Writing is my artistic expression. My keyboard is my brush. Words are my medium. My blog is my canvas. And committing to writing daily makes me feel like an artist.
One of my daughters leaves for a trip to Central America today. My other daughter heads to Europe in a few months. I’ve lived a life so far with few regrets. Sure I’ve made mistakes, and I can think of things I wish I did with better outcomes, but when I reflect on my life I tend not to dwell on regrets and missed opportunities. But if I were to change one thing in my life, I would have travelled more when I was younger.
We have a lifetime to work and be productive, but at my age now I’m not going to spend time in hostels, or go backpacking across a country. My holidays will be, and have been, different than someone travelling in their 20’s. A friend of mine’s son recently rode a bicycle across the African continent. That’s not going to be something I plan to do at my age… but what an absolutely amazing experience he had!
My advice to young people is to see the world. Go to places unlike where you live. Embrace the culture of the places you visit. Go on adventures you are less likely to go in when you are older. You are only young once and the world awaits you.
I remember a term that used to be common, but I haven’t heard it in a while: ‘paralysis by analysis’. The idea that worrying too much about what the next step should be to actually act. The reason I think of that phrase now is because it relates to the age of abundance we are in. We are constantly bombarded by new choices and opportunities.
A perfect example is that I was shopping for adjustable weights recently and once I did an internet search my social media algorithm started pointing me to ads for adjustable weights. In all honesty, this didn’t speed up my search, but rather slowed down my purchasing timeline. I ended up continuing to look and shop long after finding the ones I ended up with, and then I ended up going with a local company to save on shipping, rather than any of the companies I saw in the ads. I spent an extra couple hours over several days shopping, and I barely saved myself $50… but also ended up having to drive almost an hour away to pick them up.
If that abundance of choice given to me was just for one one-time purchase that would be fine, but the reality is that the choices keep coming. I’ve got 3 books in my reading queue right now and a connection on LinkedIn just gave me a free preview of her new book. The book looks interesting but I’m not sure yet if I’ll get to her book any time soon. It’s a good thing to be offered a free copy, but it’s yet another choice to make. Free offers are very challenging to turn down.
And yet free offers keep coming. Exclusive first looks, first order free, year long trials, early access, just share your email, get on the mailing list, and then get bombarded with more choices.
I find myself being an arbiter of choices. Free (or mostly free) resources come my way all the time and I have to choose if I should pass these on to my staff. I have to make a choice as to whether to pass the choice on. Do I inundate my team with choices? Am I helping them or overwhelming them? If I don’t pass it on, am I taking away a good opportunity?
It seems that in an era of abundance we can have too many choices. Paralysis by analysis is back, and the analysis is created by too much choice.
I met two young, gifted students yesterday, interested in attending our school next year. It’s fascinating to meet 13 year old kids who aren’t just good students but passionate learners. Kids who see school as places to connect with friends and get exposed to ideas that they wouldn’t get exposed to if they stayed home. Kids who want to go to school because it’s more interesting than staying home.
It excites me to think that these kids will come to our school and part of their day will be dedicated to them perusing passion projects that they design. They aren’t just going to be taking notes, do practice questions from a textbook, or comple ‘cookie cutter’ styles projects where most of the final products look the same.
I think some kids learn despite the system they are in. These kids I met yesterday would be successful no matter what school they attend. But they deserve an opportunity to attend a school where they get to shine… Where they get to try something that can fully engage their passion for learning. Even where they can try something too big and fail, but learn that this too is a learning experience.
When I see kids with a passion for learning, I see kids that should have some autonomy over their day at school. They want to learn, let them discover, explore, and innovate. Let them follow their passions and interests. Let them own some of their own learning.
I’ve been on a bit of a health journey since 2019. I consistently exercising, I eat very little sugary foods, and for the most part eat quite healthily. Yet from 2019 to 2024 my cholesterol has gone from not great to bad, and I’ve watched my blood pressure move from optimum to the top end of normal, which is a big jump in just a few years.
When my cholesterol got worse between my 2022 and early 2024 test results, my doctor, not knowing the extent of my healthy routines, suggested I watch my diet for a few months and test again. I booked another appointment with her. I explained that I could definitely increase my fibre intake, but that cholesterol was a genetic issue on both sides of my family.
I shared that my mom’s dad died too early due to cholesterol issues. My mom has been on statins for 17 years, and my dad’s brother is 20 years older than me and was put on statins 20 years ago. Basically requested to be put on statins. Her immediate response was why I value her as a doctor. She said that she would rather that I consulted a cardiovascular specialist first, and set up an appointment.
That was great until, still waiting for my appointment 2 months later, I learned that I was declined an appointment. It seems that being on the cusp of unhealthy, (based on norms of people far less healthy than I am), I am not critical enough to get a specialist appointment. As a bit of a rant, do I really need to have a heart episode or stroke before I fix my cholesterol issue? I think that’s the sign of a broken medical system. So, with this news, my doctor said she would put me on statins and we could retest my bloodwork after 6 months.
It has been just over 7 months on medication and I just got my bloodwork results. The results are shockingly good. I assumed they would be better than they were on my last test because during the past few months I’ve seen my blood pressure drop into the low range of normal, almost back to optimal. But to see such a large drop in my cholesterol in only 7 months definitely shows the medication is working.
I can control a lot of my heatlh with exercise and healthy eating, but the reality is that cholesterol is mostly genetic, and when it comes to cholesterol, I’ve got bad genes on both sides of the family. I chose to take statins under doctor supervision, and I did my own research too.
In all honesty, I was not expecting such positive results. A previous blood tests showed that I have high lipoprotein (a) which is a bad combination to have with high cholesterol because this protein likes to hold onto the bad LDL cholesterol. And new research shows that statins are less likely to show success in people with high lipoprotein (a). But my test results speak for themselves.
So now I’m probably going to be on statins for the rest of my life. And frankly I’m quite happy about that. It’s working for my mom, and my uncle, and it’s fixing something that I don’t have the power to fix with my lifestyle. I won’t pretend that I’ve noticed any physical or health changes in the last few months. In reality I feel the same as I did before I started medication. But internally my body is dealing with a lot less stress. My heart doesn’t need to pump as hard, and I’m probably having a lot less plaque build up in my veins.
It’s wonderful to see such positive results. And on that note, it’s time to get on the treadmill… I’m not staying healthy by medication alone, I’m also sticking to a healthy routine. I like to joke that I plan to die healthy. And while I hope that won’t happen for many years to come, I plan on being active, mobile, and fit when my time comes. To paraphrase Dr. Peter Attia, I want a good healthspan, not just lifespan. For me that means taking statins as well as exercising and maintaining a healthy diet.
I remember my oldest daughter asking me a question when she was just 4 years old. I don’t remember the actual question but I do remember that after I responded, “I don’t know,” she walked over to our desktop computer and asked Google. I remember being surprised that she thought to do this, and amazed because when I was that age, if my parent didn’t know, I might have looked in our Junior Encyclopedia Brittanica, but I probably would have just accepted that I wouldn’t know the answer.
I remember a time, years later, when I would ask a question of my social media network first, rather than Google. Not for a general knowledge question, but for things like how to use a certain tool, such as accessing a feature on a wiki or blogging platform. People were better that generalized Q&A pages at pinpointing the information I was looking for, and I good hashtag on Twitter would put my question in front of the right people.
And now there are times when I would go to YouTube first, before Google, for things like car repair. Don’t know how to get the cover off of a car light to replace it? Simply put your car name and year into YouTube with the information about what bulb you are replacing, and a video will pop up to show you how to do it.
AI is changing this. More and more, questions are being answered right inside of search. Make a query and the answer is not just links to sites that might know the answer, but an actual answer based on information that is on the sites you would normally have to click to. That’s pretty awesome in and of itself… having instant answers to simple questions, without needing to search any further. But what about more complex questions that might require learning something before you can understand all the concepts being shared? What happens when you ask questions with complex learning required?
This is where I see the power of micro-learning. And this term is being redefined by AI. Want to learn a complex concept? AI will do two things for you. First it will curate your learning for you. And secondly it will be adaptive to your learning needs. Want to learn a complex mathematical concept? AI will be your teacher. Got stuck on one particular concept? AI will realize what mistake you are making and change how it teaches you that concept to better meet your leaning needs, and pace.
It’s like having content area specialists at your finger tips. And soon intelligent agents will get to know us. Like a personalized AI tutor, we can pick just about any topic and become knowledgeable by creating small (micro) learning modules that are based on what we know, what we want to know, and how we learn best.
The AI can deliver a lecture, but also ask questions. It can provide the information in a conversation, or it can point us to videos and experts that would normally have taken considerable research to find. And the idea that it can adapt to how quickly you pick something up or if you struggle with a concept, means that you are getting the learning you need, when you need it. Micro-learning with AI is the new search of 2025, and it’s just going to get better and better.
How will this change schools? What will AI assisted lessons look like in classrooms? How will the learning be individualized by teachers? By students? How will this change the way we look at content? How important will the process be compared to the content?
I think this will be a year of experimentation and adaptation. Micro-learning won’t just be something our students do, but our educators as well. Furthermore, what micro-learning means a year from now will look a lot different than it does now. And frankly, I’m excited about the way micro-learning is adapting to the powerful AI tools that are currently being developed. We are headed into a new frontier of adaptive, just-in-time, micro-learning.
Well, I just flaked out for a couple hours. Thought I was going to head out grocery shopping and haven’t made it out yet. But today is the last day of the winter break and I’m grateful to be able to give myself some down time. My next 3 weeks are jam packed and so if I want to take a little afternoon nap today… well permission granted. 😀
My evening will include a bit of meal prep, and a bit of listening to my audio book. And an early bed time. Tomorrow will be a full day, in high gear, and the pace won’t stop. But today, I savour the quiet time, and enjoy the slower pace. That said, it’s time to get off the couch.
My focus on school begins tomorrow, and that will probably reflect in the topics I choose to write about. Afternoon naps will not be the topic of conversation in the coming days!
It’s fascinating how much of weight training is mental. I’m simultaneously an athlete who can push my body to a level that surprises me, and the loafer who can’t eke out one more rep despite still having gas left in my gas tank. One minute I’m forcing myself to get one more weighted pull-up done, straining with everything I’ve got to get my head above the bar. A few minutes later I’m quitting on weighted step-ups, because mentally, rather than physically, I’m done.
What I’ve mastered is showing up. What I’m working on now is maximizing my gains. That doesn’t mean being stupid, lifting too heavy, and hurting myself. What it does mean is making my sets count. Making my reps count. Making my workouts efficient and effective.
How does this look when I’ve mentally quit on a set too soon? Maybe it means a 4th set. Maybe it means a lighter weight and more reps. Maybe it means giving myself permission to let that one set go and come back stronger the next set… or if need be the next workout. Awareness is the first step. The next step is being intentional about what I do next.
If I’m going to see the gains I plan to have in the next year, I’ve got to push a little harder than I have been. Pushing in a smart way is going to get me to my goals… injury free.
Had a couple ferry rides over the last two days. We always get reservations now, ever since our kids were 1 and 3, both sick, and we missed a ferry because it was too full. The next 2 hours waiting were awful, with two sick kids, and an hour and a half ferry ride after the extra wait. So reservations became a ‘must’ for us.
I think about how much time we spend getting from one place to another. Even with a reservation, we need to get to the terminal a minimum of 30 minutes before departure. And then there’s the 45 minute drive to the ferry, and the drive on the other side to our final destination.
There is a lot of waiting around on ferry trips. We bumped into people on the way over and had some nice chats yesterday, but for the most part the travel time goes slow. Trips home seem to take forever, and unpacking the car is never fun.
I look forward to the days when cars can fly like in the Jetsons. I hope that this happens in my lifetime. Forget about taking a ferry where my car is corralled onto a crowded boat, and the drive getting off the ferry is always in heavy traffic. I want to just set the autopilot in my car and watch an in-flight movie. No arriving to a ferry terminal early, no lineups. No reservations. Just a car zooming above the Georgia Straight, which is too long for an affordable bridge.
I like clever quotes that make you think. I saw one yesterday that has stuck with me today:
You can’t change the people around you, but
you can change the people around you. ~ Unknown
Now this isn’t 100% true. You can’t change your family, and you might be limited in influence over co-workers. However I think we all spend too much time trying to change someone rather than changing who that someone is.
On that note, I feel pretty lucky to have the friends and family I have, and so I’m not looking to change people around me (one way or another). But that doesn’t take away from my appreciation of the quote.
Here is another brilliant quote:
Disappointment is the gap that exists between expectation and reality. ~ John C. Maxwell
There is nothing wrong with high standards or expectations. But sometimes we need to just let go of our expectations and appreciate what we’ve got. How often are we disappointed by something not because what we got was bad, but simply not what we were expecting?
It started January 1st, 2019. I was almost 30 pounds overweight and I decided that I’d had enough of working out, getting busy and lazy and not working out, and yo-yo-ing between these two states… while progressively getting further out of shape.
In my 1 year video reflection, back in late December 2019, I was able to share that I’d basically lost the 30 pounds and was back on track for staying healthy. Now, years later, I’ve put back on about 12 pounds, but a completely healthy 12 pounds. I’ve added almost an inch to my biceps, I have great definition on my (still skinny) legs, and my shoulders/traps are probably where I see my biggest gains.
Here are my key stats this year:
Workouts – defined as a minimum of 20 minutes cardio and some weights (unless it’s a Coquitlam Crunch day when I don’t usually go weights).
Meditation – At least 10 minutes, usually 15 or 20 minutes guided meditation on the Balance App.
Daily-Ink – Daily writing on this blog.
Writing/Creating – Intended to be for writing beyond my blog regularly but mostly just tracking conversations with my uncle.
Workouts: 326 days or 89%
Meditation: 313 days or 85%
Daily-Ink: 366 days or 100%
Writing/Creating: 53 days or 14.5%
Reflections:
Workouts: I’m actually setting a goal to work out less in 2025. I’ve made some good gains and think they can be better if I gave myself more rest. This is especially true for my legs. I think working out cardio 10-12+ days in a row is limiting my leg recovery time needed to see them grow a bit more. Lack of rest might be why my legs are a lot stronger but still skinny. For upper body, many of my workouts are just a single muscle focus, and so I usually get enough rest between hard sets for specific muscle groups.
Meditation: These could have been qualitatively better this year. It’s not an issue of volume but definitely one fit quality. In 2024 I found that writing was taking me a bit longer in the morning, and so a lot of times I ended up doing a walking meditation on the treadmill to make up the time. That said I’m not convinced that those meditations were necessarily moving me towards my meditation goals as much as dedicated time would.
Daily-Ink: I’ll keep my blog going another year. And while I’ve basically maintained daily writing for 5 and a half years, I still want to track it.
Writing/Creativity: The largest area for growth is in being creative. I’m going to do a couple things to improve this. First, I won’t be counting conversations with my uncle, even when we are recording them. What I will count is video editing of the videos he and I record, as well as writing not related to by blog. A goal related to this is less social media time… Reducing distractions and focusing on creativity. My writing/creativity goal will be a minimum of two days per week, 104 days a year, or basically doubling last year’s total while not counting the vast majority of days I would have tracked last year. I won’t meet my uncle less often, I just won’t be counting these Zoom visits as part of my creativity goal.
Ultimately I want to see two outcomes this year that will result from my tracking above:
Gain 7-8 pounds of muscle. This is a big jump for me. In my 30’s and 40’s I had a hard time maintaining a weight of about 153 pounds. If I worked out consistently for several months I’d get my weight to 155 but struggled to put good weight on beyond that. When I stopped working out I’d drop a few pounds and sit closer to 150. By December 2018, at age 51, I’d (unintentionally and without awareness) let myself go and weighed just under 185 pounds, with all of that extra weight being unhealthy. After year one of my healthy living goals (reflection shared again here) I was back down to around 155. Now I fluctuate around 167-169 pounds and would like to bring that to 175 pounds. Basically, it took me about 5 years to gain 12 pounds of muscle and I want to add 8 more this year. Increased protein and more dedicated weight training will get me there if I maintain my positive habits and get a bit more rest between (harder/smarter) workouts.
More creativity. I think 2 days a week of doing something creative is realistic and attainable. Reducing social media distractions will be key. I’m going to automate my blog going into social media, and add time limits to all socials for Monday to Friday as a starting point. I’ll see how that works and re-evaluate my success after a month.
Finally, one more goal unrelated to my tracking will be a reading goal. Watching that December 2018 reflection video again I was shocked that I listened to 26 books that year. I think this year’s count was 6, with 3 partial reads to finish, although I did listen to a lot more podcasts. I want to improve my book count. I think this will also help with my creativity.
One final reflection: Overall I’m pretty damn proud of my 2024 stats above. Yes I have some ambitious goals ahead of me, and I’m always pushing to improve… but that doesn’t take away from the fact that I’ve been on a 6 year journey from an overweight and unhealthy 51 year old to a 57 year old who hasn’t been this healthy and strong since I was an athlete in my 20’s.
My ultimate goal is a great healthspan to go with my lifespan. I want to be able to do things in 20 years that most 77 year olds can’t imagine doing. I want to be hiking, traveling, and living a vibrant, healthy life well into my senior years. I think I’m on the right path.
