The Pathways & Padlocks Conversation
00:02:31 · Sachin, Sid Dissanayake
[00:02:31] S0: Thanks, Sid. And I think before we started recording, was just saying how important I think this project is. I'll just say that publicly now. Well done with everything you've done. [00:02:41] S1: No, I appreciate that, man. Likewise. And I mean, I think a common sort of theme between both our podcasts is you know, capturing and reflecting the experiences of young people and, you know, leveraging those experiences. And, you know, as I was mentioning just off air, one of those experiences which I thought was particularly interesting was, you know, the fact that you competed in a bodybuilding competition. That was something that I naturally gravitated, you know, towards when I was hearing your story through a few podcast episodes that you've done. And in those episodes, you've described that period of your life as, you know, being one of the toughest and scariest parts of your life. So, I mean, I initially came across that story on the Driven Young podcast with Byron Dempsey, who I think is a friend of yours. And I don't want to spoil the story too much. But you were essentially challenged by a close friend to compete in that competition. So Sachin, let's start there. Can you tell us a bit about how you came across that competition? And tell us about the why as to why you engaged in that
00:03:49 · Sachin, Sid Dissanayake
[00:03:49] S0: activity. It all started over in The Netherlands when me and Adam were on exchange. So we actually lived together. And as you can imagine, that household was very dysfunctional. And towards the end of our exchange, were setting our goals for the next year. And I take this very seriously. I try and challenge myself with something new every year. And I was talking to Adam, I was like, Adam, what can I do? And he said to me, look, over the last two years, you've been relatively comfortable from his perspective. I didn't feel that way, but he thought I'd been relatively comfortable in all the things I've attempted or tried to do. And he said, why don't get really far out of the comfort zone, out of your comfort zone and do the thing that scares you most? And he knew that that I was doing a bodybuilding comp. And the reason why is that a bodybuilding comp is something that literally takes everything out of you for like every moment of the day, right? When you're combining the dieting with the training, every moment of the day, probably towards the last month, you just feel insanely hungry, like there's no getting away from it. There's nothing you can do without feeling insanely hungry. Even when you go to bed, you can barely sleep because of the hunger pains. And so, he knew that this was going to challenge me immensely. And being the friend he is or what I don't know [00:05:05] S1: what to
00:05:05 · Sid Dissanayake, Sachin
[00:05:05] S1: what to [00:05:05] S0: swear on here, but he made me do it anyway. So that all started in The Netherlands and it involved a period of obviously bulking up for a little bit. I'd been gyming for about three, four years since high school. And I always like arrogantly joke to my friends like, I should do a competition, but completely joking. And then so, yeah, so I actually then committed to that and begun that process. So again, involved that bulking up and then I actually got a coach for when I shredded down. And in that last period of, let's say, let's call it twelve, thirteen weeks before I did this show when I was shredding down, I was also interning at Deloitte and doing uni full time. And that took everything out of me. So I think I was four days a week working and then obviously the full time uni. And in the later stages of a comp, you're basically, you're doing cardio every day. So you're on the treadmill for an hour every day. And then you're also training every day. So that's two hours in the gym, plus you have to cook all your own food. Every little kind of calorie you eat is weighed out. So your whole day, you're revolving around your food and your brain just gets so foggy because it's hard to concentrate. And as I mentioned in Driven Young podcast, in the last few weeks, I was getting black spots in my vision. I was probably sleeping an hour or two a night because my hunger pains were that bad. And your body just goes into full flight or flight, like you feel really anxious all the time. And yeah, man, that like, it was a tough experience.
00:06:37 · Sid Dissanayake
[00:06:37] S1: Yeah, man. I mean, just listening to some of the, I mean, it's pain and suffering at the end of the day, like what you enjoyed. I mean, for you, I mean, from my understanding, there wasn't necessarily like a burning desire, like a childhood desire to be a bodybuilder or whatever the case. It was you had a different purpose and a different why. So, those same lines, you know, when you're training twice a day, doing an insane cut, waking up early, balancing your work commitments, do you think, in your own experience, was it important for you to have a really strong why to fall back on when you're down and out, you're in the trenches and you're on your last legs essentially?
00:07:19 · Sachin
[00:07:19] S0: 100% and to be honest, I actually struggled with that because I had this why of manufacturing personal hardship. I had this why of pushing myself really far out of my comfort zone and with the benefit of hindsight, I think that was awesome. Now when I kind of try and do things or push myself, it doesn't really feel that hard. But I did struggle in the comp because compared to everyone else, I didn't have this innate desire to be a bodybuilder driving me. I didn't have this innate desire to look really good. Honestly, I think that stuff is very narcissistic and I struggle with that so much where I had to do a lot of soul searching of why am I spending this time in this area? I could be spending this time on the podcast with my job where I'm actually impacting other people whilst now I'm doing completely selfish endeavor. So I think there was moments of the comp where I almost dropped out, not because of the hardship that I could endure, but it was just like, why am I doing this? And when you kind of meet people in the community, you realize that a lot of it is ego driven. A lot of these people actually develop eating disorders because they get so fixated on how they're looking all the time. And it's not a healthy world to be in. It's a very selfish world. It's a very, when's my next calorie? Like, how do I track my meals? When you're out with your friends, you have to go to a special place that's like, you know, calorie friendly and stuff like that. So, Yeah. And sometimes I struggle with that.
00:08:38 · Sid Dissanayake, Sachin
[00:08:38] S1: Yeah. I mean, like along those same lines, you mentioned off air that, you you wanted to get a message or you wanted to get a particular part of that journey across, which was that essentially it's not for everyone. It's people have, you know, different goals, different priorities, and you might not necessarily encourage other people to engage in a similar sort of competition. Was that the case or tell us a bit about that idea? [00:09:07] S0: I really believe in pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, but that bodybuilding comp was just one vehicle towards that. And I feel like a lot of young men around our age, testosterone's pumping, we think like, oh, it's bodybuilding comp kind of thing. Like a lot my friends have been like, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this. And I always just ask them why you wanna do it, first of all. And second of all, is there any other way you can achieve the, you know, the change you want through doing this comp? Is there any other vehicle towards doing that? Like I would much rather recommend my friends do a triathlon or something like that than a bodybuilding comp because you can do that without your relationship suffering. Yeah. And kind of whilst living a functional life. Yeah. So, I do think the premise of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is something that leads to kind of exponential growth.