Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa, Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, is the author of Inner Mastery, Outer Impact. Dr. Wadhwa joins Marcel to discuss where everyone’s success truly comes from our Inner Core. He explains his story behind the inspiration for his latest book, and unpacks a few of the 5 Core Energies to mastering your Inner Core; Purpose, Wisdom, Growth, Love, and Self-Realization.

The Inner Core
Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa discusses the book Inner Mastery, Outer Impact. The Inner Core is a place we can all find success, when focused on it and living truly from your Inner Core you will see from faith that the opportunities on the outside will manifest. The Inner Core can be fully accessed by activating these 5 Core Energies: Purpose, Wisdom, Growth, Love, and Self- Realization. While we unpack several energies, Dr. Wadhwa details all of the 5 stages for each of these energies in the book, “The essence of the book is inviting us to become familiar, and activate and to let our Inner Core shine through by putting these energies in action in everything we do.” [34:00]

Purpose
The first stage of purpose Dr. Wadhwa calls a “Stirring” in which people hunger to get more out of life or from a crisis mode that changes your outlook or circumstance. This first stage leads to the following 4 stages: searching for the answers, defining values, focusing and affirming yourself by living by the things you’ve discovered, and finally fusion where you create a magical moment of living your purpose in all facets of your life. Can anyone pursue their purpose? Dr. Wadhwa says, “We may be restricted by our own imagination. What is it that we can manifest and do in the present moment in the circumstances that the universe has put us in?” [31:30]

Love
You do this by putting love into action. This core energy utilizes this beautiful analogy of love as a flower. Stage 1: Prepare the Soil. Dr. Wadhwa explains that the research says you must get to a place where you yourself feel adequately and fully loved because you cannot give what you do not have. Stage 2: Sew the Seeds. Look for the virtues, strengths, and beauty in life with appreciation, gratitude, abundance, and empathy. Stage 3: Remove the Weeds. In love, this means removing the hatred, grudges, and judgment from all places in your life. Stage 4: Prune the Branches. This critical piece in which you must take care of yourself even when it comes to the hard decisions. Stage 5: Make Love Bloom. Dr. Wadwha says, “The way I define love is, it’s about taking joy in other people's joy, and taking success in other people’s success… You are not meant to sit in splendid isolation from the rest of humanity but you’re meant to be intertwined with them in beautiful ways.” [34:40]

Removing the Weeds
Commenting on Stage 3 of the Love Core Energy, Marcel comments that there are a lot of weeds, and the weeds are so tall we aren't able to see over them to the other side. He seeks tips from Dr. Wadhwa about truly removing judgment and hatred given the circumstances of our world. Dr. Wadhwa challenges the idea of Heroes versus Villains, and how we view the people who agree and disagree with us and reframes the way we think about the “Villains” with a lens to see them as “Heros”. “There is value in seeing things from a place of humble curiosity, and recognize that truth is more nuanced than a quick atomization and polarization of the world.” [54:25]

Mentioned in this episode:
Hitendra Wadhwa
Hitendra Wadhwa (@HitendraWadhwa) on Twitter
Mentora Institute
Mentora Foundation

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