Reflections by Kunal Gupta

It is in my nature to be in balance. That is what I have now learned. The moment that I strive for balance, I am out of balance. 

Yesterday, I took a walk by a frozen river while a fresh coat of snow fell gently to the ground. At one moment, I paused and heard something I had not heard for a while. It was the sound of utter and complete silence. No people walking. No cars driving. No birds chirping. No water flowing. No wind blowing. I stood there, quietly, in awe of the power of the sound of silence.

I have been reminded recently that my life is a canvas, and I am the artist.

A few days ago, I held my newborn nephew for the first time and I noticed how my attention was immediately captivated, unlike ever before.

Mindset is the bridge for me to move from surviving to thriving. And one that I have to continue to cross, as it’s a two way bridge.

The truth is that my journey through life is unpredictable. The question is whether I am willing to see and accept the beauty in this truth.

I see now that the reason that I believe this is because that is the culture and society in which I have grown up in. We all have.

As I have begun to notice what I notice, I have seen my curiosity for understanding why I believe what I do grow. 

While on my own path, there are some big decisions and many small decisions that inform where I go.

This is a sacred time of the year for me, more important and powerful than even my birthday.

Machines are predictable, usually reliable and very consistent. Humans are not.

How do I know if something is true?

I woke up one week ago today with no electricity and no water in the place I was staying.

Imagine a world where we place as much, or possibly more, value on imagination than we do on knowledge. That is a world that sounds inspiring to me.

A little boy went for a walk. Lost in thought, he ended up deep into the woods.

Similar to the playing hide and seek, in the game of life, I am seeking solutions to many problems.

Pay attention to what you pay attention to.

All of the frustration, anxiety and nervous tension that I feel is when I want reality to be different from what it is.

Gratitude is a deeply personal experience. It is not only a state or feeling that I get to experience privately, it is also entirely up to me how I choose to express it.

Reality is full of richness and all that it takes to see it is to open my eyes.

There is a magical space where life feels effortless to me and where I feel most alive.

Life feels like walking a tightrope.

Each week has seven days in it, and none of them are called “someday”.

It is my own shadow that ironically gets in the way of me being able to see the fullness of my life at times.

In the face of The Unknown, we have options and get to choose how we show up.

The human condition is to want what others have, believing that it is better than what we have. It is to feel dissatisfied with our current reality, and hope or expect a brighter, stronger and happier future.

A guided meditation to help us begin to listen to our inner wisdom.

I feel lost in the current movement on racial equity. It has triggered a deeper reflection on the influence of culture and society on my own identity.

The richness of race, beyond my own, has continued to shape me in profound ways.

My empty spaces are filled with information, possibly the most valuable information and definitely the most relevant information that I have access to.

The company that we keep, the content that we consume, the contemplations that we explore, all shape our values.

In the pursuit of individual independence, we have run away from one another, and perhaps even run away from ourselves. Our pursuit of individual independence may have gone too far.

A fourth crisis is beginning to emerge. It is a result of the cumulative intensity from the health crisis, the economic crisis and the social crisis.

Just when we thought Facebook might have been turning a corner, it is clear now that this is one dog that does not want to learn new tricks.

What have I learned about myself in the past 100 days in lockdown?

I have been one of the lucky few, who somehow slipped through the cracks of a society and a system designed to discriminate against so many.

In my role as CEO of Polar (www.polar.me), for the past few years, I’ve published a quarterly State Of Digital Media report that captures the hundreds of conversations that I have regularly with leaders at publishers, agencies, brands and platforms from all corners of the globe. Unlike what you read in the industry trade publications, these reports have been filled with insights and opinions that reflect what my peers are thinking about but may not want to share publicly yet. You can read/share this reflection on my LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/bykunal

Like the Coronavirus, discrimination is a villain that continues to infect all of us.

There is a difference between working a lot and being productive. We may be working a lot, especially in this time, that does not mean that we are being productive.

The many social inequalities that we are witnessing are but symptoms of a different issue.

Each moment is an unconscious expression of who I am.

The state of lockdown that we are in would have been completely unimaginable and absurd to talk about, even 100 days ago. 

The most epic spring cleaning of my lifetime, and yours, is now in motion. Our spaces, lifestyles and beliefs are evolving as a result of the constraints the health pandemic and resulting economic crisis has introduced to everyone.

Perhaps, only once we each find balance within ourselves, will we learn how to restore a new balance for each other and for the future of humanity.

We are more than what we do, where we are, how we appear and how we play.

Our culture has trained us to associate crying with weakness. I feel otherwise.