ready for their journey as a leader. This requires us to give them additional responsibilities and create opportunities to lead as part of the day-to-day work. We can prepare...
info_outlinePushing Beyond the Obvious - Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed
In this short narration, talks about the role of a director and it is a classic definition of what we need to do as leaders to become a leader worth following. Very early in his career, he asked on what was the job of a director in the making of a movie and here is what he was told – “It is not your job to create your vision, it is your job to have a vision! And it is your job then to hire talented people who understand your vision. You articulate your vision to them. Then they take your vision and they create it. And with them creating it, you bring your inputs to...
info_outlineIntroduction: The Vicious Cycle of Feeling "Stuck"
Have you ever felt completely stuck? Maybe it's a low mood you can't shake, or a physical exhaustion that makes every task feel impossible.
When you’re in that state, it can feel like a vicious cycle you can't break.
But what if you had more control than you thought?
The relationship between our psychology (our mind) and our physiology (our body) is a powerful two-way street.
How we think affects how we feel physically, and how our body feels and moves directly impacts our mental state.
This is fantastic news because it means you don’t have to remain stuck. You can consciously use one to influence the other.
Here, we’ll unlock four simple but profound strategies you can use to take control, shifting your state in minutes.
Takeaway 1: To Fix a Bad Mood, Don't Think—Just Move
When you're feeling down or depressed, the common instinct is to try and think your way out of it — to analyze the feeling or force a positive mindset.
The principle of the mind-body connection offers a more direct route: use your physiology to change your psychology. In other words, just get up and move.
This can be as simple as going out for a walk, putting on some music and dancing, or even just jumping on the spot. It could also mean heading to the gym for a workout. Any activity that changes your physical state has a direct and powerful impact on your mental state.
This idea is often counter-intuitive but incredibly effective because of its speed. Instead of getting caught in a loop of negative thoughts, you can take a physical shortcut.
By changing your body's state through movement, you create an almost immediate shift in your mind, lifting your mood before you’ve even had a chance to think about it. It's the fastest way to short-circuit a negative mental loop when cognitive approaches fail.
Takeaway 2: To Overcome Physical Fatigue, Engage Your Mind
Now, let's look at the reverse scenario. Imagine you are feeling physically lethargic, tired, and have absolutely no motivation to go anywhere or do anything. In this case, you can use the other lane on the two-way street: engage your psychology to change your physiology.
Instead of trying to force your body to move, start by shifting your mental input. You can do this by:
- Putting on some inspiring music
- Listening to an engaging and inspiring audio podcast
- Watching inspiring videos
By deliberately changing what your mind is focused on, you can trigger a remarkable shift in your physical energy.
A great dance track can suddenly make you feel like moving, or an inspiring talk can make your body feel ready for action.
Engaging your mind isn't just a distraction; it’s about creating the mental conditions that give your body permission to feel energized, unlocking latent physical energy you didn't think you had.
Takeaway 3: The Ultimate "Reset Button" for When You're Mentally and Physically Drained
What happens when you’re dealing with both issues at once—feeling depressed and lethargic?
This is when you can feel the most stuck, with neither your mind nor your body wanting to cooperate. For this exact situation, there is a simple, combined solution that acts as a powerful "reset button."
The method is simple: Put on your favorite music and just move your body to it.
You don't need to dance perfectly or follow any specific steps. The only goal is to move your body in response to the music.
This single action engages both your mind (through the music) and your body (through the movement) simultaneously.
This simple act can "shift everything around," breaking the cycle of both mental and physical stagnation. It’s a technique that, as the source speaker notes, "has worked really really well for me."
Takeaway 4: Your Breakthrough Might Come from an Unexpected Source
While the general principles of moving your body or engaging your mind are powerful, sometimes the most effective solutions are more personal and unconventional.
The key is to be open to trying things that might seem unusual but work for you.
Two specific and surprising personal examples highlight this point:
- For extreme physical lethargy: Try listening to electronic music with heavy beats and rhythms. In my experience, perhaps this works because the external vibrations of the music resonate with the body's own internal rhythms, like the heartbeat. This definitely works for me.
- For a low psychological mood: Try the simple art of coloring. I have never painted or done any kind of art work in my life before, yet I have discovered that engaging in a focused, creative, and non-demanding activity like coloring can subtly "shift something inside," changing my mood without me even realizing how it happened.
These examples show that the best solutions are often the ones we discover for ourselves. They don't have to be complicated; they just have to resonate with you.
Conclusion: You Are the Driver on a Two-Way Street
The connection between your mind and body isn't a passive system; it's a dynamic, two-way street, and you are the one in the driver's seat.
You have the power to direct the traffic. You can use physical movement to break out of a mental rut and mental engagement to spark physical energy. You have the tools to shift your state at any moment.
The next time you feel stuck, will you try to change your mind with your body, or your body with your mind?