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I once met someone who had done a lot of winter treks in Himachal.
And I don’t mean the kind where you hike in snow for a day and return to a warm homestay. I’m talking 14-day treks: day after day in snow and ice, harsh cold, and remote conditions.

He had also done winter bike rides across the Himalayas.
Lived in places with no running water.
To get water, he had to boil snow every day.

I asked him why.
Why put yourself through that kind of discomfort repeatedly?

His answer was simple.
But it landed hard.

“I want to strengthen my ‘I can.’”

Not my endurance.
Not my toughness.
Not my body.

My ‘I can’.

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He explained further.

There are moments in life where you do something difficult – not because you enjoy the pain, but because it shows you something about yourself.
You get through a challenge that once felt impossible, and it shifts your self-image a little. You think:

“Okay. I didn’t think I could do that… but I did.”

And then the next time something tough comes your way, you hesitate a little less.

That’s what he was doing – deliberately.

Using physical hardship as a way to build belief.
Using real-world discomfort to remind himself: I can.

That idea stayed with me.
And I see it’s direct application in GMAT prep too.

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Let’s talk about quant as an example.

Many people don’t just struggle with quant. They fear it.
And that fear shows up in a very specific way.

You see a question from a dreaded topic – probability, coordinate geometry, absolute value – and before you’ve even read it properly, your brain goes:

“Oh man, not this. I hate these. I suck at this.”

It’s not a logic problem at that point.
It’s an identity problem.

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What we often don’t realise is:
That how we improve – by going through the stuggle.

Not by solving 100’s of questions.
Not by doing a bunch of mock tests.

But when you’re faced with something uncomfortable … and you don’t look away.

That’s where you train your ‘I can’.

Just like the winter trekker didn’t build his mindset by walking sunny trails,
you don’t build confidence by avoiding hard questions.

You build it by facing them – step by step.

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So how do you actually do that?

Here’s a practical approach:

1. Pick a topic you usually avoid.
   It might be inequalities, or overlapping sets, or word problems you find confusing.
   Start with easier questions from that topic.
2. Forget the two-minute rule.
   You’re not training speed here. You’re training staying power.
   Take 10 minutes. Take 30 if needed. No stopwatch.
3. Try different approaches.
   Plug in values. Work backwards. Eliminate wrong answers.
   Use the most traditional method, or the most intuitive one.
4. If you get it wrong, don’t rush to the solution.
   Pause.
   Ask:
   • Why didn’t my approach work?
   • Did I make a mistake? What? Why did I make that mistake?
   • Could I try something different?
   • What clues did I miss?
   • After going through some expert solutions, ask: what does the right solution do differently?
5. Repeat. Gradually increase difficulty. Still no timer.
   The point isn’t to get everything right.
   The point is to get used to staying with discomfort without shutting down.
6. Become obsessed with improvement.
   Even if you don’t answer practice questions correctly, that’s fine.
   Are you advancing a bit more than you were earlier? Were you able to stay patiently with a question, instead of trying to get out of it ASAP? Did you *feel* a bit more comfortable while doing the question – irrespective of whether your answer was correct?
   

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Here’s what starts to happen over time:

You go from:

“I have no clue what’s going on.”

To:

“Let’s see what this is about. Maybe I can figure something out.”

It doesn’t sound dramatic. But that shift is huge.

Because now, instead of backing off the moment you feel unsure, you’re leaning in.

And that changes how you handle not just quant but everything else.

Reading Comprehension passages that feel dense?
You stay longer. You slow down.
You look for structure.

Logical Reasoning questions that feel confusing?
You don’t panic. You try something. You think it through.

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You begin to see the GMAT not as a test of what you know,
but as a test of how long you can stay curious when you don’t know.

That’s what strengthening your ‘I can’ means.

Not “I can solve every question.”
But “I can stay with the tough ones long enough to learn.”

And if you do that enough times, across enough questions,
then someday, what once felt impossible will feel doable.
And what felt doable will feel easy.

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The winter trek never becomes warm.
But you become stronger.

That’s the game.

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“I just wanted to share this as a personal win for me. I remember not being able to understand or even think about solving this sum 6 months ago. I remember watching your video on this sum and thinking this is so hard. Today I solved this under 2 min.”