What makes the difference?

It’s that time of the year, when all of us look back at the year that went by — a sparkle in the eye for the things that went right and a few tears for the rest. I personally like to break my life into the tiny compartments that keep the bandwagon in me moving — the various sides of me that fuel me — professional goals, personal goals, financial goals, hobbies, travel, health, running, reading and a few others. I evaluate where I stand currently and the steps that would make me a slightly better version of myself.

The last year was good! I read more, ran faster and earned the most! My trades had a good win-rate and I ran more miles than the last 2 years. I learned a few more skills and took a much awaited Euro-trip with my friends. Yet! I didn’t run enough, and I didn’t earn enough I didn’t master the skills and I didn’t do the scuba trip that I have been so badly wanting to do! While I did slightly better in everything, it wasn’t enough to make me a master at any of them. Which made me wonder why? Found it!

I’ll take running as the example here cause that one has data and metrics to back it up. If we see the 1st 3 months of 2023, I’ve done 100+k — which would make me believe I’ll run 400+ ks this year. If we look at the last month — I’ve run 50k. 4 months contributing to almost 50% of the total of the year. What about the rest? 22K on average — no where close to my goal of achieving 400–500K this year. To support this, NRC claims I ran an . The stats show I ran just 77 runs this year — average of 1.2 runs a week with an average of 4.2k / run. What I also hate, is the spike in my running activity (extends to almost all other goals) towards the last 2–3 months — striving to touch some fictitious feel good number in my head; but that’s not going to make me a better version of myself — the very thing we started with.

Instead, had I been more regular and simply run 3k — threee times a week, I would have achieved more miles, better speed and more confidence. A small 3% increment weekly would lead me to an astounding total of 1000+ kms! I created a run-calculator — a little like an SIP calculator to see the impact of consistency — frequency vs step-up vs starting point. Keeping in mind that my effort will plateau once my average distance / run > 10k marking the point of unsustainable growth.

The same unsurprisingly is true for my trades too! Small profits over time with higher probability of profits are way better than bigger trades that have a low probability of materialising! Trade calculator

Often, we define ourselves only by our end goals — the marathons or the weight loss or the count of books. Not by the daily runs, pages read or words written. But the majority of life is happening daily -not on the day of the marathon or on the 31st of December or on the day you receive your bonus. We lose out so much by celebrating only the milestones while most of it happens in the middle of chai breaks, in the auto-rides and over dinner conversations.

Think about a lot of these shows we all grew up with — Friends, The office, TBBT, B99, Seinfeld — how many crazy events or dialogues stand out?

20? 30? 50? 100?

But the show is way more than those little weddings, and noble prizes and Dundie ceremonies. It’s about the everyday! And if you can optimise for that, the milestones will flow in. Or they won’t who cares? But you still become better and achieve what you started off with. And that’s the theme I’m going to keep for 2024 — The Year of Everydays!

Read everyday.
Be active everyday.
Sleep well everyday.
Connect with people everyday.
Order less — cook more everyday.
Spend wisely everyday.
Be nice everyday.

Let’s see where this takes me — but consistency and the everyday’s are going to matter a lot more this year than ever before!

Link to the Run-Calculator: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19zwwCO8WCtXgXq6gjIS4RtsMEKhsrSroy1-VssmyeJI/edit#gid=0