The Maximum Project

If I were to maintain a 'Human Beings I Love' list, Rupert would be a fixture. Buddhist, writer, traveller, thinker, run coach, teacher, dear friend, and, now, father, he juggles these many roles with grace and presence. His capacity for self awareness and commitment support an unflinching honesty, which allows him to express contrarian opinions without unnecessary padding. Having met at u...

What does it mean to get better each day? Why should we? What happens if we don't? Could we get worse? Does 'worse' compound too? Oh, no! Every cliche demands some examination. Every life, a hint of rumination. Sure, get better each day, but after reading the fine print. These little soundbites are best heard on a walk or while running an errand (okay, fine, you can fall asleep to it). TMP Links:...

What is my purpose? What should I be doing with my career? How can I find satisfaction? Welcome to a newer, more personal TMP. My mind isn't quiet at the best of times, and since I'm not special, I thought yours might fancy a chat, so I thought I might as well share the noise. These little soundbites are best heard on a walk or while running an errand (okay, fine, you can fall asleep to it). TMP L...

Is life deterministic, or does free will exist? A belief in the latter may better serve us, but this question is no longer philosophical. AI is a human creation capable of eradicating free will in insidious ways for aims, from creating echo chambers through seductive 'personalisation' to winning elections and ambient wallet theft. It doesn't need to be that way.  Irrespective of our view, AI...

Les Edgerton is a writer. He is also a writing mentor, published author, trauma survivor, father, husband, and human being with a rich and complex past. As someone capable of preventing and inflicting harm with equal intensity, Les has spent time in the navy as a cryptographer and in prison for burglary. As a bystander, perpetrator, victim, and astute observer, he has dealt with the evil side of t...

Tushar Bajaj used to be my boss. He is also someone I’ve always enjoyed speaking with. Tushar is an executive leader at MSL, an integrated communications firm part of the Publicis Groupe. Not originally from a communication background, he dipped his toes in a bunch of ventures before landing in the field that has been home for the last decade. I’m yet to find a topic he can’t talk about and a room...

You’ve thought about getting fit, haven’t you? And you’ve slipped in the quest a few times, too, eh? It’s a massive concern but might just need a few tweaks to fix. The first tweak? Your mindset. I heard of Dan (or ‘Coach’ as I’ve been calling him on intuition) through Dinesh, my trainer, who I’ve mentioned a few times now. Dan John is a weightlifting and strength coach. He is also an All-American...

Teachers are often formative influences in our development. But, unfortunately, they are also subject to more flak than is often due. So when I thought it would be fascinating to hear their side of the story, only one name came to mind.  Padmakumar MM heads the Media Studies department at CHRIST University, one of India’s leading private universities. An educator for 16 years, he has an astut...

Allen Justin is an artist, therapist, and teacher who lives in Goa with his cats - Death and Patronus. Living with borderline personality disorder, Allen has found refuge in art and a keen interest in science. He is currently building a body of work as he continues to navigate his condition while helping others discover their life path. Allen is vocal on social media about mental health, science,...

Ramya Sriram is a comic creator and writer from India currently based in Cambridge, UK. Her comic strip, The Tap, attempts to capture her bizarre, wild, and wonderful experiences as she figures out her life's purpose.  A keen traveller, Ramya has had her travel writing featured in a host of publications alongside recognition for her art. She is also a poet and content marketer. As someone who...

Prithvi Raj is a product developer at Cadabams Group, a mental healthcare organisation based in India. I first met Prithvi after a guest lecture at Christ University, where he and his team met me after class to workshop some ideas for Indest, a student-run NGO that Prithvi founded in high school. After finishing his undergraduate degree in mass media, literature and psychology, Prithvi began focus...

I met Micah when I was teaching a public relations course at Christ in Bengaluru. He reached out to me for a chat after class, and we’ve been in touch ever since. Now, Michah always struck me as a bright, driven, articulate young man with the existential humdrum that characterized my teens, so I took a shining to him and our conversations. When he dropped out of college, I was on the fence about t...

Caoimhe and I met through, you guessed it, The Portfolio Collective. I left a comment on one of her queries on the community board, and we’ve been in touch since. When we first spoke, Caoimhe’s combination of quiet grit and commitment stood out to me. Her story, and storied career, is an excellent example for people looking to see the benefits of sticking with something.  Caoimhe is a driven...

Heather Sharp is the founder of Forces Wives Challenge, a community of military wives who discover their unlimited potential through challenges worldwide. Heather and I met through The Portfolio Collective, a community looking to help independent professionals build rewarding and lucrative careers. We have been in touch since we first spoke in an online breakout session. I am amazed by Heather's r...

Brian Carvalho is a communication consultant and amateur musician. With over 25 years in the PR consulting game, he currently leads communication for the Live Love Laugh Foundation, Anna Chandy and Associates, and several other organisations. Brian has vast experience working with founders and senior leaders and driving communications strategy in the social impact, healthcare, technology, educatio...

Sahana Dasharathi is the founder of Dash of Nourishment. A practising nutritionist, Sahana specialises in sports nutrition, weight management, gut health, lifestyle management, auto-immune disorders, and hormone imbalances and disorders. She has worked with corporates like Northern Trust and FirstSource while working with Right Living, a nutritional counselling and education firm in Bengaluru. She...

Dinesh Borwankar is the founder and head coach at Movement Strength Performance (MSP), a functional strength and conditioning centre in Bengaluru, India. He is an ACE Personal Trainer, that's the American College of Exercise. Dinesh was also an elite cricketer in what is now a previous life, playing for Karnataka through age-group cricket before moving away from the sport in 2018 to focus on his f...

Are you creative? What was the first response that came to your mind? I have had a lot of conversations with people who don't believe that they are creative. I was one of those people myself until I realized I couldn't avoid being creative any more than I could avoid being human. It comes with the box.* I thought I'd create a piece with the most common arguments for not being creative or to at lea...

Everyone will die. That's not a foreboding statement. It's a reality and one that we may wish to start acknowledging every now and then. Collective paranoia and pithy truisms can provide short-term solace, but is that really how you want to go about your business? Today's reflection is a freestyle 'rant', perhaps not in the truest sense of the word, and I hope it draws your attention to that most...

Solitude makes us more aware of our thoughts, feelings, and state of mind. Maybe that's why it can be intimidating. Have you had a day where things start off dandy but as it progresses, your mood changes. What was once a fairly relaxed setting quickly transforms into a mire of worry and worthlessness. Where does that feeling come from? Why do we always feel the need to do more? I hope this wee rif...

How often do we find ourselves in self-destructive patterns? Have you ever had those moments of self-awareness where you see what you're doing and decide to change? If you said 'yes', you're probably going to say yes to my question. Have you fallen off the willpower 'wagon'? I've been talking to friends about addictions, vices, and self-destructive behaviours. Do we have them just because we're mi...

Have you ever felt that surge of pain at the end of a relationship? The edginess of possibly losing work or the anxiety of a conflict about to explode? Why is it that suffering always seems impossible until it passes? My theory is that we don't practice trauma enough, specifically through the disciplined consumption of perceived agony. Death. Breakups. Bankruptcy. Loss. Each of these is a possibil...

How often do you base your reactions to people on how you feel? Ever so often, in a burst of anger that goes against my 'inner peace', I have said things that I will regret later - a joke, a jibe, a retort, or even just a point that could've been made better. First, there's the exhaustion from the aggression, then the guilt for saying what I have, and the shame for being the person that does all t...

If I didn't have a clear image of how you would like things to turn out, would uncertainty still bother me? A vision is useful for direction, but it can be distressing if I keep thinking about how it may not come to fruition exactly as I picture it. When it comes to people, this becomes a delicate dance between my expectations of interactions and the (sometimes messy) reality of experience. Oh, an...

Our anxiety is often spiked by the prospect of interacting with someone. What are the thoughts that create it? Are your thoughts your own? Where do they come from? Do the people we encounter have anything to do with them? Well, it would help to take a look. Your host has the sniffles, so please excuse the occasional interruption.