Can Your Life Be Too Easy??

“Awwww your life has been too easy and now you want to complain about it?  FUCK YOU!”  Yeah  I know, its a horrible blog topic, people have real problems, and its whiny, but this shit is my blog.  So yeah, I’ve had it real easy, pretty much gotten everything I wanted, definitely had everything I needed and more, and what has it done for me now?  DICK!  If I didn’t like something, I didn’t have to do it, so now guess what I do?  Quit everything.  Never had to do things that make me uncomfortable, now guess?  I avoid pretty much all uncomfortable situations.  My testicles are metaphorically the size of peas.  So why the self hate, its not really self hate its just looking at myself in an honest attempt to see why my life is where it is.  I believe we all need to do this.  Remove that rose colored lens and by god don’t listen to someone else’s opinion because they most likely are gonna polish any piece of shit you have created.  If you are have the opposite problem and you look at your life through shit colored glasses, then you are probably not seeing your life realistically either.  Anyway, yes my life has been too easy and it made me soft, honestly its too easy right now.  There was only one time in my life when I cut myself off and gave myself no other fucking options.  People said I was crazy and even though every night I had extreme worry and I felt stress…  I felt a whole lot more FUCKING PURPOSE.  I have a friend who is pursuing his higher education and currently living at home, he is a non traditional student as he is in his early 30’s.  He is doing everything right to facilitate his schooling, keep his debt low, and also help his mother, but when I talk to him there is something missing from his life.  Its the fucking challenge, its the stress (outside of school), and the purpose.  So don’t always look to make your life easy, one day you will look down and your reproductive organs will be shriveled and you will find that you have become soft and weak.
We’re all gonna make it.

©BrentMW


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The Beatles And Deliberate Practice


There is a story about the Beatles when they first became a band, it says that their first gigs were playing music at The Indra and Kaiserkeller which both offered live music during its open hours.  This means that they played music for hours upon hours, 7 days a week!  What it also means is that they probably had to play music written by other people and therefore had to learn new styles that quite possibly were out of their comfort zone.  Now what made them arguably the best compared to many other people that have followed similar paths is that they were constantly working on what they were either unfamiliar with or not good at.  It is tempting to want to find something you are good at and really drive it into the ground because honestly, it is hard to stay motivated when the only things you ever practice are that which you are bad at.  Often we want to practice what we are good at so that we can feel good about ourselves and impress others.  So to separate yourselves from those that are great, use deliberate practice, don’t let your ego dictate your focus.  Always focus most of your efforts on that which challenges you the most and puts you outside of your comfort zone, don’t focus on that which will make you feel good or impress others in the short term.
We’re all gonna make it.

©BrentMW


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-Mark Twain

I stumbled upon this quote today and I felt compelled to write about it.  I feel that we have gotten to wrapped up in cliches and they have lost their power.  I used to say, “cliches are cliche because they are the truth”.  So instead of quickly dismissing them we should try to gain the wisdom that they hold.  Life is too short to be wasting time.  Life is too short to not experience something you desire.  Every morning when I take my walk, I have at least one moment where I think, “what is stopping a car from hitting me right now?”.  At certain low points I would say I even welcome it.  Imagine though at that moment when the lights are getting dim and all of your future plans are cancelled.  All the things you thought you would have time to do.  The sensations you have never felt or will never feel.  The lips you will never kiss…  Can you let it all go so easily?  Or maybe you live a long and healthy life but don’t pursue the experiences you have always wanted to, would that be harder to swallow?  So don’t just read this and get motivated in this moment, then tomorrow spend the day looking at funny pictures of cats.  Do the thing, have the experience, tell the person, because tomorrow that thing, experience, or person might not be here anymore.
We’re all gonna make it.

©BrentMW


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Good old fashioned pyramid sets

If you are a natural bodybuilder, the old school pyramid set is one of the best ways to build muscle.  It includes a nice warm up, strength work, and a muscle pump.  It is pretty simple, start out with the weights light and do between 12-15 reps, then move up in weight and do 10-12 reps, increase the weight again and do 8-10 reps, continue until you are only able to rep the weight 1-4 times, this should be lower than your 1RM because you will be fatigued.  Now for the fun part, on your last heavy set, immediately strip some weight off and with no rest do as many reps as you can, then repeat.  I like to do this until the weight is light enough that I can do 12-15 reps again, that is when I am finished with that exercise.  This will provide you with a good warm up acclimating you to the heavier weights, some neuromuscular work, and some endurance/muscle pump work.  This is a great way for beginners to start working out and advanced trainees looking to change it up.  Weight training is simple, the old stuff still works.  Just don’t be afraid to work hard.
We’re all gonna make it.

©BrentMW


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Why I like pain

Who is happier: Someone who wins the Lottery or someone that breaks their neck and becomes a quadriplegic?  I heard this question years ago and did some research about it recently.  There is an interesting write up about the Adaptation Principle in the book The Happiness Hypothesis, to quickly sum it up it says that there is not much of a difference between the happiness of the Lottery winner and the quadriplegic because we adapt to our situation.  When I first heard this idea, the answer at the time was that the quadriplegic actually ends up being happier after 10 years.  This is because stress strengthens us.  That is the reason the stress of weight training actually produces a physical response.  When we aren’t certain about something the pain can be unbearable, but have you noticed once you are certain the pain is decreased and you begin to adapt.  It is basic desensitization and exposure therapy which we have all experienced without knowing it, usually because we had to.  First day on a job, approaching someone attractive, new gym, becoming newly single, etc.  They all provide some level of pain, often in the form of fear, but once we were certain about the situation our bodies began to adapt and things got easier.  So why do I like pain?  Because I know that my idea of the pain is always worse than the actual pain felt and when I experience pain it means I am going to get stronger.  So my advice to you is to do things that scare you and listen to things that hurt you, you will survive and your life will be easier because of it.
We’re all gonna make it.

©BrentMW


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It’s REAL simple!

Our Sensei used to tell us.  “Want a successful life?  All you have to worry about is three things: Family, work or school, and JUDO”.  I didn’t realize how profound that was until years later.  The first two are obvious but how can Judo handle the rest of your life?  Simple, when you do Judo, combat sports, or any serious competitive activity you find that the only way you can excel is to live a life that will facilitate this.  The last Judo practice for the week ended on Thursday, which happened to be a day that my friends would meet for food and drinks at a brew pub.  So after the hard workout I would eat some food and enjoy a 24oz beer as a reward.  When I started to get serious about my conditioning and my competition I noticed that the Tuesday practice after having the beer, even that small amount, I felt like I had taken one month off!  I then did what anyone serious about Judo would do, I stopped having that beer and I didn’t feel any loss.  The question is, do we stop certain behaviors because we don’t want to do them anymore, or is it more likely that we will stop when something important is affected by them?  How many women do you know that smoke and drink but then quit immediately when they become pregnant?  So what can you do?  Get serious about something in your life that will force you to change your habits.  If you smoke, get serious about long distance cycling, if you are overweight, get serious about doing a bodybuilding competition, if you are not excelling in school, get serious about joining a club or society that requires a certain GPA.  Get out there and do something that makes you accountable!
We’re all gonna make it.

©BrentMW


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Too BIG to start?

I have a friend who is a massage therapist.  He is very well known in my hometown and has built a large network.  His practice is successful and he has goals of creating something much larger with a focus on wellness.  So I asked him recently about his progress and I got an interesting answer, he said, “I have a lot of things I want to do,… I have to be fully committed,… I want to do it right”.  This sounds great right…?  Maybe, but if doing it right means everything has to be perfect then this is an absolutely HORRIBLE idea!  We often don’t pursue our goals because it is not the “perfect” time.  I am guilty of this also but this blog is testament to my evolution.  I am running a daily blog without owning a computer!  What’s your excuse?  I just want to emphasize that there is no “perfect” time, circumstance, situation, etc.  We create the “perfect” situation by laying the foundation and building on it until we have the “perfect” environment for our idea to grow.  If you want to create a Youtube channel because you have information to share, make a tripod and use your phone to make videos.  If your content is good you will get views and will build momentum, then work towards getting a better camera, HD editing software, then a more professional background, etc.  If you want to start a career as a personal trainer, start training people close to you, then get a job at a McFitness gym, then get a quality certification or degree, work at a more high end facility, begin purchasing equipment…  Understand the idea?  If you thought of everything you would have to do to make a dream a reality you would never start, don’t think of all the steps it will require, think of what steps you can take right now in that direction.
We’re all gonna make it.

©BrentMW


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