Some of you who hang out with me in real life may or may not have noticed that I have an interesting habit – partially born of 12 years of economic ups and downs as an entrepreneur, partially from being stubborn, picky, and just a little bit snooty. I’m one of those people who gets their shoes repaired instead of buying new, who buys replacement parts for small appliances, and for whom the presence of plastic in home furnishings induces a specific sort of rage. Similarly many of my clothes are basic black, and not necessarily of the “latest fashion” as I like timeless shapes. This is all fine and dandy until I realize that I’m wearing my own vintage when someone asks me where I’ve gotten that dress – and I have to decide if they can handle the fact that I am essentially the same size at 34 as I was at 17-18 years old*. You know all those silly advertisements that say things like “wear your high school jeans again” well – thanks to kettlebell training and mindful Primal eating I could literally do that. (I was in high school in the early-mid 1990s so NO THANK YOU, no “Mom-Jeans” please.)
With this in mind, when I actually DO purchase things I’m thinking longer term than average -it isn’t about stockpiling tons and tons of cheap discount goods that I won’t use. It isn’t about a closet full of unused exercise equipment, or “cute outfits that seemed like a good idea at the time,” or 1,999 individual containers of eyeshadow. Over time, and after several quick residential moves, it started to be pretty obvious that there was a pattern or unwritten set of rules and criteria governing whether or not I would use/wear/etc a particular item. Knowing this helped me to stay on budget, and organized. However – if you’re trying to sell me something, good luck. I don’t fiddle around with “good enough.” If I’m going to buy it, I buy it once, keep it forever if possible. The initial investment might be higher, if you see me buy it, you might be shocked, but know I’ve considered many things, and that I’ve divided the cost over the next 10-15 years. Conversely, with consumable items (food, etc) I’ve asked myself if the item takes me closer to or further from a given goal. What DO I collect? Obviously not Beanie Babies – I try to collect experiences mainly, knowledge, information – things that improve me as a person, help me to be more productive, efficient, or which are simply enjoyable. I realize that this approach is somewhat extreme and not for everyone, but its working for me so far – and impulse purchases seem to be limited to trying new food items. (If you invite me to go to the mall with you, most likely I’ll be there to keep you company, deconstruct marketing tactics and snark about the line at Starbucks**)
Find what’s broken, what’s inefficient, what isn’t serving you as well as it could be – and fix it. And get rid of stuff you don’t want or need anymore – I try to take 1-2 large bags of useful whatnot to charity on a regular basis – its a great habit to get into and keeps your place and your mind free of clutter.
So what in the world does this have to do with TRAINING and FITNESS? Absolutely everything, taking care of what you have (your body), fixing what’s broken (well go to the doc for actual medical issues, but here I am mainly referring to mobility, stability, and motor control issues you may find along your way that hinder performance), or filling in the missing pieces (for me this is/was some odd mental blocks in movement, and taking a year to learn to sing a different way). One of the things I absolutely love about kettlebell training is that you really could get by with one properly chosen kettlebell. Buy a good one (I wholeheartedly recommend Dragon Door kettlebells) and you’re done – pretty much forever – 99.99999999% sure its not going to “break.” Not to mention, a good kettlebell which is heavy enough for you is a million times easier to store and way more effective than something like a treadmill or elliptical machine.
Likewise – fix what’s broken, replace the missing pieces – is there a particular kettlebell or bodyweight exercise you just really really don’t like? Chances are, it’s the very thing you really need to work on – I remember at the RKC Level 2 this summer, David Whitley asked everyone what exercise they didn’t like – and well we all made some very interesting discoveries. Ask yourself this, and work on it – it gets better, I promise – and you’ll be improving yourself too! The Get Up used to frustrate the heck out of me – now, I LOVE it, I love to teach it, I love to coach it, fine tune it, learn things about myself and others with it, etc, you get the idea. What’s your most hated exercise? Do it today. Similarly, seek out a CK-FMS or FMS professional and find what else you can work on to improve performance in your workouts, your sport, your life.
*I’m about 1.5″ taller, more muscular, lower body fat and about 10lbs heavier (which is directly related to the muscular part)
**If it gets really crowded you’ll possibly have to endure the “why don’t they have a special line for people who drink plain coffee or espresso, not these 3,000 calorie mocha-frappa-whacka-chacka-monstrosities?!?!!???!?” rant.
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