Battling Perfectionism & No Zero Days

Welcome to Radhika’s Newsletter “Intent”. This is your bi-weekly guide to purposeful living, wealth-building, and personal growth.

Happy Tuesday! I’m so excited to share this edition of Intent. Today’s topic is all about my never ending battle of perfectionism. Let’s get into it 👇️ 

Battling Perfectionism

I don’t know if you’re like me, but over the years, I've realized I am my harshest critic. I've judged myself, been mad at myself, been disappointed in myself, and there are times I've wanted to give up on myself. All for little goals I set for myself. WHAT!

It's silly, I know. But that's how my brain operates.

Let me take you back to 2022, the first time I read the book "The 5AM Club." I instantly became obsessed with it. The idea is simple: wake up at 5AM, spend that first 'victory' hour doing things for your own self: moving for 20 minutes, reflecting for 20 minutes, and learning for 20 minutes.

As soon as I got to the reasons in the book why it was so beneficial for high performers and how all top leaders in the world do it, I was hooked. The book states that it takes 66 days to build a habit. It gave me even more of a push, so I started doing it.

I woke up at 4:50, gave myself 10 minutes, and got into the rhythm of doing 20/20/20 from 5-6am. It was awesome for the first few days.

Then I started losing steam. And one day, I slept through all my alarms and woke up at 6:11 am. I was furious with myself. It felt like the day was ruined. I messed up the entire thing. I was on day 7 of 66, and now I had to start from scratch building this great habit.

I was so angry at myself, I couldn't come to terms with it. The entire day of and a few after, I felt down for letting myself down.

And then after a week or so, I tried again. This time I made it to 42-ish days, until I had an international travel booked, and then I lost my streak again. And boom, I got so insanely upset at myself.

It was awful. Because who created this rule? Me. And who was mad at me? Also me.

I could very easily forgive myself, but honestly, I didn't know how to. I was young and naive and had a tough time letting go. I hold a really high bar for myself. I need to be perfect. I cannot mess up. I can't let myself down. And I did, twice already.

At one point during this stretch, I threw up while working out. My body was clearly telling myself to take it easy, and my brain wouldn't let it.

So eventually I quit all of that.

Discovering the ‘No Zero Days’

Until a month ago, when I was hanging out with a few friends and this guy who's an engineer by day had his paintings hung all over his apartment. I asked him how he found time or how he got into it, and he told me about this very old Reddit post he read on having 'No Zero Days' and how he was determined to not have any zero days doing something he loved: drawing.

Whoa.

I used to draw when I was a kid... and completely let go since I became an engineer. Kept telling myself I had no time...

So of course the next day, I went on a full loop about what the hell this post was that he was talking about, and wow - it's changing my life. And this is what I’m so excited to talk about!!! Let’s get into it:

4 Concepts of the No Zero Days

First let’s define what a zero day is: A zero day is when you don't do a SINGLE thing towards your dreams, goals, or what you want to do. A non zero day is the opposite. The rule is: no more zero days.

Here are the 4 concepts this Reddit user shares:

1. First rule is to not have a single zero day. Do something, even if minimal, towards it. It's 11:58 and you don't have time for a full workout? Do 1 push-up. You're about to sleep and you haven't made progress towards writing your book? Write 1 sentence. No more zero days.

2. Be grateful to the 3 yous: past self, present self, and future self. AKA: thank your past self for doing something for your present self. Tell your present self to do something good for your future self. If you don't feel like doing it now? Well, do it for your best friend: your future self.

3. Forgive yourself (this one was the big thing I needed to learn). You tried your best and you still failed to have a non-zero day? It's okay. Because today is a new day and you can still make a difference. Not all is ruined. Forgive your past self and go back to #1 and #2 to make today a no-zero day.

4. He says rule #4 is "exercise and books." I LOVE THIS ONE. Exercise helps your brain and body. It's the best thing you can do in your life for your mental and physical health. Books are the best way to learn. Learn something, anything, to help yourself. There's so much knowledge out there.

🤯 = my brain after reading it. Who is this guy? I want to meet him.

How I Adapted to the No Zero Days Concept

And it brought me back to 2022 and how I was struggling so much with perfectionism.

So here's the thing, I decided to adapt this new technique into 2 big areas of my life:

1. Drawing (this has always been my fun and my meditation). I wanted to try no-zero day by drawing something small every single day.

2. That 5AM thing again. I want to use the next 2.5 months as a trial for 2026 and adapt the 20/20/20 principle again, but instead of being so freaking hard on myself, try to instead apply all 4 of these rules.

So here's my new adaptation:

• I can wake up anytime between 5 and 6AM

• I don't have to move, reflect, learn in the same order

• If I miss a day, it's okay, there's always the next day

• Even if I don't wake up that early, then I'll still try to do the 3 things at some point in the day

• It's okay to take naps

• My non-zero day plan: if I have less time, do 10 minutes of each (instead of 20). That's okay too

• Focus on gratitude for what I'm trying no matter what. Understand this is a difficult thing for me

I'm still working on it, but finding the bare minimum least amount of thing I can do for myself towards my goals is still okay, especially on days that are insanely busy, hectic, or while traveling.

I've come a long way since 2022. Some days I still battle these thoughts of perfectionism, but realizing one step forward is still better than not taking a step at all has been huge for my mental state too.

So if there's something you struggle with too, I encourage you to try this new method and see how it works out for you! I'm day 25 into my new routine, and I've done the 20/20/20 method 13 out of those days, waking up at 5AM 9 of those days, drawing 10 of those days. And while I've not achieved perfection and not hit any of these things all 25 days, I'm still so freaking happy to make even a slight progress towards my goals.

This has been so exciting to me that I'd love to hear your thoughts and reply to this email 🙂

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Until next time,
Radhika
Creating a life of purpose, wealth, and growth