Energy and the pursuit of...

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

Quote: “Pursue some path , however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence”. Henry David Thoreau

The Action: To be strong and true, living with integrity, humility and strength of mind. To be bold in my decision making while at the same time tempered by reason and virtue. To be equitable, fair, compassionate and just person while being balanced with drive, motivation and action.

This time of year is always a challenge for myself. The days are getting shorter, the nights colder, and usually flat grey light with endless rain. I had never experienced rain I now realize, until I moved to the West Coast. For sure I had been wet when being outside, though not three times wet!

Three times wet is that rain that as it falls from the sky saturates you from above, the second time is when it bounces back up from the ground due to the velocity that it is falling from the sky at. The third time is after the bounce, when it drops back down to the ground again, and nestles into some area of your body that was not completely impervious to the first and second onslaughts.

The action this week is to maintain my motivation and enthusiasm for life, even though it feels like the sky is lying on top of you like a wet grey blanket, smothering out the joy of blue sky and puffy clouds on the horizon. To move out of my internal musings, to an outward perspective for all there is to be grateful for in this adventure called life. This week is a focus and implementation of being a conductor of kindness towards others, in all aspects, to see what the result is on my own well being.

The Book: Legacy James Kerr

This book is a gripper. One of those books that as soon as I started reading I was hooked. Legacy is an exploration of the success strategies of the most winningest sports franchise in history - the New Zealand All Blacks.

Kerr distills the book into fifteen lessons, for life, business and attitude, such as Character, Learn, Pressure and many more. The book is highly readable, and the lessons well presented with supporting stories and insights. Ultimately the book is about “how do the best in the world, stay the best in the world”? “How do you turn vision into action, and how does one develop ownership, leadership and accountability”.

I highly recommend this book for those looking for a great read, practical and applicable insights, and an insight into the minds of champions. 5/5

Reflection and Action

Quote:

Whether you think you can or you think you can’t - you’re right. Henry Ford

The Action:

I am in fact writing this post Sunday, my birthday, and a significant day for myself. I have always had a deep resonance with my birthday as the day to reset, and to design the year ahead for myself. In respect to goals, dreams, code to live by, and how I show up. Perhaps it is my rebellious streak of not buying into January 1st as the beginning of a new year, which has no significance to myself what so ever.

So what does this next year look like? Three hundred and sixty-four days rising before me waiting to be pounced on, acted upon, cajoled, and tasted as the fruits of my life in those moments. This is up to myself to create these moments with a significance. How will I spend these precious days and moments, that will only appear and disappear once on my horizon, and in my present moment awareness.

I was riding my bike last night, in the fading light, and I had one of those moments of clarity and insight, as to the tone of the year to come. Pen, sword, bike, heart, and lead.

The pen, and the book that waits to be written. The sword, and the discipline of a mind that is stubborn, rebellious, and at times lacks focus and motivation. The bike, fitness, pushing new limits within and physically, the realization that the pushing of my body is my pathway to self knowledge, exploration and awareness, not only of whom I am, but also of whom I can become. The heart, an opening, an exploration of joy, pleasure, true north, alignment with dreams and passions, a connection to the directions and actions to be taken for my life. To lead myself with authenticity, courage, an alignment with my values and beliefs, that I know are my unique contributions and gifts for others and the earth.

The Book: Curious - The Desire To Know and Why Your Future Depends Upon It. Ian Leslie

I think this quote from the book sums up my appreciation for the importance of curiosity in one’s life, and how as an Educator for the past thirty-five years, I have witnessed this essential life state atrophy in people.

“Curiosity is unruly. It doesn’t like rules, or, at least, it assumes that all rules are provisional, subject to the laceration of a smart question nobody has yet thought to ask. It disdains the approved pathways, preferring diversions, unplanned excursions, impulsive left turns. In short, curiosity is deviant. Pursuing it is liable to bring you into conflict with authority at some point, as everyone from Galileo to Charles Darwin to Steve Jobs could have attested”.

I have learned that there are in fact three types of curiosity, diversive, epistemic and empathetic, each serving a specific purpose. Also that curiosity is like a muscle and that it has to be used, or else it withers away, and we resort to automatic behaviours and routines, Curiosity keeps us fresh and engaged with life, and it is also suggested in the book that we are currently living in the era of “The Great Stagnation”. 4.5/5

The Inner Wilderness

Quote: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, for what is essential is invisible to the eye”.
Antoine St Exupery

The Action: Who am I? What are my passions in life? What wakes me up in the cold truth of the dawn, when my mind is sleeping and my heart is wide awake?

For the past few days I have been camped in the Marble Mountains, trying to reconnect to the answers to these questions.

My heart has been whispering to me, pushing gently at my soul, nudging me towards awareness, understanding and action.

The action this week is to remove the obstacles to my heart path, to pause, to reflect and to listen to the murmur of my uniqueness, to my path, to my present moment.

The weather has been a maelstrom of mixed emotions, sun, wind, rain, snow, hail. Much likes the tones of my life. Separate at moments, overlapped at others, obscuring the clarity so desired.

During the night I awoke to the roof of my tent pressed against my face, a result of the ice storm that had touched me during the dawn.

The sleeping bag was warm, though the reality of having to get up was more pressing, as I didn’t want the poles of the tent to snap under the heavy load.

I pulled on my boots, cold and rigid, and spent the next twenty minutes by the illumination of Mars on the horizon, clearing the ice and snow, resurrecting the shape and structure of my tent.

As I stood there, bare hands chaffed by the cold, a smile began the slow process of moving across my mouth, and into my eyes, with this thought.

Much like life, the process of shaping the structure of the moments of my life, the diligence, the discipline and the commitment to what needs to be done, gives an integrity to the shape of my life.

The Book: The Magicians Way - William Whitecloud

A story about finding your path by creating magic in your life, and how we can create this magic consciously, by choice.

The greatest obstacle it seems is the continual getting in our own way, and not trusting our natural ability, and being influenced by others.

There are examples and applications of the Seven Secrets, and a compelling story line that reinforces the lessons of our main protagonist. A good journey book for reflecting on what matters in life and trusting our own ability to take us to where we desire to go. 4/5

Personalized License Plates

Quote: “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet”. Mahatma Gandhi

The Action: I was in the park last night, and started a discussion, with an individual that I had seen a few times before, though never engaged beyond hi. This evening he said to me “ you must love the mountains and the water”. I pondered for a moment as to where this was coming from. He lived in the neighbourhood, and I had seen him walking his dog, end of story. Now he was saying to me, in fact telling me, of two of my greatest passions in life. Where was this coming from from?

The look on my face as I stared at him, must have been expressing the same question that was running through my mind, as his next words, solved the riddle. “I saw your license plate on your truck H2O MTN.

That stared me thinking. I have had that plate for 25 years. Every year I am charged by the government of B.C. forty dollars, to have my personalized plate. Now that comes to one thousand dollars to be an individual.The cost to the government on a yearly basis for me to have that plate is zero. If my plate was not personalized I would not have to pay the forty dollars extra.

So, where is all this going? To the awareness that we pay a price in society to be an individual to be ourselves. We pay a price in many ways, some subtle, some not, to our individuality and uniqueness. We are a herding animal, we like to be a part of the group, community. It is a part of our biology and our hard wiring. It was in fact a great way to stay alive, to be apart of something bigger than just us. It was elemental to survival. We added our value, while at the same time we compromised, I am assuming, a certain part of our individuality to fit in, for safety and food.

Though what does that mean in today’s world? Where do we sacrifice our individuality, and in fact are penalized to be an individual?

My action this week has been to pay attention to all of the ares in my life, where I feel pressure to conform. To be a little less, to square the edges of my uniqueness to belong, to be “one size fits all”, in a society where one size only fits all of us, if we compromise our uniqueness in life. The gifts that we bring for being us, a snowflake, or a droplet of water in the sea of life. We are all a part of the ocean of life, which doesn’t mean that we have to be the same.

All this being said, I am realizing that it is the uniqueness and the differences that make life interesting, that make me interesting, and adds value to society and my community. I need to be aware of the price that I am paying to fit in, and also the real cost benefit of having that personalized license plate.

The Book: Sacred Pleasure - Raine Eisler

Love it. Also read years ago Chalice and the Blade, also highly recommended. Lets say that Sacred Pleasure explores the assumptions associated with aggression and domination, the relationship between sex and power, and the dichotomy of partnership societies, and roles of the sexes, as compared to dominator relationships, our predominant Western Model.

Insightful, illuminating, educating and inspiring towards a new way of being in “relationship” to every aspect of our lives. 5/5