Food: Enjoy it and lose weight
Posted on August 10, 2007
Filed Under Diet | Leave a Comment
Back to food my friends. But I want to keep it in the same strain as the last two posts… living your life now. The question you might have is, how can I eat well, enjoy my food and lose weight all at the same time? The answer to that is you are still thinking about life in the wrong way. In particular you are thinking about food in the wrong way. But you are not the only one.
First though, I want to say, if you are a body builder or a long distance runner, your diet will require a lot of special adjustments I will not be talking about here. So lets all relax. I am talking to the 90% of the world that wants to stay in shape, lose weight, lose the fat, etc.
OK, thats been said. Lets move on. Most of us have developed a lot of food habits that are just bad. Some of them have a lot to do with comfort. Some with the diet yo-yo. Some with a life being spent eating the wrong thing and the normal resentment that one has to being told to eat something good for them. In other words, a lifetime of learning that bad foods are good and good foods are bad. In case you haven’t figured this out yet, this is not an article about a special diet plan or percentages of fats, proteins and carbs. I promise to get to that soon enough. But right now I want to talk about how we eat as much as what we eat. I want to attempt to break the physcological, mental blocks you have in eating right.
I want you to think about the way you think about diets and eating right. The first thoughts we have on the subject are: depriving ourselves of the foods we love; the lose of those special foods that comfort us; happy celebrations with friends. Am I right? On the other hand, when we think of eating the way we like, we start thinking about ice cream, huge bowls of pasta, fresh breads, etc. Am I right here too?
Now if you are going to start living well, you are going to have to change your way of thinking. A good diet is good for you. A bad diet is bad for you. Simple enough concept so why do we all want to reject it? Why is it so hard to turn our thinking around? To accept the simple premise that our thinking is wrong?
It’s because we have been taught that the wrong way to think about food. And the wrong way to think about diets. Diets are stressful and don’t work. We are punishing ourselves on diets. And the fact of the matter is, most diets do just that. Food, we are taught has one of two effects, making us fit, or making us fat. No one has tried to tell us that we can actually eat well, lose or maintain weight. That those foods that are good for us can in fact be enjoyed. That a good diet can be as festive and enjoyable as the the worst banquest we have ever been presented. And when its over, we will still be able to walk away from the table without loosening our belts and feeling bad about what we just did.
Like many things in life, its all a matter of perspective.
You have to to start viewing food as a friend and not as the enemy. Food is one of the day to day building blocks of our lives. Abusing it, turns us into overweight, out of shape pigs. Eating well and enjoying it. Seeing food as what is it, not the enemy will allow us all to have a better life. A life where we do not panic when we eat a cookie or some chips. A life where we don’t fear good food. And those foods we shouldn’t eat, aren’t something we want to eat. You have to see as a friend to your fitness and life. Not as the enemy.
Food is fun and healthy, so don’t fear it and don’t hate it. Just be aware that there is good food and bad food and make your choices based on foods that make you and your body feel good.
After I started this article I came on an article in LifeHack called Eating for Energy or Stress Relief that addresses this subject as well. It talks about how we associate healthy foods with pain and unhealthy foods with pleasure. The post is right to explain that we have that totally backwards.
It might seem pleasurable to devour plates of fried chicken and mashed potatoes followed by huge slices of cake and ice cream. But what is that really doing to your body? What is it doing to your life? How is it affecting you? The honest answer to that is its making you fat, damaging you internal organs and in truth many time will damage your mind since you are not feeding it the amnio acids it needs to function properly. Exhibit 1: Notice how tired you get immediately after the meal. Its a result of the things you just put into your body. Not because your hunger has been satisfied. You just poisoned yourself my friends!
So when you are putting the healthy foods you think as punishment in your body, you are doing it a favor. You are doing you a favor. Your body will work better, your mind will be sharper and for a lot of us, you won’t get any fatter and may actually start to lose a few pounds and fell like taking that walk you keep saying you need. You won’t need a nap after a meal. You’ll be ready to do something like, ohh I don’t know… maybe LIVE!
You should be looking at your body as a machine, it needs to work well. Would you put water into the gas tank of your car? Hell no! So why do you take pleasure from putting poison into your blood stream? Your body can’t run properly on that stuff.
Maybe 10,000 years ago your body needed some fat on it to make up for when the hunting was bad. Maybe 2000 years ago a diet high in carbs helped you work the fields longer or allowed you to spend more time building temples for the king. But today? The only place you hunt for food is at the grocery. And the only temples you build are to your own gluttony.
OK, maybe a bit strongly put. But I am trying to get through to you that you need to totally reverse the way you look at food. As a reward for a hard days work, doesn’t a nice lean steak, a salad and some brown rice act as a better reward for your body and mind that a Big Mac and fries?
Keep in you mind what you are doing to yourself when you eat the truly bad stuff. Think of the punishment you are really doing to your health and mind. Imagine what the lack of protien is doing to your muscles and to your brain. Look inside yourself and see the clogging arteries, the liver over working itself. The brain starved of its essential nutrients. The extra calories turning themselves into fat molecules in your stomach and on your butt. Think about it every time you think that healthy food is punishment and bad food is a reward. What kind of reward exactly?
Change your mind. Change your life.
Life is what you are doing right now. Part 2
Posted on July 10, 2007
Filed Under Spirit, Life | Leave a Comment
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The proper function of man is to live - not to exist.
– Jack London
I want to back up. I’ve already gone into a long detailed explanation of actually doing things in your life. What I want to get into in this article is really living, outside of you plans, goals and business or professional projects.
What I am talking about is taking the time to smell the roses, enjoy you children, your lover, your life. You can get to tied up in doing your things, and being busy in an attempt to meet you goals. One of all of our desires though, should be to better enjoy our lives and have those around us enjoy them better. Part two is really an extension of my first article. It has the same themes
- Life is whats happening now.
- Do what you need to do.
Are you going to wait until the bills are all paid, until the business makes a million, until the grass is cut and the laundry put away to go for a walk with your lover? To roll on the floor with the kids? To invite friends over for a cookout? To take the weekend trip?
Well, are you?
Don’t even think of waiting. Pick up the phone right now and call your lover, your kids, your mom and tell them you love them. Make a plan. Plan a surprise. Do something that will let you enjoy life a little. Don’t have anyone? Thats ok too. Take a walk. Go shopping and buy something for yourself. All of this is for you as much as for the people in your life after all. You need to enjoy and experience life right now! Not at some undefined point in the future. Because that point will never come. Trust me, I know.
I think I have said this in private conversations a number of times lately. I know a lot of couples who’s lives work like this: Work till seven, come home and head for the computer after a quick private dinner. The stay-at-homer, or care taker is worn and tired by the life and escapes to their own world. Friends, being busy, drinks starting at noon. Lots of parties. Anything to avoid the reality that life really sucks. The relationship really sucks. The job sucks. The kids, we’ll pretend they are good. And thats their and a lot of people’s life. The big house, the toys, the memberships, the lawn. All of it means nothing, because nobody enjoys it, not really. They are all to busy being busy and escaping reality.
Why do we do that? Life isn’t supposed to be that way. Hard at times, sure. Lots of work, sure. All kinds of things we don’t create or want. But thats not the point. Death in life is what I am really talking about. And I’ll repeat. Life is not supposed to be that way! Have I made myself clear?
Living life today, means enjoying it. It means feeling it. It means being in it now. It means facing reality. It sucks? Its hard? You don’t like it? Well… do something about it… change it Don’t expect your fairy godmother to come along and do it for you. You are responsible for your own life.
You are responsible
Living life today means taking responsibility for your own feelings, your own enjoyment, you own success and failure. Excuses are just a sneaky way of avoiding your own responsibility for the way your life is going. When you are angry you need to accept that its your feeling about things that have happened and not someone else who will make you un-angry. You don’t need to throw a fit. Let it go or deal with the issue. You’ll feel uncertain at times, its normal. We have bad habits to unlearn and new habits to learn. Even when you do, you’ll face situations you don’t know how to deal with. Its ok, everybody else does to.
Live today!
Today is the only day you have. Yesterday is over. You can’t change it. You can only make today worse by living there. Tomorrow is not here yet. You’ll miss today if you are living in tomorrow land. These are more than just bromides from a self help course. the older I get, the more they become facts of life for me. Its taken me a long time to come to this point. And some days are better than others. But now, they have become a few of the touchstones in my life.
Life is what you are doing right now.
Posted on July 1, 2007
Filed Under Life | 2 Comments
Well, its time to get back to work here. Don’t you hate it when life interferes with what you really want to do? OK, stupid question. Life is doing what you want and need to do. Sometimes, you just have to stop and get off the treadmill of others expectations and do the things you want and need to do. Thats what I have been doing the last few weeks. Living off line.
That’s why I’m writing this. Living off-line. Reaching your potential, while living life to the fullest. Thats what personal and professional development is all about in the end anyway.
So the ultimate development personal program is about action and not really about creating the perfect personal development plan. Its about action! Doing things, not planning to do things. Many of us when working on developing ourselves spend a lot of time planning, reading, thinking and worrying. Time is wasted on all this and its equally wasteful counterpart, procrastination. Nothing gets done and you stay the way you are, with all kinds of plans and ideas about what you will do someday when you get to be when “you have made it”.
What a load! You’ll never make it unless you actually do something. If you are going to try reaching your potential, it will require not only study and planning, but DOING!
What is doing though? Doing in this area means acting. Do you want to meditate? Meditate. Do you need to meet people? Well, then meet people. Going to write a novel? Start writing. Don’t think about it. Don’t find reasons not to do these things. Because you never will. You’ll never find the “perfect” thing or timing. And don’t tell me or yourself you don’t have the time, the money or the skills.
Doing doesn’t always require great planning. Its requires a dedication and commitment. Anybody can take action. Just do a “Nike”… Just do it. What is keeping you from doing something you want to do?
Fear? Are you afraid of failure? Get over it. Most successful people have failed many time before they succeeded. Winston Churchill was viewed as a washed up loser, past his prime with nothing left to offer when WWII broke out.
No Money? Do you really need money? Many new businesses have been sold from an idea before anything real had been created. Not only did it work, But it allowed the creator to modify his ideas with real input from real customers. Saving money and time.
You lack skills you say? Oh my! Stop worrying and start doing it. The unskilled often create or do things that no one with so-called skills ever thought of doing in their area of expertise. No one thought the ipod would make it. It came from outsiders, in a market full of experts. There were many mp3 players already on the market. The Ipod change the landscape and the market. You can to!
If your not an insider, you can always become and insider. Or maybe you don’t even need to become one. Sometimes the outsider has a better perspective.
You don’t have time? The best one for anybody, isn’t it? Find the time. Skip the TV shows, skip the romance novel, skip the gold outing with the buddies. Just do what os is you have always wanted to do. Find an excuse to do it, not to avoid doing it. Do a little or a lot. Just get started.
This blog is an example of both the things we don’t do and the way to start doing it. At first, I had the idea. And it just sat there looking at me. Then I started making action plans for its development. Finally, I just decided to do it and am now working on it more every day. I have lots of plans for the site. But mostly, now I am working on it. Its getting done. I am finding my voice and the plan such as it it seems to be getting done.
All of our personal development plans are much like this. Whether it’s meditation, fitness, diet or a new business. Yes, you do want to have an very good idea of where you are going. But don’t plan to death. I think the phrase is paralysis through analysis. You can’t keep waiting for the perfect time, the perfect plan or the the perfect anything. Life isn’t perfect. So again… GET OVER IT!
Lets look at the smaller personal development actions you can take everyday. Things that one you do them, begin to build a foundation of real change. Actions you can take all day long.
If you are eating like crap. Just start eating a little better. Don’t buy the candy bar. When you go to lunch get a burger and a salad. Skip the fries. Buy real food when you go to the store. Skip the chips this time. A little start, is a lot better than no start. Change your mindset. Its not things you are giving up, its eating things that will make your life better.
Can’t seem to get get to the gym? Rememebr, you’re paying for it. If you paid for something you might as well use it? Even once a week. Build it into your schedule somehow. Go before work for an hour. Before you get home. Because when you get home, there are things to do. Don’t plan on hours and hours there every day. You can do a good workout in about an hour. Three times a week and you’ll start feeling better and get interested in what you can do to make that little amount of time more effective for yourself.
Your relationship kinda sucks? Its your fault! So do something about it. Don’t expect it to happen magically. Take the time to talk. Take the time to walk. Read a book and figure out what you can do. I’m sure if your relationship needs work. You both know it. And admitting it, will at least start the ball rolling.
You are a great procrastinator? Join the club. So am I. So I just make my mental lists and start doing what I can. Sometimes, I choose the easiest and get into the flow of things. Working my way up. Other times, I just choose the natiest and hardest, just to get it out of the way.
Everyone has reasons for not doing what we should do. Thats just another way of saying excuse. Put the excuses aside and do something. Instead of making excuses, take action on your personal development plans.
I guess my point in all of this is simple. Not doing these things, is not living. Living is doing. Doing is living. Don’t waste your time existing, excusing and avoiding. Action makes life worth living.
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My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man’s doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny.
– Elaine Maxwell
An online degree in life
Posted on June 24, 2007
Filed Under Mind, Life | Leave a Comment
Today, you can get an online degree in many subjects. But I want you to consider using the online tools you have available to get a PhD in Running Your Life! Think about it, for the first time in most of man’s history there is a glut of information available to almost anyone who takes the time to look. Whatever you want to know, you can get an online education in the subject. And most of its free!
All of us have a lot we want to learn, But I want you to focus on your online degree in life. You probably won’t find everything you need. After all real people are required for real life. And thats a simple fact some of us seem to forget.
OK, on to you online degree in life.What are we looking for and where can we find it? We are lookinng for real information, proven ideas and concepts. Lets not waste our time on the one page, “buy my book” sites. Lets go to universities, research groups and quality blogs. Along with site that are otherwise crammed with information on the subjects you need.
What you need is information about fitness, diet, mental health, success, the spiritual side of life. And the blogs, websites and information on these subjects are all over the place. But beware, some is excellent, some of it is just plain crud. How do you tell the difference? Thats the million dollar question.
Of course in the process of this I will point you to more than a few books that might be helpful to you at the same time. Because sometimes curling up with a good book and getting the full concept of what the author has to say beats the heck out of hauling your laptop around while you get your online degree in life.
Lets start by looking at my some of my favorite sites:
Craig Harper : He’s real and down to earth. Never met the man, but he says what he says and lets go at that. Without missing much he cuts straight to the basics and addresses them in a way we can alll understand.
Top 10 body hacks : Cool stuff about life and making it easier for you. His premis is a good one. Computers can be hacked to make them run better, so why not your life? The hardware is a heck of a lot more flexible.
This particular post at Warriorism., I haven’t spent a ton of time at the site, but what I have gained has been more than worth it.
4therapy.com is an excellent mental health site for anyone with concerns in this area. Same with Psychology.Com
Getting back to more general concepts in your search for a degree in life, Universities are fully loaded for that.
I guess I don’t want to just give you a list of links to run to. I want you to go out and do some homework and research, find your own path and your own tools. We all have our own paths. So find your own and pursue your online degree in life.
Whats next you say? I go and read, then I’m smart? Go back to my first post if you think thats. Its about execution! Make a plan with what you learn.. Add something to your learning every day. Practice what you learn, on those you love and on those you meet every day. Get an Online Degree in Life! Go to the gym with your new found knowledge. Test what you have learned and test yourself. Not everything you read will be true. Not everything will be useful to you. Just like back in the way back, when you where in school, you’ll need to discover your own learning style. But always include practice. Kinda like the old saying; “practice what you preach”.
Let me try to explain it this way if you aren’t getting it yet. A long time ago, I got my flying license. Then life intervened. I got married, had kids and that part of my life drifted into an enjoyable memory. Regardless of those memories, I couldn’t fly a plane today without a lot of new learning and practice. I hate the words to, so don’t get all upset with me for saying it every thirty seconds.
LEARNING & PRACTICE!!!!!
Now make your plan. Put it on paper or on your computer. I like paper, for the obvious reason that its easier to fit into your pocket. But I still do it on the computer and use that as a master list for myself. Because my plan has phases and steps and goals and benchmarks when I am working on something. Your online degree will need the same thing. Multiple subjects, multiple class, practice sessions, real life testing of yourself. Get something you can use to keep track of things. Even if its the time honored paper journal to write it down and review it.
But don’t just write things down about what you plan and what you’ll practice. Track your results( thanks honey) because if you don’t, well you know how it is. Use a journal or whatever works to talk to yourself about your successes or failures. What you need more of, less of, whats coming into focus for you and whats not.
Go now, do the work. Build your curriculum and get started now!
Tools for a life
Posted on June 17, 2007
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I’ve not been writing for a while. Lots of reasons and there are a few articles that are in the works now. But lets skip the excuse and get to the point.
I signed up for Tools for Life the other day and have gotten myself busy with the work. If you are thinking about making changes, I’d get over there and get myself signed up. Before you ask. No, I am not getting paid and have no relationship to the sight other than as a member.
What is Tools for Life? Its a web 2.0 enabled self improvement website. With a series of guided tools, video and audio… you will walk through the program designed to help you make the changes you want in your life. The program seems to be self supporting and reinforcing the changes YOU want to make in your life. Its not a self designed course. Rather you tell them what you want and the course seems to flow around your needs.
There are a number of support groups, internal blogs and lots of stuff to help you stick to a program of change.
From what I have seem so far, it is oone of the best uses of the web I have seen so far. Thanks Tools for Life! It’s one more tool making our lives better. Sign yourself up and make your life a better place to live!
The food you eat makes you the person you are
Posted on April 29, 2007
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What we eat is important. Food provides the building blocks for our body, for the proper functioning of our mind and food provides a vital spiritual content to our lives when we share our meals with others. So when we start talking about diet, we had better remember the roles food plays in our lives.
Diet is what we eat. Diet is the way we eat. Diet is the food we eat. And finally, diet is the way we eat that food. If you are going on and off diets, maybe you should rethink what you are doing and what a diet means. The best of the “diets” I have read about call for a complete makeover in what you eat. They don’t tell you you’ll lose 50 pounds in 30 weeks or whatever the claim might be.
Losing weight and keeping it off requires, along with exercise, a new approach to eating. You’ll have to eat good food. But first, you need to learn what good food is. What good food isn’t. And how to tell the difference between the two. The surprise is that its not that hard to select good food.
First of all, imagine whatever food you are going to eat in its fresh state. Can you? If you can’t, don’t eat it. Think about it for just a minute and you will see what I mean when I am talking about good food. How many processing steps does it take before it gets onto your plate or at least into your kitchen? How many forms has it taken since it was “in the wild” so to speak? Can you count them on one hand? If so, it probably is ok to eat. The closer to the natural state the food is in, the better it probably is for you.
Think about it. Don’t look at the package until you finish this exercise. Lets compare Chicken breasts vs. Chicken nuggets using this idea.
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Chicken Breasts
- Chicken whole
- Chicken cut into parts
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Chicken Nuggets
- Chicken whole
- Chicken cut into parts
- Chicken ground to paste
- Ingredients added to hold chicken together( what ingredients? )
- Chicken formed into patties or whatever
- Chicken nuggets put into coating
- Breaded chicken nuggets cooked
- Cooked chicken nuggets frozen
- Frozen chicken nuggets packaged
- Frozen chicken nuggets reheated
Simple enough? You just need to do it with everything and you will be living a better healthier life already.
Next concept I want you to be thinking about. Do you cook it or prepare it yourself? I don’t mean microwave popcorn cooking! Or opening a bag of chips and pouring it into a bowl! When you prepare food it means taking things from the refrigerator or cabinet and doing something other than opening or heating. Refer to the first step above if it’s confusing (how many steps from nature?).
Not only is preparing food mean you are working with better, fresher and healthier ingredients. But it also means you are taking the time to slow down and enjoy the cooking and eating process. Cooking and preparing food is relaxing and enjoyable. And it does not have to be fattening or deadening to a proper healthy diet. In fact it’s easier and faster to prepare healthy balanced meals than it is to prepare bad food for bad meals. Of course it will take some getting used to if you are used to chicken and dumplings or McDonalds every night. Yes, it will take a little longer than stopping at KFC on the way home from work. But you and everyone in your family will be better off because of that little bit of effort.
Not only is your body affected by the quality o food in your diet. But so is your mind. Proper nutrition is required for anyone’s mind to function properly. The amino acids that are the basic building blocks of your muscles are in many cases the same amino acids that make you brain function properly. An imbalance in the sugar levels in you body not only hurts the body, but it makes your brain not work properly. The brain will not be able to work if the sugar levels in your body are too great or too low.
Next, eat more often. Three meals a day won’t cut it. You should be eating 5 times a day. Smaller meals than your usual. And try to design them around your life. That means if you workout, plan you breakfast after you workout. But also, plan on having something to eat before you work out also. You can’t workout without energy. After the workout, you body needs fuel to build with.
Plan on three main meals a day, with 2 healthy mini meals sometime during the span of day. Most research now, discounts the idea that eating late before bedtime is bad for you. In fact, some protein in the evening can actually be good for you. While you rest, your body is also rebuilding itself, and you body needs proteins to do that.
OK, now I plan to confuse you, by telling you that some meal replacements can be good for you. Yes, they are far away from 5 steps from the field. And normally, I would say no. But used judiciously, protein shakes and protein bars can be excellent for your mini meals or after workout boosters. Just be sure to check that you shake or bar is not really a candy bar! I’ve seen meal replacements with 50 grams of sugar in a serving. If you are going to do that, just drink a coke, it has less sugar. The meal replacements should be high in protein (20 grams) and low in fats, sugars and carbs. A little doesn’t hurt after a workout. Your body can use it. But eating a candy bar is not good for you.
Your diet should consist of Protein, complex carbohydrates and fats. Don’t try to deny your body any of them. The human body has evolved with all three. Don’t starve it of any of them or starve it at all actually. When you cut back your diet to starvation levels, your body goes into starvation mode. That means the metabolism slows down and the body gives up things like its fat slower and starts to eat itself away in other ways.
What I’ve written is a start for you to get on the right track. You and I can worry about more of the details in a later article. I’ll talk about calories, percentages and some more of the gory details of proper diet then. I think that’s all I want to cover right now. It’s a bit to digest. Ok, so it’s a bad pun. What can I do?
Talk to you later!
Ten keys to running your life
Posted on April 23, 2007
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When you are ready to run your life. I mean become the best you possible, despite yourself and the world around you. You had better learn some basic things, to always try and to always keep in mind. Print them out. Keep them with you. read them when the stress hits.
I find, when I keep them clear, its easier to do the right thing. Which is to be a more consistently positive and successful person. Here are ten rules to keep you on track.
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1. I am the source of my own happiness.
Someone else may contribute to your happiness, but is not responsible for it.
3. I am the source of my own unhappiness.
Same thing here!
4. Life isn’t fair; I don’t expect it to be.
5. I will put passion back in my life.
6. I will have gratitude for what is given to me in life.
7. Smile and relax. My life is supposed to be enjoyed!
8. I have self-respect. I won’t be selfish and self-centered.
9. I will enjoy today, it’s the only today I have.
10. “When you’re going through hell, keep going”, to quote Winston Churchill.
These are not the only keys and not the only things you’ll need to do. But they are awful important to your success. Read them. Look at them every day. And DO them!
Those of you who know me. Know that I get angry, pout, obsess and much worse. I’m still working on the keys every day. I’m still learning and trying. So DON’T beat yourself up when you slip. Get up, shake the dust off and move on. Oh, and apologize when you need to.
Life continues, so should you.
The fundamentals
Posted on April 14, 2007
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Fundamentals. At least the guys out there know what I mean. How many of us had coaches who drove in Fundamentals? Fundamentals. Fundamentals. Day in and day out as we practiced. Whatever sport we were in? They all told us that when we mastered the fundamentals we would master the game. Vince Lombardi told us. Coach Wooden told us. We watched Mr. Miagi teach the Karate Kid.
They were right, mostly. Mastering the fundamentals, gives us the skills we need. But I think they left out one crucial aspect of things. You have to be able to apply the fundamentals when crunch time comes. Now I’m not sure if that was really missed or just implied. I guess the idea was you learn the fundamentals so well you never have to think about them and they come automatically. If so, I’m still haven’t mastered them. In this article, I’m talking about life, not any sport or game you play. But is there really difference?
Being able to follow through on the fundamentals under pressure is really what it is all about. In life, in sports, at work, and in relationships. Back to the basics each time, until the moves and actions are automatic. Until it all becomes natural.
Sometimes I wish life were even half that easy. They say you learn a lot about life through sports and teamwork. Its true. Sometimes you even learn how to do the fundamentals under pressure. Sometimes you don’t.
Life is different though. Most of us don’t have someone to teach us those fundamentals. And often the ones we learn are not the right ones. I’ve spent a lot of time going back and learning the fundamentals. Things I didn’t learn growing up. Things I learned wrong growing up. Things I didn’t think were important enough to learn growing up. I’ve had to go back to unlearn bad habits. We all remember when the coach made us do that? The stern looks. The being pulled aside. The yelling when all else failed to get through to your young brain?
And even then, under pressure, I sometimes screw up. Sometimes big. Sometimes not so big. A lot of us get along for a very long period of time faking it, since most people don’t know any better than we do. Just remember a lot of what you think is normal is acting to.
So lets try and learn the fundamentals. How to live, how to hurt, how are emotions affect us. How to stay healthy. How to grow our spiritual side. And then we need to learn it again. And then we need to do it under pressure. And only then have we mastered it.
Hearing it? Not hard.
Studying it? Not too hard.
Learning it? Hard.
Putting it into practice day after day? Harder still.
Doing it under pressure? Hardest of all. It’ll take learning the skills and learning to apply the skills at the right time.
I guess its called “grace under pressure“. I don’t always have it. Sometimes I think I don’t have it at all. But, I guess, sometimes I do. Just not at the times when my frustration and fear levels get out of control. Grace under pressure is what you get when you get the fundamentals so ingrained in you body and mind that you no longer need to think about it. It’s not a mental thing and not solely a physical, emotional or spiritual thing. It’s a complete person thing. And it’s ok not to have it all the time. It’s not ok never have it or never strive for it.
Because really, living is like the sports we played. We’ll never be great, unless you practice.
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