Visually nothing has really changed in these 26 days.
My weight has remained precisely consistent. My hair hasn’t changed. Maybe I slouch a little less, but honestly, you’d have to go looking hard to see a difference between Kirill 26 days ago and me today.
Internally, it’s a different world though. Sticking to a challenge project for this long has shown me that there is so much more inside of me than I ever knew.
Being able to do my daily routine would have seemed unfathomable to Kirill of 2 years ago. Yet today I can honestly say that I can take more and that I’m not fully spent yet.
I am very much task orientated now and I am very comfortable breaking things down into tiny tasks and solving them one by one is now a happy little fun challenge.
Gruelling daily physical work has become a treat.
Today I did sled pushing as a start to my workout and it was pretty fun, so I increased weight until it became painful and then increased my tempo until my heart told me to stop. Then I rested for a minute and went at this for over 20 minutes until every muscle in my body gave out.
I could barely stand. Seriously, I felt spent. I felt like my body is broken and I want to lie down and rest. However the activity timer only said 25 minutes.
And my rule is at least 60 minutes of physical exercise per day. Because standing was insufferable, I wasn’t really feeling cycling, I decided to give rowing a go.
I don’t usually row. Not my thing for some reason. When I do, it’s usually 10-15 mins before I’m spent.
Today was no different — 15 mins in I was ready to call it a day and maybe try some uphill walking to finish off my remaining 20 mins of exercise.
But then he came. A dude sat down on a rowing machine next to me and started doing his thing. We don’t know each other. I’ve seen him in the gym, but nothing more.
I wouldn’t say he’s got a model physique, but he definitely appears to be in a different league from me physically. I don’t know why, but I upped my intensity and rowing tempo and went at it. Something clicked in my mind — I am not getting off this rowing machine first. No matter how long I have to stay here. Either he leaves first or I’m passing out from exhaustion.
The dude ended up matching my tempo for a while, he then had to stop and rest, started again and rest and again. While something inside of me was just on fire. Everything in my body was going all out, yet my heart was only pumping at 120bpm and I was barely breaking a sweat.
I don’t know what it was, this was my first experience of a real “physical competition” although I’m sure the dude wasn’t even aware of it, but something inside of me was laser focused on a goal I had set and there was no chance I was letting myself down.
Goals get accomplished. There is no alternative. This is who I am now.