1000mileroad

[1000mileroad]

Where to begin?

Treat every moment as your last it is not preparation for something else.

Shunryu Suzuki

Cutting through the jungle

You’ve finally managed to muster up the courage and motivation to try and turn your life around, but as you’re about to take that first decisive step towards a better life, the road that you thought you’d seen so clearly ahead of you vanishes in front of your eyes. That inviting highway, long and straight as far as the eye can see, has disappeared. Instead, you find yourself in the midst of a jungle, with nothing but impenetrable shrubbery around you. After so many years of neglect, the road ahead has become overgrown with doubt, hopelessness, and fear. The highway was an illusion.

When faced with such an insurmountable task, where do you even begin? It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the situation. I know, cause it’s happened to me every single time I’ve tried. Shunryu Suzuki said that in the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few. He was talking about zen meditation at the time, but the wisdom can be applied to your situation as well. With everything yet to be done, it doesn’t matter where you start. You simply begin by creating movement. You need momentum. You need an early victory. If you stay put, the jungle will eat you up.

You have to choose one direction and go with it. Power through, and don’t look back. Trust your gut feeling. Pick up your hatchet and start chopping away. If you come out on the other side realizing it’s not where you wanted to go, you can always go back and try a different direction. Thing is, you won’t know for sure until you’re there. There is no room for doubt in this initial phase. You have to keep moving.

Start with yourself

My gut feeling tells me that I need to begin by working on myself. Literally.

In order to walk along the thousand-mile road, I’ll need stamina, strength, mobility, longevity, resilience, and speed. In other words, I need to be fit and healthy.

I know how alluring the idea of doing everything at once can be. That’s part of what usually derails me. I look around, and I’m desperate to rectify every single flaw all at once. So, after decades of decline and neglect, I’m supposed to wake up one morning and start doing everything right? That’s not going to work. Even if I identify all the things that need to be fixed and know how to get them sorted out, it simply isn’t sustainable. It’s too much, too soon.

So I go with Gary Keller’s One Thing-method. Ask yourself: What’s the one thing you can do, such that by doing it, everything else would be easier or unnecessary? The theory is that there is always just one thing that’s the most important at any given time. Taking into consideration how much my health affects every other aspect of my life, I’ve decided that this is the one thing that will make everything better for me at this point. Without a healthy body, much of what I want to accomplish is going to become a whole lot harder, perhaps impossible.

Not only does exercise improve your physique and increase your vitality, but it also affects your mental health and well-being. Even moderate amounts of exercise have been shown to fight depression and anxiety, relieve stress, improve your mood, improve sleep, and much more. Add to that the more obvious physical benefits like losing and controlling weight, increased muscle mass and bone density, boosted energy levels, reduced risk of illness (as well as combatting existing conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, etc.) improved cognitive function, and improved sex life, just to name a few. I dare anyone to come up with a better plan A.

Success in any endeavor is built on doing the basics consistently.

Scott Abel

Creating balance in your life

Much of what I want to accomplish goes toward creating balance. I am a firm believer in the golden middle way. The golden middle way, as defined by Aristotle, is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. You need just the right amount of everything. So my years of excess eating must now be tempered by a caloric deficit until the right balance has been achieved, and my years of inactivity must be tempered by increased activity. It sounds simplistic, but it doesn’t have to get more complicated than that. The lack of complexity does not mean that this is going to be easy. It’s very hard to change one’s habits, especially at my advanced age.

So: Eat less, move more. Make sensible food choices, walk a lot, lift some weights.

But… isn’t keto better? Intermittent fasting? Fasted cardio? Isn’t high-intensity interval training supposed to be way superior to steady-state cardio? Isn’t walking outdated? I can’t eat carbs, can I? These are some of the questions I’ve encountered along the way. I spend so much time obsessing over mere details, that I never even get started with the work at hand. The training and nutrition fads are all around us, and, sure, some of them are pretty decent, others are not. I actually will be doing HIIT at some point, I will be intermittently fasting at some point, and I incorporate steady-state cardio mostly for the sake of burning a few extra calories. However, the point is: don’t get lost in the details. Because these are all just details. It doesn’t matter which method you choose, the basic procedure is always: eat less, move more. Theoretically, you could lose weight by eating nothing but junk food, as long as you’re in a caloric deficit. You’re probably going to die, but you’d still lose the weight. Consistency is the key to everything. Incorporate more advanced protocols once you’ve successfully mastered the basics, but not before.

Keep everything as simple as possible for as long as possible. Start with the basics, and only adjust your routine once you hit a sticking point.

Now, let’s get going!

[1000mileroad]

The Journey Begins

I’m not the man I’m supposed to be

All we are not stares back at what we are.

W.H. Auden

My name is Kristian. I’m 41 years old. I’m not the man I’m supposed to be.

I’m haunted by the man I could have been.

What I fear the most is the prospect of having to draw my last breath with regret in my heart for the things that could have been but never were.

This blog follows me as I set off to make my last stand. I want to at least go down fighting.

They say that it’s never too late to start, but at 41 I feel like I must at least be testing that hypothesis to its very limits. I am nowhere. I have nothing to show for but unfulfilled potential. Miyamoto Musashi said that it takes one thousand days to forge the spirit, and ten thousand days to refine it. In other words, it’s now or never.

I’ve been here before. I’ve looked myself in the eyes and said the very same thing. I’ve read all the books, seen all the movies. There’s nothing new that could emerge at this point that would magically unlock everything; no piece of missing information, no self-help hack, no guru’s wisdom, no major life event, that has the power to set me straight at this point. It all begins and ends with me.

What has kept me back all this time? What stopped me from going after my dreams? It’s hard to say. I grew up with so much potential. Nobody saw this coming, myself included. Aside from the obvious reasons, such as laziness, lack of ambition, and fear of failure, I think that a faulty sense or understanding of time must take some of the blame. I always felt like there was so much time, like I would never run out of it. I never felt a sense of urgency growing up. I kept waiting for the perfect opportunity to present itself, but it never did. I know by now that there’s no such thing as a perfect moment. Unless you count now. Now is always the perfect moment. No matter which moment you choose, it is always now.

At the very least, at my age, I’m not likely to have to start from scratch. 41 years of failing have taught me a lot, and, if nothing else, I’ve more or less written the book on how not to do it. Don’t underestimate the wisdom generated by repeated failure! I believe I know what to do, most of the time. We all do. I recently watched a documentary about Neil Armstrong, in which the most striking thing his colleagues said about him was that, “He was that rarest of men, one who simply did what he believed was right, nothing more, nothing less, every time.” Everything else is just details.

Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly!

Marcus Aurelius

Where do I start? Well, what do I know by now?

I know there’s no magic pill. There is no way around hard work. You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep doing that for a long, long time. In fact, you never stop.

My failure to progress is most of all due to overlooking this rather obvious fact. It seems too simple. There’s no fanfare, no great and sudden epiphany. It just seems… dull. Don’t I need the secret password, map to the buried treasure, some life-altering and heretofore unknown life hack? No. It is as simple as that. Just begin, just go, just start, just step forward, just do it. There really is no other way. It takes time, but it’s not complicated. Even the greatest of endeavors begin with taking that first step. No angels’ choir, no fireworks display, no signs from above. Don’t wait for permission or a pretense, just go for it. Don’t worry too much about which direction to go, just take your best guess and go with it.

More than anything else, keep as much of your existence as simple as possible for as long as possible. Keep repeating and polishing the basics. Don’t be tempted to complicate matters unnecessarily. Most likely, 99% of your problems can be solved simply by performing the basics a little bit better.

Make your way forward, little by little, step by step. Resist the inclination to take giant strides. Build a foundation first. “Hack away the unessential,” Bruce Lee said. “It is not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away the unessential. The closer to the source, the less wastage there is.”

Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today. This is never-ending.

Yamamoto Tsunetomo

The Japanese have a term called kaizen. It means improvement, or change for the better, and is the practice of continuous improvement. Kaizen can be applied to any number of things, but most people who are familiar with the term will know it from the business world, where it’s applied to all levels of the organization, from the CEO down to the assembly line. Kaizen aims to eliminate waste. In other words, it takes basic functions and simplifies them where- and whenever possible. When Masaaki Imai published his book Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success in 1986, this built heavily on a centuries-long Japanese tradition called the shokunin kishitsu – the craftsman’s spirit.

The shokunin (the artisan/craftsman) spends his or her entire life attempting to perfect their chosen craft or trade. They don’t simply paint, sew, or cook, they embark on the Way of Painting. It’s a way of life, not just a trade. It defines who they are. Even at age 85, the now world-famous sushi chef and shokunin, Jiro Ono, widely considered the best in the world, still performs every single minuscule task toward preparing the dishes for his customers because he realizes that even at his age, there are still aspects of the process that he can improve upon. Basic things. His technique will never be flawless. There will always be things to improve. For us mere mortals it will seem flawless, but Jiro knows better.

In terms of personal growth, the shokunin spirit demands that you take just as much pride in yourself as you would take pride in your craft. Your obligation as a shokunin is both material and spiritual. Continuous growth requires a deep sense of humility, an ability to express oneself wholeheartedly and honestly, and a relentless spirit that will not settle for anything less than perfection.

The Way of the warrior does not include other Ways, such as Confucianism, Buddhism, certain traditions, artistic accomplishments and dancing. But even though these are not part of the Way, if you know the Way broadly you will see it in everything. Men must polish their particular Way. Miyamoto Musashi

In other words, all roads lead to Rome. It doesn’t matter which Way you choose, as long as it’s the one you wish to be on. Your heart must be in it. The process itself will be much the same no matter which path you choose. For me, this has been the biggest obstacle of the journey. I’ve never clearly seen which path to take. If only I’d taken the advice of  Gary Keller, “Absent an answer, choose a direction,” my life could have been very different. If you’re lucky enough to know where you want to go, what are you waiting for? If not, you need to try something, anything. If it turns out to be the wrong choice, take whatever wisdom you can from your detour, and your next attempt will hit closer to the mark. We’re all works in progress.

We realize far too late in life that time is finite. What’s worse is that we grow up believing that life has some sort of finish line. If only you work hard enough, you’ll get to cross it, and then you’ll be happy. Then you’ll be satisfied and fulfilled. But it doesn’t work that way. There is no finish line to cross. This is all there is. The road is your home. You better make sure you’re on the right one! Find what makes you happy and devote your life to it. True happiness comes from doing what you love. If you can’t find the path you’re supposed to be on, choose a direction and start walking. Sooner or later, the road will unveil itself. You just have to keep walking. What seemed uncertain at the outset, will make perfect sense once you progress far enough. Be courageous. What have you got to lose?

The Mission Statement

My mission is to be without regrets. To make that happen, I need to forgive myself for what’s been and gone and let only the present moment matter from now on.

My mission is to live life wholeheartedly and without fear. To make that happen, I must learn to express myself with complete honesty.

My mission is to be fully present in every moment. To make that happen, I must stop speaking in terms of becoming, and just be, just do, just live.

There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the moment. A man’s whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Now take what's left and live it properly! Live life being true to the single purpose of the moment.

Yamamoto Tsunetomo

About the honest expression of oneself

What does it mean to honestly express yourself as a human being?

It means to come to terms with who you are, and to let that manifest itself in everything you do. It means to be genuine, unfiltered, and fully yourself.

I wish to examine life in this manner- through three lenses: the body, the mind, and the way. These are the component parts of The Thousand-Mile Road.

Articles on the body will look into ways of improving physically:

strength

mobility

endurance

resilience

longevity

Articles on the mind will look into ways of improving mentally and spiritually:

awakening the soul

creating balance and harmony

building character and resilience

finding motivation and purpose

Articles on the way will look into the process itself:

efficiency and productivity

planning and structuring

integrity and honest expression

everyday solutions

I hope to make this more than just a collection of articles on physical fitness, nutrition, meditation, productivity, or any other subject I’ll touch upon. I will treat this as my own personal toolbox for coping with life on The Thousand-Mile Road. Mostly, I hope these tools are universal tools, and that you’ll have some use for them, too. If nothing else, I hope this will serve as motivation for others who find themselves in my situation. I know there are millions, if not billions, of us.

Late bloomer, slow starter… this one’s for you.

Came into this world, I was lost not found. It did not hold me in its arms like it holds me now. So I dreamed myself a bird who could cross the waves, and I woke up just a man who was miles away.

Josh Ritter

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Photo Credits: Clément M. Lucas Favre Daniel Kainz Valentin Salja Dreamstime.com Photo of Jiro Ono from the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi by David Gelb.

[1000mileroad]

The enduring value in studying an art form lies in its serving as a vehicle through which to express yourself and, through such expression, to come to understand yourself better, spiritually speaking, through a progressively evolving knowledge of both your limitations and your capabilities.

John Little in The Warrior Within

[1000mileroad]

Step by step

Walk the thousand-mile road