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Unnecessary to Prepare for The Worst Mentally

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Why It’s Unnecessary to Prepare The Mind for The Worst

It has been said that we should hope for the best and prepare for the worst.  But is this advice really useful?  Anyone who has been alive on this planet for an appreciable amount of time knows that things don’t always turn out as planned.  And perhaps it’s prudent to have a backup plan in certain scenarios where not having one could result in a true catastrophe or injury of some sort.  But constantly considering all that might go wrong in a given situation just to prevent a let down or disappointment is counter-productive.  It’s unnecessary to prepare for the worst mentally.

Despite my own share of synchronicity in life, I don’t necessarily believe in manifestation as some sort of magical occurrence so much as a mindset that is more likely to result in positive action towards creating the results I want.  I’m not content to sit back, imagine what I want, and wait for things to happen for me.  Because it has also been said that fortune favors the bold, and on some level synchronicity happens more frequently from taking action more often.

And since I believe in taking action, I also believe in taking steps towards making the best happen, not just hoping for it to happen.  And I certainly don’t see any point in preparing for the worst.  Especially mentally.  Again, it’s always good to have a spare tire in the trunk, but why waste energy thinking about popping a flat while flying down the highway?  We’ll react accordingly if that happens whether we’ve thought about it or not.  The intelligence of the body and nervous system act more quickly than the mind in an emergency anyhow.  And not thinking about it saves pointless stress.  Negative thoughts also come across in our body language and the way we present ourselves.  That can potentially sabotage our outcomes and efforts, especially when dealing with other humans who pick up on these things.

Positive and productive action happens seamlessly when approached from a positive and confident mindset.  Imagining all that could go wrong is self-defeating and creates doubt.  Doubt drains energy.  Thoughts about great results build energy and excitement.  Worry destroys a productive mindset and the focus necessary to accomplish great things.  Excitement creates a mindset of accomplishment and success.  Choose thoughts of victory.  Crush thoughts of defeat.  Or even better, see them for what they are, acknowledge they aren’t real, and let them fade away.  Realize that mindset is a choice, and place emphasis on the right thoughts.  There is no excuse to wallow in anything negative.

And let’s just say thoughts really do manifest magically.  Having any thoughts about the worst…is the worst way for a person to spend their mental energy.  And what a ridiculous way to bring about poor results.

If the worst does ultimately happen, so be it.  That’s life.  Move on to the next thing and continue to only think about the best.  That’s all for now.

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The Barbell of Truth

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The Barbell of Truth

When a person thinks of squats and deadlifts, it’s only natural to envision enormous maniacs covered in chalk, sniffing ammonia, slapping each other in the face, and yelling at inanimate pieces of iron before they attempt personal bests.  Lifting weights that could crush a man isn’t for the faint of heart and certainly isn’t the norm.  But I’d argue that it’s shortsighted to overlook the more cerebral side of lifting heavy barbells and write it off to the realm of the physical.  Let’s talk about the barbell of truth.

Yes, heavy lifting is an endeavor based around brute strength, but at the risk of getting touchy feely let’s not forget the mental and emotional side of brutal training cycles, and testing oneself against ever increasing weight.

I’ll explain what got me thinking about this.

I recently finished the book Spiritual Warfare by Jed McKenna.  It was definitely one of my all-time favorite spiritual reads.  Though in a sense I hesitate to even refer to it as spiritual due the many connotations and associations that come with that word.  The book contains several sections that explain exactly why most spiritual teachings and enlightenment gurus are focused on nothing more than ego-gratifying distractions for the sake of profit.  They don’t force a person to confront their demons or the specter of death, but instead allow a person to feel righteous and warm-and-fuzzy without having to do any real work on themselves.  Just sit cross legged and recite some mantras, and one can feign enlightenment without having to face the hard truths of this existence.  No radical or painful change is required when a person can simply read the right books from the right “experts” and say the right things as they continue down a path of self-deceit.

Instead, McKenna argues for pure, unadulterated, ego-smashing truth-realization over simple beliefs that sound nice.  That’s the most effective way of actually becoming enlightened.  Seeing things for what they really are and acknowledging the reality of death.

The Enlightened Meathead

This got me thinking honestly about many aspects of my life.  Are there any areas where I’m deluding myself and missing truths that should be obvious?  And I also started thinking about the time I dedicate to barbell lifting each week because it’s something I’ve always placed a lot of value and focus on.  Is it a distraction from the truth in any way?  Is my fierce dedication to training holding me back in any way?  It seemed worth asking the question since I put it before other things in my life.

In the spirit of McKenna’s approach to sorting these questions out, I decided to simply go out to the garage, put some weight on the bar, and think objectively about the process to decide for myself.  And something became apparent to me.  The barbell never lies.  400 lbs. is 400 lbs.  No amount of mental gymnastics or spiritual guru teachings can change that.

And in this way it’s a great endeavor for keeping a person grounded in truth.  Unlike the world of ego-soothing mantras and meditations, the barbell never fails to show a person exactly where they’re at.  There’s no subjectivity, and the weight doesn’t care about anybody’s feelings.  It’s 100% pure reality, and a lifter either got stronger since last week or they didn’t.  This is similar to the dynamic of learning how things work.  An electronic gizmo either functions or it doesn’t.  Truths that can’t be denied.

Furthermore, adding weight to the bar every week gets mentally stressful.  As a person starts approaching their natural limits, they might question their ability to continue progressing.  But there is something mentally fortifying about doing things that are very difficult and facing potential failure.  By doing that on a regular basis, one builds mental strength.  There are other avenues of accomplishing the same thing, but the barbell always works.

So consider that heavy lifting isn’t just an endeavor for mindless meatheads.  It has plenty to offer from a mental strength and spiritual perspective as well.  Not to mention the many health and physical performance benefits.

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When It’s Time To Back Off From Strength Training

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My Strength Training History and Experience

I’ve been squatting, deadlifting, cleaning, and pressing for over half of my life.  I started when I was thirteen of fourteen, and now I’m forty.  There were a few years in my twenties where my resistance training mostly came from bodyweight exercises and bouldering, but otherwise I’ve been training in weight rooms for the better part of twenty five years.  Most of it primarily focused on strength and performance.

In high school I squatted 500 lbs. at about 210 lbs. body weight, and in college my bench press got up to just shy of 400 lbs.  That doesn’t make me the biggest freak out there by any stretch , but I was pretty strong.

Admittedly, in my late twenties and early thirties, I had more or less resigned myself to the basic 4 sets of 10, one body part per workout, bodybuilding approach to lifting.  I wasn’t going as heavy, and I also wasn’t making any progress in my strength.

At one point I reconnected with a high school friend who had gotten into crossfit and built a garage gym.  He told me he had a platform and bumper plates, and had been olympic lifting.  When he asked if I wanted to come over and lift I was ecstatic at the prospect of being able to drop weights from overhead again and lift a bit more aggressively.  The whole point of olympic lifting is to get powerful and explosive, not necessarily to get jacked.

Fast forward a couple of years and I’d built my own home gym.  Just the basics – platform, nice bar, bumper plates, squat rack, bench, a chin up bar, and some kettlebells and other assorted pieces of gear.  And I didn’t require anything more because I’d always known that the basic compound lifts got a man bigger and stronger than anything else.

Over the past six or seven years I’ve done stints focused on olympic lifting, conjugate style training, Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1, and Mark Rippetoe’s Texas Method.  And I’ve been going heavy and continually adding weight to my lifts.  My squat is back up to where it was when I was twenty years younger.

Stress From Heavy Training Adds Up

I’ve made progress with all of these approaches, but I’ve really been on a tear lately with the Texas Method.  Of all of the approaches it has benefited my strength gains the most.  That said, it’s hard not to feel a bit beat up adding weight to the bar every week for weeks on end, and heavy 5×5 squat workouts take their toll.  Generally speaking, heavy lifting keeps my body and mind feeling really good and really young.  But I’ve realized that the accumulated stress manifests itself in strange ways sometimes.

Nagging Aches and Pains – The Obvious Signs a Break Would Help

Most obviously as of late, my right leg has had some nagging aches.  Not any sort of sharp pain or joint issues.  Mostly an aching down the front of my shin.  It sounds a bit odd, but lately when I’m more worn down and lifting really heavy that tends to pop up for some reason.  If I take a break to do lots of stretching and light exercise it goes away in a few days.

I also had about a year where my lower back was constantly sore.  I took some light weeks and did lots of lower back exercises to build up that part of my body.  High volume back raises and light good mornings did a lot of good.  And I was able to buy a second hand Rogue reverse hyperextension for a steal which hugely beneficial.  But a big part of healing my back was taking some light weeks to let it heal.

But there are much more subtle signs that it’s time to back off for a week.

Mental Signs of Accumulated Training Stress

For one, I get moodier and more easily depressed.  It would be really easy to pass that off as something else.  Or even miss that sign altogether.  But I now know that it’s often caused by pushing myself to the edge of overtraining.  If I take a nice easy week and chill out, my mental state and well being snaps back to normal very quickly.

I can also experience a drop in mental performance.  My mind gets foggier, and my memory doesn’t work as well.  I have a harder time concentrating and paying attention.  And I don’t absorb information as fluidly when listening to a lecture or talk.  Words might get stuck on the tip of my tongue, and the thoughts in my head might not manifest easily into words.  This would be easy to overlook as an “off day”, but when it occurs in conjunction with some of the other signs and symptoms I’m listing here I know it has to do with accumulated stress from aggressive and heavy training.

Losing Interest in Hobbies and Other Passions

When I’m worn down I tend to lose interest in my usual passions.  One example is music.  I love playing the guitar and saxophone, and listening to my vacuum tube hifi and vinyl collection.  But when I completely lose interest in those things I know what might be going on.  Generally speaking, the first hints of overtraining tend to make me more reclusive and less outgoing in general, and my desire to be creative takes a back seat.

Speaking of desire, I know it’s time to take a break when my libido isn’t at 100%.  All things biological take energy, and the body can only produce a finite amount.  Hard training and the recovery from it takes a lot of energy.  It’s also well known that chronic stress can throw the body’s endocrine system off balance, and raises cortisol levels which can lower testosterone levels.  This is the opposite of the aim of strength training.  So when energy has been depleted and cortisol is high, it can have the effect of lowering desire of many kinds.  And when I’m beat up from week after week of progressively harder training, I find that my libido is resurrected by taking a little break and either taking it easy or doing some sort of different physical activity for a change.

Chronic Fatigue and Poor Sleep

When I wake up in the morning after eight hours of sleep and I still feel tired, I know the accumulated stress of hard training is taking a toll.  When normal means of recovery and good sleep aren’t quite getting the job done, it’s time for me to take a step back and relax a bit more.  Furthermore, if I’m exhausted from training yet I wake up in the night and can’t sleep, I’m even closer to the edge of overtraining.  A short break helps alleviate this issue for me.

So when I’ve been pushing myself hard, these are a few of the signs that help me regulate my training for the sake of long term health and training progress.  People who train hard enough to accumulate serious levels of stress are generally Type A, and have a hard time slowing down.  There’s an allure to pushing through all barriers.  But there’s nothing valiant about causing injuries, health problems, or low levels of well being and mood.  It just shows a lack of sense and paying attention to oneself.

The whole point of training is to feel better and perform better.  It’s about health and well being.  And taking a few weeks off as necessary every year is very minor in the grand scheme of things if it contributes to better health.  Making progress with strength training is a marathon, not a sprint.  And by taking necessary breaks progress will come faster and more consistently anyway.

Breaks don’t always have to be completely inactive either.  Sometimes they can be centered around lighter, and different types, of activity.

My Approach to an Active Week Off

For those of you who just can’t sit still for a few days, here are a few of the things I do when I want to take an active week off as opposed to a week of complete inactivity.

For one, I’ll do some light hiking or biking.  I like breaking a sweat without taxing myself.  The focus is just to get the blood flowing for purposes of recovery.  It doesn’t have to feel like a workout, just movement.  And this sort of thing allows me to stretch deeply afterwards.  I’ll ride my bike casually on a set of rollers for fifteen minutes if the weather is bad, or ride outside to get some sunshine and fresh air.

And speaking of stretching, it gets demonized in the world of strength training sometimes but I don’t care.  I do it anyway.  Both when I’m training hard and when I’m taking a break.  Both static and dynamic.  It hasn’t ever impacted my ability to progress in gaining strength.  And on the flip side I’ve stayed limber while getting bigger and stronger.  Tell Dmitry Klokov stretching is a bad idea.  You can give Joe DiFranco’s Agile Eight a try for dynamic stretching if you’re not sure where to start.

I learned about the Agile Eight through Jim Wendler, and his 5/3/1 programming book also introduced me to prowler sprints.  I have a Rogue Dog Sled, and I put two 45’s on it and push it for 6-8 40 yard sprints in the alley behind my house.  The first time I tried this workout I was sore from squatting the day before.  And it took the wind out of me.  But it was strangely restorative.  The next day the soreness in my legs was completely gone.  It’s completely concentric in nature and moves a lot of blood through the legs.  This is what I do during a light week when I want some activity that isn’t so light.  It’s shocking how effective this workout can be in a very short amount of time.

I’ll also do a high intensity interval workout or two.  30 seconds on full bore, 30 seconds off for twelve minutes.  Again, incredibly effective in a really short amount of time.  I’ll pick three or four exercises and cycle through them for the twelve minutes.  Burpees, double unders, kettlebell swings, light hang cleans/snatches, ab roller, box jumps, etc.

When considering these various options, listen to your body.  There’s no point in destroying oneself when trying to back off.  And there’s also nothing wrong with doing nothing for a few days after weeks and weeks of crushing it.  Also, a week of light cardio to loosen up and recover won’t turn a big strong dude into a marathon runner.  Just do what feels good and restorative.

How I Know I’ve Done a Back Off Week Properly

When I’ve done a back off week properly, I start to feel like a caged animal ready to go berserk.  My mind is clear, I’m full of desire, I feel great, and I know I’m ready to attack the barbell again.  And then I get back to my heavy training program.  Simple.

 

 

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I Hate The Corporate World, but…

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Pros in Addition to Cons

I’ve worked the 9-5 grind for over a decade now.  And I generally dislike it.  I’m trying to find my path out.  But I think it’s unfair to knock it without acknowledging some of the really good lessons to be learned from the corporate world.

In no particular order, here are some of the benefits of spending some time in corporate America.

Being Around High Achievers Every Day

I work in the FP&A group at my office.  Basically corporate finance.  I straddle the fence between right brain and left brain, but my coworkers are all Type A, left brain ass kickers.  They all went to good schools and they are all ridiculously smart.  I struggle to fit in sometimes because I’m a bit more of a daydreamer at times.  And that mindset has certain advantages.

But these people force me to raise my game.  There are days where they humble me with their capabilities.  I’m truly amazed by the unusual knack for organizing and presenting information.  The attention to detail and concentration.  The ability to see patterns.  And the desire to succeed.  The only way to avoid feeling inadequate is to work my ass off.  And I’m glad to have been pushed to do so.  I’ll take that with me in everything I do the rest of my life.

I also have the good fortune of working in a company that is big enough and interesting enough to attract really exceptional people.  It’s also small enough that I get to interact with them all on a regular basis.  I’m constantly engaging with the C-level people in the company, and it’s great to be around those kinds of minds.  I get to see how they think and pick up on their wisdom, experience, and excitement every day.  It’s invaluable.

Exposure to Underhanded Human Nature and Political Posturing

Many of the people I work with are also a bit Machiavellian.  Some people are born to strive for Alpha status, and they strive with everything they’ve got.  They ruthlessly go after what they want every day.

Personally, I’d rather ride off into the sunset and chase freedom over power and status.  But in this world it never hurts to learn to spot the underhanded side of human nature.  And the corporate world is one place to watch it in action and develop a filter for it.

I once had a great idea for our business and told a co-worker.  I mentioned the idea to him because he was heavily involved in business development at the time.

A few minutes later he went into the COO’s office and closed the door behind him.  After he reemerged he told me he shared my idea with the COO and “had been sure to give me all of the credit”.

I’ll never know what was actually said behind closed doors.  But I have my doubts that he didn’t just take credit for the idea himself.  After all, the COO never struck up any conversations with me about.  Yet it became an initiative he decided to pursue.  I didn’t feel strongly enough to go ask the COO directly about what he was told.  But in some larger group meetings I was sure to casually mention how I’d told my idea to the co-worker.  Eventually it became known that this was something I’d come up with.

Regardless of what happened it was a reminder that people can be sneaky and dishonest.

Now when I have an idea I go straight to the CEO or COO.  That way I ensure that they see I have good, creative ideas, and that I get the credit.

It’s beneficial to have experiences that make me wiser, even if some of what goes on feels a bit slimy.

Much of What I’m Learning Will Be Beneficial as an Entrepreneur

Ultimately I want to work for myself.  And I will be positioned to manage myself effectively because of all I’ve learned and witnessed in the corporate world.

In the corporate world, business owners are highly intelligent people who are heavily invested.  They demand accurate reporting and information to allow them to make good decisions about the direction of the company.  And they are looking to maximize the return on their investment.

Nothing is haphazard.  Budgets are set as a plan to make the company grow and return a profit.  Without profit, there is no point to running a business.  And managing a large enterprise towards profitability requires rigor and discipline.

And even if one is disciplined, without the proper skill set it’s easy to mismanage or misrepresent the profitability and liquidity of a business.  With the good foundation I now have in proper accounting, reporting, analysis, modeling, and cash forecasting, I’m set up to manage my own affairs far more effectively.

I’ve seen many small business owners with a good idea fail or simply tread water due to the lack of rigor around the back end of their affairs.  They’re terrible at managing their cash.  And they really have no idea how well they’re performing at any given time.  The real world examples I’ve seen were often artists who didn’t want to bothered with the “boring” side of business.  And on some level that’s because they didn’t even know where to start and were intimidated by it.

Being able to apply these skills to any enterprise is a huge advantage for an entrepreneur in any field.

Managing Through Hard Times and Taking Advantage of Good Times

The company I work for has weathered a number of ups and downs during my tenure.  And that has required some hard pragmatism and difficult decisions.  It has also required the knowledge and intuition to know how strike when times are good and the business is thriving.

One CEO I worked under was a long time industry veteran, and also a very smart businessman in general.  When he took the helm, the company was pursuing several different lines of business.  That included real estate development in 2008 when the real estate market crashed.  And the company was suffocating under a massive debt obligation that accrued interest at a staggering rate.

He first identified which line of business he thought we were positioned to thrive in and that would provide the most value.  All other lines of business were discontinued to allow for singular focus on one core area.  And that required some very tough decisions.  But better to cause some temporary pain than see the whole enterprise fail.

He also looked at the portfolio and identified under-performing assets within the core line of business that could be sold to pay down debt and avoid a takeover by our lenders.

With these two actions the company avoided the cliff it was headed towards.

And now the company can easily cover it’s debt payments with plenty of cash from operations left over.  We have a new CEO, and he has identified opportunities to drive incremental business.  He is investing more capital in the company’s assets, and more money in high achieving employees with great ideas.  In doing so he can increase revenue and value while conditions are favorable and establish a larger base of loyal customers with a more intriguing product.

The real moral of the story here is that a company has to be actively managed.  If a person sits back and assumes their company will automatically perform well, they may be setting themselves up to fail when times get hard.  And conversely they’ll miss the opportunity to increase their profits when times are good.

I’m grateful that I’ve seen competent leaders at work through both ends of that spectrum.  The lessons were very beneficial and educational.

Conclusion

So while it’s popular to bash the wage slavery of the corporate world, I like to at least acknowledge that I’ve been paid to learn many valuable lessons while working in it.  I can move on to the world of self employment with confidence that I’ll be able to objectively assess and define my success.  And that is very powerful.

If you’re feeling stuck in the corporate world, and are trying to make moves to leave it, I applaud you.  In the meantime, it can feel a lot more palatable if a focus is placed on the many benefits that can be derived from the time spent there.

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Frustration – A Self Fulfilling Emotion

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The Problem

Every now and then I catch myself observing my own life objectively, as if from the outside, and gaining a useful insight into my state of being.  I had one of those moments the other day related to feelings of frustration.  It occurred to me that frustration has been a consistent companion of mine for many years now.

Life is a combination of circumstances we control directly, and circumstances beyond our control.  Together they determine our current lot in life.  And even though everyone is subject to circumstances beyond their own control at times, we still have the ability to be in control of our reactions to all circumstances.  Whether we cause them ourselves or not.

That said, sometimes certain reactions become so common in our day to day existence that we start failing to notice them because their steady presence means there isn’t a lot of juxtaposition to help highlight them.  Frustration has been one such reaction in my life.

I’ve felt frustrated about a number of things in recent years.  In particular, I feel stuck in my job and career, and I get frustrated that the perfect idea to escape it hasn’t come easily.  And then I get frustrated that feeling stuck in my career seems to creep into other areas of my life, giving me additional feelings of stagnation.  It starts to trigger a cycle of feeling unable to make life happen as I want it to, which only makes me more and more frustrated.

But frustration does absolutely nothing to move me forward.  Not a damn thing.  Sometimes anger or other negative emotions can provoke action to finally tackle a problem.  And I suppose frustration can have that type of effect sometimes.  But for me I’ve seen how it can result in self sabotage and robs me of the energy I could otherwise use to move forward.  It often results in clouded judgement and hasty decisions on my part.  The action it inspires is often not that well thought through which can have a tendency to backfire and cause outcomes that were the opposite of those intended.  For instance, wasted time pursuing a career idea or alternate path that I later realize isn’t the correct path.  It’s an extremely low vibration state of being.

Low vibration may sound a bit woo woo, but all I really mean is a state where negative thoughts snowball, energy wanes, the outside world is perceived through a lens of irritability, and clear, constructive motivation becomes harder to find and tap into.  It’s the opposite of flow state.  And it’s a worthless way to spend time because it causes more frustration which makes it more difficult to find the motivation to take the steps to move into a more productive state of mind and being.

Hence, frustration can be a self fulfilling emotion.  Especially when it becomes routine and unnoticed, allowing it to run rampant.  It creates it’s own existence by the mental cycle it perpetuates.

The Solution

But I noticed the frustration at work the other day, and I’m now going to discontinue it’s influence in my life.  Here is my plan to disrupt it and regain the energy it consumes so I can make bolder and more intelligent moves towards a path that will be far less frustrating to begin with, and to rebuild my reserves of creative energy to inspire more ideas:

-I’ve left myself a daily recurring reminder on my phone to be conscious of frustration and watch for it.

-When I notice it I will let it go.  It won’t be hard to let it go because I will remind myself that by letting it go I will conserve my energy.

-I’ve found that if I imagine energy flowing downward through my body and carrying the frustration out through my feet, it helps me shed the feeling more quickly and easily.

-And even if the act of letting frustration go requires me to just relax and do something mindless and distracting in lieu of trying to forge ahead, that will still be a better use of my time than wallowing in frustration and potentially self sabotaging behavior.

My thesis is that by stopping frustration in its tracks and not indulging it, my energy levels will rise, my creativity will increase, and I will make greater strides towards self sufficiency and flexibility in my day to day life.  I plan to report back on this experiment.  If anyone out there has tried similar experiments, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

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Mute the Commercials

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Generally speaking, I don’t think a whole lot of good comes from watching TV.  There are many better things to do besides watching the boob tube.  For instance, read about something, get some exercise, go into nature, go out into public and talk to a stranger, work on a project, or learn how something works.

That said, there are times when it’s nice to watch a sporting event or educational show to relax or learn something.  I personally avoid all sitcoms, news, awards shows, or anything else with a strong political or cultural agenda behind it.  But even during the college football game of the week, one will be subjected to an onslaught of commercials.

Commercials are intended to sell, and they often do so by subconsciously creating a feeling of lack and then offering a product as a solution to make a person whole again.  These days they also appeal to many peoples’ sense of altruism and self righteousness with contrived images and messages of equality and tolerance.  They also tend to jump from image to image in rapid succession which isn’t great for a person’s attention span.  And they are often very high volume and noisy to capture one’s attention.

None of it is real and so I don’t want it to be a part of my subconscious landscape, shaping the way I see the world.  We absorb everything we’re exposed to.  So when I choose to watch TV, at commercials breaks I hit the mute button on the remote and pick up a book or something else to look at because I don’t want the visual images either.

It’s a bit extreme perhaps, and takes a lot of conscious attention to stay on top of, but I notice something when I’m diligent about it.  I can watch a program of some sort and not feel my energy drop.  I don’t turn off the TV feeling depressed or unfulfilled from the subconscious messaging that my life would be better if only I had a BMW, or a huge group of best friends who all drank Coors Light to become the life of the party, or a perfect family of four bubbling over with excitement for take out pizza with extra cheese inside the crust.

We are the sum of the small experiences we have every day.  So to me it makes no sense to let television commercials be part of that equation.  Especially not on a regular basis.  They’re fairly toxic for the mind and soul and rob a person of a little bit of their independent mind.  So next time you turn on the TV, try muting the commercials to see if you notice a difference.

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I’ll Squat Until The Day I Die

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Studies have shown that the strength of major muscle groups has an inverse relationship with mortality in men of all ages.  Furthermore, resistance training has the potential to increase bone density.  Add to that the likelihood that a strong person will generally be more independent and be able to engage in more of the physical activities they love for longer, and why would anyone ever stop lifting weights?

Sure, a person who squats 400 lbs when they’re young isn’t going to squat 400 lbs at 80 years old.  But if they can still squat 100 lbs or more at 80 years old they will be far better off than if they’d simply allowed entropy to set in and accepted that growing old means getting weak and frail.

And I know strength at 80 is possible.  When I went to the gym in my teens, there was an elderly gentleman there who came in regularly and did squats.  I can’t recall the exact weight he used, but I know there were 45 lb plates on either side of the barbell at the very least.  I don’t recall that he was squatting ass to grass, but he was at least getting close to parallel.  And this guy was well into his seventies if not older.  He didn’t spend a lot of time in the gym, but I remember him squatting regularly.  And he would do some dumbbell shoulder presses, etc., after squatting.  He stuck to the basic movements and they worked.

I had a lot of respect for that old guy and will never forget him.  He was a role model with his actions and showed that a man doesn’t have to wither away with age.  He wasn’t hugely muscular by any means, but he had strength and was perfectly mobile.  He didn’t hobble around at all (which proves that part of balance is strength).  And he still had a bit of thickness to him that showed he wasn’t weak.

He just kept going to the gym.  He didn’t stop so he kept his strength.

Also, my grandfather and my 80 year old uncle both experienced quick declines in health due to falls.  This is so common with the elderly.  And my granddad broke his hip when he fell.  He was a big strong man when he was younger and he fought in WWII.  But in his old age he got frail and gravity had its way with him in the end.  There isn’t any guarantee that squats will prevent a fall or injury.  But if one’s legs are stronger and bones are denser, at least the odds are in their favor that they’ll be less likely to fall.  And if they do fall they’re less likely to break any bones.  I’ll take the better odds. So my personal plan is to get as strong as I can while I’m still young, and then maintain it for as long as I can.  I plan to squat until I die.  Even if I’m just squatting the bar.

Of course, this isn’t meant to put down the elderly who do grow old and frail.  Honestly, most of society doesn’t even know any better.  And the vast majority of people never strength train in their youth, let alone old age.  Unfortunately it’s just not that common despite the benefits.  But for those in the know, why not plan for personal independence when older.  Why not expect to still be able to hike, or bike, or even get up off of the ground with relative ease.  Maybe that’s easier said than done, but I’m going to try and test the thesis that it’s possible.  And I’ve seen it before.  More than once.

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How To Maintain a Productive Mindset

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It’s not unusual to hit spells where I lose the momentum and desire to be productive. The ideas don’t flow, I feel less enthusiastic and inspired, and my mind is a bit slower than usual for whatever reason. And it’s easy to slip into a depressed state of mind as a result, even feeling a bit worthless, because I just don’t feel like myself. At these times I can fall back into old habits, thinking about using substances to dull the nagging depression, aimlessly surfing on the internet, etc.

But I know where that would lead. That would just dig an even deeper hole. And that is the last place I want to find myself.  I never want to wake up feeling worse than the day before because I used the wrong tactics to deal with a lackluster yesterday.

So I do one of a few things (or all of them). And this is where having some goals and passions comes in very handy. I generally either look to physical training or my creative pursuits.

First, the training option.  I prescribe to the notion espoused by Mark Rippetoe that training is based around a plan to improve in some specific way with a well thought out approach that moves one incrementally towards their goal. And exercise is something that is done for the way it makes a person feel that day. However, despite a focus on training over simple exercise, I think training is a means to both ends.  It is a step in a process, but it also leaves me feeling really good.

I’m currently in the middle of a Texas Method training program to continue improving my squat, deadlift, press and bench press strength. And every time I complete a training session and add a few pounds to my lifts, I experience the positive mentality and dopamine boost of attaining a new level of physical strength and ability. I also feel a release of pent up frustration and negative energy, and that gets replaced with fresh, constructive energy. And honestly, it makes me feel happy.

I might also look to music and writing to trigger a feeling of forward movement. I’ve set goals to both get back to playing live music, and share positive life experiences and thoughts through this blog. If either becomes a way to make money, that’s great. But most importantly, when I work on either I get a feeling of satisfaction. I don’t have to spend all day on these pursuits to feel fulfilled either. If I’m having a sub-par day where my sense of focus is lacking and I feel my usual self confidence waning, I can work on music or writing for an hour and feel uplifted by it.

Maybe I set a goal to learn a new technique, scale, or song on the guitar. If I can spend an hour and know that I gained a new skill or new knowledge, then I feel genuinely good. Or if I decide to write the outline for an article that I’ll finish another time, I feel like I did something productive even if it wasn’t a huge undertaking. And I feel better than when I started.  That little bit of momentum and positive forward motion reinforces an urge to be productive in other ways as well.

Even if I’m lower energy and not feeling like doing a lot, if I’ve done some training and physical exertion and/or worked on my passions and have chipped away at a goal or improved my skill set in some way, then I’ll be more likely to make productive choices in my relaxation afterwards. I’ll avoid using substances to feel better because I already feel good. I might read a book instead of looking at social media. Perhaps I’ll cook good fresh food instead of grabbing something out. Or maybe I’ll catch up with an old friend instead of lounging on the couch and watching Netlix.

As a slight side note, I’ll also add that as a divorced bachelor I’m sometimes lonely. Instead of wallowing in it, I’ll go out into public and talk to people. Most notably I’ll chat up some pretty young ladies and ask them out. Even if I don’t get any phone numbers or solid connections, I still feel a whole lot better for having made the effort. Social skills require a bit of momentum as well. And sustained momentum helps me feel more confident that I can go out again the next day and try again with some new girls. After all, that persistence is what it takes.

Some days, we’re going to naturally be less productive than others, but we can always do some simple things to maintain our state of mind and avoid falling into a rut that saps our happiness and energy. Action begets action, so when in doubt, just set a small goal that will contribute to your larger goals, get up and do it, and you’ll feel much happier and more fulfilled when you finish.

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The Benefits of Learning How Things Work

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My Journey Into the World of Hand Made Guitar Amplifiers

About ten years ago, I became obsessed with handwired guitar amplifiers.  Amplifiers made the way they were made in the 1950’s and 1960’s by Fender, Marshall, Gibson, Vox, Magnatone, and every other amplifier manufacturer.  Printed circuit boards (PCB’s), the green plastic sheets covered with copper traces like you’d see inside of a PC, weren’t yet used in musical amplifiers.  At least not as far as I’m aware, and they certainly weren’t the norm if they were.  And the hand built creations sounded extremely good.  They responded to a player’s touch and were very expressive.  They didn’t require a lot of bells and whistles to create a multitude of different tones.  And they were part of the sonic landscape of every classic old recording.

In recent years a number of companies have begun to make amplifiers by hand as well, soldering components to one another directly or via a length of quality wire.  But most amplifiers at a typical big box guitar store are made on PCB’s because they’re cheaper to make that way via automation.  The process is similar to any other mass-produced electronic gizmo.  But to my ears the PCB amps I learned to play electric guitar on never sounded quite right.  And they’re less durable as well.  Some people swear they’re good amps, and I’m not saying they’re bad, but the Stevie Ray Vaughan setting from the manual of my Fender Hot Rod Deville didn’t sound anything like Stevie Ray Vaughan to me.  Of course, I couldn’t play like Stevie Ray Vaughan and I wasn’t playing a top of the line Stratocaster at that time either.  But even so, the amplifier sounded uninspiring.

So I decided I wanted a hand wired amp like an old Marshall or Fender that I heard Jimi Hendrix and Mark Knopfler playing.  Thing is, I wasn’t making much money at the time and anything hand made or vintage was out of my price range.  It costs a manufacturer a lot more to pay an amp builder to wire a circuit from scratch.  Given my monetary constraints and adventurous nature, I decided I was going to figure out how to make a hand wired amplifier for myself.

Fortunately for me, I knew an engineer friend of a friend who made vacuum tube hifi amplifier creations that he designed, and he made them in the hand-made fashion I was interested in learning.  He agreed to help me gut my old PCB amp that had stopped working and rewire it with higher quality parts from a kit, salvaging the cabinet, chassis, speakers and transformers from the old amp.  The circuit design of the upgrade kit was loosely based on a 50’s era tweed Fender Bassman with a few tweaks from a Marshall JTM45 circuit.

We spent a couple of long Saturday afternoons tinkering, and he made me do the soldering work myself while overseeing the process and answering my questions.  I enjoyed watching the solder melt and flow as the parts were connected to one another.

After finishing up the last solder joint, my friend did a few safety checks I now know how to do myself, and we plugged a guitar into this one-of-a-kind Frankenstein amp.  It sounded incredible, and I was both amazed and completely and totally satisfied to hear such wonderful guitar tone flowing through all those electrical connections I’d soldered.  Suddenly my playing sounded a lot more like the electric guitars I’d heard on records my whole life.  Not that I sounded like SRV but my sound was really good and the amp responded to my playing.  It was a huge revelation and was also a boost to my playing ability because not only did the amp stop clouding my better playing, but it no longer hid my mistakes to the same degree.  Greater clarity and articulation works both ways.  But mostly, when an amp can make  player sound good, a player will dig deeper to find the tone in their fingers.  Anyhow, I was hooked and knew I wanted to build more amplifiers of various styles as soon as possible.

I ended up building myself a few hand wired amps from scratch that were based on classic circuit designs of yesteryear, and since I was providing the labor myself I could afford to invest in some premium parts and still not spend that much.  I’ve sold some of those amplifiers to friends, but still own and play some of them regularly.

I also started a side business restoring and modding vintage amps for a handful of clients who had the time and money to collect them.  They were often found in pawn shops or at garage sales out of working order.  So I learned how to troubleshoot various issues amplifiers develop, and found that fixing a broken amp taught me even more about how they work than building one new.  I also read many books on how vintage tube amps work, such as Dave Hunter’s Tube Amp Handbook.  Before long I was able to explain what every part in an amplifier does.

And Now, The Point of The Story

And that brings me to the reason for telling this story.  That reason is that learning how amplifiers work was a very helpful step in my development as a man.  And here is why.  In this world, many people live in a world of disconnect, oblivious to reality and full of contradiction.  All one has to do is watch Antifa protesters try to battle perceived fascism with their own fascism and it becomes pretty clear that people are perfectly capable of believing two things that don’t go together at all.  But when dealing with an electronic circuit, one is subject to the constraints of objective reality.  An amplifier won’t work just because someone “feels like it should”.  It has to be assembled properly.  And if not respected while performing maintenance an open, live amplifier circuit will kill a person indiscriminately, regardless of gender, race, religion, sexual preference, or political affiliation.  400 volts is 400 volts, and that will never change no matter how emotional someone gets about it.

So the beauty of learning amplifier circuits is that the pursuit further grounded me in objective reality.  There is some gray area in the realm of circuit design and deciding what parts sound best together.  Hence a Marshall amplifier sounds different than a Fender amplifier.  But if a design doesn’t function within the limits of physics, the amplifier will melt down, blow up, or not even start.  The realities of the physical world can’t be denied or wished away.

My dad’s best friend was a bit of an old curmudgeon who was a master woodworker and who could explain how just about anything works.  He had a very logical and patient approach to the world.  This is something I’ve always appreciated about people who work in skilled trades.  There is a measured patience to them, and they accept reality with a simple nod.  Things just are what they are and no sense in getting too excited or upset about it.

And taking on a bit of that objective way of looking at things has further developed and changed the ways I see many things, from politics, to culture, to human nature and biology.  When dealing in objective reality, it’s easier to remain sane when things feel insane.  And navigating interpersonal dynamics, dealing with corporate office scheming, or crafting political arguments is much easier when you can see the real truth behind things.  It leads to better success and outcomes, and results in less frustration.  It helps temper the ego that often feeds on emotion and that is subject to being led astray by lies and conditioning that sound nice.

So to wrap this up, I’d definitely suggest any person make a point of learning how something works.  It can be something mechanical, something electronic, or even something like computer coding languages.  It’s very rewarding, it develops the mind, and it’s possible to learn to make things that can be used for personal enjoyment.  The knowledge might even turn into a marketable skill.  One can simply pick something, or look to their passions for possibilities.  For all of the guitar players out there, consider building an amplifier.  There are a lot of kits available online that guide a new builder step by step.  Your tone will sound great and you’ll look forward to playing even more than you would otherwise when you know you built one of the instruments you’re playing.