Pretending you're a badass is underrated

I'm a man in my mid-50s. I'm not the mid-50s guy you see if you Google "mid-50s man fashion" (sure, I'm vulnerable to the zeitgeist when it comes to superficial things  like appearance, like the next person.) I'm not <-- this guy.

I'm not a vegan. I'm not even a vegetarian.

But I accept the science that plant-based is the healthy way to live. I also accept I must get off my ass and do things to be healthy. And I strive every day to do a little something that do to my actual state to my state of health things that this image outwardly suggests.

You see, pretending to be a badass is underrated.

You've heard the phrase "Fake it 'til you make it," I'm sure. Hard evidence supports the efficacy of this technique. 

What holds you back? Your self-damning mind, usually. Imposter syndrome. Performance anxiety- even in everyday affairs. Conflict avoidance.

Do not give a fuck. Try it! It works for so many things.

Jawline not perfect? No fake bake? got bald spots? Don't give a fuck.

You missed a goal or target? Don't give a fuck. Move on.

You apple pie sucks? Don't give a fuck. Next time it will be better. And the time after that, even better.

You can't understand something you're trying to learn? Don't give a fuck. Studies show whether you understand a thing or not, repeated exposure contributes to the eventual learning of it. You can do little things every day to improve all kinds of things. Handwriting. Reading books. Cooking. Even a few a minutes a day can help you just be smarter overall.

Being defeated easily only leads to one outcome: failure. But not letting yourself be defeated might  lead eventually to success. If it's important to you, why limit yourself to failure as the only possible outcome?

Or is it even important to you? There are ways to find those things out.

You know I'm not the guy in the pic above.  I'm preaching to myself as much as any reader of this blog. I still have a spare tire. I'm developing a bald spot. I broke my ankle, which limits my flexibility, meaning I can't even do most common yoga poses or run anymore. 

But I can bike. I've been losing weight and gaining muscle slowly. Not much I can do about the hair. But I don't give a fuck.

You shouldn't either.

 

30-day challenge: body, mind, spirit

I work in the wonderful world of information technology, and as anyone who does can attest, the needle is constantly moving in that field. There's constant pressure to learn new things in order to make yourself more useful or interesting to prospective employers. So, the order of things is constant change.

I am taking a 30-day challenge to improve my Javascript skills, and I thought, why not challenge my whole self? So I've chosen some ways to challenge mind, body and spirit for the next 30 days.

A finite challenge like this can be a successful strategy- since it's of limited duration, there's no scary feeling of having to maintain a new behavior indefinitely. And if you adopt good habits during that period, all the better!

So the Javascript is one part of the mind component. The other part is committing to a mind dump at bedtime. Studies show this helps you re-program yourself to stop lying in bed and worrying, thus messing with normal sleep. The brain dump gets all the worries out onto paper and clears the mind for rest.

The body component has a piece designed to help with sleep, too: a brief yoga/stretching routine before bed. I am the kind of person who finds yoga relaxing rather than invigorating- so this would be more useful to me, personally, than, say, using it to start the day. For energy throughout the day, I'm initiating a daily workout routine. It's a simple one: walk as far as I feel comfortable  (I am still recovering from a broken ankle from late last year- this is month 8 of the recovery and still feeling it);  and  I'll greet the day with a  five-minute kettlebell workout. Nothing too heavy or rule-bound- the goal is to do it consistently for 30 days, not get swole. Easy, manageable changes.

The spirit component is to commit to five minutes of meditation a day. Abbey has told me more than once she thinks I need to meditate. I do tend to rush and not be present in the moment, especially when I have more than one thing on my plate. So all-consuming is this tendency that I was rushing on that fateful morning 8 months ago, when I flew down some stairs  on a roll of gift wrap and broke my ankle. She's right- I need to slow down, take one thing at a time, be more present and mindful. Five minutes of meditation is not too much, but perhaps enough to nudge me into a more mindful lifestyle.

Some would argue I am attempting too many changes at once. That's why they are gut simple. It's an experiment. I want to feel a minor transformation. I don't know- it's an approach, and I will post my observations.