I Forced Myself to Wake Up at 4 AM: How One Challenge Changed Everything @MukeshRantiya

Recently, I struggled a lot. There was a ceremony in my company where I had to announce people's names for their appraisal. I feel everyday learning, and it is keeping me motivated to create more stories. First, in my personality, in my personality, like, I have become consistent. This great change I felt since I joined this community. I started waking up sometime 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock because I find peace in the morning and I get lots of ideas when I am in the morning. There is no commotion around, there is no noise around. And so it taught me a lesson of patience also. I think people has one thing in their mind. Generally what I have observed, people think that what other people will think if I create a video, will post on our social account, social media accounts, what people will say.

Hey everyone, welcome to another Finisher interview. It's being one of my privilege, one of my honor to interview the champions of Confidence Storytelling Hub who every month create a number of video, go through a lot of breakthroughs, and a lot of new insight come out of that. So I'm very, very excited for today's interview as well. Today is going to be Mukesh who have got an interview. So let me get Mukesh here. So welcome, Mukesh.

Oh, hi Haritosh Srivastav. It's privilege to me also that I am with you here. And if you talk about my journey So I belong and I come from a small town of, uh, Uttar Pradesh near Jhansi, the land of Queen Rani Lakshmi Bai. So I was very fascinated towards these kind of thing since my childhood. I completed my, uh, schooling and graduation or college in my hometown itself, and I came, uh, to Delhi for further studies and a career growth in 2011. I started my career in corporates and I continuously working, uh, since 2011 in corporates. So this is quick introduction of mine.

Thank you so much. Thank you for the introduction, Mukesh. Now let's move on and I want to know about why and when did you join Confident Storytelling and Confident Storytelling Hub, and how long have you been part of this community?

So the reason, uh, to join community, because I like, uh, communities, being in communities, because we get lots of insight from different, uh, people. They share the stories, and I know that I had been struggling a lot while communicating my own thoughts to someone else. I had experienced it so many times. I have very good thought but unable to communicate it effectively. And then I realized what could be the option that can help me actually. So last year, I remember I met you in one of the Toastmaster meeting and you encouraged me, but that time I didn't have sufficient time to join the club, but I promised I would join. And you also encouraged me that when you put story in your speaking, in your communication thoughts, people can understand it easily. So that is the reason that I joined this community. I joined this community, Storytelling Hub, in the month of November 2025, last month. And since then I am here and I am enjoying every day.

Very nice. And I think you are one of the few who joined a community and within one month you have completed the challenge as well. So congratulations once again on that. So if I ask you, what were your top one or two learnings from this challenge? Because in November we had the November Mixer Challenge, which is what you participated. So what were your top learnings out of the challenge?

So each day had been a learning for me because every day it was new for me. If you talk about specifically for 2 to 3 learnings, it included that I had learned that how I can craft my story in a proper way where I need to modulate my story in terms of intonation and voice pitches. Apart from that, I learned very good thing that how to raise a toast. Recently I struggled a lot. There was a ceremony in my company where I had to announce people name for their appraisal. I— my manager told me that, and number of people who are working under you, you have to announce them. How I could— I went blank. And once I was in that how to roll, how to raise the toast section, I learned how I can frame the sentences. So it helped me a lot. There are many learnings that how to use metaphors in the speech. This is again one of the learning which I have learned, how to be consistent, how to gain insight. The story of other people, that if someone is telling you, you always get, uh, what is the idea behind their story. You get the sense and you utilize that, their senses also in your stories. So these are the learnings. Everyday learning is there, not specifically restricted to 2 or 3 learnings. I feel everyday learning and it is keeping me motivated to create more stories.

Awesome, that's amazing. So if I ask you what has been your favorite task and what did you really like about the overall challenge, what would you say?

If I, uh, talk about the specific task that every day if I get challenge that I need to craft a story, it took me around half an hour sometime to think about that specific— I wanted myself to force in such a situation that I have to create a story for the purpose, not just for the formality that you have given me a task, right? I have to just create a story. I went deeper and deeper on the thought that I got from your, uh, suggestion, and then I crafted the story the way you suggested. This was nicely explained, and I also love Every week I got mastermind session, I got a one-on-one session also within the team. There was so many people in the team meeting. Yes, everyone is giving the feedback, real-time feedback. I'm getting, uh, motivated towards them. Impromptu speaking, it is one of the favorite thing that I love it.

Amazing, thank you so much. And I do remember I love that because I know you had the option to just create a number of videos altogether, but I love that, no, I would rather create one video every day versus create one video and create a number of videos and then don't do anything for next 5-7 days. So I love that attitude as well. So if I ask you, what has been the outcome? Of course, you participated, you completed, you became a finisher. But what is the most important thing is the outcome of anything, right? So what has been the outcome of you going through this challenge? What has really changed in you after you completed this challenge?

First, in my personality, in my personality, like I have become consistent. This great change I felt. You have started, uh, the challenge, 15 days challenge, create a video and you have, you have also given the option if some, for any reason you can't, uh, create a video on a specific day, you can create 2 videos or 3 videos and then continue with this. But I was forcing myself to create only 1 video on a specific day. I, I rather, I, I can do 15 video in a single day, but I did not do. I wanted to create the discipline and the consistency that how I could do better. This great change brings me a lot of motivation, consistency. It also forced me to wake me up in the morning. Since I joined this community, I started waking up sometime 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock because I find peace in the morning and I get lots of idea when I am in the morning. There's no commotion around, there is no no noise around and close eyes. Everybody in the home is sleeping, uh, so there's no disturbance. I create my video and I feel motivated. So earlier I used to wake up around 7:00, but since I joined this, consistency has become.

Very nice, very nice. I love that consistency is the superpower, and if you can be consistent, you can really move the mountains, as they say.

Awesome. Yeah, yeah. Moreover, moreover, in future, if I feel like that I'm getting demotivated, or if any circumstances happens like that you are not being consistent, I will remember this incident for November challenge that how I forced myself to become consistent. I get the suggestion from Haritosh Srivastav and become consistent towards creating a video and become persistent also. So it taught me a lesson of patience also. Yeah, awesome.

Thank you so much. I'm so glad it helped you. So I'm coming to the— towards the end of this interview. So second last question for you is, uh, what is your message? Because you're part of the community and there are also a lot of people outside who know the importance but who still don't take up action. Who still don't create videos, who still don't share. So what is your message and tips for anyone who want to take up this challenge but is not able to take it up?

I think people has, uh, one thing in their mind. Generally what I have observed, people think that what other people will think if I create a video, will post on our social account, social media accounts, what people will say they have this kind of problem. I would like to give the clear message: do not care about anyone's, uh, message. If you really like from your heart, you must go with that. And creating the stories is a very nice idea. It connects you with yourself, not to the entire world. If you share your ideas, you you love it. So this is the specific message that I want to give: do whatever you want to do. You are not doing any kind of anything wrong.

Awesome, thank you so much, Mukesh. My last question to you would be, would you recommend both taking up this challenge and joining Confident Storytelling Hub to others now that you have completed 1.5 months in here?

Yeah, sure, sure. So I have already told some of my friends that I had joined this club, so they are in discussion. And once they feel and they have the time and they feel the requirement, they will definitely join it. I also told them the storytelling is not just about to tell a story like, like parents or grandmas are telling the stories to their kids or grandsons. So most people what think that Learning, telling a story is just like that. I am going to tell a story to my kids, or I am going to tell the story to my grandson, or like that. But beyond that, what I just told in the beginning of this interview, it is the idea that how you are going to communicate your thoughts to someone in an easy language, easy way, so that they can remember it for longer, longer, longer, longer period of time. So it is very easy. This is the way that they can relate anything in their life.

So true, so true. So exactly that you said, the stories make you stick your message in your audience mind, and they will remember you long after you had the discussion, long after you've told the story. I love that. So thank you so much, Mukesh. You have been a champion, and I love your consistency and persistence. So even though You had option to take shortcut, not many people have, but you had the option to take shortcut, but you insisted on working on the inner growth. This is what is very powerful. So I really commend you for that and congratulations. I'm looking forward to— I know you're already part of December Challenge, so I'm looking forward to you completing this challenge and another challenge so that you become a Hall of Fame Award recipient as well. Wishing you all the best.

Thank you, thank you so much.

Thank you, thank you. So that was Mukesh, everyone who completed the challenge in the very first month. And if you observe, everyone's journey is different. Some people have been part of the community, but it took them many, many months to complete this challenge. But some of them who got self-motivated, who got the right guidance, started in the few days that they joined the community. There is no right, there is no wrong. What is important is, are you working on your journey? Are you taking up the challenges of growth, of improvement, of development? And if that is it, that's what makes the difference. So I'm very, very looking forward to bringing you many, many more such interviews. We have at least a dozen more interviews lined up, so stay tuned. We're gonna be back. And until next time, as I say every time, keep learning, keep growing, and keep going. I'll see you in the next video. Story power to you.