Get ‘er Done

There are people who are resilient and determined and diligent. These people tend to dig in when times get hard, fighting the wind and rain, shivering in the cold, plodding on through the darkness, pushing themselves through the blistering, blazing heat and almost thriving on misery. I think that some call it ‘The Grind”… This is the kind of dedication that gets it done. Knowing that it’s gonna be Hell and just simply refusing to stop, knowing that misery will, at times, be their constant companion and doing it anyway, knowing that they’re gonna get to the place where they have to come up for air or die and yet, they dive right in…oh my, what are they thinking?

Reading Your Mind

We are thinking that maybe we shouldn’t have let stuff get to the point to where it took this much effort to fix, sometimes, but the truth is that “stuff” requires constant maintenance and since the nature of the human form is to gradually mature and then return to freakin’ DUST…yes, DUST…then folks, there is a GRIND to prevent that from happening at an accelerated rate. If we have excellent health habits and maintenance, we can delay this process almost indefinitely, if not, oh well…aging occurs at a very fast rate after about age 50 and then chronic illness and death. I really prefer the dig in tactic. I have no intention of getting old. Never mind that I filed for Social Security in August… I have absolutely NO INTENTION of getting old and I am planning to live to 120 years in good health. I work a hard job, full-time and lift heavy and hike about 10 miles/week. Most of the time, our lives are exactly what we make them. What are we making them?

Habits Create Us

Physiologically, our habits literally create us on every level. Imagine this, every 28-40 days a new skin cell is formed. [1] That means that during this time, the 28-40 days, everything that the new cell is exposed to will affect it. We are holistic beings. Every part of us affects every other part so the nutrition, sleep and activity and stress that the new cell is exposed to during it’s formation is going to play a part in it’s creation. Have you ever known someone who seems to age in reverse? They seem to grow younger after a particularly bad time in their life. Look again. Odds are that their habits changed drastically after or during a traumatic event. They may have quit smoking or quit eating sugar or started getting more sleep or made a major life change to alleviate stress but if you look, you will see a change in habits.

Hard Times

We all encounter hard times and circumstances. These times will affect us one of two ways. They will either make us better because we change something big in our lives or they will all but kill us because we don’t. How do you want your life to play out? Devastated or desirable? Pitied or envied? Victim or Victor? I have a “V” in my name. I always have to spell the name and when I get to the “V”, I say ” “V” as in Victor”, really. It always catches people off guard and while I prefer to be a friend to everyone, there are people who simply won’t allow that and for them, they know immediately, “Don’t Tread On Me.” For normal people, it catches their attention but they are not bothered by what I say. We have to make this decision for ourselves. Will we be a victim or a victor?

Decisions, Decisions

I have a dear friend that I truly admire for many reasons. One of those reasons is that they have a hectic schedule with a hard job and a lot of personal responsibilities and they just simply decide what needs to be done and then they do it! Damn! What a concept! Oh that we all lived this simply! Do you realize how much better our lives would be? What we are more inclined to do is decide what “needs” to be done and then decide what we’re “willing” to do. Guess what. It’s not the same thing. As a matter of fact, it’s usually the opposite because we are usually willful and rebellious, always wanting our cake and to eat it too. It won’t work that way. Once we decide what needs to be done, it’s mandatory to follow through with it, otherwise nothing will change. We will continue in “Fight or Flight”, always peaking out the stress meter and eventually paying the price.

Personal Responsibility

No one can do this for us. We can read and study all we want but until we are willing to put our knowledge into action, we will not benefit from our knowledge. I constantly push the envelope where this is concerned. While I am considered a “good Trainee” by my Trainer, David, he has to remind me to sleep quite often. I am energetic and strong and I am capable of going without sleep for long periods of time but…it will affect my lifting if I do it for too long. My Trainer won’t tolerate that any more than a high school coach will tolerate his boys drinking and painting the town every night. It makes us weak. Weakness has no place in weight training. No one can force us to take care of ourselves. It’s on our shoulders and regardless of the reason that we choose to abuse ourselves, the outcome is the same, less than stellar physical performance and health. I stop progressing with my weight if I don’t get enough sleep. I HATE that…I can’t tell you how much I hate that but here’s the question… Do I hate it enough to rectify it? Same for you. What is standing in your way? Most likely, it’s YOU. You know what you need to do. Sometimes the changes are huge and scary. I’ve already done those. Sometimes the changes are small and seemingly insignificant but if they are necessary, then the operative word here is necessary. Get it done.

Procrastination

Putting things off, rectifying bad behavior or putting off difficult tasks can not only keep us from doing what’s best for us, it can actually destroy our confidence in how we will feel tomorrow because “I don’t want to.” or “I don’t feel like it.” will take the place of proper action and cause a cascade of negative outcomes. [2] If I don’t sleep today, I dread tomorrow and wake up to dread for the day. What a way to live, huh? How much better is it to just do what we need to do today and wake with joy tomorrow? Procrastination is known to be one of the most difficult psychological problems to rectify. While we tend to say that we work better under pressure, the truth is that we just don’t want to get started and do it. We are rebellious and unless we bite the bullet and dig in, and push and grind, we will not fix it. So, grind. Grit your teeth. Push. Do it afraid. Do it mad. Do it again. Just get ‘er done. Tomorrow you’ll thank yourself. You will begin to see your life take a different direction, a different shape and form. You will dig in. ;-*

[1] https://www.verywellhealth.com/cell-turnover-15552

[2] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/procrastination