Reflecting on Strength

4 Comments

Image: Jonathan Mak

I’ve reflected on my life goals more this week than I have in a while. I’m sure the confluence of creating goals for ROW 80, and Steve Jobs’s death had a lot to do with that.

As I connected the dots backward in my life, I thought a lot about times of great change in my life, and the events that precipitated that change. Steve Jobs’s commencement speech was one of those dots, a moment of change, where I felt my whole universe shift toward What Could Be. Shawn Phillips was another one of those dots, specifically his article on high-intensity interval training (HIIT) in Muscle Media magazine (1996) (and later in his book, ABSolution, where he expands his perspective).

Phillips was the first person I encountered who taught a holistic view of strength and its role in your life. He didn’t cherry pick a specific food or exercise or some other magic pill. He stated consistently back then (as he still does today) that the One Thing you can do to build a healthy body is Everything. Or, like he said, “Everything we do affects the way we look and feel.”

The Power of Perception

I know it seems like a small thing, but growing up, I never thought of myself as athletic or physically fit. The only reason why I felt that way? I didn’t like to run. At all. Sure, I was one of the only girls in my gym class to do any chin ups in those physical fitness tests (the other girl was a gymnast), but in my mind, running was THE exercise, and if I didn’t do it, I must not be physically fit.

Flash forward to my junior year in college. I just transferred to a new school without the full support of my parents. I wasn’t confident that this new school would meet my educational needs better than my previous one. I was in a new state, and didn’t have any friends or family nearby. And, I was the most out of shape that I’d been in my whole entire life (keep in mind, I was 20 at the time, so my perceptions may have been skewed).

My then-boyfriend-now-husband attended the same university for a master’s degree program in Kinesiology, and he introduced me to the beauty of HIIT. Through him, I had private access to the faculty fitness labs after hours, and I slowly incorporated HIIT, in the form of sprints, into my training routines. The more I sprinted, the more addicted I became to them, like a self-sustaining feedback loop. Along with weight lifting, my body eventually became leaner and stronger. And, the stronger I became physically, the stronger I became mentally and emotionally.

The concept of intense bursts of activity followed by periods of rest before another burst, etc, is not a new concept. But, the principles of intensity came at a time when I needed to hear it.

One Strength Feeds Another

“No Pressure, No Diamonds.” Thomas Carlyle

Years later, while reading ABSolution, Shawn Phillips put into words exactly how HIIT changed my perception of fitness and life in general. He said,

“One of the most powerful benefits of [HIIT] is that it will force you to develop your inner strength–your tolerance for intense exercise. When you’re performing interval training with true intensity, your ability to tolerate physical pain is expanded. Rather than doing the opposite–jogging at a low-intensity level, sitting on a stationary bike for an hour without ever pushing yourself…teaches you to exercise within a certain comfort zone.”

“HIIT training works on a physical level, and it helps on a mental and even emotional level by helping you build inner strength.”

Pushing for more intensity allowed me to not only expand my tolerance for physical pain, but also my tolerance for mental and emotional pain.

I look back on college and recognize it as the best years of my life. I loved my classes, I loved interacting with my professors, I loved talking to my peers about literature. But, I realize that most of that love resulted from pushing myself out of my comfort zone in the first place. Before then, I had trained myself to believe that I was only capable of a certain level of achievement, of thriving in a certain kind of environment, of living a certain kind of life.

HIIT not only revolutionized my view of Exercise, but it also allowed me to embrace the idea that I can create the change that I want to see in my life if I was willing to push beyond my comfort zone.

Gratitude

There have been others who have shone brightly along my path as I’ve connected the dots backward, those who have empowered me to take control of my life and shifted my sights toward the goal I have now. One of these days I’ll be able to thank them all individually. Today, I thank Shawn Phillips.

“The thoughts that occupy your mind from moment to moment either elevate your energy and provide you with a sense of power or drain you, adding stress and bringing you down. Your ability to feel appreciation and find the positive is strengthened through regular training, just like your muscles. So go ahead and flex your gratitude and positive focus each day.” ~Shawn Phillips

Steve Jobs, Remembered

6 Comments

In 2005, Steve Jobs delivered the commencement address to Standford University’s graduating class.

This speech was the catalyst that started me on my writing journey. He reminded me that my time is limited. He encouraged me to follow my heart and intuition.

He inspired me to dream.

At the end of the speech, he wished for all of the listeners to “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

I embraced that message then, and have carried it with me since.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you, Steve Jobs. I will.

Coffee. An Unconditional Love.

12 Comments

I love coffee unconditionally.

I enjoy everything about coffee. The smell. The taste. The color. The texture.

Though I prefer the beautiful smoothness of Kona coffee, I will still drink down the bitter dregs of cafeteria coffee.

I function well enough without coffee, but with it…I’m unstoppable.

This week, I stumbled upon THIS ARTICLE, which stated that “NASA scientists believe the research demonstrates that web-spinning spiders can be used to test drugs because the more toxic the chemical, the more deformed was the web.”

Hmm…

…of all the drug-addled spiders, the webs of the ones on caffeine lack the characteristic “wheel” of a normal spider web. In fact, caffeine makes spiders “incapable of spinning anything better than a few threads strung together at random.”

So, does that mean that a writer on caffeine would be incapable of anything better than a few words strung together at random?

(It’s like one of those Zen Koans…like, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”)

Anyway, all that to say, even knowing that caffeine is more toxic than the average drug, wrapped up in coffee, it’s still my drug of choice.

And, you’ d have to pry my coffee from my cold, dead hands.

See? Unconditional love.

(Also, I know that NASA wasn’t trying to compare spiders and people. I’m not completely crazy.)

(Besides, people like reading random words.)

Photo credit: Coffee Love By Gordana Adamovic-Mladenovic

Photo credit: Superhero by Vegas Bleeds Neon

Do You Have Any Writing Advice For Me?

20 Comments

 Writing Advice

I was deleting old emails from this blog’s contact form, and stumbled upon an email from a young lady stating that she hoped I was a friendly variety of writer, and asked, “Do you have any writing advice for me?”

I checked my email archives, and was happy that I wrote her back. Her question, after all, was very easy to answer, since I feel like I have to continually advise myself every day I write. My emailed response to her was this…

 I don’t really have much advice in the way of writing, since I’m still learning myself!  The best advice that I’ve read for any writer is something that Stephen King said: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” That’s pretty much all you need to know and do, especially while you’re still in school.  Read as much as possible.  Read read read.  While you’re reading as much as you can, write write write. When you surround yourself with words, you’ll be able to use them more creatively.

On my blog, I chronicle my writing journey.  Feel free to poke around there, and glean any learnings as I stumble around on my own writing path.  Though my goal is to be a published author one day, the skill/art of writing is a talent that I believe needs to be strengthened and sharpened continually.  It’s like a muscle that way.  You use it or lose it. My blog is my way of keeping myself accountable to “using” my writing skill.

Oh, one more thing: as you write, remember why you’re writing.  I truly enjoy creating stories, and I love getting lost in the creative process.  Sure, it gets frustrating sometimes, and I get tired, but in the end, I write because I love it.

…and re-reading it now, my advice wouldn’t change if she asked me again. The best part? Seeing my old words, “Sure, it gets frustrating sometimes, and I get tired, but in the end, I write because I love it,” and knowing they’re still as true today as they were six months ago.

Friendly Variety of Writer

There was one point in her email that stuck out to me that I didn’t notice the first time I read it six months ago. (Possibly because I was still amazed that anyone would ask me for writing advice, and was distracted by making sure my answer made sense.) (Also, what a great argument for letting a manuscript rest before revising it.) The young lady hoped that I was a “friendly writer.”

Of course, because I’m me, I’ve wondered all morning if she had encountered many unfriendly writers to have phrased her sentence that way, and moreover, if I lived up to her expectation of being a friendly writer.

Anyway, I didn’t write this last part to garner any words of sympathy or encouragement. Only that the realization gave me the opportunity to reflect on my writing journey and public persona, and to hope that I can be a support to my writing peers. (After all, writers provide me with books, my drug of choice, and I need to support my addiction.) 🙂

So, what one piece of writing advice do you share the most? What recent epiphanies have you had that caused you to reflect on your writing journey?

PS: One of my favorite author role models is Beth Revis, and she wrote a blog post HERE that stayed with me long after reading it.