Experiment 1: Plan Ahead

I haven't quite decided on the theme of this blog yet but let's just start with general for now which will probably pretty quickly morph into, nutrition, fitness and life, the universe and everything.
To say that I am scattered is a bit of an under statement. I have trouble focusing because I love, like and am generally interested in learning so many things that I can hardly settle long enough to stick with any of them. As you can probably imagine this is a huge problem since it means that I  don't make a lot of progress on anything due to being constantly distracted.

I have thought about turning to friends and family, instead of constantly relying on my super supportive and ever encouraging partner in crime. I am sure that he doesn't mind but I would like to give him a break from my constant need to be supervised. (Yes, that was meant to be funny).

Now nearly 30, I have spent most of my life being fairly active, with the exception of about three years, one in high school, one in college and the year that I spent in grad school, which I am not sure counts because I did do an awful lot of activities they just weren't traditional, organized ones like soccer or tennis, etc.

Anyhow, back to the point, I have recently found that I am running low on both energy and motivation, problematic for someone who loves to be active, experience new things, travel and generally be peppy. I have lost my pep. After numerous suggestions of changing my diet, my work out routine, my decision making process, ideas about food, sleeping patterns and I am sure many other things that I have coincidentally forgotten, I am trying to pledge to take the "no brut force" method of reclaiming my vigour. To say I have given each of the previously mentioned suggestions a valid effort is probably not true. I usually try them for a day or two and then subsequently forget about them, get distracted by something, or just give up because there was "no magic."

I have read a lot of blogs and web articles about motivation and energy. Usually they go something like this:

Here are 10 ways to have more energy
1. Get a better night sleep
2. Eat healthier (more greens)
3. Exercise
4...
And so on.

Do you see the problem? Sure these all sound like great things, but how do you accomplish them? For instance, let's look at number 1. "Get better sleep," which basically translate to improve your sleep quality. Ok, sure. How do I do that again? Or right you don't know. Short of "removing all the stress related factors in your life," which by the way, if you are a working professional and don't have the luxury of making your own schedule and choices, have a family to support or any such responsibilities, this is a super challenging thing to do. (I should add that I think it is still remarkable difficult to do even if you get to do those other things. I hand it to you self-employed people, I would probably end up with a heart attack if I had to deal with the stress of "making it" every month. You all are rock starts in my book.)

So... don't be stressed. Great, I'll just hit that switch on the way out the door, thanks. Wrong. It's like trying to unmake a cake, messy and not productive. Also, not the root of the problem. The root of the problem, as I am daily reminded, probably lies in our ability to focus and think things through. At least it seems rational. If you can't focus on the problem long enough to come up with a solution or a theory, hypothesis, test, or something to try, how are you ever going to expect to fix it. MAGIC!, Ahh yes, the answer to everything. No worries it will sort itself out.

For those of us who are not patient enough to wait that long, and it probably will be a really long wait, longer than customer support for (INSERT CRAPPY SUPPORT WAIT TIME COMPANY HERE).

So if you want to play along with me
Experiment #1: Think it through. (ohhh man that's going to be time consuming)

If you have trouble sleeping start with why you think you aren't sleeping well. Hmmm, why do I suck a sleeping? Hell if I know. And that is the point.  Obviously, myself included here, most of us approach problems this way. If the answer doesn't come immediately to mind we give up and therefore never really try. So my challenge is to start to think things through. And, yes, this is going to be tough because I lack focus.

The Plan: How do I accomplish this?
How do I plan to make this happen... good question, good place to start. Well, let's start with conscious effort. Plan to make a plan. Starting with baby steps and knowing how I like to do multiple things at once, I will team up the efforts to accomplish goals, may simultaneously. It may not work and then, as in any good experiment I will re-evaluate. Here's my first one: Planning out my gym work out.

So if you know me, you know I am an avid rock climber. What you may not know is that I have some issues with my climbing. I have hit what is usually referred to as the "plateau" and have been stuck at the same climbing level for over a year. I have made next to no progress (which may have to do with the way I assess the progress but that is for another discussion and experiment) and have developed some other issues such as fear of falling and being unable to push myself past uncomfortable areas. Also, due probably mostly to the above I have lost quite a bit of motivation. So, this is where my experiment starts.

I am going to attempt to make a plan for my climbing each day. On off days I will spend at least 20 minutes (ahh that's a long time) thinking critically about my performance during the on days.

And now, this is where the friends and family portions come in. I need your help to keep me on track!! My gym schedule is pretty erratic but I do climb most days so it's pretty safe to say that if you e-mail, call, text, or otherwise ping me with a reminder, it will be a good day to do that. Thanks in advance to holding me to my word. Let's make this thing happen.


"Some people are able to support themselves, others need help, all of us need encouragement"