Capitalise on our own reinvention™
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Isnello, Sicily, a few days ago. Physical training is mental training: the mind is but an organ to experience experience [Why let bad stuff in trough 'TV' and poisonous food?]
"Recent research has shown that our moods are far more strongly influenced by the people around us than we might think. All of us, as part of the Palaeolithic heritage (where we needed to be on the lookout for predators at all times), have a tendency to converge emotionally. We all seem to be programmed to be receptive to other people's emotions. And all have a tendency to recognize and feel emotions that are similar to our own. [T]the urge to mirror others is hardwired into our brain trough a neural feedback mechanism […] because cooperation leads to more food, better health, and economic growth for a community. [W]e automatically mimic and synchronise facial expressions, vocalisations, postures, body language and other behaviors with those of other people. We also experience the emotions associated with the particular behaviour we are mimicking. [T]he moods of friends of friends, and of friends of friends (people three degrees of separation away from us whom we have never met) can influence us trough our social network like a virus. A diverse range of phenomena are transmitted trough networks of friends in ways that are not enterily understood: happiness and depression, obesity, drinking and smoking habits, ill health, the inclination to turn out and vote in elections, a taste for certain music or food, a preference for online privacy, even the tendency to attempt or think about suicide. [T]hese feelings ripple trough networks like pebbles thrown into a pond. […] In a team situation, it is often the mood of the leader that sets the tone. If the leader is upbeat, the mood of the other team members will rise. But is if he or she is down, everyone is down. And these changes in mood can occur very rapidly. […]
A shift in attitude and behaviour culminates in the redefinition, and even reinvention, of our self. […] However, even when there are clear signs that change is required within an organisation, it is often resisted because people know it will involve moving into the unknown. Some of these resistances can be unconscious, and can even contribute to self-defeating acts of sabotage. For any organisation to change, the degree of dissatisfaction has to be greater than the degree of resistance. […] Nelson Mandela said, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world," but it can take time to educate people about the benefits of the change process. The company may have been drifting -- with many employees feeling like helpless bystanders, watching the situation -- and now is the time to give them "voice", to make them feel that they can be involved in making a difference. [Here] is a good example of learning and unlearning, of rules and norms that have become institutionalised, to the extend that the team members can no longer trace their origins [ , ]
Once upon a time there were six monkeys living in a cage. One day they awoke to find a ladder had been positioned right in the middle of the cage and from the top of it a bunch of bananas dangled invitingly from a rope. One of the monkeys immediately climbed the ladder, but as soon as it reached the bananas, ice-cold water was prayed down on all the other monkeys. This happened every time a monkey climbed the ladder and tried to grab the bananas. Very soon each monkey was on the lookout for one of its companions to climb the ladder. Whenever one of them tried, the other monkeys would stop it. As time went by, the monkeys simply learnt to ignore the bananas. Nothing would tempt them to try to get them, even after the bunch was lowered and within easy reach. The monkeys stayed well away: the last thing they wanted was another freezing shower.
Then one day a new monkey arrived in the cage. When he saw the bananas and tried to scale the ladder, all of the other monkeys attacked him and trashed him severely. The new monkey quickly discovered that the bananas were taboo. As time went by more monkeys from elsewhere found themselves in the cage. Each in turn learned their lesson: stay away from the bananas. When they tried to climb the ladder, the others (including the newcomers) would attack them. Typically, it was the most recent victims that punished the new transgressor most.
In fact, the monkeys were so busy punishing each other that they failed to notice that despite the regular appearance of newcomers, their numbers mysteriously remained the same. For every new monkey that appeared in the cage, one of the originals was removed. It didn't take very long before all the six original monkeys had been replaced. Nevertheless, no monkey ever tried to climb the ladder again, despite the fact that all the original monkeys had gone and none of the remaining ones had ever received the icy shower. Ignoring the bananas had simply become a fact of life. If the monkeys could have replied, when asked why they attacked anyone who went fro the bananas, their answer would almost certainly have been: "Well, I don't really know -- it's just the way we do things around here." As can happen to many of us, the monkeys had gotten stuck in their ways, and change was no longer an option. They had reframed the situation and the organisational system had gotten the better of them."
Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries in The Hedgehog Effect', page 100, 101, 102, 173, 174, 176, 177. First published in 2011 by John Wiley and Sons, USA
The other side
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Approx. 52°27'23.8"N 4°33'37.8"E, today at sunset. Equipment [ keep it simple ]
Min/max temperature: 4°C/6°C; humidity: 99%; precipitation: 2 mm, sea level pressure: 999 hPa; wind from SSE 6.0 km/h; visibility: 9.0 kilometres; Clouds few 365 m, mostly clouds 670 m.
"Forgiveness fosters healing […] It facilitates excellence and improvement […] Forgiveness means taking the sting out […] that otherwise threatens to poison our existence […] "Forgiveness," according to the former president of India, Indira Gandhi, "is a virtue of the brave." […] To energize their people, truly effective leaders need to be at peace with themselves and past and present events in their life […] Trough play [ we ] acquire control of the world, as opposed to being subject to its vagaries. […] To quote John Cleese, "If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play." [T]he opposite of play is not work -- it's more like depression […] The Greek playwright Aeschylus […] said, "It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish."
Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries in 'Mindful Leadership Coaching, Journeys into the interior', page 42, 43, 46, 47, 161, 170, 176, first published in 2014 by Palgrave Macmillan, USA
Breath is given, heartbeat what you make of it
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Above: Half-way training at the IJmuiden South Pier, this morning. The ship¹ coming in is the passenger Vessel Saga Pearl II, from Cuxhaven Germany heading for Amsterdam.
Preparation for awesome wintertraining started these days! Discomfort is the best place to start. To prepare for worse (the winter) to come. To learn to adjust to discomfort creates:
a) Feeling of acceptance and well being with(in) the present circumstances (things can and will be a hell-of-a-lot-worse soon);
b) Prepares for what lies ahead as you built resiliency.
The best moment to start preparing for winter-training is... NOW.
How?
Easy does it. Look at adversity and discomfort as your coach. It shows you what needs to be learnt or you'll end up falling prone to finding excuses in it for not doing anything at all. Feeling a slight chill this summer? Don't panic and complain. Use it as a modest introduction to building up resistance and learn to deal with it: when it will get colder you will be much better prepared.
Remember that breath and breathing controls the heart beating. Every emotional-state has a corresponding breathing pattern². The reverse is true also. By introducing deep, relaxing breathing exercises, states of anxiety and its corresponding high heart rates will be brought within a reasonable zone.
To keep your well being within your reasonable zone is extremely important for your training to be effective, healthy and pleasant. You'll burn up and run out of breath soon other wise.
Breath is what is given, heartbeat what you make of it!
Your training should be designed to control that and the result will be that you will have fun.
Does that require fancy equipment attached to my arms to monitor my wellbeing?
If you are a robot or are part of a special program to become one: yes sure you do. In all other cases the less equipment, pretensions, high-tech stuff and fear based neurotic believes and superstition, the better of you are. Allowing you to fully concentrate on what you are doing; it introduces one to the essence of what is there and to make it stronger. Though this is not always a pleasant feeling to begin with; it is the best place to start (and go easy from there)!
¹ See also: "O my brothers, who braved 100.000 perils to reach the west, choose not to deny experience of the unpeopled world. Think of the seed of your creation. You were not born to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.": http://bartvanbroekhoven.com/en-US/running/160-sar-sarsential-23
"Conscience does make cowards of us all"
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Kennemer dunes 360° today. Question [ how much do we really need? ]
Min/max temperature: 4°C/16°C; humidity: 91%; precipitation: 0 mm; sea level pressure: 1031 hPa; wind: Variable 5.0 km/h; visibility: 10.0 kilometres
"INT. GENERAL HEADQUARTERS OF THE GASTAPO IN BERLIN - DAY
Officer: Heil Hitler.
Joseph Tura: Heil Hitler!
Officer: Colonel, we have Wilhelm Coetze here. If you'd like to look into his record. I hope he'll talk.
Joseph Tura: He'd better. Send him in.
Officer: Yes, sir. Wilhelm Coetze!
A boy, approximately aged ten, enters.
Wilhelm, the boy: Heil Hitler!
Josesph Tura: Heil Hitler! And now, Wilhelm, I understand you want a little tank to play with.
Wilhelm: Yes, my father promised me one if I got a good report card.
Josesp Tura: But our Fuhrer heard about your report card... and decided to give you just what you want.
Wilhelm: Heil Hitler!
Joseph Tura: Heil Hitler! You are going to tell your father who gave it to you, aren't you, Wilhelm?
Wilhelm: Sure, our Fuhrer.
Joseph Tura: And then maybe he will like the Fuhrer a little better, won't he?
Wilhelm: Sure.
Josesph Tura: He doesn't like him now, does he?
Wilhelm: No, he doesn't.
Joseph Tura: And sometimes he even says funny things about him, doesn't he?
Wilhelm: Well, he said they named a brandy after Napoleon... and they made a herring out of Bismarck. And Hitler's going to end up as...
Officer: A piece of cheese.
Wilhelm: Yes.
Joseph Tura: Yeah. How did you know?
Officer: Well, it's a natural thought.
Joseph Tura: A natural thought?!
Officer: I hope you don't misunderstand. I always, that is... You see, Colonel, I hope you don't doubt my...
All: Heil Hitler!
Door opens, Adolf Hitler enters.
Officer: The Fuhrer!
Officer: Heil Hitler!
Joseph Tura: Heil Hitler!
Adolf Hitler: Heil myself.
The Director, Mr. Dobosh suddenly interrupts. Standing up agitated from behind his reading table in the theatre.
Director Mr. Dobosh: That's not in the script!
Mr. Bronksi (Hitler): But, Mr. Dobosh, please.
Director Mr. Dobosh: That's not in the script, Mr. Bronski.
Mr. Bronski: But it'll get a laugh.
Director Mr. Dobosh: I don't want a laugh here. How many times have I told you not to add any lines? I want...
Mr. Greensberg: You want my opinion, Mr. Dobosh?
Director Mr. Dobosh: No Mr. Greenberg, I don't want your opinion.
Mr. Greensberg: All right, then let me give you my reaction. A laugh is nothing to be sneezed at.
Director Dobosh: Mr. Greenberg, I hired you as an actor, not as a writer. Understand? No. What does the script say?
Mr. Bronksi: I make an entrance.
Director Dobosh: And what do you say?
Mr. Bronksi: Nothing.
Director Dobosh: Then say nothing."
From: 'To Be or Not To Be', Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Written by Melchior Lengyel, Edwin Justus Mayer and Ernst Lubitsch (uncredited), starring Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Sig Ruman, first released on February 19, 1942 in Los Angeles, trough United Artists
"Enter HAMLET.
Ham. To be, or no to be, -- that is the question: --
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? -- To die, -- to sleep, -- No more; and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks.
The flesh is heir to, -- 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd. To die, -- to sleep;-- To sleep! perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams my come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause; there's the respect that makes calamity of so long life; time for who would bear the whips and scorns of the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, the pangs of disposed love, the law's delay, the insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes, when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death,-- the undiscover'd country, from whose bourn no traveller returns,--puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have that fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; and enterprises of great pith and moment, with this regard, their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action.-- Soft you now! The fair Ophelia.--Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered."
From: William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet, Prince of Danmark', Act III, scene 1, written between 1599 and 1602, page 960 of 'The Complete Works of William Shakespeare', first published in 1958 by Spring Books, London
"We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."
William Shakespeare as quoted in the preface of 'The Complete Works of William Shakespeare', page VI, first published in 1958 by Spring Books, London
"The major limitation of consciousness is its innocence."
David Hawkins in 'Power vs Force', page 251, first published in 1995 by Hay House, United Kingdom
"I man don't"
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Kennemer dunes 360° today. Search and destroy [ reassemble and enjoy ]
Min/max temperature: 7°C/12°C; humidity: 80%; precipitation: 1 mm; sea level pressure: 1011.74 hPa; wind: SSE 8.0 km/h; visibility: 16.0 kilometres; Clouds: Few 2834 m Scattered Clouds 10668 m.; Waxing Crescent Moon, 27% visible
"I man don't
I don't drink no champagne
[…]
'Cause I'm a man of the past
And I'm livin' in the present
And I'm walking in the future
Stepping in the future
[…]
I man don't
Eat up your fried chicken
Not lickin'
I man don't
Eat up them frankfurters
Garbage
I man don't
Eat down the hamburger
Can't do that
I man don't
Drink pink, blue, yellow, green soda"
Peter Tosh 'Mystic Man' , track 1 LP 'Mystic Man', first released in 1979 trough Rolling Stones Records/EMI, produced by Peter Tosh, Word, Sound and Power (Keith Sterling, Mikey Chung, Robbie Lyn, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar) in the Dynamic Sound Studio, Kingston, Jamaica
