Knowing Yourself and Your Limits
Taking the first step is often the hardest, as is stopping while you're ahead.
Welcome to the first proper edition of Touching Base!
This newsletter is a little passion project of mine where i like to share the tangible things in life. It may be that you’ve had a lot of work this week, and you’re searching for something small to digest in your downtime.
This newsletter stemmed from realising the value of conversation with others, whether its from a single encounter or an everyday occurance.
There’s always something to learn from interaction.
Media(m) for change.
This year, one of my aims is to read more non-fiction books. Anything that allows me to apply atleast one principle from its story.
In February I bookmarked ‘Million Dollar Weekend’ by Noah Kagan (not to be confused with singer Noah Kahan). Here’s one main takeaway:
The Ask Muscle 💭
Everyone has a great idea, but fails to actually make it happen. Why? They give many reasons - other priorities, fear of judgement and failure, requiring more knowledge before starting.
Let’s solve that. Go to your local cafe and order your usual. Right before you pay, ask for a 10% discount.
Worst case scenario: they won’t have a 10% discount.
Best case scenario: you just saved a bit of money!
The aim of this exercise is to train yourself to just get started.
Asking is a massively underutilised tool with massive returns, you’re missing out on free gold if you don’t use it.
I’ve applied the ask muscle to my philanthrophy programme. I really hate asking people for money, but i had to for one of my fundraising stalls.
By conditioning myself to asking people who walk by, i eventually overcame the idea of rejection and made some great returns on our bake sale - over 7 times our original expenses.
The Whispering Tree.
“I can’t do it anymore!”
🏃💨 Last week, i took part in my first ever running club. The worst part about it was that it was their last run for the term before Ramadan, which meant that they were to do their longest run to date, a campus 5K circuit. This group’s goal for the term was to go from not running at all to completing 5 km in 10 weeks, open to everyone of different skill levels.
Despite never attending any of their other sessions, I decided to do join them anyway.
Here’s the thing, I’ve been able to consistently do 3 km on my own after pushing myself to do a mile run whenever i could in my downtime. It felt very rewarding after putting myself through the paces.
However, I’ve never ran in a group before. This means a couple things: Someone has to set the pace, and you’re talking with others will running.
I thought I was finished.
⏱️ Instead, I decided to go with the slow group, but lead and set the pace since I’ve never done a 5K and done so in a group environment. This worked out in the end, as i was able to keep the group together and complete the route in a sub-30 timeslot. I wasn’t out of breath by the end of it (which i thought i would’ve) and i kept a consistent pace tolerable for the rest of the group.
One of my runners, BK, was a complete novice that went to every running session, a very committed individual. Throughout our run, he constantly kept telling me that he couldn’t continue anymore, his legs were out of it and he was going to stop at the next checkpoint.
🧠 Here’s the thing about running though, when you boil it down to the absolute finest, it’s all about the next step (literally and figuratively). I applied this idea to motivate him by constantly giving him a new goal - reach the end of the street, you can easily get to that tescos, you’ve already done this amount, what’s the next amount compared to what you’ve already conquered.
For me, the run wasn’t about setting a new PR. It was about applying what works for me and helping those around you.
So, whats the whispering tree trying to tell us?
It’s important to shift your mindset when carrying out your task.
Break it down into small digestible bits.
Instead of looking up at the tree, look at the next branch you can climb.
Yutori Corner. 🌄
A week out from the end of my last term at university, a couple of friends and I took a roadtrip up north for a retreat.
All of us have our own jobs, deadlines and responsibilities to fulfill.
This trip meant alot to us, we could getaway for a weekend and truly reflect on how we’ve gotten into the positions we are today, the lessons and stories that shape our lives before we return back to reality.
We kept asking why we didn’t do this sooner?
In all honesty, it’s because we wouldn’t have valued the trip with the experiences we had years ago or even months ago. We’ve grown into these people for a reason, and we can now look at all of our ups and downs to learn and prepare ourselves for the next step in our lives.