Younger Next Year!

I could not resist a post about this book. I absorbed every page and will act on the knowledge. 90% of the ailments that plague older women are preventable. Knowledge is strength. He has 3 recommendations but the general content and style of the book is readable and actionable and not at all preachy. I loved it.

Here is what I took away from the book:
1. Do one hour of aerobic exercise each day. Doesn't matter what it is. It just has to raise your heart rate to 60% of your maximum. Do the thing you love to do but do it at 60% of your heart rate. Buy a heart rte monitor. Easy and fascinating.
2. Strength train 2-3 times a week. Push a little.
3. Be happy. Smile. Take life easy. Don't get grumpy.

3 easy pieces. I can do that. I go 10 km every day but now I monitor my heart rate to maximize my range for fat burning. He says that mid body fat that creeps up does not need to be there and besides that, it is dangerous. 1 in 3 women have heart disease. Totally preventable. I like that.

The book gave me control over my gradual descent into old age. He says you can be fifty until you are eighty and more. I like that too.

He changed my life. And I am not even finished the book yet!

The Retrospective View of Life

Fear is a survival instinct. In early times, it alerted us when we were in peril and protected us from harm. In modern day, our fear instincts alert us to the sound of footsteps that could endanger our survival and keeps us from going into places that could harm us.

But as we get older our self preservation instincts stop us from doing the things that could change our world. We fear an uncertain outcome (one that could be great) and we settle back into the safe, mediocre place where we reside. And yet our greatest regrets are the things we did not do. When I am 85 will I wish I had stayed at my job and not ever experienced my own gig. Probably not. And what about all the experiences and skills I will learn along the way. What if I create autonomy in my life that allows me to see and travel the world. Then it is worth struggling through the fear that threatens to hold me where I am. Even as I write the voice of fear says what if you do not succeed...

Just reviewing the walls I have walked around since I began. Progress has been slow because I was repeatedly stalled - no paralyzed by fear each time something did not work out. Having a mentor who has once been where I am now helps make the process real. She has expectations of my product that makes it far from trivial. She is hugely successful in the exact world where I will go, so her belief in what we are doing is founded in experience and knowledge. It helps me to confront my fears, dispel them and move past them. It moves me faster through this sequence. New skills.

Interesting that those who are near death, get a final hours perspective. Crystal clear visions of how it is. What you have. What you earn. Were you successful on the parameters that your world uses to evaluate you? It all doesn't matter. 'Did you use the years on Earth well' is the true measure of the time spent. We define the word 'well' deep inside of our own heart and mind. If we can hold on to the final hours perspective then it changes how we view things and it creates an almost tangible peace in the choices we make. We eschew the choices that do not resound in the final hours analysis. We need to summon the final hours perspective more often in our lives to crystallize what is real and what is meaningless. It changes what we do with each minute.

Details

I will figure it out as I go. It actually feels quite natural now. I look forward and see the future. In the present I work away at the mundane details to get the product underway. These details are the underpinnings of the future. Not doing them guarantees there is no future. Not easy to focus on them. Want to dance in the future.

I know this is the discipline that ensures that the project goes forward. Endless ideas to expand in the future. Need to focus on now. In this altered view of things, the mountains are just little rocks that can be kicked aside. Each time something does not work out, I follow a new solution. Without fail, that new solution seems to create a better result than the method that was left behind. Sometimes it delays the project and buys me time to see what I could not when I was hurried. It is resulting in a better final product. Just need to get out of my own way and just let it happen.

Authenticity

In his blog Harris III speaks of his goal of creating the perception of what he wants to be - a busy, in-demand professional...and in so doing he has spent his entire life managing and creating illusions. He does everything he can to create perceptions in people's minds of how he wants them to view him. He is an illusionist by trade but he analyzes how his trade has affected his life and his ability to be authentic.

My reflections on his thoughts. For the first twenty years you are figuring out what you would like to be like. For the second twenty years of life you do not even realize that there is an authentic self. You are working to create the perception of what you want people to see. Then for the next ten years you know there is more but it remains elusive. In your fifties it becomes clear and although you stray, you can easily identify when you are in an authentic place and when you are not. And when you are there it is so completely in harmony with who you are that you strive repeatedly to regain it. And eventually you become who you are rather than who you thought you should be. Imagine that.

I Will Figure It Out as I Go

I am reading Jonathon Mead's ebook excerpt. It is profound and once again reminds me that nothing amazing is simple. He says three things at the end of Chapter 5.I have not quoted exactly but the ideas are his and they are profound.

Regularly push yourself out of your comfort zone. Always do what you are afraid to do. When you are working on a project and it seems like everything is difficult, keep going. If it was easy it would be ordinary not amazing.

Change your auto response. Instead of thinking "I don't know so I won't do that." Change your thinking to "I'll figure it out as I go." Just this small tweak to your inner conversation changes the way you look at things. It is true that everything that seemed hard looks easy in retrospect. If I look back at any daunting challenge of the past, the challenge seems trivial. It is because you grew to the challenge and Oliver Wendell Holmes says it best. "Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."

Don't let not knowing keep you from taking action. Remember that paths are made by walking. Not knowing keeps me from acting. Kids act without knowing. They are spontaneous and interesting as a result. We admonish them for not weighing the consequences of their actions. But we can go too far in the weighing of consequences and never act. As adults we have learned to weigh the consequences and are trapped by it. Two extremes. Neither is optimal. Somewhere in the middle lies the path. Go look for it by acting.

Check out my blog at http://fiftyandalmostfabulous.blogspot.com/

Mysterious Ways

When your mind seems idle, it is then that we solve all our outstanding dilemmas. Out of nowhere, an answer to an issue that has defied all logical problem solving methods, springs forward with no warning. It requires the mind to be quiet and not stressed with workload. On my walk. Listening to music. Reading uncomplicated material. There it is. The solution flows quietly into my brain. No Eureka. Just there. I hardly recognize it for what is. It was too simple after working so hard to find the answer.

Have confidence that a subconscious problem solving mechanism lurks beneath the surface. If we can get to that peaceful place the answer will spring forward unannounced and complete. The busy mind usurps it's power and renders it useless.But it is there for us to use. You will only know it is working by the results. It is not by chance that these thoughts arrive but through digesting the problem with a peaceful mind. Sometimes it will arrive as you lie in bed thinking of nothing. Or the answer will be there when you awake. Your brain actually generates 25 Watts of Power while you are awake enough to illuminate a light bulb. There must be something going on in there. Try it when you need a solution.

Pixie Dust

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." I made a series of small steps and am once again on my path after a brief negative interlude. As I take these steps I am strangely successful beyond what I expect. Three times in the past day I have experienced results that exceeded my expectations. Low Expectations or Great Results? Nice feeling. I wonder what will be next! I have this feeling of everything temporarily falling into place on the project I am working on. Never has it felt so harmonious! Like it was meant to be. A phone call from a key person who should never have called. A handful of contacts who respond positively to my inquiries. A person who wishes to form a co-operative venture which will move my project forward. Strange swing from last post. Keep on stepping.

I am doing 5 things each day. It often becomes 10 things. Not just doing things, but doing the things that make a difference on the project. I am learning how to move forward no matter how I feel. It is an important distinction. I am at a growth point and I reject the urge to run back to my "easy" comfort zone.

I am rereading "As a Man Thinketh" by James Allen. He says that we become what we think about be it positive or negative. Am I creating this reality?