Sprout's Growth Kick-off (GKO) last January 20, 2023, was definitely an event that left a memorable impact. One of the highlights was Atty. Arlene’s inspiring talk, “TO INFINITY & BEYOND: The Road to Continuous Learning.”
Her message was clear: if you want to succeed and unlock your full potential, you’ll need to proactively seek out opportunities for growth and improvement.
The 66 Days that Changed Everything
I’ve always considered Atty. A an inspiring figure. She’s someone that I’ve always looked up to, way back when I was still ghostwriting some of her blogs when I was working for one of Sprout’s partner agencies.
I owe it to her for getting me through one of the toughest years of my life. 2022 was my banner year of loss and bereavement. My best friend, cousin, and aunt passed away, I quit two jobs, and went through a break-up. I wanted to pick myself up from the ground and rehabilitate the way I lived my life. Something needed to change.
When I attended our GKO and heard Atty. A talk about the power of continuous learning, I felt a sudden surge of motivation. I still remember her getting up on stage and how my body tingled all over after she delivered her talk. I knew I had to take on the challenge. I was ready for it.
That brings us to the Victory Hour Growth Challenge (#VHGC66), a 66-day habit-forming stream that motivated participants to MOVE, REFLECT, and GROW for one hour at the beginning of their day. And that 66-day streak could not be broken lest the participants risk being disqualified.
The challenge started on February 7, 2023, and ran until April 14, 2023.
I was crowned the Victory Hour Champion, logging a total of 70+ days, followed by our Vice President of Integrated Marketing, Renzo Belardo (45 days), and Yna Ocampo, our Sr. Quality Assurance Specialist (44 days).
I speak for all three of us when I say that we came out as incredibly better and different people than when the challenge began.
Ready, Set, Grow! A Closer Look at the Victory Hour Challenge
#VHGC66 was an opportunity for us to cultivate a mindset geared towards positivity and growth. The ultimate goal was to get participants to develop healthy, new habits and eradicate old ones that were holding us back.
Not the easiest to do, right?
It seems that the trick to making this work was through the 20/20/20 formula introduced by Robin Sharma in The 5AM Club. The 20/20/20 split describes a productivity hour divided into three 20-minute activities: MOVE, REFLECT, and GROW.
- MOVE: 20 minutes of exercise to achieve an optimal cognitive state for the rest of the day
- REFLECT: 20 minutes of silence, reflection, or meditation
- GROW: 20 minutes of learning new things by reading books, listening to a podcast, or watching an informational video
One Challenge, Three Finalists: Meet the #VHGC66 Champions
I knew the Victory Hour Growth Challenge wasn’t easy so I was determined to get up close and personal with the participants. This is their/our story.
Yna (44 Days)
If I could say anything about Yna, it’s that she enjoys a good challenge. As someone who previously worked the night shift, giving her day an early start wasn’t the easier thing in the world. But she felt encouraged to sign up for the challenge knowing that she’d be doing it with her fellow Rockstars.
For the MOVE part of #VHGC66, Yna would start her day with jogging, yoga, and bodyweight-burning exercises. After breaking into a sweat, she’d set aside 20 minutes for bible reflection and a short prayer for REFLECT. Finally, she’d cap off the hour by listening to audiobooks by Robin Sharma, learning Japanese, and deepening her knowledge of digital marketing for GROW.
Which among the three activities (MOVE, REFLECT, and GROW) did you enjoy the most and why?
“What I enjoyed the most was GROW, where 20 minutes were allotted in pursuit of knowledge. This helped stimulate my mind through reading a business book or listening to an informative podcast, which is like jumpstarting our brains before the start of a day's work. This has improved my workdays a lot by keeping me on top of things. And to top it all off, I learned a lot!”
One of the biggest obstacles that Yna encountered during the challenge was when she had to start taking nerve medications from her doctor. Taking the meds made her drowsy and somewhat dizzy in the mornings, which added a layer of difficulty to waking up early for #VHGC66.
What positive changes have you observed in your life since you started the Victory Hour Challenge?
“The Victory Hour Challenge helped me stay more focused on work, chart a clear path on how to complete my to-do tasks, foster this pure hunger for learning, and create a habit of waking up early in the morning, even on weekends! This routine also improved my sleep, which is why I am excited and energized to wake up every day.”
Yna's story is a testament to the power of determination and resilience. And for her, #VHGC66 is never over because she’ll continue to stay motivated and inspired. She intends to maintain her 60-minute morning productivity hour and focus more on the GROW segment as a start to her day.
Renzo (45 Days)
Renzo considers himself an early riser and wakes up at 5:30 AM on some days to work out. The next step was simply challenging himself to do it on the daily, so it made sense to him to sign up to the challenge.
For the MOVE segment, Renzo rotated between weight training, yoga and stretching, and golf. These activities were consistently followed with prayer and meditation during REFLECT. For GROW, he participated in all sorts of educational activities such as listening to a David Goggins interview about self-motivation, reading up about private equity news and updates, and staying in the know about government and politics.
Which among the three activities (MOVE, REFLECT, and GROW) did you enjoy the most and why?
“I enjoyed all of them. I’m an early riser and I felt the need to set aside daily time for reflection and meditation. I also wanted to learn something new every day even though it feels that we don’t have enough time in our busy schedules to do that. Incorporating a learning activity into my daily workout time was something I wanted to build a daily habit around.”
What was the biggest challenge you encountered during VHGC? How did you overcome it and stay motivated?
“Just the discipline of doing this everyday without exception. That’s why I wanted to make sure that podcasts and videos about self-motivation were part of my early growth activities. The habit sort of naturally became more solid from there.”
Since #VHGC66, Renzo noticed significant improvements in his health and wellness. Putting his mind in a calm and relaxed state during the first part of the day was also an added benefit, as it put him in a good disposition to face challenges that would come up during the day.
More importantly, his conscious efforts to “sharpen the saw” and learn new things added to his experience in digital marketing and business development.
Renzo plans to continue on the path of growth by pretending that the challenge isn’t over. For him, it has just begun.
Fifi (70+ Days)
I feel like such a phoney hard sell talking about how my own experience went with the Victory Hour challenge considering that I’m the author of this piece. But I’d rather that people think that I’m bragging about my positive experience than to simply keep my mouth shut and take my learnings to the grave.
I will always fondly look back on those days when I’d scramble out of bed in the morning to wake up for the challenge. I’d often wonder if there was a point to the struggle and the daily grind but it was a small price to pay for being broken down and reconstructed. I was on the cusp of a fresh new start.
From what once felt like a chore, the Victory Hour is now an inextricable part of my everyday life. For MOVE, I’d start the day with a short Qigong routine followed by a 20-minute session of meditation and vocal sound healing for REFLECT. For GROW, I read some books that’s been on my must-read list for ages, like Atomic Habits, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Art of Racing in the Rain.
Which among the three activities (MOVE, REFLECT, and GROW) did you enjoy the most and why?
“As much as I love all three activities, GROW holds a special place in my heart. I used to be such a bookworm when I was still in high school and college, but my reading habit fell to the wayside after I entered the corporate world and got caught up in the siren song of everyday life. But thanks to GROW, I finished reading more books than I have in my entire life in any given amount of time. I read nine books in 66 days.”
During my experience, I encountered some challenges that tested my motivation and dedication. The biggest one was definitely committing to the routine and balancing it with the demands of my everyday job.
#VHGC66 coincided with SaaScon PH, the largest B2B SaaS event in the country. As part of the team responsible for organizing it, I was putting in long hours of hard work and late nights. It was a challenging period that left me running on 4 hours of sleep per day.
There were many moments when I felt like throwing in the towel and just sleeping in, but I didn’t. At that point, I was 40 days in and I knew I had to keep going. I reminded myself of the progress I had made, and adopted a simple mantra:
"Say yes when others would say no, and hold on when others would let go."
These words may sound simple, but they signified my willingness to push myself out of my comfort zone and commit to personal growth, even when I felt exhausted on a cellular level.
What positive changes have you observed in your life since you started the Victory Hour Challenge?
“I found myself wanting to extend my Victory Hour and waking up a little earlier. I'd extend the GROW segment by 10, 20, then 30 minutes. Now I'm doing a full-on double Victory Hour in the morning and another Victory Hour routine in the evening. I think that's the real value of this routine: once you get started and build momentum, you're going to be moving so fast you don't realize it. And when you look back you'll realize just how far you've come.”
Since I started the Victory Hour Challenge, my life has drastically changed for the better. Before, I felt like I was just EXISTING, but now I’m LIVING.
“Think about it: 20 minutes a day doing something doesn't sound like a lot. But how about 20 months doing 20 minutes of the same thing a day? Now that's something. And that's the power of Victory Hour—it’s about creating an avalanche of small victories.”
Participating in the challenge has created a ripple of change that’s significantly improved my relationship with myself, my work, goals, and the people around me. And now I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.
The Road Ahead: Rediscovering the Power of Continuous Learning
At Sprout, we make it a daily practice to ask ourselves: “What’s your 1% for today?”
This simple question inspires us to learn something new every day, no matter how small. It’s no surprise that Sprout has recently been certified as a Great Place to Work, really. But if I had to summarize this entire piece as a 1% takeaway, I would quote Atty. A as mentioned during her talk about continuous learning:
"Learning makes things easy. It enables us to be more agile in our work, and it creates a more meaningful life. Without learning, life will be difficult and meaningless."
That said, I can strongly say that Sprout is a workplace that encourages continuous learning (especially now that we’re a Series B funded company). In fact, I’ve already been approved to sign up for a four-week Management Essentials program at NewCampus, a Singapore-based modern leadership school teaching business and innovation skills, as my incentive as the sole winner of the Victory Hour challenge.
But apart from that, Sprout is incredibly supportive of our professional growth (and well-being) which is evident in the inspirational stories of our women tech leaders. After all, we receive opportunities for coaching/mentoring, and learning and development programs through LinkedIn and Udemy courses plus on-the-job training.
If you’d like to learn more about Life at Sprout, check out our blog or check out our Facebook and LinkedIn pages. Meanwhile, if you’re curious about what makes us the most reliable HR platform trusted by 1,000+ clients, visit our website here.
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