“Let our mindset be calibrated periodically to keep pace with life.” – Chetlur S Prasad

For many years, I carried a set of beliefs that had served me well. Work hard and stay quiet. Have an answer ready before anyone asks. Do it yourself if you want it done right. These ideas had built my career and earned me respect. I never thought to question them. Why would I? They had worked.

The realisation came during a simple conversation with a younger colleague. He had brought me a problem, and before he finished explaining it, I had already handed him a solution. He thanked me politely, but I saw something in his face. Later I learned he had a better idea of his own, one he never got to share. I had answered him with a version of myself from twenty years ago. The advice was sound for that time. It simply did not belong to this one.

That stayed with me. I began noticing how often I was running on old settings. I reacted to my children’s choices with the expectations of my own youth. I measured a good day by standards I had set at a very different stage of life. None of these beliefs was wrong. They had just stopped matching the life I was actually living.

So I started a small habit. Every few weeks, I sit quietly and ask myself one question: which of my beliefs am I still holding only because I have always held them? Some I keep, with fresh conviction. Some I soften. A few I set down gently, with gratitude for what they once gave me.

What surprised me most was that I did not feel I was losing myself. If anything, I felt more like myself. Listening came more easily. Conversations opened up. People around me seemed to grow when I stopped filling every silence with what I already knew.

Key Learning: A belief that once served you well can quietly fall out of step with your life. Revisit your thinking regularly, not because you were wrong, but because you have grown.

Chetlur S Prasad

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