Playing to Lose

In its widest possible sense…a man’s Self is the sum total of all that he can call his, not only his body and his psychic powers, but his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his lands and horses, and yacht and bank-account. All these things give him the same emotions. If they wax and prosper, he feels triumphant; if they dwindle and die away, he feels cast down.

-William James

With Halloween right around the corner, I thought it would be a good time to talk about masks and superheroes…and the different roles that each of us plays ever day.

I think that each of us has a variety of masks that we have to don each time we step into the company of others.  At work, I have to put on my Professional mask.  When I’m out with friends having dinner and drinks, I put on my Social mask.  When I’m home, I put on my Family mask.  And there’s a dozen other masks that I put on, depending on the role I have to play.  But I often feel the need to step back and wonder…which of these masks is really me?  I know how to play all of my roles well…but how well do I know how to play myself?

I often wonder if each of us has these moments…moments where our identities blur together and obscure the people that we really are.  What is my role?  How do I define myself?  Who am I?

But I think the truth of it is that time spent worrying about what our “true” natures are is time that could be better spent on higher pursuits.  Like the rest of the universe, our true selves are always in motion…and ever-changing.  There could never be a single role that defines us.  We are every role that we play, and we are none of them.  For some of us, that might seem like an extremely vague, Zen-like concept to come to grips with.  But think of it as trying to name a moment before it passes.  The second you even begin to think about the moment, it will be long gone.  It is our nature to want uniformity…to want constancy.  It’s comforting.  But life is not uniform.  Life is not constant.  Things change.  And so will we.

Lessons from Superman

Many of us try to fight off this bittersweet fact by trying to wear one of our masks all the time, hoping that eventually the mask will become a part of us.  We think that by doing this, we will eventually become the best that we can be at that chosen role.  We think that focusing on a single role will make us superhuman.  But let me ask you something very important…why doesn’t Superman want to be Superman all the time?  As Superman, he’s the best he is at what he does.  He makes the world a better place every day.  He’s beloved by millions of people.  But he chooses to live out most of his day as mild-mannered Clark Kent.

Superman gets the recognition, but he isn’t recognized for who he is.  He’s recognized for what he does, and what he stands for.  Many accomplished individuals know this feeling.  Clark Kent, on the other hand, doesn’t seek recognition.  He just wants a simple human connection…to be accepted and loved for his faults and his foibles, and not for any exceptional gifts.  But he accepts that he can play both roles.

Why?  Because this man is not just Superman.  He’s not just Clark Kent.  He’s not even just Kal-El, for my fellow nerds who know him by his birth name.  He is a complete individual that embraces all of his roles, and accepts that each part of his life can have a serious and lasting effect on the others.  Superman isn’t a hero because of his powers.  Even villains can have powers.  He is a hero because he tempers his strength with the humility of his secret identity.  And that is sometimes what we need to do.

Being a hero…being the best that we can be and fulfilling our potential…doesn’t come from focusing purely on one aspect of your life.  It comes from allowing every part of our lives to blend together into a cohesive whole.  True power comes from every part of you…not just the part that you present to the world.  Even the best of our qualities must be balanced out, just as the darkness of Yin balances out the pure light of Yang.  You must temper your perceived strengths and balance them, or else they will become weaknesses.  So put down the masks(your figurative masks, of course), stop trying to put labels on different areas of your life, and just be. Because you are you.  And nothing else.

Thank you for reading, friends…I hope that you all have a safe and happy Halloween, and I hope to see you here again soon…:).  Namaste.

When the burdens of life weigh heavy on our shoulders and the world feels like it’s about to come crashing down, it can sometimes be difficult to weather the storm.  Loss, worry, and pressure have a habit of swirling together to form an avalanche of stress.  An avalanche that can crush us beneath its increasingly powerful progress if it isn’t stopped right away.

Stress can be a huge drain on our energy reserves, devouring our enthusiasm and keeping us from enjoying the lives as we were truly meant to.  And with every drop of enthusiasm it steals from us, the stronger and more ominous it grows.  So what can we do to stop its terrible onslaught?

There are a multitude of therapeutic schools and techniques when it comes to managing stress.  Some of us quiet our minds through meditation.  Some of us work our issues out through art or exercise.  But sometimes these techniques just aren’t enough to lift the burden off of you and keep stress from invading your life.  Sometimes there’s still a tiny inner beast: a small, raging part of your soul that cries out to be given voice…cries out for free reign…cries out to be unleashed.  It squirms with the seeming injustice of what life has piled at your feet.  It throws itself against its cage and lashes out at you from within.  And no amount of calming or exercise is going to keep it silent forever.  Ultimately, it needs to be set free, or it will compound your stresses throughout your entire life.

So how do we let our inner beasts free?  By letting them do what they do best.  Roar! Whenever I find myself feeling crushed beneath the weight of my stresses, I like to find a nice quiet place where I won’t startle anyone…and I roar out every last drop of my frustrations.

I focus on channeling all of my rage…all my sadness…and all my discontent…into a single swirling ball of red-hot fury.  I gather all that negativity together, I breathe in deep, and I visualize it materializing at the base of my diaphragm like a ball of fire.  And once I’ve gathered enough air, I brace myself and let it all out into the cosmos with a loud, booming roar.  It rids me of stress.  It frees up space in my body for more positive things.  And it lets the beast back out into the world where it belongs.

Now, to some people, it might seem counter-intuitive to find inner calm by making noises like a wild animal.  But it makes a lot of sense if you think about it.  If your spirit is constantly filled with turmoil and strife, how are you supposed to make room for happiness and fulfillment?  As we’ve heard over and over again in Zen literature(or various martial arts movies, if reading isn’t your bag), if you want to your cup to be filled, you must first empty it.

At first, roaring out your stress might make you feel a little uncomfortable.  We’ve been conditioned for our entire lives to act like “civilized” people…to hold in our frustrations, be courteous, and not cause a ruckus.  But we already spend our entire lives worrying about what we’re “supposed” to act like…that doesn’t make us happy, it just creates more stress.  And that does nothing but make our inner beasts stronger.

So roar, even if it feels uncomfortable at first.  Start small if you have to.  Give a little growl.  That’s socially acceptable, right?  Then turn up the volume a little bit.  Then a little bit more.  And I guarantee that in no time you’ll be working your way up to letting loose with a full-on earth-shattering roar.  It’ll set your inner beasts free.  It’ll lighten your burdens.  And it’ll keep you pushing forward, happy and stress-free.  So go forth and roar.  Roar!  ROOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRR!

Thanks for reading, friends.  I hope that this day finds you happy, healthy, and stress-free.  Namaste…:).

Image source: http://noxizmad.free.fr/

In my younger days, I happened across a copy of “Bushido: The Soul of Japan”, Inazo Nitobe’s groundbreaking century-old treatise on samurai and the warrior way.  As someone who’d been raised on martial arts flicks and samurai movies, I was incredibly excited.  I was expecting to read of famous duels, swordsmanship, and legendary samurai.  But what I found between those pages was much more.  So much more.

In modern terms, many people have come to associate the term “warrior” with someone who endorses and excels in warfare.  And while the latter may be true, the former almost certainly is not.  A true warrior, like any artist, hones their mind and their body purely towards the pursuit of their chosen path.  Each stroke of the sword, like the stroke of a paintbrush, is meant to be performed with purpose and feeling.  A true warrior moves with purpose…and lives with purpose…because any moment could be their last.

I often re-visit Nitobe’s text and many others like it…because every new venture into that world brings me new insight on how to live and improve my life.  But more and more, I find myself wondering…where have all our warriors gone?  Every day, I see people who think about changing their lives.  I see people that talk about changing their lives.  But I almost never see people that put those things into action.

Warriors don’t think.  Warriors don’t talk.  Warriors do.

The true nature of a warrior does not lie in their weapon.  The true nature of a warrior does not lie in their armor.  It lies in their hearts.  It is the resolve to choose a path…to begin walking down it…and to pursue it unfailingly until the task is completed.  Ultimately, that is what makes a warrior.  The courage to live your life with purpose.  The courage to rise against adversity.  The courage to stand up.  And stand up again.  And stand up again, as many times as it is required.

How Long Will You Wait?

There was something else I was thinking about as I was re-reading Nitobe’s work.

In our society, there’s this archetypal system of working hard your entire life and saving up, so that you can enjoy life later on.  But why would you not enjoy life while you’re still young and able to fully embrace those fleeting moments?

I’d like to talk to you for a moment about the symbol of Japan, and the warrior caste.  This symbol is the sakura, or cherry blossom.

This beautiful blossom is an incredibly profound symbol for the people of Japan…because when it reaches the peak of its beauty, it detaches itself from the branch.  And it falls to the ground to die, having served its purpose and made the world a more beautiful place.

We are all, like the sakura, awaiting our inevitable journey to the waiting earth below.  Some of us will reach it early.  Some of us will reach it late.  But many of us forget about reaching it altogether.  We live our lives like they have no end.  Work, work, work.  Save, save, save.  Someday, someday, someday.

But what if someday never comes for you?  Will you have served your purpose?  Will you have reached your dreams?

A warrior knows that their days are numbered, and lives every day like it’s their last.  They fill their days with meaning, and let no movement or thought go to waste.  You can see this in the art forms that the samurai pursued in their leisure time, like the haiku, the tea ceremony or the art of flower arrangement.  You can feel it in the simplicity of their Zen meditations and lifestyle.  No movements went to waste.  No thoughts went to waste.  They lived their lives on purpose, and with purpose.

And here we sit in the modern world…watching television, making small talk, and bickering over things that ultimately have no consequence…and again, I ask…where have all our warriors gone?  And will we find them again before it’s too late?

Thank you for reading, friends.  I hope that you enjoyed this article, and that one day, you will ultimately find the way to your own inner warrior.  Have a great day…:).

I’ve spent quite a bit of time bandying back and forth about the various concepts and implications behind motivation.  What motivation is, what causes it, what influences it, etc.  And I think that that’s important knowledge to have, because it’s easier to set a plan in motion when you understand why each step is necessary.

But a lot of my readers have been asking me for more specific guidelines.  Some folks want me to skip past the why’s, the what’s, and the wherefore’s, and start laying down some hard-and-fast motivational tactics.  So I’ve whipped up a handful of small motivational hacks, just to whet your appetites for greater things to come…:).  Here we go.

Tip #5: Become your own Frankenstein!

Let’s face it.  One of the main purposes of motivation is to serve as a catalyst for personal change.  There’s something about yourself that you want to modify.  But you don’t know how to go about it, and you don’t know how to get started.  The first step is to start re-constructing yourself.  If you’re not happy living within the framework of your personality now…if you’re too negative or too lazy or you don’t feel like you’re good enough…then you need to deconstruct the person you were, and fashion something altogether new from the pieces.  A new frame of being that you will use to become an unstoppable juggernaut of confidence and determination!

It starts with creating a vision of your ideal self…the person that you want to be more than anyone else.  Construct this vision as intricately as you can.  After all, this is going to be your own invincible creation.  And then, once you have lovingly constructed this new self…begin living into it.  Imagine pouring your old self into this new mold…and growing to fill it with every passing day.  With careful attention to detail, and a little jolt of motivational lightning, you’ll soon find yourself becoming the confidence monster that you’ve always dreamt of being.

Tip #4: Fake it until you make it!

For a lot of us, it’s hard to find the inspiration and the motivation to become better, stronger human beings.  We convince ourselves that we’re not capable of doing the things that we really want to do.  We tell ourselves to “be realistic.”  And that’s perfectly natural.  But we have to understand that, most of the time, realism is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of pessimism.  The people with the most consistent track records of success don’t think in terms of what is.  They think in terms of what could be.

If it’s difficult for you to imagine the potential within yourself, maybe you need to start lying to yourself a little bit.  Tell yourself stories about your future.  It doesn’t matter how fantastical or absurd the stories are, as long as they get your blood racing with excitement.  Because if you don’t have a concrete vision of your greatest self, how do you ever expect to live into it?

Tip #3: Step into the arena!

As human beings, we are historically proven to thrive on adversity.  Challenge has always been our greatest catalyst for growth.  It is the impetus that has kept mankind asking life’s great questions and pursuing the grandest of goals throughout history.  There is no person on the face of the planet that ever grew in body, mind, or spirit without adversity.

But modern society has babied us.  Progress has given way to convenience, and convenience has allowed us to get everything we need without ever having to leave our comfort zones.  As modern humans, we will actually go out of our way to avoid difficulties and conflict.  But if we live our lives without ever facing challenge – without ever seeking out adversity – how can we ever expect to grow as people?  Every so often, it becomes necessary to step into the arena of life, face our symbolic enemies, and strive against them as best we can.  Challenge and difficulty should never be things to fear, because it is only through encountering these things that we can achieve our true potential.

Tip #2: Hurry up and sit there!

Set aside the time and space to sit in silence at least once every day.  I’m not saying that you need to go so far as to meditate, although that’s my preferred method.  But I am saying that every once in a while, we need to isolate ourselves and spend some time alone with our thoughts.  Every day, we have to deal with the a multitude of other people…other ideas…other influences.  And it becomes difficult to cultivate our thoughts and allow them to grow.  Because our original thoughts are being drowned out by a sea of influential voices.

So what I’m suggesting is simple.  Turn the TV off.  Turn the computer off.  Put the book down.  And just sit awhile in silence.  Because it is only then…when all of the outside voices have been silenced…that our ideas can truly make themselves heard and known.

Tip #1:  ‘Downtown’ is not a place and ‘someday’ is not a time!

A lot of us have a bad tendency to set goals using phrases like, “I’m going to get fit.” or “I’m going to read more.”  Well, there’s some bad news on that front.  Phrases like “getting fit” and “reading more” aren’t real goals.  They’re vague ideas that can’t be implemented because you have no idea what the destination point is.  Let’s say you decide to take a cab somewhere…when the cabbie asks you where you want to go, do you just say,”Downtown”? No.  Because ‘downtown’ is not a place.  It’s a vague conceptual area that is impossible to reach.  You might actually have better luck if you asked the driver to take you to Hogwarts or Narnia.

It’s the same thing with ‘someday’.  If you’re going to say ‘someday’, you might as well say ‘never,’ because ‘someday’ is not a time.  And it gives you way far too much leeway to get lazy and start procrastinating.

If you’re going to set goals, you have to make them specific and quantifiable.  Otherwise, your brain will never be able to map out the best way to reach them.

Thank you for reading, friends!  I hope that today finds you all healthy, happy, and well, and I look forward to hearing of your progress in the future.  Namaste.

As I was getting up from my daily meditation this morning and walking to my desk, I spent a little time thinking about how much my meditation room-slash-study has changed over the years.  Right now, the whole place is practically empty.  Bare.  Clean.  And that’s how I like to keep it.  But once upon a time, there were piles of clothes in the corner…stacks of boxes in the closet…a pile of empty water bottles by my chair…and a stack of papers almost a foot high on my desk.

It’s funny to think how all the detritus of our lives can slowly and sneakily add up over the years.  Over the course of almost a decade, I let things carelessly slip and fall to the floor, unmindful of the fact that I was gradually cluttering up my study and my life.  Near the end of those dark days, it felt like every walk through my study was a trip through a museum dedicated entirely to useless things.  And every day it felt just a little bit harder to breathe in there.

The Clutter Monster

I think all of us has a part of our lives that we let fill up with clutter.  Our sanctuaries…our bodies…our minds…they can all fall victim to the ravages of time and carelessness.  It’s just a matter of letting small things slip over and over again.  Letting that empty bottle sit idly on your desk.  Eating that one candy bar before going to sleep.  Putting off that one work assignment until tomorrow.  But small things have a nasty way of adding up.  And soon that soda can multiplies into a veritable in-house landfill.  That candy bar becomes an unsightly belly bulge.  And that work assignment turns into a week of sleepless nights spent trying to catch up on lost time.

Many of the catastrophes in our lives are ones that we create ourselves.  And it’s not because we’re self-destructive.  It’s just that we’re creatures of habit.

It’s easy to put off a small thing like cleaning your dish when you’re done with it, or doing a set of push-ups in the morning.  It’s easy to say you’ll do it tomorrow.  But when you start putting things off on a regular basis, you start to unknowingly set routines for yourself.  And those routines are fraught with bad habits.

So how do you keep yourself from going down that road?  Or, more realistically, if you’re already down that road, how do you get back on the right track?  It’s really not that hard.

All habits, good and bad, are created equal.  That’s the good news.  They’re all equally easy to start, but they’re also equally easy to stop.  It’s just a matter of being mindful and starting small.

The Futility of “The Big Attempt”

Some of us live with our bad habits for so long that we become desensitized to them.  But every so often, we have brief moments of clarity where we realize painfully obvious things like “Man, this room is dirty!”, or “When did I get so fat?”.  And then we try to rectify the problem with one big attempt.  But that never works.  So we end up going back to our old routines the next day, like zombies.

For some reason, these sudden moments of clarity always make us feel like the clutter in our lives is just some humongous thing that just “happened” overnight.  But it’s not.  Clutter is not a single entity.  It’s a thousand tiny bad habits, piled on top of each other.  So if you’re going to unclutter your life, you’re not going to be able to do it all in one go.  You can’t just say, “I’m going to clean my entire house today and keep it clean forever!”  That’s not how it works.

So What Does It Take?

It takes small steps.  It takes repeated effort.  But most of all, it takes the diligence and mindfulness to stop letting your bad habits accumulate.  Because once you can stop the clutter monster from growing, you can finally start cutting it down to size.

Remember how your stack of bad habits got started.  Remember how so many small acts grew into something so powerful.  That’s something I want you to think about as you go on.  Not to make you feel guilty.  But to make you realize that just as the seeds of neglect can grow into a forest of clutter…the seeds of mindfulness can grow into a forest of clarity.  But it’s entirely up to you to choose which seeds you wish to plant.  And with time, I hope that you, too, can finally walk through your uncluttered life, breathing deep and free.

Thank you for reading, friends…may you spend each of your days breathing deep and free.  Namaste.

-Tom

One of my rare shirtless training pics. I was reluctant to post it, but I wanted to show that I have "walked the talk," so to speak.

While I was on my weight-loss journey from 275 pounds down to 190, I put in a fair amount of research on weight loss.  I spent a whole lot reading about what works and what doesn’t.  And today I’d like to discuss one of the “holy grails” of weight loss: the 6-pack.  Now, I didn’t deliberately work towards acquiring 6-pack abs, but I have had them for quite some time.  They were more a by-product of my Parkour training than the result of any deliberate effort, but they sparked a lot of questions from friends.  Questions like “What exercises did you do?,” “What supplements did you use?,” and “Did you use any of those ab machines?”  In answering these questions, I discovered that there are quite a few myths surrounding the elusive 6-pack.  And I decided to dispel some of them as best as I could.  So, without further ado, here are the 3 most common myths about 6-pack abs.

Myth #1: You can buy something and get a 6-pack without having to work for it.

I’m sorry to tell you that nothing you buy will get you a 6-pack any faster than a healthy diet and regular exercise.  There is no magic ab supplement.  Those electronic muscle stimulation belts don’t work.  In fact, these things might actually take you further away from your goal, because they lull you into thinking that you don’t have to work for the body you want.

One of the few fortunate things about living on a shoestring budget is that you don’t have the resources to go buying every hot new vitamin supplement or exercise machine that comes out.  You learn to stick with the bare essentials.  Which is good, because in exercise, the bare essentials are usually what bring you the greatest results.

There is no magic bullet.  Exercise often.  Eat right.  Work hard.  And you’ll get results.

Myth #2: You can get a 6-pack from doing nothing but ab exercises.

I’ve run into quite a few people that have said something along the lines of, “I’ve been doing nothing but crunches and planches all day, but I can’t see any abs!  I don’t get it!”  A lot of people seem to think that they just don’t have abs yet, so they keep trying to work the muscles to get them to appear.

Everyone already has abs.  Without them, we wouldn’t be able to support ourselves upright or stabilize our spines.  The problem is that the abs are sheathed in a layer of fat.  It’s like trying to grow carrots.  Everyone knows that carrots grow underground.  And even if you water them every day, and you see their tops growing, you can’t get to the actual carrots until you remove the layers of dirt that are on top of them.   But so many people are doing the equivalent of standing around for hours, watering and yelling, “Where the hell are my goddamn carrots?!”  They’re there.  Your abs are there.  You just have to start unearthing them.

My advice is to abandon ab exercises for a while(especially if you’ve been doing nothing BUT ab exercises) and start doing cardio.  Were you doing an hour’s worth of ab exercises every day?  Switch it up to an hour of running or an hour of swimming.  You don’t need to build the muscle anymore.  You’ve already got the muscle.  Start burning the fat first.  Which brings us to the next myth…

Myth #3:You can target your weight loss to your abdominal area.

Absolutely untrue.  When the body burns fat, you can’t tell it where to take the fat from.  I hear a lot of my friends ask me what exercises I did to get rid of my belly fat and love handles.  I tell them that I practiced running and climbing.  They just laugh and say, “No, really…what exercises target the fat in the belly area?”

It takes a long time to explain that there is no exercise that burns fat exclusively from the midsection.  All you can do is eat less and exercise more.  The body takes the fat from wherever it wants, and it doesn’t care what exercises you’re doing that day.  The best that you can do is to continue eating right and doing your cardio exercises to reduce your overall bodyfat.  Eventually, your body will decide to take fat away from your midsection, but you can’t isolate or target the fat loss yourself.  Accept that.

Conclusion

I don’t like that I have to refer back to cliches like, “Eat less, exercise more.”  But there’s a reason that people use those phrases over and over.  Because they’re true.  There’s no quick path to weight loss.  And there’s no single step to six-pack abs.  Achieving these goals, just like achieving any other goal, comes through carefully planned and executed work.  There is no way around it.  But that’s the way it should be.  Because, ultimately, it’s not about having the six-pack.  It’s about what the six-pack stands for.  Would you want it to just be the result of some miracle pill that you bought?  Or would you want it to be a badge of honor that you earned through diligence and hard work?

Thank you for reading, friends.  I hope that today finds you all in good health, and that you will all continue to live well and be well.  See you all again soon!

Imagine for a moment that you are pushing rocks down a hill.  What happens if you start with a small stone?  It probably won’t get very far.  There are a million things that can stop a small rock from rolling downhill.  Trees.  Grass.  Other small rocks.  But what happens if you push a boulder?  Do you think a boulder has any regard or respect for trees, grass, or small rocks?  Of course not.  So why can’t the boulder be stopped when the stone obviously can?

Simple physics and common sense.

Every object in the physical universe is subject to certain immutable laws of physics, not the least of which is inertia.  Objects in motion tend to stay in motion.  Objects at rest tend to stay at rest.  And the amount of effort that it takes to move something is the same amount of effort that it takes to stop it.

So what does all this have to do with achieving your dreams?

More than you think.

As part of the physical universe, you and I are just as susceptible to inertia as everything else.  So are our minds.

Now let’s re-visit the rock-rolling scenario…but this time, let’s look at it as a metaphor for achieving our goals.  Many of us keep our goals small…the reasoning being that since they’re smaller, they’ll require less effort to achieve.  What many of us tend to forget in our haste is the fact that small goals have no real power.  They may seem easy to start in the short run.   But they’re also incredibly easy to stop.  Once you encounter your first obstacle, the amount of motivation that pushes you forward will drop drastically.  And that’s the hidden danger of small goals.  As Niccholo Machiavelli once said,

Make no small plans, for they have no power to stir the soul.

So how are we to remedy this situation?  Easy.

Find yourself a big-ass rock.

Think back to any movie or book where an invading army is trying to break through a castle’s walls.  Did the catapults throw pebbles?  No.  They hurled boulders.  Do you know why?  Because pebbles don’t put much of a dent in life’s obstacles.

Instead of wasting all of your time and energy trying to push a bunch of tiny dreams to fruition, I’d recommend you create a meta-goal, a giant power goal that you can fit some of your smaller goals into.

Let’s say, for example, that you’ve decided to lose weight…and you start small by setting a goal to begin every day with a bowl of oatmeal.  But setting a goal to eat a bowl of oatmeal every morning isn’t exactly the most inspiring goal in the world.  So you start finding excuses to skip making oatmeal, and eventually give up on the oatmeal altogether.  Why?  Because it’s a very small goal.  Which makes it a very boring goal.

Now, imagine what would happen if you funneled that goal into something larger and more meaningful.

Instead of focusing on just eating the oatmeal, think about creating a leaner, more muscular version of yourself, loving how incredible your life is and how much attention you get with your new body.  Or take it a step further and imagine yourself winning a marathon or a bodybuilding competition.

They’re your dreams, build them as big as you want!  But remember that the ultimate point is to create something that you can really get excited about.  The bigger your power goal is, the more excited you can get about it.  The more excited you get about it, the more energy you’ll invest into setting it into motion.  And the more energy you invest, the more unstoppable it(and you) becomes.

Thank you for reading, friends.  I hope that this article makes you a little “boulder” in approaching your dreams…and I hope I may someday be forgiven for that pun…:P.  Please go forth, share, and enjoy your day!

Hey, all, great news.  I’ve recently been asked to submit an article over at PickTheBrain.com!

It’s a great site, with all sorts of helpful information to improving your life and making yourself more productive.  So please, go check out my article, and browse around a bit.  Thanks very much for all your kind words and support…:).  Now go check it out!

Lesson #47: In Soviet Russia, lobsters catch you.

Hello, and welcome back for the second round of productivity lessons I learned from World of Warcraft.  I’m breathing a huge sigh of relief that people are liking it so far, let’s keep it goin’…:).  Kicking it off with number 3…

3.  Work smarter, not harder.

In the World of Warcraft, just like in the real world, you get compensated for certain actions.  If you kill a creature or complete a quest, you’re rewarded with a small bit of currency or a random object that you can sell to a vendor for currency.  You spend your time, you get paid for your efforts, and you can use that compensation to buy something that will enhance your overall experience.  Sounds like a hauntingly familiar situation, doesn’t it?  And I’m sure you’ve known your share of co-workers that spend an undue amount of time at work in an effort to earn a promotion or a little bit more money.

Well, WoW also has its share of workaholics.  I’m talking about players who have spent over 24 hours at a time(yes, really)killing monsters non-stop in pursuit of that almighty gold coin or level.  We call this kind of behavior, appropriately enough, “grinding.”  And it means exactly the same thing as it does in the working world.

These players usually burn out long before they reach their goal, and with good reason.

While I applaud focusing on your work, and living with purpose, you should also learn how to streamline your work, as I said in the first article.  There are only so many hours in a day, and unless you want your work to become your life(and I assume you don’t), you should start learning how to work more efficiently, instead of trying to force more hours into your workweek.  That way lies madness.

4. Not everything is treasure.

In WoW, people are constantly hoarding stuff.  And the majority of it isn’t even useful stuff.  If a vulture drops a gizzard that can be sold for 39 copper pieces(the WoW equivalent to pennies), there is someone somewhere that has a bag full of vulture gizzards.  I’m not even joking about that.  When players start out, these items are collected and sold to a vendor, because that’s one of the few ways that a new player can make money.  It’s a normal thing.

The trouble comes when you’ve been playing for a few months or years, and you start attributing value to items that have little to none.

I’ve heard many variations of this scenario: “Oh, I can’t get rid of this sword, I got it when I killed that thing that time.”  Do you ever use it?  “No, but I can’t get rid of it, it’s valuable.”  Yeah, but it’s not.  It’s worth 75 copper.  “You just don’t understand.”

Or this scenario:  “Man, I can’t get rid of this helmet, it’s got little wings on it.”  Do you ever wear it?  “No, but look at the wings!”  How would people even know it’s got wings if you don’t wear it?  They can’t see into your bags.  “Yeah, but I’ll know.”

So people start filling their bags with these “cool” and “meaningful” items that they never use.  And they end up having to buy bigger bags(which can be very expensive) or more bank storage space(which is also very expensive), just to store things that they don’t really need.

A great example of this is a friend of mine who had been waiting months for an extremely rare weapon to drop from a boss.  The weapon finally dropped, and all interested parties were asked to roll dice for it.  He rolled, and he won.  He was so excited.

Now, it’s important to know that when you win a roll for something, the game usually moves it directly to your bags.  But because his bags were full, the weapon stayed on the boss’s body.  He didn’t notice this little fact until the body had disappeared, and the weapon disappeared with it.  Needless to say, he was devastated.

But there’s a good lesson to be learned here.  Keep your containers empty.  Whittle things down to the bare essentials.  Use what you can.  Get rid of what you don’t.  Because it doesn’t matter if it’s swords, or purses, or outdated ideas, there are just some things that aren’t worth holding on to.  Otherwise, how will you ever make room for the things that are really important?

Thanks again for reading, friends.  The final installment is coming soon, and I’ll be throwing in a sixth lesson…for free!  Which is somewhat redundant, considering the first five lessons were also free, but the sixth one is…even more….free.  Somehow.  It’s very complicated.  Thanks again!

To a lot of people, this idea will seem counter-intuitive.  Motivation is the most powerful thing you can have, right?  Doesn’t it make sense that having more motivation will always equal better performance?  Well, yes and no.

There’s a systematic cycle that many people exercise when it comes to work.  First, you plan out a strategy to achieve a desired result.  Then you execute it.  Then you assess your results.  If the results aren’t satisfactory, you tweak your strategy and execute it again.  And then repeat the cycle ad infinitum, with your results gradually getting better a little bit at a time.

This is how many people live their lives, because they’re laboring under this false pretense that hard work equals a better life.

But what you don’t realize as you’re going through this cycle over and over again is that you’re slowly grinding yourself down, because you’re not stepping away from the cycle long enough to recuperate your energy.  You’re just going through the motions and making small tweaks over and over again, slowly approaching your goal.

Try to pretend that your mind is a car, and your motivation is speed.  The more motivated you are, the more you push that pedal to the floor.  Your brain starts firing on all four cylinders and you start working much faster.  But guess what?

You also burn fuel much faster.

For a short-term goal, that’s fine, because your mind usually has the reserves to manage that journey.  But most major goals aren’t short-term.  They take place over the course of a career…or a lifetime.  Do you really think that your mind contains enough fuel to maintain that level of motivation for a lifetime?

Of course not.

Your mind needs fuel.

It needs you to stop once in a while and refill it with whatever it is that makes you motivated.  Do you love your family?  Spend time with them!  Do you have a favorite hobby?  Go do it.  Do you meditate to clear your mind?  Set time aside for it.  Your mind needs a break.

And this is the big piece of the puzzle that most people fail to see.  If you’re like most people, you’ve bought into the great industrial ideal that people who work harder are the people who end up on top.  But in order to continue working towards a great goal, you must stop once in a while to play.  To enjoy your life.  Don’t get so engrossed in your work that you forget the reason that you work in the first place.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

When you rest more often, and you give your brain a break, you don’t just allow yourself to recuperate.  You also make yourself more effective when it counts.  Think about a group soldiers in enemy territory, taking turns keeping watch at night.  Does one soldier keep watch for the entire night?  No, because that soldier will gradually fatigue.  And their attention will decline.  And the enemy’s chance of invading the camp will increase.

But if the soldiers take turns, not only will the soldier on watch be more alert, but every soldier will be able to give 100% if a battle ensues.  That is how you must treat your mind.  There are some people that are working all the time in their heads, even when they’re home with their families.  These people are extremely motivated, but they’re also slowly wearing themselves down and losing their edge.  And they usually aren’t able to come through in a clutch situation.

If you want to stay sharp, harness your motivation.  Know when to work and when to play, and give equal time to each.  Even gods must rest from time to time.

Thank you for reading, my friends.  I hope that your motivation always keeps you hungry…but I also hope you remember to eat from time to time…;).