Belief and discipline. When I was walking this morning, I couldn’t think which was more important in the pursuit of progress. Discipline encompasses the actions that achieve the goal. Belief is fundamental. When I think of my patients who are pursuing weight loss or those who are just starting to lift, if they tell me they have a program I don’t tell them a “better” plan. I’m not sure I believe there is a better plan than one that someone believes in. This commonly happens with weight watchers. A lot of my patient’s lose a lot of weight with this program. Unfortunately, when they stop using the program, they gain all their weight back. It leaves me with concerns regarding the efficacy of the program if the skills practiced are not leading to long term success. However, when they are using the program I am just happy that they are putting forth the effort to improve themselves. They are trying. In a world where people don’t care about becoming a person more in line with their goals, anything that shows effort I take as a win.
Source: Attending – Ronald Epstein
Lesson: Practice mindfulness in practice
At times I struggle with books like this. They state that we should be better at a certain personality trait – ie mindfulness, but there is minimal objective training in the matter. It states that there are more “mindful” physicians. It cites examples of when physicians were not mindful and when they were. I’m not sure it does a great job delineating how they got there. I wonder how mastery is achieved. Robert Greene and George Leonard have discussed this in their books with the respective titles “Mastery.” I know that this comes from deliberate practice, but I often feel that some people have the innate personality traits that lead to this mindful being while others do not. As a result, I always default to having a to do list and just practicing reading or learning daily. Precision Nutrition also has a similar way of promoting change through the practice of skills over periods of time. This is consistent with Ben Franklin picking a virtue and spending a month on focusing to improve it.
Source: Food of the Gods – Terence McKenna
Lesson: Psychedelics likely were a part of the human culture in our development
I went through this book as a recommendation from one of my good friends. I personally have no experience with psychedelics and it was interesting hearing Mr. McKenna speak about them from a historical and scientific perspective. The comparison of natural compounds that humans have exploited was striking. From spices, to honey, to tobacco and opium. I thought his concept of a “domination” culture was interesting and it was what he was rallying against. The dissolution of the ego and the realization of a deeper human interconnectedness was excellent. The skeptic in me wanted to equate psychedelics to a performance enhancer. My concern is do they push people beyond where they should be from a spiritual perspective. If people can reach similar stages through mindfulness, meditation, yoga, tai chi, prayer and being in nature do we really need psychedelics to reach enlightenment. I’m not sure. I think at a later stage of my life this might be something I wouldn’t mind trying. At the current time I view them as an ace card to hold off on as long as possible, while using the other resources to focus on the interconnectedness of all things.
Source: The little book of Common Sense Investing – John C Bogle
Lesson: Index investing and a buy and hold investment philosophy can create real returns over time
Bogle’s book Enough was a huge influence on my life. It talks about how much do we really need. I tend to be financially conservative and have the belief that debt enslaves us. Dan John always mentions really only spending your money on your hobby i.e. things that bring you joy. For me it’s usually fitness related. I love lifting and jiu jitsu. I also really enjoy reading so I buy and read a lot of books. This book talks about how the returns of low cost index funds are rarely beaten by active fund managers and the difference in money is often what is financing the finance institutions. In my MBA investing course I had an active fund manager teach the course. He stated that with a little work you can learn how to rate funds and he was opposed to the passive investment philosophy. The big takeaway is don’t turn your retirement nest egg into gambling. A lot of people in options trading are trying to outsmart those who have advantages over them. In my world I follow the White Coat Investor and just try to match the market. My goal isn’t to make a fortune. It’s to take care of my family and then to give back to this earth and hopefully leave it a better place.
Album of the week: God is Good – OM
Seeking Progress 