Turn Your Mess into Your Message
From empowering over 5 lakh children to receiving the Award of Excellence from the President himself, Dr. Kannan has made quite a mark in his flourishing career. He is a life coach, psychologist, educationist and business coach; few of many words that can describe him best.
He started this journey after finishing his studies in psychiatry. Leaving behind his goal of becoming a cardiothoracic surgeon, he wanted to do more. His vision of touching lives and transforming them led him to make this shift after completing his MBBS.
“Very early on in my career as a psychiatrist, I witnessed a massive tragedy. Losing one of my patients to parental abuse for having a mental illness, I knew there was something more I could do.”
There was no looking back after this loss.
Dr. Kannan started working with college students to improve their mental health. After empowering so many of them, he also went on to work with the Tamil Nadu government to coach young ones, help villagers affected by drug abuse in Kashmir and teach tribals from Orissa and West Bengal. He mentioned what motivated him to do this, “I wanted to focus on communities that don’t have access to such resources. Everyone deserves an equal chance to reach their potential.”
The amount of impact he has created is not an easy feat. He shared with us what kept him at the top of his A-game.
“What I truly believe is that no matter who you are and what you do, there’s always scope for growth and learning. Investing in yourself is the best gift you can give to yourself.” He constantly worked on himself: went through many training programmes and worked with the top psychologists of the world, right from Werner Erhart to Brian Tracy.
Throughout his career, if there’s one thing that has stuck with him, it is, “If a person can be brainwashed to do something bad, there’s always scope to reprogram someone’s mind in a way that will benefit them. That’s the beauty of psychology.”
While conducting programmes for students all over the world, he developed them in a way that will leave a lasting impact, and not just wash away after a few days. Working with so many children and teenagers made him land upon formulas that worked for adults as well.
The similarity he found between the two audiences was simple, “Both are human beings. Both have goals to achieve: adults have financial goals, and children have educational goals. Both are short on time and in today’s day and age, they all have to face immense stress.”
During the lockdown, he started coaching the top entrepreneurs and CEOs of the country as well. He expanded his horizons to mentor and coach them because he believes “an entrepreneur’s journey is a lonely one. They are constantly faced with high-risk decisions and stress of leading large teams.” He has now helped so many of them level up further as leaders.
“I work with them so passionately, because the impact they create is phenomenal. It’s important to respect, recognise and nurture them.”
From teenagers to CEOs, he’s enabled lakhs of people to level up, but one experience of his life took him to the pinnacle of his career. “I got the honour and privilege to host a workshop alongside the Indian Army for people who faced drug abuse in Kashmir. I was truly inspired by the experience: what I saw was beyond comparable. While we were conducting workshops for the villagers in Punj, the Army protected us from the imminent danger that constantly lurked in the area. Working in collaboration with them made me realise the true definition of discipline and dedication. It will stay with me forever.”
Reaching this height took him a long winding journey. It started from rock bottom. He shared with us the epiphany he had when he was lying in a hospital bed, “I had a close brush with death when I faced a terrible accident in 2002. I took it as a sign. I was chosen to have this new life for a reason. I knew that I had to create something lasting, something positive. What I realised was that each individual is a medium, a vessel for the universe to create some change in this world. And it chose me to do this. This is what keeps me going on my low days.”
His mantra is: turn your mess into your message. We all face downfalls in life, but he believes, “From our lowest of lows, a message comes along from the universe. That message can go on to create an opportunity. Grab that, work on it and share it with the world. You’ve found your purpose then.”