It’s All About Stress

Stress is not created equal. Some is good, some is bad. Yet, in the end it is all just stimulus, which we respond to. Some of us respond to it consciously, some of us just go with the flow. It is very important to understand how you react to stress if you want to learn how to better manage it. Like everything in life, change and progress begins with awareness.

There is no better way to learn how you respond to stress than by engaging in physical exercise. If you observe how you react to stress (weight) in physical exercise, you will be able to become more aware of how you handle stress in other situations. There are plenty other parallels between life and lifting that I would like to discuss. You will observe the following lessons yourself if you just take the time to go to the gym.

There. Now you have another reason to go workout instead of just getting in shape.

Lifting For Life

Stress is necessary for growth. When you lift, you place your body under stress – a stimulus that your body is not used to. Your body responds with pain. It will tell you that it hurts, that it is heavy, sweaty and uncomfortable. Yet, that pain is necessary for muscle growth. That is the ONLY way, that our bodies will become stronger. The phrase, use it or lose it, is as true as ever. Same thing is true for life. If there is no stress in our life, then there is no new stimulus being introduced and we began to stagnate and digress. Only through exposing ourselves to new and unique situations you will be able to lead a progressive life.

Not all stress is created equal. If you life, then you know that there is good pain and bad pain. Same way there is good stress and bad stress in life. The good pain in lifting is the one that stimulates growth. It is by no means comfortable, yet it is very motivating because you know are achieving your goals. The bad pain is the one that causes injury, fatigue, and unhappiness when you lift. It is important to learn how to interpret those two signals. Good pain or stress should motivate you to keep pushing yourself to achieve your goals. Bad pain should be a signal to slow down, rest and recover and figure out what you are doing wrong. Life works in the same way. We need to understand when to push ourselves and when to pull back.

Strong get stronger. Weak get weaker. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Rich get richer? Poor get poorer? And it is true as always. Once you start lifting and becoming stronger, you will only be able to do more and more, push yourself further and further. Those that chose to never start lifting, will increasingly get weaker as they will fail to expose themselves to the stress required to build strength. The difference between the strong and the weak is the ability and desire to get through the temporary growing pains. I am talking about that time when you are trying to get back in gym after a year of no lifting. At first, it will feel as if you have destroyed every single muscle tissue in your body. Yet, if you are able to push on, you will soon start reaping the reward of progress and growth. The only question is this: “Are you able to push yourself through the growing pains?”

Variety is key for progress. If you have lifted for a while, then at some point you will hit a plateau. It is a point at which your positive gains seems to have stopped. No matter what you seem to be doing, it almost seems like you are stuck. However, before you give up, consider a couple of things. Sometimes, all that is needed to move beyond that “stuck point” is some variety. It might in the from of lighter weight, more repetitions, different exercises all together or maybe some help from a friend. Stagnation comes from exposure to the exact sames stress over long periods of time. After a while our bodies simply adapt to it and that same stimulus just does not have the same effect as it did before. Similarly in life, we sometimes feel stuck because we have been doing the same routine over and over again. Just a little bit of variety might be needed to brighten things up.

Don’t do it alone. Weight lifting is a stress inducing activity on its own. Doing it all by yourself can be very discouraging as you might not have anybody to share your joys and your downfalls with. Finding a partner who will be there to spot you, to motivate you, to encourage you is crucial to success and progress. Another added benefit of a partner is that you will have somebody to compete with, which will further advance your growth. Find a proper partner is not that easy as many people are flaky, not committed, negative or just not focused. It is a great lesson to carry forward with you on to any other activity in life. When starting a new activity, be sure to look for the right person to come along, otherwise you might take a step back instead of a step forward. Moreover, be prepared to start alone and find somebody else along the way.

Build proper foundation. Nothing will set you back more than an injury. Injury can take you out for days, weeks, months or ever years. I have experienced it myself. Most of the injuries come from improper technique or form. It is crucial to do things that right way. You might be inclined to add more and more weight as soon as possible without understand the fundamentals. In that case, you would be just cheating yourself and heading towards a serious injury. It is better to take things slow and learn how to do the exercises properly than to rush into things only to suffer a major set back later. I am sure many of you, have experienced this in other areas of life. Sometimes you are so eager to get things started that you forget to set up a proper foundation.

Attitude matters. Some might describe lifting and exercising as boring, repetitive, sweaty, hard, painful and so on. And they would be right. It is all of those things. But at the same time, it is challenging, rewarding, fun, energizing, empowering and confidence creating activity. It is only a matter of which side you choose. All of these different words can describe the same exact activity. The ones that you will choose to describe your exercises will make you either love it or hate it. Likewise, we all are living the same life, how do you choose to look at it?

Consistency results in lasting gains. Many people lift for short periods of time and then quit. Then they start over. By doing that, they never move beyond the starting point. It might be even more discouraging that doing nothing. Only those that stick with the activity for extended periods of time without major breaks will be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. After a while, your body will require you to exercise and stay active. Eventually, you might be able to change the way you feel about being active and you will not have to think twice about going to the gym. Same is true for any other area in life. Lasting results will come from persistent purposeful actions.

The truth is that the list could go on and on. I could easily twenty other things that I have learned about life from just exercising. But then you all would have no reason to exercise! Just kidding. Indeed, working out is a rewarding activity that will teach you not only about your body, but about how you handle stress and life all together. Look for clues in your own behavior and you might learn valuable insights in other areas of your life.

So what are you waiting for? The secrets of life are waiting to reveal themselves at your local gym!

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Image: jontunn

I guess this is going to be a rant. A backlash against technology. Sort of rage against the machine, if you will.

Technology is useful and I am thankful for it. Matter of fact, I would not live in any other age if I had my choice. I would still live where I am today. I am fascinated and excited about the rapid pace of technological inventions. They are happening so quickly that I cannot even keep up with them, nor I have the desire.

I am a bit immune to innovation at this point of time.

If I am such a huge fan of technology, then why make a statement that it is making a life boring? Well, to be fully honest, it is not the technology that is making life boring, it is the extent to which people use it. I believe that on large scale, individuals world wide are misusing technology. At the very least, they are not using it to its fullest extent.

So, in the end people are to blame. But still…

Internet and all of the innovations associated with it, have put the information at our finger tips. If we did not want to, we would not have to leave our room to “get to know” the world. Everything, absolutely everything is online. Anything from pictures, to videos to news is online, one click away.

Technology is convenient, but at what price. It is a price that I am not willing to pay.

To me, modern technology takes the mystery, adventure and the joy of discovery out of life. At the very least, it has the capability to do so. Directions to anywhere in the world are  there, pictures of the most beautiful places on the earth are there, directions for anything and everything are easily found.

That is all great, but is it possible that the ability to go exactly where we going, find exactly what we are looking is limiting our knowledge and experiences in the world?

How are we supposed to get lost? How are we supposed to make mistakes? How are we supposed to be surprised? How are we supposed to be impressed? How are we supposed to experiment and learn? How? Some of you might ask, why would you want do any of the above things?

I believe that it is fun. I believe that is what life is all about. Life is about discovery, excitement, the unknown, the danger and adventure. Yet, technology has the ability and does make many of those elements out of our lives. During the human evolution technology has been there to provide us with comfort and convenience.

And, people love convenience, predictability and comfort. They love it. Most of us, would choose that over the unknown, the unpredictable, the dangerous. Yet, those are the exact ingredients that we need to grow and experience life to the fullest. Funny thing is that most of us understand it, yet still choose comfort.

Like I mentioned before, technology is neither good nor bad. It is the way that we use it (or rather misuse it) that makes it bad or good. And, I think many of us are  making the wrong choices. It is great to have options. But just because an option is there does not mean that we have to take it.

If used the right way, technology can enhance our lives beyond what we thought possible. But, sometimes, just sometimes, we need to know when to stop, take a break from it and dive into the world of uncertainty, surprise and adventure.

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Image: Photo8.com

I never want to retire. I never thought I would even think these words. But here I am, sharing them with the rest of the world.

I guess I can be thankful to the economy for making me understand that I do not ever want to retire. I graduated in 2008 December and I am still searching for work. Until October I was immersed in my CPA studies. However, right after that, I retired. At the very least, I experienced what it is like to be retired.

Most people associate retirement with not working anymore and engaging in activities that you really like. On top of that, by the time you are retired you do not have to worry about paying a mortgage,or  a car loan. It seems that all there is left is to receive your pension and social security payments and enjoy life. Seems like a pretty good deal, right?

For a long time, I thought that it was great. Why wouldn’t you want to retire? Many reasons why.

Since October, I did not have to worry about paying for my housing, for the car or for food. I was and still am living with my parents. So far so good.

Somewhat.

The only problem was that I had very limited income. I would get an allowance from my parents for each month, but it was just enough to go out to a couple of movies or go to the city, not much else. In a sense, my financial situation mimics that of those who are actually retired.

Most of retired individuals depend on fixed income coming either from social security payments, pension or both. Fixed income means that over time they will be able to purchase less and less because of inflation. That fixed income would have to cover food, traveling and leisure expenses. Oh, and don’t forget health care expenses. In reality, it might mean that you would have only enough money to buy food and get around the city. Trips and vacations might be completely out of picture.

On top of the financial issues, you have to figure out what to do with your time. When I was done studying for my CPA exam, it felt like freedom was awaiting for me. I had no worries (except finding a job) and no other commitments. I could read, watch TV, play computer games, watch movies and hang out with my friends and family. I did that. I did that for about a month.After a month, all of the above became extremely boring. I got to the point, where I was literately sick just of the idea of watching TV, movies, reading books, playing games or even hanging out with friends. I just had enough – in one month.

Can you image if you had 20 years ahead of you?

Sure, if I had money, I could travel the world, go out, engage in hobbies, learn new things and so on. Yet, you have to remember that when you are retired you are living on fixed source of income and chances are that you might not have enough money coming in to cover all that you want to do. Plus, I am sure that living just for your own pleasure would get to you and you’d get bored of that too. I am just grateful that I do not have worry about any health issues unlike those in the retirement age group.

One interesting thing started happening naturally. I wanted to go and work towards a goal. I wanted to work with other people. I wanted to be challenged. I wanted to create. Of course, along the way, I was looking for work and it was becoming increasingly frustrating not being able to find anything.

It occurred to me that action and purpose driven life is what our lives are about.

There is absolutely no reason to want to retire because retirement will probably bring nothing more than extreme boredom and might cause you to be depressed. So instead of working to retire and then having a life of leisure and boredom, let us all find something that drives us, something that we are passionate about. Let us work towards our dreams and goals while we are still physically and mentally capable.

Let us travel the world while have the strength and the clarity to enjoy it. Let us not wait until we are 70 to do that. Life is meant to be lived, not wasted away. Do you really want to wait 50, 40, 30 years until you can do what you really want to do? Why defer life until you cannot enjoy it to its fullest? Life is meant to be active, life is meant to be moving and kicking, it is not mean to be lived to retire.

So go figure out what it is that you really want to do NOW. Otherwise, you will end being retired and trying to figure out what your life is really all about with limited health, limited money, limited mental capacity. Don’t wait! There is nothing glorious or comforting about retirement, it is not a goal to be achieved. Think about it. Now you know, why I never want to retire, ever again.

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Image: Oberazzi

Welcome New Readers!

As a result of my post at Goodlife ZEN, a couple of new individuals have subscribed to the blog. I am happy and pleased to have an increasing basis of readers. It shows that I am sharing valuable information with you all. Increasing number of readers encourages and pushes me to keep working harder and keep writing increasingly better and relevant content.

To all of those who are new here on the blog: “Welcome!” I hope you find the information shared here useful and life changing. Life can be changed in ways little and big, but it’s the small things that matter. If I can help you make small changes in your life then I will be happy.

You can also help me by contacting me and telling me what you like, what you do not like, what I could do better. That’s the only way I will know how and where to improve. Feedback is always welcome :)

Reader Appreciation

I would like to thank everybody for taking the time to leave so many great comments on the article about facebook. To be honest, I was not expecting such a reaction. Yet, that only shows that I touched upon a very relevant topic. I appreciate the variety of opinions and points of views. I feel like that is the true way to gain the best understand of the issue: get as much diverse feedback as possible.

That is why I love blogging. It gives me the opportunity to share my thoughts with the world and it also gives everybody else the opportunity to challenge those thoughts. It is kind of new way of communicating and having a dialog about variety of “hot” issues in today’s world. In the end, I am learning and you are learning. It’s an ultimate win win. So thank you all for being a part of my growth, and I would like to remain a part of your growth.

I am very excited to share with you all yet another guest post.

This time, I wrote an article for Goodlife ZEN.

“You can find weekly, practical inspiration at Goodlife ZEN. Get a new take on life, find creative ways to make your wildest dreams come true, and become what you aspire to be.”

Warm thanks go out to Mary, who gave me the opportunity to share my thoughts on her great and inspiring blog.

5 ways to escape the escapist weekend

Here is an excerpt form the article:

“It is Thursday. You are already thinking about Friday. It is Friday morning. You are thinking about Friday afternoon. It is Friday afternoon. It is here.

What do you do?

We all look forward to weekends because it is the time for us to relax, become refreshed, and energized. Ironically enough, only a few us manage to do that. The rest of us just use the weekends to escape from our problems, troubles, work, and “reality” all together.”

Click here to continue reading…

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Image: nattu

I deleted my facebook account. Pretty much sums it up. It is pretty simple to do, once you find the link that you need.

I deleted my facebook account and I feel great. One simple reason: I realized I had no use for it. I realized that as I was talking to my brother. It just suddenly dawned upon me that I was just mindlessly wasting my time on this social network. I realized that I never really needed facebook. Many people quote that in “this increasingly busy” world it is harder and harder to stay connected with people. That is what they say. They also say that it is almost a necessity to have facebook.

I disagree.

Facebook is and always was a cheap substitute to real communication. Instead of calling somebody and saying “Hi” we stalk them on facebook and leave a 5 second comment here and there. Instead of meeting our “friends” in person and sharing the experience of a journey, we just put the pictures up on facebook and let others click through them. Instead of sending a personal invite or an actual gift, we send electronic invites and electronic gifts (which costs money!). Instead of asking a girl/guy out in person or over the phone, we instead “poke” them on facebook. Instead of calling somebody to wish a Happy Birthday we just leave a wall post. Instead …

This could on forever. The point is this: facebook encourages superficial and insincere communication. So what that we have hundreds of friends on facebook. Do we really keep in touch with them all? Do our “friends” just become another news feed item that gets lost amongst a hundred others? In the end, you are just cheating yourself.

What about the emotional energy that you spend over facebook: the privacy settings, the changing user interface, the dislike button and so on. Is it really worth spending your time and energy being upset about those things? And what about reading those overly negative status updates of people you barely know? What about people fighting over their relationship status on facebook? What about losing jobs over something you did or said over facebook? What about the possiblity of you being harassed by a criminal?

I had enough of that and that is why I decided to delete my account.

Now, I do not have to worry about either of those things. Now, I will know who my true friends are because they will call me or send me an e-mail if they will want to meet up. It’s a great way to eliminate dead-weight from your life. People have and always will appreciate a call, a sincere letter or an e-mail. Sure, we can all say that we are “increasingly busy”, but to me that’s bunch of nonsense.

If you do not have enough time to stay in touch with your friends through a phone call or an in person meeting, then you might have you priorities all wrong in your life. Think about it. Since when did relationships were pushed back into the background of our “busy” lives? It’s time to change that and remember what matters and ditch the deceptively “useful” technological tools.

If you want to establish a presence online and still keep your private life private, then there are plenty of other tools to consider. For your professional career, you might want to consider joining LinkedIn and as a tool for your personal expression and creativity consider blogging. Using only those two powerful tools, you will be able to create a strong and powerful image of yourself online, while keeping your private life private and your relationships deep.

I am sure some of you find facebook extremely useful and that is fine. The point here is to become aware of how the use of technology is affecting your life and really deciding if it is right for you.

Question: Do you have a facebook?

Things are a little bit slow this week. One of the reasons for that is that I am trying to get my personal life together.

I am interviewing for a couple of possible jobs this week, which should jump start my life a little bit more and provide with great food for thought and more awesome articles. I did however, managed to accomplish one major thing over the weekend, which I am going to share with everybody on Tuesday.

Like always, I welcome comments, suggestions and feedback.

Are you about to enroll in a four-year institution? Are you currently attending one? Are you considering going to a university? If so, then you might to read on.

I spent five years at the university. Yet, I still do not have a job that I think I rightfully deserve. I spent countless hours trying to figure out what went wrong. In the process, I pinpointed key mistakes that I made and valuable lessons that I learned which I would love to share with the rest of you today.

Know Why

Know why you are going to a four-year institution. I know. I sound like a billion other people out there, but it is in your best interest to read on instead of just rolling your eyes at me. Let me explain why.

Think about the following. Today we have the world’s knowledge readily available. All you have to do is open up your laptop, enter your favorite search engine’s name, and search away. The only real issue is that you have to know what you are looking for. Otherwise, the world’s collective knowledge will be useless to you.

Same goes for college.

With that in mind, take out a piece of paper and write down “Why am I going to college?” at the top of the page. Then spend some quality answering that question. It might take a couple of minutes, hour, or days. However, it will be all worth it if you are able to answer the question concretely.

Even if you write down “I want to figure out what to do with my life,” then you are on the right track. However, if you are drawing a blank, then you might seriously need to reconsider committing to this four-year relationship.

Eliminate Distractions

If you were able to pinpoint the exact reason as to why you want to go to college then you are half way done. The next step is to eliminate all distractions, which would otherwise prevent you from achieving your goal.

There will be plenty of them. Some of the distractions are excessive drinking, drug abuse, overwhelming social life, sex, general laziness, video and drinking games, destructive relationships, and just doing dumb things because you can. That is only a partial list.

Simply put, you will be overwhelmed with freedom because there will be nobody to there to tell you no. Unless you get too crazy and get kicked out of the university.

I am not saying that you should avoid all having fun. Yet, know where to draw the line by reminding yourself why you are here. Do not let “fun” keep you from accomplishing your goals. Also, keep in mind that many – if not all – destructive habits that you form in college will stay with you for the rest of your life.

Purposeful engagement

Practice purposeful engagement. Let us assume that you were able to keep those distractions to a minimum. After that, comes the most important part of all. I call it purposeful engagement. It is just a fancy way of say to know why you are doing what you doing.

Tell everybody what you want to do and why you are here in college. People will talk about you and many opportunities and resources will open up to you just because of that. If you tell people that you do not know what you want to do, then nobody will know how to help you.

Get to know your professors. Unfortunately, I made the above mistake. NOT talking to your professors and NOT making friends with them is simply DUMB. Besides the fact that they are expert in their field, they are very well connected with professionals in your field, can write a recommendation letters when you need one, guide you in the right direction and just be your friend. This is the single most important thing you should do in college.

Join related student and social organizations. If I forgot to mention it, then here it is: college is all about networking. Get to meet as many people in your field as possible and become friends with them. Many of them will become professionals once they graduate. You can never know too many people in this world. You might want to start a business one day. When that day comes, you will know where to turn to and who to look for.

Grades do not matter that much, unless you are planning to go to a top-notch graduate school after your undergraduate studies. If you are able to maintain a GPA above 3.3, then you are in a good shape. Once you are looking for employment, GPA will be something your employers will look at only once and then they will focus on your skills, your communication ability, teamwork, leadership, and personality. So yes, GPA is overrated, focus on networking, gaining experience and exposure.

Stay focused

You will get sidetracked. It is a fact. It is fine to let go sometimes and not worry about your future. Just do not make it a habit. Remind yourself of what your purpose was for coming to school and keep going. It will help you have a much more pleasant and rewarding college experience.

However, if you cannot get back into the rhythm, then it might be important to reconsider the reason as to why you went to college. I know I changed my major multiple times. Just accept it as a life fact: you will change throughout life.

Your priorities and desires will change; your experience will force you to reexamine your old beliefs and will help you form new ones. Just accept it. Change things accordingly and move on. One thing you do not want to do is to be stuck doing something you hate. Make the switch early and save yourself tons of trouble later in life.

America is going downhill for one very simple reason: people seem to not be able to tell the difference between the disease and its symptoms. It almost seems to be common wisdom for people to think that treating a symptom of a disease is the same as treating a disease. In short, if the symptoms do not longer show up, the disease is gone. It’s a mental dis-ease, but nobody seems to think much of it. It almost seems like people are brainwashed into believing into the above truth.

It works so well because of one reason – convenience. America is obsessed with convenience and comfort. The more of it – the better. And for every obsession there are those that cater to it. Except there is one simple thing that is wrong with comfort – it makes you weak. One person at a time it makes a nation weak. We can already see the results of this destructive thinking.

PROBLEM: America is getting increasingly dumb. This is a tough one to swallow, but it is the truth. Instead of increasing the education standards and making students study and think, we lower those standards. Everybody seems to get higher GPAs, pass tests with highers scores and everybody seems to do better.

All of that at the cost of learning and knowing less.

More and more people are going to college with lower quality education. Educational institutions are more concerned about taking a dollar from you or the government than about admitting quality students, which are increasingly rear.In the process, the schools get paid, the private loan companies get paid and the students get screwed.

In the end, you have college graduates who know and do less than high school graduates in less developed countries than the USA. Everybody is so focused on satisfying people’s egos and avoiding hurting their feelings in the short term that they forget that they are hurting not only the individual, but the nation as whole in the long term.

SOLUTION: Increase the standards of education on all levels and let kids fail. We just have to understand that the purpose of an education system is to teach, and not to give passing grades for kids who don’t try. Only by failing you learn. In a sense, we need to deflate the educational system. So what if that students will be getting lower grades? That is not the purpose of education. Education is supposed to be challenging and difficult so that when we come out of school we are actually know a thing or two. Overtime, the students would get used to higher education standards and everybody would be fine. If you ask for more you get for more, if you ask for less then you get less.

PROBLEM: America is getting increasingly unhealthy. It is the results of people reaching out for the pill, falling prey to false advertising about quick weight loss diets and constantly looking for the easy way out. Instead of making the life long choices about their nutrition and exercise, people focus on the quick fix. Even in this day and age where information is abundant, advertising and the dream of the shortcuts seems to get the best of us.

It is convenient.

It is convenient for the food industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the fitness industry, the health-care industry, the insurance industry. Finally, it is convenient for the consumer. Yet, the consumers are the ones who end up complaining about increasing health-case costs. If you haven’t lived under a rock, then you should have heard about the health care reform that is trying to take place. Yet, it is all BS. Reforming the health care system for an unhealthy nation is the same as lowering taxes for the poor.

SOLUTION:Education. Teach people about nutrition and exercise from an early age. Make fitness classes mandatory and physically challenging. Teach people from young age about how to make the right choices about their nutrition and exercise. That is all there is needed to create a healthier and happier America.

That will automatically lower the cost of health-care.

The health care right now is expensive for a reason: there are tons of unhealthy people. That automatically raises the insurance costs because more and more people are falling in the increased risk group. The focus should on prevention of disease, rather than the superficial treatment of it later. It’s no rocket science, and it bothers me seeing people not solving the problem the right way.

In the end, it is all about making the right decisions. However, it is hard to learn how to make the right decisions when nobody around you is making the right decisions.

So in the end, it all comes down to education, experience and values.

The state where America is today is reflective of it’s education, experience and values. That is the real disease – lack of all three. If we were only focused on helping people make the right choices and showing them how to make the right choices, we would not have nearly as many problems as we do today. It is funny, how a nation with so many resources and so much potential can end up in state like this.

What about you? Are you taking care of yourself? Are you treating the disease instead of the symptoms? Answer that go ahead; you might be surprised with what you find. Remember, one person at a time, a nation can become stronger or weaker. It is up to you.

I need your help to make this blog even better. How? Pretty simple. I would like to get some feedback. That’s it. I want to make this blog the best that it can. To do that, I need to know what I can do to improve on what I already have.

If you are up for it, I would like to hear the following:

• What do you like about the blog?
• What do you dislike?
• What can I do better?
• What topics are you interested?
• What should I write less about?
• What have you liked the best so far?
• Why do you read this blog?
• What keeps you coming back?
• What I can do to stand out?
• How I can I deliver more value to you?

Your feedback would be truly great. I cannot wait to hear back what you have to say! Anything no matter how big or small of a suggestion would help!

Also…

A Rose To All My Awesome Readers! Happy Valentine’s Day!