Author: armstrong.wou@gmail.com

I came upon the above cartoon this morning and it caught my attention. It should catch our attention. What is our world becoming as we fall (or rather jump) into the hands of technology?

Sure, technology has made our lives easier and, in many ways, better (and safer—I love the Ford 360 Co-Pilot 360™, for example). Nevertheless, we must consider what we are losing. Some may say I am whining about nothing when I complain my kids can’t write in cursive (or how crappy my students’ penmanship is), but…. Sure, Spellcheck and Autocorrect are great features on my computer—provided I don’t lose my knowledge of grammar or my ability to spell words correctly. The latest concern for academics in Chat GPT. I admit, I like some of the potential for this, but…. The cartoon depicts a robot reading (hmmm, Chat GPT??) and a robot drawing while humanity is staring at blue screens. There are apps now that can “create art.” What future is there for the human artist? Computers can and will learn—and learn to learn. On one hand, this should scare the sh** out of us. On the other hand, we can see a level of benefit—if approached with wisdom. The challenge will be: what happens while we are staring at our screens?

The most disturbing thing about the cartoon is the disconnection among the humans. I see it in my classrooms and in the hallways—students on their phones rather than conversing with the person next to them. I am awed when I see a group sitting at a table in a restaurant all staring at their phones. We have laws about texting while driving, but pedestrians who text while walking are minimally annoying, if not dangerous.

I love that we have a world of information at our fingertips, but there is a cost. What that cost may be is determined by how we engage with the information (or often misinformation).

Technology should lead us to more social interaction rather than less. We should have more time to build relationships rather than less. We should become more connected rather than less.

We should not yield our creative mind to AI. If we do, humanity will be lost–not to mention the true gift of the artist. AI can mimic the expression of emotion, but it will always lack the human spirit.

We should not yield our intellect to AI. If we do, we become the robots.

It appears that humanity is at a fork in the road. Which path will it take?

What will be lost of our Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Social well-being if we give ourselves over to technology?

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

We had snow in Oregon this week. A local news outlet published a reminder of how to drive in the snow. (It was necessary judging by the way many people were driving.)

I learned to drive in Pittsburgh in the ‘70s when cars were rear-wheel-drive (RWD). Purposefully skidding and sliding (and doughnuts in an empty parking lot) were par for the (driver’s education) course. I mastered driving in the snow living in Michigan for 10 years. I am the rare individual who likes driving in the snow. (I prefer it over driving in the rain—which is what we get through most of the winters here.)

Somehow (and I hear it from friends across the country) people always seem to forget how to drive in the snow. In Oregon, the excuse is: “We don’t get snow very often.” Perhaps, but we do get snow, and the principles are simple: slow down, allow extra distance to stop, avoid excessive braking, keep a constant speed going uphill, and use low gear to assist is slowing the vehicle going downhill. We don’t forget how to ride a bike. Why do we forget how to drive (in the snow)? Why do we forget the basic habits of successful living?

This posting is not about driving in the snow (but if you are one of those drivers…). It is about managing our healthy habits. It about not forgetting the lessons we learn in life.

Learning to drive in the snow requires failure—preferably planned failure. One of the first things I do every time it snows is to find a safe place to brake and accelerate hard. Years ago, I had a new Ford Escape (the original) in Michigan when we got about two inches of snow when I was working late. I came out to an empty parking lot that was white with untouched snow. I teenage self joyfully returned. I gunned it out of my parking space. No slippage. I slammed on the brakes. No sliding. I took some sharp turns. Minimal fishtailing. Minimal fun. The vehicle was just too good in the snow. (The Explorer Sport I had previously was RWD and did not perform as well in the snow.) Nevertheless, I always drove the Escape with decades of wisdom. I never forgot how to drive in the snow. I learned in the current “snowpocalypse” that my new Bronco Sport is even better in the snow—but can still slide if I take a turn too fast (semi-planned failure). Testing ourselves and challenging ourselves maintains and improves our habits. Testing our limits will result in some failures, but failure teaches us—if we are willing to learn (and to remember).

There will be many difficulties that we will face in life. Each will come with its own lesson. Frequent intentional challenge—having a growth-mindset—will keep us on top of our habits. We will continue to master the good habits and unlearn the bad habits. We should not have to relearn everything every time a challenge resurfaces. Learn from inclement weather. Be prepared. Plan your course. Take things a bit more slowly. Don’t let fear get the better of you. Proceed with the appropriate caution and wisdom.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!!

“Your outlook upon life, your estimate of yourself, your estimate of your value are largely colored by your environment. Your whole career will be modified, shaped, molded by your surroundings, by the character of the people with whom you come in contact every day.”—Orison Swett Marden

Jim Harshaw, Jr. (“Success Through Failure” Podcast) calls it the “environment of excellence.

Jim Rohn tells us that we are “the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

We are a product of our chosen environment. (Note: chosen environment and not simply our environment.) We are dealt the hand we are dealt, but how we play it is entirely up to us. We will play the victim if we allow people to tell us we are the victim. We will play the victor when we elect to surround ourselves with a supportive team—when we choose to pursue success.

If you don’t like where you are in life, you have two choices: complain, succumb, or change. Avoid anyone who will devalue you and underestimate your worth. Find those who see greater value in you than you see in yourself. Seek those who will relentlessly push you—who will modify, shape, and mold you. At the same time, pull others up with you. Successful people reach down as well as up.

“While we are living in the present, we must celebrate life every day, knowing that we are becoming history with every work, every action, every deed.”—Mattie Stepanek

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!!

“I teach in my Physiology of Exercise course that ‘movement begins and ends with the brain.’ All action begins and ends with the brain. Therefore, all inaction begins and ends with the brain, as well. Whatever we do or don’t do begins with the motivation to act…or not. One simple choice—to act or not act.”

The above is a quote from a manuscript I am hoping to publish. I was rereading the manuscript the other day for additional edits and came across this. I was motivated to renew my efforts to find a publisher after a talk with my father about a pep-talk he planned to give my son prior to his district championships for wrestling. (My son placed 2^nd, by the way, and is off to the state tournament!) I was reminded of all the amazing things my father has done over his lifetime because he has little fear of failure (e.g., he made it to the Steelers training camp in the 1960s having never played high school or college football). It took me decades before I learned to not see failure as a negative. Failure is a learning opportunity—and something we should be doing more of. If we are failing, we are growing.

It is, indeed, a simple choice: act or don’t act. Like movement and action of any kind, inaction also begins in the brain. We may not choose the cards we are dealt in life, but we do choose how we play our hand.

If we want something in life, we must choose to pursue it. (Heck, even winning the lottery requires that we choose to buy a ticket—an action that must begin with the brain.)

“All action begins and ends with the brain” means that we must follow through with our thoughts. One criticism I have of the classic by Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, is that it (at least in the title) implies that our thoughts alone produce success. The thoughts initiate the actions that lead to success. (Note: actions—plural—lead to success.) A thought that does not lead to action ends in the brain.

Action risks failure. Failure, however, feeds the brain with the necessary information to reformulate our action plan to try again. Quitting ends with the brain. Only persistent action/effort leads to success.

Action may never grasp the “golden ring”, but it will always bring us closer than inaction ever will. Persistent action always brings one closer to success—i.e., the completion of the goal. So….

Be your best today; be better tomorrow!

Carpe momento!

I don’t know the exact source of the image above* but it caught my eye this morning. I grew up with MAD, so, yes, it is old (I guess that makes me old, too), but….

It is the sentiment of “Yes, me worry” that strikes me. (For any reader who is not “old”, Alfred E. Neuman’s saying was “What? Me worry?”) For some, worry might be warranted. Personally, I don’t want my age to be a cause for concern. I want to be confident going forward into my sixties (less than 3 months away). I want others to feel the same as they age. (Here is where I share a shameless plug for The Aging Well Podcast that I cohost with Corbin Bruton—available where you get your podcasts [e.g., Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.].) To a great degree, how we age is a matter of choice. I believe that a central consideration in growing old successfully is “well-centered fitness” (i.e., our emphasis on Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Social wellness). This, of course, is the central theme of this blog.

So, how do you perceive getting old? More than likely, that will be how you age? How do you want to age? Then start making the lifestyle changes necessary to age well. Invariably, “It happens” (Forrest Gump), but how we respond to the negative stuff in our lives has a significant effect on how we survive it. We can’t affect some circumstances in our lives, but we can affect how we respond. And there are things we can do proactively to age well. In short, I would include don’t smoke (quit, if you do), get more physical activity, exercise (especially exercise that supports muscle mass), maintain a healthy body composition, eat a healthy diet, build a strong social support community, and limit or abstain from alcohol consumption.

Yes, I am old, but I am young for my age. I have goals to do things at sixty that I couldn’t do at 50, 40, and even 30. Many of these goals (personally) revolve around weight training (e.g., squatting—now favoring the Zercher squat–and deadlifting), but I also want to continue to pursue a life of kaizen Spiritually, Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally, and Socially for as long as circumstances permit.

Yes, you are old, but….

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

*https://www.facebook.com/groups/2230711268/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=10158971945296269

I write about “well-centered fitness.” As an exercise physiologist and an exercise science professor by profession, I consider health—and the prospect of universal health (vs. “universal health care”)—to be a bio-mechanical-psycho-social construct (for more about this tune into The Aging Well Podcast for Episode 73 which airs on March 5^th). Well-centered fitness, for anyone new to this blog, involves the balance of the Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Social dimensions of wellness. Most will not contest the importance of Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Social wellness. I have, however, been told that “I am an atheist and don’t think there is a spiritual component to wellness.” I have also seen many who believe that their Spiritual well-centeredness rests in their religious faith and practice.

Spiritual well-centeredness is for all. Indeed, true Spiritual well-centeredness has no dependence on one’s belief in a god. It is defined simply as a belief that there is something “greater than self.” It is my experience that religion (that is the construct of religion as a shared system of beliefs and practices that tends to separate us) limits one’s Spiritual well-centeredness. Christianity, for example, is increasingly divided—Protestant, Catholic (Roman, Eastern, Orthodox, etc.), non-denominational, Baptist, Methodists, etc. Jesus, however, defined religion as caring for the “widowed and the fatherless” (James 1:27)—that is to care for something other than self. Religion also defines God. I have come to name the god who I believe in as “God” (like the use of “Lord” in the English translations of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible). The use of “God” signifies a god/God who transcend my comprehension and is Universal. It signifies that God who is defined as love, is the God of Creation (the Creation of the Book of Genesis and the God who emerges as one seeks to understand the science of Creation and the Universe), and the God who unites us all (Alpha to Omega) through the energy and forces that are revealed but not wholly understood by quantum physics. I use God to remind me that my beliefs are limited, and my Spiritual understanding is incomplete. I profess God to remind myself that I am not the center of the Universe and that my actions (and inactions) have consequences that ripple through time and space. It reminds me that my faith is inadequate (and often self-serving). Spiritual well-centeredness is kaizen (constant self-improvement) for the sake of others. It is a belief that “all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28)—the good of the infinite Universe/Creation. It is also grattitude (the attitude of gratitude).

Does one need to be religious or believe in a god/God to be Spiritually well-centered no. I personally believe, however, that God exists as the asymptote of well-centered fitness (and that includes the Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Social dimensions, as well as the Spiritual). I find that God is at the center of my “best today” and “better tomorrow.”

As one who professes to be a follower of Jesus and thus “Christian”, I believe Spiritual well-centeredness is defined by the two great commandments—to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40). When we see this as a Universal commandment, we see it transcends religion and religious practice. Even an atheist (who can transcend “self”), then, can be “Spiritual.”

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento.

Kaizen is the Japanese word for continuous improvement.  It is a theme that is central to “well-centered fitness.” It is a personal philosophy.

I have posted less frequently to this blog than I have in the past because I am cohosting a podcast (“The Aging Well Podcast”) with a former student. We initiated the podcast as a way of informing others (and ourselves) about self-improvement and aging with an attitude of kaizen.

It is my son’s final year of high school wrestling. After a bit of a disruption following a car accident his junior season, be is back on track and improving every time he steps on the mat. There is a saying in wrestling that there are no losers, “there are only winners and learners.” It is one of the many life-lessons from the sport. (It is my hope that my son will continue to wrestle in college, as he has yet to peak physically, as well as technically—and I just enjoy watching his pursuit of success.) I am inspired by his attitude. The goal is to get on the podium at state. Every match until the last is a learning opportunity.

Some will tell us that we peak early in life and that aging is just a downhill slide. I call “bull****!” Yes, we will be our strongest and fastest in our earlier years, but performance (especially physical performance) is relative—what are our peers doing? And for most, who never pursued the pinnacle of athletic performance, there is likely some room remaining for improvement. Challenged by my high school wrestlers who I am coaching in strength and conditioning, I recently surprised them (and myself) when I deadlifted 385 pounds cold (without a warmup)—something I don’t think I could have done in my 20s. (I think I could have pulled more that day.) I turn 60 in April. I don’t want to stop.

Beyond the physical, there should be no peak in our growth Spiritually, Intellectually, Emotionally, and Socially. Kaizen. We may have failures along the way (failure is, of course, part of the growth process), and we must be smarter in how we manage the overload (remember that growth requires a stimulus, and the stimulus follows the physiological principle of progressive overload—i.e., for a body system to adapt, it must be stressed to a level greater than that to which it is accustomed).

Kaizen is an attitude. It is a fruit of grattitude. It is the asymptote of success.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!!

We have a Christmas tradition. (It is more of my Christmas tradition.) We do a couple of puzzles—ideally difficult puzzles—over the holiday break. We try to find puzzles of places we have visited (this year, it was Glacier National Park) and/or the most difficult puzzles we can find (my dad still curses the red glass apple on a black background I gave him years ago). This year it was a puzzle from the movie Elf. More specifically, it was a collage of Buddy Elf’s (i.e., Will Ferrell’s) faces. (I realized that Will Ferrell’s eyes never change. Only the shape of his mouth.)

I always start puzzles by laying out the boarder. The pieces of this puzzle were not interlocking and the image on the puzzle box cut off the boarder images. I had to put the boarder together not knowing if the image on the box was even the image of the puzzle. And, of course, the boarder kept breaking apart (the pieces did not interlock, remember).

I approach puzzles systematically. I decided to remove all pieces that did not have facial features. This was, in part, to make room on the table to slide the boarder around—the boarder that broke apart every time you would move it. This also permitted us to tackle the puzzle one face at a time—one Will Ferrell stare at a time.

Live is like a Will Ferrell puzzle. (I can’t help but hear that sentence in the voice of Forrest Gump as I write it.) We must approach it one challenge (one opportunity) at a time.

As we begin a new year, it may start a confusing mess like the Elf puzzle. If we take it one “piece” at a time—one challenge/opportunity at a time—we will manage. Start with a goal. Devise a plan. Attack the goal strategically.

I believe whole-heartedly that our lives are interconnected (like the pieces of the puzzle—and more or less interlocking) and Purposeful. Don’t discount the events of the year—good or bad. Know that all things work together for the greater good.

I wish all who read this (and those who don’t) a blessed and growth-filled 2023—and beyond.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow!

Carpe momento!! (Carpe annum!!)

At first glance, the thought of being “stuck in the present” might seem like a negative. After all, no one wants to be “stuck.” I contend, however, that the present is where we want to be.

The past is behind us. Nothing we do will change that.

The future will always be the future. At some point, the future always becomes the present. We affect the future only by the actions we take in this moment. Our future is shaped by the decisions we make in the present. Once decisions are made and actions are taken, they become the past.

To be stuck in the past causes one to have regrets—to believe that if one could only go back in time…. It causes one to lose sight of the path ahead and the immediate step to be taken.

To be stuck in the future? Well, we can’t be “stuck” where we do not stand. The future can only be what the present will allow.

As we move toward a new year, many begin to think about what can be. Many will resolve to change; to create new habits. This is well and good, but “I will” can never succeed without the actions of “I am.”

Act now. Live in the present.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!!!

“The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.”—Napoleon Hill

Success is a long game. The best out of the gate of life are those who persist—those who have a growth mindset, value the lessons learned from failure, and who never give up. Have a vision; plan; and persist.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!