5 More Things I Have Learned
October 19, 2017
I can’t believe it’s been five years since I wrote the blog post ’45 Things I’ve Learned in 45 Years.’ Wow time goes by way too fast. See the original post here…
Well, you never stop learning so I’m adding a few more to the list. No need wasting time let’s get to it. Feel free to share the info with others.
46. Experience is something you get just after you needed it
You are going to fail a lot. That’s how winning is done. Every failure teaches you a valuable lesson if you can lose the ego. The truly great understand that experience comes with massive failures. You only fail if you don’t learn from it. Change your approach to get a different result. It’s a nice gesture to want to protect people from falling, but when you do that it hurts them more in the long run. Nature doesn’t soften the environment so you can win, she forces you to adapt and survive. Failing is an investment in yourself. Yep, it’s just that simple.
47. The only time you are completely free from stress is when you are dead
You need stress to live. Stress forces living things to adapt and survive. Stress builds strength and resilience. No stress, no strength. Stress in and of itself is not bad. It’s the level and degree of stress that makes the difference. When you get too comfortable you get soft and weak. Nature will find your weakness and exploit it every time. So my advice is to open yourself up for the ass kicking stress. It’s what the healthy body needs. Just don’t forget to find an outlet for it.
48.Chronic pain and training plateaus are linked to gut issues
Say what? The gut? Yep. 70% of your immune system is located in your gut. If you are under a lot of stress and eat like shit the gut becomes inflamed. When it gets inflamed you are more prone to illness, weakness, and fatigue. Internal organs trump muscles 100% of the time in the priority system of the body. That means they are more important. Valuable oxygen and blood circulation is diverted to the organs from muscle when there is inflammation. You get slower and weakener over time. So take care of your gut to make yourself stronger with less pain.
49. Real books trump digital books
Hey don’t get me wrong, I Iove my Kindle. I surf and learn on that sucker all the time. It’s just a quick flip of my finger and I am reading any damn book I want in seconds. That being said, the feel of a real book in your hand is massive sensory input to the brain. The feel of the page, the smell of the book, the weight of the book, and the visual appeal of the pages.
You can use a pencil and highlighter to mark and tag places you like, make notes and fold over pages. Sure you can do that with a virtual pen, but the hand to brain feel of a writing instrument is powerful. The brain is ruled by sensory input. The brain doesn’t pay attention to boring things. Kindle environments can be boring. Here’s an idea…do both.
50. Giving and gratitude open up your arms for receiving more
If you are holding on so tight to something that you don’t want to let go, how can you receive anything with open arms. Let go of the guilt, worry, stress, anxiety and attitude of lack. When you show gratitude and you give to others the energy of the world responds in kind. Givers get. When you show gratitude you can’t think about worry, stress or anxiety at the same time. You create the open space in your mind. What do you want to fill it with? Lack or abundance? It’s not easy and takes lots of practice. Took me 50 years to get it down so don’t give it up too soon.
I have a confession. I’m gonna be 51 on Halloween, That’s just a few weeks away so I guess I better add another one now. Here goes #51..
51. The body craves energy and takes the path of least resistance to get it
The body cheats and does whatever it takes to conserve energy. This is a critical thing to understand that can explain your behavior in relationship to food and exercise. If you are under a lot of stress, anxiety and tension (hello everyone) you decrease blood flow to muscles and that become inflamed. Inflammation decreases the energy available in your body. When you exercise and eat poorly you feed the inflammation. The inflammation gets worse and you feel worse.
To get more energy your body chooses to move less and eat more junk food. Why? It’s the easiest way to get it. The brain only cares about the current moment in time. It’s not thinking about tomorrow. Don’t move and eat sugar. Problem solved. Problem is it doesn’t work for very long without consequences. How can ya help? Don’t do too much too soon. Slowly start to move more and eat better. Making a 180 change in bad habits leads to failure.
Ok see ya again in 5 years. It will be here before ya know it.
Stay Strong,
Perry
