The path to more

Chapter 35

Yesterday I was encouraging you and me to do harder stuff, to stretch and reach for better goals, to think hard about complex problems, to build more muscles, to build more capacity by making your body work harder. All in all, some of you might have thought I was trying to make your life miserable, and in general to simply make it more difficult, but this is the path to more in your life. More vitality, more excitement, more strength, more capacity, more of life.

I recall when I went to California a few years ago on a business trip and I stayed with some friends. Mike is at least 10 years older than I am and far more fit and filled with vitality than I am and he is pushing 70 years old in the way that I am pushing 60 years old. So he invited me along to go with him to cut some additional wood for the coming winter. I grew up cutting and splitting wood, and I am very familiar with this task and process. So I said yes. Well doing it with Mike versus doing this with my family, are very very different events. Mike cuts the logs bigger on purpose, so that they are heavier, on purpose. He loads them faster, on purpose, to make his body work harder, on purpose. He is increasing his capacities as he gets older, rather than letting them slid into obesity, diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and mental dementia’s. Mike has plenty of money, he could have hired anyone to do the job for him, but he saw it for what it was - an opportunity to work himself hard and raised the bar.

This is the path to more. Get moving you couch potatoes!