Month: October 2020

Today’s title was inspired by an advertisement for a fitness product (one I actually like). It struck me how unfortunate it is that this is how people view fitness—as something one has to fit into one’s life. Sadly, people who have this view often find it easy to make excuses for why it can’t fit into their lives.

Fitness should not be a piece of the puzzle. Rather, it is the puzzle in which many pieces fit, e.g., Spiritually, Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally, and Socially. The hour or so of daily exercise and (additional) physical activity are not all there is to being “fit.” Fitness is a life-style and the asymptote of personal growth.

Every choice we make impacts our “fitness”. It isn’t enough to go to the gym three days a week and “eat healthy” (most of the time). Fitness is not a singular activity. Rather, it is the choices in activities (“opportunity costs”).

Last night, my wife commented that I was “the most disciplined person” she knows. I responded that surely this is not the case. I was able to rattle off a list of people who I would consider more disciplined than myself (not surprisingly, they were all wrestlers of notable caliber). I am sure there are countless people (even non wrestlers) I don’t know who are far more disciplined for me. Caused to think about my “discipline”, I see where I have made a more concerted effort to make fitness my life rather than to merely fit fitness into my life.

Fitness is not short-term changes made to achieve a short-term goal. It is a diet rather than dieting. It is habit rather than (short-term) transformation. It is the process of eliminating unhealthy behavior. It is commitment and consistency.

Perhaps, reading this, you are struggling to “fit fitness into your life.” As such, it may be a struggle to schedule regular exercise sessions. You may be looking at which diet is “best” or what exercise program you should do. We have all been there. It is baby steps at first. “Fitting fitness into our lives” is not a singular change. It is many changes made one at a time or a few at a time. Over time, these positive choices crowd out the negative choices. Fitness becomes the lifestyle.

Don’t think of fitness as the gym. Rather think of the gym as a component of fitness. Exercise. Eat right. Maintain a healthy body composition. Establish regular sleeping habits. Journal. Develop a growth plan. Commit time to family and community. Read. Learn. Do all that will make you Spiritually, Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally, and Socially well-centered. Consider what you do with your time and how it fits into your “fitness”.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

Readers of fitness magazines, websites, and social media are regularly bombarded with “new” and creative exercises that promise “bigger (insert under-developed body part).” It is tempting to make an abrupt change in the current program to accommodate. The reality, however, is that you are probably not sticking to your plan and to you diet, and that is why you are not seeing results. (There might be a genetic factor there, as well, but let’s not slip into easy excuses.)

There are some great exercise variations, but the most important factors in success are commitment and  consistency. Nothing fancy, just honest effort in the right areas. Master the basics—the squat, deadlift, bench, row, and overhead press—and you will see the desired progress. Add the simple variations to these, e.g., front squats, split squats, etc.; Romanian deadlifts; horizontal/vertical/inclined/declined angles of pushing and pulling; grip variations; etc., and there will be little need for wild variations. Truth be told, we are probably not doing the exercises. Period.

The exercise you are not doing is probably the exercise that is already in your program. So, stick with the plan. Trust that the effort will pay. Focus on commitment and consistency.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

I have often cited a quote a pastor passed on from his farmer father: “’Can’t’ never dun nothin’.” (Or: “’Can’t’ never did anything” to satisfy my high school English teacher.) For some, it is easy to challenge this the response: “Yeah, but….” Of course, “Can” is easier for some and seemingly insurmountable for others. Nevertheless, I stand by my proposition that “’Can’t’ never did anything.” We simply have to look by our perception of our limitations and see the reality of what we are capable of doing.

I know a lot of people with significant physical limitations who aspire to do tremendous things and, thereby, do tremendous things. They certainly put me to shame. For some, simply getting up out of bed in the morning is difficult, but they make the choice to move. They deny “Can’t” the opportunity to define their limits. I am in awe of such people.

Then there are those who, while quite able, can find nothing but excuses for why they “Can’t” do somethings. Time. Money. Work. Access. Etc. The list of why-nots can be extensive. Frankly, it is sad because such people will never realize their full potential.

Which person are you? Don’t let your limitations define you. Instead, let them refine you.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

“The future depends on what you do today.”–Mahatma Gandhi

COVID-19 has been with us for well over six months, now. Are we still using it as an excuse for not doing ______? If so, enough already! Change your path today and act on what has been “holding you back.”

“The COVID-19” has become an excuse for weight gain. Restrictions have been lifted to varying degrees and should never have been an excuse for inaction in the first place. Sure, diet and exercise were challenged, but the opportunity was always there. If you slipped, get back on track today.

If we learn anything in the present pandemic, it should be that our health matters. Our future health begins with what we do today. Take time today to make a plan. Set health goals and start working toward a better future. We can’t afford to wait until tomorrow—because “tomorrow” never comes.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

“In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.”—Harry S Truman

There is little more other-centered than self-discipline.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

“Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse.”–Sophocles

After much encouragement, my wife and I finally watched The Social Dilemma. I had expected to learn more how we can protect our children (and ourselves) from the power of the internet. Instead, I concluded (what I already knew) that we have a Spiritual problem. I listened to one tech executive after another humanize technology, referring to “platforms” and “companies” seemingly distancing themselves from responsibility. Granted, they may not have understood the monsters they were creating at the beginning, but they did keep adding the lines of code. The docudrama highlights the addictive hold that social media has and is tightening on us, but I couldn’t help but see the human weakness in it all. Like everything, of course, we have choices. We have a brain—that we often neglect to use. We are subject to “fake news” and manipulation because we allow ourselves to be. Some are certainly more vulnerable than others—particularly our children. Nevertheless, we subject ourselves to social media’s hold.

I don’t say this is a Spiritual problem because we are godless or fail at religion, but because we fail at being human. It is a Spiritual problem because we all tend toward self-centeredness. We forget that we are to “love our neighbor as ourself”.

Social media platforms can be a tool or a drug. The algorithm is programmed to follow our lead. It can be helpful—like with information searches—or it can lead us down the rabbit hole—like with what it learns from our searches. In the end, the algorithm is simply revealing us more than it is manipulating us.

Personally, I know that social media can fuel my negativity, if I allow it. Social media can also fuel my gratitude, if I make it. I know that I am in control. I can turn the light on myself, or I can strive to be a light for others. Choice.

We are heading toward social destruction if something is not done. We don’t have to be addicted to social media. We get to use it as a tool to reach other—of course, positively or negatively. Choice.

Personally, I want to be optimistic. I can’t say that I am, but I can be.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow,

Carpe momento!

“Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before.”—Elizabeth Edwards

I believe many of us are missing a great opportunity. In doing so, we are falling short of our potential. Worse, we are passing our fragility on to the next generation.

COVID-19 has been harder on some than on others, but (not to ignore the fact that some have died or been left with significant health issues), as Friedrich Nietzsche is often quoted: “That which does not kill me makes me stronger.” We, therefore, need to look to what we can benefit from the challenges/opportunities presented in our current circumstances.

As an educator, I am often presented with articles detailing the tremendous “stress” teachers are under during COVID-19. I do not doubt that these are difficult times—especially for older teachers who are not very tech-savvy. It is true that few of us are trained in online instruction. So, yes, many are being tested in the crucible of 2020. But, we must remember, our students depend on us and look to our responses in times of adversity. Is it not our responsibility (along with parents and coaches) to challenge our young and teach them resilience? Instead, we fuel their sense of hopelessness.

As educators, coaches, and parents, we should not be removing obstacles from the path, nor should we be creating an illusion of obstacles. Instead, we should be encouraging those who we are leading to embrace the challenges—the opportunities—that are before us. We should be leading them from “’have’ to ‘get’”, as my friend Andy Lausier would say. We get to face the opportunities before us with enthusiasm and gratitude (“grattitude”).

Learning new things is hard—as it should be—at any age. But learning—being challenges—is growth. In growth, we become better. We become resilient.

If we excuse our own fragility, we allow it in others. We pass our weakness on to the next generation.

What an opportunity we have in adversity. We get to grow, and we get to be a foundation for the next generations. Moreover, we get the satisfaction of overcoming.

I don’t want to hear how “bad” 2020 has been. I want to see what it is affecting in me and in others. I want to see how the experiences are leading me toward my Purpose. I want to enthusiastically greet whatever comes next. I want my children (and students) to do the same.

“‎Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else.”—Henry Ward Beecher

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”—Thomas Paine

I chose as the title a main street in my hometown of Pittsburgh. I might have gone with “West Liberty”, which was the main street in the Borough of Dormont (the Pittsburgh suburb in which I grew up), because I am now on the west coast where I am seeing the distortion of liberty much more personally. I chose this title, because liberty is a two-way street. As Thomas Paine, in more than just the above quote, stressed, we are not truly free—liberated—unless our opposition is free to oppose us. I am seeing such freedom with decreasing frequency in education as well as politics.

The term “liberal” has morphed into meaning something other than freedom. It has come to be a substitute for progressive and/or some extreme social liberalism. As we are increasingly seeing it is as a side of the ever-widening divisiveness of tribalism rather than the bridge. Education is increasingly protective of ideas—and feelings—rather than open to their uncomfortable debate. Politically, we defend the tribe rather than ideas. Politicians no longer need to say what they are going to do. Instead, they focus on how they are not as bad as the other guy (or, rarely, woman). It is painful to watch.

As an educator, I encourage my students to challenge what I teach. After all, the growth of knowledge comes from challenging existing ideas—not from memorizing lecture notes. Sadly, I am rarely taken up on this. When I am, it create unreasonable discomfort in the classroom. It should not be this way.

Liberty is the freedom to live and think the way one chooses to live and think. Liberty is checked by the liberty afford to all. One’s expression of liberty cannot harm another without consequence and challenge by another’s liberty. Thomas Paine is very clear on this. It is no surprise that he titled his writings Common Sense. Patrick Henry was so impassioned by liberty that he said, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Liberty is a “third way” of living. It is to neither force one’s ideas on others or to take offense (or to be oppressed) by the expressed ideas of others. Liberty does not end in conflict. Rather it ends in growth. It is “other-centeredness”.

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Colossians 3:13, NIV)

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.’’–Mark Twain

Sometimes I just need to dwell on some wise words.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”—Marie Curie

I view the year 2020 as an opportunity for tremendous growth—Spiritually, Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally, and Socially. Whether we grow or writhe in self-pity is a matter of choice. On December 31^st, we can look back and take in the view from the mountain we have climbed, or we can remain hanging from the from the first hold at the base of the mountain overwhelmed by the challenges that were before us.

We will not all grow at the same rates, nor will growth be measured in the same units of magnitude; but we can (and must) all grow.

Oh, the people we can become—if we dare….

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!!