As noted in the create/consume post a little while ago, I’ve been doing a daily journal for a couple of months. This habit of writing things down helps string together small, purposeful changes over time, to keep themes in mind, and to get after eating the elephant. The distinct advantage that language gives us is the ability to learn from others, through their description of the topic at hand. The advantage of written language is that we can learn from others, through their descriptions, at a time and place totally devoid of their presence. Like my affinity for Sun Tzu and his Art of War, despite his having died some 7,400 miles from here, over 2,500 years ago.
You can also learn from yourself, or look back at what you were once doing. From the experience of whether or not that action worked, you can repeat or revise as necessary. In an upcoming post I’ll discuss the ‘We are all an N-of-1’ idea which has been banging around in my skull, but for now I’ll say this: Write stuff down as you’re doing it, so you can look back to your experience when you were doing something, rather than looking back and trying to remember after the fact. Additionally, writing it down publicly can both aid in dissemination of your ideas, and help hold you accountable (such as posting a training log on a strength training forum).
So learn from others, remember stuff for yourself for later, and lastly: Plan. Of course one should not let life become an exercise in ‘dream planning’, devoid of connection to where you are. But with the aforementioned ‘Slice/cook/eat/repeat’ plan for getting after the elephant, one can get a LONG way, in relatively short order.
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