Just could not be assed to work out yesterday. After writing down that I felt lacklustre, it clarified things—brought the resistance to rest—and I realised I could take a break. As a result I got loads of other blog work done and felt less pressure throughout the day.
And then just before dinner I felt a spontaneous urge to do a little strength. I haven’t used the kettlebell for a while, and have perhaps overlooked it whilst focusing on carefully increasing power lifts.
But I did 2 sets of 20 goblet squats, clean and presses, and pushups. Then PBed on weighted chins. And then 2 more sets, so 80 squats, 80 C&Ps and 80 pushups total. Great all round workout, full body.
This is also a great way to reintroduce squats, which will be important to bulletproof my hips and rebuild my patellar tendon. Most rehab programs call for the addition of standard squats (both eccentric and concentric action) after the initial stages of eccentric (lowering) only.
And today my tendon feels really good. So that was a great win, a fun and demanding workout, that was planned about 5 minutes in advance. I won’t forget ye again, olde kettlebell. I’m also going to order some more 5kg plates so that I have more resistance to play with.
I also experimented with videoing myself when doing the chins. Really insightful. I could see straight away 1) how ridiculous my face looks and that 2) my arms don’t lock out. I’m not sure if this is necessary for strict form or not.
It made me think, along with the short treadmill video I did, how easy it is to create more videos like this. They could be really valuable and engaging parts of the content library I’m building.
I’ve thought a few times recently about making meditation videos/audio too. How can I provide value outside of the written word? I think meditation will be the most applicable area here.
I can literally sit in meditation, and talk through what I’m doing. Or I can just repeat the same phrases at certain intervals, so that people can use them as guided meditations. Make them stand out by covering insight, emptiness, and esoteric contemplations, not just the standard body scans and relaxations.
So that’s potentially exciting. A lot of the puzzle pieces for blog growth have come together over the last few days. Intense research into finding and participating in tribes, into cultivating and sharing from a pool of evergreen media, of scheduling blog development alongside writing, of trying to share daily, and of trying to plan my blogging week in advance. That’s still very much in an experimental phase.
Oh it’s also November 1st today, and I’m going to shave and show everyone how ridiculous a 32 year old’s “moustache” can really be.
Back to the blog—I’ve also been finding my identity a bit more, almost culminating in something quite “anti-blog”, or at least anti what most blogs promote. That’s been really refreshing and fun to write about.
I want to distinguish my own writings from the click-baity, short-sighted, hacky content that is rampant around the web. That kind of content is LOUD and CAPS-LOCKY but it actually timid and shallow. It is narrow and superficial. That’s why it has to be so shouty, to try and hijack your attention.
It’s the kind of content that provides 89 ideas for doing an activity, when all you really need is just to sit down and think on why you’ve been avoiding the activity in the first place. It is sheer quantity, pure “content”, with little care for the craft of writing, or any sense of nuance or subtlety. The shouty web. The hystericon.
It is ripe to be ridiculed. And more important than that, we need examples of something better. Of engaging content that is written with care, but nonetheless can move us deeply. Bold content that doesn’t shy away from big questions, that doesn’t stew in a pool of mere tolerance and relativism. Writings that ask big questions without scrambling for 89 bullet-pointed, poorly-considered answers.
I look forward to seeing how this identity continues to emerge. I have no idea what comes next.
11 Nov 2018