Saurabh Mithal

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

Choosing less.

Less chaos. Less stress. Less trouble. It takes emotional labour to choose less. The default is always to choose more. — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If you are already a subscriber, do share with your friends.

Don't worry!

Does it help? It doesn’t. It takes our focus away from our practice and our work. It takes the focus away from the details that we need to pay attention to. The way to get rid of worrying is by showing up generously and by being kind to yourself.

Fight, flight or freeze?

When we are in a state of panic, for instance, when a lion shows up in front of us, one of the three modes above takes over, and each person has his/her own default. In our lives, mostly there is no lion showing up in our way to office,

The opposite is also true.

There are few, if any, absolutes. And when things are relative, there is always an opposite side. The interesting part is that the two sides need not be mutually exclusive. It might just need a change of perspective to see the truth in the other side too. ulta karke dekh

What to write and whether to write?

I think I need to declare war. I don’t think there’s any other way. Without war, with these tiny skirmishes, I just keep losing. Enough of peace. Enough of compromises. I don’t want to live like this. Not anymore, at least. I remember the last war, when

Trust your 'Self'.

Not the voice in your head that tells you that you are worthless. But that silent deep self that wants to help you. To guide you. To make you reach where you want to reach. Trust your self. And take those strides. — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If

Default or design?

Design takes intention and labour, more emotional than physical. Design works. It makes things better. Design is not about how things look. It’s about how things work. The absence of design is default, and living by default makes life stagnant. Add a bit of design to your life. — If

guilt is the joy-killer.

There is joy in enjoying food, in watching a TV series, in hanging out with friends. But when guilt gets in, it kills the joy. We do things we do not want to. But we don’t seem to escape from it. A good strategy would be to stop as

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