66 Days Bootcamp to Revamp Yourself

Once upon a time, there was a cobbler who was very busy. He lived in a large village and was the only cobbler in town, so he was responsible for repairing the boots of everybody else. However, he didn’t have time to repair his own boots.

This wasn’t a problem at first, but over time, his boots began to deteriorate and fall apart. While he worked feverishly on the boots of everyone else, his feet got blisters and he started to limp. His customers started to worry about him, but he reassured them that everything was OK.

However, after a few years, the cobbler’s feet were so injured that he could no longer work and no-one’s boots got repaired. As a consequence, soon the entire town started to limp in pain, all because the cobbler never took the time to repair his own boots.

If you don’t look after yourself, keep yourself updated, learn new things, after a while you’ll be not be able to add value to anyone. This is true for leaders, trainers, managers even for parents.

Keep adding value to yourself before adding value to others.

Let me share with you a 66 day challenge to revamp yourself. Research says if you want to inculcate any habit it will take 66 days of regular practice.

There are 4 practices I recommend and challenge you to practice it every day for the next 66 days to add value to yourself and thereby adding value to others.

Here you go,

Wake up and Shake up – We did a survey as part of a leadership project some years back. One question we asked leaders was ‘Do you have a physical exercise regime?’ More than 80% of leaders said that they do regular physical exercise every day. I remember in one of the train the trainer program I attended, the facilitator told us that as trainers if we don’t do regular physical exercise we are not fit for this job. One of the many benefits of regular exercise is increased and sustained energy throughout the day to achieve results.

Action Project – Commit yourself to doing 30 min of physical exercise every day come what may for the next 66 days.

Bliss in Bliss out - If you are completely relaxed and stress-free, then your mind will also work more effectively. The right side of our brain, which is responsible for creating new ideas, will work actively when you do meditation regularly. As a result, you will be able to produce new designs and ideas for your business. It might sound bizarre that you can improve your productivity just by sitting quietly and alone, but it’s true. The most surprising fact is that this short time will improve your entire day. So, regularly invest some time into meditation so that you can gain some fruitful results in return.

Action Project – Commit yourself to doing meditation, mindfulness or any mind exercises every day for the next 66 days

Emotional Fitness – To be effective, leaders must have a solid understanding of how your emotions and your responses impact work and relationships. Take the time to work on self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. Recognize that there are multiple ways of looking at any given situation. So, instead of succumbing to a knee-jerk negative reaction when you become upset by someone else's actions, slow down and consider if there are other ways of looking at the situation

Action Project – Commit yourself to improving your self-awareness by writing down your top emotions of the day, both positive and negative on a journal before going to sleep for the next 66 days. Reflect on it, learn from it and change your response to a positive one, next time a similar event happens.

Power Hour – Leaders are Readers. If you are a leader, you should be striving to develop knowledge to improve yourself, your company, and the people who work for you. To do anything less is to shortchange your ability to lead. I encourage you to make time. Time never “appears” for anything; you have to make it. If you hate reading, listen to audio books, if you hate that watch educational and inspirational stuff on YouTube or sign up for an online course which will help your profession.

Action Project – Commit yourself to educating yourself every day for the next 66 days by reading books, listening to audio books, YouTube videos or online courses.

Take up the challenge and fix your boots to make a positive difference to the people around you