All growth is hockey stick like!

All growth happens slow at first and then exponentially. This is the law of nature.

A tree starts bearing fruit only after years of hard work and patience of the farmer. Relationships are delicate to start with when foundations are being laid and gradually mature to a strong footing if nurtured consistently. Wealth compounds after years of accumulating, investing, reinvesting and compounding. Startups take years of relentless drive, hard work and patience to find product-market fit and 10x their revenues.

Good health comes to those who consistently eat, sleep and move well for years on years; not to those who gulp down pills and supplements and look for quick fix solutions.

Learning a new skill such as swimming takes consistent showing up at the pool even when you don't feel like it or the water is cold or you are traveling or other excuses you give yourself.

Aston Belleveu Hotel, Jakarta

I had an upcoming travel when I started swimming. To not break the chain, I decided to take my swim gear and make use of the hotel pool.

I also took it as a 21 day challenge and just showed up 21 times to the pool - for as little as 10 minutes. While keeping a little diary of it to measure progress. What gets measured, gets managed - Peter Drucker

Hockey stick growth is a pattern in a line chart that shows sudden and extremely rapid growth after a long period of linear growth.

An initial period of stagnant or non-existent growth is stressful when you dont see your efforts paying off. Thus, fundamentally understanding how growth happens is crucial to making progress. Having systems to keep you consistent and track momentum is key to keeping at it.

The first 10-15 days I found it hard to pick myself up and throw myself in the pool on chilly Bangalore mornings. But having a system in place (my pocket diary) helped me to show up.