We arrived here in CDA yesterday with a month ahead of us to create a lifestyle that will most likely mimic the rest of our lives. Late in the evening an unsettling feeling came over me, this feeling of agitation, sleeping unsettled for several hours, I am up now at 3:30 AM writing this to sort out my thoughts.
Questions and thoughts…
What am I pretending not to know?
Discipline = Freedom
What if I or we were sick? What would be different, fast forward ahead.
Control what I can control, influence that which can be, forget the rest.
What constitutes a life that provides joy and happiness?
Practice essentialism & hygee.
Live life with intention, not by accident.
Practice and celebrate lead measures, don’t focus on the lag….this brings disappointment. If we consistently do the things that predict success, results are assured. So what are the lead measures that we can incorporate into our lives? Let’s keep is simple.
Here are a few to start…
Get up early and get your fitness activities done as a priority everyday. Walking, hiking with a pack, 100 moves and yoga. Everyday dedicate 1 hour. This will predict success and prepare me to do all of the other things that we plan to do without pain or strain.
Practice financial discipline, payoff bills 2 times every month - 1st and 15th. This will provide peace of mind and security.
Fuel our bodies like our lives depend on it. There really is no excuse on this one, it is just a decision. No time, too hard to plan etc…all cop outs and excuses. If we want to remove belly fat and jiggly legs, this is how it is done. Time to pull my head out of my #$@. What if our lives depended on it? They do…80% of our success and results will come from this one decision. Coupled with item #1, we become unstoppable. Think about all we gain, self confidence, a feeling of control, lack of pain, overall higher quality of life and well being. Enough is enough on this one. Get your shit together McCleary!
Rest and sleep quality - By consistently practicing #1 & #3, we are bound to sleep well, manage our environment and eliminate habits that deprive us of rest. For me, aim for 7-8 hours per night on average, get make up sleep when possible. When tired…rest.
Manage / limit unhealthy technology. Continual input from our screens deprives us of living a real life. This is where asking what would be happening in 1950 becomes useful, being intentional about simplicity has its own benefits. When we sit back and entertain ourselves with the tv, streaming shows, news, social media…what are we really doing? What do we get from it? Rarely is anything we watch or see on a screen, big or small, truly memorable. For me it is mostly wasting time, with few exceptions. How many times have we invested hours and days to be entertained and then when asked about this so called “entertainment”, we cant even remember what we watched, sometime the day after we watched it. It is all a mindless folly and I will plan to pursue alternatives that create lasting value. For instance, reading, writing, painting, journaling, playing cards or real games with Sonya, doin a puzzle etc…are better ways to pass the time and contribute to a healthier and more peaceful life. Eliminating the sources of agitation like news and world events should be guarded at all costs. Physical health is preceded by mental health, mental heath is a product of our thoughts, how we choose to feed out mind is the greatest influencer in this area. The world will find ways to force enough of this upon us, let us not choose to voluntarily add to the onslaught of input that dominates our lives today. Instead, choose peace, calm and activities that matter and ultimately bring us joy and contentment.
Dedicate more time to nature, observe the world around us, notice and appreciate all of the wonders and variety that gods world has to offer, it is free and abundant and ever changing. Note what we see, learn from the natural world and the balance of it. Again a choice.
I am reminded of something that I read in a current book by John Geirach. He was speaking about or fly boxes a a metaphor for life. Our tendency is to always look for a shortcut of hack to speed along one result or another. We can all remember an earlier time where, when first starting out, we only had one fly box, in my case it was full of one pattern, the humpy, mostly in black, both wet and dry and in multiple sizes, mostly large. On Mill Creek, this was enough to catch fish, rain or shine this one little box caught fish. I still have it and some of the remaining flies but treat it like some kind of antique. There was a time when this is all I had and for me, it was enough. Simple and effective. John’s quote went something like…..”Still, I find it difficult to live with the kind of simplicity that eliminates struggle”
These are good questions and I am sure there will be others, it is my hope to capture it all in a summary here to refer back to as time goes along.
In conclusion, for this first installment, I want to lay it on the line. If lifestyle changes are not incorporated consistently, and the results of our health are left to chance, then we should not be surprised when something goes wrong down the line. Even taking all of these precautions as a preventative strategy provide no guarantee to lasting health. We see it all the time, perfectly healthy people, doing all of the right things, stricken down by one disease or another. My own bias is toward stress as the real killer. So, what are we pretending not to know? If we were ever going to live our best life, when would be the best time to get started?
Next Steps:
Dump the crappy food we just bough yesterday and replace it with items that are compliant an vital to our success.
Come up with a plan for staying fed, have the discipline to prepare our food on advance.
Start the fitness routine now…no delay. And stick with it, do something everyday.
Gain commitment and accountability. Help each other drive through life safely.
That is all for now….