Balanced Existence

Why Do You Train?

Stephen — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:09:25 +0000

Lately I’ve encountered a culture of exercise and training built around constant progress and achievement of personal records (PRs) in feats of strength such as deadlifting and bending steel. This culture holds the constant achievements of PRs as the single most important aim of their training. In fact they emphasized the PR over almost anything else.

Thinking about this has uncovered in my mind a realization that there are some fundamental differences between how different people approach training and exercise. That may be a “well duh” type statement but bear with me.

While I’m certainly big on setting measurable goals and achieving them, getting stronger, quicker, more agile, more explosive, leaner and all around more capable of handling the physical possibilities of life - for me I’ve always been active and I would continue to be active regardless of what my workout journal tells me.

Yesterday I did Zercher squats with 100kg (220lbs) for 6 sets of 6. Today I did 80 sets of 7 snatches with a 16kg kettlebell in a 15 seconds work / 15 seconds rest format. That’s almost 9,000kg or 20,000lbs moved from the ground to lockout overhead in 40 minutes. I also did a couple of Turkish Half-Ups with 37kg.

I did these things not because I was motivated by them being some sort of PR but because that’s what the program I’ve set myself called for, my body felt capable of achieving what I’d set myself and the Turkish Half-Up was a whim that I just felt like trying. If I wasn’t doing the program I was doing right now I would simply be doing something else and occasionally dreaming up something difficult to test myself with.

My point is I run trails because I want to, swim laps or catch waves because I enjoy it, spar and roll because it is pure competition, rock climb because it’s fun and challenging on many different levels, go out into the bush and cut down a tree and burn it all night to keep myself warm and the dingos away just because I’m alive and exist, do handstands, jump off stuff and do bear crawls, ape step and ground kong simply for the joy of moving.

Training is rarely “training” for me. It isn’t some chore to be dreaded and gotten over with as soon as possible so I can get on with some sort of leisure. I stuck with the same workout program which was 2 sets of 5 deadlifts 5 days a week for 10 months straight and got bored probably 3 or 4 times. Quite possibly because part of the challenge was to stick with it. I’ll do the Russian Squat Routine and the Smolov just because they’re there, they’re hard as hell and they’re a serious challenge. Out the other side I’ll happen to be stronger but it’s not the be-all-end-all-of-it-all.

I guess it’s just a difference in perspective, priorities and maybe culture. I don’t need a guru, an anti-guru-guru, a trainer or a coach. Ninety-nine percent of the time I train, climb, crawl, run, swim, jump and go walkabout alone. Existence is my motivation. I exist, the world exists, the things to do in the world exist, and the experiences the doing brings are there to be sampled and savored. It’s the very stuff of life. Being strong, fit and healthy opens up a wealth of possible experiences not open to someone who is weak, unfit and unhealthy. It is as simple as that.

“What Adam saw on the morning of his first creation – the miracle, moment by moment, of naked existence.”

- Aldous Huxley

That said I realize that this is all n=1. Other people have different approaches. Some feel the need for the PR for the sense of achievement it brings in order to stay motivated. As long as this approach works for them or you it is, in my mind, of equal validity. In the end of the day results do count but my judgment call is that adding 10lbs to your deadlift pales in comparison to whether or not you enjoy a high quality of life.

This is what I feel my “workouts” and general movement activities bring to me, often in and of themselves. That is, the quality of my life is enriched while doing the activity. That is my focus. Not necessarily later when I pat myself on the back for having gotten stronger or more conditioned or simply having persevered and completed the workout. Though the latter I must say is rather fulfilling at times.

However, that sort of thing is fleeting. The next day I’ll be off after the next 10lbs on my deadlift. No. The experience of absolute concentration, physical control and the raw power of my own physicality as it trembles under a load that could crush me come one wrong move – that’s called being alive. That’s an experience and you don’t have to hit a PR to get it.

It is a matter of perspective. Power without perspective is useless and therefore of no real value. So give a long hard think about the real reason you exercise and move. Think about the bigger picture and check yourself to see whether or not you’ve gotten caught up on the miniature. We all tend to at times. Then with a refreshed perspective, whatever it may be for you, relaunch yourself back into action with renewed energy.

Share you’re thoughts in the comments section below. Why do you train?

An OMEGA-3 Breakfast of Champions

Stephen — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:59:44 +0000

Recently I’ve been regularly enjoying what we’ll call “nutmeal” for breakfast. Full credit for the idea goes to Mark’s Daily Apple where you can find the original recipe. The version in today’s post is the result of my own experimentation. I feel it’s simpler, probably less expensive to make, more OMEGA-3 focused and still tastes fantastic.

Ingredients
1 handful of Walnuts
1 handful of Macadamias
3 tablespoons of flax seed
Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste (try a teaspoon or two of each)
2 eggs
1 Banana

Directions

Place the Walnuts, Macadamias, flax seed, cinnamon and nutmeg into a food processor or blender and pulse it down until it’s coarse. Put your nut meal into a small pan.
Mash the banana with a spoon and put into the pan with the nut meal.
Crack the two eggs, lightly beat and add to the pan.
Mix the contents of the pan together.
Turn your stovetop on low and continue to stir constantly until the mixture thickens. Be sure not to cook it with too much heat otherwise you’ll scramble the eggs. You just want the mixture to warm up and thicken into a good porridge like consistency.
Eat your yummy breakfast!

Thoughts
Not only does this taste really good I find that having this for breakfast it really sticks with me. After having exercised in a fasted state early one morning I then ate this to break my fast and then didn’t feel the need to eat again until some six hours later. You can remove the banana but in my opinion it doesn’t taste as good. As long as you don’t have a serious metabolic condition and you’re in control of your carbohydrate sources it is my opinion that the banana is fine.

What I’ve been doing is making up a big batch of the dry nut meal mixture and keeping it in the fridge. Just add your eggs and banana in the morning, a few moments of cooking and you’re out the door. What you have here with this recipe is a stack of protein, essential fat and fiber. Just between you and me simply having “nutmeal” for breakfast has significantly improved my bowel movements. Yup, sharing is caring.

Walnuts, Macadamias and flax seeds are great sources of plant based OMEGA-3 fat. OMEGA-3 fats are so important for so many things. Deficiencies in OMEGA-3 fats have been associated with asthma, heart disease and learning deficiencies. OMEGA-3 fats are termed “essential” because your body cannot make it out of other compounds. Thus you must get enough of it in your diet each and every day. If you use good quality eggs you’ll be getting some additional animal based OMEGA-3 fats as well.

The Illusion of Individuality

Stephen — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:35:06 +0000

photo credit: ianduffy

Consider the time you were growing in your mother’s womb. A tiny replication. A reproduction growing like a new organ within your mother’s body. You were and are in a very deep sense of the body of your mother and father. Your flesh grew from the stuff of their flesh and you were connected at the navel through an umbilical cord to your mother. When she spoke you could hear her. What she felt you felt and what you felt she felt.

At one point there was just one thing, one physicality. Our physicality is the reproduction of our mother and father’s physicality. We are also born of what they ate, drank, breathed and thought. And we grow out of what we eat, drink, breath and think. So to it was the same for them. Your mother and father are of their mother and father’s bodies and their environment. And so on down the line into the mists of the ancient past. Perhaps all the way back to bacteria squirming in primordial soup.

The Reality of One
Humanity and the entirety of this earth, this solar system, this galaxy and the entirety of this universe then is just One body. But we have forgotten. We don’t recall the womb and we live our lives lacking vital perspective because we have forgotten. We feel separated from others. We are separated from our food and the loving energy exchange that is eating. Thereby we are separated from the earth. We live in endless cities that never sleep and often feel alone.

We are icebergs floating in the ocean of the universe. We look at ourselves and we look at our fellow humans, animals, plants, soil and water with limited physical senses and see distinct, discrete and separate entities. Over time the separateness is all that we come to know. However the iceberg is nothing more than the ocean in a different state. Fundamentally the iceberg is the ocean and the ocean is the iceberg.

Does it make sense to say that clouds or icebergs die? Of course not. An iceberg melts and rain falls from a cloud and both appear to the eyes to be no more. However, with a little insight it can be perceived that clouds and icebergs do not die. They simply transform.

Only Illusions Can Cease to Exist
How then can you or I die? Only when we see ourselves as distinct separate individual instances can we be said to die or to be born. Only then is there fear of death and all manner of mental contortions given over to formulating ideas about what the experience of death holds for us. Someone is born when their individuality can be found. Later, when their individuality cannot be found they are said to have died.

Where does this sense of individuality come from? We see ourselves as having distinctly separate bodies existing in space and time. This physically sensorial and limited observation conditions us until it becomes perception. When we perceive ourselves as individuals we come to own things, we are stolen from, insulted, we fear, we hate and we suffer.

However, remember that your physical body is not your body. It is your mother and father’s body whose body is their mother and father’s body who is their mother and father’s body who is born of this universe. We are the universe. And we are individuals. Not one and not two. We are both one and two. Thus individuality can be said to be illusionary. It is like an illusion in which one thing is made to seem like another.

We’re All Drops in an Ocean
Imagine an infinite ocean. When an individual drop of water falls into this infinite ocean one of two things can be said of it. It can be said that the drop is no more. The drop has become nothingness. It has lost its individuality and is no more. The individual is not. It is non-being. Or it can be said that the drop has become the ocean. Both are correct as far as they go and both are methods for describing the indescribable. The absolute.

All techniques of meditation are really unconditionings. After a while we no longer look beyond daily appearance and soon take the individual mind-body complex as the entirety of being. We thus become conditioned and come to identify with only the mind-body complex in which we move in space and time. Mind is not really a thing. Mind is a process that carries on incessantly with or without you. Ask anyone who sits down to meditate for the first time. Minding is a more applicable term for mind.

Minding and identification with the mind-body complex are like a disease. The application of a technique (lets call it meditation) or a spontaneous experience is necessary to realize the cure experientially. Otherwise the above discussion will not be real for you. You will be unable to experience the change in perception and thus there will be little if any real impact on the quality of your life. This is why intellectualizing is said to be of little use.

Recent Experiments in Strength

Stephen — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:31:10 +0000

Recently for some variety (somewhat same but different) I ran two experimental programs back to back that tied into each other. I thought I’d share them for anyone who might be looking for ways to shake things up a little.

The Turkish Get-Up & Double Kettlebell Front Squat Experiment
The first was a 4 week Turkish Get-Up (TGU) and double kettlebell front squat program. The TGU’s were completed ladder style. So week 1 was roll to press and back down, then roll to press and up to elbow then back down, then roll to press and all the way up to post on the hand and back down. This was completed back to back with the same arm sometimes with very brief breaks between rungs. After repeating with the other arm I’d clean two unevenly weighted kettlebells and perform 2 sets of 5 double kettlebell front squats. I’d switch the uneven kettlebells for the second set so both sides were worked evenly.

I did this three days a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On the second week I called the roll to press and up to elbow rung one and the hip bridge rung three. Then in week three the roll to press, up to elbow and up to post (the half-up) was rung one with up to kneeling as rung 3. Everything else remained the same. In the final week (4) I did three sets of 3 full TGUs switching arms each rep for 9 total reps per arm, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

I completed this program using a 32kg bell for the TGUs and a 20kg bell in the double kettlebell front squats. The results I could see were mainly in the pressing department. I went from being able to press the 32kg bell 3 times with my right (with a re-clean between each rep) to being able to press it 5 times with no re-clean. My pressing grove felt much better and I could press the bell up without leaning away from it at all and pull it down with good solid tension.

What’s a Turkish Get-Up?

If you can’t see the video, watch it here.

The Zercher Experiment
This translated nicely into my second program which I called The Zercher Experiment. I worked the Zercher squat 5 days a week using a minimalist 5/3/2 rep scheme keeping the weight on the bar the same for all 3 sets. I started out rather conservatively at 70kg and 3 weeks later ended the cycle at 105kg. I simply added 2.5kg each day.

In addition 3 days a week I used a kettlebell clean and press and bent row or pull-up workout. For me this involved the 32kg bell. Week one began on Monday with 1 ladder of 3, Wednesday was 2 ladders of 3 and Friday 3 ladders of 3. The second week I added an extra ladder to each workout from week 1 and then I did the same again in week 3 so that by Friday of week 3 I completed 5 ladders of 3 with the 32kg bell using less rest than ever before.

For the uninitiated ladders and rungs refers to a type of set and rep scheme that works wonders for strength without generating much hypertrophy, meaning not a lot of muscle size increase. To use the kettlebell clean and press as an example, 3 ladders of 3 rungs involves cleaning the kettlebell and pressing it once with each arm. Put the kettlebell down, pause briefly and then clean it back up again and press it twice with each arm. Put it back down, rest for a moment, re-clean the kettlebell and press it three times with each arm. That is one ladder of 3. Now rest for 2 or 3 minutes and repeat the previous steps 2 more times for 3 ladders of 3 rungs in total. This will give you 18 reps per side for the workout. In my case I included bent over rows or pull-ups after each clean and press rung using the same ladder and rung scheme. The pulling movement of bent over rows or pull-ups balances out the strength and physical development given by the pushing movement of the press.

What are Zerchers?

If you can’t see the video, watch it here.

Reflections
I only just finished this program today so it’s too early to talk concretely about results as such. All I do know is that in 8 weeks (including 1 back-off week) I’ve gotten significantly stronger with the 32kg kettlebell. I plan to test my 1 rep max with the Zercher squat next week (shooting for 120kg+). Possibly the week after I will test how this has all translated with my deadlift.

The Zercher squat and kettlebell program could easily be cycled for continued gains in strength. All you would do with the Zercher squat is start a new cycle 5kg or so heavier than your previous beginning weight. In my example I started at 70kg so my next cycle would start at 75kg and end at 110kg. Then you do it all again. With the clean and press and bent row or pull-up you could just add a rung (go from 3 rungs to 4) and go for another run up again in the same fashion as before. In my example I would end the final Friday of the cycle at 5 ladders of 4 rungs for 50 total reps.

Some Background
I started with a 20kg bell back in September 2007 and worked through Enter the Kettlebell’s Program Minimum and the full Right of Passage. Afterward I got myself a 32kg bell and worked for a couple of months before I could press it. Then I got my hands on Power to the People! and started deadlifting exclusively. 10 months of Power to the People! style deadlifting guided me from a 110kg 1RM to a conservative 182.5kg 1RM with plenty in the tank. I weigh 80kg. Once I hit that 400lb deadlift I decided I wanted to up my pressing strength towards a body weight press and so experimented with the program(s) above. Early in the New Year I plan to use Adam Glass’ Radiant Dawn program to strictly press the 40kg bell overhead with one hand.

Wrapping it Up
Whatever you’re doing I feel everyone (with some very rare exceptions) should work at being stronger today than they were a month ago. And to be stronger next month than they are today. Achieving true strength takes solid preemptive planning, dedication, consistency, self-discipline and a willingness to experiment. All of which are critical qualities for success that translate into almost everything else of value in your life.

If you can’t do these things now with something as simple as picking a weight up off the ground how are you ever going to exemplify these qualities when it really counts? Achieving what you want in life is far more complicated than getting strong. If you haven’t practiced or ingrained the qualities or skills such as planning, dedication, consistency, self-discipline and a willingness to experiment and adjust dynamically your chances of success in life are not very good. Time to start practicing right now. Go pick up something heavy and enjoy the personal development.

Could a Good Night’s Sleep Stop Cancer?

Stephen — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:21:20 +0000

photo credit: muztiko

Before we get started today I want to apologize to all the Balanced Existence (BE) readers who missed out on the $25 off coupon recently. The response was much larger than expected. To make it up to you The Balanced Existence Store is offering 50 premium coupons for $15 off a $20 item. This offer is limited to the first 50 so its first come first served.

To get your coupon go to the Opensky website enter your email address and BALANCEDEXISTENCE as your favorite shopkeeper. Also free shipping may not last much longer so make sure you get in quick.

Lots of Research Yet No Cure
It has been said that today we have experts who know more and more about less and less until they know absolutely everything about absolutely nothing. While science does contribute to the opening up of our world many scientists and researchers are specialists in very tightly constrained fields of inquiry. Although this practice may assist the pursuit of deeper knowledge regarding a particular class of phenomena it has so far failed in many areas of great importance.

Human health for example and cancer specifically has defied millions if not billions of dollars of research money. The state of a single individual human being involves a great deal of complexity and depends on an almost incomprehensible number of variables stretching back into the distant past. Generally scientific research for good reason tends to try to limit the variables. However, the lack of meta or holistic perspective among the general establishment is stark.

Has the Answer Been Known for Years?
Back in 1997 an editorial piece appeared in the journal Nature. In it the author criticized toxicologists for poorly executed experiments. The toxicologists were administering carcinogens to mice of a strain known for its longevity to see how long it took for the mice to develop cancer. The problem was the mice were dying before the experiments were finished. The laboratory mice were fat, frail and dying young. The stated cause? Improved diets and environments. Sound familiar? To me this is an interesting insight into the affects of the modern affluent human environment and yet all the writer was concerned about was carrying out studies properly.

Here, improved diets means more concentrated refined carbohydrates. This improvement in diet for the mice and improvements in their living environment along with the elimination of infection resulted in fat mice with heart disease and a short lifespan. Recall that these mice were previously known for their longevity. Their cushy modern human like life-style killed them before they could die from cancer. That is, unless…

Who Left the Lights On?
In the same year (1997) a study was published in the Journal of Laboratory Animal Science. The article was titled – Light contamination during the dark phase in photoperiodically controlled animal rooms: effect on tumor growth and metabolism in rats. The study found that animals (mammals just like you and I) maintained in a constant light environment experienced enhanced tumor growth and higher insulin and blood sugar.

Quoting from the abstract it says “Tumor linoleic acid utilization…are suppressed by the circadian neurohormone melatonin, the production of which is itself regulated by light in all mammals. This study was performed to determine whether minimal light contamination [what amounts to less than a candle] in animal rooms during an otherwise normal dark phase may disrupt normal circadian production of melatonin and affect tumor growth and metabolism. The results indicate that minimal light contamination of only 0.2 lux during an otherwise normal dark phase inhibits host melatonin secretion and increases the rate of tumor growth…”

Despite this result you would be hard pressed to find someone investigating light as a source of tumor growth in humans. The researchers in the above study were only concerned with rats and mice. They failed to see the forest for the trees. This is despite clearly stating that exposure to even small amounts of light during a period when it should be dark (night time) results in the inhibition of melatonin in all mammals and accelerated growth of cancer.

The mechanism for cancer control naturally exists in each one of us. Each night we’re meant to enjoy a natural melatonin bath. However, we’ve messed with our environment so much that we’re inhibiting the natural process. So now we have to actually put up block-out blinds, turn off the digital clock that ironically bathes us in light all night long and systematically remove light leaks from our sleeping environment.

Think cave. Cool and so dark you can’t see your hand in front of your face.

Wrapping it Up
For a look at some of the mechanisms involving melatonin you might enjoy reading Why Living in Balance and Harmony with Nature is the Key to Good Health. Coming in the next couple of days we will take a look at more interesting research in a similar vein as today. To ensure you don’t miss out make sure you subscribe using the form below.

Get $25 Worth of Balanced Existence Products Absolutely FREE

Stephen — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:36:47 +0000

For a very limited time the Balanced Existence Store is offering you, the loyal Balanced Existence reader, both free postage and a $25 off coupon with which you can use to buy anything within the OpenSky mall. And there is no minimum order!

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Achieve Happiness by Awakening to Your Belief System

Stephen — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:19:35 +0000

photo credit: zoutedrop

Belief rules the world you and I live in. Humans have beliefs about all manner of things and it is our beliefs that determine for you and I what is and is not possible in our lives. The beliefs we hold dictate how we react to events and to new information. The beliefs that concern me the most are the ones I don’t know I have because to the degree that I operate on unidentified beliefs it the degree to which I am not free. So how can we recognize previously unidentified personal beliefs?

Don’t Get Defensive
It is a relatively simple matter to uncover previously hidden personal beliefs. All you have to do is know the signs to look for that indicates a belief you hold is dictating your current behavior. One potent sign that a hidden belief exists is whenever you experience an intensely defensive reaction to something. This is often a sign of an emotional need to hold on to a belief. For when close personal beliefs are challenged we tend to defend and justify them and our behavior at all costs.

Cognitive Dissonance
The occurrence of cognitive dissonance is another sign to look out for that subconscious beliefs are at work. Cognitive dissonance is an unpleasant feeling that drives self-justification of our actions and decisions, especially the wrong actions and decisions. Cognitive dissonance is a state of tension that occurs whenever a person holds two ideas, attitudes, beliefs, or opinions that are psychologically inconsistent.

As an example, after a stressful and exhausting week at work a beer and pizza feels like a great idea. However at the same time for some people, somewhere deep down inside under the outer facade, they know they are sick, fat, exhausted and unhappy and that self-medicating with pizza and beer is part of the reason why they are this way.

The tension between these two inconsistent cognitions produces mental discomfort. This can be anything from a minor pang to deep anguish and before long something has to give. Eventually we must find a way to reduce the mental discomfort. In the above example the optimal course of action is to actively seek out, learn and apply positive stress management techniques and to be prepared with a home stocked with healthy food ready to be prepared.

However, the person may really want that pizza and that beer. After all it has been a long stressful week and they can taste the glorious pizza and cold beer just thinking about it. In which case they are likely to reduce the dissonance in one of many ingenious though self-deluding ways. As an example they may justify it based on a hard workout they had that week. Unfortunately, all the hard work they’ve put in to momentarily improve their insulin resistance is going to be utterly destroyed by the incoming pizza and beer.

Consonance & Confirmation Bias
Dissonance theory also destroys the idea that we process information logically. The real picture is rather contrary to our egoistic self-conceptualization of ourselves as logical, rational, critical thinking beings. For example if new information is consonant with our beliefs we think it well founded and useful. However, if the new information is dissonant we consider it flawed, foolish or not common sense.

The need for consonance is very powerful. When we are forced to look at disconfirming evidence, we tend to find a way to criticize, distort, or dismiss it so that we can maintain or even strengthen our existing beliefs and world view. We like to maintain a stable sense of reality. This mental contortion is called the confirmation bias.

Recall the intensely defensive reaction discussed at the beginning of this article. If a person really wants a particular treat food or drink despite being overweight, unhealthy, exhausted and unhappy and someone (who actually cares enough about them to do so) informs them that they shouldn’t have it and why, they’ll likely find themselves quickly attempting to criticize, discredit or distort the discomforting evidence against having that treat. Anything can be willfully criticized and distorted if you don’t happen to actually want to learn something and improve the quality of your life.

Arguments are a simple matter to formulate and often those who have the will to be the most argumentative and suspend their own intelligence to the greatest degree in order to formulate argumentative point and counterpoint “win” the argument. Unfortunately, wining arguments does nothing to change physical reality. The simple fact is if you or someone you know is tired, fat, unhealthy and unhappy you or that person are continuing to behave incorrectly in the face of obvious feedback that your behavior is incorrect. You or they can rationalize and debate all day long. It doesn’t make a bit of difference.

Interesting Science
Neuroscience has shown that these biases in thinking are built into the very way all our brains process information. In one study a group of people were monitored by MRI while attempting to process dissonant or consonant information about George Bush or John Kerry.

The researchers found that the reasoning areas of the brain virtually shut down when the participants were confronted with dissonant information and the emotional areas of the brain became active when consonance was restored. What this shows is that we need to be very careful about making our minds up about something. For once we do there is a solid neurological basis that shows it becomes very hard to change. A personal program of open-mindedness just took on a whole new meaning.

Wrapping it Up
In the end beliefs are not necessarily good or bad. The point is unconscious unidentified beliefs are active in each of our daily lives. These beliefs dictate much of our behavior, how we see the world and the results we enjoy from our efforts. To the degree that we are conscious of the beliefs we each hold is the degree to which we can actively manage those beliefs for the improvement of the quality of our lives. This is the precise degree to which each of us is free. To the degree we each are free is the degree to which we each are enabled to be happy.

Getting Things Done – The Essence of Effective Action

Stephen — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:14:38 +0000

photo credit: alancleaver_2000

This is a guest post by Mark Harrison who writes for a number of self improvement sites. Check out his latest book, Thirty Days to Change Your Life.

Life can sometimes seem like an assault course. People are forever making demands on your time, expectations keep changing, and there is pressure on you to perform or ‘show results.’ Our busy daily lives can be chaotic and confusing. How can we approach this demanding and ever-changing obstacle course, not only unscathed but successful? Here are a few things I try to keep in mind as I make my way through each hectic day.

Know What’s Important, What’s Urgent, & What’s Neither
The difference between ‘urgent’ and ‘important’ is vital. Steven Covey, in his famous book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective people, writes about this at some length. Some things are urgent and must be dealt with immediately – the baby is crying, there’s been an accident, the deadline is in ten minutes. Of the remaining tasks, some are important but not urgent, and others are neither urgent nor important. The latter category of tasks can effectively be postponed indefinitely without consequence, but it is the important-not-urgent category that can cause the most trouble. Not being urgent, these items can be postponed, but the consequences of not doing them can be quite serious.

Taking time to review and reflect on the success of a project, for example, is important but rarely urgent. It is the kind of thing that often gets neglected, yet failing to do it can serious impact on the success of a future project. Taking time to be with your family is another example. Some people postpone this most important of activities for years, and as a result they miss out on one of the richest and most rewarding experiences in life.

As things come onto your radar, try to put them in the right category. Don’t spend too much time on things that aren’t important, even if they’re urgent. If you can, delegate the unimportant stuff to free up more time. And, most importantly, plan some time to deal with the really important things. To quote a famous line, ‘don’t sweat the small stuff.’

Remember the Law of Diminishing Returns
When you first start something, it is often possible to make enormous strides in a short period of time. For example, I live in Hong Kong and, when I started to learn Cantonese, I made a lot of progress quite quickly and before I knew it I could read quite a lot of Chinese and get around the place pretty well using the local language. But as time went on, I hit a plateau. This is true of many things – trying to lose weight is another excellent example.

The trick here is deciding what to do when you get onto the plateau. First, it’s probably not really a plateau, but simply that your progress has slowed right down. This can be called the law of diminishing returns. You keep working for less and less progress. Now you have a choice – either stop and be satisfied with the results so far, or keep going and achieve relatively less as time goes by.

The decision depends on the situation – if you want to be fluent in a language or you want to reach a weight goal, then you will have to keep going and find ways of breaking through to a new level of progress. If, however, you have other pressing or important tasks, the best option may be to settle for what has already been achieved and then move on. Neither option is always better – it depends on the context. But being aware of this phenomenon can improve your productivity by focusing your energies on where you can make the greatest progress, and can prevent you from being frustrated by working hard for limited success.

Understand the Limits of Your Influence
Lao Tzu, the semi-mythical author of the Tao Te Ching, wrote that ‘ruling a large country is like cooking a small fish – too much handling will spoil it.’ Lao Tzu seems to be saying that too much intervention (or should that be ‘interference’?) will not achieve the best results. A few moments thought will make it clear that we have almost no direct influence over other people and situations. People make their own decisions, usually (perhaps always) based on their own best interests. A skillful and perceptive person can sometimes align the best interests of the people in his sphere of concern with the outcomes he wishes to achieve, but this is often not possible, and this is perhaps why the results of our actions are so notoriously unpredictable.

In the end, all we can do is to ‘dance our own dance’ as the Jesuit writer Anthony de Mello would have said, do what we consider to be right, and leave the outcomes to a wisdom far greater than our own. This is not to say we have no influence, but the kind of influence we have is perhaps not what we expect.

Focus on Your own Happiness and Wellbeing
Aristotle wrote that ‘happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.’

Since we can have so little direct influence on the world, it seems to me that we are better off not focusing on how to change things ‘out there’ and focus instead on our own inner world. Our experience is, in a sense, an echo of this inner world. It sometimes seems that we are simply observing the world, that it is all happening independently of us. And yet this is not the case – the way we think and so the way we feel colors our experience and so influences the world in an indirect kind of way.

When you are happy, things seem to work better. Things go more smoothly, people respond more positively to you, more opportunities arise, there is more serendipity. Although we might sometimes think that focusing on our own happiness is selfish, in a sense, finding happiness is the best thing you can do for your own productivity and also for the wellbeing of others. Think about this – would you rather have a happy boss or a miserable one? Would you rather have a happy spouse or an unhappy one? I think the answer is clear.

The right attitude is everything. Approaching life in a relaxed way, flexible, working with the natural grain of things and being realistic about our influence will yield a great deal more than force. Isn’t it easier to walk around the mountain than to go over it?

Celebrating 150 Posts with the Best of BE

Stephen — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:23:14 +0000

Balanced Existence (BE) recently surpassed 150 articles since its inception. All BE articles ever written are contained within the archives. However, many of you have joined BE since the early days of frenetic activity. So now is a fantastic opportunity to share with you a selection from the early days that are part of the best of BE.

Fear, Hate & Letting Go: A personal account regarding confrontation with fear in which I forced myself to face fear completely alone. This was a personal experiment in coming to know fear intimately, to know fear for what it is and let it go. Like a muscle held under tension for too long that eventually and spontaneously gives up, relaxes and lets go. This is an account of my adventure alone in a very isolated part of the Australian bush and some of the thoughts and personal growth that occurred as a result.

Interdependence, or Why We Are All One: This post takes a look at some very interesting science such as the discovery by Fritz-Albert Popp that all living things, from the most basic single-celled organisms to the most complex organism such as humans, emit a constant current of tiny particles of light called photons.

Your Imaginary Boundaries are Making You Unhappy: This post was inspired by a meditation I was enjoying at the time and examines the nature and source of the boundaries we create for ourselves. This is an important topic because our imagined boundaries cause many of us to feel isolated, alone and depressed. They stop us from ever really loving anyone. The vast majority of love as expressed by us humans is conditional. We are all deeply selfish in the very sense of the word. This is a direct result of seeing ourselves as separate. We are thus ignorant of the manner of our real existence. With such a state of affairs it is difficult to see how our love could be anything but conditional.

How to Stop Procrastinating, Get Motivated & Achieve: This was a Neuro-Linguistic Programming inspired post that explains a powerful mental programming exercise that I personally used to really get myself going again and motivated after physically recovering from chronic fatigue.

Your Life is What Your Thoughts Make It: Probably the most vital lesson we can learn in life is the importance of what we think. Some say that if they knew what you think, they would know what you are. Indeed our thoughts make us what we are. If we think failure we will fail. If we think of lack and worry we will have lack and worry. If we think happy thoughts we will be happy. This is possibly one of the most important articles I’ve ever written.

The Power of an Inner Smile and the Law of Entrainment: Practicing an inner smile is a powerful practice indeed. A few years ago I decided to try an experiment. I had been reading about the secret of the inner smile and wanted to test it under the pressure of modern life. This article recounts my experience and examines something I call The Law of Entrainment.

How to Overcome Daily Fatigue and Tiredness: Having overcome a long struggle with diagnosed post-viral chronic fatigue I’m somewhat of an expert in healing fatigue. This article looks at a very common cause of daily fatigue and tiredness that most people are completely unaware of and how to fix the problem so you don’t feel like the walking dead all the time.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief journey back in BE time. I encourage you to check out the archives from time to time and if you haven’t already you might like to subscribe to BE by using the form below. That way you can receive all the latest articles free in your email.

Sugar is Sweet Poison

Stephen — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:18:36 +0000

photo credit: yumyumbubblegum

This is a guest post by David Gillespie, author of Sweet Poison. A book in which David documents his personal journey from ignorant obesity to a well researched normal weight guy. Check out his highly informative blog at Raisin Hell.

Stephen has asked me to drop by Balanced Existence (BE) every now and then with a guest post. And I was very happy to agree. I guess the best place to start is with a short introduction. My book, Sweet Poison, is all about the science of exactly how bad sugar is for us.

In the book I documented my personal journey from ignorant fat guy to well researched normal (well normal weight anyway) guy. I’m not a biochemist or a doctor. In fact I have no medical training at all. I was just a heavily overweight lawyer with a desperate need to know why I could never lose weight no matter how hard I tried.

I had to train myself to read medical journals. I had to train myself to sort the wheat from the chaff. And I had to train myself to understand what they all said. The only training I had before I started was the kind that they give lawyers to help them build a case. I used that training to gather the evidence for and against the theory that sugar was the cause of many (if not most) of the chronic diseases we now face (including my obesity).

I took notes so I could remember how it all worked and those notes turned into a book for people who wanted to know why sugar was killing them. Sweet Poison was also a case study (of one). It not only documented what the science said, but it told the story of how I implemented that in my life.

Sugar makes you fat. There’s no doubt about it. There’s not a single research paper done in the last 15 years which would dispute that basic point. And there are over 3,000 that will confirm it. But for reasons which I explore in Sweet Poison and take further on my blog Raisin Hell you will struggle to find the single bright-line rule that matters most written anywhere. “Don’t eat sugar” should be printed in bold type in every nutrition guideline, but it’s not. Instead the message is the tired and pathetic “everything in moderation”.

I’ll keep dropping by Balanced Existence (BE) to share the latest research on sugar, but here’s a few facts to whet your appetite:

Sugar was once such a rare resource that nature decided we didn’t need an off-switch - in other words, we can keep eating sugar without feeling full.
In the space of 150 years, we have gone from eating no added sugar to more than a kilogram a week.
You would need to run 7km every day of your life just to not put on weight as a result of eating that much sugar.
Two decades ago 1 in 14 adult Australians were obese; that figure is now 1 in 5.
The ‘natural’ sugar in one glass of unsweetened fruit juice per day for a year is enough to add just over 2.5kg your waistline.
The more sugar we eat, the more we want. Food manufacturers exploit our sugar addiction by lacing it through ‘non-sweet’ products, such as bread, sauces, soups and cereals.

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