Category Archives: Health and Fitness

The answer?

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Here is a thought – if you could have the answer to any question, what question would you choose?
Anyway, let’s ignore the question right now. And instead, let’s talk about what the answer is.
A dictionary definition of what an answer is would be “a thing that is said, written, or done as a reaction to a question, statement, or situation.” Another one would be “a solution to a problem or dilemma.”

So, the answer is either simply a response or a solution. So, let’s talk about that for a second.
If an answer is either a response or a solution, it is possible that it can be wrong. It doesn’t necessarily guarantee fact. So, the answer can be anything. Now, think back to the question I posed at the beginning.
“If you could have the answer to any question, what question would you choose?”
Do you remember the question you chose? Good. If you got your answer, would you trust it? I don’t think I would. There are just too many variables at play – is there more than one answer, is the answer I got simply a response or is it a solution, who chose this answer?
So, it is with this mindset, that I find myself in a dilemma – I have a question I want the answer to, but to find out, I must ask someone I do not want to pose the question to. So, instead of embarrassing myself I have chosen to ask other people than the one person who has the answer to my question – and in this case, they have the solution, the final part of the equation I am trying to calculate.
I want an answer, but the fact that I am not asking the person with the solution, suggests to me that I do not want it. I would rather stay in limbo, bemused about the question, than escape limbo and perhaps find the solution is not the thing I want it to be.
Now, thinking about this logically, this type of behavior is not healthy. Avoiding something simply because you might not like the result is probably going to end badly. Or I’ll end up regretting it. However, this is not a post about avoiding that. This is a post thinking about the entire thing.
So, what does this have to do with ‘Health and Fitness’. Well, this is probably about my wellbeing. By writing about it, I feel it’s a form of meditation – while it may not be exactly the same, it does let me get some of the words in my head down on paper. (Well, something similar to it, anyway).
If you have any thoughts about this, I would be interested in seeing what you have to say. Please, leave a comment and tell me whether you try and actively avoid seeking answers, or if you are savvy enough to know how to deal with the chance of failure if you don’t.

Thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Rumanshi.
uestion would you choose?

Self Improvement – The Journey Taken

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14 days ago, I decided “I need to be better”. It’s not the first time I’ve thought it and I highly doubt it will be the last. However, I believe that every time we have this thought, we should give it voice. Not literally, though for some, that may help.
No, when I say give the thought ‘voice’, what I mean is, act upon the thought. For me, I decided to get back into using ‘Habitica’ a gamified task management web app. Now, I started by giving myself impossible goals – the idealized version of myself. And I found myself with a problem.

While I had given the thought ‘voice’, I had set myself up for failure. And I believe this is where most people have gone wrong. Instead of setting simple goals that they can achieve, they set unrealistic goals in order to justify it when they decide to stop trying. At least, that is the problem I found myself having.
And so, after having my ‘character’ die in Habitica a few times, I decided to alter the baseline. Instead of the biggest changes that I could do to improve myself, I’d find the small habits I needed to develop first. And then once I had established those, add a new habit that wouldn’t increase the difficulty too much.

So, this post was written two weeks (14 days) from having that realization. Has the process been successful?
While I can’t say that any habit has been ‘established’ yet, I can say I have been meeting a major goal I think which is beneficial for my life. Every day, I walk 20,000 steps. I have not missed a day yet. Whether it be during work, at the gym on a treadmill, running on the spot at home, I make sure by the end of the day, I always have 20,000 steps taken. No compromises.

The reason I chose this habit is to keep myself active, even on the weekends, as I would do around 10,000 steps on a weekday, but less than 1000 on the weekend. Sometimes it would look like I hadn’t even moved.
And what has this habit done for me?

Well, for one, I am finding it easier to smile. I am finding it easier to run longer distances. I am finding conversing with people easier. I am wanting to improve myself more.
All from a habit that isn’t difficult for me to achieve. Having started doing this habit, I started thinking ‘what else could I do that would make me feel better?’ So now I listen to non-fiction audiobooks, and I try cooking new things.

I even decided to write a blog post for the first time in forever. So, the answer to the question ‘How do I get better than I am’? I believe the answer is simple.

For you to improve yourself, you first must actually want to change.
There is no secret to self-improvement – It is simple a matter of starting.

Cheers,
Rumanshi.