TKS Session 10: Life & Success + Kickoff Velocity Session
Today’s tenth TKS session was also the kickoff session for the program-within-the-program, velocity! This first session was all about housekeeping and learning what responsibilities come with velocity.
Velocity is for the kids who want to go all in on TKS, those who want the most levelling up, and those who want the most coaching. Of course, with all that velocity has to offer you, there are requirements we need to make on our end. Those include:
Monthly newsletter
Fill out weekly tracker
Complete any weekly requirements your director has assigned
Focus progress
Weekly external meeting with someone new
Weekly TKSquad Sync (your TKSquad is your group of people in velocity who you meet up with and talk to about the weekly learnings or anything you all are working on)
Completing the Person of the Week learnings
Completing the Mindset of the Week learnings
Daily updates (the update you send to your TKSquad every day about your goals, habits, tasks, well-being, etc.)
Listening to a podcast every day
Workout every day
Velocity is more than just a program, it’s a lifestyle that is determined to set you up for success by enabling you to make good decisions when you’re young. After doing only 2 daily check-ins from the day we started velocity, I already feel like I learned so much about how I value my time and where I want to dedicate it to. I’m so excited to see what I learn and how I level up through velocity!
My intention for this session was to leave with the recourses I would need to set myself up for success, meaning that I would leave with an understanding of what is expected from me in velocity and a plan on how I’m going to meet those expectations so I can see growth in myself.
For this session, it was all about getting to know your director on a deeper level. A TKS director is the coach who is guiding you for the next ten months and setting you up for success. If you don’t know who your director really is, how can you build a relationship with them so they can help you grow? This session was all about learning where our director came from, essentially their life story.
Before we began all of this, we discussed two things:
What is success now?
What does success mean to you?
In our world now, we said that success is determined based on money and status, which can ultimately measure your power. But, when we got more into what success means to each of us, that’s where it got a little difficult to figure out.
We spent a good amount of time thinking about this, and explored ideas like being surrounded by loved ones, going to a job you love, having financial freedom, etc. But we needed to get even more specific, and actually tailor success to what we want to get out of our lives and where we want to eventually end up. I thought about this for a while, and am still thinking about this. Once I know what success is to me, I can create a plan to actually get to my end goal, which is when I become successful.
The purpose of hearing about our director’s story was to see what they ultimately thought success was for them and how they achieved it, if they did. Our director, Azar, grew up in Vancouver, which is where his parents were forced to migrate to when they were teenagers. He then took us through his life from going to school, working at startups, the cool events he experienced, building up his own company, living through COVID, and his path to TKS. I’m not going to retell his full story, but I can share with you some key takeaways from different parts of his life.
Be Yourself
No way, be yourself, it’s not like I haven’t heard that one before… As much as we hear it, do we actually do it? Being told to be yourself can’t be said enough, because people are too afraid to be themselves. We never do it because we may be afraid of being judged or because we are told not to. But, when you actually overcome it and decide “hey, I’m just going to be myself”, then things can change for the better. You can stand out in a way you never would’ve if you were like everyone else.
You Might Not Love It Now… But You Could
We all do things we don’t like. We might just do the bare minimum because we have to, and when we don’t need to anymore, we stop. But what if we give it all we got, even when we don’t enjoy it? If you aren’t expecting yourself to have fun doing something, then most likely you won’t. But, if you go into something with an open mind and give it a chance, then you might find something enjoyable about it, and may even love it later.
Honour. Integrity. Respect.
These three things are so important. People value you and listen to you if you have these things. Being honourable, having integrity, and being respectful can change the way people think about you and how they interact with you because you have these strong moral principles that can make you a better person. People with honour, integrity, and respect can be identified in a room and can stand out.
Lean Into Fear
Fear stops us from doing amazing things. If you’re scared of failing, then you won’t try. If you didn’t try, then you would have never known if you would have succeeded. Fear needs to be challenged rather than surrendered to because we can’t live life and experience without doing the things we fear, which can lead to some of the best experiences we end up having.
Do Crazy Sh*t
It’s as simple as that honestly. If you don’t do things that take you outside of your comfort zone or get you to “live a little”, then what’s the point? There’s no growth and no excitement in doing the same old things that are certain.
Communicate
Communicating is so important because it can help us avoid misunderstandings, which can lead to arguments or fights. If we talked things out more and made sure everyone was on the same page, there would be fewer problems to deal with, and things would be easier to settle out.
Work With Good People
Working with difficult people, even if there’s a benefit for you, is often very frustrating and not rewarding because you aren’t enjoying the work you usually love doing. When we work with difficult people, we can start to feel negative and unhappy. Work with good people, because your well-being is important and necessary to continue through life and be successful.
Failure Happens. It’s Ok. Learn From It.
We are conditioned to think failure needs to be avoided and that it’s bad. So, when we inevitably fail, it hits us harder than it should because it feels like the end of the world. Don’t go asking for failure to happen, but be open to that room for improvement and welcome it when it will inevitably happen, that way you can learn from it and grow to be better next time.
Get Help
Sometimes we can be stubborn and think we can fix things on our own. Sometimes we can. But if you try and nothing is working out, and you’re not making progress, then you need to ask for help so you can get back on track and not fall farther behind into a worse place. Help will only offer a new perspective, and that perspective can make you better.
We then got into the mindset of the week, courage, and thought about what our fears were. Not things like monsters, but more things like being afraid of failure. We thought about how those fears held us back from achieving success, and why we even have those fears in the first place. Understanding the roots of our fears can help us greatly in overcoming them.
To end off the session, the co-founder of TKS, Navid, stopped by and we all discussed the mindset of the week on a deeper level and really got into those questions.
This session was really unique to all the other ones because it was very chill, story-telling vibes. We all listened to Azar’s story and got takeaways on what he learned from going through the different parts of his life up till now. It was interesting to see and hear about everything he’s done.
Velocity was really interesting to get introduced to and I’m so excited for that to takeoff. Next week is also the TKS focus hackathon, which I’m looking forward to as well! I can’t wait to see all the progress I’ll make as the sessions go on!
