While the title itself specifically mentions just the biceps, I think this is a great video overall on how to workout. My key takeaway from this video is how important the rest period is.
The rest period after working out is equally as important as the workout itself. The workout doesn't actually grow your muscles, rather it just provides the stimulus for growth. The growth itself occurs during the rest period. So, if your muscles are not getting enough rest, they will not grow.
^ This kinda reminds me of how important taking a break from reading is as well. If you don't give your mind a break from reading, you don't give your brain time to internalize and learn from all that you've read so far.
Oh and the best exercise to safely train your biceps, is the close grip underhand pulldown.
Sort of continuing on from my previous post about distraction, this one is a great read on a related topic; procrastination. Either one, distraction or procrastination, will stop you from getting things done. Thankfully, this is one of those articles that actually have actionable items at the end.
I would post my notes/takeaways here, but they would all be just word for word copies of what the author has said. James Clear has this talent for elegantly simplifying what he's trying to say. It makes it extremely hard to write down notes without actually copying exactly what he said. So just follow the link. It is well worth your time if you happen to deal with distraction and procrastination.
I read a post from Cal Newport titled “Pliny the Younger on Happy and Honorable Seclusion”. After reading this, I thought to myself, here is another example of people battling with distractions. This one was from 2,000 years ago.
So, I'm starting to realize that the smartphone in and of itself is not the cause of distraction. Rather, it is just another form of distraction. Distraction has always been with us. It just takes on different forms as human civilization advances.
The problem was/is distraction itself. The solution was/still seems to be the same — to set up an environment that is, as much as possible, devoid of distractions, so that you can do your best work.
I ran into this video earlier and I could not get it off my mind. It's a great video on how our pride, our ego, our need for recognition, leads us away from the simple and quiet life, and into a life of stress and anxiety.
Here are some of my takeaways:
Trying to promote yourself or your work online only leads to more stress.
Chasing after accolades, recognition, views, likes, hearts means you're not free.
Jesus had the simple and quiet life because he was so humble and he had no pride. He rejected popularity.
You don't need to give up on your hobbies/activities to live a simple and quiet life. You just need to stop promoting yourself while engaging in said hobbies/activities.
Right off the bat, the analogy and parallels in The Rings of Power, to the theology and stories in the Bible had me really excited for this show. I watched the show because I'm a Lord of the Rings fan. I didn't expect to find a great discussion between good and evil sprinkled throughout the show. There is theology in here hidden in a high fantasy story.
It must be noted that there is a lot of hate for this show online. I'm not quite sure why though. Yeah there were some head-scratching moments, but none that were enough to deter me from finishing the whole season. My wife who is not a big Lord of the Rings fan like me, actually liked it and keeps asking when Season 2 is going to come out. So there's that.
Anyway, below are some of my thoughts and notes on the pilot episode. Maybe it will sway you one way or another to give the show a chance.
For this journal entry, I'm not going to reorder my thoughts/notes like I normally do. These were basically copied off my journal and pasted here in the order that they were written down. I think it's as close as you can get to actually reading my journal. But the main reason I'm doing this, is to lessen the amount of time it takes for me to publish a journal entry. So here goes...
“We lost!”, my son said as he finished 10th place in a Mario Kart race. He said this happily by the way, in a way that only a child could ever do. This is what we lost when we grew up. We lost that childlike innocence. We lost the ability to see the world through the eyes of a child. We lost the ability to be happy in any given moment like a child could.
I noticed that I write down notes with the expectation that I'll be publishing them in the future. This causes me to write longer, fuller sentences in an unconscious attempt to make my notes ready to be published with minimal editing.
I think this bogs down my note taking process. Instead of writing down notes for the purpose of referencing them in the future, I write down notes with the purpose of stringing them all together into a future blog post. I think that if I stop writing “ready to be published” notes and instead go back to writing notes just for myself, that will make my digital garden a lot easier and less exhausting to maintain.
If you haven't made the switch to full battery electric vehicles yet, then there's a good chance that you're driving around in a car that is powered by a direct injection engine. If that's the case, then this video might be helpful. It's a good video on problems associated with direct injection engines and how to avoid them.
A heavy influence on why I write down so many notes, and with so much detail in them, is this idea that if you have to re-read a source twice, then you didn't take down notes correctly. So in the past, I would feel like a failure if I had to re-read a book, because it meant that I didn't take down notes correctly.
This idea, if memory serves me right, came from the book “How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers” by Sönke Ahrens.
If you're not familiar with the PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) space, this book is recommended reading for anyone wanting to get into Zettelkasten or PKM in general. And so of course I read it and tried to incorporate what I've learned from the book into my note taking process.
This idea though, of not having to re-read source material because you took down notes correctly the first time, goes against another idea I ran into recently from James Clear (author of Atomic Habits) — that idea is to actively re-read books. James argues that great books are worth re-reading. And you know what, I agree with him.
It's that time of the year again. Ash Wednesday is tomorrow, which signifies the start of Lent. And that means it's time for me to go through another Digital Declutter exercise. I would like to invite anyone who reads this to take a break from living life online and start their own Digital Declutter.
Follow this link for an explanation of what a Digital Declutter is, as well as what rules I'll be following for my own Digital Declutter.
I hope you guys decide to give it a try. If you have any questions regarding this, you can find ways to contact me on this page, but sending an email is the best option.
Peace be with you and see y'all online on Easter Sunday.
Great video on the topic of personal finance. It was a good reality check for me as well.
Here are some of my takeaways from watching the video above:
Having wealth is not about looking rich. It's not about wearing $1,000 shirts or bag, or driving a $100,000 car. Having real wealth is about having the freedom to do what you want to do, to live the life you want to live, to take care and leave your family a lasting legacy. And you do this by not being a slave to debt.
