Take a moment to reflect on some of the toughest days in your life. The moments where you wanted out, but that wasn’t an option.
In the darkest hour, sometimes the only way out is through. You’ve made it. Keep going
exercise
There’s no shortcut to mastery
A black belt in martial arts is earned.
I don’t know if it’s a myth, or there’s truth to the evolution of the black belt…but I like the legend better. All masters begin their training with a white belt. The belt starts out white, but over time it gets dirtier, and stained with sweat and blood, and eventually it becomes stained black from years of training. In a lot of dojos, you don’t get to train until you’ve proved you are worthy of instruction. Sometimes that means volunteering in other areas and being invited to train after first demonstrating your commitment. It’s not “a pay to play” system. There’s no shortcut to mastery.
Mastering any art is the same. The answer is in the dirt. There’s no shortcut to mastery. Get in there and start practicing. Anyone can buy a black belt, but only some will earn it.
Activation energy
Sometimes the best way to start writing the next chapter of a book is to sit down and write. That sounds obvious, but it’s scarier to do when nothing is waiting to pour out on the page. Sitting down, creating space and time is sometimes the only activation energy required to break through the writer’s block.
It’s the same with exercise or getting some long overdue work project completed. Upfront activation energy is sometimes all you need to break through. A run around the block turns into a couple of blocks. Composing a response to one email you’ve been ignoring frees up energy for other things that need your attention.
Friday Smoothie Mornings
Thanks to @SocratixSW1 for morning smoothie recipe.
1 banana;
1 date – add to taste
Handful of baby spinach,
Handful of mixed nuts,
Tablespoon of almond butter,
Handful of blueberries (frozen or fresh),
100ml Kefir,
Coconut water and almond milk until up to max.
Additions:
Add pinch of spirulina if you feel like changing it up (turns it super green!)
Add half an avocado
Practice
Knowledge is only a rumor until it is in the muscle
Break the routine from time to time
You are only as smart as the people you talk to. Travel, new places & new acquaintances fuel creativity & learning. Break routines, talk to people.
Compound Beauty Part 2 of 2
In the previous post I wrote about my neighbor and her beautiful garden. She’s always working on it. Her clippers are always in her right hand as she wanders through the garden. She’s a quick draw and will snip a dead shrub or feral branch in the blink of an eye. Her clippers are close at hand and she’s prepared.
Here’s lesson number two: Part of constant tweaking and improving is that you got to be prepared with the right tools. Make it easy to improve and tweak. Structure your day so that you have time to exercise, eat a good breakfast so you don’t snack on junk during the day, buy healthy food so that when you want to snack you have good food close by, set up filters on your email so that you give full attention to the right people.
Equip yourself with the right tools and it’s easier to improve day to day.
Compound Beauty Part 1 of 2
I have a neighbor with a green thumb. Her garden is wonderful. It’s like the one in the film The Secret Garden, but in California. It’s full of flowers and trees like roses, maples and nasturtiums. With the flowers come humming birds, dragon flies and bumbles bees. It’s a beautiful place to just sit and be. Here’s what I’ve learnt from her style of gardening: Always be improving. Whenever she’s out in the garden she does a little weeding, clips a branch here and there, tames an unwieldy mint patch or waters a thirsty lemon tree. Maintaining her garden isn’t done once a week, it’s an ongoing labor of love. The result is a wonderful living and breathing sacred place.
It’s a good lesson for work and relationships. Always be clipping and making small improvements. Small improvements accumulate like compound interest – it starts to gain it’s own momentum. Next time you are mindlessly checking Facebook, stop and ask yourself a question: Instead of infinitely scrolling to nowhere, where could you be clipping, weeding or watering in your own life?
9 exercise, dieting and sanity tips – Part 2
I received a lot of feedback on my 9 exercise, dieting and sanity tips, so I decided to pontificate some more on the topic. I’m planning on turning these daily musings into a book, so this will be in the Mind / Body / Spirit section…which is basically the whole book! 😛
Here goes:
Eat slow cooked oats in the morning – prep them the night before in a slow cooker. The downside is that you have to clean the pot every day, but they are way tastier than instant oats…so you’ll keep doing it. Oats is a blood sugar stabilizing way to start your day and a full portion will see you through to lunch.
Write down positive mantras, be specific and say them out aloud daily. Use the notes app on your phone as a way for easy access. Keep tweaking them – it’s a fun dream boarding exercise and the list will hold you accountable. If you are brave then share them with your close friends and family – they will also hold you accountable.
Unfollow complainers, negative people and cynical people on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Only follow people on Facebook who are proximate. It’s not normal to be reading about someone you went to school with and haven’t talked to in over a decade.
Twitter is like the Ring of Sauron. If you get too close and don’t treat it with respect then it’ll consume you. Twitter is a powerful source of knowledge and wisdom, but it’s also filled with hate and darkness. Handle with care, choose wisely who to follow and mute the negativity. Don’t get sucked into the manufactured outrage and hot takes…Twitter can turn into a Kangaroo court very quickly which is unfair and cruel.
Don’t watch cable news…ever. It’s not news, it’s unhealthy entertainment masquerading as news. Breaking news is commoditized, it’ll find you if it’s important enough. If you have a healthy, hand picked list of people you follow on Twitter then you’ll get the knowledge you need versus the unhealthy news firehose.
Build up a rainy day fund of credibility with people you work with…so when the shit hits the fan or you drop the ball on something – you have a credibility cushion. If you are running hard and moving fast then the shit will hit the fan and you will drop the ball at some point.
Listen more, talk less and pause before you respond to a question.
The Nutribullet is the best and only juice blender you should use. People give up on juicing because the set up and washing up is such a hack. The Nutribullet makes it super easy to throw in some fresh fruit, veggies and water and get it done in under 5 minutes. I drink the juice from the same blending cup and the blades are safe and easy to clean. No fuss, no mess. Set it up at night before you go to bed so the morning is a like a well oiled machine.
The fun of plodding perseverance
Exercise and learning are cumulative. The benefits accumulate like climbing a stairway, one step at a time.
Watch a baby learning to walk. First it’s about tummy time which strengthens the neck and stomach muscles. Then it’s about learning to roll over, strengthening muscles and gaining a sense of gravity. Sitting up and crawling comes next to toughen up knees and strengthen the wrists and neck. The arms slowly get strong enough to grab a stool and hoist up the body. Pulling up and sitting down gets the legs working and toughens up the glutes. The first step finally comes after many tears, false starts, knocks to the head and LOTS of laughs.
What I love about the process is that baby never gives up. Failure is not an option or in the vocab and no amount of falling deters the kid. Every little milestone is celebrated with a toothless laugh and ear to ear smiles.
As adults we need to remember how we learned as infants. Small changes every day and results are cumulative. Don’t give up so easily! Practice, practice, practice. Laugh and celebrate the act of practice.
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