Saurabh Mithal

Writer, Teacher, Career Coach, Mentor. Work website: passionatelycurious.in I write a daily blog at https://blog.passionatelycurious.in

Emotional or Strategic?

The one big challenge with solopreneurship is that it is a "person-business," and it is difficult for us to separate the person from the business. With this, emotions often interfere with our business decisions, leading at times to stalling growth or even worse consequences. Emotions can make us

Creative camaraderie.

We are more likely to go to the gym when we have a gym buddy to go with. We have an implicit desire not to let our friend down. And it works both ways. When we try to do creative work on our own, we might find it difficult to

Even if no one reads it.

What would you write even if no one reads it? What would you do even if no one pays you to do it? What would you learn even if no one else cares about it? Creative work is a privilege. It's what we get to do.

It's all invented.

Excerpt From The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander & Ben Zander “A simple way to practice it’s all invented is to ask yourself this question: What assumption am I making, That I’m not aware I’m making, That gives me what I see? And when you

Reminders of positivity.

As an artist, I seek to access unseen powers. Evil forces are out there—Resistance, self-doubt, self-sabotage. How many other malign entities are hovering each morning over me and my huevos rancheros? Then there are the good forces. Inspiration, enthusiasm, courage. New ideas, brilliant breakthroughs, insights, intuitions. Where do these

Getting things out of your head.

Ask a friend to sit with you, whether in person or online, and make notes while you talk things out. In your head, everything is entangled, but for the friend, it isn't. Neither are emotions coming in the way there. So, when they make notes, they are able

Focussed vs. scattered work.

It's surprising how much we can get done if we focus on one project for a sufficient period of time. The more we stay with the project, the more we are able to take away the ambiguity and give it shape and form. The shape it takes is

Overcoming overwhelm.

One thing at a time. One step at a time. One day at a time. ...drinking from a firehose is a really bad way to get hydration. ~ Seth Godin when asked how he handles overwhelm on The Tim Ferriss Show (https://tim.blog/2018/11/01/seth-godin-this-is-marketing/)

Inaction mode.

Inaction: planning, thinking, talking, web surfing, gossiping, streaming, social media, etc. [different modes of procrastination] Action: writing, designing, publishing, shipping, getting things done. Inaction is a time-sink. It can take hours and we have nothing to show at the end of it. When we complain about not having enough time,

Attention and love.

“Your brain won’t heal and change if you yell at it, or are impatient. That’s like expecting a plant to flourish in the dark. A plant needs light and moisture and time to grow, and your brain needs attention and love.” Rosamund Stone Zander, Pathways to Possibility

Solo, but not alone.

Find your peers. Build a mastermind. Join a community. Hire a coach. Hire a freelancer. Solopreneurship is magic. It is not about working alone.

Saying No.

If you are travelling to a city, you implicitly say no to every other city until you reach there. If you keep saying yes to everything that comes up during your journey, you would never reach where you intended to go. There's a time to pick up projects

Some questions for your website.

Who's it for? How do they get here? When they come here what are they looking for? And what do you seek for that person to know, to learn, to understand? What action do you want them to take once they are there? Why should they trust you?

Setting up "Out of office"

A corporate job gives us the option to take sick leaves or casual leaves and not feel guilty about them. We rarely feel motivated to work when we are having a migraine headache or feeling under the weather. Nor do we feel inclined to work while we are on scheduled

Non-emotional decision-making.

Emotional decisions are short-sighted. They lead us into decision debt (sometimes even financial debt) which compounds with every iteration and tends to worsen the quality of our lives. Non-emotional decision-making or strategic decision-making is a skill. And it is one of the most important skills to improve the quality of

Making space.

If we feel stressed about something in our life, it's very likely that we haven't made enough space for it. There's no time set when we'd sit down and work on it. Once we make that space, once we set that time,

Remarkable or Mediocre?

Mediocre lies in the middle, in the average. Trying to make something no one hates also means that we make something no one loves. We can become remarkable for some, not everyone. There are extremes to choose and once we choose them, we can stand for something. The hard part

There Is All the Time in the World.

The game with no goal and no limits, called “there is all the time in the world,” has the power to get you back in step, to bring you back to your center, to connect you once more with a universe that will be your partner. To embark on an

What's next?

What's next? And once that's done, what's after that? That's all we need to know as a creative. When we focus on what's next, we are more likely to focus and ship. Fear uses the lure of planning & deciding

A professional takes care of herself.

She gets enough sleep. She drinks enough water. She knows that only if she takes care of herself, she can take care of her clients. She is in this for the long run.

Do as I do, not as I say.

"Do as I say, not as I do" is a safe place to hide. It's a way to not be on the hook. And it doesn't work. People do as you do, not as you say. They follow your example. They follow your lead.

Making progress on your creative project.

“Where Is Your Hour?” ~ Seth Godin, The Practice Here's what you do: Choose one priority project. Spend 3 hours daily working on it, starting at the same time every day. No distractions. No multitasking. No work on any other project during these hours. You won't know

Messy work.

Creative work is neither linear nor predictable. That's what makes it different from industrial-era work. It is bound to be ambiguous and the only way forward is through. It's good to embrace this fact instead of complaining about the mess.

The mindless space between actions.

Resistance thrives in the space between intentional actions. It pushes to expand that space as much as possible. The nature of this space is mindless. We are not focussing or working on anything. We are simply distracted. Social media and similar platforms tend to elongate this space, whether intentionally or

The skill of finishing things.

When we are in a slump, we can feel the inability to get anything done. We plan, we think, we discuss. Sometimes, we even start working on something. But we do not finish. And this mindset of delaying stuff can take over, pushing us to choose "later" for