How to become Phenomenal in just 3 months!
Tags: career, productivity, discuss, webdev
Published: 2022-04-06 14:00:51


Being Phenomenal is to live in the fast lane. 
At least that's what I learned in the last 2 months.

## What do we do wrong?
Most people live a debit life. 
It is a life where we struggle to keep up with the deadlines or sloth around till panic sets.
We wait till the exams come close or the interview date is finalized, we notice that we are getting fatter or inactive, etc. We often put away the things that we want to do till later, be it reading a book, meditating, or even as simple as drinking water every day.

In most cases, we create a version of ourselves that is destroying not only the present but the future of our life. Even though we are aware of the consequences we rarely act on them and the cycle repeats itself.

So why don't we just move away from the debit life?
A simple answer would be a comfort zone.
The comfort zone is our sweet space which lets us do anything we want without the fear of loss or failure.
It's a candy that never ends but it eventually destroys our teeth. And to get out of that is the hardest decision that one can make.

From my own experience, even though I knew what would happen if I didn't act on the plans I made or the goals that I had set for myself. Soon, the consequences came to bite me back. I didn't prepare well for my interviews so I busted them. I didn't exercise and pain and inactivity set in my body, Didn't drink water? Dehydration. Didn't meditate? Anger and Anxiety issues.

I'm sure you might have encountered similar things in your life. 
So what can be done to become the phenomenal version of yourself? to live in the fast lane and enjoy things as well as get things done?

## Path to becoming Phenomenal
My mentor came up with this awesome yet simple formula. Get yourself a squared Notebook, that most of us have used in our kindergarten days for writing maths.

![Squared Notebook](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/jirw1u399wmn8p15cky1.jpg)

Mark your goals for the month in quantitative form.
Be as specific as you can, What the goal is, where you want to refer from, etc. 
Make each day of the month count. You also need to give yourself buffer days. 
I work 6 days a week and 1 day is for pure fun. This prevents burnout and keeps you energetic throughout the month.
Keep in mind the goals should not be not so big that you can't achieve or so small that you can get it done by lazing around.  

Once you have set your goals and have mentioned them in your copy start by maintaining an everyday log. Mark the times that you want to focus on the work. Each block on the copy denoted 10 minutes. 60 minutes, 6 blocks. Mention the minutes as columns and each row will be 1 hour. Ex-

![Mark Timings](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/a08kuuj9h0jrcrvto1y5.jpg)

If you are working on your goals then color them, else mark an "**X**". 
Be harsh on yourself. 
What do I mean by that? 
If you are deviating even a little bit from your goals, put a cross. 
Ex- If your goal is to do DSA questions and you're watching videos to solve those questions, then you need to put a cross(X), as you are not actively working on the goal. 

When we put a cross(X), we realize that we are wasting time. And time is the main essence here, we think we have lots of it. We don't. At the very least, not enough time for the version of us that we conjure in our minds.  

I went from 1-3 hours a day working to 8-9 hours a day in just 2 months. You gain focus, commitment and boost your self-esteem. 

## Problems you'll face in the journey
The common issue would be that you'll fall back to the old debit life easily. You'll think I have a month I can do it anytime, trust me you can't. If you can, then you didn't choose your goals correctly. If you see that you are not getting your desired results then you have to sacrifice.
Sacrifice your food, sleep, and friends, but the goals must be achieved. 

I had this quote that I followed when I was a kid,

>  "**Work hard, Play hard**."
 
I don't know where I picked it up, but I followed it for the longest time. But something changed, and I dropped it. But when I started this routine, I got reminded of it and relished how much fun it was to follow it.

You might also encounter people who will try to deviate from your goals. Don't let them. 
They won't be there when you require them the most. If they do understand what you're doing, 
They will join you in this journey. Make a mini-cult among yourselves.

The biggest enemy that you have to be very alert about, is your mind.
Why? Because it will justify every wrongdoing. If you slack off it will say, "Meh! We can do it later."
If you don't keep up with your goals it'll just say "You worked hard, but this is your limit." It will trick you till the end. And if you fail, you'll lose your self-respect. Don't let it happen. Keep your head high. 

Well, that's pretty much what I've learned. I'll end this with another one of the quotes by my mentor.

> **When you're working everyone should think, how can someone work so hard, and when you're having fun, people around should think that no one can have as much fun as you can.**