
Reflections by Kunal Gupta
By Kunal Gupta

Reflections by Kunal GuptaOct 09, 2022

How to Haircut
As I stood up from Wayne's chair, I felt lighter, not just because of the weight of the hair that had been cut, but due to gaining some additional clarity on how to live.

How to Surf
It was only when I relaxed and let the waves guide me that I was able to stand.

How to Trek
The knowledge of my mind mixed with the experience of my body created this wisdom that I can do things I don’t know how to do or know much about.

How to Not Live
A healthy person has one thousand worries; an unhealthy person has only one.

How to Live
My journey, like most others, has been often fraught with challenges and uncertainties.

How to Be Lazy
Bill Gates once said something about choosing a lazy person for a tough job. Why? They'd find the easiest way to do it.

How to Fail
The journey of paddleboarding, much like the journey of life, is fraught with challenges.

How to Grandson
I find myself wanting to understand my grandparents better, to appreciate their struggles and their triumphs, to honor their memory.

How to Italy
As I stood there, I realized that this perfect day I had was a reminder about the journey, not the destination

How to Birthday
Life continues to change me. I don’t need to control or direct the change. I can learn to allow it to happen.

How To Dance
The way I learned to dance was by doing it, whereas before I had been trying to think it.

How To Get A Red Phone
As I stared at my empty hands, it took me a split second to acknowledge what had just happened.

How To Exhale
It mattered less about where we were, what we ate or what we did, but rather who we were with and how we were with each other

Going To The Moon
Seeing the moon up close last night sparked something inside of me. It was a reminder to shoot for the moon. Permission to dream.

How To Be On Time
When I am in flow with time, choices become easy. When I am attempting to force time, everything feels difficult.

How to be late
Life is not about trying to be right. It is about learning to live in harmony with my reality. To know it, accept it and thrive in it.

How To Be Canadian
Being Canadian is a feeling, a silent commitment to universal values, and a quiet pride that needs no validation.

The Compounding Life
The power of compounding in life is a testament to the value of consistency, patience, and long-term commitment

Shape Of My Heart
The shape of my heart is not static, it continues to change

The Most Important Relationship
The realization that I understand myself more deeply than anyone else has been both liberating and empowering

How to Feel Alive
My personal currency of inspiration serves as my compass, guiding me through major and minor life decisions

How To Disconnect
In my life, I've found myself living in two distinct modes.

A Balanced Life
A life void of risks is akin to a stagnant portfolio—destined for a slow decline due to inflation

Fear of Living
It's a perspective shift, understanding that death is not the antithesis of life, but its culmination

How To Dream
Taking the leap and following my heart meant leaving the safety of my comfort zone behind.

Passport Privilege
It's important to recognize that while I've benefited greatly from my passport, it's something that I didn't earn.

Nature v Nurture
A vacation with my sister in Greece highlighted the differences between our personalities shaped by both nature and nurture, allowing me to accept myself and appreciate the role of both in shaping who we are.

A Perfect World
The world will keep changing. Those around me will keep changing. I will keep changing. However, I do not need to force any of it. It is in

Creating Space
The more I appreciate the value of space, the more I understand its necessity in moving through life.

Beyond Ourselves
Last week, I had a remarkable experience that left me feeling deeply moved and inspired.

Giving Up Control
I recently announced a new CEO for my technology business and that I have moved into a board role. For me, it marks a profound shift in my professional identity. Since founding the business 15 years ago, in my early 20s, I have been known to my external world as a CEO. This is no longer the case.

The Pursuit Of Pleasure
I recently got new bed sheets. The morning after sleeping on them for the first time, I lay in bed, awake, curious about their impact on me.
The first thought that raced through my mind was, 'did I sleep better with these new bed sheets?'. I then started to wonder how I would be able to tell.
Would my Oura ring pick up the difference in my sleep data? Might my energy level in the morning be noticeably different? I quickly concluded that there are far too many variables related to my sleep for me to isolate the impact of bed sheets.
Tired of thinking, I observed how comfortable the sheets felt on my body. I was really enjoying the sensations on my skin of these new sheets. I had a desire to stay in bed longer, even if I was awake.
Then a frightening thought arose. What if these sheets were worse for my sleep, even though I seemed to enjoy them?

Floating Anchors
My mind is capable of imagining the ideal scenario, for practically everything. It assumes the ideal conditions and circumstances by default.

Brilliant Moments
In recent weeks, I have noticed a brilliant moment most mornings as I wake up.

Conditional Confidence
I grew up learning to feel confident only once there was a reason to.

The Most Inspiring Person
This past week, I got to spend time with the most inspiring person I have ever met in my life.

One Word To Guide 2023
For nearly a decade, I have had a New Year ritual to pick one single word as my intention for the year ahead.

Disconnect To Reconnect
My experiment was to go into a silent retreat, in my own home, by myself, for 4 days.

The Scarcity Experiment
When I observe for a moment my daily lifestyle, an abundance mindset guides my choices, without a doubt.

Time To Make Peace With The Past
To make peace with my past is not easy.

How To Relax
If I wanted to feel more relaxed, more often, my default thesis was that I need to make more time and space for relaxing activities.

Threads Of Connection
Very few of my friends know what I do, and even those that do don’t seem very interested in knowing more.

The Empire Of Worry
We all seem to live in our own little, for some large, empires of worry.

One Year In
It was one year ago today that I moved to Portugal and it has been an incredible first year in this new continent, country and culture.

A Beautiful Day
Earlier this week, I was complaining to my therapist about how I wanted more spontaneity in my life.

Swimming In The Sea
Flowing with waves of desires arising and disappearing is how I will continue to swim through life.

Third Place Thinking
Every choice, action or word is part of a chain of cause and effect. I appear to be more the effect than the cause in my life, and that feels disconcerting to say out loud.

Annoying Parents
The love of a parent towards a child is said to be unconditional. It could also be said that the love of a parent towards a child is annoying.

Drive My Car
I have observed in life that the benefits of practicing trust often outweigh the risks of feeling disappointed.

The Most Valuable Real Estate
There is a piece of real estate that I have discovered to be the most valuable in the world.