Transitions cause growth and I feel like our whole society is continuing to be stressed during these times. An economic shutdown and path for reopening, a pandemic and protests around racial injustice are currently stressing the United States. I feel that part of the uneasiness is coming from a lack of unification. In a past conversation, a man stated that the left tends to focus on equality and the right on personal freedom. Like most things, it’s nice to have a mix. Perfect equality will never exist given our innate differences and personal freedom is impossible given our codependence on others throughout the various stages of life. So the US becomes the great experiment of how much do we need of each. Like all things when you try to make everyone happy, nobody will be happy. So I hope we keep pushing for good enough.
Source: A Book of Five Things – Martin Rooney
In this book Mr. Rooney proposes five questions we should ask ourselves every day. 1. Did I exercise 2. Did I eat well 3. Did I learn something new 4. Did I make someone feel better 5. Did I take a positive step toward a major goal. I feel like these are wonderful questions to ask ourselves. Dan John has a daily checklist of 1. Floss your teeth 2. Go to bed within 2 hours of sundown 3. Workout/walk/intentional physical activity 4. Improve a personal relationship 5. De-clutter one area. I think exceeding the 5 might be too much for one routine. In the book habit stacking they discuss the importance of routines in various areas of life. Dan John calls these routines Pirate Maps or directions to improvement. The best part of these Pirate Maps are they are generally completed by just showing up. They don’t require very much effort, you could say they’re Tiny Habits. When I was recently mobilized I really focused on the improving a personal relationship a day. I was able to speak with a set of my grandparents multiple times while I was gone. During this time away my grandfather almost died, and when I returned home my grandmother was put in hospice two weeks later. I’m thankful that I was able to practice that habit as it gave me conversations I’ll cherish going forward.
My Lesson: Make your own daily routine, do it every day
Mine: 1. exercise 2. journal 3. Read 2 chapters a day 4. Let my wife know that I love her 5. Say my mantra
Source: My Mantra – “I practice the presence of God. I am filled with and express peace, love, and joy. Your will be done.”
I have been working on this mantra for the past two months. I’m trying to reframe my perception of myself from being a grumpy asshole to being a person who appreciates life and provides peace to others. When I picture who I want to be, I think of those older people who bring an aura of peace and calmness with them. They can focus on who they are with and make them feel loved. I often use Judeo-Christian language as this is the tradition that I was brought up in. God can be synonymous with totality. The everything and the nothing. Practicing the Presence of God is a book by Brother Lawrence. He had daily conversations with God and was able to have a sense of wonder with all things. This connection with everything and the practice of this sense of being, I believe to be a wonderful thing. In Paul Chek’s Podcast with Keith Witt, Dr. Witt describes love as being one with. My hope is to be one with who I’m with and to show them perfect love. It’s going to be a practice, but it’s one I hope to continue participating in.
My Lesson: Practice the Presence of God
Sources: Drive Podcast AMA Dom D’Agostino and BJ Fogg – The Knowledge Project
My lessons: We should go some time without eating, small change can lead to big change
These were wonderful Podcasts. I’m very happy with my current podcast sources. I generally listen to these while I’m in the car and I listen to books when I’m lifting/doing cardio. This system has allowed for me to greatly increasing the quantity of ideas that I’m getting on a weekly basis. While listening to Dom, I continue to think Maurio DePasquale was ahead of his time and his Anabolic solution diet is probably the right answer for most people pursuing performance. If you’re pursuing longevity, periods of caloric depravation in any capacity probably provides benefit. The fact that fasting was included in so many institutions makes me think our ancestors were more in touch with themselves than we are. Now we are over reliant on objective data and less on what actually feels right. Probably need a little of both – art and science.
Quote: What you are is God’s gift to you, what you make of yourself is your gift to God”
Band of the week – King Buffalo
Seeking Progress 