In this motivational talk, Ishan Shivanand explains that everyday actions boil down to either reinforcing old habits or creating new ones. Using a Pavlov‑style bell analogy, he shows how repeated behaviors condition our minds, whether it’s repeatedly fighting at home or consistently smiling. He argues that we are like brands, and the non‑verbal cues we project—especially a smile—become associated with happiness and, consequently, success. Conversely, habitual frowning or complaining conditions others to associate us with failure. Shivanand urges listeners to break free from insecurity, which he frames as unconscious conditioning, and to deliberately craft new patterns of success. He introduces Shiv Yog as a tool for this transformation, encouraging the cultivation of gratitude, hope, peace, and happiness so that others instinctively link the speaker with positive emotions.
Chapters
Anything that you see around you or anything that you do in life, only two things. One is an old pattern confirmation or a new pattern creation. For example, if you have a habit and you invest in that habit every day, what you are doing is you are reinforcing that pattern again and again and again in your head. And that is precisely what you can do. If you go home and you fight, and you go home again and you fight like you fought, you have reinforced that old pattern, just like by Pablo's bell has reinforced it to the dog that if the bell has come, the next thing that will come is the food. In the same manner, we can either reinforce our old patterns or we can take a step today and we can say that today we will start creating new patterns. We will start choosing a direction that we want to take in our life. Because this is, this is precisely what you can do. Either we can be insecure, because insecurity is that we have been conditioned that the bell equals food, that the economy equals our success, that our surrounding equals us. And what we need to understand is that we are beyond this condition. And I want you to realize, what if maybe half the problems that you see around you is nothing but the condition of Pablo's dog? Because, you see, every brand markets itself, and in the same manner, you are a brand. How do you market yourself? For example, if people see you, do they see you smile? If they see you smiling today, then they'll start associating a smile with you. It's very simple. Your face, smile. Your face, smile. Your face, smile. What is the association? Smile. So even when your superiors or even when your subordinates will think about you, what will their subconscious connect with? Smile. And what is it going to bring to you? Success. Nonverbal cues of communication are bringing success to your life because people associate you with happiness, and happiness associates directly with success. And in the same manner, what if you do reverse conditioning? You look at somebody and you complain. You look at somebody and you frown. You look at somebody and you frown. You look at somebody and you frown. Then your face becomes directly proportionate to what? Frown, complain, failure. And again, when your superiors, your subordinates have to think about you, what emotion will come from inside? They don't know why, but it's coming. What they call, it's a gut feeling which they cannot ignore. And the best thing You have the power to brand yourself. You have the power to market yourself. You have the power to either reinforce the old pattern of failures, or you have the power to create new patterns of success. And that is what I want you to do. From today, start thinking. Let us forget insecurities. Insecurities are branding ourselves without any thought, without any logic. And Shiv Yog is the first thing— new pattern creation. So the first pattern that we are going to create is we are going to smile, you and I. We are going to create a sense of gratitude in us, a sense of hope, a sense of peace. And more than anything, a sense of happiness, so that when we walk, people associate us with happiness.
