Fighting cancer gave Shreshtha Mittal the purpose of her life and she became the living hope of thousands of fellow cancer patients and survivors.

Shreshtha Mittal worked as an HRM professional for a decade before quitting her job to pursue her passion. She quit her job in January 2021 and began exploring self-leadership coaching and motivational speaking. She strives to help people to discover their braver, bolder, and better versions and help them live resilient and happy lives. Shreshtha has guided over seventy-five people across the globe, most of which include professionals who want to be the leaders of tomorrow.

Shreshtha says she worked in multiple portfolios such as well-being, HR business partner, management, etc. However, later she realised her potential of being a coach, writer, and speaker when she was faced with challenges in her life. She was detected with stage three breast cancer that’s curable. She went through surgery and related therapy sessions and took a sabbatical from work.

Shreshtha started writing to share her ordeal of going through the cancer journey to give hope to others to cope up with this unfortunate disease. It was during this time that she discovered the writer in her and her blogs started reaching a global readership. Many corporates and non-corporates started inviting her to events for talking about breast cancer and creating awareness around it. Those events helped her discover the motivational speaker in her. Moreover, her cancer coaching sessions helped her understand her true purpose in life. Then, Shreshtha did certification courses in the field and gained professional skills to be certified.

Shrestha cherishes her childhood memories as she got the best education and excelled in both academics and sports. As a kid, she wanted to be a doctor and help people get rid of their problems.

Shreshtha was born and raised in Delhi and completed her schooling there. Then, she did Engineering from VIT, Vellore in Tamil Nadu and her MBA from Pune. She was then recruited by Wipro and she worked in Banglore before getting married and moving to Mumbai. The multiple cultures, places, and experiences helped her meet different people, interact with them, and make many friends.

When cancer struck Shreshtha, her CHRO was supportive of her situation and stood by her. Once she was back on her feet, her work energised her. Furthermore, her family and husband supported her every step of the way to deal with the tough situation.

Talking about her role models, Shreshtha says her mother is her initial role model who told her stories of brave people who faced challenges in life but their zeal, persistence, and determination helped them fight and overcome their troubles. This helped shape Shreshtha’s mindset to be a brave and resilient woman. Secondly, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s compassionate leadership skills inspire her to be grounded like him. She is also inspired by figures like Mary Kom,  who faced tough challenges in life and fought them fiercely.

Shrestha believes that leadership starts with leading the self. One needs to inspire others with their actions in various areas of their life and how they lead those areas. Moreover, a good leader should decide by balancing the IQ and the EQ.

According to Shreshtha, education brings in a lot of potential to learn from our experiences and those experiences are our return on investments in the education that we invest our time in. So, both are vital for moving ahead in life.

Talking about her achievements, Shreshtha says she believes that achievements are defined by the number of lives one changes, the number of people one enlightens, and by doing things that one feels proud of when we are on our deathbed. She feels accomplished when she can add hope to people’s lives, inspire fellow cancer survivors and patients, and motivate the kids through their cancer journey.

Shreshtha likes to plan her days, mostly on weekdays. But, on the weekends she relaxes by playing with her kid or watching an autobiographical film or documentary. She is a fitness enthusiast and likes to exercise and run daily.

Shreshtha advises the youth to seek the answers to their goals or career queries within themselves. She thinks connecting with oneself via mediation helps to know oneself and your purpose in a better way.