Month: January 2024

“We’re always looking for more improvement. We’re always looking for more consistency.”—Brian Flores

“Consistency is the most overrated of all human virtues… I’m someone who changes his mind all the time.”—Malcolm Gladwell

We often hear that the key to success is consistency. To some extent this is true—for example, execution in sport. Growth, however, does not come with consistency. Growth, by definition, is the antithesis of consistency. Growth requires “progressive overload” (i.e., doing progressively more over time than that to which one is accustomed).

Growth requires a certain consistency of effort. However, the stimulus for more growth is more effort. It requires more consistency. Consistency alone is stagnation.

Consistency is an asymptote. It must be. We improve ourselves without ever achieving perfection. We improve ourselves by refining our effort and becoming consistently more consistent.

Malcolm Gladwell is not wrong. Consistency is overrated. I trust that when Gladwell says he “changes his mind all the time” he means that as his mind becomes better informed his knowledge and, thus, decision-making changes accordingly. I don’t expect that his mind is erratic and unstable.

Success requires a goal. Achievement requires effort—consistency, determination, commitment, and change. It requires that we….

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!!

This last week sent me into a tailspin of negativity. It started with a call from my stepmom that my dad had passed unexpectedly in his sleep. Technically, it started with a weekend snowfall—a rather ordinary winter snowfall to anyone not living in the Northwest or South. The loss of my father stung, but the snow—or more so the local response (or the lack thereof)—pissed me off. My grattitude (gratitude + attitude) rapidly diminished as the week went on with school delays and cancellations and unnecessary accumulations of ice and slush (most of the week was rain and near freezing temperatures that would have been a limited problem if municipalities acted quickly to clear roads (and perhaps apply a bit of salt), kids didn’t ride sleds in the street, and if neighbors shoveled their sidewalks. Such weeks are difficult for me, and I still struggle to not let myself get worked up. This week, though, I would have like to have had time to process my dad’s sudden death and to celebrate his life without complications. But, as always, life presents us with opportunities. In this case, I missed an opportunity to demonstrate grace and grattitude.

I won’t ever say I am “wrong” to complain about the decisions that are made in my local area in response to the few snowfalls we get each year. (It happens every year, and, with climate change, conditions will continue to worsen—so, invest in snow removal, please!) I will say, though, that I can respond—to this and a lot of things—with grace, humility, and grattitude. I will say that our police, fire, and first-responders do a fantastic job with the resources and circumstances they are provided. City maintenance is limited be decisions made above them. Teachers and coaches are limited by administrative decisions. Decision makers are limited by the pressures put on them by an ever-the-more litigious community (and the lack of pressure from a community that is okay with the status quo). So, my responses are my responsibility. I need to extend grace toward other and be more other-centered. (Something that I find extremely difficult.

My grattitude is another personal responsibility. I will say that this week was a particularly hard one to find things to be grateful for—especially when trying to have an other-centered mindset and considering how the decisions made this week impacted others (lost instruction time, missed practices and training for athletes, the walks my dogs did not get, lost wages, the immobilization of neighbors because roads and sidewalks were not tended to, etc.). It was a hard week, but my response is on me. I could have been better.

Hopefully, amid a chaotic catch-up week, I will allow myself time to reflect on my father’s life and focus on considering the needs of his wife, my siblings and cousins, the grandkids, and the rest of the family and friends whose lives were impacted by the man. It is my choice. I also need to allow a little grace for myself without making excuses.

We all deserve a little grace and grattitude as we go through whatever it is that we are going through. We are all dealing with something.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!!

As an exercise physiologist, I perceive wellness and life through a lens of physiology (e.g., Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Social well-being as “well-centered fitness”). As such, I apply physiological principles to matters that are of the “psycho-social” parts of “bio-mechanical-psycho-social.” Thus, I discuss the challenges is life—the stimuli for personal growth—relative to the “principles of adaption” (i.e., overload, progression, specificity, reversibility, and individuality). The latter of these—individuality—if a principle that is often neglected. It is nevertheless important to consider that we are not all the same and we don’t all experience the same stressors in life.

It is wrong for any of us to say “this (or that) generation doesn’t have it as tough as I/we had/have it.” This is paramount to the strongest guy at the gym looking at the newbie and saying, “you’re not working hard enough because you are not lifting the same weights as me.” Overload (the principle that for a body system to grow it must be stressed to a level greater than that to which it is accustomed) simply suggests that we do the hard things in life to grow (Spiritually, Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally, and Socially)—that we do the “heavy lifting.” We are not all at the save “fitness” level. Hard is relative. What is a struggle for you may not be a struggle for me and vice versa. Hard is not absolute. Don’t judge yourself by what others can or can’t do. Likewise, don’t judge others by what you can do.

In the gym, we “spot” another lifter. For the newbie, this is the service of keeping another lifter safe from injury and giving motivation and support. It is preventing the lifter from being crushed by a weight and helping complete the lift. It is not lifting the weight for them. (A sure-fire way to piss off an experienced lifter is to put hands on the bar when they “got it.”) We need to do the same in life. Watch out for one another. Help others to grow without judgement, without carrying the load for them, and not letting them be crushed by the weight of life.

We shouldn’t seek the easy path. We need to be challenged to grow—to become increasingly “well-centered.” We need to….

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

One of my daily mantras that consider in my morning routine—in what I have now come to call my “grattitude journal”—is the statement “Be your best today; be better tomorrow.” The admonishment appears at the conclusion of each of these postings. The motivation implies constant improvement (“kaizen” to use the Japanese business philosophy). The reality is that I seldom feel like I am better today than I was a day ago, a week ago, a month ago…. To some degree, it is because growth moves toward an asymptote, and the more we grow the harder it is to achieve perceivable growth. Our standard grows higher. To some degree, growth comes in unseen areas—we are often focused on our worst self. Growth is also an attitude (a grattitude) more than a quantifiable reality. Consider it like a refined eyeglass prescription that allows us to see ourselves with increasing clarity.

It is often hard to be satisfied with our state of “well-centered fitness”—our Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Social dimensions of wellness (SPIES). Growth reveals our inadequacies and drives the desire for further growth. Too much emphasis on any one dimension can lead to dysfunction (e.g., body dysmorphia in body building). Growth of the whole self should be perceived as uncomfortably slow but not discouraging or overwhelming. The target (i.e., the asymptote) will always seem too distant. The motivation comes from self-reflection—from looking back at how far we have come. Kaizen leads us forward—often discouraged but never defeated. The motto of the Scottish clan Armstrong is Invictus maneo—“I remain unvanquished.”

I teach exercise physiology and programming. So, my mind goes to the physical model of fitness and the principles of adaptation. Growth (e.g., muscle) requires progressive overload. The principle of overload is stated as: for a body system to adapt it must be stressed to a level greater than that to which it is accustomed. SPIES growth is no different. As we can’t grow every muscle and physiological system simultaneously (this is the principle of specificity—the body make specific adaptations to imposed demands). SPIES growth is specific. Growth in one dimension often reveals the deficiencies in another (e.g., Spiritual growth will most certainly reveal the need for growth in the Social and Emotional dimensions). Sometimes, we are so focused on our progress (or lack thereof) in a specific area that we fail to see our overall growth.

“Be better tomorrow” should be words of encouragement rather than discouragement. It requires patient and determination. It requires an attitude of gratitude (grattitude). Growth is, of course, a process. Sometimes, we must remind ourselves to just….

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!