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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.
Hello, hello, hello. Good morning. So yesterday, I was gonna share this because it's quite funny actually. I was like, I wanted to go to gym, but I'm not going to gym now because I'm tired. I was on my desk, you know, in the kitchen just working for me.
Speaker 1:Was like, I'll play him this clip. I know I'll get him going. And, I'll explain it in bit because it might not it'll be the same for Guzz and Buzz, but I played this, and then he ran out like a rhino to the gym. Hold on. Let me get that volume up.
Speaker 1:That is Apollo Creed telling Rocky, there is no tomorrow when he wanted to give up and not train that day. And, whether Rocky hits you or not or whatever, the message is brilliant. It is that there is only now to act. I mean, you can delay if you want, but it's in tomorrow again, today again tomorrow. So your decision, there is no there actually is no tomorrow.
Speaker 1:It's a concept that, like, eastern philosophies have come to a realization long time ago, Alan Watts, a lot of people it's like it's the ever ending now. It's only now again tomorrow but it's now again. So we're talking about action, we're talking about action. We're to be the same person tomorrow. We're going to be in the same position.
Speaker 1:I'll do it again tomorrow. I'll do it again tomorrow. I'll do it again tomorrow. Keep pushing and pushing. There is no tomorrow.
Speaker 1:You're only acting in the now. And I think when you think about your fitness journey and you're thinking about today, you might have a rest day and that's fine. I don't do my steps. There is no tomorrow to do steps, you do them now. You're doing it now for your health.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I should do this. There is no tomorrow, it is now only. Are you going to act today and be the person you want to be in line with the character you want to be or not? That is a decision you are to make. Right?
Speaker 1:And it all ties back into stoicism. Know, the stoics had four cardinal virtues. They had justice, doing the right thing, wisdom, courage and temperance, moderation, you know, those are the four things I live by. It's like am I living by these today right now? And I often find myself, my brain is very weird like in a sense that I'm walking, I'm going on my walks or whatever, I'm going back from the gym and I'm listening to music or listening to whatever and I start thinking about like, you know, things that are going wrong or losing somebody, you know, those things that make you feel a bit of self pity in a sense.
Speaker 1:And I can it is near impossible for me to feel self pity beyond a few minutes. My mind has seen the truth of self pity. It is and it just clears the deck every single time it happens. So get a bit of self pity, listen, I go, what is this gonna do for me? Is self pity gonna make things better for me?
Speaker 1:Is self pity care? Is self pity what what really is it? Wallow in in stuff that's happened? Or can I look at it in a different perspective? And it always comes back.
Speaker 1:There's a different perspective to this. There's always a different look to this. It never dwell. I cannot dwell on it. I cannot feel pity for myself.
Speaker 1:No matter what shit is thrown at me, it is not possible for me to feel pity for myself beyond a certain few minutes. And that is stoicism baked in. It's kinda like, please the deck, please the deck, please the deck. And if you think about it, you might be feeling a bit of self pity. It's fine to feel it time to time.
Speaker 1:You think, fuck, things are getting tough here. Jesus Christ, life is throwing me some real fucking, as the Americans say, some real curveballs at us. And it's important to understand that. Like, yeah, going through a bit of a tough time, going through challenging times, going through things that, you know, it's not great right now. And you think, I pity for myself.
Speaker 1:I think, what's that going to do? Feel pity. Why why can't I hit my macros? Why am I always eating in the nights? Why am I doing this?
Speaker 1:When you turn the self pity off and you turn curiosity on and you turn some intent on. You're like, well why am I always eating in the nights? I feel petty for myself but I get it. I'm feeling sad. I'm eating because I'm feeling sad.
Speaker 1:All right. Do I have to eat when I'm feeling sad? Do I? Is that built in biologically? Well, maybe it is a strong force, but is that force always gonna beat me?
Speaker 1:No. Okay. Let's start there. I don't have to eat when I'm feeling sad. I don't have to skip the gym every time I wanna go.
Speaker 1:I don't have to knock on my daily walks because it's raining. You know, I'm a bit injured now. I'm I'm feeling sad about myself. My macro's not great. Everyone else is doing so much better than me.
Speaker 1:That'll get you nowhere. Honestly, it'll get you nowhere. And I'm not saying never indulgen us because it's natural to do it. But action is the way out. It always has been the way out and the action it can be a mental action.
Speaker 1:It can be alright, yeah, no one's coming to save me. I mean, I can chew someone's year off three hours about how tough my life is, but guess what? Everyone else has got problems in their life as well. And this doesn't mean do not communicate your problem. That's not what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:There's ways to communicate your problems. There's ways to bring them up. There's ways to be pragmatic about them and look at solutions and look how things can go forward. But bringing up your own issues as a way of self pity is gonna get nobody anywhere at all. That's the truth of it.
Speaker 1:And that truth is baked into my brain. I can't get rid of it. Can't do it. It can't go down that path. I thought I'd share it because I think it's quite interesting.
Speaker 1:That is stoicism. It is reading stoicism. It is reading Epictetus' lectures over and over. It's reading the words of Marcus Aurelius. It's reading the words of Seneca.
Speaker 1:It's reading the works of Donald Robertson, the modern writers, reading the words of psychotherapists. It's reading the works of philosophers over the years, the eastern philosophies, and you start piecing together these thousands of years of wisdom and you go, well, what are we really saying here? What are we saying two thousand four, two thousand three, two thousand years ago? Life is suffering. That's what they were saying.
Speaker 1:That's what the Buddha said. Life is suffering. We will suffer through this life. We will go through shit. But there's we we can't feel pity in ourselves because we're all going through shit of different degrees.
Speaker 1:But that degree, your highest degree is your highest degree. Same as me. I can't compare myself to people in other countries because I'm not in that country. This is my life. This is the plate I've been given, is that the word?
Speaker 1:This is the wait. Is this the the hand I've been dealt? Does the word does it the plate been given make sense? I don't know if it does. I think I made it up.
Speaker 1:So I just wanna give you some oomph today. There is no tomorrow. If you're feeling a bit of self pity, the antidote of self pity is action in the immediate moment. It is to give yourself some oomph, give yourself some energy. And it's amazing what it can do.
Speaker 1:You're one on the crouch with a couch potato. You came up, oh, I'm not going to train today. I'm feeling tired or potentially feeling pity, oh I'm so tired, oh why am I so tired, I see that why am I so tired, I said alright let me play this. Yeah, Rockey was like oh and then he's there is no tomorrow and then next thing you know he is pumped up. He is out that door and he had a session.
Speaker 1:He never grabbed a good gym session. Where did that energy come from? Think about it. Where did that was a slug on the couch. Where's that energy come from?
Speaker 1:Well, you're saying those words generated energy or was it the perception of the scenario that generated energy? Clearly, it's the perception. It's our own perception of the situation that generated the energy. So his perception of it now was, so what? I'm a bit tired.
Speaker 1:Like, it must be raining outside. I'm gonna go to gym. I can get to go to the gym right now. I'm gonna smash it. There is no tomorrow to do.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna go now. I'm gonna hit a good session. Let's go. Let's go now. Off he went.
Speaker 1:That perception generated energy that was already inside him, but it was blocked by another perception of so tired. So tired right now. And I'm not trying to like belittle tiredness stuff, like we've done sleep week, we know how important it is, if you're genuinely tired you need to sleep. There's moments where we just want to cuddle on the couch. It's raining outside.
Speaker 1:We don't want to go outside. We don't do anything because, well, it's not perfect. It's not perfect timing. So why should I do it? Why should I do it now?
Speaker 1:And let's go basically salt your eggs out let's go and have a good day hey shit's coming your way it is I'm not gonna be a fake optim what's the word? I am an optimist. You might not believe so through these, podcasts and stuff and stuff like that, but I'm an optimist. You know, I think, it's important, we believe we can do something. Whether that's in the illusion of free will or not, we can listen to the discussion with Robert Zubalsky, but, you know, you gotta believe that you can change things and it's it's it's in you to do it.
Speaker 1:You have to believe that. Otherwise, you are pulling yourself out to like, hopefully someone comes to save me. Hopefully, this will happen. Hopefully, my circumstances will change. Nothing will change unless you change, as Jim Rohn says.
Speaker 1:Very simple, but powerful. So we're on week four. Doesn't matter if changes happen yet, if you're behind, whatever. I want you really to take that Rocky and that Apollo Creed, Helen. There is no tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Imagine year one being a slug, one pops to life, goes to the gym. Now you don't have to go to the gym, but whatever it is in your day to day, be that transformation of perspective and see what happens. And guess what? This one day at a time mantra, it's not just some nonsense or one day sounds cool, it is like the way to go. Once you grasp, I'm gonna live one day at a time, there is no tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Today is the day. I might not be here tomorrow, but today is the day. What can I do today with my energy, my body and me? Hey, I'm here. Hey, I'm here.
Speaker 1:I've turned up. What should we do today? Let's go. Let's go. Are you going to the gym?
Speaker 1:Let's go. You're going to work? Alright. Let's go. You're going for food with your friends?
Speaker 1:Okay. Let's go. Let's have a good chat. Let's have a good time. Alright.
Speaker 1:Gotta look after the kids. Let's go. What are we going to do today? What are we playing? All right.
Speaker 1:What mess are going to make? All right. Brilliant. What are you going to what obstacles are you going to put on my day today? Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1:Having this mindset is not something as permanent in a sense like this get go every day, but sometimes it can get a sort of a little funk. I'm just saying it's a way to look at things sometimes when you're feeling a bit down, as opposed to going on social media's route, which is self pity central. Oh, God, everything sucks. What are we gonna let's feel better about it. There's even I think I saw a video of some psychotherapist talking about how TikTok has normalized people feeling really really sad about themselves and because there's so many people doing post about how sad and sad they are about their life and all that, is comforting people and they're stuck in this comforting cycle now where they're not happy about themselves, they're feeling like shit, but then because so many other people are saying videos about it, their comfort's on a bit, but it's not giving them any oomph to get out of the the scenario they're in.
Speaker 1:It's not giving them any actions. And he's saying that it's quite a thing. It's quite a problem of this comfort comfort petty thing. There's no comfort in the long term. So have a good day.
Speaker 1:There is no tomorrow. Well, there is. I'll be back tomorrow with a one one day at time podcast hopefully. The act now. See you all soon.