Category: Life

Pushups used to be something I avoided.

I’m a big guy, so supporting my upper body does not come without strain and the nagging feeling of impending death. When I started doing yoga and noticed how difficult certain positions for me, I started changing my workout to compensate.

On the chest press, I started focusing less on reps and more on emulating the positions that were causing me to strain. This morning when I did a quick home workout, I was encouraged by how easily my pushups were knocked out.

Progress.

Something similar happened when I went from dreading my monthly financials review (which I nearly outsourced) to realizing that the task was easy if I did a bit of it daily as needed instead of relegating the whole thing to the last day of every month.

The lesson for me is that the undesirable can become trivial with enough practice. Lean into the pain, I guess you’d say.

Yesterday, a friend of mine announced an event that’s being planned for Q1 of next year. On the strength of the previous event’s success, every recipient enthusiastically responded and updated their calendar accordingly.

The organizer (let’s call him Nick, since that’s his name) earned our trust, demonstrated value, and with a four-sentence update caused busy freelancers and entrepreneurs to fall in sync with something that’s almost a year away.

This kind of influence only comes with meticulous planning, many hours of hard work, and bold execution. Nick has earned it.

Some of the greatest lessons are the ones that no one can teach you. It’s possible that people can push you in the direction of the epiphany, but you experience the revaluation for yourself.

The key to having frequent revelatory moments is putting yourself in a position to receive them. Ideas come to those who appreciate them when they come, so your job is to do something with them when they do.

Do you write ideas down when you wake up or when they arrive? Discuss them with a fiend or mentor when they’re compelling enough? Act on them immediately and work on reducing the friction between inspiration and action?
Or do you allow the thoughts to pass through your consciousness as though they were never there?

Inspiration is precious and we should position ourselves accordingly. Good ideas come freely to those who create an inviting environment for them.

The last thing a sick, weak person wants to do is eat food and yet that’s exactly what’s needed for them to recover.

When someone develops a lesion on their gum(s), the correct course of action is vigorous brushing rather than avoidance of the tenderness.

A chronically tired person should actually spend 30 minutes of downtime getting exercise rather than lying on the couch watching TV.

And someone living check to check should find a way to put a few dollars away every month rather than spending it all on urgent expenses.

These things don’t make sense in the moment when we’re compromised (mentally, emotionally, and physically), so we have to develop the right mindset before the unexpected takes place.

It’s easy to dismiss certain things as being for “other people” but not ourselves. Yoga, meditation, raw food diets, vision boards, the list goes on.

Maybe it’s because of the way we were raised or a general skepticism or downright discomfort in considering something new and terrifying. Maybe we’ve just never tried.

The danger in being closed-minded is that we eliminate the chance that a novel experience will spark something within us and create magic.

Trying something new might result in our entire world view being shifted. Maybe turned on its head completely. And that’s the point, isn’t it? If we’re not growing, we’re fading into irrelevance and obscurity.

Our thoughts become stale, our bad habits take deeper roots, our prejudices crystallize, and before we know it, we’re the person we swore we would never grow up to be.

A dear friend of mine recently lost someone close to him, and he’s a bit shaken up by it. Predictably, the situation is causing him to reflect on his life and to appreciate those closest to him even more.

He sent me a note this morning that I’ll cherish for a long time. It outlines his respect and appreciation and the quiet gratitude that close friends can understand without trying.

There’s no reason why he couldn’t send the note any other time, though. And today is just as good a day as any to let someone know that you care.

To let them know that you noticed.

To let them know that you miss them.

To let them know that the sun might not shine as brightly without them in your life.

Make someone’s day today.

It’s never too late, until it is…

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swaps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists. It is real. It is possible. It’s yours.

-Ayn Rand

A quote I happened upon last week through the Twitternets.

I can think of few better quotes on which to meditate on a Monday morning.

I know how to get a website online.

Everything from registering the domain to building the server to installing the necessary software and making it all play nicely together.

If I didn’t know how to do those things and wanted to get a website online, I would need to pay someone to do it for me (or call in a favor to a friend…). Less control (and speed) perhaps, but the same result.

A habit I see some people developing is both not knowing how to do something, not being willing to learn how to accomplish the task (without being instructed), and not being willing to put the money towards hiring a competent freelancer to do the work.

I’m pretty sure you have to pick one.

Accountability makes us uncomfortable because it’s precisely what we need.

When someone holds themselves accountable to us, it implies that reciprocity is desired or appropriate. And since we spend so much of our time making excuses, hiding in the shadows, and avoiding our potential, this is terrifying.

When we hold ourselves accountable (publicly or to others), we choose our words more carefully, set more purposeful goals, and fight the urge not to promise anyone anything.

This situation virtually guarantees progress or admitted cowardice.

When things don’t work out as we’d like them to, we react defensively and seek to prevent the same embarrassment and pain from happening again.

We put up walls, swear off risks and certain people, and become a little less brave every time it happens. When a similar situation presents itself again, we know exactly what to do!

We retreat.

Among the problems with this approach is that the terror of “something bad happening” is carried with us every day.

The bravery we lose in the face of adversity makes us less confident in many other areas, and the net effect of this defensive posture is emotionally debilitating in the long term.

I don’t have a “this is what you should do in these situations” admonishment, but what I think that the courage to lean into the pain is important.

Your posture towards failure and disappointment is just as important as everything else.