Kokoro : When Discipline and Effort Isn't Enough : My Solution

 

Kokoro

When Discipline and Effort Isn't Enough

My Solution

By Adam Mundorf

Kokoro
Kokoro is a Japanese word meaning : heart, mind and spirit.  You have your body, you have your thoughts and you have your soul.  We are living things.  With this comes the stress of life whether that is physical, emotional or spiritual.  The human body is one piece.  Everything is connected and everything matters.

When Discipline and Effort Isn't Enough
Some of us as humans love to load our schedules up with intense training regimens, tough eating regimens, long work days, tiring relationships and untenable obligations.  WAIT!  The human body only has so much RAM to devote to itself.  All these plans sound really great on paper until life and unpredictability hits.  Life has a way of beating the most disciplined of us down.  If you read the definition of Kokoro, you will realize that everything is interconnected.  A bad day at work, can decrease effort or willpower in the gym.  An argument with a spouse, could cause you to lose sleep.  Not eating enough or being overly restrictive with calories, could cause fatigue making you miss a session.  Working out your body unrealistically hard, may even cause injury especially if you already have a physical occupation.  What we need as humans is an approach that ebbs and flows with the stressors of everyday life.....

My Solution
The first step to any solution is being honest with yourself.  Do you have the time to train like a Navy Seal?  Probably not.  Do you have the energy to train like a Bulgarian Olympic weightlifter?  Most likely not.  Do you have time for training sessions that will take hours? Many people don't.  You need to choose a workout program that's conducive to your lifestyle, not the other way around.  Workout to live, don't live to workout.  This goes doubly so for your eating schedule.  If you know you can't handle intermittent fasting, why do it?  Choose an eating style, that's conducive to your lifestyle schedule and demands.  I may be repeating myself here but it's my blog so whatever.  This goes doubly so for philosophy.  Choose a philosophy that is realistic to your life.  Ideally we would all be monks to our beliefs but those are truly the minority.  Luckily for us, progress in life is determined by consistency of effort and intensity should only be paired with consistency.  Choose things that allow you to be consistent over the long haul.  Remember that your life is unpredictable and unique.  Your approaches need to be congruent with that.

Listen, I get it, we all want to be superheroes and especially in the age of social media it's easy to compare ourselves to others not realizing what their lifestyle truly looks like.  We need to do what we can with what we have...there is no dishonor in that.

If you need help finding a program, philosophy or eating style that's congruent with your lifestyle respond here or message me on Reddit.  I'm always willing to help.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Your Body's 401k

Image
  Your Body's 401k By Adam Mundorf People think you're crazy when you wake up and change your life. Your Body's 401k The obsession with money is misguided.  You don't need nearly as much as you think you do and if you have crazy aspirations for your money like mansions, Lamborghini and expensive tastes, your health will need to take a backseat in most cases.  Many readers of this blog know that I know a lot about the foundations of personal finance and investing.  What my many hours and possibly years of reading has led me to, is that health is wealth.  All that stressing, sitting and lack of true intrinsic fulfillment leads to a quite frankly, sad end of life.  People act like nursing homes, limping around, fat body and skinny arms is the only way to end up.  This couldn't be further from the truth.  I can run out of fingers and toes, thinking of examples of millionaires I personally know, who said they wished they took care of their health.  They have nice stuff b
Read more

What I Learned from 29 to 30

Image
What I learned from 29 to 30 By Adam Mundorf What I Learned from 29 to 30 Hm, welp another year has passed and my life couldn't be better.  I am in good health, money in the bank and a roof over my head.  The above things are due to my decisions and actions.  Not once have I worried about an invading nation, a famine, a drought or where my next meal was coming from.  The above things have to do with luck.  The biggest lesson I learned was that our problems aren't really problems at all.  Growing up and living in America is living life on easy mode provided you don't self harm yourself through bad decisions.  We obviously don't all grow up with the same opportunities provided to us BUT if we take responsibility for our actions, realize we start where we are, we can become anything we want. Things aren't perfect but America is pretty darn close.  There is a reason why there are endless lines of people trying to get in but so few are trying to leave. To sum it up 29 to
Read more

Why Do You Want to Be Like Them? : The Realization I'm Not Conventionally Smart - Crying in the Car

Image
  Why Do You Want to Be Like Them? The Realization I'm Not Conventionally Smart - Crying in the Car By Adam Mundorf Why Do You Want to Be Like Them? This blog will be mostly my inner monologue with some questions along the way, just for a warning.  I'm putting my thoughts down and through that process to find some 'a-ha' moments.  It's self exploration. I get asked often about why I'm comfortable where I am in life because my chosen profession isn't what most people would want.  I'm not an exactly ambitious individual but am content with my own lot in life.  People respond typically with an almost pity and that perplexes me.  Maybe it's because I have such simple wants and desires.  I value the inexpensive/simple pleasures in life.  I value peace and quiet, a comfortable bed, cute animals and running water.  I for sure get if you burdened your life with obligations i.e, family, huge debts and/or some idealistic dream of being fabulously wealthy, you&
Read more