Contact Info
#23071, Prestige Shantiniketan, Whitefield, Bangalore-560048
The Student Who Thought He'd Hit Rock Bottom
What happens when a young adult stops judging every move he makes and starts training his mind instead?
Arman
A college student, and a corporate intern (at the time of recording this interview).- Context: Joined Inside Out Labs in the second year of college, at 19, as part of Helping Kids Thrive's (HKT) inaugural university cohort.
- Program: Inside Out Labs Full curriculum.
- Core Struggle: Grades in free fall, chronic procrastination, an attention span limited to 15 to 30 minutes, and a habit of saying yes to everyone. Underneath it all, lay a relentless inner judge and a defensive ego that blocked accountability.
THE CHALLENGE
When Arman joined the program in his fourth semester, he was, in his own words, at "a pretty low point" in his life. On the outside, he was simply an easygoing college student going with the flow. Inside, every self-regulatory system was failing simultaneously.
WHAT THEY CARRIED IN
“I Genuinely Thought I Hit Rock Bottom”
The Restless Mind
He was unable to sustain focus on academic tasks for longer than 15 to 30 minutes. Studying started "at 12 AM or a few hours before the exam," followed by sleepless nights until 4 or 5 AM and a 6 AM alarm for college. “Procrastination and time management. These two were my biggest enemies that I couldn't conquer.”
The People-Pleaser Trap
Arman struggled with boundaries, agreeing to every social invitation during study hours regardless of academic consequence. “I never understood the meaning of the word no, so I never used it to begin with.”
The Relentless Inner Judge
The inability to focus created a vicious cycle of self-judgment. "I basically let myself become a judge in my head… judging every single action that I was doing instead of actually performing and executing the action."
The Armour of Ego
To protect himself from feeling inadequate, Arman hid behind false confidence. This showed up as defensiveness, constant quarrels with his parents, distance from his younger brother, and clashes with professors. "If you'd talked to my 19- or 20-year-old self, I'd probably be spitting lies or excuses to get out of the call quicker."