I seem to have my epiphany moments at odd times and a lot of them seem to come during my morning commute. While part of it is likely due to the fact that I almost always do that commute with no music or radio on, I think it’s also likely due to the fact that it’s easier to let your mind be open to think about things instead of watching the utter madness of how my fellow humanity drives. Come on, people… get it together out there!
My latest piece of highway inspiration caught me off guard a little bit, truth be told, because it stood on its head a lot of what I’ve been pondering in terms of creating a better life for myself… because the moment of clarity was all about how I need to possibly get myself out of balance to achieve balance. A tad bit counterintuitive, to say the least.
Up to this point, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I need to achieve some kind of well-structured harmony of my mind, body and spirit… and that’s still my end goal. The “A ha!” moment came with the stark realization that my process of achieving that goal was quite likely all out of whack. I’ve been in a mode of thinking that I needed to treat mind, body and spirit equally in my pursuit of the noble balance, but there’s a pretty significant chance I am not currently balanced equally in those 3 areas anyway. Maybe I am at 50% body, 35% mind and 15% spirit in terms of where I pay the most attention or where I have achieved the most amount of progress. Nothing about that would approximate the equally divided personal growth pie of 33.3%, 33.3% and 33.3%.
I can practically sense a few doubters reading this and thinking, “How is it a grand point of epiphany to think that maybe you need to spend more attention on the 15% and less on the 50%? That ain’t some kind of advanced nuclear physics, dude.” Too truth, my Doubting Thomas… too true. That wasn’t my clarity moment. Here is what I realized:
Maybe I need to throw a ton of time and attention to body… even if it is at a 50% point of progress. Seems a little odd, right? How is devoting more time to the area where I am the “farthest along” (whatever in the world that even means) going to bring along the two areas that are not quite where I want to be?
Here’s my thought process… and be forewarned, my friends… stepping into my head for even but a moment is gonna leave a mark… tread softly:
I think that if I put in a full commitment to the area of body and really buckle down, get truly disciplined and decide I am going to completely kick ass on all aspects of my physical developments for the next few months… I think there will be tremendous carry over to mind and spirit. It all gets back to my core belief that developing one area of mind/body/spirit and go a really long way to developing them all. The commitment to excellence and dedication to discipline I can put forth through consistent training, top-notch diet and a relentless attitude will allow me to prove to myself I can make progress when I commit. That proof will strengthen my resolve and, hence, strengthen my spirit.
This kind of single-minded focus I think will spillover into mind as well because this approach will force me to be smart and not just burn myself out like some kind of unfocused maniac.
And… in the end… if my body feels good and I know I am making progress, I already know this is the kind of confidence that improves my life as a whole anyway. I can hardly put into words how much better my life has been ever since I decided sometime in college and then in law school to really start getting myself into shape. It’s completely night and day.
But while I am still doing well, I think I’ve lost a little bit of the swagger and a little bit of the fun that goes along with it. I aim to get that back and in getting that back, prove to myself that just an overall improvement to the other spots in my life is going to be part of the package.
Will I completely give up on devoting time to my mind or my spirit? Of course not. That would make me a completely shallow and borderline boneheaded fool to do that… but instead, I am going to let them rise with the tides created through getting myself going on the physical part of my life. Plus, this is not a forever thing to devote this much more time and attention to one part of this little trinity. These things must be cycled to really make best use of the shorter bursts of focused effort lest you truly become horribly out of balance and just a very one-dimensional person (one of my worst nightmares).
Time to shake up the yin-yang and see what comes out on the other side… and I’m feel pretty good that the other side is only going to be something better. And more handsome… if that’s even possible. Seriously… have you met me? It’s almost unfair.
