If you feel curious about the Indian History, then you cannot afford missing out Mr. Avadh Ojha, a history teacher I discovered really late & wish I had back in the school days!
Mr. Ojha every time highlights one thing:
Enthusiasm doesn’t come from motivational lectures. It comes from the Power. There’re 2 forms of Power: One is Physical & another is Mental.
He encourages students not just to study, rather to pick some physical activities like running, cycling, yoga and for mental fitness to begin with meditation.
Though everyone understands these advices more or less and the countless fitness related media files on the internet are evident of these theories, but we prefer moving onto the next Instagram reel & the next YouTube shorts!
“Sitting” Is the New Smoking!
I had turned the laziest version of myself in the Post Pandemic World, where I was staying glued to the laptop screen & instant messages popping in every now & then.
Then as a result of it, overthinking & anxiety have turned our daily companions.
It’s not just me, but industry stalwarts like Nithin Kamath have realized Sitting as the new Smoking & come up with initiatives at his Venture Zerodha to keep his team members fit & healthy.
But, Waking Up 😴in morning is a real issue here!
I noticed a thing about me, that I didn’t find anything substantial to keep myself busy in the morning hours other than the shallow activity like Newspaper reading, which brings a dose of toxicity with it as a first thing.
Or even, on most days the first thing I touched after waking up in the morning was my Smartphone. The day started with no clear thinking, rather clearing the unseen WhatsApp texts!
A Small Start…
This time, I chose…to do something about myself. I chose NOT to opt for anything fancy like gym subscription, nutritional consultancy, and NOT even effort seeking cycling or running.
… Rather, Just plain simple Walking 🚶in the morning. That’s it. A Small Start! Just few steps everyday!
That’s where it started with a 2.4 KM walk on the first Day. Seems like a small thing, but an encouraging feat for me!
The next day a little more and by the 8th Day, I had touched the mark of 10.4 KM walk in a Single Day, to be precise, under 119 Minutes at a Speed of 5.24 KM/H!
100 Days & Still Counting…
The Day 1 began on September 02, 2022 & touched its 100th mark on December 10, 2022.
It covered 737 KM in total with an average of 7.37 KM/Day without a single day break. The highest I’ve walked in a day so far is 13.8 KM.
To keep myself fueled for the next day and the next day, I’ve inculcated the habit of updating my progress everyday digitally after I get back home.
Challenges in Something Simple Like, “Walking”!
To be honest, the initial charm of doing anything evaporates after some days. It becomes a discipline & part of life and that’s where most people lose interest in it! That’s the complex part.
I’ve experienced fever, laziness & excuses to go less today.. all in the mind even after going good for first few weeks. Your mind tries to fool you!
The efforts, required to walk 6 KM at a stretch and then converting that into 8 KM & then 10 KM & 12 KM, physically remains almost same! It’s the mind which throws unnecessary thoughts and pushes you to go back home!
The initial pain of body has vanished, which used to appear earlier after 4–5 KM. Now even 8–10 KM doesn’t appear like a work anymore! The body has accepted and pushed its limits!
By far My observation is, I find two kinds of People taking walks in the morning/ evening, first one is a Set of uncles and aunties above 40s and the other one is the young fitness freaks. Still, both the groups are a small set in number.
Let’s Keep it Simple, Please!
I strictly leave behind the smartphone, smart watch and all sorts of digital fancy gadgets at home. After all that’s the reason I took up this activity to exercise some private time with myself.
After returning home, I ensure I calculate the distances through google map and derive the average speed etc to understand whether I’m getting lazy or at par with my regular speed.
I’ve got adapted into taking stair cases on most occasions by avoiding Elevators, wherever feasible to maintain the agility of the body.
Leaving behind all digital gadgets also removes the obligation to picture perfect any moment. Because, anyway that won’t help, rather the tendency of showing off to others will only get satisfied!
I’ve consciously chosen to keep this activity on my own without having any dependency on any friend to cut off any possibilities of excuses that usually appears in mind in the absence of the other person!
Meet The Hardworking Folks, While on the Walk, on A Sunday Morning!
An interesting thing I notice while going for a walk, is the vegetables sellers & street vendors on the way sitting on a rainy sunday morning at 6 AM trying their lucks with every passerby & serving long enough at their workplaces without any HR Policy & still going back home with profits… And, the society labels them as “Unorganized Sector”. Isn’t really an irony!
Rather it makes me wonder about my laziness to meet deadlines at work on a normal weekday!!
Final Note:
I felt This walkover of mine over the morning laziness could be of some use to my colleagues & friends elsewhere. This is not an end point, rather the challenge will go on beyond 100 Days, and with time it’ll evolve with new activities.
The morning ritual ultimately brings the joy of small win even before starting the day with professional assignments & keeps the energy maintained throughout the day and ensures a good sleep cycle at night. Anyone could give a shot with an activity of their choice!
If you ever wanna know, how big of an activity, the simplest thing like walking could be, Just Google about Dave Kunst, the first person independently verified to have walked around the Earth in 4 years by covering 23,250 KM!
By the way, below you could access my complete datasheet of 100 Days with all derived metrics.