Are you a person that has multiple passions in several areas of interest? In today’s society and social media world of ‘niches’, it’s easy to let ourselves believe that we have to specialize, and that we can only be, and focus on ‘one thing’.
Throughout my life, I have always been a person that is passionate about many different things. I’ve always found myself finding passions and interests that didn’t necessarily ‘align with one another, and in my opinion, I think it has greatly contributed to my growth as an individual. That is why in this week’s episode of the podcast, I wanted to share my conversation from #LessonsInResilience with Hitha Palepu. Hitha is an executive in the pharmaceutical industry, blogger, author, mother, creator and more. I know right? How does she commit to it all, and find balance in her life?
In this episode, Hitha shares with us about her life as a multi-passionate person. We talk about her journey following her passions and what lights her up, and how she has balanced her work, passions and hobbies with motherhood and self-care. We also talk about how she started building space for herself in her days in quarantine through the implementation of micro-habits and micro-moments, and the grounding that came from doing so. She also shares all that’s ahead for her work!
Some other things you can look forward to hearing in this episode:
4:00 - How to find something you are passionate about: Hitha shares how she came to the decision to start a blog when she started her work in the pharmaceutical industry, and how she was able to find inspiration for the content for her blog by applying the knowledge and every-day life experience that she was gaining as a traveling executive. She shares her experience creating her first brand ‘Packing Girl’ and writing her first book, and her motivation to help women find more time to do the things they are passionate about.
6:30 - Knowing when to take a step back: Hitha shares her experience during a time when she took on more responsibility at work by stepping into the role of CEO, and how her increased workload forced her to reflect on her priorities at the time. Hitha shares with Komal how she came to the decision to step back from her blog which was her passion, in order to remain in integrity and prevent compromising the quality of her content and passion.
9:42 - Can our passions be incongruent with one another? I ask Hitha: Did it ever feel like your passions were incongruent with each other? Komal asks Hitha to share how she ‘married’ the blogging part of her life with the pharma executive part of her brain. Hitha shares advice on how she reconciled her two passions, and gives words of encouragement to those who are ‘multipassionate’
15:00 - Productivity Hacks and Intuitive Scheduling: I ask Hitha to share what her ‘productivity hacks’ are, and how she stayed on top of her schedule and optimized her time in order to continue performing at work as well as her blog, on top of everything else in her life.
- How she made the decision to take a break from creating content for #HithaOnTheGo during her pregnancy, and how she was able to find a balance between her day job and her content creation passion after taking some needed time off to rest and find clarity. Hitha also shares with us a helpful practice she employs in her every day workday called ‘intuitive scheduling’.
19:00 - Prioritizing Self-Care and Non-negotiable Wellness Practices: Hitha shares how she learned to prioritize self-care and non-negotiable wellness practices after having a mental health reckoning throughout both of her pregnancies, facing postpartum depression with the birth of her first child, and prenatal depression during her pregnancy with her second child. She shares what she has prioritized in her life since as non-negotiables: meditation, working out, reading, cooking or meal-planning, putting her phone away, and creation over consumption.
23:55 - How Quarantine Has Helped Us Identify ‘Gaps’ In Our Life: I ask Hitha what every day life has been like since quarantine, and the silver linings that have come from the situation for her and her family. Hitha shares how spending four months with her family and parents has been a gift and something that feeds her soul, and also shares how she has learned the value of creating time to play.
28:45 - Navigating Working From Home and Parenting: I ask Hitha how she does it all, navigating working from home, having children, and having a side ‘passion’. Hitha shares her advice as a mother for folks who feel that they are at the edge of burnout, and how they can create time and space in their everyday lives to balance work, parenting and self-care.
34:15 - Prioritizing Creation Over Consumption - Hitha and I discuss the effect that consuming more than creating can have on us as individuals, and Hitha shares how she made time in her days to ‘create’.
35:30 - Planning For The Next Venture and Passion - Hitha shares what is coming up for her in the future and how we can support her work. Hitha shares how she will be having new developments and content on SubStack. You can check it out here. She shares articles, newsletters and plenty of content that is important to her and bridges the gap between important pharmaceutical and healthcare information and every-day speak. Check out her content if this interests you and you want to hear more about developments with COVID and pharmaceutics.
Click here to read Hitha’s travel blog “Hitha On The Go”.
Follow Hitha on Instagram by clicking here.
Hitha is the author of #5SmartReads, a weekly digest of the news that you should know, the books to read, and the things that will make your life better. Check it out here.
I hope that this episode gives you the permission that you have been waiting for to chase that passion or hobby that you have been daydreaming about. If you were waiting for permission, or a sign, THIS IS IT!
Once again, thank you so much for tuning in and supporting my work! Don’t forget to tag @lessonslearned.co and use the hashtag #mylessonslearned if you feel inspired to share your takeaways from this week’s episode. Until next time!
Love, Komal