A simpler life
Making your body and mind work better / Quitters Day- when we give up on our resolutions / Focus on what you have / Do it now if you can / How to be a great basketballer / Read less / A simpler life
Making your body and mind work better
This morning while I’m away on holiday I attended a gym class. It was my first exercise session while I’m away and I felt better for it. It is important to take a break and relax, but, for me, I tend to feel a lot worse when I don’t exercise for a few days.
When I got back to my hotel I looked out across the river to see people exercising in the park and running along the riverside. As I watched these people I thought to myself that what they are doing is making their bodies work better, their minds work better, essentially benefitting their whole selves in a way that few other things can.
Exercise is, in my view, something that is unmatched by nothing else to make us holistically better. It inspires me when I see anyone exercise, from the people going out for their very first run, to the elite CrossFit athlete. It’s not easy, but it’s easier than living with the impacts of deteriorating physical and mental health.
Quitters Day- when we give up on our resolutions
For the last few years I have written about Quitters Day, which is the day that most people have already given up on their new year resolutions. Knowing this can help us overcome this very problem- rather than quitting we can instead take the time to assess how we are going with the resolutions that so excited us just a couple of weeks before; what has worked? What hasn’t worked? Why is this the case either way? What can we change to be more successful?
My belief is that the starting point with resolutions that have fallen away is to make them easier. For example, if you had a resolution to exercise everyday, change this to, perhaps, exercising three times a week. If this doesn’t work, change it to twice a week. Eventually you’ll find what does work, a routine will be in place and momentum will lead to more enthusiasm as the results come.
It’s time to change the story and, rather than quitting, take the time to reassess to make things work. Imagine how much better you’ll feel at the end of the year as you’re celebrating the success you’ve achieved over the previous 12 months!
Focus on what you have
Some great advice I heard recently came from lifestyle guru Tony Robbins, who shared about how we should spend more time focusing on what we have, as opposed to what we haven’t. Of course, it may seem a little rich from a multi-millionaire like Tony Robbins, but if we take the time to think about it, there really is so much we could be grateful for what we already have.
I am currently staying in accomodation in Melbourne. Arriving here we have found that there are a couple of things that aren’t here that are a little inconvenient. As frustrating as this is (no kettle for a morning cup of tea), the accommodation is really quite fabulous. It would be ridiculous for us to focus on the one or two things that aren’t perfect, when overall there is so much about our Airbnb that is making our experience a really nice one… even without my morning cup of tea!
Do it now if you can
A friend of mine has recently resigned from her job and is now travelling around New Zealand with her husband. I’m pretty sure the idea is to do this for a year, with no real set plan other than going where they want to, staying for as long as they want to in each place, and perhaps finding seasonal work.
This friend has many years left before her expected retirement age, which is probably the time when people hope or plan to do what she is doing. However, I believe that when many get to the age of retirement the desire to be this adventurous goes, or other things get in the way, such as not being able to physically do it, or, perhaps, not having the resources to.
If it is at all possible, and in so many cases it is, we should do those things we want to do as soon as we can do them. This attitude will lead to living the life you want, as opposed to having regrets about dreams not met. We really do only get one shot at this, so make the most of life- it’s not a dress rehearsal!
How to be a great basketballer
Steph Curry is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time. One area where he is the greatest in the game in three point shooting. This isn’t because of a natural ability; there’s something else that has gotten him to this point, this being that he practices 500 three point shots everyday.
What a simple idea! It’s pretty much something anyone could do to get better. In my case, I don’t really want to be an exceptional three point shooter, but if I did take 500 three point shots a day there’s no doubt in my mind that I would become a very good three point shooter after a period of time.
To me there’s an empowering message here, this being that we are all capable of becoming very good at something if we’re prepared to put the time and effort in.
Read less
This isn’t the sort of post title that anyone who has been reading my column for a while would expect, as I have written many times about my love of reading. However, while enjoying reading as much as I do, it’s easy to read and not truly benefit from what I’m reading, as I go from book to book, enjoying the new content, but not necessarily benefitting from it.
A better approach could be to read less books, but to read some books more than once, or even many times. In the book A Simpler Life, the idea of choosing perhaps a dozen books and reading them many times is shared as a strategy to truly get the most of our reading. As it happens, I am reading A Simpler Life for the second time and am enjoying it immensely, having forgotten almost all of the content that I read just a couple of years ago.
It is definitely enjoyable reading new content, and there are many books by favourite authors I eagerly await to be released, but the true benefits of reading come when we implement what we do read, perhaps only after having read the book for the second or third time.
A simpler life
I am enjoying reading The School of Life book, A Simpler Life, for the second time. The book is a great reminder that so many of the best things in life really are quite simple. If I take my own example the things I truly enjoy and value aren’t really that complicated:
Reading.
Spending time with those I care about and love.
Exercise.
Drinking coffee in cafes.
Cinema.
Dogs.
All of these things really are quite simple and don’t require a huge amount of resources. All of them could be done with half of what I earn right now, without being compromised in any real way.
Life really can be truly valuable in its most simple forms.