Avoid the “be yourself” trap
Some thoughts on the culture obsessed with "being yourself", what negative effects it can have on you and how to overcome those negative though patterns by a subtle change from "what I want to have" to "who I want to be".
Do new things or die mentally
This is one of those post that I am writing only to read it myself in a month or so. I just came back from a fantastic ski trip to the Dolomites in Italy, where I was learning to snowboard. My bones and muscles are still sore, but there is something about my body that is even stranger - the feel of my brain and nervous system.
Have you ever felt your brain rewire? This sore muscle that you can't quite place, but you know something is happening? This is how I've felt throughout my trip. Snowboarding is a demanding feat for the brain to get accustomed to - you force your body into using muscles and catching balance in ways that you never did before. The brain and nervous system are trying to make sense of it all.
You kind of feel the inner voice telling you "I don't know why you chose to tie yourself to a wooden board and go downhill, but I'll do the best I can to help you with that".
Snowboarding is just one of the great things you can do to keep your brain entertained and is quite extreme. You'll get similar results just by switching hands, walking in the dark or trying to draw music. Whatever you do - don't leave it up to chance - plan for what you are going to do right now. Put it on your to-do list and stick with it. If you're not quite clear what you can do to start, "Keep Your Brain Alive!" is a great start.
Now go and freak out.
The power of measuring goal progress
Last month I've realized that I've been setting goals on weight loss for 2 years. The measurable result of these was at most temporary. I've realized that somewhere along the way there was a flaw in my process. I lacked two things:
- Knowledge - I knew enough about exercise but lacked the essential knowledge regarding energy balance and nutrition. This made my plan effective in terms of increasing overall health (which was quite satisfying), but did not lead to weight loss.
- A plan with (easily) measurable daily actions.
Improving the plan goal achievement process involved the following:
- Reading somewhat about it. Since weight loss is a limitless sesspool in desinformation, I skimmed throught a few books and sticked to those that made sense and did not promise to make me lose 5 kgs overnight. I stuck with "The body fat solution", by Tim Venuto. Also - I got some great mantra type articles from ZenHabits: example.
- I've already had a measurable goal, but I did not set up a plan for the measurements and alas - they failed. Armed with that knowledge I framed the simplest measurement schedule I could think of:
- Phase 1 (first 21 days). Using a pocket notepad and pen.
- Write down everything I eat with the amounts
- Weight myself in the evening.
- If doing any exercises, write them down.
- Phase 2. All the data went into a database for progress measurement.
- Count daily calorie intake and protein percentages of the foods
- Weight myself at least once a day (preferably in the morning and in the evening)
- Make an exercise plan and follow it.
- Phase 1 (first 21 days). Using a pocket notepad and pen.
I started simple and a month later am still building my way up. This is the natural progress of the goal measuring process. Begin with lo-tech low maintenance logging tools. This may even be all you need. I am currently on my way of building my own custom weight and calorie tracker (built for my specific needs), but mainly as a means to improving my programming skills.
The effect is that the goal of losing 1kg/week is steadily coming along, and I have full control over all of the variables, which is very gratifying.
Because I have some spare time and some goals, I'm going to resume testing goal setting software suites for those of you that do not have the luxury or the ability to write your own app 
Stay tuned.
In touch
Categories
- announcements
- daily motivation
- general productivity
- goal setting
- goal software
- goal software 101
- mind hacks
- software reviews
