To all the restless, procrastinating, still ambitious minds out there…
Are you thinking : “If I just do this for even 10 minutes every day, I could get so much better at this. I really need to start working out. I don’t know when I will be able to study for my certification. Wow… I always wanted to learn this dance form... I wish I could just keep aside 1 hour everyday or even twice a week for this. The life is just slipping away and there is so much more that I could have done. Instead, I just spend time sitting and procrastinating. It is just so much work that needs doing and is not done yet. We all get only 24 hours a day… how do the people who manage what they want to, achieve so much more than us? Are they super humans? An athlete would have so much self-control and motivation to practice for 4 hours a day, not eat their favorite food… sleep early. I could never do that. “?
I keep saying that I can do anything I want. Someone said, would you become a PT Usha if you decide today? And I said “yes”, without a blink. And I truly believe in it, because my mother said so, years ago… She said I could become anything I want to if I put in the required effort. But this question surely made me think… How am I so sure if I haven’t tried it? The thing is, I don’t want to do this, but how do I really know I could, if I wanted to. And then I got to know that there was a lady who tried it in last year’s Olympics. She was never a runner in her lifetime… But, one day she decided she wanted to run at the Olympics. So, she put in the effort. She practiced and practiced, and guess what, she ranked amongst the top 30 in the category. Theory proved!
One more boring example, this time, from my own experience. I have been working out regularly since the past 12 years. Even when I was 8 months into pregnancy 😊. I felt ok… I was maintaining my weight. One day, I was like, “Why am I not shredded? I work out for around 1.5–2 hrs. every day, since the last 12 or so years without fail”. I should be shredded! And while I was wondering, I was also reading these books “The 5 am club” and “Atomic Habits”. They kept talking about habit and consistency. I said, I have the habit of working out for years… where are the results I want? And, then the protagonist mentions he does 1000 pushups daily, and eats the best quality food in the whole wide world (he is an insanely rich dude by the way). So, the efforts in the “right direction” … who gives you the direction? A mentor. And then the clarity came in. I was putting in the efforts, but without guidance. I was working hard but was also neutralizing it by not changing my diet plan. I wanted to build muscles, but I wasn’t eating enough protein. I didn’t have anyone to show me the what and the how.
Joined a gym, got a personal gym trainer, who showed me the right diet, the right exercises… We set up a goal and started working towards it. It’s been around 2 months. I have lost 10+ kilos and 10% body fat.
Another example, again from personal experience. There is this book on System design that I wanted to read… And I used to think if I could just read 5 pages every day, I would have finished the book by now. How do I make sure I do something every day? I stack it with something that I necessarily do every day without fail, like eating. I knew it is difficult to find even a 10 min window consistently, during the day. So, I thought, let’s do the 5am club thing. I have never been a morning person. Not when I was in school, not when I was studying for JEE… my parents (and most recently my husband), have been pestering me for ages, to make me a morning person. But I just couldn’t! This time, I had a process to guide me. The book exactly talks about “how” you can do it, right from setting the alarm, to sleeping in workout clothes, to how to not let your mind trick you into getting back to the cozy bed, to the kind of drink you should have to really wake you up (this bit probably came from my gym trainer). As soon as you wake up, work out for 20 mins, journal for 20 mins and then 20 mins for anything you can do for self-improvement. I tweaked it a bit though, where I spent first 1 hour studying, the next hour in the gym, followed by the journal. So, by 9 am (when I used to wake up earlier), I have achieved most of the things that I want to achieve for the day. My confidence is at its peak… I approach my workday with energy and without any guilt coming from procrastination.
In crux, having a clarity on the exact steps you want to take, to achieve your goal, mentor to guide you along the way(so you hit the nail at the right point, rather than hammering thoughtlessly in all directions) and consistency. These three and you are good to conquer the world. I know I haven’t achieved much in life so far, to be nailing down the success formula… but it is just to share what helped me in my journey, hoping to help someone like me. Some might think, “why would I punish myself, waking up at 5 in the morning?” my answer… if you are happy and satisfied with what you have achieved so far and have no regrets, lucky you! You don’t need to punish yourself 😊. After all, the end goal is to be happy! But, if you are thinking like I mentioned in the first paragraph, feeling guilty about the kind of choices you make every day, I would plead you just try it once. There is nothing to lose!