Before joining the Indian Police Service, the most physically intense thing I had done in a few years was climbing the stairs of PK Kelkar Library at IIT Kanpur.
Naturally, the upcoming 10-month training at the National Police Academy was making me sweat bullets. And all my seniors had told me, ‘It is quite hard, but you can do it.’
Honestly, this lukewarm encouragement wasn’t helping. Why weren’t they more comforting?
But anyhow, on the appointed day, we all landed in Hyderabad. And then two major things happened:
(1) We got started.
(2) Then, the training got over.
But what about the 10 months in the middle?
So here is the paradox: While even 5 minutes of the morning PT always felt like an hour, the 10 months went by like just a few weeks.
That is how I found the recipe for doing hard things:
1. Get started
2. Don’t quit
Whether trying to build a habit, run a marathon, or master a skill, we keep reading quintals of books and binge-watch self-improvement videos like a Netflix series. Not needed.
Reading one book or watching 2-3 videos was probably ok. But after that, it was just procrastination.
Get started. Once you start, it will get done.
Sometimes, knowledge is not power, action is power.
– Rajan