An year of Actions beats a Decade of Intentions

Life changing “Habit formation” camps for the lazy accumulators of life-hacks like me.

So many of us read good advice but seldom put it into practice. Wouldn’t it be awesome to get into a workshop with the writer of “Ikigai” and practice his philosophy? Even though we all know that the value of an idea lies in using it, we could hardly put 1% of our ideas into practice.

I was also the voyager of such a ship of procrastination when I noticed a speed boat pass by - Rajan Singh’s Bootcamp. It was a group of 300 folks coming together on a zoom call to finish their work. That’s it. Commitment and Consistency cracked the old jammed jar of “may be from next week”.

As a “tips junkie” I have consumed my fair share of “self-help” books in the last decade. After a while, such books became less about “helping myself” and more about “Yes I have also read that”. To the extent that I read “Atomic Habits” only because every other person in my office was carrying one. God only knows where my brain has stored enlightenment from “7 habits of highly effective people”.

Imagine concepts like “Deep work” or “Flow”, “Journaling” and “Meditation”, “Practicing Gratitude”. I have tried doing regular journaling at least 50 times in my life. I have practiced gratitude in fleeting moments of good fortune - like not missing my flight due to Bangalore’s traffic, or my son agreeing to eat what I cooked. As for the “Deep-work” and “Flow - I could only feign acquaintance with a sheepish smile “maybe one day in my life I could do these awesome things”. Needless to say, my daily routine was at the mercy of my moods, which were at the mercy of my family and colleagues. 

Rajan Singh’s Linkedin posts from 2020 propelled me to take an action. The concepts that Rajan promotes are not new. What is new is his approach to making people use these suggestions. Being a loiterer of the realms of good habits, I decided to try his Bootcamp to see if he can make me a permanent resident of “goodhabitdom”. For the first time, I got a series of “baby steps” toward creating better habits for my life. Here was a man who was giving tips on actual execution plans for the habits. All I had to do was to show up for the boot camp and do my checklist. 

One thing that I learned from Rajan’s content is this - “Theory is nothing without action”, and he has been kind enough to provide a solution in form of his boot camps. 

• The Little compromises that kill us: https://www.habitstrong.com/the-little-compromises-that-kills-us/

This is one of the most insightful newsletters from Rajan. Through his own example, Rajan shows us a mirror - haven't we all taken liberties with our workout routines? For silly reasons like “I am tired today, but I will do it tomorrow”? Deviating a little at a time is what kills our good habits. What I learned was to maintain a strike record. It is a simple gamification of the daily routine tasks and can be easily done in an excel or a notebook. This approach appealed so much to my brain that I continued “the daily checklist” for a year. I increased the checklist from 3 habits to at least 20 things that I wanted to do in 2022. Glad to report that I am at 90% of set goals for workouts, 60% for healthy eating, 59% on learning goals, and 21% on appreciate-life goals. A long way to go, but now there is a way that I know.

• How to break out of Rut: https://www.habitstrong.com/how-to-break-out-of-a-rut/

I think this is a keystone piece from Rajan. Most of his suggestions are in one place. But the best part is his own story to which I related the most. Rajan had a school year in which he could not study much even though there was no major distraction. Then he pulls himself up and cracks a major competition exam the next year.

Like Rajan, I had a school year of being in a rut. I put my studies for the 10th board exams on hold because my mother underwent a medical procedure. Now please understand my mother was not bedridden, she recovered well within a month. I, on the other hand, refused to recover from this mild disturbance. Worried about my high school scores, my mother dramatically threw all my books down one day and yelled at me. The shock really worked - I regained my senses. What I didn't do is put this learning into practice for the future.

Today, Rajan’s content gave me an action plan to follow. This year when I had to leave workouts for a vacation, I could not resume them for months. However, I intentionally broke the rut by first removing my guilt and then making my strike plan as per Rajan’s boot camp training. I took a challenge of three lakh steps in 30 days. I went behind the target even though my knee was hurting by day 22. After accomplishing a month of steps, I am back on my workout routine.

• How to learn effectively: https://www.habitstrong.com/how-to-learn-effectively/

Technically Rajan quotes other great writers to tell the technique of habit formation. But the difference is how he motivates his own readers to heed the advice and start acting. By giving his own examples, Rajan shows his vulnerability to such bad habits, then he goes on to tell the exact steps of how he gets rid of them. Rajan ensures that he does not shame the reader beyond what his audience can take - this is important for me to feel dignified in admitting my faults and then working on them.

• How to write well: https://www.habitstrong.com/how-to-write-well-my-personal-writing-guide/

I have read at least a dozen such posts about writing. Yet, I heed Rajan’s advice the most because of this simple reason - it is full of examples and actionable items. He has an understanding of his niche target audience -  we are professionals who rose through the Indian education system of rote learning without learning to think for ourselves. We are not very groomed in our communication, personal discipline, or nuanced in our life’s philosophy. So he speaks on exact points where we are struggling. Rajan uses very simple language while writing, and uses relatable instances that make the point crystal clear to a layman like me.

Here are a few more gems from Rajan

• How to be consistent in building habit: https://www.habitstrong.com/how-to-be-consistent-in-building-habits-here-is-what-i-found/

• How to make each day Delightful: https://www.habitstrong.com/make-each-day-delightful/

• The neuroscience of addiction and why we get addicted: https://www.habitstrong.com/mobile-addiction/

• How to do the right thing EVEN when you are demotivated: https://www.habitstrong.com/how-to-do-the-right-thing-even-when-youre-demotivated

• How to stop sabotaging ourselves: https://www.habitstrong.com/how-to-stop-sabotaging-ourselves/

After being a subscriber for more than a year, I could safely say that these newsletters have made the most difference in my life. Covid lockdowns, career ups-downs, and life’s vicissitudes could have derailed me, just like any other human. It has become easier to restart good habits because I now have a system of “maintaining the strike” that I learned from him. The good part is that his live-online camps are there to help me get back on track. It feels like he has got my back when I might forget to put theory into action. 

I decided to jump out of my slow-moving ship of procrastination into Rajan’s Speed boat for a better life. You too, give it a try!