What I’ve Learned So Far

“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.”

–Henry David Thoreau

~

(Photo by HDC Photography, used under a CC-Noncommercial license.)

My buddy Chris Brogan said this on Facebook:

Oh formletters. I do love you. Thanks, “friends” who use form letters. I love you all. (And any time my company’s done it on my behalf, forget me, too.) We’re all putting on robot pants.

To my ear, it echoes a line of thought he just espoused on his blog:

So why jump [from an airplane]?

Because I’m afraid. Afraid enough.

I’m afraid of lots of minor things in life: confrontation, my own faults, not working hard enough, things like that. You know what tackling a big fear is going to do to those small fears?

Either way, it’s about freeing yourself from your mental habits. The robot-pants thing we could file under the headings of “Shake It Up” or “Think for Yourself.” But combined with the skydiving thing, I’d put it under a rubric I call . . .

Counter-Aversion

If you have aversions to drinking yourself into a stupor or cheating on your spouse or running your car off the road, keep those.

But your aversion to taking the necessary risks to build your career? Or to pursue your dreams? Or to make yourself vulnerable to someone you love? Or to admit that you’re wrong? Or to make the phone call you’ve been dreading?

Chuck ‘em.

In fact, go out of your way to chuck ‘em. Violate your sacred boundaries. Rush to do the thing you know you need to do, before your defenses can kick in . . . and before you’re ready.

“Ready” may never come. So just launch ahead without it.

~

(Image by GogDog, used under a Creative Commons Noncommercial license.)

So, sing.

(Is it a metaphor? Of course it’s a metaphor. Unless your dream is to sing.)

The world is waiting to hear you.

~

(Image by Nick Kocharhook.)

Because I have been quoted in Sports Illustrated, people — that’s why. Phil Taylor does the honors:

Time to Call a Reverse

Dig it. (My part is at the end.)

Do you know my friend Chris Brogan?

If I asked that question in social-media circles it would be taken as a joke. In fact, I might use it as a punchline in a talk sometime — because everyone in social media knows Chris Brogan.

(The good news: Chris is genuinely a person worth knowing, not just some talking head.)

Anyway, the overworked, overconnected, overbooked, overcommitted Chris just wrote this:

“I’m starting to think that we’ve got the opportunity to do some REALLY big things by just working on a few things…”

He’s right.

What are your few things? You don’t need to tell me, but you ought to be able to spell them out for yourself on one side of an index card.

Anything more than that, and you’re inviting the Blur that Chris is trying to fight.

~

(Image by Viernest.)

“Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.”

–The 14th Dalai Lama
~
(Image by watchsmart.)

“Reflect upon your present blessings,
of which every man has plenty;
not on your past misfortunes,
of which all men have some.”

–Charles Dickens

~

(Photo by Arturo Donate.)

After most of a week of South by Southwest madness, then most of a week of catching up from that madness, I finally got back into the gym this week. I did it with some gusto.

23 March 2010 — power:

• Spin bike & roller to warm up.
• Barbell squats: 10 x 95#, 15 x 115#, 15 x 135#, 15 x 135#
• Pullover machine: 3 x 10 x 50#
• Incline d.b. bench: 3 x 10 x 50#’s
• D.b. bent-over row, per arm: 3 x 8 x 50#

24 March 2010 — flexibility & cardio:

• Spin bike & roller to warm up.
• Bicycle crunches: 2 x 20
• Planks.
• Oblique crunches.
• Elliptical stepper: 25 minutes hill repeats, 280 kCal.
• Runner’s stretches.

25 March 2010 — a “three-ring circuit” workout, alternating legs / chest / back:

• Box jumps @ 24″: 6 x 10
• Bar dips: 2 x 10
• Pushups: 2 x 10, 2 x 20
• Bodyweight rows from bar of Smith machine: 2 x 10
• T-bar rows: 4 x 10 x 45#

(Did the whole thing in 22½ minutes. Tough work.)

26 March 2010 — cardio:

• ARC stepper: 5 mins warmup (42 kCal), 25 mins hill repeats (309 kCal).

~

(Photo by Steven Leggett, used under a BY-NC-SA license.)

If you read this blog, thank you for taking the time.

If you ever choose to comment here, thank you for sharing your thoughts.

If something I write strikes you and you use it to make your life better, thank you for letting me in.

If you’re a friend of mine, I thank you for your friendship.

If you listen to my blatherations on Twitter or Facebook, thank you — I’m grateful that so many smart, kind people keep in touch with me this way.

If you do anything to make the world better today, thank you for your effort.

If you are rearing your children with close attention, thank you for tending to our future.

If you spare a moment to smile at a stranger today, thank you for making the world a brighter place.

If you take an extra moment of care to do something right, thank you for taking a stand for excellence in a world geared to mediocrity.

If you love those around you, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

~

(Photo by my Twitter pal Amy Palko, used under a BY-NC-SA license.)

May I be blunt?

At some point, my blatherations on this subject bore the shit out of me.

(Good blogger practice would be to link “my,” “blatherations,” “on,” “this,” and “subject” to separate self-help-themed posts here. But in this case, I can just replace all that with a single “passim” reference.)

If I have specific advice to share with you on a specific topic, I’ll do it. For example, recently a couple of friends asked me for tips on breaking in as freelance writers. Maybe I’ll share some of what I told them here.

Pursuant to yesterday’s post, I may also give you status updates from time to time about the Grand Uncluttering that’s occupying much of my attention.

But beyond that? I think we’ve all heard enough of my mewling about my hangups.

No?