Running my first 10km
And being present at the moment
Hey friends 👋
This week, I attended a 50 mins long yoga session focusing on flexibility. All I did in that 50 mins was Surya Namaskara and variations of it. TBH, I was bored after 5-10 reps because we were doing the same set of exercises again and again and again. My immediate response was to check the time left for the class to end. My phone was lying down and I didn’t want to break the rhythm of the class. So didn’t check the time. I couldn’t find any wall clocks in front of me either, so I just continued with the class.
As time passed by, the poses started to become harder. It wasn’t easy anymore & I had to put in full effort to get the pose right. Not just this, I also had to stay in the pose for 10 counts, and focus on breathing while doing so. In one of these poses, I had to turn my head to the back and catch my leg and do all kinds of stuff. When I turned back, I noticed a huge digital wall clock hanging. I was in the middle of the pose & the yoga master started the countdown from 10 to 0.
The clock of literally in front of my eyes but I didn’t notice the time!! I was just noticing the seconds tick on the clock and I literally didn’t care about the total time left for the yoga class to complete. All I wanted at that moment was to complete this particular pose with full focus. Nothing else.
This was a subconscious response which I never realised when it happened. The time just flew by without noticing. I never had second thoughts about checking the time. This seemed fascinating to me. I was present at the moment, fully focused on just one thing. This doesn’t happen to me very often, but what changed in this situation was:
The activity was challenging enough to keep me engaged.
The activity was modular & small enough for me to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
With these 2 changes, I was able to stay focused while doing the smaller tasks & also complete a larger task at the same time. A similar situation happened during a run this week. I started with the goal of running 10km on a Tuesday evening. I run in a park which is about 400 meters in circumference. So I had to run 25 rounds around the park to complete the 10k. Initially, this seemed very huge to me. 25 rounds felt so hard when I was just starting the run.
I changed the mindset from 25 rounds to 5*5 rounds. Now, when I’m starting the run, my immediate goal was to complete 5 rounds and not 25. If I complete 5 rounds and if I could do the same 4 more times, the goal is achieved. This suddenly seemed possible. That’s what I did - just focused on completing 5 rounds that were in front of me.
I wouldn’t say these 2 were the only reasons that helped me achieve this goal. There were definitely many factors that played into these situations that I never noticed. But taking up a challenging activity & breaking them into smaller pieces did help to some extent. I’ll test my hypothesis in future and I’ll send an update to you folks. What are your thoughts on this? Reply to this email or add a comment below!
💫 This week in Read Write Run
A simple framework that helps you filter the best contractors & freelancers. The test is simple - you post a super hard job to the freelancer & wait to hear their response. If they respond “That it can’t be done”, he’s a defeatist. If they respond “I’d complete that in a weekend“, they are deluded. You want a person who says “It’s hard but I can work it out for you” and further lists down the constraints.
🎙 Daniel Negreanu: Poker | Lex Fridman Podcast
I’m obsessing over poker for a few weeks now. This is a great conversation with Daniel Negreanu, one of the best poker players, on Lex's podcast. If you are a noob, just like me, you’ll learn a lot from this conversation. Also, it’s interesting to hear what a professional player’s life looks like.
🎶 Jacob Collier - Somebody To Love (Live in Lisbon)
This is the MOST beautiful video I saw on YouTube this week. Jacob Collier’s cover of Somebody To Love by Queen. It’s soo good, I loved it.
🏃 Run
Completed my first-ever 10k run this week! Amazing feeling and it was a much-needed run. It just drained all my negative thoughts and gave me the energy that I needed. From next week, I’m increasing my weekly goal to 25 km/week.
Let’s keep running, See you next week!