Saurabh Mithal

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

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

What's your one priority project?

There are many things that we have to do during the day, the week the month. There might be many things that we want to do, also. But what is our one priority project? Not two, not three, but one. One goal that we want to achieve? One project that

Fear stops us from initiating.

When we initiate, we create possibility. Things might or might not work. There is tension. There is excitement. When we seek to be right all the time, initiating something becomes extremely difficult. Our critical, calculating mind takes over and stops us from growing. The mindset of possibility is a skill

New ideas.

New ideas break old notions. They elevate the consciousness. Listening to a new book can introduce us to a new idea or even many. There seems to be no better way to inculcate the growth mindset and learn “The Art of Possibility”. — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If

Simple is not necessarily easy.

We tend to confuse these two words and their antonyms. The antonym of simple is complicated and that of easy is difficult. There are tasks in all the four quadrants. The ones that matter are usually in the simple and difficult quadrant. To focus on these tasks and ignore the

Ignoring the voice inside your head.

The biggest challenge in being consistent is ignoring the suggestions made by the voice inside your head. That voice will keep suggesting alternate paths in order to hinder your progress. The voice becomes especially powerful when we are going through “the dip” of our creative project. It’s very difficult

Hope and regret.

The amateur lives either in the past or the future. They regret the past and hope for a better future. The professional works in the present. They know that neither regret nor hope is going to make their work better. They put all their attention in the work that needs

3 hours a day.

Put your ass where your heart is. Steven Pressfield. Steven Pressfield talks about putting your ass in the chair and working for 3 hours every day. Pick one thing, whether it is a book, or a project, or a hobby. Spend 3 hours every day working on it. Don’t

Marketing as a service.

As marketers, we exist to serve our smallest viable audience. We put in the hard work of choosing the audience, empathising with them, positioning our product to fulfil their needs and creating tension for them to raise their hands. But we can’t force them to raise their hands. Whether

The decision.

Significant change starts with the decision to change. These are the kind of decisions that are taken once and then not put into question. Without the decision taken with intent, it is very difficult to go through the dip. The last minute mind would always want to quit before we

The lull in the dip.

The most threatening part of the dip is the lull: the time period when nothing happens, nothing good, nothing bad. It’s the time when the writer keeps writing but the story moves nowhere. It’s when you keep trying to grow your business but everything remains stagnant. Come what

Physical and digital tools.

Many creatives are asked if they prefer digital tools for their work or physical tools. I think that it is not an “or” question, rather it is an “and question”. Both physical and digital tools have their pros and cons and the preference would depend on the situation. Digital tools

Climate change is a "we" problem.

Climate change is real and we are already seeing its impact on our environment. For a long time now, even if we were concerned about it, we did not know much about how we can impact it. Seth Godin has generously led the Carbon Almanac project to bring about change