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Category: Living Well

A Hard To Grasp Truth About Fitness

Published on October 13, 2021

Equal actions often produce unequal results in different people.

Otherwise, everybody could copy precisely what their favorite fit person was doing and get precisely the same results.

As nice as that would be, it isn’t the reality.

Some people never lift a weight and appear fit. Others lift religiously and appear unfit.

While this is a hard truth to grasp, the secret to escaping this demoralizing thought process is actually quite easy: stop comparing yourself to others.

Because while equal actions may produce unequal results, positive actions always leads to positive results in the individual.

And so while your results may not look the same as the person whose lifestyle you’re copying, what also isn’t the same is the person you become after taking those positive actions.

No self-improvement effort is ever wasted. Not even the ones that fail miserably.

The biggest waste isn’t to have tried and failed—it’s to never have tried at all.

For what those initial efforts offer us is something that never trying never could: insight.

Remember this when others are:

  • Eating what you’re avoiding
  • Skipping workouts when you can’t
  • Drinking what you shouldn’t
  • Choosing lethargy when you couldn’t

What some people can do to stay fit isn’t what YOU might have to do to stay fit—keep taking positive actions anyway.

Regular Updates Required

Published on October 11, 2021

When was the last time you gave your mindset a software update?

Like your smartphone, regular updates are essential for optimal functionality of your mind.

Many people, however, haven’t updated their mindset in years.

They’re using the latest model iPhone with 2008 software installed. It’s ridiculous.

So, before you go bastardizing your mind for driving you nuts—as extremely old software might—invest in its upgrade!

You can download mind updates via books, podcasts, seminars, conversations, classrooms, etc. And in most cases, you can do so for free.

Here’s the thing: your mindset isn’t bad, it’s not broken, it’s not wrong—it’s just, in many cases, outdated.

Free Energy Checks

Published on October 9, 2021

Capturing inspiration when it strikes is like getting free energy checks from National Grid.

Why pay full price when you can cop some for free?

If you don’t have a means to deposit those checks though, it’ll all be for nothing.

How do you capture inspiration when it strikes?

The notes app is where I deposit all of mine.

That way, when it’s convenient (and in line with the schedule of my day) I can unleash the free energy I saved and capitalize on it in full.

Remember: feeling inspired and not depositing it is the same as never getting a check at all.

Thinking Better Thoughts Doesn’t Just Happen

Published on October 6, 2021

Thoughts are as much outside of your control as they are inside of your control.

It works very much the same as breathing.

When you’re conscious of your mind or breath, you can actively control them.

But, when you’re no longer conscious of them, they carry on without you.

This is why you can’t just demand your mind to start producing better thoughts.

That would be like demanding your lungs to start delivering oxygen better.

You have to improve the thought-producing machine as you would the oxygen-delivering machine(s).

Which doesn’t happen after one exercise session (for either).

It happens after many.

Pace Your Brain

Published on October 3, 2021

Most people never talk about pace when it comes to learning.

Most of what I hear is about consuming as much as possible in the shortest amount of time possible (e.g. 2x speed while watching YouTube videos or listening to podcasts).

Pace matters just as much in learning as it does in running a marathon.

Move too quickly through the information and you’ll burnout and resent the process.

Move too slowly and you’ll bore yourself to death (and resent the process).

Find your sweet spot and you’ll become a learner for life.

You Don’t Start Good—You Become Good

Published on September 25, 2021

Let me assure you that approximately none of us start “good” at anything.

Take meditating for example. Expecting to be “good” at meditating when you first start is like expecting to be “good” at Martial Arts when you come to your first class.

The point isn’t to arrive “good”—the point is to start where you are and improve.

Besides the rare few who are “born enlightened,” I’m of the opinion that all of us have busy, irrational, crazed monkey minds which make meditating exceptionally hard.

…Which is precisely why we should be spending time practicing it.

What we need to do isn’t *not* meditate because its hard. What we need to do is better manage our expectations.

Meditating isn’t about closing our eyes and being able to experience a magical ceasing of all incoming thoughts. Not a chance.

It’s about stopping the flow of incoming information and allowing what’s there to settle.

When I meditate, I spend probably less than a minute out of twenty actually free from thinking. This is an excellent day of meditation for me.

In fact, any day I practice meditating is an excellent day of meditating—because I practiced it.

Get it?

The practice is the reward. Just like in Martial Arts. What are belts but an external motivation tactic to encourage training?

The end goal (black belt) is simply a motivation tactic that’s designed to get you to practice.

So, if you want to become a “black belt” in meditation (or anything), humble yourself and start practicing like a white belt.

Create A New Life Event Today

Published on September 23, 2021

If you want to have better evenings, take better care of your mornings.

And if you want to have better mornings, well, take better care of your evenings.

This is to simply say: everything in your day is interconnected.

Morning to night, night to morning; task one to task two, task two back to task one again.

Once you recognize this, you’ll see why now is as good a time as any for improvement.

Where you start improvement in the timeline of your day is irrelevant. THAT you start is what matters. Waiting for the “right moment” or a more “convenient time” (like, New Years) is merely an excuse to not have to change or do the work.

The idea that the future will be better for improvement in some way is simply false. You know when the best time for improvement is? Yeah… NOW!

Because how you handle this moment will be directly correlated to how your next moment will feel. And, mind-bogglingly enough, how all of your future moments will feel, too.

Because just like we’re only six degrees of separation away from each other, so, too, are the events of our lives only a few degrees of separation apart.

Think about it: you could probably trace the key events that happened in your life, that led you to the feel of this exact moment, on your fingers.

So why not create a new event today that will position the future you in a better place?

After all, further delay on improvement will only continue to delay your improvement.

And why on earth would you want to do that?