Goal setting and direction is great for smaller tasks, but in the big picture, which is life, it often falls short. Life is too complex to comprehend and trying to create a plan that can cover all your future opportunities and mitigate all of its pitfalls is a futile endeavor. Let’s cut to the point—we humans are not smart enough to make a detailed plan, and people who try often get stressed and end up trying to warp the reality around them to fit their conception or master plan.

A new article in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has had a polarizing effect on many health and diet influencers and they’re taking to their virtual rooftops—either crying “Foul!” or “I told you so!”

Yes, we love resistance training—but that’s not the resistance training we’re talking about today. We’re big fans of Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art. In it, Pressfield details his own epic and entertaining battles with the resistance to his own creative process.

Well… here is the thing: Health, strength, and beauty shouldn’t been seen as separate, but as different colors created by the same prism—which is the general notion of a healthy and functional body.

We look at a movie like Wall-E and see the depiction of our distant relatives and laugh because it’s a funny portrayal of the future human species who have been on a cruise holiday for generations and are now fat and are unable to do the simplest of tasks—like walking. These people are mindlessly floating around in their chairs, watching the screen in front of them—reactively deciding if this month’s hot color is blue or red. 

If we take a step back and look at the physical attributes and capabilities of our forefathers and then compare us to them—then a bleak thought starts to manifest itself. The general population in the west is probably closer to the dystopic future of Wall-E than to the physicality of our forefathers.  

Feeling good. Firing on all cylinders. Gettin’ it done. Boom-boom-boom!

<<splat!>> 

“What? No! Not now! Can’t you see how I’ve been slaying it? I’ve got stuff to do!” 

The Slump cares not.

Think about the creative dreams you have had in life. The true “dreams” we have had can usually be boiled down to the ability to pursue our passions—to get to do what we love to do. If we keep that alive and keep that passion as the focus—we can’t lose.

Life can be hard to figure out. What’s the point? What’s the meaning? Social media hasn’t helped with its divisive nature and focus on narcissistic goals like fame, beauty, success, and money.

Last week Scott wrote about the dangers of letting our ego run our life, and this week we’ll try to give an antidote or a different perspective on this matter.

Rob is the embodiment of stoic patience and focus. When we asked him about how he managed to qualify for the CrossFit Games, he told us that he hired a coach, and together they analyzed Rob’s strengths and weaknesses. After this assessment, they agreed upon a two-year plan—which worked.

It’s slowly becoming clear to me that my life trajectory has been fueled by an ego-driven madness—my ego tirelessly searching for things to prop itself up, and strengthen it’s hold on my identity. 

It could be argued that I survived my heart attack because I was in really good shape, and I’m sure there is some truth to that. But I am convinced that my inability to deal with chronic stress is what took me down—and I believe stress is the driving force for most chronic diseases. 

Go to your local supermarket at the hour when schools let out, and you will see lines of kids buying what can only be described as “Type 2 Diabetes Starter Packs” for afterschool snacks—endless varieties of the fat+sugar+salt combo. Isn’t it time we all stood up and said, “F*ck The Man?” 

People with limited knowledge will speak about a topic with great authority—thereby overestimating their abilities. The flip side is that people with deep and nuanced knowledge about a topic will often speak with great uncertainty about a topic, because they know how complex the topic is.

Well… We’re pretty sure that “likes” and an insanely busy schedule are not the end goals for most people. We think that most people should pull the plug on social media and what “culture” is whispering in your ear. Spend some time with your thoughts and listen to your inner voice—meditation, walks, or gardening are great ways of disconnecting from the expectations of society and reconnecting with your inner voice.

If someone had asked me this question sometime in the last 40 years, I would have looked at them incredulously, silently judged that they had read a few too many self-help books, and continued lifting the obscene amount of weight I was lifting. 

Ok—maybe that’s not the best conversation starter....or is it?

I’m one of the lucky few who have died and made it back to tell the tale.  Except for me, there’s no tale to tell.  Despite being without a pulse, in a clinical death state for 40 minutes or more, I didn’t see “the light.” I didn’t commune with energy forms of deceased relatives, I didn’t get to visit beloved pets that have passed on—just blackness. Despite being so incredibly lucky to be alive, I felt a bit ripped off.

Generation Z—those born between 1997 and 2015 (6-24 years old)—have been through a lot. A worldwide pandemic, an increasingly divided political climate, the social media boom, in school/out of school/in school/out of school, and the stress all of this causes in homes throughout the world. We have seen the effects in our own kids, as they try to adapt to this new world—sometimes withdrawing, sometimes dramatically acting out with new behaviors.  

Studies have shown that brain plasticity and health can be greatly improved if you learn new skills. It was believed that we lost the ability to learn new things with age—and the research still reflects this--but there seems to be another variable in play. We lose the ability to learn because we stop learning. As the saying goes “use it or lose it.”

We’ve been writing a lot about the benefits of high-frequency training. High-frequency training helps counteract a multitude of problems our sedentary lifestyle has dealt us. People are made to move around at a moderate pace all day long—that’s how our ancestors survived, and this strategy will help you thrive today. 

This theme has surfaced many times lately, in many different settings. We suspect that this theme strikes a deeper and underlying note, which resonates through other topics. We all need to assess our circumstances and evaluate if we’re surviving or thriving before we can take any meaningful action towards a better future. Of course, some action is better than no action, but we think this can be a potent tool to assess your situation and figure out what the best future action is.