Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

I’m a huge Stephen King fan.

I’ve read the whole Dark Tower Series, It, The Shining, Doctor Sleep, and my favorite movie ever is based on his novella, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.

So, at the behest of multiple friends who told me it’s their favorite book, I finally ​started reading 11/22/63​.

Here’s the head-exploding premise:

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed.

What if you could change it back?

Stephen King’s heart-stoppingly dramatic new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination—a thousand page tour de force.

Like every good nerd, I’ve dedicated way too much brainpower to hypothetical time-travel, the butterfly effect, and changing the past. I bet you have too.

Time-travel is such an alluring idea because our brains can’t help but think about “the road less traveled” and “what if I had done X instead of Y?”

Which brings me to today’s newsletter topic.

Accepting that some paths are closed is incredibly freeing.

Some Paths are Closed

My friend Tim Urban over at ​WaitButWhy.com​ put out this graph about the life choices we’ve made up until today, and the branching paths open to us tomorrow:

It’s really easy for our brains to hyperfocus on all the black lines in our past: the paths closed to us, the decisions we didn’t make, the decisions we made and how our life often feels “determined” right now.

“Because of how I did this in the past, that’s just how things are.”

“It’s a shame I never did XYZ, now it’s too late. I have so much regret!”

“I don’t deserve to be happy because of this mistake I made”

We often forget that it’s only possible to connect the dots of our life looking backward, in which we made every decision with the best information we had at the time.

(If you’re looking for a solid read, Matt Haig’s ​The Midnight Library​ is a thought-provoking fictional story about alternate life paths and acceptance. Haig draws from a past ​decision to almost take his own life​.)

So let’s talk a bit about those black lines and green possibilities.

Maybe Some Paths ARE Closed!

I bring all of this stuff up to make two points.

Author Chris Guillbeau, who heavily inspired my love of travel and influenced how I built Nerd Fitness, put out an essay recently about ​celebrating closed doors​.

We’ve all heard the stories about people who start certain careers later in life.

An example would be, “It’s never too late! Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his breakthrough role in “Pulp Fiction” until age 46.”

And Chris points out that sometimes…it IS too late:

While these stories are inspiring, the “it’s not too late” lesson is not universal. Sometimes it IS too late! To believe otherwise is to believe in a fantasy.

Some things in life have real deadlines—not all, but some.

In other words, sometimes we often hold onto something that we know we’ll eventually do “some day,” and maybe we are refusing to accept the reality that…yeah, it IS too late.

Maybe we keep holding onto hope that we’ll eventually run a marathon…even though we hate running.

Maybe we keep holding onto hope that we’re going to write that cookbook…even though we don’t actually like cooking anymore.

Maybe we can decide that a few paths ARE closed to us. We can accept this.

The Future isn’t Set in Stone either

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how ​The Past isn’t Set in Stone​, because our perception of the story changes.

It’s okay to accept that maybe a dream we had when we were in our 20s is okay to die.

However, it’s equally tragic to assume that “it’s too late” to make any changes in our future, and that it’s already determined.

Betrand Russel once said “You’re under no obligation to be who you were five minutes ago.”

As Chris says:

“It’s not too late” for lots of things, and that’s great. But sometimes it is, and that’s okay.

It’s not too late to learn something new. It’s not too late to try new things.

But it might be too late for specific paths, and that’s perfectly fine.

In fact, it’s worth celebrating.

Letting go of certain paths, or accepting that some paths might be closed to us can clear the space to make a different decision for life moving forward.

You can decide that later today to:

• start powerlifting
• take an online class for a new career.
• try a new hobby.
• talk with your doctor about ​weight loss help​.

We can’t travel back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination.

Some of life’s paths are now closed to us.

That might be okay!

Instead of spending more brainpower regretting our closed black paths, we can get to work on deciding which green path we’re going to take next.

-Steve

PS: Need guidance and accountability to reach your fitness goals? Nerd Fitness has helped 10,000+ humans over the last 8 years with 1-on-1 online fitness coaching. ​Click here for more details​.

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Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

Last December, I sheepishly admitted there was a huge hole in my Nerd cred.

I grew up drawing cartoons, took AP art in high school, and was always fascinated by hand-drawn animation…

But I had ​never seen a single second of any Studio Ghibli cartoon​!

Studio Ghibli is the Japanese equivalent of Disney, with Hayao Miyazaki as the Japanese Walt: the studio has won multiple Academy Awards for their beautifully hand-drawn animated films, and Miyazaki has reached legendary status for making these films over the past 40+ years.

Luckily, the amazing community over on Threads gave me hundreds of comments of support and helped me decide which movie I should start with!

Since making that announcement, I’ve watched ​all 20+ Studio Ghibli films​, ​fell in love with Japan​, and became endlessly fascinated with Hayao Miyazaki.

(My favorites are Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Whisper of the Heart, and The Wind Rises.).

After watching every film, I moved on to watching documentaries about Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli because I needed to know more.

Thanks to these documentaries, I got a fascinating look at Miyazaki’s creative style and experiences in making these films alongside his coworkers.

The running joke has been that Miyazaki is the “Never-ending man” and can’t seem to retire.

There was something that stood out to me in each documentary:

In The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, at one point all employees at Studio Ghibli stood up and moved through a series of mobility drills and calisthenics, including Miyazaki.

Later in the doc, I observed ​Miyazaki demonstrating a very deep squat​ with perfect form and no assistance. How many people do you know in their mid-late 70s who can perform an unassisted deep squat!?

In Never-ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki, Miyazaki is ​filmed multiple times chopping wood​ with an ax in the backyard of his studio.

And in Hayao Miyazaki and The Heron, Miya-san (his nickname), now in his 80s, is still out chopping wood, going for walks in the woods, climbing over fallen trees, doing his office exercises, and hard at work on the film that would culminate his life’s work.

(Yes, I know. Miyazaki also has a cigarette in his mouth for nearly every minute of every documentary! He’s lucky that he hasn’t developed lung cancer yet, and I’m reminded he’s not the perfect picture of health!).

I bring this up because I think it shows a different side of exercise than we might normally consider.

Train for your Old Person Body

Watching this doc of Hayao Miyazaki staying active and keeping his brain sharp into his 80s…

I was reminded of this ​amazing post from Elizabeth​ (@ThisGirlLifts on Instagram):

As we get older, it’s easier for us to move less, which gives us less energy, and makes it more difficult to find the momentum and mobility to keep moving. This might keep us from spending time with our family or our friends because we’re unable to muster up the energy.

Teddy Roosevelt once said “let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.”

In other words: use it or lose it, bub.

It’s not a stretch for me to imagine Miyazaki’s ability to be a “never-ending man” is not only due to good genetics (and luck), but also because he has actively chosen to wear out rather than rust out.

Reflecting on why he chose to push himself to complete yet another animated film into his 8th decade on this planet, he simply replied that this was all he knew how to do: “I’d rather die doing this than die doing nothing.”

Fitness is more than weight loss

At Nerd Fitness, we encourage all Rebels to think about their “Big Why:”

Why bother exercising and building new habits and pushing yourself to level up your life when the couch beckons?

What’s the point of exerting yourself and learning to deal with discomfort when retreating to comfort is easier and so damn alluring?

A really strong “Big Why” can help us stay on target especially when life turns into a dumpster fire or we want to give up.

For Miyazaki, he’s decided that “getting out what’s inside me” is a worthy use of his time. He’s found peace and fulfillment through creating things rather than consuming them, which means he needs to take care of his body enough to stay alive long enough to get these things done!

For my gramma (who ​I visited in the hospital last month​), her purpose is to support her community and help those around her. Staying active allowed her to do this well into her 90s!

If you’re struggling to come up with a reason for why to do something…

You can do worse than “Training for my old person body.” This is the only body you get, and the only life you get, so today is as good a day as any to start treating your body with a bit more respect.

It doesn’t need to be dramatic either. We can start simple:

• We can go for a short daily walk.
• We can stand up throughout the day and do mobility work like squats and arm swings.
• We can ​start strength training​ to build strong bones and stave off needing assistance for as long as possible.

It’s on us to keep our bodies active, and wearing out is better than rusting out through lack of use.

As a chaotic creator who spends a lot of time in my own head, Hayao Miyazaki has given me plenty to think about:

I hope when I’m in my 80s, I am still writing this newsletter and helping people, chopping wood and going for walks and spending time with loved ones.

I know I can’t control what happens and accidents happen and so much of life is outside of my control, but I’m going to do my best to give myself the best chance to keep creating and wear out rather than rust out!

I’ll leave you with the final curmudgeonly quote from Miyazaki that closes out the documentary Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron:

“Stop whining and get moving.”

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for me to train for my old man body!

-Steve

PS: The original Japanese title for The Boy and the Heron is How Do You Live?. This is a far more interesting (and apt) title for the film; it’s truly the encapsulation of his life’s work, those that have influenced him, and his deepest thoughts on the meaning of life.

PPS: Need guidance and accountability to reach your fitness goals? Nerd Fitness has helped 10,000+ humans over the last 8 years with 1-on-1 online fitness coaching. ​Click here for more details​.

The post Train for your Old Person Body first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

In 1933, an overwhelmed and frustrated woman named Frau sent a letter to psychologist Carl Jung, asking “how to live.”

(She didn’t have any Instagram influencers to yell motivational platitudes at her, I guess)

Jung replied:

“Your questions are unanswerable, because you want to know how one ought to live. One lives as one can.

…if you do with conviction the next and most necessary thing, you are always doing something meaningful and intended by fate.”

He was sharing the key to life.

It’s part of recovery communities like Alcoholics Anonymous.

It was even the title of a song in ​Disney’s Frozen 2​.

“The next right thing.”

Revisiting this story caused me to reflect on how much my thoughts on success and progress have changed over the years.

“Success” Redefined

I’ve been doing this Nerd Fitness stuff for 15+ years.

Millions of people visit the site every year, 50,000+ customers have bought stuff through NF, and our coaches have served 15,000+ 1-on-1 clients.

In that time, I’ve changed my perspective quite a bit on “success” and “living well.”

I used to think that the only path to success required militant discipline following a specific plan. I never missed a workout, and was unbelievably proud of this.

It didn’t occur to me just how much of a ​privileged and simple life​ I lived, where I was 100% in control of my time.

(Apologies to all the parents and caregivers who read my 25-year old perspective!).

Now that I’m 40, and I can see the types of people we actually help with Nerd Fitness, I’ve changed my perspective on success and “living well” fairly dramatically.

Success happens not when we learn how to do everything perfectly, but instead when we get better at staying afloat even when things go poorly.

In other words, success is learning to be inconsistently consistent. Learning to be good enough for long enough.

And that means, when life seems chaotic, narrowing our focus down to “the next right thing.”

Do the Next Right Thing

A ​recent newsletter​ from author Oliver Burkeman talked about how he’s chosen to retain a tiny bit of sanity in an overwhelming world.

It led me to these sentences from author Eckert Tolle:

“What you refer to as your “life” should more accurately be called your “life situation.” It is psychological time: past and future.

…Forget about your life situation for a while and pay attention to your life.

Find the “narrow gate that leads to life.” It is called the Now.

Narrow your life down to this moment. Your life situation may be full of problems — most life situations are — but find out if you have any problem at this moment. Not tomorrow or in ten minutes, but now.

Do you have a problem now?

When we ruminate on what already happened, and we freak out about all the things that could happen or need to happen in the future…

It’s easy to feel out of control and overwhelmed.

Which brings us back to that cliché solution: “the next right thing.”

It’s a cliché only because it’s true.

We can zoom wayyyyyy in, and narrow our focus to something that is still in our control. In some situations, yes, there is a problem right now. And we can just focus on that one thing.

But in many other situations, it’s often us worrying about all the problems that might be, or the problems outside of our control, that keeps us from taking action on the actual things we can control.

Burkeman continues:

As for telling myself I only needed to do the very next thing… you always only can do the very next thing, then the next, whether you like it or not.

It’s a little strange, actually, to refer to any of these techniques as “narrowing your horizons”, as if they involved somehow artificially limiting yourself.

Really, you’re just consciously recognizing how limited you always already were.

We all know how easy it is for us to ​overcomplicate things​.

And when the world feels like a dumpster fire, it can help to zoom way into that next decision, the tiniest goal, and just do the next right thing.

It might involve a workout or a walk, focusing on the next meal, calling up our therapist, or ​finally saying no​ to a commitment.

If “now” is the only time that exists, then “the next right thing” is the only thing that we can really do.

I’m gonna go do the next right thing for me: take a walk.

-Steve

PS: Maria Popova has ​a great writeup about “the next right thing”​ as it pertains to her life as a writer that inspired this piece.

PPS: Nerd Fitness is hiring a few remote, part-time humans (especially with flexible nights and weekends) to take inbound, scheduled calls from potential clients interested about our 1-on-1 coaching. ​Click here to learn more​.

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Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

I’m currently reading ​The Tainted Cup​, a fantasy detective novel.

Think “Sherlock Holmes set in Westeros.”

The main character has this augmentation that allows him to absorb every single detail of every interaction, crime scene, and then recite back these exact details at a later date.

I remember a horrifying Black Mirror episode about this very thing: being able to recall every fact of every interaction in the past.

Here’s the thing: in all of these scenarios, the facts might be true, but the analysis of these facts still leaves plenty of room for improvement.

I thought about this a lot recently when I stumbled across two stories I want to share:

“​The Past is Not True​” from Derek Sivers:

When I was 17, I was driving recklessly and crashed into an oncoming car. I found out that I broke the other driver’s spine, and she’ll never walk again.

I carried that burden with me everywhere, and felt so horrible about it for so many years that at age 35 I decided to find this woman to apologize. I found her name and address, went to her house, knocked on the door, and a middle-aged woman answered. As soon as I said, “I’m the teenager that hit your car eighteen years ago and broke your spine”, I started sobbing – a big ugly cry, surfacing years of regret.

She was so sweet, and hugged me saying, “Oh sweetie, sweetie! Don’t worry. I’m fine!” Then she walked me into her living room. Walked.

Turns out I had misunderstood.

Yes she fractured a couple vertebrae but it never stopped her from walking. She said “that little accident” helped her pay more attention to her fitness, and since then has been in better health than ever.

Then she apologized for causing the accident in the first place. Apologized.

And this ​story about “the good ole days”​ from author Morgan Housel:

A few months ago I reminisced to my wife about how awesome [life was in our early 20s]. We were 23, gainfully employed, living in our version of the Taj Mahal. This was before kids, so we slept in until 10am on the weekends, went for a walk, had brunch, took a nap, and went out for dinner. That was our life. For years.

“That was peak living, as good as it gets,” I told her.

“What are you talking about?” she said. “You were more anxious, scared, and probably depressed then than you’ve ever been.”

…In my head, today, I look back and think, “I must have been so happy then. Those were my best years.”

But in reality, at the time, I was thinking, “I can’t wait for these years to end.”

It has me thinking a lot about the past, and our future. It turns out, neither one is set in stone!

Which Past Story can you rewrite?

As the cliché goes, it’s easier to connect the dots looking backward than it is looking forward.

Is there a story from your past about a particular moment you’re still carrying with you?

Maybe it’s one full of shame about something that happened, but it led to something even better for you.

Maybe it’s longing for a past life that never actually existed.

The past already happened, but that doesn’t mean it’s set in stone!

Returning to Sivers:

“You can change your history.

The actual factual events are such a small part of it. Everything else is perspective, open for re-interpretation.

The past is never done.”

I’d love to know which story you’re telling yourself about the past, good or bad, that you’re deciding to rewrite?

-Steve

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