This podcast episode features an insightful conversation with Dr. Lakshmi, who shares her perspective on cultivating resilience and navigating the journey of self-discovery around one’s purpose in life. Through personal anecdotes and experiences, Dr. Lakshmi offers listeners valuable guidance on how to thrive amidst the challenges and continuous evolution that are part of the human experience.
Meet Dr. Lakshmi Ramachandran, Ph.D.
Dr. Lakshmi Ramachandran started her career in science with a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology. However, the course of her journey changed, and she fell out of the STEM track. Undeterred, she has reinvented her role as a coach, speaker, and trainer, bolstered by impressive credentials such as ICF-ACC accreditation, Belbin Team Roles certification, and a Cambridge International Diploma for Teachers and Trainers. With two decades of experience within the scientific arena, she has delivered keynote speeches and training on hundreds of stages.
Dr. Lakshmi’s impressive accomplishments include being recognized as a 2023 Singapore 40-over-40 honoree, a 2023 Coach Awards bronze winner for best executive coach, and a 2023 LinkedIn top public speaking voice community badge recipient. She has also co-authored an Amazon best-selling book, “Redefining the Rules,” and received a Globant techfluencer award in 2022.
In her current role at the NUS Centre for Future-ready Graduates, Dr. Lakshmi creates and facilitates courses and workshops related to career and workplace readiness, such as public speaking, interpersonal relationships, and productivity. She has also co-created the Emotional Intelligence program for scientists, which was made possible through a Duke-NUS Medical School education grant.
About the episode
One of the insights she shares in this podcast is that finding your life’s purpose doesn’t have to be this grand, lofty thing. It can be as simple as identifying the reason you want to wake up each day. She relates this to her own mother, who found a deep purpose in learning Sanskrit.
When it comes to cultivating resilience, Dr. Lakshmi emphasizes the importance of acknowledging your emotions without letting them consume you. She advises reflecting on past challenges you’ve overcome and drawing hope from those experiences.
A key part of her approach is identifying what truly fulfills you across different areas of life—work, personal, social, and spiritual. She encourages focusing on each sphere’s small, meaningful things and maintaining a balanced perspective.
Dr. Lakshmi believes in accepting reality and having realistic expectations. This, she says, can help you better balance productivity and fulfillment, especially during different phases of life.
Here are some suggestions Dr. Lakshmi on how to determine one’s purpose in life:
- Reflect on your motivation. What really motivates you to wake up each day and gives your life meaning? That’s your core reason or purpose. Don’t feel like you need to have some grand, larger-than-life purpose. Even small daily motivations can define your purpose.
- Look at different areas of life. Look at different areas of life—work, personal, social, spiritual. What fulfills you in each area and gives you joy? Focusing on one meaningful thing per area is purposeful.
- Redefine your goals. Redefine broad goals into their core purpose. For example, wanting to be a scientist can be reframed as wanting to positively impact lives through discoveries.
- Consider things you don’t want to do. Consider what you don’t want to do as much as what attracts you. Excluding options provides clarity.
- Pay close attention to challenges. Pay attention to what challenges, situations, or life phases felt most meaningful and drew you to serve others. Connect those dots.
In conclusion
According to Dr. Lakshmi, you can find purpose by considering what really fulfills you in different areas of your life—work, family, and community. It’s not always about grand accomplishments. Sometimes, it’s just about the little things that make you feel alive. However, it’s crucial for your purpose to align with your values—things like respect, integrity, and trust. Those should guide how you make decisions and approach your relationships.
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