Someone is Watching You (So keep going)

“No runs in a vacuum. There is always someone watching you leave the house, dig it out, come back, and do it all over again. You are being watched by a roommate, a brother, a spouse. The driver of every passing car. You are being watched by future generations. My grandmother ran in college! someone might say of you one day. My great uncle took it up in his 30s and ran marathons into his 60s! We are inexorably entwined within each other’s influence. You may run by yourself, but no matter how early you start, no matter how remote your location, you never run alone”–Mark Parent.*

What he doesn’t say, but implies, is that you are a leader, simply by being a runner. Someone, be it your roommate or the dog-walker you blow by on the bike path, is watching you sweat and hurt, and grow strong. Not all, but some will say “I want to do that too” and will lead healthier, happier lives because of it.

But don’t stop at running, because not all can run. Do you work hard? Do you help others? Do you chase your dreams with courage and ambition? Someone is watching. My aunt opened her own business when she was my age, someone might say, so why can’t I? My friend published a book, so I can too. My Dad worked hard and provided for us, and I want to be like him. “We are inexorably entwined in each other’s influence”.

I hope this encourages you like it did for me. It’s only January 3, but some of you may have broken your New Years resolutions. Pick yourself up and try again tomorrow. You just might inspire someone to do the same.

Also, a big thanks to those who’ve encouraged me lately by telling me how much they enjoyed my book, or that my posts have been an inspiration to them. You add spring to my step!

* “A Mile in His Shoes,” Runners World, February 2010.

I Believe in Resolutions

“Cat: Where are you going?
Alice: Which way should I go?
Cat: That depends on where you are going.
Alice: I don’t know.
Cat: Then it doesn’t matter which way you go” (Lewis Carol, Alice in Wonderland).

Is this the year you actually do it?  Woah, let’s not get crazy now.

Heaven forbid you make a New Years resolution, and it actually happens.  The apocalypse might come right then.  Hell might freeze solid.

Most of the conversations I’ve had about New Years Resolutions have been sheepish, defensive and short. Someone is making resolutions, otherwise the gyms wouldn’t be full in January. But I guess they don’t want to talk about it. I get it. Will power is a fickle mistress. Put a bag of chips in front of me and I’ll prove it to you.

But I still believe in resolutions. A year is too much time to waste, and how will I truly accomplish something if I don’t even know what I want to do?

Last year was the first year I made hard, fast resolutions.  I wrote two pages of them.  I accomplished about half.

Some were miraculously successful. I made the stereotypical resolution to lose weight. I wrote down the number I wanted to see on the scale, lighter than I’d been since graduation. But I didn’t have much hope, I think. So it’s a miracle that I’ve reached December at that weight-loss goal, thanks to Trim Healthy Mama and a lot of hard work.

I prepare to lace up for the first time.

This brought a surprise with it: running. I didn’t want to run. I was sure I couldn’t do it. But when a friend I met through Trim Healthy Mama goaded me to train for a 5K in August, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was the kind of crazy I needed. I bought a pair of shoes and downloaded ‘Couch to 5K’ onto my phone.

Two months later, I ran my first 5K. I was in love. I ran three more 5Ks. November 1st, I ran 10 kilometres for the first time and now run that distance weekly. Resolution #1 for next year? Run my first half-marathon.

I also set a goal to release my first book. It was late, but We are the Living was published at the end of the summer. I’m proud of it, and I learned a lot. I’m now almost done my next novel.

Where I failed was finances. I think my goals were realistic, but I made some bad choices, and some things didn’t go the way I planned. The time wasn’t wasted, because I learned a lot and gained humility.

Will I make resolutions for 2015? You bet. I’m in the midst of thinking and praying and drafting a list. I encourage you to write a list too–if nothing else, to help you remember what you’d like to do this year.

Here are a few pointers.

1. Make the goals specific. If you don’t know your destination, how will you know when you get there?  For instance, instead of saying “I want to run farther next year,” I wrote “I want to run the Imagine Mental Health Half-Marathon”.  That gives me a place and a time. The goal is measurable.

2. Make it reasonably attainable, but not too small. In order to run a half marathon, I need to double my distance. I’ve never even run a 10K race. But, I’ve already doubled my distance once, and I have a training plan I can implement. It will be a lot of work, but if I’m healthy I can do it. It’s realistic, but I’ll need to break it down into small steps. I can’t do it all at once.

3. Make a time-limit or deadline–even if that is just ‘by December 31, 2015’. Build in some urgency.  For instance, I know that I need to double my distance by mid-September in order to attain my half-marathon goal.

4. Make it fun. I wrote a whole list of random things I wanted to do this year: go to Folklorama (a cultural festival in Winnipeg), go catfishing, go to the symphony, cook Christmas dinner for my family, learn a new skill, make a new friend and so forth.  Just a bucket list of sorts that I’d be disappointed if I forgot to do.  I learned a new skill, and I made two new friends. I didn’t go to the symphony. But there’s always next year.

I would suggest making goals in various areas of your life (i.e. finances, fitness, family and friends, faith) but not too many. 2 pages may be too much. Finally, write this all down and reread it many times during the year so you don’t forget.

Ultimately, plans change and some of the resolutions you make at the beginning of the year will be unimportant at the end.  But a year is a lot of time to waste, so why not figure out what ‘time spent well’ looks like to you, and resolve to make this a year of growth.

Running and Reading, The Keys to Success?

Will Smith gives his two keys to success in life, and they’re gooders.  It’s a short video. Make sure to watch it.

 

Of course I love this video because I both run and read, and Will Smith just validated a good percentage of my existence.  But still…

Running

Even as an entry level runner, I’ve learned that running is as much a mental game (more?) as a physical one. First you overcome the voice that says “Its hot. It’s raining. My knees hurt. I want to sleep” and you lace up. Then as your legs grow rubbery and your lungs burn up in your chest, you shut up the ‘make the pain stop’ voice by saying, ‘I’ll run to the next corner,’ and then, ‘to the next corner’ until you’re home. When you finish a run, you build confidence and credibility with yourself. You did what you said you would. You conquered yourself. That compounds on itself. The negative voice becomes weaker as you continually shut it up. Conversely, it becomes louder as you let it win.

And you can do this all while wearing very tight pants.

Reading

Smith’s second key to success is reading. I doubt he means novels, though a solid novel can teach many lessons. You can learn almost anything by reading. I have a natural advantage here–reading comes easy. If you say ‘I can’t read,’ consider this. Tim Marks is a two-time best selling author, business leader and multimillionaire. He has dyslexia. He says, “When I read to myself, I would read it, and a moment later, I couldn’t remember what I had read. I couldn’t understand why the words looked as if they moved around on the page. I would struggle with the same word over and over.” As he entered the business world, his mentor, Orrin Woodward, told him he would have to begin reading or he would never make it.

So Tim began to read. He would read the book out loud to himself, and then summarize what he read, until he made it through the whole book. Eventually it became easier, still he says, “Three decades later, when I preach or speak at a leadership conference, I have to read from notes, and I still need to practice several times in advance to make sure that I understand the words so that they don’t jump around on the page. My reading still isn’t where it should be, but it’s a heck of a lot better than it was!”

Reading is a learned skill. As a bookworm, I had to train myself toward heavier reading.  But reading from a wide range of books stores up a bank of knowledge: financial wisdom, people skills, technical knowledge and inspiration can all be found on the page.

So you can absorb the wisdom of Dale Carnegie or Plato while sitting on the toilet. Been there, done that.

Do you agree with Will? Would you add any other keys?

Outrunning My Idiot Complex

I’m intimidated by my trainees.

They are educated in ways I hope to attain one day–a degree in physics (physics!), a degree in finance, and possibly degrees in business administration.  They’re well traveled, and they’re much older than I am.

But neither of them know how to coat pharmaceuticals, so they’re stuck with me.  I know coating, at least.  I know it quite well.

Calculus = Smart?

I’ve always desired to be the smartest one in the room.  When I was a preteen my Dad told me how much he’d struggled with trigonometry in school.  I resolved to master it.  In high school I did, indeed, become competent in low-level trigonometry and pushed myself to study the highest maths I could.

I can’t tell you how much time and tears I expended on the subject.  Why?  Because Calculus = smart.  I studied advanced physics.  Why? Physics = smart.

All the while, I was destined to be a… writer.  Woe is me.  If only I’d thought classic literature, poetry and writing classes were the thing for smart people to do!

Recreational IQ Testing

I’ve also been known to take online IQ tests for the fun of it.  I’ve been told they only count if they’re administered by a professional, but I still like to be reassured that my IQ is just a little higher than the average Jane’s.  I may in fact be ‘gifted’.

Never mind how many derelict genius’s there are out there.

I don’t know why intelligence matters so much to me.  I don’t know why I have to be “smart”.  Logically, I believe that IQ helps, but hard work trumps talent every time.  In fact, I have this coworker who I’m certain has a high IQ and is technically “smarter” than I am.  But I outwork him every day, and soon I’m going to pass him.  I don’t believe in saying “Oh, I’m just not smart.”

So why the heck do I have to be a genius?

The Book has a Silver Lining

You can’t choose your IQ, but fortunately there are no limits on the knowledge you may absorb.  So since I’m never smart enough, I keep on reading.  Oh yeah, I love to read, but mostly I’m outrunning my idiot status.  Must know more!  Must read classic novels.  Must read books on leadership.  Must read books on history.  Must read Plato.

I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to sit in a waiting room, reading Plato while everyone else is reading tabloids.  If that doesn’t swell my head, I don’t know what will.

If only they gave PhD’s to people who read enough books.

Close Enough?

Nevertheless, I am now a professor of pharmaceutical coating.  I’ve always wanted to be a professor of something.  I asked MY coach if she feels like an idiot the whole time she is coaching trainees.

“Pretty much,” she said.

Well, then I’m on the right track.

 

 

‘If’ is Risk’s Purgatory

“Risk comes in all shapes and colors: bankruptcy, heartbreak, failure.  The alternative is a world without risk, without color, without knowing if you could have made that business work, if she would have truly loved you, if you would have finished that race or project or garden or painting or triathlon or… whatever.  If, in other words, is risk’s purgatory.  I know I don’t want to spend any time there.”  Georges St. Pierre

Don’t we all have these ‘ifs’ buried deep in our memories?

I have a business I tried to start.  I know I didn’t give it my best.  I was too afraid.  Every now and again I pull it from my memory vault, polish it up, and wonder could I have made it work?  Did I blow my only shot?

What IF?

In The Magician’s Nephew, the first of the Chronicles of Narnia, Polly and Digory come across a bell with this inscription:

“Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;

strike the bell and bide the danger,

Or wonder, till it drives you mad,

What would have followed if you had.”

“What if” is the purgatory of risk, as St. Pierre said.  If we, because of a lack of courage, take the easy road, we get to live with nothing but ‘ifs’ for the rest of our lives.  We live in a vaguely comfortable world without danger, but we become “cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat” (Theodore Roosevelt).

It breaks my heart to see so many ‘cold and timid souls’ among my peers.  They’re too scared to commit to a relationship.  They’re scared to quit their job and go to school.  They’re scared to move out of their parent’s place.

Because what IF it doesn’t work out?

What if it does?

No joke: the world is a big scary place.  I’ve got to acknowledge that not all risks are worth taking.  The Georges St. Pierre quote comes after an explanation of his calculated risk.  In Narnia, Polly and Digory awake a wicked witch when they strike inscripted bell.  In other words, I’m not advocating ‘YOLO’ (though a little of that spontaneous spirit is a good thing for homebodies like me).

I’m reminding myself that fear is inevitable, but I need to look past the fear, or the complacency, or the discomfort, and make a calculated choice.  Then, when ‘if’ comes calling, I can at least say “it wasn’t worth it” not, “I should have tried.”

It may be as small as engaging your new coworker in conversation, even if his accent is difficult to understand.  That’s my adventure this week.

 

Beginners’ Luck Runs Out

I’m a short, stocky, beginner runner.  Full disclosure here.  I make my runs sound epic, but they’re only as epic as a nine minute plus miler can make them.  I am a competitive, stubborn son of a gun who knows just enough to make me dangerous.  Dangerous to myself, that is.

I learned this the hard way on Saturday.

It was technically my third 5K, but the previous one, with the dubious title of ‘Electric Donkey’ was fun but not timed.  I was determined to prove myself this time around, and show myself what I could really do.  I visualized shaving a minute and fifteen seconds off my previous time.  Simple enough.  I’d been working on my speed and stamina.  5K was now a short run for me.

But practice and theory can only go so far.  After warm up I was amped and ready to go but everyone else was milling around by the registration tables and quibbling about where the inflatable finish line was supposed to be.  Time dragged on, and forty-five minutes after I’d been told the race was to start, we lined up.  I was a bundle of nerves by that time.  The air horn blared, and I bolted.

I was out of breath in minutes.  I thought it was nerves.  I’d settle in and find a rhythm.  But five minutes passed, then ten, and I was still struggling.  I know now it was because I was pushing myself far too fast, but I had nothing to gauge my pace by.  As we ran past a race marshal, I faintly heard her over my music: “Halfway there.”

That was when I knew I was in trouble.

In the final mile, my legs were so heavy I could only keep them moving by force of will.  My chest was ready to burst, and I was angry.  I ripped my headphones out of my ears and choked back tears.  It didn’t matter.  I was finishing, damn it.  These legs wouldn’t stop.

I saw the finish line and the clock.  The time was still under my goal time.  I tried to kick into a sprint, but all I could muster was a laboured trot.  I made it, just five seconds over my goal.  My sister told me, after the fact, that I looked pretty bad.  She has pictures to prove it–me, with my head back at an awkward angle as I stumble toward the line.

With Grandpa after the race.

I’m so embarrassed, but mostly I’m scared now.  I have another race next weekend.  What if I crash and burn at that one too?

Despite my pep-talks, research, and strategizing, my training run this afternoon was no better.  I was so angry and discouraged as I walked home afterward.  I had to force myself to quit beating myself up.  I had a bad day.  No, I had two bad days.  Live and learn, right?  I’m not good enough to be this mad.  But I am.

I have this term that I learned way back.  I call it ‘the wall’, or sometimes ‘the pain threshold’.  It means that point in which the mental or physical pain reaches a level that can no longer be ignored, and you have to decide to gut it out or quit.  In running, mental and physical seem to converge to create a perfect storm of torture.  And that’s just at my pitiful 3-5 mile distance.  I can’t imagine what 26 miles must be like.

This is the moment where your strength has failed you, and you dig in deep to see if you have something to keep you going.  This is where you win over yourself, or you become a has-been, a failed New Years resolution, a lost dream.  This is where you get to decide between “I tried to do that once” and “I did it.”

I guess I’m standing at the wall, now.

It’s a good thing I dropped cash on that 5K next weekend.  I’m too cheap to quit today, and too dang stubborn.  I might not do a personal best on Saturday, but I need to race again.  If nothing else to get over this fear and prove that this is just a speedbump, and greater things are yet to come.

 

 

 

Not a Moment to Waste!

“I’m afraid to die before I’ve really lived,” he said.

Funny the things you talk about on late shifts.  We stood over our tank of coating suspension, the peristaltic pump chugging the soupy, white mixture from one tank to the other.  I don’t know why we were talking about death–death by drowning, death by fire.

I paused.  In my hand, the hose bucked and splattered goop on the shiny steel receiving tank.  “Yeah, I know what you mean.”  But in my head I thought, but how do you know that you’ve really lived?  As I thought over my twenty-four years, I realized that I’d packed lots into them.  I’ve travelled, I’ve graduated from college, I’ve written a book.  But had I really lived?

A couple weeks later, a school friend’s nineteen year old brother died in a drowning accident, and it brought the subject back to my mind.  My own brothers were going out to the lake, and inwardly I shouted don’t go!  I want to keep you here!

I suspect that the years we have are never enough once they’re gone.  I had twelve happy years with my Grandma (Mom’s mom) before she died of cancer.  But when I think about her I remember that, the last day I saw her healthy and alert, I spent playing video games.  Would that one more day have been enough?  No.

It annoys me that people say “Two more days until Friday.”  When I catch myself saying “My shift is half over,” I rebuke myself.  Heck, we spend tens of thousands of hours at our jobs, but we’re so eager to just get them over with.  My Grandma (Dad’s mom) told me, today, that the older you get, the faster they go.  It’s like being pinned to a railway car, flying downhill toward a brick wall (she didn’t say that–I did).  But we are unmindful.  We try to make our railcar go faster!

What are the chances we get to the end of our lives and decide we’ve ‘really lived’?

I’m realizing that I need to be a heck of a lot more deliberate with my time.  I’ve got to dream, then make goals, and then work my butt off before my railcar reaches the bottom of the hill.

Dan Waldschidmt said “We all want that extra 6.25 years of conquest.  But when we have a zillion minute by minute considerations just to decide whether to stay in bed or get up and ‘conquer,’ most of us choose comfort.  It seems small at the time–after all, it’s just one hour.  But the results are life changing.  Literally.  The decisions that you make hundreds of times a day build your future.  They all count.”

I’m not doing well in this area right now.  After the release of We are the Living, I hit a big-time slump.  I’ve yet to pull out entirely.  My blogging has been sporadic.  I have little interest in social networking.  I don’t feel like writing.  My new project has been neglected for days at a time.

It’s time to kick my own butt.  If I can make myself go running after an exhausting workday, when my knees hurt, or when it’s cold and raining, I guess I can make myself write (do what I love!).

There isn’t a moment to waste, is there?

 

What Can My Small Voice Do?

Monday, Robin Williams dies in his San Francisco home, succumbing to severe depression. Tuesday, across the continent, I am in a factory making antidepressants. This isn’t lost on me. I mourn helplessly as I watch the hundreds of thousands of tablets rush by.

Iraq: Christians, Yazidis and other innocents are systematically killed under the onslaught of the ISIS. Outrage explodes all over social media, and every Christian blog sounds the trumpet. “Wake up!” they say. “Grow a pair!”

So I write to my Member of Parliament, and I look for an organization to donate to, and I pray, all the while knowing that the letter won’t reach the government for days, and the money can’t throw up a brick wall between the bullets and the little kids.

What can my small voice do?

In times like this it’s stylish to bash North American apathy. Oh yeah, I have it easy. I’m safe at home in front of my MacBook after my shift in the pharmaceutical factory. But what the hell do you want me to do? Get a gun and hop on the first plane?

Does anyone ever tell you that you must live your own life?

You cannot for one instant become an Iraqi Christian, take a bullet and be cleansed of the guilt of being a rich, white American. You are yourself, and here you are, in front of your MacBook.

But consider that Robin Williams was also a rich, white American, and he died in his own home, in the agony of depression. He’s a public case of a common story. We are surrounded by people who feel alone and hopeless, who stagger under the crushing weight of mental illness, physical abuse, relational brokenness, financial burdens, failure at their job, and unbearable schedules. Twitter isn’t hopping with their stories, but the pain is real.

We are surrounded by a sea of troubles.  We don’t need to look so far into the distance when they are right under our noses.

I fear that North Americans come off as apathetic because they’ve been convinced that they are too little to fix things.  Think of what we say: “The government ought to… My boss ought to… My parents need to…”  Our movies are all about BIG problems fixed by action heroes, spies, and superstars.  Heck, even the Evangelical Christian world is dominated by megachurch pastors and their best selling books.

That’s bull.

I can’t help but think of the proverb “If everyone would sweep their front step, the whole world would be clean.”  It is by ten-thousand small acts that the world changes.

I hope I’m not coming off too preachy. In fact, this post is the result of hours of contemplation and quite a few helpless tears. What can my small voice do? I’ve come to the shaky realization that I must do what only I can do. I must complete my assignment on this earth.

There are four ways I believe this can be accomplished.

1. Accept our Assignments.

No one has the exact combination of friends, family, location and predispositions that we do. We must be at peace with our starting point because it makes us uniquely qualified to work in our circle of influence. The moment we say “I wish I was…” or feel guilty for who we are, we inadvertently say “I am too good for this.” Instead, start looking for what you are good at, and what provokes you, and consider this the trailhead to your mission.

2. Become experts.

We begin by acceptance, but we can’t be satisfied with who we are. The resources and knowledge we begin with won’t be sufficient to live a meaningful, excellent life. We’ve got to become educated, to move past shallow opinions to a true understanding of what we believe. Moreover, we’ve got to develop the skills needed to propel us forward, be it interpersonal skills, business know-how, communication and writing–in my case, all of the above. University is good, but not necessary. Quality books and audios are much cheaper, and readily available.

3. Build a Community

It has been said that you are the results of the books you read and the people you associate with. It’s important to assemble a team of people around you so you can encourage each other, learn from one another, and shore up each other’s weaknesses. I have a community of writers around me who’ve encouraged me and have taught me everything from the mechanics of writing to business and marketing. I wouldn’t be the writer I am today without them, and six months or a year from now, I will be much better because of them. They speak truth to me.

4. Make an Impassioned Plea

Let your voice be heard. Talk about what is important to you. Write letters to your government representatives write to editors, blog, post on Facebook and Twitter, and talk to your friends. Do this with gentleness and respect, and the deepest understanding you can muster.

I denounce the use of guilt tactics to try to wake us up.  Guilt is a lousy fertilizer for growing spines. But I don’t condemn that every blog is talking about Robin Williams and the slaughter in Iraq.  I wouldn’t have heard about it otherwise.

Let your voice be heard, but don’t be satisfied with just speaking.  Reach out–with your gifts, your connections, and your knowledge.

“It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little.  Do what you can,”–Sir Sidney Smith.

Resources:

How to Communicate Effectively with Your Member of Parliament

LIFE Leadership (A well-rounded source of training on interpersonal, leadership and success principles)

The Center for Social Leadership

Resting is Growing, Waiting is Training

“Don’t try to do more, even if you feel you can,” the Couch to 5K program said.

“No problem,” I said.  At the time I couldn’t run at all.  I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be tempted.  But now I’ve built up some ability and I’m eager to see what I can really do.  Don’t try to do more?  What’s that supposed to mean?

I was taught to work hard since I was big enough to hold a broom.  My parents are both hard workers and, because I came from a large family, everyone needed to do their part.  Since my late teens I’ve been pumped full of success principles: dream big, make no excuses, just do it.  I’m driven.  I’ve got a dream.  I work hard at it.

I’ve also been taught that you need to ‘sharpen the saw’ as Stephen Covey said.  I’m not good at it.  I can’t leave my laptop at home.  I can’t put down the book.  I can’t get off Twitter and Facebook.

This week, as I read through The Way of the Fight, by Georges St. Pierre, I read something that made a lot of sense.  St. Pierre said: “What balance has also are the following two incredibly important lessons: 1) resting is growing and 2) waiting is training.”

Resting is Growing

“What does ‘resting is growing’ really mean?  It means that you have to give your body time to recover from tough workouts, especially if you’re training every day.  It sounds really weird to people who work out so much, but that’s because they’re addicted to the workout.  They can’t stop.  Trust me, I’ve been there.  It’s because the body and the brain are sometimes fighting battles.  The body wants to rest and grow, while the brain thinks the body needs more work.”

I’m no elite athlete, and in spite of my enthusiasm, I assure you, I don’t feel like running every day. 🙂  But, I can insert ‘writing’ or ‘work’ or ‘networking’ or whatever activity one might obsess over.  Resting is growing.  The body needs time to rebuild, and likewise the mind needs time to digest the information it takes in, to charge with new inspiration and to gain strength from joyful interaction with others.  I’ve learned that I need to schedule time to shut off work and writing, and be truly present in other fun activities–i.e. a movie or dinner with my family.

Rest is productive time.

Waiting is Training

“‘Waiting is training’ means that I can spend more time preparing mentally for my next session or fight, and less time physically exhausting myself.  By waiting, I’m sending a message that strategy is more important than pure physical power, that tactics surpass repetition, and that the brain is the most powerful muscle in the body.”

I experienced this with my blog this week.  Normally, my tactic is ‘full steam ahead.’  If I’m not happy with the traffic on my blog, I throw more posts at the problem.

That sounds violent…

I write more, in other words.  This week (also while reading GSP’s book) I realized that I was beating my head against the wall.  I needed outside perspective.  Instead of posting as usual, I needed to wait, ask writing colleagues to look at my site, and find ways to do things differently.  As a result I embarked on a site overhaul.  I had to wait instead of posting because I didn’t have the time to dedicate to both writing and redesigning.

I clarified my values and my goals in the process.  Now my efforts can become more focused.

You can learn from anything, I tell you.  I thought The Way of the Fight would be an interesting read.  I didn’t know it would be the best book I’d read in months.

Today I’m not running.  I felt like it, but I didn’t.  I am writing, so maybe this is a tad hypocritical.  BUT, yesterday I watched The Matrix instead of writing.  You know, a writer can learn a lot from a movie…

I just can’t turn it off, my friends.  I’m working on it!

Quotes from The Way of the Fight, by Georges St. Pierre.

Doritos and the Disciplined Life: Guest Post by Malcolm Munroe

Socrates is credited as saying “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

True words, yet I’d like to expand on that and say “The undisciplined life is one barely lived.”

It is very important that we examine ourselves and come to understand who we are. It is crucial that we understand our lives and our character, our flaws and our virtues, our behaviors and motivations. If we are honest in our self-assessment, we will realize which of these things are good for us, and which of those things are bad for us. We will know what things we need to continue in, what things we need to improve upon, and what things we need to cut out completely. The need to examine oneself and arrive at this kind of self-understanding is urgent upon every person. It can be a daunting task, but it is one of the most worthwhile things that we can do for ourselves. A person is mature and wise who understands who they are and why they do the things that they do.

Self-realization is only the starting point.

However, self-realization is only the starting point.  It is one thing for me to realize that my habit of eating entire bags of Doritos is very bad for my health. It is one thing to realize that I have been justifying it by telling myself “I regularly jog. I probably just burn those extra calories off anyways.” (Both of these things are true, but I must admit that I have been slack in my jogging lately, but as steady as ever with the Doritos). What must happen now is that I must discipline myself and start getting into actually doing something about it. Self-examination will only take you so far. What’s needed afterwards is the steady step of discipline.

No builder supposes the work to be done when only the plans and blueprint have been laid out. I realize that my Doritos habit is incredibly unhealthy, and I realize they need to be either dramatically cut back or cut out entirely. I understand that I must start telling myself when enough is enough and stop taking that ever-so alluring second helping (Or better yet, to refrain from eating Doritos entirely). The same applies with jogging. I know that I have gotten a bit out of shape, and that my running times have been 1-2 minutes off their usual mark. If I want to get back to the pace where I was before I started getting lazy, I simply must get out and start running again. It may be a while before my times get back to where they were, and it may be even longer until I get strong and fast enough to surpass my personal bests, but in order to do so, I must get out and run step-by-sweaty-step.

Discipline doesn’t procrastinate

Thus self-examination is merely the place where we begin. The real value begins when we take that first step. Discipline does not put things off for “tomorrow”. Once we’ve understood what it is we must do, the time to begin doing it is now. Want to get more exercise? Start now. Want to read more regularly? Start now. We want to be less self-centered? Resolve to do more for others and by all means start now. For me to get back into running and stop eating junk, I must start now. The walk will be hard, and the way will be difficult, but if we are to truly make the most of our lives, there is not a moment to waste.

 

Malcolm Roulette (Malcolm Munroe) is an aspiring Actor and Hip-Hop musician. He currently resides in Steinbach, Manitoba. Originally from Split Lake, Manitoba, he is a recent graduate of Steinbach Bible College, and is currently Co-Chair of the Board for Mid-way Christian Leadership based in Thompson, Manitoba. You can check out his music at “HipHopGeronimo” on Soundcloud, or search up “Geronimo (Rapper)” on Facebook.