Why might you care that this month marks 10 years since I started mentoring others professionally? Your own life is not ordinary and some of my reflections might help you make it more extraordinary. I hope that you will be able to take at least one nugget of insight that will be useful for you.

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Contents

Problems with the Original Vision
Gratitude
Opportunities
Key Observations
Achievements
Path Ahead
Parting Message

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Problems with the Original Vision [top]

My original vision was simple – you want to become fitter, you have constraints and preferences but we can empower you by teaching you how to create an optimal path to go from your reasonably healthy state to a super fit state within 100 days.

The first problem with that original vision was that focusing on healthy people did not satisfy the needs of the larger number of people who have lifestyle diseases, the cure for which is not medication but lifestyle! Today, my vision is attuned to that, and so disease reversal is of as much interest to me as making fit people fitter, the latter being significantly easier.

The second problem with that original vision was that a focus on just physical health and becoming fitter or disease-free in the physical dimension would be limiting both in terms of the outcome and in terms of the process of getting there. There needed to also be a focus on mental health, emotional health and, often ignored but ultimately the most important, spiritual health.

The third problem with that original vision was that I did not realize that I was an outlier when it came to being rational, logical, and systematic. When I see something is logical, I internalize it and execute it like a machine. Most people need a lot more hand-holding and guidance. It became clear that 100 days was not quite enough to empower people for the rest of their lives when it comes to something that can be quite complex like lifestyle choices – it takes a few months of learning-by-doing, but thankfully, not years. The Implementation Gap can be closed!

Gratitude [top]

Our moments of success do not exist in a vacuum. Emperors, presidents of countries, Nobel prize winners and Olympic gold medallists achieve or acquire because of the luck, skill, and efforts of others. I might attribute most of all my failures to myself but for a large part of my success, I am grateful to others.

I am grateful to the scientists whose work I continue to learn from daily.

I am grateful for the work of academic and practising psychologists who help me go beyond the anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry of the human body to aid myself and others in understanding the world around us, our thoughts, our emotions and, ultimately, behaviour modification.

I am grateful to the philosophers, both dead and alive, whose work I resonate with – the Yogis, the Stoics, the Taoists and the Confucianists.

I am grateful to my friends who have supported me on my journey – the rigourously religious especially the Muslims and the Jains, the smoothly spiritual, the scientific debaters.

My biggest thanks go to the almost 100 people whom I have mentored so far. Their individual faith in my being able to help them close the Implementation Gap in a systematic manner has been transformational not just for them but for me too. Specifically, the oldest person I mentor, my father in his 93^rd year, fit and healthy, still travelling around the world and always happy to consider the next fitness upgrade – a living reminder that internal wealth which we can control matters so much more than external wealth. I am grateful to the universe for his presence in my life.

The single person most responsible for my success, Dr Sukhpreet Patel, took on many roles with a brilliant mind. As an early-stage mentee, my medical advisor and guide over the years, my personal body artist, collaborator and co-author of research papers, provider of super-healthy meals, and a best friend for life.

Opportunities [top]

The opportunities that came to me because of mentoring include:

• Satisfying my primary passion – teaching – empowering others by ensuring that they acquire practical and theoretical knowledge about themselves, importantly reinforced by doing things to solve their internal and external problems
• Satisfying my desire to walk my talk – to remain as physically fit as possible as the decades pass because physical health ultimately declines the fastest. And yet become even fitter when it comes to mental, emotional, and spiritual health. To 110 and beyond.

Key Observations [top]

I have made a list of observations over the last 10 years that have been quite insightful. I will write about them one day soon. For today, I will mention only one introspective observation.

Giving is more gratifying than receiving. Making rich people richer is not as gratifying as turning someone’s bleak future into a bright one.

Achievements [top]

For those who have had physical illnesses, complete elimination, or significant reversal of disease.

For those who have been physically fit – body sculpting with a large ROTI.

For those with mental or emotional issues e.g., panic attacks, depression – elimination through non-pharmaceutical means – and empowerment to deal with future recurrences.

For those with financial worries – elimination of the worries through both coaching conversations and deliberate action based on intelligent plans.

Path Ahead [top]

With a growth mindset and learning every single day, the quality of mentoring I provide will continue to improve without a pause – the results for those whom I mentor will improve accordingly.

Parting Message [top]

If everything you do is consistent with your core beliefs and desires, then a long and healthy life of joy is pretty much guaranteed to be yours. If you want to be guided in detail, you know how to reach me, and if you found this useful, please do share it with others.

Puru

Dr Purnendu Nath spends his waking hours focusing on helping individuals and organizations reach their goals, to make the world a better place. He speaks, writes and advises on topics such as finance, investment management, discipline, education, self-improvement, exercise, nutrition, health and fitness, leadership and parenting.