Saurabh Mithal

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

When you break the streak…

It’s very important to continue as if nothing has happened. To consider this an exception and leave it at that. When we try to make up for the exception or do something exceptional because we broke the streak, it is more likely that it will remain broken. The mere

One thing at a time.

“How do you eat an elephant?” goes a childhood joke. “One bite at a time.” There is a lot of wisdom in this. Any project, any goal, any ambition can be broken down into specific steps which lead us towards its completion. How did Bob Dylan win the Nobel Prize?

Rewiring your brain.

The plasticity of the human brain is a scientific fact. In simpler words, this means that we can change our brain through our actions, not just psychologically but physically as well. So, not only does our brain affect our actions, our actions affect our brain too. When we inculcate a

Taking a decision vs deciding.

Thinking about a decision and actually deciding are two very different actions. The former does not necessarily lead to the latter. We can, indeed, perennially think about a decision without ever moving forward. Especially when the decision is of consequence for us, especially when it might lead to a better

The hardest part.

The hardest part of doing our work is sitting down. It doesn’t seem like the hardest. On the face of it, it’s quite simple actually. “Put your ass where your heart wants to be” as Steven Pressfield puts it. But, for sure, it ain’t easy. We keep

Time is a tricky asset.

Like all the other assets, money, attention, energy, time is also tricky in its nature. Left on its own accord, time can spend itself without generating anything in return. Moreover, it can accelerate that process when the shallow mind and the shallow habits take over. On the other hand, when

Bird by bird.

This seminal book by Anne Lamott subtitled “Some instructions on Writing and Life” has been recommended repeatedly by authors and business persons alike. Among the many lessons that Lamott teaches, one stands out for me. No matter how difficult or challenging the task in front of us is, breaking it

Possibility mindset.

When we proactively work on building an abundant mindset, we enable ourselves to take action that lead to supernormal returns. Many times, we feel that accepting our fixed mindset as reality is us being practical and rational. However, if we stay in the fixed mindset, we tend to manifest subnormal

Slow down a bit.

Anxiety breeds urgency and vice versa. Urgency leads to anxiety because the brain perceives it as a threat. Our nervous system was not designed to handle urgency on an ongoing basis. For the brain, the only reason that something can be urgent would be that it is a life or

A bad blog entry.

This is what we are afraid of, isn’t it? That our blog isn’t good enough. And that stops us from writing it, from shipping it. We say we will do it later. But how would later be better if we miss our practice today? Better publish a bad

Intent vs accident.

A lot of inventions and discoveries that are commonly talked about in popular culture did happen as an accident. Post-it notes, penicillin, microwave oven, x-ray and the the discovery of the American continents to name a few. The curious thing, though, is that these accidents happen only when the person

Write it out.

There is no point carrying disturbing thoughts inside your head and going through them again and again. It’s very difficult to resolve these things inside your own head. One of the ways to resolve things is to write them out in an unfiltered manner. Go into the details and

The single act that changes the status quo.

All actions prior lead to a single act, that one irreversible act, that changes the status quo. For Apple, it is the launch event of a new iPhone. For an author, it is submitting the final draft to the publisher. For you, it might be pressing send on the email

The Gift.

I have started listening to the wonderful book by Lewis Hyde called ‘The Gift’. We receive so many gifts from so many sources. The knowledge we get from authors who invest tremendously in writing their books. The connection to the art we witness in a movie is a gift too.

Breaking the streak.

As a streak for a task grows longer, the resistance to doing the task decreases significantly. The habit develops and it becomes much easier to maintain the streak than to break it. But inevitably, if we get too attached to the streak, the chances are high that it would break,

How to stop emotions from driving our actions?

As a professional creative, we cannot afford to act as per our emotions. This is clear when we have to perform in front of an audience, whether it is a class, a business meeting or a concert. But it is all the more important when we do not have an

Working without applause.

A creative works without applause. Day after day, week after week, the writer writes, the musician composes, the artist paints, the entrepreneur focusses on a particular phase of customer experience and creates magic. The irony is that, most of the time, nobody is there when the magic is created. The

The hard work of accessing the deep mind.

It takes a lot of effort to reach our deep mind, the mind that is intelligent and effective. By default, the shallow mind, the one that seeks instant gratification takes hold. The nature of the shallow mind is that of getting distracted and engaging in meaningless activities. When we sit

Inculcating the growth mindset.

A growth mindset is developed through habit and through action. It requires intent and emotional labour to activate the growth mindset. Once activated, it leads to effortless action and result. By default, the fixed mindset would keep coming back. That’s part of the process. The key is to identify

What one action step can take you forward?

Many times we feel stuck, unable to gain ground, unable to see a way. The thinking mind makes this all the more complicated by asserting that we need to figure it all out before we take action. The way out is to identify the one action step that can take

Getting a flat tyre.

If you get a flat tyre while you are on a road trip, it would make sense to stop the car, fix the tyre and only then continue with your journey. When we try to keep driving with a flat tyre, we make the situation worse. We delay our journey

The power of audio.

Our eyes are among the most energy-consuming organs of the body. A lot of our work is dependent on looking at a screen for long hours. To allow the eyes and the body to rest and recover, it is useful to consider the medium of audio for learning, relaxation and

Giving undivided attention to a task.

There are hardly any tasks or thoughts that will not be resolved if we give them our undivided attention. It is when our attention is divided that these tasks start to seem unsurmountable. In most cases, the cause of undivided attention is fear. We are afraid of the outcome of

Leave yourself wanting more.

In the hustle culture, the idea is to push yourself to exhaustion before you call it a day. “Give it everything you’ve got.” they say. This affects our enthusiasm towards our work. It also stops us from being consistent. And our brain also works at sub-par capacity when it

Rest and recovery for the brain.

When we work for the entire day, trying to get in ten, twelve or even more hours of work every day, we do not give our brain the time and space to recover. Our pre-frontal cortex is a very thin layer in our brain which allows us to perform all