What working towards a goal consistently for 150+ days taught me

Sirisha Bhamidipati
Sep 1, 2018 · 6 min read

For those of you directly landing on this post, I would request you to read My Destination Postcard and what the last 157 days meant to me.

The progress :

I managed to get a good sports physiotherapist, fixed my near broken right ankle (the problem was worse than what I thought it was and took a long and painful process before it healed), started working on my core, lost some weight (and people are actually noticing it), feel stronger and can notice the difference in my gait, form while exercising, speed and strength. I have now reached a stage where I have an exercise routine for 5 hours every day (which includes working on both my mind and body). There are days I am able to meet it, days I don’t / can’t because my body is still not completely supporting me but I know it is a matter of days before I am able to consistently complete my complete exercise routine every day and look forward to doing more. My first milestone that my physio and I set for myself is to get basic fitness before I start doing hill training and running to gear up for the Everest Base Camp.

I wanted to use this post to talk about certain life lessons this journey has been teaching me — I wouldn’t trade off all the hard work for anything — simply for what I am learning.

1. Clear sense of Purpose

There are good days, there are bad days and some that are worse — physically, mentally and emotionally but the goal has been getting me back on track — faster and easier than before. I have my Destination Postcard stuck on my cupboard and it ends up being the last thing I see before going to bed and the first thing when I wake up- so there is no losing sight. Giving up eating things I like (I am a foodie at heart), and giving time for myself (which comes at a cost of not being able to do something else) which seemed impossible earlier (I always managed to come up with the most convincing excuses) are now reasonably easy — thanks to the clear sense of purpose of being a ‘fitter and healthier’ me.

2. Working towards an audacious goal

Challenging myself with a seemingly impossible goal got me jittery in the beginning. I worked with the physio to understand the interim milestones and the order in which I need to achieve them to reach the goal. I also spent a couple of days answering for myself why I wanted to do it and got it clear that I am not doing it for anyone else but for me. Next step was to list down what would be my biggest roadblocks and how I would address them, the help I would need (guidance, physical and emotional support) the critical pitfalls I need to avoid. I pasted these too to keep reading and re-reading. Today, I have my targets set for the fortnight broken down to a daily goal and that gets me going. This journey will need me to spend thousands of hours, sometimes doing the same things for over a 100 days — so breaking the big goal into smaller milestones, tiny targets and celebrating them when I achieve is making the whole thing work. I still have days of self-doubt especially when I fall sick or when my body doesn’t support the mind but I know ‘this too shall pass’. I also now have bigger goals for myself, my consulting work and my contribution to the society beyond 2020 too. Dreaming BIG now gets me excited and charged up.

3. Talking and reading about a lot of gritty people

I have been getting a lot of inspiration talking to and reading about a lot of inspiring people across fields, who have worked towards a longer-term goal with a lot of grit and some who even overcame huge obstacles along the way. They are teaching me how to live life with grit, in addition to the benefits that come with passion and perseverance.

4. Reflection

A lot of reflection is helping me understand myself better, get a clear view of my strengths and weak moments and helping me work on them. Thanks to Dr.Bhooshan Shukla for the self-hypnosis workshop , its helping me a great deal in taking control of my thoughts and so my actions. I can still put it to a lot better use but definitely off to a good start.

5. Gratitude

Before embarking on this journey, I never paused to thank for the beautiful life I have. As I reflect, I realise everyone around me want to help me out. In my daily writing as part of the writing compound run by Choose To Thinq, for the last few days, I have been writing tiny gratitude posts for all people in my life (I haven’t shared with them yet. I plan to do that soon. It has been mostly reflective so far). With the Destination Postcard I put up, there have been so many people reaching out to me (most of whom I didn’t even know) and offering support and advice, connecting to people who they think can help, giving words of encouragement and religiously tracking my progress. I am so thankful to all of them, my parents, family, friends everyone around who is doing their bit, out of the way, to help me succeed. I realize It is a beautiful world out there. All it needs is for you to open up. If I have to mention one person that tops the list, that is Harish, my rock!

6. Discipline, Commitment and Accountability

I always took pride in my levels of discipline in executing anything. A goal, a plan for reaching it and taking accountability is making me get better at it. The best thing I could have done is shouting about the goal from the rooftop for everyone to know. That has brought in a huge support group (who I send fortnightly updates on the progress, the highs and the lows, how I am feeling, where I am failing and help, if any, that I need). That has increased my commitment towards the goal.

7. Prioritizing, Time Management and Decision Making

With 5+ hours set aside for exercise, I started off with the premise that I need to cut down on my work. But today, I am doing more consulting work than what I used to do, my productivity has improved many fold. Trying to use Pomodoro technique( thanks to Choose To Thinq again) most times and that total focus is helping me achieve more. It is also helping me in my coaching conversations with my clients. One thing I can definitely get better at is digital detox. WhatsApp and email tend to get distractive and I have planned to restrict my ‘online’ time to get more out of my time. With limited time on hand, I also am able to decide better on what I would take up and am clearly saying a ‘No’ for things I don’t want to do.

8. Be a more authentic person

Last but definitely the most important one — this journey and all the lessons I am learning is making me more authentic. It is exposing my imperfections and I am actually talking about them, I am slipping on things, failing at times but am willing to get up and try all over again- the whole thing is so real and authentic. I can use my own journey as an example to talk about how things can be so imperfect and yet the journey beautiful, let my kids see me going through this journey and know never to give up and also helps me in coaching conversations where people know I am not giving ‘gyan’ but setting goals and working towards it actually works.

Will come back with another post closer to the 300 day mark. If you want me to keep you updated on my progress, do drop a note to mailtosirisha@gmail.com. I would be happy to have more people joining me in this journey.