Be Stubborn…

Let me give you an example of how staying the course and being belligerent can get you success.

1.8 million podcasters will quit within three episodes. Another 180,000 will quit by 20 episodes… so if you make it to episode 21 you're in the top 1% of podcasters.

This doesn’t just apply to podcasts. Many things in life require survival rather than just skill. Skill, “natural skill” anyway is an overused, overrated terminology. Skill and ability is often a direct result of consistency, repetition and hard work.

When I first started surgery, I did my first appendicectomy under the supervision of one of my seniors and I felt very mal-coordinated and clunky. Thoughts flooded my heard about my long term future in surgery; “Am I good enough to do this?” “My co-ordination is awful..”

Fast forward years later, I no longer have those thoughts. I was stubborn and stuck with it.

You don't have to be good you have to be stubborn. Survival > Skill

Smell blindness:

You don’t truly perceive how you smell. You are blind to your own whiff.

We are constantly overwhelmed with thousands of environmental smells; the putrid odour of rotting meat, the fresh cheese fumes of someone’s sweaty feet or even the delicate aroma of freshly cut grass….

Our noses are pretty good at picking up these scents… to the tune of discerning over a trillion smells.

However, despite this powerful detection ability, the nose can become desensitised to certain scents when over-exposed to it, aka odour fatigue. This familiar scent in this case is your own body odour.

What happens scientifically is a long term adaptation of olfactory receptors, where they would normally respond to these smells but because of over exposure to familiar smells they sort of “turn off”.

This doesn’t happen to such an extreme extent with vision or hearing (although some adaptation is seen, e.g. your eyes “delete” the image of your nose because it’s always in front of you.. but now that I’ve said you are hyper aware of your nose…)

If you are self conscious of your smell – get a trusted friend or family member to give you a good whiff to check you’re not as stinky as you think!

Cultural Embarrassment:

I think the story I’m about to tell you will be highly relatable to MANY people.

Back when I was in school from the ages of 7 to 13, my mum would make me a packed lunch for school. I remember the first day at my new school during lunch time, this one boy stared inquisitively at my food. The look of curiosity turned to disgust when I started the roti and sabzi (curried vegetables) with my hands. The potent spicy smell didn’t help with his feelings of disgust and horror. I looked over at his cheese and ham sandwich then back at my food.

I remember this one line vividly as though the boy were sitting next to me right now saying it “That looks horrible, what even is that?! Urghhh!”

I don’t regret many things in life but I look upon this moment with deep sadness, even though it was 26 years ago. For the first time in my life, I realised my food was vastly different to others’ and I threw my half eaten lunch in the bin.

That day when I went home I told my mum to never make the Indian food to take into school again and to just make me a sandwich. She never questioned it even though now thinking back, she spent a lot of time and effort preparing food that she knew I enjoyed.

I felt confused at school too because subconsciously I probably blamed my mum at that time in my head that it was her fault for causing this embarrassment when in reality, it was far from that.

I just didn't understand what ignorance was at that time and I will never ever feel embarrassed about my food ever again and am thankful I have the opportunity to enjoy incredible homecooked food because it is damn delicious.

Life Updates:

I’m currently writing this whilst sitting in a hotel room in Brighton (UK).

I was invited to speak at the International Fitness Summit (IFS) about my journey on social media and how others could use it for their own goals. I did it last year in Lisbon and the audience had around 150 odd people. This year, the audience was close to 500! The largest live in-person speaking event I have ever done… it was pretty epic!

My week last week was so busy that I actually didn’t have time to prepare my talk until the morning of the talk itself and I was extremely satisfied when during the Q&A session someone asked me: “How did you deliver such a fluid talk and communicate so well?!”

That made my day.

This next bit is a weird, surreal feeling. Yesterday around 12 or so people came up to me asking for selfies. To think someone wants ME in a photo with them! I still struggle to process this but it is a cool feeling, I won’t lie.

I have got a few messages from people after they spotted me in London or an airport saying “I was too embarrassed to ask you for a pic..” and other similar variants.

Trust me, it is as strange for you as it is for me – so let’s be strange together (not in that way, steady!)… come and say hi if you see me anywhere!

After this weekend finishes, I go back to reality with an all day operating list tomorrow and night shifts next Friday to Sunday. Either side of my night shifts I have annual leave for 2 weeks!!

What you should read:

Josh Waitzkin – The Art Of Learning

Who the hell is Josh Waitzkin: a national chess champion at the age of 9 and then earned the title of world champion in the martial art Tai Chi Chuan! He went to the top of the game… twice!

I actually bought this book a few months ago on the recommendation of a friend but only recently got round to reading it and its an intriguing look into Waitzkin’s remarkable story of personal achievement but also has useful tips about the principles of learning & performance – for practically any specialty.

As he says himself in the book:

“I’ve come to realize that what I am best at is not Tai Chi, and it is not chess, what I am best at is the art of learning.”

A Big Reveal:

I’ll keep this short and sweet. Early next week I have something very cool to share with you. You get zero clues! Watch this space as I will reveal it on my newsletter first (and if you will allow it, I’ll send you a one-off Tuesday email with the update!)