Husky H3 - Motivation – Honest Learners and Leaders who are self-motivated and self-directed
Imagine not eating for a day. Hungry. Now imagine not eating for 5 Days. This is exactly what I did 1 year ago. Seek Discomfort. This is the motto of the increasingly popular YouTube channel, YesTheory, The channel is made up of four highly motivated individuals who are on a mission to inspire the masses into doing something that they are not accustomed to. From things like running marathons to ice baths, and living like you only have a day left to live to exploring new countries with no money in your pocket, the members of this YouTube channel form the epitome of a self-motivated and self-directed individual, that pushes one to their limit. Self motivation is doing things with your own volition. Self direction is leading yourself to do new or unpopular things. In one of YesTheory's videos they did a 5 day fast. No food, and only drinking water. It clearly showed that the individual, Matt, was suffering through the pain of his body craving food. However he persevered and overcame his bodily temptations and went the full five days. What intrigues me though, was that he said that after four days, his body seemed to have adjusted to the lack of food, and that he felt productive, and frankly, not bad. By the time the fifth day had come around, Matt found himself enjoying the fast, and had developed a small distaste for food. After watching this video, I was hooked. I wanted to do this. I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and lead myself into new experiences. I texted my friend Haru and we decided that we would go for 5 days without food, and be there for each other to motivate and check in on how each other was doing. Before starting the fast we researched up the effects of fasting, and acknowledged that if any bad symptoms arise, we would quit. We found that fasting also has some positive benefits, such as detoxing and elimination of fat reserves on the body through a process known as Autophagy. A week later, we embarked on a journey without food. Only water. On the first day, it was quite easy avoiding food, and I focused on doing other things, such as reading and studying to keep myself occupied. My family ate dinner without me, but the smell of the dinner did smell quite good. But I remained motivated to pursue my self directed goal of 5 days no food. On the second day, hunger set in. I was getting hungry and I could feel my body getting colder in the toes and the fingers. I got in bed and tried to warm myself up. I couldn't concentrate on studying anymore, and my mood was shot. Haru and I texted to each other how hungry we were, but then we visualized how nice it would be after 5 days to conquer and achieve our lofty goal. On the third day, I died. Inside me my stomach was empty, and I could feel the hunger literally take over. I was thinking about food all the time, I could not study at all and to make matters worse, this was the week of Christmas, and I had a Christmas party to attend. I stared longingly at the food but didn't eat. I had made a goal for myself, and I committed to pursue it. I went to bed hungry. On the fourth day I woke up and discovered something alarming. I was 4 days in, yet I had no hunger. The pain of the hunger I felt before had dissipated and through this I felt an increased motivation and desire to achieve my goal. Later in the day I went downtown, and I noticed how many food options there were in Sapporo, (so many, its ridiculous.) At this point I realized that eating three times a day is healthy, but not necessary. People were spending so much money on food, I started to wonder how much money was spent on unnecessary food around the world. I realized we were privileged people to be eating three meals a day. On the fifth and final day I felt amazing. I counted down the hours with Haru, down to the 120th hours of our fast. And on the final minute of the fast, we called and we ate food together. We ate the best grapes, apples and bread that I have ever tasted. I also finished a whole thing of hummus and cucumber. Together we reflected on our seemingly impossible journey, a five day fast. We were so proud of having conquered ourselves and felt that we had successfully been self motivated and self directed. This was an experience we would never forget. Above are pictures that I took to document my fast. It shows the food I ate after the five days, as well as pictures reflecting the mood I was in during the ordeal. Through this experience I learned the importance of choosing to do things we have never done before. These experiences are the ones we never forget. And to do this, we must persevere by being self motivated and self directed. No one is going to do that for you, as it has to be done by you. I was able to take away from this experience, a story that I can tell others and an experience in which I gained self confidence that I am in control of my own desires and actions. I would like to do this again sometime, but now I am focusing on other goals, such as working out. If I fast again that would mean a huge loss of muscle. This was a good experience, and now I am looking forward to accomplishing other goals in which I can conquer myself.
0 Comments
Engagement – Effective Communicators who actively and empathetically listen, speak and discuss (E21) Three weeks ago, I was able to experience for the first time in my life, snowshoeing. (crossedthat one off my bucketlist.) It was a great experience being able to trek through the snow, with our destination being summiting Mt. Sapporodake. Little did I know that this experience would turn into one where we as a whole outdoor class would need to exercise our communication and thinking skills to our full extent as our trip turned into one where it became a literal matter of life or death.
We started our experience by hiking up to the hut which was located halfway up the mountain. Our group consisted of my outdoor class, and our teacher, Mr. E, as well as a volunteer supervisor, from niseko. For the first night we stopped at the hut, made dinner(hamburgers) and then we relaxed and played cards until we called it a night. All was well on the first day. The next day we woke up and decided to summit the mountain. We started out with 6 people. 5 students and the supervisor from Niseko, however due to circumstances, the supervisor and one student had to return to the hut, while the four of us continued to the top. At this point we were without an adult, but we were led by an experienced leader, Krzysztof who effectively led us to the summit, where we were able to take in a breathtaking view and take shirtless pictures. (these pictures above are some pictures from the summit.) On the way back to the hut however, we met our supervisor, who was making his way to the summit. We offered to go with him to the summit, but he told us to go back down to the hut, and would only be 20 minutes behind us. Naturally as students, we agreed and left him. Little did we know that this would be a mistake that would challenge us as a group for hours. After a descent that consisted of us jumping down ravines and sliding down cliffs, we made it back to the hut. We then waited for 20 minutes, then 30, then an hour, after which we realized that our supervisor might be missing. We then exercised our communication skills and told our teacher exactly what had happened with the missing individual near the summit, and we then tried to communicate with the man using our walkie talkie system. We then actively listened for any response. There was none. We made the decision to split up once more, one group going back to the bottom, while the other would go with the teacher to look for the missing man. I talked with Mr. E. and promised to call if I found anything or heard anything, and that we would call Mr. P. our emergency contact if we had no information by 3 pm. We then parted ways. Little did we know that the missing man had gone all the way back down to the bottom of the mountain, as my group showed up to the car, we were relieved to find a smiling safe man sitting in the car. However, we still had three members looking for this man at the summit. Through a series of communication mishaps by this individual, the search party kept searching for him for three more hours. When we eventually got back together, we had a talk with the individual, and through discussion we were able to figure out that he had gotten lost and had gone in a completely different direction out of radius with our walkie talkie. Furthermore, he did not know how to use the walkie talkie which had led to further confusion and the search party looking for an extra few hours. Through this experience I was able to learn the importance of communicating effectively, and the importance of listening to directions, and seeking them out if you do not understand something. Also one extra lesson I learned from this experience is the importance of the buddy system no matter how old you are. I do not have any pictures from the search as I was not a part of the group, and while the man was missing, we did not feel like taking pictures, so these pictures are what I have.) My goal is to use the buddy system whenever there is a chance to get lost from now on, as well as embrace nature and head out with my buddies whenever possible, because this was a great experience overall, I love nature. Also, I will always make sure everyone in the group has an emergency plan, such as a meetup point and walkie talkie knowledge. |
Tadashi ShichidaSenior @ Hokkaido International School Archives
June 2020
Categories
All
H-1
U-0 S-2 K-2 I-2 E-2 S-2 |