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

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 wealt...
Read more

Company Parties : Walk Beside Me not Behind Me : The 'Christian' CEO's

Image
  Company Parties Walk Beside Me not Behind Me The 'Christian' CEO's By Adam Mundorf 'True leading is sacrifice, not privilege.' Company Parties What a kick in the face company parties are.  No money for raises but money for lavish and extravagant parties?  Cutting hours but have money for banquets?  Seems a bit hypocritical doesn't it?  A rising tide raises all ships and all these silly parties do is drain the ocean.  Lets be honest, most people want the cash because we have bills and actual expenses that aren't solved with a pizza party or catered dinner.  We have goals and aspirations where an extra 20 bucks can provide dividends into the future.  Skip the party and distribute the cash.  Your employees will love that more than any party you could throw.  Quite frankly, it's insulting that a company could even throw a party while simultaneously cutting hours.  What a kick in the nuts.   Walk Beside Me not Behind Me A big...
Read more

What I Learned During the Dale Carnegie Course : Three Largest Lessons

Image
  What I Learned During the Dale Carnegie Course Three Largest Lessons By Adam Mundorf What I Learned During the Dale Carnegie Course Recently, the company I work for decided to host a Dale Carnegie Course for all of its managers and leadership team.  Dale Carnegie is a course meant to enhance leadership qualities while giving you thought provoking scenarios and lessons to use in the real world.  I had a really good time, it allowed me to get out of my comfort zone and taught me three valuable lessons (there are more but I want to limit this blog to the three biggest lessons I learned).  Here they are : Lesson #1 - Adam 'Pause' Mundorf - Avoiding the Stutter Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I've had somewhat of a stutter since a young age.  I'm not talking like King George the Sixth but it's there.  It gave me grief as a childhood but as I got older, it got funnier because I knew it wasn't a disability but my brain moving entirely too fast for my mouth....
Read more