Back In The Saddle

As I expected, December is a bad time for keeping up with goals. All of my ambitions got crowded out with getting ready for Christmas, or more accurately, keeping up with my wife’s getting ready for Christmas.

New Years, however, is ALL about the personal renewal (if you made a drinking game over every magazine you saw that said “New Year New You.” January would be the new Festive Season, and February would be Liver Health Awareness Month). However, it’s become a running gag about how New Year’s Resolutions are discarded by January 15^th.

My own goals in November kind of unraveled in the last ten days. There was no attention given to the Facebook posts, and the accountability wasn’t there. But I have a different motivation in January.

For a couple years, I went into a winter funk in January and February. Last year, I was able to keep it in check, partially with regular exercise, limiting the junk food intake, and keeping my entertainment light.

A lot of attention has been given to clinical depression in the last few years, especially since the untimely death of Robin Williams. However, I don’t believe that all instances of low moods are a clinical condition. The problem with these causes is that it becomes almost fashionable to be depressed. “You know that thing that everyone’s talking about? It’s ME!” This was true before the Social Media Narcissism age, and it seems to have gotten worse.

As for me, I don’t have a diagnosed condition, but my funks can get pretty severe. Last year, I found that the diet and exercise changes helped a LOT. I look forward to trying it again.

I hope that someone wants to jump on board with me. Want to do better? Want to BE better? Want to be the hero that you look up to? All of our heroes worked their asses off to get where they are, and I, for one, want to be someone worthy of my respect. I know that such things are easier with a team-mate, so if you’re looking for someone to help keep you on track, then you’ve come to the right place! Leave a comment or a message on the Facebook page, and let’s work the upward spiral!

Limit of Willpower

So, after saying that I wanted to “Go boot camp on this shit,” my goals may seem a little weak. I’m going to journal four times a week, and exercise every other day. No weight loss goal. No rep-increase goal, just having the routine.

There are several reasons for this. Firstly, it’s the consistency that’s the goal. I started exercising in the New Year, and sometimes, I could keep it to every other day, more often, once or twice a week. On occasion, there were 10-day gaps. This is the problem I’m trying to solve.

Also, I am 41. Trying to push myself too hard is likely to lead to injury. Not only is it more important to keep functioning for my job, but also to be able to play with (and pick up) my kids.

It’s also smarter to implement goals gradually. While some people can change their habits on a dime, most people don’t. One of the causes of this is what some researchers have found about the limits of willpower. Roy Baumeister did a study where participants were asked to eat radishes, and not the fresh-baked cookies (Roy, you sick FUCK!). These poor souls gave up on the following puzzle long before the ones who were told “Radishes? Pfft! Have a cookie!”

In fact, Dr Baumeister has done a lot of study, and found that not only can willpower be depleted, but it can be strengthened with effort and practice. I have yet to read his book “Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength,” but it sounds promising!

As for me, there was a time a few years ago when I found that my patience with my kid was less than ideal. Upon reflection, I found that I had been spending a lot of my patience at work, mostly on a particularly odious shit-wit. I decided that my family was WAY more important than this turd, so I started letting him know when he was pissing on my nerves (I totally mis-typed this, but on re-read, I like how it sounds, so it’s staying as “pissing on my nerves!”) I later found that this was consistent with Mark Murovan’s (University of Albany) finding that the self-motivated & self-regulated got less drained than people-pleasers. I didn’t make him look like an idiot, but I sure made it clear when he was making himself look like an idiot. It was a public service that was more popular before the age of participation trophies. (Anyone remember when “he didn’t suffer fools lightly” was a complement?) But I digress…

Asides from these factors, I expect to spend a fair amount of time maintaining the blog and FB page. Not to mention my family, and a full-time job. So, if my exercise and journaling goals seem a little weak, it’s all part of a bigger picture.