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Moderation is a scam

7/11/2016

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I think moderation is a scam.

I don’t believe it in. It’s bad for you. The glorification of the phrase “everything in moderation” has caused far more harm than good.

Why? Because it simply doesn’t apply to anything important.

Sure… for the little stuff – those things you could take or leave – moderation makes a lot of sense.

But…
  • If you are an alcoholic, you don’t need moderation, you need “cold turkey”
  • If you love your family and friends, spend as much time with them as humanly possible (not “just enough” time)
  • If you want a big squat, you don’t need moderation, you need to SQUAT!
I hate moderation. I have a zero-tolerance policy for nearly everything important. (That goes in both the good and bad directions.)

The Elephant On The Seesaw

What I believe in is BALANCE. And that is an entirely different creature.

Think of all of the ways you can make a seesaw balance. An easy method is to leave the sucker EMPTY. You can also have it balanced with two equal-sized elephants on either end!

Now imagine that you put a simple 10 pound kettlebell on only ONE side. What would happen? It would tip over. 10 pounds is moderate by most standards. It’s hardly an elephant. And yet it still caused an imbalance: the EFFECT of the moderate act was extreme.

When you are trying hard to increase one area, you can’t let others slide in the name of moderation! To become great at anything you must OBSESS about it.
  1. Find your weaknesses and make them strengths.
  2. Do more work than the next Jane, and leapfrog over her
As Dan John says, “If it’s important, do it everyday.”

I’ve added to that, “More is not always better, but it usually is.”
  • More lifting
  • More mobility
  • More diet (whatever that means for your sport/life)
  • More time with loved ones
  • More sitting outside with a good book
  • More wine!
Stop glorifying “moderation” and start striving for Balance. Your lifting and your life with thank you.
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Passion

7/11/2016

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If you don’t have passion, you don’t have shit. If you’re not balls to the wall, stupid excited about what you’re doing, why are you doing it? The world doesn’t need another person going through the motions. The world doesn’t need another person making crap. The world doesn’t need someone else just doing shit and complaining until they die.

The world needs you alive.

The world needs you vibrant.

The world needs you on fire.

Now, that doesn’t mean that everything you do has to the be the most fun ever. I still empty the dishwasher and clean the bathroom. Neither of these tasks get me as amped as KBS. I do Tommy Burpees in my workouts, even though I hate them. If I only did what I was passionate about every day, it might be fun … for a day. But get this: we do the other stuff so we can do the good stuff. We do everything else so we can have those moments when we come really truly fully heart-stoppingly-is-this-a-fucking-dream alive.

But first, you have to have good shit. You have to know what that is for you. You have to be able to name at least one thing off the top of your head that makes you smile just to say the words, one thing that thrills you just by thinking about it, one thing that you do that makes the other 300 boring things okay.

You gotta have something … and you have to want to be damn good at it. You have to want excellence.

This is the way you make your life better.

If you don’t know what that one thing is, then you need to figure it out. And if you know what your passion is, don’t rest. Don’t ever rest. PR excellence.
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Eyes on the Prize, or Eyes on the Path?

7/11/2016

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Or in West's case 'eyes' on the food.
For most people, the prize is the end result, the goal, the mythical place where all of our dreams become fulfilled and we are complete as a human being. Really? Then what? We win this prize, reach this “place” and then the work ends? It’s the path that precious, not the prize. The path goes on; teaches us about struggle and consistency and fortitude. Prizes symbolize an end game or completion. For me: I don’t want the work to end; I don’t want to be complete. I embrace the struggle and the path to greatness.

Always focus on your effort, instead of the results of that effort. If we always fixate on results, we miss the mark in terms of the real beauty and satisfaction that emanates from real effort. There is wisdom in this for sure. Place your emphasis on your effort and results happen without stress or goal fixation.

“The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results.” Have Goals, but put in effort for results.
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Thoughts on Getting Better – Personal Improvement

7/5/2016

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Read good writing
​
Think good thoughts
 
Hang out with smart stimulating people. Listen and ask a lot of questions.
 
See with your eyes wide open
 
Listen more, talk less
 
Challenge yourself mentally and physically each day
 
Experiment/Prototype try new stuff
 
Orient to action, but do one thing at a time
 
Connect and link seemingly unrelated area and concepts. Go far afield.
 
Slow down to move faster
 
HAVE FUN! Laugh a lot and don’t take yourself too seriously.
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No Such thing as TONING

7/4/2016

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I had this conversation with a woman just yesterday. For probably the thousandth time.

"I need to get my exercise program dialed in. I just want to be more toned."

<uncontrollable grimace> "What does 'toned' mean to you?"

"You know, nice toned muscles, but not too big."

"Right. So you're saying that you want to be able to see your strong muscles?" [trick question]

"Yeah, I guess. I just don't want to end up looking like a bodybuilder."

"I promise you that you will not wake up one day and look like an extremely muscular bodybuilder. You are female, and you're not taking steroids. The likelihood that you are going to accidentally get too muscular is approximately zero."

"So I need to lift heavier? Like, squats and deadlifts?"

"Hallelujah, yes!"
Wolfie's NOTE!
Let's get one thing clear: there's no such thing as "toning". You can make muscles stronger, and you can lose body fat so that they are more visible (this is where good dietary choices come in). But doing light weight, hi-rep exercises to avoid "bulking up" means that you are improving your muscular endurance, but you're not getting stronger. And if there is one thing that I have learned about physical capacity for healthy, happy, sexy, useful humans that age gracefully, it's this: strength matters. And you don't have to look like a competitive powerlifter to be strong and useful. (And don't underestimate the influence of diet on how well you can see those shapely muscles).
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