Tag: goal setting

#23 the movement class lesson five – back pain

Hey, look behind you, no not behind you, behind-you. When you think of your back do you think of an impressive set of shoulders or maybe your latissimus muscles, your butt? Well, you’re all right but this surprisingly complicated area of the human body is interesting. He’s made it easy with this one and broken down the muscles in the back into three;

The superficial group, which holds the trapezius, latissimus dorsi, rhomboid minor and levator scapulae. The intermediate group known as the respiratory group is a combination of serratus muscles and the deep group which are all of the wildly useful muscles that control and balance the movement of your spine.

The multitude of systems that are present in the back provide support to the head and thorax, and the ribs which are attached to the back. So before you reach for your ibuprofen and decide that your back hurts too much to do x and y, keep reading.

  1. Pull it, In my experience there is no better cure for back pain than prevention. A strong and healthy back will get you through the hard times and will ensure that you remain healthy for a long time. The back responds to pulling thing, so pull yourself up, pull something up, or pull yourself through the water and develop the muscles that keep your spine safe.
  2. Twist, the spine is not necessarily meant to twist and I don’t advise you to watch one youtube video and become a yogi but putting your body through the paces with regular movement supporting your back in less than regular movements, will be best. A burpee is tremendous, next time try two.
  3. Get up, there isn’t a practice more regulating than walking, I understand you are probably reading this and you are either on the subway looking down, or on your computer looking down, you’ll never see that goose coming… Walking chest out and take up space, look up and balance your spine on your pelvis like you are holding an egg with a spoon, notice the torque in places it should not be and stretch.

You’ve got this, the pain of failure defeats never trying at all.

Your Canadian Brother

#19 knock knock, look inside

I can prescribe humanity as being bombarded by information left right and centre, in seeking a path everyone is using different maps. We have all strayed so far away from trusting the people we used to in the past and now turn elsewhere for people that agree with us. Gone are the singular doctor, lawyer, spiritual leader of the past and welcome the day of experts around the world.

Turn it off.

Turn on your spirit, and look inside.

  1. Read. Find an author and read, by filling your days with information from people that you are unsure about. Consuming from sources you mostly agree with you are getting a part of the picture, the more you can grow from others the better off you will be.
  2. Meditate. I don’t care what your meditation is, whether sitting there, walking, in your bed with your eyes closed, introspective reflection will reveal to you what is actually important, to you. You can be as outraged as you want at whatever you want, but if you cant move like a human because you are so disconnected from your self, you wont be able to act when the time is required.
  3. Exercise. Like meditation, and determining what is important to yourself, being physically prepared to take on the harms that require your attention will require you to know, understand and improve your physical capabilities as a human. I have plenty of posts on how-to exercise so check those out.

I’ve believe in you, with no doubt.

Your Canadian brother.

#10 three steps to learn anything

It is that easy. You will learn here how to understand your human limitations before making a demonstration of knowledge.

I am grateful for coffee. Boring I know.

  1. Get help. As much as we’d like to think we are unique butterflies, we are not, everything you want to learn has been studied at length in the past. Your success depends on finding the people who have been in your position in the past and learn everything you can from them. (in general as much as you can export your mundane tasks, see tomorrows).
  2. Start at the beginning. So much of what you see is designed to make it look easy. Whatever it is, it is not easy. Whatever you are learning or want to learn is probably simple, linear and logical, however it is not easy. You didn’t spend the first decade of your life learning calculus, no, first you learned what set of symbols represent numbers and grew your knowledge from there. As is the case for anything else, especially if your background in the subject is several decades old.
  3. Definite, persistent effort. You might discover along your learning that you are relatively really good at something. Do not fool yourself, your knack for a thing does not reflect your abilities, the dedicated pursuit of the thing, for hours, months and years will ensure your success.

You can learn anything,

Your CDN Bro.

#08 personal ownership at the time of a global pandemic

I am grateful for my health.

So much of our brainspace is being consumed by illness. We continue to be inundated with illness and everyone is looking outwards for a solution, they are looking at what the leaders are doing about it, what are you doing about it? It is our responsibility to keep ourselves healthy and safe as well as our wives and children and loved ones. They say never waste a crisis, so here are three things to do to take charge of it and own the crisis.

1. Enterprise. I remember that at the onset of this global illness there was a massive shortage in pretty much everything and it hasn’t gone to “normal” maybe it never will. Take the opportunity and step into the supply chain, do you see a demand gap? Figure out a way to make yourself part of the chain.

2. Improve. The world continues to turn as much as some aspects have ensured some factors are more difficult it is time to work on yourself. Whether that be getting as fit as fuck or learning a new skill or getting that degree you’ve been putting off, there has never been a better time to improve for alls sake, read a book.

3. Rest. We haven’t seen the impact of a pandemic on a mental health scale yet, we have surely experienced itself in ourselves by staring at other blank masked faces staring back at us, blankly. Take time and rest, develop the habits and routines that make you wake up daily ready to tackle 1. And 2.

A winter sunrise

Your Canadian brother.

#07 three step goal setting (not SMART) but PPP

I set goals and achieving them is fundamental to us, however we’re often out of our scope when it comes to preparing goals other than get up from the couch to the fridge and stuff your face, that is a goal I struggle to say no to maybe you’ve got other goals.

Goal setting equation. G = a(x)

Me, yesterday.

So to enable your ‘a’ (activities or.. ass) to be a function of ‘x’lets go through three steps on how you can reach your goals.

SMART goals are great, I have nothing against them and they have helped people at least a couple decades to make achievements. But just because it is called a SMART goal does not give it the right to say its the best, its just a SMART acronym, shit. Anyway, PPP is the way you need to look at your goals, not as something you have to achieve but something that you’ve already accomplished.

  1. Passion. It does not matter what you are doing, whatever the goal is, if you do not chase it with unconstrained enthusiasm then why is it on your list of goals, drop it and make better use of your time, chase it with enthusiasm.
  2. Persistence. Second, enthusiasm or motivation or whatever you want to call your passion will curve, you’ll get so sick of it you wont want to proceed and will find excuses to get yourself out your goals. What is important is that you continue to build and develop towards your goal, keep building the channels that are parallel to where you want the water so that the lake can flow freely towards that new low area (where you want to be).
  3. Patience. Reflective of both of the above you must have patience with yourself and with the process. Artists never get to reap the rewards of their art because it only becomes extremely valuable when they pass, your patience must be generational, like a stone. If you lose your patience when things don’t go your way for a year, or three, but continue to use passion and persistence you don’t have a reason to be impatient you body will leave the earth but it is up to you to make your work last for eternity.
The Ottawa airport CYOW pretending its the holidays.

Day 3 of Week 1 – STR 2, Pullups was not managed six sets of eight good reps and then to failure on three more sets. 10 minutes total. Single KB Press w 25lbs weight, steady through the 10 minutes with a burn out break at 1min 20sec left.