Saurabh Mithal

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

small, small decisions.

So many times we keep thinking about big decisions and big outcomes and we never get anywhere. The key is to break these into very small decisions and move forward one thing at a time. Very soon, very ambiguous and seemingly impossible things get taken care of. One thing that

Resistance and rationalisation

Rationalisation is one of the most dangerous symptom of Resistance. In absence of rationalisation, we might pick up our projects and start working on them despite the challenges of procrastination and self-doubt. But because we rationalise, because we find reasons why not working on our project made sense, why we

The darkness within.

The evil within is cunning. Call it Resistance or call it anything else. But it knows how to get you. This way or that. There are rules to this game. And if you become aware of the rules, if you follow the rules, you can keep the evil in check.

solving your money problem

What can you do that people already pay for? List down all the high value (more $/hour) activities. Is there something that you’d like to do but not sure if you can do it? That’s even better. Find the ones that you find exciting. Now think of the

Kill the backup.

Run away from the backup. Now. Don’t think. Just press ‘Destroy’ The backup will snatch your life away. The backup is backup for a reason. It’s not the main thing for the reason. And the only way the main thing is going to work is if it’s

10% Budget for Growth

Every successful business invests 10 percent or more of the revenue that they generate in innovation or brand marketing or learning. This creates a virtuous cycle of growth. In absence of this investment, we enter into stagnation and a fixed mindset. It’s important to think of our career as

Captive

We are captive to our thoughts and feelings. Do we initiate them or do they come by default? Are they our friend or our enemy? How do we break their captivity? When we write and share what we think and feel, we might be able to find our voice among

Symptoms.

The symptoms: burnout, stress, tired, overwhelmed. The symptoms point to something that needs to be changed, something that isn’t right. It’s not about doing lesser things, but about doing the right things. When we are climbing up the wrong mountain, the symptoms show up to tell us that.

Constraints.

Constraints free us. Without constraints, the shallow mind runs crazy. We eat anything, we watch anything, we do anything. In most cases, these are the lowest level tasks that lead us to become worse. Bingeing tv-series, eating junk food, gossiping, etc. When we add constraints, we are able to access

Feeling.

Feelings are tricky. We can’t be sure what we will be feeling next. In a moment, our feelings can change. The difference between an amateur and a professional is how they handle their feelings. An amateur lets the feelings get in the way of doing the work. They say

Between restlessness and lethargy.

In the Bhagawad Gita, Krishna outlines three different natures of humans: rajas, sattva, tamas. Excessive rajas becomes restless and anxiety. Excessive tamas becomes lethargy and depression. Sattvic mindset and body is the one that is balanced. A good analogy to understand this is that of a microsope. If you turn

Can you be more specific?

It is always a good strategy to be more specific. What is it exactly that you want? What exactly do you need to get done in order to get it? When exactly are you going to do that? The more specific we become with our intentions, the more like we

Thinking vs. typing.

Typing is helpful. It takes us somewhere. It makes our thoughts tangible. Typing in public is even better. It keeps us on the hook. On the other hand, thinking keeps us in the loop. Very rarely do people break out of status quo because they were thinking. They break out

freedom.to

Freedom, this is one app I don’t think I can live without. It blocks all the distracting websites on my MacBook. So, even if my tired or distracted mind is looking for salvation in YouTube or any of the other dopamine dealers, I am unable to access them, no

Keep going.

There are times when things do not look like they are working, especially when they are. At these times, there is a very strong urge to change, to pivot, to analyse. What I have realised over time is that this is just a phase. That all we need to do

8 hours a day.

Without that, that amount of sleep, you are running your body in an emergency state. Coffee is the quick fix you do to get the engine started although you know how much engine needs an oil change. It is easy to spend another 2 hours in the night on your

Forward.

Forward motion is uphill. It is full of roadblocks, full of uncertainty, full of ambiguity. But is there another way? I don’t think there is. That’s all we can do, no matter how difficult or impossible it may seem. — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If you

Its all about perspective

Love this post by @garvit. Very well articulated points.

The Rat Race

A very well articulated blog by my student Shreya!

Killing your darlings.

No matter how much we want, we can never save all our darlings. Time is limited, there are only 24 hours in a day. While our imagination and the number of things we assign our ‘tomorrow self’ can just keep on growing. When you are faced with such a predicament,

Magic.

There is no degree, certificate in magic, thankfully. There is no entrance exam to be selected to learn magic. Not the tricks, for them there might be. But real magic. The magic that makes your heart skip a beat. The magic that comes from a heartfelt story written by a

Wonderful rebound...

A student wrote and sent me this… There is more to our life, our career than the scores of any test. We tend to make an identity out of that score and think that it will make us a better person(hierarchically) to have achieved it. Then we try to

When things go right...

When things go right, at times it doesn’t feel right. There are butterflies in the stomach, and there is a tinge of anxiety all around. When things are static, we feel comfortable. Nothing much changes. The more we shift from this latter feeling of comfort to the feeling of

Reasons?

We always have a reason not to level up, not to take action. In almost all cases (read: all cases), these reasons are merely excuses. They come from the fear of levelling up, the fear of letting go of the status quo. When your identity is someone who wants to

Better.

To make something better means that we have to make something worse before that. The 2nd draft can only be better if the 1st draft isn’t perfect. When we strive to make the first draft perfect, we give into Resistance. The magic happens by making things better, not by