Day 28 - Perspective

At last... it is February 28th. We've made it to the end of February and to the end of our wellness challenge! I am happy to report I reached my target. Having done this kettlebell challenge for a number of years now, I look at it differently than I did the first time. My perspective has changed.

What I mean is that, the first go around, it was all about the finish line. It was a crazy goal - could I do it? And as we went through the challenge and finally finished it that year, it was amazing.

What is different about this year is that I find myself less concerned with the final result. That struck me as rather odd, but as I think about it, I realize that my perspective has totally changed since that first year's kettlebell challenge. Or, perhaps, I have gained perspective.

Now, I see February not as a crazy month of "wellness activity", but as just another part of the year. It has 11 other 30-ish-day-long compatriots in which we can live actively. About a week in to this year's challenge, I found myself thinking about what to do after February. Well, that and I found myself thinking about how I could make some technical improvements to my kettlebell workouts.

My perspective has switched from focusing on a single February goal to a broader consideration that activity just should be part of my life. All the time, not just during a special month. I enjoy, from time to time, particular challenges (like the kettlebell swings), but I think I have shifted to just always being aware of trying to do something active. If the lake isn't frozen, then it's kayaking adventures, or swimming, or zipping around on my old Supercycle bike, or walking out in the bush. And, aside from a few spells when our pool has been quarantine-closed, we make a point of going to the pool a couple of times a week.

These days, I'm taking a wider-angle perspective to see that wellness really has more to do with adopting a "well" lifestyle than doing some special wellness activities now and again. Having said that, those activities are a great place to START. But, really, it is about being more wellness-oriented this year than you were last year. It is about making progress and cultivating an attitude of daily wellness.

As we wrap up February 2021, and this year's wellness challenge, I encourage you to Be Well, to adopt an attitude of wellness, and a perspective that sees you moving forward on a journey to ever-increasing wellness. 

Well done! And done well.

Day 24 - Maintain

We are rounding the last corner before the finish line on our annual February challenge. This year, my wrist has not bothered me, and I was able to get down to business on my kettlebells. In fact, I was able to crank out my final 40 while on video-chat with my Mom last night. 10,000 Kettlebells are in the history book! It was great to have her in the "crowd" as I crossed the finish line. I'm not sure how many times that has actually happened, come to think of it! It was nice to have some company.

As February winds down, though, it occurrs to me that I don't want to erratically follow some yo-yo kind of activity program; what I really want is to more or less stay in the active zone. Without being extreme, either. Just... active. That brought to mind the idea of maintenance. And that, of course, brought me back to the realm of words.

If you research the history of the word maintain, you will see that it comes from the Latin manu tenere - "to hold in the hand". And before English got ahold of it, Old French had a go with maintenir. Essentially, that also meant... "to hold in the hand". If you think about holding something in your hand - not just for a moment, but continuously - you will have a richer sense of what it means to maintain something.

And that is what I have been thinking about these days. If we mobilize ourselves to do something worthwhile, how do we maintain that forward progress? I am certainly not here to prescribe some magical formula for you. As much as I can encourage you, you are basically on your own when it comes to how you will maintain any progress you have achieved this month.

At the risk of giving advice, here is my advice:

1. Be aware of your choice - we choose the degree to which we maintain (or hold onto) wellness gains. Think about it:  how likely are we to "accidentally" keep up our efforts. Things in the natural world move away from organization toward chaos; we must actively exert an effort to reverse that trend because if we don't, we naturally move toward randomness and chaos.

2. Set worthy goals - even if we don't reach the goals we set, we generally end up somewhere in the ballpark of those goals. Put some quality thought into what you aim yourself toward.

3. Develop an Inner Circle - we all need some key encouragers who know us well enough not to be overly-impressed by our smokescreens, yet who are still on our side, in our corner, behind us all the way... pick your cliché. These folks are not our adoring "fans", but rather our butt-kickers (well, as needed, and apologies to my mom for that comment. She raised me better than that).

Three points are enough. You know what you need to do.

Day 20 - Priorities and Timing

What a week! I was busy at work and busy at home. Which means I was doubly busy at home because I'm working from home. At least, it felt doubly busy. One negative I grapple with all the time is the separation of home from work. It was easy when I could just walk out of the office. Now I have to consciously log off at go-home time, and it's not always easy. Nonetheless, I did successfully take a day off yesterday, and it was an excellent way to recharge my batteries.

The last week has been tight to make time for blog-writing. So I didn't. Well, not exactly. I drafted a few ideas, but they weren't polished enough to publish. That may be presumptuous...

Anyway, the highlight from yesterday - the week, really - was fishing. I usually go out with #1 son, but he was working, so I went solo. I'm sure he worried about me (or, rather, his ice shack) the whole time, but I miraculously was able to get there and get set up just fine.

Priority 1: open up the hole inside the shack. We've had some nasty cold weather, so I had to drill out about 24" of fresh ice. But that was the first thing to do, so the exhaust could clear while I unloaded the sleigh and chopped some wood for a fire.

Priority 2: get the fire going. It wasn't really cold yesterday, but a nice cozy fire is psychologically very comforting and relaxing. AND... you can warm up your soup on it!

Priority 3: get a minnow on the hook and the line down the hole. About 8 minutes in, fish #1 came calling. Nearly. I got him right up to the top of the hole and he spit out the hook. He was too small anyway. But it was a good sign - the fish were biting. Minnow back down and on to the next priority.

Priority 4: call Grandma (my mom, actually). Part of the busyness this week and, really, this month, has been resettling my mom. Fortunately, my sister lives (lived) very close to mom and has been a huge help with boots on the ground. After mom's move, she has to contend with yet one more COVID quarantine, so she's a bit bored. I had told her I'd try to call her when I got set up fishing.

So, after Mr. Minnow went back down the hole, I called Mom on Messenger. Very cool! I was able to show her around - me lounging on the bunk with my feet up, my soup warming up on the stove, the view out the windows... and then I noticed my line jumping. "Hang on, Mom. I gotta switch my camera and stand up the phone." Which I promptly did and then reeled in a nice fish while she was watching! Talk about good timing. Mom was almost as excited as I was. The visit was nice, but she said she felt as if she'd actually been ice fishing. And that's cool because she's originally from Britain, and they don't typically venture out onto frozen lakes over there. If they could even find one!

I am so glad I had thought about calling her, and catching the fish was really just exceptional timing. But she really enjoyed the experience and it was a good boredom buster for her. As we hung up, she commented on how she really hoped they had fish for supper that night.

Some priorities are less negotiable or discretionary than others. Setting up the shack has a natural order of tasks that really speeds up a) getting your line in the water, and b) your comfort. Deciding what you're going to do with your "free time" while out there is more discretionary for sure, but as I said, I'm so glad I had made it a priority to call Mom.

And this week, I was working diligently on the kettlebells, which have been going very well this year. But Thursday was kettlebell day, AND our pool just reopened, so I swam for 45 minutes also. I could say I did a pool workout, but that would be an untruth. So today when I picked up the kettlebells, the old bod' set its own priority and that was to not complete the original target. Phew!

I've realized that this is perfectly okay. There was a time, when I would have had stress about deviating from schedule, but I'll say I'm older and, hopefully, wiser. Listen to your body when you are working out and don't overdo it. As I have said before, I'm not training for the Olympics, so it's all good.

My overall priority is to do something for wellness as frequently as possible, and if that involves fishing instead of work (it was approved!), so be it. Set priorities that are sensible to you and do not unravel any gains you may have already made. Enjoy yourself.

Update from Mom... They had fish.

Day 13 - What Does it Take to be Proud of Yourself?

We're not quite half-way through February, so we've had time to establish our track record for the wellness challenge. Tackling a big challenge, especially a physically demanding one that requires endurance, we often start off with smaller efforts that grow over the course of the challenge. That reflects our adaptation to physical stress; literally, it is a performance effect caused by stress.

I think most of us have heard that Canadians are likely to be polite and reserved and, though not always the case, I consider that to be generally true. One might go so far as to say Canadians are often humble; my jury is still out on that one, but I would say that we don't typically celebrate ourselves or our achievements. At least, not on a large scale.

So, you don't often see people throwing their own parades.

Today, I want to go a bit counter-culture and ask what it would actually take to throw ourself (if that is a word) a parade?

If you're like me, that thought was initially a bit jarring - imagine throwing yourself your own parade. But maybe, for a moment, it wouldn't hurt to think about it.

Is it okay to be proud of ourselves? Like, a bit over-the-top proud? Once in awhile? I think the obvious answer to that is, "Yes", but do we every really let ourselves go there?

Assuming that our default setting is underpride, my suggestion is that, this month, we throw caution to the wind and celebrate our wellness successes... even if we are the only one at our socially-distant parade.

Let's assume you've been working away on some kind of wellness activity this month. Even doing something is an accomplishment, especially if doing nothing is more typical for you.

Recognize your accomplishments.

Affirm yourself (maybe to a close friend or family member). YOU have taken steps toward greater wellness.

Even if this is new for you, try it out, and allow yourself to feel some well-deserved pride.

We have two weeks to go in the challenge, but keep up your good work.

And on March 1st, plan yourself a parade!