Kelly connects with Dandapani, a Hindu priest, entrepreneur and a former monk of 10 years to discuss his new book, "The Power of Unwavering Focus."

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I love the elegant simplicity of the ideas in your new book, starting with identifying purpose.

“I always say, identify first the purpose what it is you want in life, then seek the tools that can help you. Get that. Don’t look for the tools to help you discover the purpose. Find out what it is you want, then look for the tools. If I'm going to make pizza, I need a certain set of tools and ingredients. If I'm going to make an Indian feast, I may need a whole different tool set of tools and ingredients. I don't think it's any different with life.”

You note that we are always yelling at children to sit still and focus, but that doesn’t conform to what science teaches us about how we learn, right?

“Children have a lot of energy and no one's taught them to harness that energy, and so they can't sit down quietly. So, they're constantly wiggling and moving. They can't focus because no one's taught them how to focus. And then we yell at them. And we know this from science, that movement is very much tied to learning, and that that idea of rigidly sitting in one place isn't going to ultimately serve the education of a child.”

I was intrigued when you write about the mind as a mansion with many rooms. And how you are where you put your attention.

“So, we're not compartmentalizing the mind, the mind actually is compartmentalized. That's how it is. There is another analogy in the book, of a big garden, right? So, you think you have a thousand data bits: one garden bed is anger, one garden is happiness and other ones are things like sex, photography, technology. Whatever the garden, if you are putting your attention there, that’s where the water is and that’s where the garden is going to grow. It all depends on how long you can control where awareness goes in the mind.”

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