The Deep End Isn’t For Everyone: Humility Is A Small Price To Pay For Guaranteed Success
Take a step into my mind.
It’s lockdown.
I’m inactive.
I haven’t played sports in months.
I’m overweight and frustrated.
And I intend to do something about it.
I played rugby in secondary school—hardly ‘competitively,’ though.
But, I loved it regardless.
Especially the weekend fixtures with my friends.
I will say this, though, we’ll never know how good I could’ve been since I literally played half-blind.
See, there weren't any contacts available at the time for my specific severity of astigmatism.
So I played with no glasses.
Irrespective of this, I could see enough — squinting always gave me an extra bit of range.
But that hindrance only applied to situations that required long-sightedness.
Close range?
That was my element.
I had pride in the fact I could tackle anyone.
No matter how big.
No matter how fast or nippy with their feet.
If they came in my radius, they were not getting past me.
Enough of that though, back in my rugby days whenever we did team conditioning it was always cardio.
Running.
Sprinting.
Laps.
Post to post.
Hill climbs.
You name it.
Over and over.
Until nobody could walk.
And as much as it drained me, I loved the challenge.
We all did.
I knew inherently that there was something beautiful about the suffering.
And boy did we suffer.
But conquering the challenge was the best feeling.
It didn’t matter how fast, or how long it took.
What mattered is that we kept taking a step forward, until there were no more steps to take.
So naturally, my first inclination for transformation was to run.
And I started with 4k’s.
I wanted to win that mental battle.
I wanted to struggle.
I wanted to suffer, and irrespective of the pain and panting, keep on pushing.
And boy did I suffer.
I still remember the recovery phase after my first 4k.
Everything ached.
Not immediately, the cramps and aches started the next day.
And rolled onto the next day.
And the next.
And the next.
It was so bad that I couldn’t even bring myself to run through it four days later.
So my schedule to run a 4k three times a week went up in smoke so quickly.
That incapability was so frustrating.
And it’s not hard to imagine what happened: it became harder and harder for me to commit to running and be consistent.
Purely because it felt so out of my reach.
And it was.
Sure, I had short bursts of motivation and zeal that forced me out the door at 5 a.m., running the same 4k all over again.
But nothing consistent.
Nothing concrete.
And you can imagine how the results ended up — equally pitiful.
But that approach was so wrong.
Well, partially.
I had the right intention but the wrong approach.
The deep end isn’t for everyone.
Whenever we approach growth, our intention should be to reap as much as possible with the least amount of effort.
That is efficiency.
Even if that doesn't initially look like heroic suffering, it’s what’s best for you right now, so deal with it.
In my case,
Jumping into three 4k runs a week after being inactive for months and getting fat was not efficient.
That’s idiocy and ego.
And what gave birth to that pitiful logic?
Desperation.
Desperation will coax you into the deep end.
Everyone knows the saying,
“a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” (Franklin D. Roosevelt).
It describes how mastery requires increases in difficulty, beyond what you’re comfortable with to be realised.
Often, we associate that saying, like I did, with putting yourself through treacherous conditions.
And that’s all wrong.
That is desperation.
But notice, it isn’t telling you to dive beyond your realm of possibility; rather, it hints at incremental changes in difficulty.
And that’s the key.
Forget desperation.
Forget getting there as fast as possible.
Forget rushing entirely.
What I want everyone to adopt is a “slow and steady” approach.
Even though it might not be as pretty and flashy, that glamour is traded for something much better.
A guaranteed result.
In other words, you’re going to get there.
No matter what.
Rain or shine.
In sickness and in health.
Whatever life throws your way won’t hinder you.
Why?
Because you committed to the slow and steady approach.
Slow and Steady Approach
The slow and steady approach requires you to trust the process, remain committed, and remain humble.
That’s all.
These aren’t a list of steps but tips; they’re things I wish I had done back then.
- Abandon looking good.
Back in lockdown, I started off with 4k runs for two reasons.
- My friends were doing it too.
- It sounded productive and impressive.
Both of the above are centred on appearances, whether internal or external.
It’s all the same thing.
Nothing but trying to look good for others.
Abandon all of that.
If I had let go of appearances and analysed what was best for me and my growth, I would’ve realised that starting with less was more.
Even if it sounded uncool, running 2k or even 1.5k, 5–7 days a week would’ve taken me much further than running 4k once or twice every 3 weeks.
- If I can’t do it every day, I need to think smaller.
Last year, I made significant progress whilst losing weight.
And I did nothing special.
All I did was start with what I could do and repeat that every day.
What I was able to do:
- Go to the gym.
- Change my meals.
- Do a small amount of cardio.
And that’s exactly what I did.
I went to the gym five times a week, and after every workout I walked on the treadmill for 15 minutes.
That’s it.
Nothing extravagant.
Nothing flashy.
All I did was make a change I could maintain every single day.
If I wanted to speed up the rate at which I was losing weight, I could’ve increased the speed, increased the height on the incline treadmill (to make it harder), increased the duration, or increased the frequency to 6/7 times a week.
And every last one of those options was realistically implementable.
Moreover, all of those options bloomed from doing what I was capable of maintaining every single day.
Too often, we get into an all or nothing approach when desperate for change.
And there’s no need.
Start small.
And take it one step further once you get accustomed to that level of difficulty.
Incremental changes.
Humility is a small price to pay for guaranteed success.
- Neither the deep end nor the kiddy pool.
In my case, I went straight to the deep-end.
And we know how that went.
But going with what you’re comfortable with isn’t the way either.
It has to be beyond the realm of comfortability and before the realm of impossibility.
Difficult but achievable.
That is what it means to take it slow and steady.
There must always be a challenge.
There must always be failure.
There must always be some form of uphill battle.
However, adjust the steepness of the hill to your capabilities.
Somewhere in-between the deep end and the kiddy pool.
Manageable and challenging.
Next time you desperately want to change or grow, remember that desperate approaches have no guarantee.
You could succeed, but it’s more likely you’ll fail.
However, taking the rational slow and steady approach has a lifetime guarantee on it.
If that growth or success is what you want more than anything else, then choose the vehicle that will get you there no matter what.
Choose the slow and steady approach.
Because, The Deep End Isn’t For Everyone.
LM