Avoiding the Perils of a Placid Life [From None to Run].
Without wanting to sound too negative, death is a guarantee. The timing? Uncertain. Surely you want to have made your best contribution to yourself, those in your inner circle and the rest of the world before you pass on, correct?
Wollongong's South Beach has been my battleground of choice.
While gradually increasing my levels of physical exertion over the last month from being a whole-food vegan couch potato to making a conscientious effort to unleash my full potential over time, I have added an extra piece of scenery to the mix. Previously, I limited myself to a brisk walk along the blue mile up to the lighthouse and back, starting from our apartment in North Wollongong.
Now, I'm a part of the unofficial morning beach crew and I'm seeing the same faces each day as I get to the beach at about 5.45am. I give 'the wave' to the barefoot woman in the pink singlet I see halfway back down the beach on my return leg, her face beaming, and nod to the beefy guy (I'm sure he downs tinnies at breakfast) doing pushups in the wet sand just before I leap up the stairs in twos. These guys have been keeping me company (even if just for a few moments) as I wear down my sneakers against the abrasive sandy surface, one step at a time.
I've always had a habit of stereotyping people - fat people are lazy, school teachers are know-it-alls, smart people are awkward and insecure and of course, anyone into fitness was narcissistic and overly body conscious. That was my own judgemental shortcoming. And it's pretty idiotic seeing as though I'm vegan (a minority group itself). I've heard all the naysayers proclaiming vegans all suffer from deathly emaciation to vegan guys being unable to get it up.
The only stereotype label worth slapping on people who get up at 5am (or earlier) to workout on the beach every day is that they must be motivated. Or are these people driven?
Motivated or driven?
While listening to David Goggins' audiobook and interviews, I'm coming to a new realisation of the difference between these two words. David says motivation is a transient emotion. One that ebs and flows depending on whether you feel like it. You can work up the motivation to accept a dare to have a cold shower in the middle of winter or you can be driven to take a cold shower until... (you'll be waiting a while for the end of that sentence if you still don't get what a driven person is capable of).
Why would anyone take cold showers when we have the luxury of hot water?
I've been taking cold showers for over a month now. And I'm only just starting to get used to it. I can't even remember if I've discussed this before, but this video is worth dropping.
Thomas Frank was the nut that challenged me to challenge myself by doing away with comfortable showers. The original challenge he took was thirty days and he doubled it. My goal? Never take a comfortable shower again.
I'm not a masochist. Cold water is just uncomfortable. It isn't a stream of razor blades and I'm not jumping into arctic waters. It is leaning into temporary discomfort to harden the mind and set a new baseline of what you're able to handle. And that binary choice - cold or not is now an automatic choice for me. In fact, if I ever turned the handle across to warm, the mental anguish, regret and disappointment I'd suffer from caving would be far more crushing than a minute of frigid pin pricks across my skin.
I was having an interesting discussion this afternoon with my psychologist and I delighted in telling her about my new mindset. No doubt she had heard it before. Everyone has wild ideas and the majority cave before they see anything through. I've been there and I know it. You probably have, too. I told her I woke up at five, walked a few kilometres to the beach, ran the next six then walked back home. She repeated back to me,
"You said that you hadn't run that far before? And you got up at 5am and what was that about your cold showers?"
She was impressed at the distance, but I wasn't really. I had been slowly working up to it. And let's be honest, it's no huge feat. Don't misinterpret me, it was a new recent PB so I'm chalking up the small wins. She spent a minute agreeing with my practice of cold showers. She'd heard 10-30 seconds of cold water over the body was good for the immune system. She then explained that her short bursts of cold during her morning shower were swaddled within two generous dousings of hot water.
I was surprised that she was on board with cold showers but I sensed some possible feelings of inadequacy within her after I had explained psome of the small mental mountains I had climbed. After all, most psychs are dealing with basket cases. I was finally filling my basket with one small victory at a time.
Biological organisms will almost always choose the path of least resistance. For a bear or a microoganism, they're only thinking of survival. Their path of least resistance is still tough. If they screw up, they're dead. For us higher order thinkers, choosing a path of least resistance manifests as extended television time, wide girths, heart trouble and unfulfilled dreams.
What a waste.
The cost paid for a lack of goals, self-belief and discipline is zero growth (which is just mental decay) and increased susceptibility to mental breakdown when life strikes back with horrible news.
Having been through the passing of beloved animals and people makes you mentally stronger and enables you to emotionally cope if it is processed correctly. Suffering in previous stages of my life through parental divorce, bullying, domestic violence and loneliness has made me better able to cope. Enduring planned suffering (which is always temporary, as is all suffering) better equips us for human life. And there is always going to be something to overcome.
I remember as a kid walking to the bus stop in winter without a jumper on, just wearing my blue t-shirt. People asked me if I was crazy. I remember saying something like, "I'm preparing myself." Maybe I watched a television show about hikers or mountain climbers and I thought it made sense. Either way, it's come back to me from the recesses of my mind over a quarter century later. It must have meant something, that's for sure.
This morning it rained.
Smile, sunshine! Building mental toughness doesn't mean slapping on the 'look of determination'.
As I turned around from the huge concrete blocks that abruptly ends the beachfront before it merges with the nearby adjacent steel industry, I noticed the grey clouds concentrating. Within ten minutes, sputtering turned to a shower. I packed up my phone and earbuds and just kept going. I was more worried that my shoes would be wet and soggy for the following day's run, than the cold. Those showers had formed a thin callous over my mind and it didn't bother me at all.
No matter, it'll end soon.
I started talking about the inevitability of death and I'm going to end with it. This is the first time I've seen such a brightly colourful seahorse. Sadly, washed up on shore. Still bright and beautiful, but lifeless.
I've been reflecting deeply about what I want those last few moments in my mind to be about before my final breath. And I certainly don't want to be overweight having died of complications during heart surgery, let me make that clear. I want to remember the risks I took, becoming more than anyone else around me, not because I was better than them, but because I kept believing I could do it.
I want to leave a legacy of achievements through self-discipline and belief, even if I've had a few decades of false starts.
To Your Success,
Nick.
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All content is original and belongs to @nickmorphew. [9 January 2019]
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