It used to annoy the heck out of me when I’d meet someone presently or formerly very successful in their technical or artistic field (a former newscaster, various artists, filmmakers, writers, programmers, etc.) and upon asking them about what they did, they’d come back with some kind of abstract answer like:
“I’m a Storyteller.”
Problem was, I didn’t get it at the time. Now I whince when people ask me what I do – and instead of listing out individual “job descriptions” at the expense of having them try and tell me that I “need to focus” or something, I come back with an abstraction as well. Ha! The real truth however, is that we are all storytellers – and this is part of a the great human tradition as old (or older) as civilization. We are all communicators – if no one understands us, how can we help others? More and more it becomes less about the modality, and more about the very basics. If we constantly work to improve our own methods of communication, of effective storytelling, we incidentally improve our ability to help others on their quest for health. If we work to improve the quality of our physical movement – we will incidentally improve our fitness. If we work to improve our self discipline, our ability to lose fat or maintain a certain physique becomes almost second nature. While we all may have chosen different tools or approaches for the job, but what we should be striving for are methods to help us reach very basic goals – because the more superficial goals are nearly guaranteed to follow as side effects. What method you choose doesn’t matter as long as it is the one that you WILL do and that WORKS for you.
Try this on for size:
- Instead of “dieting” I will work on my self control
- Instead of “working out” I will practice exercises and movements.
- Instead of “self loathing” I will work every day to improve something about myself, no matter how small.
- If I fail, I won’t give up.
One of the reasons I am not terribly focused on clothing/shoes/makeup etc. is that I think the care of the body must first be addressed, and after that what you use to dress it is less relevant. If you find yourself compulsively performing an incredibly complex long workout or dressing procedure it may be time to see if the real issue is something more fundamental and basic.
A long time goal of mine is the Iron Maiden Challenge – and while the concrete goal of that is the pull up with an extra 53lbs (the other 2 parts of the event I can do already) the real goal is to get stronger. In that mind, I’ve changed the approach to the challenge – making sure to increase my mental strength alongside. The first and admittedly silly sounding step in that direction was making sure that the 24kg kettlebells were NOT the heaviest things laying around. Once Laurel Blackburn got me hooked on 48kg kettlebell “Beast” swings, it was like a spell had been broken – my personal idea of “heavy” got a bit reset. I started practicing heavy swings, heavy cleans, heavy cleans and holds. The way I approach a “heavy” kettlebell in my mind has changed. Sure enough, after practicing barbell deadlifts with Chris Davis, I picked up a 24kg kettlebell and pressed it for one on both arms – normally I can’t just pick it up and do that on the right side – but it happened that day – and after a lot of climbing on things, and deadlift form practice etc. Make sure you’re not being your own mental block to success – and that isn’t just in lifting.
Sure, goals are still important as every rehashed article and blog post about making S.M.A.R.T. goals will tell you (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-bound). But I would rather see people aim for things like reclaiming control over their bodies, their self control, lifestyle improvement, etc.
Here’s an older post that addresses some similar issues: Strength Trumps the Scale
Leave a Reply