Knock It OFF With The New Years Resolutions!
GET SERIOUS About Self-Coaching
You have to assess your current strategy and tactics in something approaching real-time … review your progress while the physical memory of what you did is still fresh … then adjust your strategy ever so slightly as you focus on adjusting your tactics and overhauling the failures in executions.
Coaching … especially SELF-coaching has to while you still have the physical memory of what you did, what you felt like, why you let up, why you didn’t push harder, why you didn’t do more … it cannot wait for next December.
Stop the self-delusion inherent in the New Year’s resolutions process … your review can’t wait until December!!!
What is actually NECESSARY is to just resolve, as soon as you notice a let up, that from now on, there’ll be no more drama, no more hysterics, no more oaths and resolutions! INSTEAD, when you notice something needs improvement, you will just do your best to just do your best … you will JUST STAY AT IT … you might take a break for a drink of water or a short walk to shake it off, but you will just starting making the improvements you need to make right away.
NO MORE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS!
Instead of settting yourself up for failure with the same old boring daily or weekly gym routine or some other resolved plan that you were going to stick with in the New Year … try instead to SMARTEN up your routine with an ongoing dialogue with things like a journal or AI … or some accountability device … or, it can be your cat or sock puppet or some other way for you to have a serious interior dialogue about improving your game.
YOU are responsible for INVENTING YOUR OWN ACCOUNTABILITY DEVICE.
The way that you are going to make you smarter is YOU.
EVERY DAY you are going to rephrase thes questions that you ask of yourself, your journal or some AI like Bard … but it’s the repitition of that dialogue and sometimes going back to old answers when you thought you had some sort of epiphany.
The dialogue is generally along the lines of something that only matters to you … but it is a highly detailed, doodled, sketched-out, personalized, refined, articulated version of some FUNDAMENTAL question like …
“What is the most important thing that I can do right now to improve my health?
But it’s not really just that question … the more important thing is FOLLOW-UP and self-coaching critique … and the questions that will come out of your own accountability dialogue.
So that coaching review that you do that EVERY evening or whenever … but the interval between coaching reviews has to be at most 24 hours long … it can’t be every week or month … it certainly can’t wait until next December. The regular coaching review is why NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS are for losers who are not really serious about the game!
At the end of your day, you will need to ask your journal or your AI friend a new question, factoring in how well you actually did during the preceeding day … and the dialogue will become the reason for keeping that JOURNAL … because your journal is exactly not for other people to read, although it might be fine if they do someday … the point of circling back in your journal to your old questions and answers is FOR YOUR FUTURE REFERENCE when you need to reuse your best material to re-inspire yourself and re-find that WHY.
An EXAMPLE of self-coaching by prompt engineering in a continuous dialogue with AI
{GENERAL NOTE ABOUT AI CONVERSATIONS: In VERY STARK contrast to conversations with humans, it’s necessary to keep the questions with AI extremely VERBOSE and even rambling, because AI can actually USE verbosity, whereas human animal conversations are more animal-like in that animals pick up on subtle physical cues. An AI, like BARD, is somewhat verbose itself but that’s fine, you can refine Bard’s respone – you can also view multiple draft responses by Bard AND regenerate even more drafts AND you can rephrase your question over and over and over … because conversation with an AI should include too much information AND RAMBLING … although, doing this enough will cause you to tend to talk this way to humans, too … but you don’t really need to ever talk with human beings, EXCEPT when they ask a question of you … otherwise, you’d be better off talking to birds or cats than trying to talk with humans. Humans tend to be a really tedious, self-absorbed, whiny species … but they’re not ALL that way. All of the time.}
The STARTING question …
… which I asked Bard to OPEN the dialogue was …
I break my day into 30 minute time blocks, with 25 minute Pomodoros devoted to focusing on dev tasks in AI, data science, content production and 4 minutes devoted to 8 quick sets of 10 rep high intensity interval training (HIIT) exercises. Given that my real focus is on optimizing the productivity of those 25 minute Pomodoros AND since I cannot tolerate lack of variety in my workouts, I really NEED to try new things, so what would you suggest that I use my goto list of the best 200 HIIT Tabata exercises for generally healthy 65-year-old man trying to be more mentally productive?
The follow-up question …
… which I asked Bard to CONTINUE from yesterday’s dialogue and affiliated websearches was …
Which websites and YouTube channels are the best sources of inspiration for a 65-year-old doing creative cardio yoga and with animal moves and sense-of-the-enemy moves from martial arts. For an older person, it’s important not to get injured, but it’s also important to avoid letting muscles and joints atrophy or calcify.
What almost scared me about this question was the “Create A Yoga Journal” blog post from Jill Conyers … which advises people to “Make yourself a priority!” Well, Duh, sister! AND choose a journal that FITS YOUR PERSONALITY. You mean like Bard?!!!
Observations and Recommendations Based on My Own Experience
… not just with Bard, but from life and journalling and walking and just slowly figuring out what doesn’t work … and what kinda seems to work, although I’m still refining it ….
PAY MUCH CLOSER ATTENTION and work on paying even closer attention tomorrow
For this to work, you HAVE TO cultivate a more skeptical mindset.
For example, you have to be CONVINCED that things like your own familiar carpetted stairs are going to try to kill you … OR that you will boil some water for your favorite cup of soothing tea and then you’ll forget it and will set your house on fire … all because you weren’t paying attention to the discipline of paying closer and closer attention.
Constantly work on improving your DISCIPLINE of MINDFULNESS … when you walk, focus only the WALKING … when you eat, focus only on EATING and really savoring every bite of your food … when you work, enjoy everything about how good it feels to be getting things DONE and DOING THEM RIGHT. BUT WHEN YOU DRIVE, ask yourself, “WHY IN THE LIVING FUCK ARE YOU DRIVING ANYWHERE, YOU FUCKING MORON? You know that walking is way better for you AND a good way to test ideas, think, meditate and generally improve your ability to pay closer attention.” The interior dialogue with yourself is helpful … EXCEPT when you’re driving, then focus the fuck on the damned road.
Pay more attention today than you did yesterday and work at being even more attentive tomorrow!
You cannot possibly pay too much attention to what you are doing … especially when you are LISTENING to people … FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS.
Most people are so damned distracted, numb, caffinated, drunk or impaired in some way that they are not even remotely aware of how distracted they are … they are not paying attention to what they are doing when they are doing it, even when they are sure that they are paying attention. ALMOST everyone does this and you know that you are terrible at doing this sometimes as well … STOP IT! Pay closer attention to what you are doing.
Stop wasting any of your time staying angry. Stop being anxious … you have enough money for everything you will need in the next fifteen minutes – there’s no loan shark knocking on your door to break your legs … so STOP WORRYING … you have proven that you can adapt to anything without ever TRULY NEEDING any help from anyone, so you will manage regardless of whatever happens. Don’t be WEAK; don’t be a worrying prey animal motivated by fear. You are an apex predator. It’s a sign of mental laziness to filled with anxiety or to hold a grudge. You know better, so knock off the bs about conspiracy theories or what other people think. You do not NEED anyone.
LET THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD!!!
Memories are fine, but STOP longing for the past … LET GO of any attachment whatsoever to the past. Savor the smells, tastes, sights, sounds, feelings … but LET GO of any attachment of longing for it. Just STOP THAT SHIT!
You have to SIEZE THE DAY! This means being PRESENT in the NOW … on the forward-looking side of now!
NEVER EVER look back longingly in the rear view mirror … we are not going that way … we are RESPONSIBLE for DRIVING toward the horizon … we cannot afford to be distracted by the rear view mirror … we need to remember our lessons and be aware of our surroundings, but we need to be PRESENT … and RESPONSIBLE for DRIVING toward the horizon.
Stop being a backward-looking zombie … LET THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD!!!
Develop a more detailed understanding of what is driving your personal risk factors
You know or have a very good idea of what killed your parents, your grandparents, your relatives … you are not THAT different from your relatives – you are almost not one bit similar to the general public or whatever the media is portraying as a risk you need to worry about, ie NOBODY dies from being eaten by sharks; almost NOBODY has to worry about some sort of insect or parasite or disease from the tropics.
Just start working on the inventory of REAL SHIT that actually killed your parents and grandparents … do something about the higher priority things and AVOID THE IDIOTIC FEAR MONGERING GENERATED BY THE MEDIA.
Optimize your sleep hygiene
MOST IMPORTANTLY … never ever EVER sit down and watch TV or a movie. NEVER.
Television and video destroy your ability to subconsciously process information … the hypnosis that you take in from your media consumption hypnotizes you … and you process that crazy twisted media crap in your sleep.
Sleep in a cool, dark, quiet room
Make your bed, get your pillows, mattress and covers JUST RIGHT for a perfect night’s sleep.
Re-adjust your bedroom for much more optimal sleep … try to improve it EVERY DAY, before you are too tired to think about sleep hygiene optimization and just collapse into bed … IMPROVE your sleep hygiene EVERY DAY … BEFORE YOU ARE TIRED.
The best sleep aide is having a productive day and carpeing the living heck out of every diem.
It’s best if you can spend more time outdoors and get your body in synch with the sun … when the sun goes down early, go to bed early; it’s fine to get up super early and work, but be sure to get up BEFORE sunrise every day … but if you can’t sleep, get up and do something productive – but stay awake long enough to watch the sunrise and CARPE THE NEW DIEM … there’s simply no way to boost your health and productivity than getting up before the sun to watch the sunrise.
Consume caffeine in moderation, with an aim to always moderating your intake, but it is best to abstain after noontime and definitely knock it off all together after 2pm
Caffiene does have unmistakable neuroprotective effects ESPECIALLY for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s … although caffeine has been associated with anxiety, restlessness, and difficulty sleeping; this is usually a sign of lack of moderation in consumption OR a particular sensitivity to caffiene. For example, if someone drinks a moderate amounnt of a caffienated beverage like green tea, regularly in moderate amounts, but still has chronic headaches and or even migraines, it is best for that person to abstain from caffiene altogether. But for most people who have their anxieties under control, caffiene is a neuroprotective substance which is best consumed in moderation, but not avoided altogether.
IF you need them; take short 25 minute power naps during the day
Most importantly, do not get STRESSED about not being able to sleep … if you can’t sleep, get up and work on something but the next day … Don’t sleep longer than 25 minutes, or you will wake up groggy and you won’t just have a hard time getting back to work, your entire day and your whole sleep routine will be thrown off … so if you can manage somehow, ie do some exercises or go for a walk, it’s best if you just try to push on and get to bed early.
Avoid alcohol AT ALL TIMES
NEVER, EVER drink alcohol … NEVER.
Alcohol is direct neurotoxin which causes inebriation and other effects, such as killing favorable portions of the gut’s microbiome … but alcohol’s effect on the body is MUCH longer lasting than a pleasant buzz … alcohol is both water- and fat-soluble, it can easily move out of the blood stream and move freely into the cells in your body where it does the most depressive, mind-rotting damage OVER THE MONTHS AFTER THE BUZZ IS GONE … the persistence of alcohol in stay in higher lipid cells, especially brain cells is where the long term toxicity necessarily continues to bombard the system, even when you think you’re over it.
You will not fully understand why being clean of all alcohol [and alcoholic friends] matters until you’ve gone 1000 days without a drink … 1000 days before January 1, 2024 was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, November 24, 2020.
Develop nutrition plan that works for you
Spend whatever it takes on GOOD FOOD … but don’t waste money on most supplements or most vitamins … you can get pretty much everything you need from food … but you need to eat the BEST foods you can find. FIND OR GROW BETTER FOODS.
MOSTLY it’s about what you remove
EAT LESS. You know that you don’t need to eat as much as you do – so EAT LESS, EAT BETTER.
Develop plan for extended fasting.
Drink more water … then drink more, a LOT more.
Get your nutrients from higher quality meats … it’s fine to get your enjoyment/satiation/crunchiness from food from vegetables … but avoid carbs and snacks … train your body to never crave ultra-processed foods.
Improve your ENJOYMENT of food.
Garden, Foodscape, Build Soil.
Preserve, Pickle, Ferment.
Wildcraft and Forage. Most importantly, just spend more time outside PAYING ATTENTION.
Cook … study flavors … design your own cuisines, ie avoid ultra-processed food like the plague.