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For today's talk about Healthy Minds, I want to start with a story.
There is an engineer/businessman/pilot named Mike Patey who I follow on social media, who has impacted the field of general aviation in the last year probably more than anyone else.
He makes videos about projects that he takes on, and he first came to my attention when he was flying an insane plane that he had built out of a Polish airplane called a Wilga. He re-engineered nearly every part on it, put an extremely powerful engine on the nose, and amazed many of us in the aviation social media world, and in the real world. He named the plane Draco.
Draco was lost in an unfortunate accident in late 2019. In one of Mike's most memorable videos, he had just crashed Draco and pulled his camera out and went live, taking full responsibility for the decisions and actions that led to the crash. It was a real-life example of the kind of extreme ownership that Jocko Willink is so well-known for writing and speaking of. In that video, Mike made no excuses.
Mike attracts people to him. We find ourselves WANTING to watch his next video, watch his projects take shape, root for his success.
And the characteristic that I believe makes us tune in each time, and get excited when he brings a project to live, is his enthusiasm.
Mike Patey is one of the most energetic, enthusiastic people that I've ever known of.
A little over a year ago, Mike started a series of videos describing and documenting a project that he was building out of scraps from old projects around his shop, adding new original designs to it, to make the ultimate bush plane. He named it Scrappy.
In his videos, complete with poor sound and very little snappy editing, his infectious love of all things engineering and flying are inescapable.
In the past several weeks, the Scrappy build has accelerated. Six days ago, Mike posted a video showing the wings installed on Scrappy, and some hints came out that Scrappy had flown.
Questions came up in chats about if Mike would be bringing Scrappy to Oshkosh this year. Oshkosh, for the uninitiated, is home to the Experimental Aircraft Association, and each year, the organization hosts the world's largest small-airplane fly-in at the Oshkosh Airport on the last week of July.
Today, with no warning, videos and photos started appearing on my social media feeds of Scrappy with a grinning Mike Patey on the ground at Oshkosh, where he had flown from his home base in Utah.
And thousands of us fans cheered Mike for his success.
Energy is contagious. Enthusiasm is infectious. And they both are attractive to others.
But, you might say, that's just for people whose personality makes them that way.
I offer that we have more control over our enthusiasm than we may realize.
Here's a mind hack: Act the way you want to feel.
Do you think you need to wait for the feeling?
No! You can create the feeling by acting.
You are a continuous feedback loop.
What you do tells you how you feel.
This is why you have to get up and go. Your mind will catch up to your actions soon enough.
Where do you want to be?
Well, who do you have to become to be there?
Then, how do you need to act to become that person?
This principle is critical to making change.
If you just follow your own lead, you'll stay exactly where your lead has left you so far.
You're waiting for motivation?
Do the actions.
The motivation follows.
You want to feel enthusiastic?
Act enthusiastic.
One Degree!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CR1TfwKDvc_/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
I'm on a weekend night call schedule this weekend, which always leaves me feeling under-rested and generally icky.
But I wanted to remind you that outdoor exercise without screens is really good for your mental health.
Go outdoors, preferably into the woods.
Get in tune with those surroundings, the sights, the sounds, the smells, even the movement of air and the varying temperatures as you walk.
We were made to be outdoors.
We were definitely not made to work in cubicles.
One Degree!
What you want from your body will dictate what you need to set as goals, and the goals will determine what you'll end up having to change to attain them.
I've spoken many times about systems being better than goals, and my position has not changed.
But goals are easier to discuss and to understand, so for this week, we'll be very specific about goals.
Do you want more muscle mass?
Do you want to be stronger?
Do you want to run faster?
Do you want to gain weight?
Do you want to lose weight?
Do you want to improve general fitness?
Do you want longevity?
Do you want strong bones?
Do you want to earn a Black Belt?
Understanding the benefits and costs of each particular goal may help you decide what you want.
For example, if you want to compete in body-building competitions, you'll not be doing the same thing as if you were focused on longevity. Same with strength competitions.
But general fitness and longevity go fairly well together.
Running is great but will increase the likelihood of needing knee or hip ...
I'll make this one short and to the point.
Spring time change is hard on all of us. Having to get up an hour early doesn't make going to bed an hour earlier much easier.
Yes, it's nice to have more productive time in the evening.
But it's at the cost of forcing us out of be an hour earlier, as we all know.
Our challenge is to adjust our circadian rhythm to match the world's expectations around us.
My main strategy is supplementing with a dose of melatonin about a half hour before I need to be asleep. It helps most people fall asleep more readily.
If you need a nap during your day, take it between mid-morning and early afternoon. Limit it to 20 minutes.
Taking a longer or later nap may make it even harder to get off to sleep in time.
All of the other normal advice applies even moreso:
- Take a 20-minute walk after supper.
- No screen time for the last hour before bed.
- Listen to calm music after supper.
- Don't eat for 2 hours before bed.
- Don't have conflict-laden conversations ...
