The Quote:
“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble”. Helen Keller
The Action:
As I was pondering how to create value for each of you of my mind turned to energy. As many of you, I am quite certain, there is a yearning for more energy in our lives. Energy to do the great and noble tasks, while at the same time our daily tasks, friends, family work, athletics, and probably a much longer list than what I have mentioned.
When I was in University I devoted a lot of time to athletic pursuits, sponsored triathlete, sponsored windsurfer, swimming competitively, plus academics, and a busy social scene. The one factor that I found common to all of this was “fatigue”. I was constantly tired.
I had the blood tests, the diet analysis, hydration was good, but I couldn’t get through the day without naps, coffee hits, and walking around like a zombie most of the time. This lead me into a deep dive as to how I could increase my energy.
I tried iron pills, salt pills, vitamin cocktails, cut back on the social activity, meditated, long walks in Nature, spirulina, blue green algae, smoothies, sugar hits, B vitamin injections, considered blood doping, bee pollen, though not big on needles, while still napping and tired.
Now lets fast forward the clock to thirty to forty years later. I am still experimenting with the elixirs of energy, some a repeat of the past, the B’s and the greens. Still pushing it on a physical and mental level. Riding my bike hundreds of kilometres a week, home gym routine four times a week, and almost two thousand push ups and sit ups a month. And today it dawned on me - NOT TIRED, and no naps.
So what has changed? I sleep eight hours a day, and if I don’t I notice the effect. I am hydrated, still have a couple of coffees early in the day, and I think I may have discovered my “energy gold pack”.
The keys I believe for a high level of sustained energy, not in order of priority, taken in my smoothie twice a day. Grass fed beef liver in a powder form. A greens mixture, powder again, two scoops a day, glucosamine powder, not for energy, though I no longer “ache”, and it took some time to find the right brand (intelligent labs), and cordyceps mushrooms, powder. This I think was the super power discovery, as it is relatively new on the supplement list for myself.
Now the other side of all this is that it may be a placebo effect, and that I continue to have very expensive urine, but I have to say I feel more energized, give it on my workouts and rides, and seem more mentally sharp. Like all of these things it is what works for you, the individual. Also I am sure over time my body will adapt and require something else, though for now, all steam ahead, and feeling energized.
The Book:
Gurddjieff A Beginners Guide (subtitle) How Changing the Way We React to Misplacing Our Keys Can Transform Our LIves. Gil Friedman.
I have always been a hungry pursuer of esoteric philosophy, and how to maximize my potential as an individual. Many times I have come across Gurdjieff in my readings, though every time I ventured near him, I thought to myself, too heavy, complicated, rambling and a lot of work (no pun intended), to get to the gold.
A while back I came across this book, and it is really a summary overview of Gurdieff’s work, and the Work, to improve oneself in life. I found the book a great beginning and introduction to Gurdjieff, as he has had quite an extensive impact on a range and diversity of our present day thought leaders.
I have pulled a number of gold nuggets from the readings, though I have to also confess that I am not rushing out to buy anymore books on the man Gurdjieff. His message is very similar to many others offering a perspective to maximize our potential in life, Do the Work, that our outer state of happiness is based on our inner state, and that each of us is responsible for developing ourselves, no one else. So, if nothing else, receiving this message once again, may save me the cost of the next self development workshop that I don’t have to go to! 4.5/5