doing everything all at once will destroy you....you have to be lousy at everything. to be great, you have to focus on very few things — most of us can barely handle more than one.i am living proof of this. well, i'm not lousy at everything but i am very medium. i'm not great at anything but that is because i like many things. maybe my attention span is too short or i am just not a dedicated person but there is nothing i can say i've worked hard at and seen greatness. i love working out, have my degree in exercise, and still yet my workouts suck. i don't see much gain from my workouts because i never stick to a single program. my goals are not specific enough and i don't adhere to them well. i'd be a bad client. i'm similar to the majority of people in goals - wanting more lean muscle mass and less fat. my problem is that i like to try out new things where my workouts are concerned.
right now i don't even have a gym membership but i workout at my workplace. there are some simple, common machines that use air pressure for resistance but i don't use them much because they don't really do the job and feel limiting. there are also dumbbells up to 20#, some bars that go up to maybe 35# and several cardio machines. this is a fitness room for seniors so it's pretty limited. not many of them are looking to become the next arnold. so i work with what i have and so a lot of workouts are based on simple, low weight exercises and combo work. i also do some plyometrics in hopes that it helps with my dodgeball.
i love to read any kind of information on new exercises or workouts, nutrition and health stuff. i'm a nerd. i guess the reason why i'm not in that field anymore is that i don't want my passion to be my job. my belief is that any job, no matter how much i love it, is just a job, it is a way to make money. many people would argue with me over this but it's MY belief. sure, you can do a lot within that job and be satisfied morally but it does not define who you are as a person. there is so much more than what you do at work. i'm in school to be a nurse and i want to be a good nurse but definitely don't want to become burnt out because i put too much of myself in it without having a life. i have to be able to leave and have "me time" to do what i love.
other passions i guess would be photography and food. i wouldn't want to be a professional in either field but i enjoy learning all i can about each and trying new things. i think a "jack of all trades" is not such a bad thing and really, mastering one isn't that awesome. i like to be able to have conversations with anyone on any subject and to be in "the know". i'm a pretty decent golfer and maybe if i took the time and spent the money for lessons i could get really good. i could set my goal to become a scratch golfer but really i just enjoy going out with my dad, spending a few hours talking and then beating him! that only happened once but it was awesome. i also love surfing but i don't have a car, wetsuit or board here so that makes it hard to go very often. the nice thing is that i cherish every second that i'm in the ocean on a twice-a-year visit home. each wave i catch is forever imprinted into my being and i can go back to it whenever i want. even though the ride might have been ten seconds long, it is longer in my mind. it's instant serenity when i revisit a nice ride.
there just isn't enough time. my friend beth and i had this club. well, it was more of a motto - "minimum effort, maximum results". while some would say this is a slacker club, it's kind of the opposite. you have a limited amount of time and resources so you have to make the best of it. i'd rather put in 100% effort for 10 minutes than 50% for 20 minutes, efficiency. same goes for my workouts. for cardio i usually do some high intensity interval training, rather than steady state. when i'm lifting, i always superset or keep my rest really short. i'm not doing any heavy lifting so this is perfect. circuits are also good but i'm kind of too lazy to set it up for myself. usually, i am in and out in 30 minutes, am tired but invigorated and have a good hurt the next day. maybe you can say i like multi-tasking or being well-rounded but for me, i don't need greatness.
1 comment:
amen.
i love that philosophy, partly because i like being able to do many different types of things at amateur level rather than just a few things at a really great level and most other things at a too bad to even try level, and partly because i'm jealous of people who can do things at a really great level. but i agree that in order to become great at something you really have to devote all your time and energy toward that thing, and then it must take over your life and dominate your ambitions. of course, with me, the ambition part is what holds me back, i just can't seem to want to do something SO much that it becomes such a huge part of my life, mainly because i think people should be well-diversified in life, i think that leads to health and wealth of spirit (like how you have to exercise your brain by doing new things all the time and not allowing it to become to accustomed to any one activity).
variety is the spice of life right? and that's especially true with the brain. it's made to have plasticity and really, it begs to be pulled in different directions. so that's a great motto to live by. sometimes i feel kind of sorry for like big athletes or stars in one area, like olympic athletes who train their entire lives for like, discuss or something. it's awesome for them to be able to do those things, but then you just wonder how much else of the world might they be missing? and how much have they sacrificed to be able to do the thing that they do so well? of course, who can complain when you're all olympified and everything... but thinking that way at least helps me be less jealous of them, haha.
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