Crawl. Walk. Run. Pause. Stop. Crawl. Walk. Run. Repeat....

I wanted to share another strength training metaphor with all of you in this new world. 

A lot of us are trying to keep our heads down and keep our focus on the job in hand. Some of us aren't so lucky and lost what they had. Some got lucky and started their journey again. As someone said, we are all in the same storm but in different boats. 

I wanted to share something (as I shared earlier) about similar situation I faced in my strength training. I reached my peak before the lockdown (Feb 2020) with all my weight training benchmarks being highest ever- Deadlift-275 Lbs, BackSquats-200 Lbs, Front Squat-180 Lbs, Shoulder Press-100 Lbs and so on. Lo behold the lockdown starter mid-March and all the weight training came to screeching halt. Months passed by and we all tried in our own small ways to continue with our fitness journey along with some online coaches, friends, community and so on. Truth be told, our house in India doesn't have the space to replicate the #CrossfitBox that I was used to. With no strength training per se, it was imminent that my strength will come down.

I started going back to the Box with the utmost precautions about two weeks back. Just lifting the bar became a chore! Forget the PRs, just to be able to manage to complete a set was a miracle. However, this is where consistency and patience comes into play. You know you have done it before, you need to believe you can do it again. You just need to be patient and consistent. 

Im nowhere close to my earlier benchmarks but yes Im 60% there after 2 weeks of consistency. As my coach shared, your graph to reach 80% will be fast, the tough one is to reach the 100% and then surpass it. For that, you need grit, patience, consistency and determination both physically and mentally.

In the same way all of us need to keep our heads down, keep our focus, be consistent and patient. I'm blessed to be working with one of the world's most admired companies (Microsoft) and really really privileged to be able to do what I love, but there are many who haven't been so lucky, so to all, we may not be where we were but keeping our focus, grit, determination is a must. Helping one another, being there for each other (just to listen to the ideas, being the wailing wall and just give a listening ear) sometimes is enough.

While I'm at my scores and Ill update if I've managed to reach my earlier benchmarks, I hope all of you will continue the hustle, be consistent and be patient.