How do I push myself in the face of insurmountable tasks? What would help me survive temporary failures?
I had the opportunity to attend the Friday (7 August 2020) session of ILEAD where the Value Addition speaker was Mr Romil Barthwal. Mr. Romil is an Army Veteran, Maroon Berret Army Paratrooper, La Ultra Marathoner, Boston Marathoner & Everester, Leadership & Motivational Speaker. This blog posts is about the Inspiration I got from session and some take homes that I wish to share here.
I came to know about the background of Mr. Romil through Leader Kirit, who is responsible for arranging Value Addition Speakers for ILEAD. I drew a lot of inspiration from the fact that the Value Addition Speaker has scaled Everest and was also an Army Veteran.
From the moment, Romil Sir delved on his experience during his first Year in NDA to his need to overcome his weaknesses to how he scaled Mount Everest, every point was a learning in itself. Following were some points that I wish to explore more:
1. Don’t think about 3 years down the line, think about the moment
Romil Sir gives that example of climbing Mount Everest and how they have to go from Base Camp to Camp 1, Camp 2, Camp 3 and Camp 4 before finally taking the journey to Everest. While Romil was at Camp 1, he could clearly see Mount Everest. He could also see how far he has come from Base Camp. Given the distance, the tough climate, the treacherous path it becomes very tough to take the step towards Everest. This is where Romil Sir states that he did not think about climbing the Everest. He was thinking only about taking the next step.
If I could reflect this in my professional as well as personal life, I could relate it to the number of times I got bogged down by the enormity of the tasks / goals. Romil Sir suggests that without thinking about how big the task is or how difficult it would get going forward, we must be focusing on the next action, take the next decision, make it better, create small goals and accomplish them.
2. Pain is temporary, Pride is Permanent
Romil Sir is an Army Veteran, having passed out from NDA, he has also undergone the rigorous training which is draining, both physically and mentally. He explains how tough it was to undergo the drill and he was planning to quit at one point in time. Thanks to his seniors he persisted and his decision has kept him in good stead. While admitting that academics was never his forte, nevertheless it didnt deter him in joining IIT for MTech course. Again the rigorousness was demanding but it helped him network with many bright minds.
The difficulty associated with undertaking a painstaking project has pushed me to my limits. But I learned a lot during the project and in turn lead to satisfaction that I derived from this project.
3. Have Faith & Trust in Your Team
While leading a team of Mountaineering Enthusiasts, Romil Sir talked about how trust played a very important role in achievement of tasks. Before leading the team for Everest, the team practiced for 1 full year. Romil Sir had no prior experience in scaling Everest but he had full trust in his team. He knew that he had their back and the team knew that he was always there in any challenging situation.
I have found several times during my interaction that I do not have the best ideas be it in creation of systems, implementing sales strategies, excel or word skills. However, I am always amazed by the inputs / ideas / skills that I could get from my team members at our company. It has now become my strategy to ask my team how can we accomplish a plan or a report and more often than not, it is my team’s idea that we go along with. I know that we can always learn if things go haywire and that both I and my team are all in this together.
4. Bring It On!
An Attitude to continue facing different challenges is what I would describe of Romil Sir. In his own words, he was never an athlete, he was < 50 kg when he got into NDA. People were not even confident that he would even make it to the final years of NDA. But he did! He took up the challenge of training for the Boston Marathon (considered to be the most prestigious marathon in the world). Ran the La Ultra Marathon, Podium Finisher for Half Ironman, Super Randonneur and many other difficult challenges. When he was asked if he could lead a team of mountaineering enthusiasts to Everest, he was up for the challenge.
I could personally relate to this to a certain degree in the sense that I never thought of running 5 km at a stretch. However, when an opportunity came, I grabbed it and started practicing it. What really taught me during my training was the limits that my body could stretch too. I also learned how much should i run at a stretch, what could i take in my small breaks and what should i wear to overcome the initial chills during the morning run and at the same time not sweat enough and loose water. I ran my first 10K and finished it in 75 min.
5. People will believe in you, only if you believe in yourself!
Romil Sir mentioned how important it is to have belief in yourself. He took the example of his expedition to Everest and the first time he was approached to lead the time. He was super confident of his ability to lead and scale Everest. It was his confidence and his faith in doing the necessary training that made it easy for this team to scale the Everest. While interacting with PM Narendra Modi, one of the participants, a 22 year old girl, of the expedition was asked about her experience, she said that it was just effortless.
An example that I wish to share is of taking up a new business opportunity which I believe will help my company in the long run while it wont give me immediate returns. Earlier, I faced lot of resistance and I would often listen why we would fail as we do not have any experience in this business. By persisting for the first 1-2 years, i can now see how everybody is aligned with this idea and we do hope to build on our recent success.
6. If you achieve something you considered impossible, your life changes and so your perception changes
This comes from always building on your past success and achieving higher goals. Romil Sir discusses about his relentless pursuit to achieve even higher goals. Starting from Marathon, he was not satisfied and wanted to try something more challenging. His perception about his own limits changed once he Podium Finished in the Boston Marathon. Before considering Half Iron Man, he didnt knew if he could do it but his outlook changed once he completed it in record time.
7. If you have a dream, you would be happy during the journey inspite of the challenges
Romil Sir mentioned how happy he was when he stood at the top of Everest. It was his dream to scale the summit along with his team and bring them all safely back to their families. While the trek was riddled with difficultly, it was his internal motivation to realize his dream that made all the difference. He went on to lead 9 mountain expeditions as a team leader.
Taking a leaf from this learning, I have recently taken up the task of becoming a Stockist for a couple of products. Becoming a Stockist has its own challenges, you have to market the product, distribute, plan strategy and execute it. Since, I own a couple of FMCG brands as a manufacturer, it is giving me experience as to how to appoint Stockist for my products in other states, how to work with them what should be my roles / responsibilities and what should be my expectations. Overall, it has turned out to be quite a learning experience for me in particular and for my company in general.
I do hope that you would also be inspired from this experience sharing by Romil Sir. Would be very happy if you could just start writing down 1 tasks that you feel is difficult for you. Please also write how achieving that tasks would change your life for the good. Plan the steps that you will take in achieving those tasks and start away.
In the beginning, I had 2 questions for myself, the answer for which is somewhere in this blog. I believe that either you learn by experience, much like a hit and trial method which I always do. Another way is to learn from others, get inspired by others. Through this you get the motivation to achieve those difficult tasks that you have set out to achieve for yourself.
The biggest regret you will make is not trying for your dream hard enough.
“Plan for it. Take Action”
~ RG