I am turning into a beach bum, without a decent beach, nor a decent bum.
There is a saying that I read in a book about running several years ago,
You don't stop running because you get old, you get old because you stop running.
The problem with becoming a bum is that I have not been posting as frequently and as a result, I am getting lazy. I am still posting once a day, but it feels more difficult when it was easy and I think it is because I am starting to mentally atrophy. Under normal circumstances, perhaps this isn't so bad, but with current conditions, it is far too risky. So, while I ama bit work out from the day, I am going to get a second one in before I rest.
One of my own sayings is,
Give the day your all, before you lay your head down.
I have lived this way for years and it has worked well for me, though the volume of work might not be to everyone's tastes. When I started this habit, I was both surprised at how much I could get done and how much more satisfaction I got from life, and disappointed that I hadn't started far earlier. If I had I boarded this philosophy earlier, I suspect things would have been quite different.
I think a lot of people can surprise themselves when it comes down to it, though in this day and age, it rarely comes down to it. I was saying to my wife today that perhaps if there was a world war 3, people would stop spending their time worrying about material and ridiculous things.
Can you imagine people spending their time, attention and resources on fighting for personal pronouns in 1940's Berlin?
Me neither. I wonder what the tabloid magazines were writing about at the time and I wonder how many people spent their time discussing entertainment gossip, or leisure activities.
When push comes to shove, we tend to outperform out average and be far more agile around changing circumstances. So, why don't we push and shove ourselves a bit more when we aren't forced into it. Opt into self-imposed discomfort, work a little more, go without a little more, change a little more.
We have largely grown accustomed to put conditions to the point that no matter if our lives are brilliant or brutal, if it takes too much effort to change, we won't. If there is risk that we will lose what we have, we won't.
An hour less of TV or gaming, skipping a donut and coffee, walking the stairs - little things that done regularly add up to becoming something significant and tend to compound into other facets of life.
Keystone habits.
The benefits of going to the gym doesn't end with the muscles. People who start exercising tend to start to eat better, sleep better, think better, feel better and, get better results from their life. One positive habit often supports the development of more.
But it works in reverse too, where a keystone negative habit tends to have knock-on effects on the development of more. It is rare that a person is able to contain a single vice without it bleeding into the creation or extension of more.
It works like a car salesman, getting one yes makes it easier to get the next, and once that is obtained the barrier to the next yes is lower again. Once we break one rule, the chance of anothet being broken goes up. This is why they talk about gateway drugs in this manner, as taking one increases the odds of experimenting with more. It isn't this black and white though, but it is okay here for a basic illustration.
Addiction is hen we crave something and struggle to stop ourselves from having it. The media is full of drug narratives, gaming, sex... People doing harmful things to get what they crave.
But they fail to mention consumer addiction, where people are craving new purchases that they will put themselves deeper and deeper into debt. They become slaves to their dealers, the credit pushers - the banks.
Gateways.
One credit card has to be opened before the second, and the second before the third.
It doesn't get mentioned, even though for most people, debt is one of their most influentional paramaters on their lives, as it takes away opportunity, creates obligation and, creates a pattern of behavior.
If we were to look at the behaviors in our lives and consider what adds and subtracts from our desired opportunities, I wonder what we would discover. If we were to covert some of the negative value toward positive activity, I wonder if we could have an inpact on our lives.
I suspect the answer is that we would be surprised at how much we can improve and how satisfying we find the process. But, old habits die hard and once an addict, always an addict. It is very easy to slip back into habits that make us slow, weak, old.
You can run at the beach too.
Now my day is done and I can lay my head down.
Taraz
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