Author: alearningaday

“When you forgive others, they may not notice, but you will heal.

Forgiveness is not something we do for others; it is a gift to ourselves.” | Kevin Kelly

Forgive often.

In the long run, we have to answer two questions about the work we do –

(1) Did we have a strong narrative for our work?

(2) Did the numbers/results match the narrative?

Narrative and numbers function like personality and character.

The narrative opens the door. The numbers keep it open.

Everything else is gravy.

#OurWorldIsAwesome – Edition 3

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My biggest reflection with Grand Teton National Park was that we didn’t spend enough time. A day – long as it was – wasn’t enough to do it justice.

The landscape at Grand Teton is exactly as you draw landscapes as a kid. Triangular mountains, trees, and water.

That image is by an unknown professional photographer.

Here’s one from my phone camera. Check out those beautiful triangles.

The Grand Teton National Park is a beautiful advertisement for the importance of the National Park system. The views of the Teton range are breathtaking, the hikes are picturesque, and the air smells fresh. We experienced a magical moment when we were on the banks of one of the lakes. A family of otters began swimming around. With the gorgeous mountains and glaciers as the backdrop, bright green waters, and beautiful trees, it felt surreal.

We went to the Grand Tetons as part of our trip to Yellowstone. As many do. One day wasn’t enough – we’ll fix that next time.

The simplest way to get or stay fit as an adult is to maximize the amount of physical effort per action.

Take the stairs instead of the elevator.

Stand instead of sit.

Take the scenic route to the bathroom.

Play more sports than you watch.

Squat.

Maximize the amount of physical effort per action.

The year was 2004. A good friend and I were newly minted music obsessed teenagers. One of our favorite weekend haunts was an old mall that had a “Worldspace” store.

Worldspace is a now defunct satellite radio company. I think they sold subscriptions back then. The best part about their store was the presence of a collection of nice headphones which gave you access to Worldspace and popular music.

Green Day had just released American Idiot and it’s hit “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” I vividly remember how often we went to the Worldspace store to just try our luck and see if we could listen to it. We couldn’t afford buying CDs – so this was our way.

And I remember so many wonderful moments when we put on those headphones at just the right moment and enjoyed the song.

It was a simple but wonderful pleasure at a time when we couldn’t afford much.

It is easy to take what we have in life for granted. On days when I sense myself taking things for granted, I remember moments like those at the Worldspace store.

If you had told me then that I’d have no problem affording music and that I’d always walk around with headphones and all my music in the pocket, I would have thought you were joking.

Dreams do come true. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Mental strength is the ability to normalize challenging circumstances.

And we get to work on it every time we face a challenging circumstance.

The more the challenges at any given moment, the bigger the opportunity to improve our mental strength.

“And I don’t think a temper is so bad. Sometimes when I lose my temper, I think it’s just me trying to tell me something I’m not ready to hear.” | Wade, Elemental

Profound.

I’ve become significantly more diligent about saying please and thank you at home in the past couple of years.

This learning/change in behavior had one root cause – attempting to teach our kids to do the same. As kids (like most other humans) ignore what I say and watch what I do, the only way to influence their behavior was to change mine.

This is why teaching is an effective way to learn something. To earn your chops as a teacher, you have to do the work to learn it yourself.

The more (conventionally) successful someone is, the funnier and more important self deprecating humor becomes.

I’m reading Outlive by Dr Peter Attia. The thesis of the book is that our approach to medicine needs to move to Medicine 3.0.

Medicine 1.0 was ancient medicine – where physicians prescribed cures based on observation. Medicine 2.0 is the medicine of the modern age. Powered by the scientific method, we’ve become proficient at interventions – like surgeries and vaccines – to stop “fast deaths” due to accidents or diseases that act quickly. The COVID-19 vaccine is a great example of how we’ve shown ourselves capable of moving very quickly when needed.

However, medicine 2.0 does a poor job at dealing with “slow deaths” caused by what he calls the “Four Horsemen” diseases – heart disease, cancer, alzheimer’s, and “foundational diseases” like insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. That’s because Medicine 2.0 operates on short horizons while these diseases take effect over decades. As a result, we’ve become accustomed to a pattern of old age where elders often suffer a decade or more of degeneration at the hands of these diseases.

Hence “Outlive” – which is both about living longer and delaying these diseases but, more importantly, living better in the years we’re alive. This thesis resonated with me – I’ve seen far too many elders go through that degenerative cycle. There should be a better way.

I saw a review on Amazon titled “The owner’s manual we should have received at birth.” I’m now a third of the way in and, so far, I agree. It is shaping up to be a must-read.