Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously
danshipper.com
danshipper.com
-Stop over-analyzing things. Stop thinking things through and just jump into it. -Focus on making a habit out of exercising/coding/whatever. Once the habit is done, you will do it without much trouble. -Don't tell people what you are going to do, and just do it. Talking about your plans is the worst thing you can do. -Do the smaller things first. Small goals are easy and allow you to gain a bit of momentum. Think of big goals like ladders, and each small goal is one of the steps. -Get some momentum going. The snowball effect just works. Every time you might want to quit you will look behind you and see this huge snowball of acocmplishements following you. This helps a lot.
This comment will appear as a full article in my soon to be released MVP called !session magazine. Keep posted for the launch to be announced on these very pages.
Also, thank you for the nice words.
- Focus on making a habit out of exercising/coding/whatever. Once the habit is done, you will do it without much trouble
- Don't tell people what you are going to do, and just do it. Talking about your plans is the worst thing you can do
- Do the smaller things first. Small goals are easy and allow you to gain a bit of momentum. Think of big goals like ladders, and each small goal is one of the steps
- Get some momentum going. The snowball effect just works. Every time you might want to quit you will look behind you and see this huge snowball of accomplishments following you
By the end of week two I invariably give up."
Does this remind anyone else of developers who constantly start too many projects?
"I became a software-planning god. I research scalable server stacks, buy a subscription to Mixergy, construct a release plan and pick a launch date. Then I code every day.
By the end of week two I invariably give up."
Incidentally creatine (which is mentioned in Shipper's post) is a great mental performance enhancer[1]. It gives endurance to muscles but also has a similar effect on mental endurance. Especially helpful for the problem of having no energy to do any work after your day job.
[1] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168010202...
I really enjoyed this article because it confirms the same suspicions I've been having over the past couple years. I often compare things in life to an apple tree. Almost everything comes about gradually and organically, from relationships to careers to conversations. Our flaw as human beings comes from one of our greatest strengths: that we can observe and analyze information really well. That often leads to people trying to skip the tree and jump to the fruit: the reward. It just doesn't work like that.
How? I take on too many things. Invariably, I procrastinate doing whatever by doing something else. As long as I constantly have a revolving list of "something elses" that need done, stuff keeps getting done. Sure, some things will never get done, but I find that when I have a big list, I am able to prioritize the level of procrastination I apply to each item. Thus, the things that never get done are things that I don't really need to do anyways. I try to force myself to work on those things... then I start procrastinating and I get all sorts of other stuff on the list done.
Maybe this doesn't work for everyone. That's fine. But not having enough projects is a terrible fate for me... because then nothing gets done.
1. Find a sport you like and enjoy
2. Have fun [often]
Climbing is the One True Sport for me though. Do try it! The climber's physique is quite attractive and confidence-inspiring. There is a minimum of technique that I hope people will be aware of. I don't want to make it seem complicated though, it isn't.
In the climbing process itself, the minimum technique is this: Become efficient. Get a feel for your balance on the wall, make stable triangles on the holds to free the fourth limb to go to the next handhold/foothold, and use larger joints/muscle groups rather than smaller; Most people's instinct tells them to to pull the body up with upper-arm strength, but generally one can keep the arms straight and use legs, waist, torso, or shoulder muscles to gain elevation.
And climbing is not a trivial load on the body. One can climb injury-free, but this does require a minimum technique or form. Always warm up, always perform the proper stretches (about 8 main forms of stretches, takes 10 mins or so after practice and really kickstarts the post-exercise well-being). Listen to pain: Usually, pain comes from imbalance in the muscles, or tendons or cartilage not being ready yet. Back slightly off and learn the quite simple exercise designed to put that joint and that muscle group back into balance. Climbing stresses tendons and cartilage, which by nature strengthen and heal slower than muscle.
My 4/5 mile runs invariably turn into walks because I just dont have the motivation to push myself into carrying on a run, however I can happily sprint for 2 hours playing football.
I know they arent equivalent exercise, but my body can tell you I do a far lot more work during football without really noticing it while playing
Enduring 1.5 hours of an intense power exercise ... it's practically the worst of both worlds put together into something magnificent and fun.
Plus there's nothing like venting your frustrations on an unsuspecting punching bag or a very suspecting sparring partner.
Gyms have horrible retention for a reason, it's not because humans are lazy it's because gyms are not built for (most) humans
Swimming: I go to the swimming pool when I feel like I need to do something physical. I swim for an hour, non stop. I don't count the distance and if I have energy I swoosh by fast and if I'm tired I swim along with the grandmas. But it's always an hour, and usually my speed goes up towards the end as my body warms up.
Bicycling: I take my bike when I feel like I need to do something physical. I take a heading and ride that way. I make turns to the interesting directions or come up with intermediary places I want to see. I come back when I'm tired or it's too late.
The "when I feel like" means the urge to do exercise. It only comes through doing exercise regularly enough but it's kind of a self-sustaining cycle. Your body just screams for action after a few days.
A lot of my exercise comes from everyday acts. If I visit the office, I cycle there. If I go to swimming pools, I.. well, cycle there, too. I cycle to most places within five-kilometer range. I walk dogs three times a day.
I never go to gym and I don't do exercise programs or fitness plans.
It's a great place to be because it means I will always keep in shape at least a little bit.
And there is nothing like seeing and feeling results three weeks in to take one through and beyond.
I'm personally trying the reg park system (pre steroids style powerlifting, through stronglifts.com) because i'm aiming for a bit of bulk (i have no illusions of becoming mahoosive).
It is very easy to modify the program to suit your needs. If your friends do not care that much about endurance, I would suggest not doing the doubles version, keeping rep counts low (eight or less) and trying to increase the weight from week to week. They should also take in enough protein, perhaps through whey protein supplements, but definitely no steroids.
What's more important than anything of the above is how much effort you put into every workout. If they push themselves hard enough during the resistance training parts, there will be nothing to worry about and there's plenty of massive after-pictures from P90X online to prove this.
P90X will give you massive performance improvements for almost every physical activity. If you just want to bulk up, look up hypertrophy training. That will be much easier mentally if you don't necessarily care about fitness.
A lot of hollywood actor training uses these principles. Actors need to get in shape quickly for various roles and trainers focus on getting the ripped P90X look instead of forcing real growth in such short timeframes. Ripped will look better naked than adding 10 lbs of non-ripped muscle. For example Bradd Pitt was maybe 160 lbs in Fight Club but looked much bigger because of muscle definition and upper body shape.
But if you really want to go from skinny to big/normal, not just ripped, heavy weights are the long term solution. 30 lbs of new muscle will look better than ripped. I don't know the details of P90X but recommended equipment is 50-90lb dumbells and a pullup bar. Most people use 50 lbs max and that's not going to cut it.
And most of all I hated those workouts.
Then I got a weight set and started doing squats, deadlifts, rows etc. Starting Strength like routine. Was increasing weight constantly. I was in horrible shape so the workouts felt very intense at 50-90 lbs. There was noticeable muscle growth and I felt a lot more strength in daily activities.
I liked those workouts and had zero motivational problems. No mental tricks necessary, except maybe having the weights at home staring at me. The results were more obvious. Tried my old high rep routines and could do 35 25lb curls etc. Maybe I am cut out to be like Arnold, it feels like smooth sailing.
For me the case is the opposite. I get sick of feeling "burn" from high rep routines and would rather do squats then cleans that leave me panting on the floor, without burn.
It may be a genetic difference. People have different proportions of fast and slow twitch muscle and excel at different sports.
And the P90X style workouts with bodyweight do cause some muscle growth. That's how people post ripped pics of themselves after programs like P90X. A bit of muscle growth usually combined with fat loss.
I was surprised that a mere 100 lb weight set would feel so heavy even though I could do 50 pushups, 12 pullups, etc. I expected I'd need 2-300 lbs to really feel the weight, really overestimating the shape I was in after doing bodyweight drills.
My advise for anyone considering amateur body building and workouts (I'm not pro, take it with a grain of salt and see what works best for you):
* find a training partner, you need someone to spot bench presses anyway
* find a 4 day workout program, going to the gym everyday is damaging as your muscles need time to recover. 3 day weekly workout should be a bare minimum if you want results.
* stay there for an hour on average, including your warmup. I recommend 10-15 mins of steady pace on treadmill for your warmup, some stretching afterwards. Running will control your fat growth and cardio in general will increase your stamina and overall good feel. 30-50s breaks between repetitions - stay in the zone, don't let the muscles to cool down and don't waste time chatting with training buddies.
* Start with small weights, lots of newbies feel ashamed to put too little weight but nobody really cares. Too much weight will damage you at worst, slow your progress at best.
* The only supplements you should buy are whey protein, creatine and vitamins - that's all you need and that's all that worked for me or my friends, everything else is money wasting.
Keep on doing that and you will see results after 2-3 months, then results itself will be enough to motivate you not to quit.
* 4 days vs 3 days: for hard gainers, this can be very bad advice. 3 days is the limit for me or I lose weight.
* 10-15min warmup: again for hard gainers, you don't want to do too much cardio and you're better off splitting your training into muscle gain months and fat loss months because trying to do both at the same time is nearly impossible.
* 30-50s breaks between reps: all depends on your rep scheme; if you're doing 8-6-4-2 you need much longer rests (I've tried 90s vs 180s and my level of performance is radically different); if you're doing 10x10 to break through a plateau then a short rest makes sense
* weights: it's not random, you shouldn't even need to think about this: you simply need to pick the weight that matches your rep scheme... if you're doing 8-6-4-2 you need weights YOU can ONLY lift 7-8 times, 5-6 times, etc.; it amazes me how many guys wander around gym randomly picking stuff up
Point is most of this depends on the body type of the individual AND their goals. I'm naturally skinny and struggle to eat a lot. So I found a guy like me (literally, physically) who achieved the goals I want and worked through his book and so far that works for me.
There's nothing wrong with finding a role model you just need to be clear on the variables; Arnold may be a good role model if you want to become a pro bodybuilder and you have a similar body type, he's not if that's not your goal or your starting point.
Bulking vs cutting is too much for someone amateur/starting out, I just moderate my fat with cardio and proceed with normal workouts. There are guys doing it for 4 years in my gym, if someone asked if they weight lift or are just fat I'd have a 50% chance to pick the right answer - I think most guys just bulk all the time ignoring cardio whatsoever, minority (pro/competition ready) do it right with cut/bulk phases, but I choose this middle ground for now.
I'll refrain from giving fitness advise in the future as there are indeed too many unknowns for someone reading it at the other end of the cable.
This works out so each muscle group has a full 7 days to rest. And the whole body gets Sunday off.
The results were pretty good too, I reached my peak healthy BMI within a few months (24.9) then just kept getting stronger without gaining much weight.
Bench pressing 1.5x and "squatting" ~2x your body weight is fun. It's really hard to explain just how fun to people who haven't been there.
I really expected this link to point to Jerry Seinfeld's productivity secret. The story has made the rounds at this point, but in case anyone missed it:
http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se...
"Imposition of Order = Escalation of Chaos!" (Principia Discordia).
The concept I believe that is being addressed is that of Cargo Cults[1] and I would say that a much more typical example of how this plays out in the entrepreneurial space is with people obsessing over company culture, hip technology choices and other instances of premature optimisation.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say that purchasing Creatine before you really need to repair your muscle proteins any faster is a perfect example of premature optimisation!
Yes, going to the gym with no set plan and allowing this plan to evolve will encourage you to go more often if you are the type of person who sets unrealistic goals and gets dejected by not meeting them. But this, I think is NOT the best way to go about achieving your goals, it's a slower path, asking advice from experts will shorten your path.
And taking Arnold Schwarzenegger as a role model is not a fair motivator for ones efforts. Trying to emulate the efforts of someone who's already long into their career without knowing all the "tricks of the trade" namely anabolic steroids is unfair to you. For me a better role model would be someone who's just a bit ahead of me who's already taken on advice from experts!
figure out what your goals are, what you truly want. if you want it enough, you will do what it takes to get there. if you have to trick yourself to develop the motivation, then your priorities arent in the right place and you should re-evaluate your goals.
The book describes efficient, sustainable ways achieve changes in your body, the premise being to make changes with the smallest amount of work possible. I put on 10 lbs of muscle in 2 months following its weight gain advice. My girlfriend tried the slow-carb diet and saw no effect, but I have heard that working for a few people. It's an interesting read nonetheless and will change your perspective on diet and exercise.
No no no no no. If you are bodybuilding newbie, DO NOT start bodybuilding by reading articles from the web. Create your workout plan with your instructor, your gym should have one. Stay healthy.
Personally I tell people to steer clear of personal trainers. If only I could recount the amount of crazy (and sometimes dangerous) things I've seen them get their clients to do, all in the name of "getting fit". Stick to big compound movements like squat, bench and deadlift and that'll be more than enough past just the starting out stages.
One can then ask better questions and be less vulnerable to the instructor's misconceptions (due to parochialism or inherited from his instructor, etc).
I guess this applies any field where a large component of inexplicit knowledge is combined with safety considerations, e.g. driving lessons, piano lessons, rock-climbing
The availability of information via the Internet is a huge enabler of the "I take myself too seriously" condition. In the old days, you'd have to spend a lot of money and time on books and magazines to get the types of information to get the types of minutiae knowledge to get obsessive about golf, photography, coding, whatever.
I see a lot of means-end inversion going on with people who take themselves too seriously. For example, I'm a photography hobbyist, and in a lot of camera forums, you find plenty of photography buffs who have essentially become camera buffs who seem to spend more time on camera specifications more than the act of photography itself. Quite often, you'll see hobbyists who have more stringent camera requirements than actual working pros. Mind boggling.
in general, what sort of physical activity is good for you, how to get started, how to progress, and so on are all pretty well understood. not only that, it is all pretty straight forward.
whether at working out or anything else (e.g. learning to program or learning the banjo) you should worry about doing it effectively. get the brush strokes of that right -- it is much easier to stick to something you see yourself improving on.
taking yourself seriously are things like thinking that if you miss a workout day your regime is ruined, obsessively counting your calories, etc. avoid that.
Taking himself seriously is precisely what he IS doing, by recognizing that in order to actually succeed at becoming more fit he must take into account certain facts about his own nature.
It is the person who tries to (say) mindlessly copy Arnold S. who is not taking himself seriously, because by mindlessly copying Arnold's methods he is not taking into account what methods are appropriate to himself; instead, he's only taking into account what methods were appropriate to Arnold. I.e., he'd not be taking himself seriously.
Do not work out for your "health" or by dietary theories (which are largely based on Western dietary habits anyway). Work out to understand how Flow can be expressed beyond typing at a keyboard. (Consider that in most contexts where we talk about "Flow," studies involve sedentary activities: playing video games, typing/programming, flying a simulator or an actual air-vehicle, driving, etc.) What is with the given assumption that Flow involves Hands/Brain? Why not Feet/Brain? Imagine being able to establish Flow immediately while engaged in a physically exhausting activity. How far will you go? For how long will you play?
In short time, your body will naturally develop into the kind of fitness appropriate to the limits of your mental limitations. Moreover, you may develop a grammar for your feet which is analogous to the grammar of your hands (in the context of a keyboard -- consider that we all type relatively uniquely to ourselves, a typolect, if you will, despite "Standardized" keyboard formats; in the context of vim -- verbs, nouns, modifiers, sentences, paragraphs, etc.): Foot Grammar (might allow for "propositions" of the foot which demand a fitness level (performance criterion) to express them.
You type through the pain of the monitor against your eyes. You type and think through fluorescent lighting. Carpal Tunnel. Etc. This is why we suggest getting up and stretching, walking about, to combat these minor physical impairments which involve attrition over time. So many physical analogues exist which naturally make playing futball a sensible, and moreover social (!), activity for programmars.
I type through wrist pain and learn a new framework. I kick through foot pain and learn a new tactile passing system.