health

What You Need to Do

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Delayed GratificationA multiple Grammy award winning solo musical artist once let slip that the reason he did a certain album was so he’d be free to do the kind of music he really wanted.

“I had to do that…so I could this.”

It’s not that the make-money album was a bust. The related performance drew one of his many Grammy nominations.

But it really wasn’t the music he wanted to do. Yet he did it so he could be free to run with his artistic preferences in the future.

This reminds me of a Ziglarism: “If you do what you need to do when you need to do it, the day will come when you can do what you want to do when you want to do it.”

Delayed gratification, a foundational principle for all kinds of success, isn’t just about NOT doing something now. It’s also about DOING the right things in the present as a setup and preparation for the future.

Step away from the donut…and go for a walk.

Mortality Part 4 and Final I Hope

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Kevin Dumas, Daren Wride, 1981, La Classique
Kevin Dumas and I, running a portage at La Classique, 1981

This series of “mortality” posts was already in the planning stages when the following happened over the span of several months:

1. A friend of 30 years, just a few years my senior, committed suicide.

2. A former co-worker and neighbor, just a few years my junior, didn’t wake up one morning.

3. A friend of 36 years, almost exactly my age, died at work.

OK, I get it.

Life is short and precarious.

May all my other friends live well beyond their statistical life expectancy.

Amen.

More Time or Money?

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Do you have more time or money?Do you have more time or money?

The correct answer is “money.”

Even if your balance is $0. Or -$278,000.

Because money is replaceable, time is not.

So if you can use money to free up time, it’s often the wisest course of action.

BUT, before you can apply this principle strategically, you need to establish a value for your time.

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How a Simple Machine Changed (and probably lengthened) My Life

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I used to be a bit of a napper.

Well, that’s not completely accurate: I used to be an habitual napper. I could nap on demand. I could fall asleep on the couch before lunch, after lunch, before dinner, before bed…

One day, sitting on the couch at lunch I tilted my head over and dozed off. I woke up with a serous kink in my neck and discovered I’d been out for over two hours.

Then there was the time we were driving through mountain pass and I jerked up in my seat and told Kristin “I just woke up from a sleep! And the reason I know I was sleeping is because I was just dreaming!”

Time to do something about it.

I mentioned my sleepiness to a doctor, who referred me to a sleep clinic. Sure enough I had some pretty serious sleep apnea.

Long story short, I now use a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine.

And my napping has all but disappeared.

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