When I was in high school, the frenzy of preparing for the tough Indian college admission exams meant that schools tasked their students with an extremely complex preparation regimen. There would be tests every day of the week. And an additional eight hours of classes each day. This didn't account for the time spent studying. The consequence was that the exam day would seem simpler compared to the training we had been through.

Train hard, fight easy.

I played football for college where our training sessions used to follow a similar approach. We would play with full intensity and stretch ourselves to the maximum during training, so that we would find the actual match days easier in comparison.

Train hard, fight easy.

This is the classic military aphorism. The cadets are all trained in extremely hard scenarios so that when they are actually out in combat, they will find that simpler in comparison.

I've been trying to incorporate the same approach to my work life and my writing as well, with increasing success.

The phenomenon itself is universal. What is needed is the execution.

Back in June, I decided to cut down on some of my commitments, so that I could focus more deeply on the commitments I did stick to. And one of the ways of focusing more deeply has been to incorporate more learning time, training time and preparation time.

After all, train hard to fight easy.