Reimagine Your Limits And Set Your Sights Higher

Maj Gen Vikram Dev Dogra was commissioned into the Poona Horse in 1981. He won the prestigious Sword of Honour for being the best all round cadet and also the gold medal for standing first in the Order of Merit. He commanded the Poona Horse, 180 Armoured Brigade and an infantry division. He served in various staff and instructional assignments and gained combat experience in Jammu and Kashmir. He was also a part of the UN peacekeeping forces in Angola.

He is a committed sports person and an adventure enthusiast. He participated in a number of cycling events and has cycled from Leh to Chandigarh over five of the highest mountain passes ranging from 30,400 feet to 17,600 feet. He has also cycled in the northeast of India from Sela pass at 14,000 feet to Bumla pass at 15,400 feet on the Chinese border.

Maj Gen Dogra is a motivational and Ted X speaker. In 2018 he successfully completed the Ironman Austria at the age of 58 in 14 hours and 21 minutes becoming the first serving Indian Army officer and the only general in the world to do so. In July 2019, he once again took on the Ironman challenge in Germany and bettered his own time by 41 minutes, completing the race in 13 hours and 40 minutes.

He was awarded the Ati Vishist Seva Medal in March 2019 by the President of India in recognition of distinguished service of an exceptional order.

When Vikram joined the National Defence Academy straight out of school, as a first termer, he was put into the squad of weak cadets as he was physically weak and found it difficult to pass his tests. He was in the squad which was made to do extra PT before games and he used to get so much of ragda that by the time the study period came, he was tired and couldn’t keep awake. This affected his studies. However, he had worked so hard at his physical fitness that by the end of his second term he could not only clear the second term tests but also cleared the higher teats. However, because he was focusing so much on the outdoors, his academics suffered. He started with a CGPA of 4.8 in his first term and passed out with a CGPA of 2.9 in his sixth term. This was below the cut off but since his outstanding and exceptional performance in Games, Physical fitness, Marching, Riding Swimming and Officer Like Qualities, he was allowed to pass out and actually came 7th in merit. This is where he learnt his lesson that it is important to balance both the physical and academic fronts.

When he came to IMA he to work hard on both fronts and put in hard work in studies as well as physical activities. While running he would deliberately raise his knees higher than required so that the extra effort he was putting would make him stronger than the other cadets.

The realization about the importance of balancing both aspects helped him focus and eventually achieve excellence in IMA. He passed out of IMA with the gold medal for standing 1st in order of merit and the sword of honor for being the best all round cadet. In addition to that he also got the medals for being the best in marching, best in rifle shooting, best in physical fitness, as well as the Para medal and first amongst those commissioned into the Armoured corps.

His message to others is,

As long as you understand what you’re doing is good for you and focus, concentrate and commit yourself to it you can achieve anything that you want. People ask him how he achieved excellence in life to which he says, “there is no secret formula for that. You need to do whatever you are doing to the best of your ability and satisfaction. Strive for perfection- don’t ever settle for less”. Whenever I undertake a task, I have this passion that I must do it well. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a physical task, or just a job given to you. If you can create the need to excel in whatever you do, to give it your best shot, then this motivation to excel will soon become a habit. Step out of your comfort zone, be consistent, compete with yourself and try and better your own past performance. Once you start doing well, you will be motivated to maintain that graph.

Mental endurance plays a significant role in our lives and is the key to tackling difficult situations. We need mental endurance to tackle a difficult boss, to endure a demanding relationship or even when taking care of elderly or sick parents. We can work to enhance our mental endurance just like we can enhance physical endurance. Here are a few techniques to help build mental strength :-

Connect with the why in your life. Why is whatever you are doing important for you. Meditate. One hour of yoga a day is like a wonder drug. It enhances mental health, positivity and physical stamina, and magically promotes mental well-being. Learn to thrive in adversity. Step out of your comfort zone and stretch yourselves physically by seeking uncomfortable situations. Exercise in difficult weather conditions. When taking a shower in winter, turn on the cold water and stand in the cold stream. Undertaking this uncomfortable moment each day improves mental endurance and trains your mind not to quit.

Circumstances all through your life are not something that you can control. Most of the time the things which will happen around you will be beyond your control and a lot of factors come into play. So I say, in any activity that you do 70 to 80% is your hard work and 20 to 30% is your luck. And it’s very important to be lucky also. So you could be the best and keep trying and not make it, but that should not dishearten you. You have to be prepared to fail. Failure must always be something that you prepare for. In every event. Students must be prepared to fail, so when you’re prepared to fail and you fail, then the disappointment is there but less. If you fail, you step back, you introspect, you see what went wrong and then you make a new plan and go for the goal again. That can only happen if you’re prepared. The biggest thing I learned from doing the Ironman is that nothing is impossible. Before you set onto any task or any mission, it is important to 1st dream it. Everything starts with dreaming and we must dream big, don’t hold your punches when you are dreaming big. Once you have realized where you want to go and have a clear mental picture of your dream make a plan on how to reach your destination. I went through that , doing ironman was a dream at that time and it was an impossible dream because the distances are so phenomenal. 3.8 kilometers swimming , 180 kilometers cycling, 42 kilometers running and at 58 it seemed like a dream. But when you break that dream down into a scientific manner, smaller goals give them timeline. Then you find that every dream is achievable and that was my biggest lesson that hard work, hard work, commitment and focus can actually get you what we want.

But every dream starts with a self doubt. When I took the decision that I must do the Ironman there were two wolfs in my mind, one white, one black. Now the white Wolf would tell me you can do it, and the black guy would tell me you can’t do it, It’s beyond your reach now because you have never run 42 kilometers, you never swam 3.8 kilometers. You’re not used to swim in the sea or Lake, so although self doubt start coming and they will come to everybody in whatever your endevour. Now you have to try and find a means of suppressing the black wolf and encouraging the white Wolf. And in that, the biggest assistance is self confidence. You have to have the faith that if I try, if I work hard I may be able to do it, but there is a chance that I might fail. I had to start by convincing my-self that I could do it because I believe EVERY battle has to be won twice - First in your head and then on the field and I vowed to give it my all and started my training.

I soon realised that the journey will be long and tiring. I might even reach a point where I give up and quit. I did not want that to happen, and to prevent it, I took to social media and publicly pledged that I am going to do the ironman. By doing so I put my reputation, my pride and my self-esteem at stake leaving no window for me to escape.

We are always more willing to endure discomfort or tolerate a difficult situation when we know that doing so is connected to a bigger purpose in life. I linked this challenge to my goal of redeeming my self-esteem and so it became easier for me to endure. Always try and connect to your why. Why whatever you are doing is meaningful to you? When you do this, it enhances mental endurance.

So even on the day of the event on 1st July 2018, in Austria I told my wife, I said I will die doing this event, but I won’t quit because I know all those guys who saw my post on social media and others they are all monitoring to see what Vikram Dogra is doing. and if I quit then it is going to just give them the opportunity to say that see, I told you . So this is a technique called public pledging, which I think is a great technique to keep in the system when you feel you might quit. This is technical thing that People can also try.

There is no doubt that the value of all these willpower, commitment ,discipline is the top most. I’m talking about personal discipline. Because when you take up something that you are pursuing your goal, whatever, you’re mission, it’s your mission and it’s your effort. And if you’re not true to your effort, then you lack discipline, self- discipline. Nobody else is concerned about your passing the UPSC or you’re getting into the defense services. It’s your mission, and if you don’t study, you will be the loser, So that is where self-discipline comes. Self -discipline is equals to self love as you do things which are good for you. Its your goal and you have to do whatever it requires to accomplish your goal.