LIFE LESSONS
4 Surprising Lessons I Learned From 4 Habit Challenges Over the Past 3 Years
Life can happen to you or for you
My first awakening after becoming financially independent was when I blew my first month’s salary at my first job.
When I returned to my hometown for vacation, I gave up my Dad’s debit card. I even had to go to a therapist when I couldn’t manage my finances and how it was damaging my mental health.
Before my therapy even started, I was on a 100-day fitness challenge. It was successful, which motivated me for another 100-day writing challenge, the newsletter challenge, and the fourth challenge I am currently doing: self-taught fitness transformation.
Over the four habit challenges I have developed so far, profound lessons make every pursuit exciting and unique.
Before starting a new direction to improve your lifestyle, these points will give you a substantial headstart if you keep them in mind.
#1. Patience is under-utilised.
Patience teaches us to be diligent with our efforts and trust the process.
Your brain is dying if you don’t use it frequently. The same goes for the efficiency of any habit.
Patience is one of the most challenging qualities to master. In my first 100-day challenge, I was hopeless about reaching the finish line. I even created the hundredth-day blog on day 50 itself but replaced it with a new one with the jolt of inspiration I received on day 100.
Patience teaches us to be diligent with our efforts and trust the process.
Every new challenge tested my patience. The current one is no less. But it is becoming easier as I progress.
#2. Life gets in your way.
In my first 100-day fitness streak, I got sick and crawled to the gym anyway. Although I did not miss a day of workouts, that [ and many more ] experiences taught me to have a contingency plan if things go south.
It immensely helps in my current fitness journey, where if I can’t do a workout due to time constraints or the previous night’s hangover. The bare minimum I’ll do is mobility training or an hour-long walk post-lunch.
Having a contingency plan for emergency ensures you don’t lose heart mid-way.
#3. Lifelong learning is a healthy drug.
If you’ve looked at the life curve of any fitness influencer, you must have found that being physically active is not only about looks. It affects all spheres of life.
You start caring about mental health. You boost your confidence. You even feel less drained by the end of the day. You end up quitting lousy eating habits because of the investment you’ve made in your physique.
A similar pattern I have experienced with lifelong learning. I heard the term for the first time in the marketing campaign of Udacity (where I work ). Once I drilled down to understand its intricacies, the meaning sums up in one statement:
Keep challenging yourself in the direction you want to improve.
I know this quote can go in many directions. That’s why it is vital to choose your battles wisely.
Lifelong learning will teach you to look at your goals with a long-term vision. You’ll start ignoring cheap short-term gains because the process feels more rewarding than instant gratification.
#4. Time is your competitor.
We all have 24 hours in a day. The way you start your day determines how you’ll end it, and the loop repeats the next day.
There are several time-management techniques in the galaxy. Even I have followed more than one of them myself. I left many of them mid-way because they were too practical. I got fed up with the effort.
While creating my time management system design specifically for my lifestyle, I realised something which was the juice of all time management systems:
You might have heard a similar quote from Jim Rohn that conveys the same message:
“Do important things before they become urgent.”
Your energy is highest from the moment you wake up.
If you start prioritising your daily tasks based on their importance, you’ll be more satisfied even if you miss some of them because your TaskOfTheDay is done.
You have spent your energy on the most precious tasks. You can have peace with it and tweak your next day accordingly.
Final words
Self-improvement is a journey.
Rarely does anyone mention what happens when you achieve your specific goal. Do you stagnate? Do you stop growing?
No.
Lifelong learning is about continuous progress. When I finished my first 100-days fitness challenge, I prioritised progression in my weight training, followed by intensity.
Similarly, for writing, I wrote two articles on some days. I experiment with writing serious articles too. I added humour elements where they were least expected.
Even in my newsletter, some episodes are 1-minute long.
And some episodes look like the Constitution of India stuffed in an email.
When you see self-improvement as a journey, you’ll see your speed pick up the pace because now you prioritise progress over checking tick-boxes.
Treat your brain as a bio-machine whose lubricant is lifelong learning. If you don’t learn something new regularly, you deprive the brain of its essential fuel.
If you want to receive more stories like this, my lifelong learning newsletter is for you.
Sanjeev is a mentor, writer, and fitness enthusiast from India. He writes about lifelong learning, personal growth, and positive psychology. When he’s not engaging with students in solving their doubts or busy with writing, he’s sweating either in a workout, PC gaming, or playing 8-ball pool. You can also find him on Twitter.
