Hey hey!
Today marks 10 years since we ran our first-ever class at Bamboola. I can still see flashes of that day, feel the butterflies in my stomach as I coached my first-ever class. We even have some footage of Raj and me coaching in the old tennis court - makes for great nostalgia.
There is a lot to be grateful for. There is a lot to celebrate. So, yaaay!
On to the 3 things for today.
Find your “me” time
Sometimes, we set way too many expectations. Sometimes, we try too hard. After having not done anything consistently in the realm of fitness, while working 10-12 hour days, spending time with the family and friends, we still want to lose 10 kilos. ASAP!
9 times out of 10, you don't go to the gym. You don't do much about your nutrition. You don't get those results. You fail. You get angry with yourself or the gym. Or both. And you give up.
You set yourself up for failure from the start.
I am not telling you to aim lower. I am telling you to look at it from a completely different perspective.
Finding an hour to go to the gym is difficult. And a chore. And a means to an end. Well, re-think that.
Instead, it is the one hour where you can
Work out your stress. Just sweat it out. Work it out. Release the tension and the stress.
Find peace and quiet. Away from work. Away from chores. Away from your task lists.
Recuperate. Rejuvenate. Recalibrate. Use that time.
Meditate. It doesn't mean sitting in a corner and staring at the wall. It can be anything you want where your mind is not chattering.
Find your "me" time. That one hour away from the rest of the day will give you the distance you need. In the short term, it will give you the breather to tackle the day. In the long term, it will give you perspective.
And soon enough, you'll find that you are a fitness guy too. Instead of going to the gym to get results, you go to the gym coz you enjoy it.
Find your me-time. Find it at the gym. Find it while running. Find it in a group. Find it by yourself.
It is a paradigm shift when you do.
3 quotes for this week
Silence is essential. We need silence,
just as much as we need air,
just as much as plants need light.
If our minds are crowded with
words and thoughts, there is
no space for us.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
Most of matter is the space between matter. Most of matter is emptiness. But the bonds within atoms, amongst atoms and so on creates magic.
I might be stretching this a bit much but I need more silence. More silence between my tasks. Between doing daily things. Between days. When I lose it, I suddenly realise it is September. When I don't, each day is savoured and remembered and eventful.
While I talk lesser than the national average, whatever that may be, my inner chatterbox unfortunately more than makes up for it. But the rare moments of silence produces flashes of intelligence.
But perfect freedom is not found without some rules. People, especially young people, think that freedom is to do just what they want, that in Zen there is no need for rules. But it is absolutely necessary for us to have some rules. But this does not mean always to be under control. As long as you have rules, you have a chance for freedom. To try to obtain freedom without being aware of the rules means nothing. It is to acquire this perfect freedom that we practice zazen.
– Shunryu Suzuki
I like rules. Even though I detest quite a few of them, and have rebelled for the sake of it.
Even simple gully cricket needs rules.
Constraints help us expand. Without constraints, we tend to be rudderless.
Many books are hardly worth even skimming; some should be read quickly; and a few should be read at a rate, usually quite slow, that allows for complete comprehension. It is wasteful to read a book slowly that deserves only a fast reading;
– Mortimer Adler
Some books are filled with anecdotes and fun to read. From the obscure to the fascinating, I marvel at how authors dig up these stories. But most often, they are making 1-2 core points over 250 pages. And when I finally worked up the courage to start skimming books, skipping few pages at a stretch, and getting the core idea - it was freedom. Certain books are meant to be re-read with slowness, patience, pauses, with silence. Certain books are meant to be skimmed. Certain books are meant to be thrown away.
Finding the right way to read each book is important. I needed to let go of my guilt to do this.
On overnight transformations
10 years
Today marks 10 years since The Quad ran our first-ever class at Bamboola. Seems eons ago. Feels like last week. A lot to be thankful for. A lot of people to be thankful to. I am not even going to try right now. A lot of learnings (this is not a "10 years, 10 learnings") Instead, I want to focus on one - the overnight transformation.
We've been fortunate to observe and walk along with 100s of students on their physical and mental transformations. Week in, week out, we've learned that what we think we sell and what we actually sell is not the same thing. That's been a huge learning.
And from the student's perspective as well, what they come in wanting versus what affects the transformation is almost never the same. Amongst the countless, enriching, mind-blowing conversations that we've had with our community, what we've realised is that the sky is the limit for transformations.
I am not talking about something as one-dimensional as weight loss. Yes, we have zillions of those. One cannot be a fitness company without giving weight loss (We deliver fat loss. Important semantics). But you can get that anywhere, especially if you are loose with your methods.
I am talking about the transformation of character and thought. Finding a side of you that you did not think existed. Finding strength where you thought there was none. Finding perseverance after years of giving up too soon. Finding consistency after years of being a dabbler, of trying things out and getting bored, and moving on.
Catalysts and climactic moments
We are proud to be a catalyst for these moments.
Except these are not singular moments. There's no amazing build-up to that climax that you are waiting for.
The world around us is engineered and filled with climactic moments. But that's fake - like television. From the Olympics to every movie, to cricket and football, the building up, that crescendo, the anticipation, and the glory - that's how it always happens.
Except that is not at all how it happens in your life. That's not how a transformation happens. Ever.
Instead, it is so gradual.
It is like watching a tree grow. Or seeing a bud blossom into a flower. It happens overnight, except all that glacial progress is there to see. Open your eyes.
And it is never linear. It is never "onwards and upwards". It is up and down. It involves getting lost. Getting re-routed.
A lot of my job is telling amazing students of mine how amazing they are. Because they miss their gradual progress. They get misled by climactic moments. They think that a glorious moment of thunder and lightning and angels singing will be the background when they lift the sword from the stone.
It won't be one moment. It will instead be many moments.
Moments. Plural.
Glorious, meaningful moments. You lift a weight you never thought possible. You squat deeper than you could. You walk up flights of stairs carrying grocery bags without being gassed. You limberly tie your shoelaces without needing to sit or groan. You lift that water can and put it on your dispenser. You get asked fitness and nutrition questions and doubts from your colleagues.
But all of them will be smaller than you anticipate. Because in your head, you are expecting a climactic moment. You are expecting to win the World Cup with a glorious 6er.
Seeing The Quad's journey over 10 years, observing my personal growth, observing my students' journey and transformations - it is filled with smaller moments. By no means are these smaller moments less meaningful.
In fact, these are what make it easy to wake up every morning at 3.45 am. To do what we do. Because there are so many personal and communal moments of joy, amazement, success, of failure.
Of course, there are peaks. But as soon as you stand on one peak, and you celebrate, you continue plodding along. Not searching for the next drink, or hit of an addictive drug, but continuing on your quest for self-improvement and growth.
As a company, as a founder, as a coach, as a trainee - these are the moments that truly matter. If there's one learning that I would like to continuously hammer into my head and my students', it would be this. There are 100s of moments. All of them are part of the fabric of our transformation. Don't discount any. Don't discount them in expectation of something larger. Because what you think the transformation is versus what the transformation is are radically different. And as you walk the path, you realise you were mostly wrong and THIS is just way better.
Thank you for reading!
