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Micro wisdom delivered to your ears every morning in voice notes ranging from 3 to 15 minutes long. Wisdom on how to live a healthier and more fulfilling life. Every podcast will ground you in the present moment to ensure you know what's important, the here and now.
Good morning everybody, another day, another week. Now my voice sounds a bit robotic and will go off and on, it's not your signal because yesterday I did the Jiu Jitsu tournament, my first one actually, and I got the gold in my weight division, which I had to go up weight division actually, so I was against people very very tall compared to me. And then in my other divisions, there's one division that's with the gi, which is like the traditional karate outfit you think of, the white outfit, and then you got no gi, which is like skin tight top and stuff. So I I I lost the third place playoff in that one to some guy that was like a British powerlifter or something. Well, he was a British powerlifter.
Speaker 1:He was thick, chunky, and my neck is in bits because, yeah, they basically try and choke you out, which is, I mean, is it fun? I don't know. Who's you tell me. But, you know, I was I was really shocked at how aggressive it was, to be honest. I was quite shook in my first fight.
Speaker 1:I did not expect it to be like that. I was not prepared. I was very relaxed. My game plan was to not lose my head and stuff like that, but and using my pressure and all that, but wow. Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah. There was people walking around there with pit bulls and stuff, like actual pit bull dogs and the tattoos are on the neck. Do you know I mean? I was like, what the hell is going on here? You guys are killers.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, it was all good, all good, so are my voices, I guess. But I wanna cover stoicism today because it's a big thing for me, big thing for a lot of you. A good thing to start the week off with. I think stoicism is one of those things that it it it applies to everything you do. So yesterday, for example, in Torment, you know, I can only focus on things in my control.
Speaker 1:If I'm against someone that is too skillful for me and will beat me, then fine. I just try my best with what I know. And as long as I don't give up early and I do my best, I'm happy with that. So the fights I lost, I did try my best. I was winning one of them well and I just didn't have the expertise or the experience to control the match from being up.
Speaker 1:I got a bit tired and I let the other guy take the up position, which I shouldn't have done because then he gets points where I didn't realize. But these things you learn from. You learn a lot from these things versus just, oh yeah, well, you win one division fine, but you did so many things in your first condition wrong, there's a lot to work on now. Applies to your macros, your training plan, everything. Your first week of your training plan, your second, your third week, you know what exercises are harder for you, you might get advice from them, you work on them, they get easier, they get better.
Speaker 1:You don't want to get disheartened by it because look, every black belt is once a white belt, Every world champion was once a beginner. I'm not saying we need to be black belts and everything or world champions and everything, but we do need to be content with where we're at. And we need to say, hey, this is where I'm at. But I'll try my best today. The stoic archer analogy is amazing.
Speaker 1:The stoic archer, he is pulling back the, arrow. He lets go of the arrow and, you know, and the bone arrow. Let's go of the arrow to hit the target. Yeah? He's only concerned about the setup.
Speaker 1:He's only concerned about lining it up, pulling the strings back, aiming it, waiting the right moment, leaving it go. Soon as he lets go of the arrow, he has no concern if it's a target or not because the wind could come, someone could walk in front of bird, anything. As long as he did the work properly and well to line the shot up to the best of his ability or her ability, that's what he was. That's what he's concerned about. And today is for you as well.
Speaker 1:So think about today. Am I lining things up for myself today to the best of my ability? You know, am I am I putting in the am I putting in the diary today when I'm gonna work or when I'm going to go for my walk or when I'm going to track my nutrition or when I'm going to do a journal entry or when I'm going to do one big task of the day? Am I writing this down? Have I got this plan together?
Speaker 1:And I'm going to execute when I can in those times. And sometimes it comes to that time and something else pops in the surgeon and it means that you didn't get the chance to do that thing. But that's fine, sometimes that happens. But let me go through some lessons of Epictetus for you to kick start your week with some Stoicism. I think it's very important and this is your operating system to live by.
Speaker 1:The first one he says is contentment is wealth and this is the quote he has. Wealth consists not in having great possessions but having fewer wants or fewer wants. When asked who is rich, Epitetus said, he who is content. And who is content today? You'll often see people who are financially rich wallowing in discontent, whilst some who seemingly have modest means are happier.
Speaker 1:Wealth is not just money, wealth is a mindset. And to evoke the words of epicurus, any man who does not think that what oh, sorry. Any man who does not think that what he has is more than ample is an unhappy man even if he is the master of the world. This is a big lesson. One of the biggest lessons you can do, you've got to be content with where you're at and you need to remove or at least reduce some of your major desires.
Speaker 1:I see a lot of people are like, well, I want to be super fit in three months. I want to be a 10% body fat or 15% body fat. I want be this, want to be this, I want be this. There's so many desires at one goal that you feel useless. You feel like you're not achieving anything.
Speaker 1:But if you're focused on what you do have now, is Marcus relisted this, he's like, don't think about what you want. Think about what you have right now and if they would be taken away from you with this instant. Think about it. If you had something now, they got taken away from you. It could be something like your ability to walk, your job, your partner, your best friends, your dog, you know, your whatever.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of things. In the the jiu jitsu class on Friday, that guy came who was disabled and in the change rooms and his wheelchair and I think he had MS. I'm not I'm not a 100% sure. Greeted him, think his name is Rocky. I was like, mate, fair play to you, man, for turning up here.
Speaker 1:Like, what what's your history? And he was like, I know I've done wheelchair rugby. I've done basketball rugby. Brilliant, brilliant. And you do jujitsu now, man.
Speaker 1:He's like, yeah, hope I can do something. And was like, yeah, look, jujitsu, you'll be on the floor a lot. So, you know, you might you might you might be able to do quite a few things. So luckily as well, the studio was able to accommodate him because he said no one else was able to do a lesson for him in jujitsu, you know, which is quite sad. Right?
Speaker 1:So he did his lesson, and afterwards I spoke to him, and I was like, mate, how did enjoy it? He's like, I learned this. I learned three things. Was very, very good. And I was like, yeah, tell me more, man.
Speaker 1:Tell me more. So are you coming back? What's your plans? He was like, yeah, I've just graduated. I'm an artist as well.
Speaker 1:I do art from community projects and I help out and stuff like that. And I want to do this, jujitsu, I want to do some other things. And I said this to him, you're an inspiring man because what you're doing with what a lot of people would consider they couldn't do anything, you're doing more things than some people do with an able body. You are pushing yourself, you are creative, you're doing stuff that's physically demanding of you, you're not letting it get in the way, you are searching for things. How many studios said they wouldn't be able to do a lesson with him before you found the studio that I go to do a lesson?
Speaker 1:He might have phoned six. Imagine all this happening now, he's a disabled guy and that's already disheartening for some, you know, obviously. You phone up and you go, can I do a lesson with you guys? And they go, no sorry, we don't accommodate for disabled people unfortunately, this is our facility and we don't have the experience. Okay fine, phone up again, phone up again, no, no, no, no, God, that must be, you know what I mean, quite sad.
Speaker 1:So we can take a big lesson from him for sure. He is making the most of what he's got and when you see people do that in real life, when you meet people that are making the most of what they got, wow, it makes you realise how fortunate you are to have more than what they have body wise. So please use your able-bodied today guys. If you're feeling decent, even if you're a bit achy, make sure you go for a walk. If it's a blue sky outside, it's a winter time, crispy or summertime if you're in Australia or wherever, you wanna use that.
Speaker 1:You wanna be able to use it because it might one day might not be there, and that's gonna make you appreciate. That's, like, where gratitude comes from. Right? That makes you appreciate it makes you appreciate where you are, basically. And I think, there's not much things more powerful than that.
Speaker 1:So hopefully, hopefully, that makes you have a bit of a bounce to your step today. You think, you know what? Yeah. Let's do it. Let's do it.
Speaker 1:I'm keen. Let's do it. Do it. Do it. And a few more things from Epictetus, and I'll let you get on and, you know, smash your day, really.
Speaker 1:So Epictetus says difficulties show a person's character. So when a challenge confronts you remember that God is matching you with a younger sparring partner as would a physical trainer. Why? Becoming an Olympian takes sweat. I think no one has a better challenge than yours.
Speaker 1:If only you would use it like an athlete would, that young sparring partner. And he says, God, you and they mean God is in nature, not God as in the Christian God. So the Stoics knew that everything that happens to you, good or bad, is an opportunity and this is a thing to look out for. It's an opportunity to practice kindness, patience, resilience and every obstacle and setback can help you improve and you can focus. The possibilities for improvement are pretty much endless if this is your mindset with everyday life and you can use it to your advantage.
Speaker 1:You end up stronger, you end up more patient, you end up more resilient and these wins are big. Someone tries to make you angry and maybe the past you would have smacked them in a game but you say no, no reacting to it. That's big resilience, patience. This is the thing, if having difficulty trying to get your calories right, your protein right, your steps right, your work up plan right. It's hard for you.
Speaker 1:You're feeling, why is that so hard? Brilliant. Okay. Next time is gonna be a bit easier. See things this way.
Speaker 1:See things this way. You have to see things this way really. This is the mindset you really need to adopt because I think a lot of people's mindset is if there's obstacles it's a bad thing. Actually it's not. So even if you had a social plan this week for example, say that you've got a social plan on Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, some people see it as a negative.
Speaker 1:I see that well great, brilliant, let's do it, let's crack on with it because now we can have obstacles that we can overcome and we can see what happens in real life scenarios. Yeah. Yeah. It's all easy to follow a eight week plan when you shut yourself away from the world and you've, you know, you've you've just cut off everything and then the real world comes back in and you've got these plans and you're like, I can't do it now. Well, you were pretty much doing stuff in silo, in a bubble.
Speaker 1:Let's do stuff in real life. Let's have an emotional let's have a tough morning. Let's have a tough afternoon. Let's see how we handle it. What character do you have today?
Speaker 1:Is your character I'm gonna give up when it gets hard? Or is my character Wow, I've had a stressful morning. But you know what I'm not gonna do? Make it worse by eating foods that make one, my stomach bloat and give me pain there, and two, you know, doesn't get me near my health and fitness goals, and three, doesn't enjoy me. But I'm not gonna do that.
Speaker 1:But before I would have just soothed my feelings. But I'm over soothing my feelings with food. It doesn't work. It works for two minutes and that's it. So I'm not soothing my feelings with food anymore.
Speaker 1:The character I want to be is when things get tough, I look around and go, let's break it down to one step at a time, and I'm not gonna just run away from this through food. Let's go. So that's an example. Anyway, get on with your day. A good thing to focus on is one big thing.
Speaker 1:What's one thing today you'd be happy about? Move the needle forward. Say no. What's one thing today? If I did this, I'll be chuffed.
Speaker 1:Think about that and that's it. That's all you need to focus on today. And again, you might be like Scott, you say all the time, yeah, that's the point. What's your one big thing today? Is it your protein and calorie target?
Speaker 1:Is it your water intake? Is it your workout? Is it your step count? Is it a work project? Is it a meet and you go?
Speaker 1:Or is it a presentation you gotta do? Is it a application you wanna do? Whatever it is, get that done, make it make it good, and then other things will fall into place. Have a good day, and I'll speak to you all tomorrow.