FINAL DAY of The May Challenge: 100km Running Challenge & Performance (31/05/22)
Reflections, lessons & announcing my June Challenge.
My report for Tuesday 31st May 2022 - the final day of my 100K in May running challenge.
This report structure will be a little bit different. I’ll start with my reflections & learnings from this challenge in the form of:
My lessons & reflections from carrying out this challenge,
My improvement points if I were to replicate the challenge,
My practical actions I’m taking into the future even after this challenge has finished.
I’ll then talk about my May challenge, and finish with my ‘experience’ of the day (as I do in all posts).
May Challenge Reflections:
I’m very grateful that the objectives for the May challenge were fulfilled:
The 100km running target was fulfilled.
The 500,000 steps target was fulfilled. (Harder than the running!)
We raised £570 for the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal!
All in all, a great success…but the month hasn’t been all smooth sailing!
So, let me summarise 5 lessons from this challenge:
When I first started the 100km in May running charity challenge, I was hesitant to publicise it and ask for donations.
I was afraid of being perceived as virtue signalling.
How selfish is that? I made it about me. I almost let my worry of how others may perceive me stop from trying to do something for a worthy cause.
But it’s not about me. It’s about everyone who contributed their donations, thoughts, and their time. And most importantly, it’s about those we’ve helped.
Ego will invalidate you if you give it room to do so.
I was afraid that £500 was such a small amount and not even worth raising funds for. As if it needs to be something monumental for it to be worthwhile.
But why does ego insist that something has to be big, significant, even world-changing, for it to be worthwhile?
Let’s be real. £500 won’t make much of a dent in stopping this war, saving lives, or helping those fleeing the Ukraine.
But as my partner reminded me, if even 3 or 4 families are helped with food, water, shelter and hygiene products through your donations, then that’s 3 or 4 more than 0. (I’m so grateful for her perspective!)
Something small is better than nothing at all.
I was initially afraid of failing to reach the £500 target, and afraid it would invalidate the entire goal…
But whatever the amount it is, it would still help more than £0!
Whatever you’re hesitating to start, be it for yourself or others, for fear of how you may be perceived, fear that it won’t amount to anything significant, or fear that the outcome won’t be achieved…
Something small is better than nothing at all - in charity, in business, in relationships, in health, in life, in any action towards our goals…
Ego can shift from being a useful servant to a terrible master in an instant.
None of us are immune, especially when it feels our identity is under threat…
But by being self-aware, self-compassionate, and surrounding ourselves with the right people, we can escape its trap.
Don’t let your ego make things about you. Don’t let ego think you have to go big or go home. Don’t let ego determine the worth of an action by its outcome. Start anyway. Something small is better than nothing at all.
Running and walking (and many other things) can help you to process your problems, but should never be used to escape from them.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking this month about my business and where I want to take it from here.
At times, these thoughts have been quite challenging and uncomfortable.
And in those times, my instinct to escape them is through physical activity (as it has been since I was young).
But I made a deliberate effort to not use the endorphin rush from running lull me into a false sense of peacefulness. Instead, I used the mood boost to give me the courage to actually reflect and address those problems.
It means I have more clarity about where I want to go than I did at the start of this month :)
What I would improve on if I were to do this challenge again in the future:
Nothing too much. The running and walking were well executed. And I feel I posted on LinkedIn and other social media just often enough to help me raise the donations, without being too irritating…I hope.
3 Action Points from this challenge that I will take with me into the rest of 2022:
Keep running. It’s a very therapeutic form of training for me. But perhaps in the summer, I’ll focus more on sprint intervals. Have been doing aerobic base training for the last few months, so time to change it up.
Keep walking. I was always aiming for 10,000 steps per day. If I can do 16,000, I can definitely keep the 10,000 steps target up!
Keep reflecting. As I enter this phase of planning for the future, I know there will be uncomfortable thoughts. I know that there will be doubts and fears cropping up. But it’s on me to lean into that discomfort and do my utmost to address it with compassion, courage, and patience in order to create the clarity I seek.
Where I am now with past challenges I’ve done in 2022:
January Challenge: Eating Whole-Foods Plant Based
Still eating plant-based and feeling strong. Mostly whole-foods. Some dark chocolate and olive bread. Include protein powders in my morning oats breakfast.
Body in good shape. Running has been good for fitness. Feel strength has diminished slightly, as has muscle definition. But lots of tennis in the summer seasons also contributes to this.
February Challenge: Sleep Optimisation
Too variable. Sleep before midnight on about 3 nights a week, but the other 4 veer into the 00:30 - 1:30am range. Want to keep working on this.
March Challenge: Reading
Deprioritised. Not as huge a priority this month as the time I’d allocated to it was replaced by the running challenge & client sessions.
Want to get more ePub books in iBooks. It’s so much easier for me to read extracts on my phone during the day than picking up a paperback book.
April Challenge: Meditation
Started well in May. Kept the habit going for 10-15 minutes per day.
Tapered off towards the end. Have missed a few days over the last week and a half. Would be good to get back in the habit.
So, what’s the challenge for June?
June Challenge: Social Media Consistency
I’ll be honest, I’m struggling for inspiration around these challenges at the moment.
It’s been quite hectic with work & life lately, and I’m just happy to have maintained the habit of consistently posting these SubStack blogs!
But that’s the key-word here: consistency.
How do we stay consistent with habits when things get tough?
Which is why I’m taking on a challenge that will be somewhat of out of my comfort zone because it requires consistency in something that I don’t personally buy into…
Social media.
Between 2017 and 2019, I posted every day on Instagram. I alternated between videos and posts. I wrote long captions. And…nothing really happened.
But it was good training - it taught me consistency, helped me get more comfortable recording videos, and also allowed me to hone my writing skills (conveying ideas within caption limits).
But in the last few years, my posts have declined in frequency. If I do post, I’m reposting old content. It’s neither creative, nor enjoyable. And the new algorithm has meant my reach has diminished significantly…
So, why not retrain my social media muscle for the next 30 days?
Specifically, I’ll be posting daily for the next 30 days on 2 very different platforms:
LinkedIn
TikTok
LinkedIn posts:
I’ve been fairly active (roughly once a week posts) over the past few years.
So, for a month, I’m going to commit to doing it daily.
The aim here is that the posts have to be high value. I want to communicate ideas through them that are inherently valuable for someone reading them.
I would like to see an increase in high-quality connections from this - and perhaps even a few inbound leads.
However, I will see it as a win if I can stick to this challenge, given I’ve never consistently posted on LinkedIn before.
If you’d like to follow along, you can connect with me here: Kam Taj.
TikTok posts:
I have made my hate for TikTok apparent in many past posts.
But here’s the thing - June is when GCSEs and A-Levels are…
…and TikTok is where most students go to procrastinate.
So, I’m going to post once a day on the topic of exams, mindset, procrastination, and effective learning techniques.
I have no expectations here: I just hope that a few of them who see it find it useful and it inspires them to study while honouring their mental health.
I don’t have the time, energy or inclination to do posts which compromise my authentic values - which means I’ll just be talking into the camera, no frills, no filters, no smooth cuts.
I also won’t engage with any other posts, as I have never, and will never use TikTok as a consumer. Which means the algorithm won’t like me much…
If you’d like to follow along, my account name is: @examswithkam
As I do this, I’ll be reflecting on:
How much time these posts take.
How they impact my mood.
How it impacts my day-to-day performance.
And perhaps any positive or negative effects they have on my business.
So, that’s the June challenge. Let’s see how it goes!
My Experience (Tuesday 31st May 2022):
Reflections on My 100km Charity Running Challenge:
Type of Exercise: Tennis & Upper Body Session
Tennis: 1 hour warming up client for their match.
Dumbbell Incline Press: 4 sets of 28kg x 12 reps
Dumbbell Row: 4 sets of 28kg x 12 reps
Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets of 18kg x 12 reps
Bicep Curls: 3 sets of 12kg x 12 reps
Decline Bench Ab Rotations: 3 sets of 10kg x 20 reps
Total km run in May: 101.55/100km
No. of Steps Completed:10,771
Total no. of steps in May: 512,491
Done with a day to spare!
Link to my JustGiving page for DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
We exceeded the £500 target (currently at £570)! Thank you to all of you who have donated! <3
Reflections:
Running challenge done - will give my legs a break from running!
…but will probably go for a run tomorrow. Just because the challenge stops, doesn’t mean I have to!
Tennis + gym today.
Always tough to get a good gym session after an hour of tennis, but made the most of it.
Took longer rest between sets, helped to keep the form good and the weights high.
Step challenge complete!
Am looking forward to only aiming to do 10,000 steps per day because it’s healthy, not 16,100 per day for a challenge!
RAFA BEAT NOVAK!
Watched the match all the way until the end and was elated to see Nadal win it in the 4th set tiebreaker!
Hoping his foot injury doesn’t stop him from going all the way! Vamos Rafa!
We’ve made it to the end of the May Challenge! Thank you so much for reading - I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Hope that you have an amazing day ahead. Now to enjoy some dinner with my family on my dad’s birthday…
Until tomorrow,
Kam