Are you pursuing a new career path?

Sure, it’s exciting yet career transitions can be challenging and tricky to navigate.

You have to learn new things and unlearn old ways.

You may wonder if your new career path will take off.

That’s why it’s prudent to walk that path slowly and steadily.

One way to do that is to pursue your new career path as a side hustle.

What does that mean?

It means that you stay with your existing career and pursue the new career path on the side. You can work on it after office hours or on weekends.

Big Magic is one of the most magnificent books I’ve read on creativity. Not a surprise it’s been a bestseller.
The finesse with which Elizabeth Gilbert shares her view on creativity is extraordinary. It’s refreshing and encouraging from anything I’ve read, heard or known.
Here is such a rare commentary on pursuing a creative life mirroring reality, yet inspiring and encouraging.
Liz Gilbert’s experience and understanding of creativity are deep and intimate. She generously shares it throughout the book.
Her take on creativity is mesmerising and optimistic. It’s also freeing in many ways.
Love her emphasis on showing each one of us is creative. How it’s our innate nature and not reserved for a chosen few. She permits you to be creative if you’re still hesitant.
Her perspective on fear is intriguing and insightful. Her commentary on how to detach from whether people like your work or not, is incredible. Especially as she inspires you to keep creating, irrespective.
The piece on managing people’s reactions to your work - be it good, bad or ugly is extraordinary. Her writing grants you a sense of permission to deal with your creativity more lightly.
Love how she explains that to stay in the game, you must let go of your fantasy of perfection. Her example of persisting and pursuing a creative life is exemplary and motivating. She beautifully shatters the myth that suffering is a prerequisite for creative purists.
Her perspective on martyr v/s trickster is enjoyable and pragmatic. It makes creation a lighthearted process.
Big Magic is an enchanting and well-written book on creative living. You’d love to read more than once.

What is a bridge job?

A bridge job is temporary employment that one takes while exploring a suitable new career for the long term. Bridge jobs can provide financial stability while you work towards a new career.

While transitioning careers, taking up a bridge job can be incredibly helpful. It can provide financial stability, keep you creatively occupied and networked. Having a bridge job as you work on your new venture, allows it to breathe and take its course. A bridge job eases the pressure on your new venture to be immediately successful.

You can craft a bridge job for yourself by packaging your current skills at work to do part-time work.

For example, a Human Resources (HR) executive working in a corporate job can work as a part-time HR consultant while she sets up and tests her new gourmet food restaurant. The consulting work keeps money coming in to pay bills while she explores her passion for cooking as a career. The consulting work also keeps her updated with industry trends and practices should she want to come back to her career in HR.

You can also create a bridge job by turning an area of interest or passion into work. Or packaging any other transferable skills to create temporary employment for yourself.

Which long-held interests can you turn into a bridge job?

Have you been doing mixed media art for years? Are you fabulous at planning events? Are you good with writing and can help professors with writing white papers? Are you in your element with social media and can create content for small businesses?

A bridge job is an important step in your career transition journey, so take the time to make an informed decision about it.

The conversation around workplace burnout is gathering momentum.

Self-care, resting and not allowing your productivity to define your worth is taking centre stage.

Social media is full of anti-hustle and grind work culture messages. You’re encouraged to rest and relax.

This is well-meaning advice and offered in good spirit.

But how does one not participate in the grind and yet manage to pay the bills? This is an often unaddressed question.

You may think, ‘I too wish I could rest, but I don’t have a choice.’

In fact, messages encouraging you to do less may irk you. You may feel misunderstood or under-represented.

‘Don’t they get it, I have bills to pay - how can I rest?’

Taking time off to rest may seem like advice for the privileged, not you.

Seems like participating in the hustle is the only way to earn a livelihood, even at the cost of our well-being.

Everyone seems to be grinding. Putting in long hours, with no breaks and working weekends. All this while managing deadlines, people and familial responsibilities.

This is the dominant way to work as modelled to us. We saw our parents work hard and long hours until retirement. We’re following suit.

All are in the grind - from intern to CEO, from the blue-collared worker to the white-collared one. No one seems to escape the grind.

You have dreams. You want to fly.

You want to give it your best.

But you’re not sure how to make it happen for you.

There’s one thing that gives great clarity and power to manifest your dream. It’s called a vision board.

A vision board is a picture collage of your dreams and goals. It’s a visual representation of your deepest desires and aspirations, so it can serve as a source of inspiration and motivation.

The process of building a vision board can help you dig deep to know what you want.

It can help you declare that with courage, clarity and confidence.

A vision board gives you

Perspective on where you want to go
A chance to put out who you want to be
A chance to get attention on what you want, so you can focus on it
“We attract into our lives whatever we think about most, believe most strongly, expect on the deepest level, and imagine most vividly,” says Shakti Gawain.

A vision board is a sure-fire way to give shape to your life and work.

Discover Your Dharma is one of the most incredible books I’ve read on discovering one’s life’s work.

Sahara presents an exceptional mix of spiritual and strategic perspectives, in this book. It’s uplifting and inspires you to live your highest truth.

As a young millennial Sahara brings a fresh and fun perspective that’s relatable. At the same time she shares deep wisdom like an old sage. Complex concepts are made amazingly simple to understand, absorb and apply.

Since 2021 the business world has been rife with conversations around The Great Resignation. With a record number of people moving out of their jobs, the discussion around toxic work cultures gained centre stage.

I recently chanced upon an article about Chinese youth in a bid to stand up against the ‘always-on’ work culture who made a lifestyle choice to opt out of it. They lowered their professional and financial ambitions while prioritising their well-being while also financially managing their own essential needs funded by odd jobs and lean savings. This ‘Lie flat’ movement is a defiant rebellion against a culture of being overworked and underpaid.

Whether such movements including The Great Resignation are short-lived or a turning point in history, we’re being forced to wake up and repair a damaged work culture.

Modern work culture has been toxic even before the pandemic began. The pandemic has amplified and brought to light a broken system.

The roots of this toxic work culture can be traced back to the feudal ages and serfdom. This was long before the industrial revolution began and gave it modern packaging.

Our present-day work culture is marked by long hours including weekends and holidays, employers’ inflexibility about working from home during a pandemic, competition, sales pressure, long commutes and no commensurate remuneration.

For those of you who know me, you may recall me as a sociable person & hence an extrovert. But the truth is I'm an introvert - an extreme introvert. Our educational & work culture glorifies & rewards extraversion. In fact these spaces are created for extroverts. Introverts need to bend like a pretzel to fit into these cultures. Sharing my story as an introvert. How I navigated this culture & have now created an introvert-friendly work-life. Hope you enjoy reading it.

As a multi-passionate person, I’ve always struggled with managing my time.

No doubt, I’ve accomplished much in work and life, but I’ve also battled with productivity.

I’ve felt disheartened about not being able to do as much as I aspired.

Over the years, I’ve read a ton of books and articles on time management.

Most of these approaches encouraged me to fit more into my time to improve my productivity. This kept me running a race against time that I never seemed to win.

Bringing me back to the same place — i.e struggling with managing my time. It left me feeling utterly defeated and unproductive.

In 2018, I was delighted to come across Kate Northrup’s Do Less philosophy.

It’s a revolutionary, fresh and feminine approach to managing your time (well, actually your energy).

In our world, the dominant definition of success is profit in business. It's often considered as the only metric of success.

We indulge in excessive consumption mistaking it as a badge of success.

Owning bigger homes, fancier cars, trendier clothes and gadgets have become markers of success. As have aspirations for designations and sending kids to beyond means expensive schools.

It’s good to honour what we deeply desire and work towards achieving it.

But, if we’re doing it at the cost of our health, well-being and relationships, it’s time to stop and re-think.

If endless hours in a stressful job, are crushing your soul and giving you lifestyle diseases, it’s time to reconsider your definition of success.