Surviving the Fall

I fell today!

You are probably thinking that I am speaking in a proverbial sense or about failure, right? Wrong! While jogging within my apartment complex, I tripped over the uneven concrete blocks and fell.

To my surprise, my body went into a forward roll on the concrete with my head tucked in and I was up without an injury. As I stood up, I thanked my lucky stars and my fitness coach from Oval Crew, Yohannan John (Yohan).

Yohan’s focus was on functional fitness. He wanted to prepare us for surviving falls without injuring ourselves as we grew older. So, he trained us to go into a roll every time we fell! All those days of practice came to a head in those 5 seconds today.

Getting up without a scratch, something flashed through my mind that I had to share with you!

In Good Times, Prepare for The Bad!

No movie said that better than the 2006 English movie “The Guardian”. Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) is the top rescue swimmer at the United States Coast Guard's Aviation Survival Technician (AST) program. His job is to go out to sea in a Coast Guard helicopter and jump into rough waters to help people in distress. This needs exceptional swimming and survival skills. On one of the rescue missions, his best friend dies. Shaken by survivor guilt, Ben is transferred to become an instructor at the Coast Guard AST training school. He has a legendary reputation among the students for his high number of rescues.

Based on his experiences, he puts the trainees through a tough and unconventional training program. The program is focused on identifying swimmers who can handle rough situations in the real world, while weeding out the weak. Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher) is a hot-shot candidate for AST. Ranked as a top high school competitive swimmer with scholarships to every Ivy League college, Jake opts to enlist in the Coast Guard.

While he hates Ben initially, Jake ends up topping the batch and understanding Ben in the process.

The moment of realization comes when Ben and Jake are sent out on a real rescue in hostile Ocean waters. This is where Ben’s unconventional training methods play a crucial part in Jake saving the lives of the people. I will leave you to watch the movie for the ending!

It is important to understand that good times do not always last. Nothing exemplifies it better than the impact of Covid-19 on a lot of people across the world over the last 3 months.

As people go through tough situations, the situations are best faced with Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa dialogue to his son in the movie.

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that! I'm always gonna love you, no matter what. No matter what happens. You're my son and you're my blood. You're the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, you ain't gonna have a life.”

If you want to get up when life knocks you down, you will need to train the way a boxer does for a match in the boxing ring or Michael Jordan did for his Basketball Games or Usain did for his 9 Seconds of fame or Sachin Tendulkar did for his batting - train repeatedly well in advance over a long period of time.

So, here are some thoughts I am going to leave with you.

1.      Train during good times so that you may face the tough times with ease

2.      When you go in for training, do so without distractions. Delegate your work and leave your laptop as well as mobile behind

3.      Make those hours count by putting the learning into action. If necessary, go back through previous training programs and identify actionable insights to put into practice

4.      If you are already in a tough situation and don’t know what to do, look for a “Guardian” to help you get through it.

5.      Invest in your future. Believe in yourself. You are worth it!

My good friend, Anil Rao (former SVP at Mindtree), and I were catching up this morning. He talked about the frustrations of a lot of people as they lost their job in the Covid-era, looked for alternate careers or just faced an uncertain future. They needed to ask for help from a Guardian (someone who could coach them through the tough situation).

Am I a Coach? Yes, I am. Does it have to be me? Not necessary. It could be Anil or you could reach out to people you trust. Invest in their services financially so that you take the Coaching seriously. At the same time, you can hold them to account!

As the old Japanese proverb goes, "When you're dying of thirst, it's too late to think about digging a well.".

Whether you are an Individual or an Organization, Prepare for the future NOW so that when life hits and you fall, you roll forward and get up – just as my Guardian and Coach Yohan John helped me do!

Get your Guardian (or Coach) to help you handle whatever life throws at you! Anything is possible…you just have to believe in yourself and take action!!

Note: Yohannan John takes online fitness and nutrition classes across the world. His sessions need no previous experience in working out. His batches are at 6 Am and 7:10 AM IST for an hour in India, 10:30 Am IST for EU/UK/India and 4 PM IST for US EST/CST/India. You can reach Yohan at +91-98401-20111 on phone or whatsapp