Interesting conversations today – ranging from strategic initiatives, to Diwali preparations, to beards.
My beard caught the attention of my Careem captain, and he couldn’t stop talking about how good it was – for pretty much the whole trip. I guess a tip was in order:) Its nice to travel by cab sometimes – one gets a lot of perspective by speaking with cab drivers (no, not opinions on beards) – tourist bookings, areas of interest, new roads and traffic flows…a lot of market intelligence hidden behind the wheel.
Well, today was the last day of our warmup to the fitness challenge and I achieved Legend status on our internal app – way ahead of anyone else. That was not the point though – the objective was to needle the others to get going and I think I did succeed to some extent. Tomorrow the real challenge starts and I have excused myself from the competition – but I will go all out anyway:)
Here is what I wrote in 2023, on the subject. Three years older, but I guess no excuses anymore:)
Ok, I lost the challenge.
From the past few years, the Dubai Fitness Challenge has been the key to kickstarting my winter training schedule. Me and my team have been participating in this initiative and having a small internal competition of our own, to inspire fitness among ourselves. I usually win because of my consistency and well, just been doing it for so long.
Not this time.
Not only did I not complete the 30 days, I must have barely scraped through 15 of them. I did what most of us do though. I found an excuse, or actually, many excuses. Too much work, my kid, my house etc etc.
And I watched as three of my staff demonstrated that it is not the flashy, hare-based approach that wins, but the slow and steady tortoise that ultimately triumphs.
The challenge is over. But not for me. Many many moons ago, I had read that if someone wants anything really badly, he will find a way. Else, he will find an excuse. I took refuge in the latter, but I will not anymore.
My challenge begins today. Not for one, but for two months, to make up for it. And these are the busiest two months of the year, professionally and personally. But I will do it. I didn’t have to look far for inspiration. The ladies in my own office showed me the way.
Ready?:)