Stressed, Stuck, and Overthinking? Here's the Science of Moving Forward | Ranjay Gulati
5/4/202653 min
A Harvard professor on the nine evidence-based tools for acting decisively when fear and uncertainty are telling you to do nothing.
Ranjay Gulati is the Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. His pioneering work focuses on unlocking organizational and individual potential—embracing courage, nurturing purpose-driven leaders, driving growth, and transforming businesses. He is the author of Deep Purpose and How to be Bold.
In this episode we talk about:
- The difference between courage and recklessness
- How to accept your fears without being controlled by them
- Tools for remaining calm in the face of a disaster
- How to find your moral anchors
- The importance of having a support squad
- How to inculcate courage into your family, workplace, and friend group
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDan Harris· Host0:00
[upbeat music] This is the Ten Percent Happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. [upbeat music] Hello, everybody. How we doing? Okay, so we've all been there, those moments of uncertainty and fear where we freeze, we feel paralyzed, we overanalyze, we overthink, and then, as a consequence, we fail to take action in ways that can later produce a lot of shame and regret. I suspect the situation I'm describing right here is increasingly common right now when anxiety and uncertainty are through the roof. We're dealing with so many X factors in the world right now: AI, war, political polarization. I could go on. So in this context, in a world that is more uncertain perhaps than ever, that leaks into our daily lives in all sorts of conscious and subconscious ways, in this context, how do you give yourself the resources to get out of paralysis and into action? In other words, how do you develop, and I'm gonna use a loaded word here, courage? You may be tempted to think of courage as an inalterable factory setting, but my guest today argues that it's actually a skill, which is right on point with the major theme of