It was the Best of Times, it was the Worst of Times
No offense, Chuck.
No offense, Chuck.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. No offense, Chuck. I know they weren’t really that dramatic, but it seems my mid-twenties did have their good and bad points.
On the whole, I was greatly blessed.
But, there were times I was not so blessed. When I would try to work at becoming more physically fit, or even maintaining my fitness level.
We lived in a neighborhood of modest houses which all sat on modest lots, lined up in modest rows of modest blocks. The only differences were a few hills interspersed that were less than modest.
In my mid-twenties.
In my mid-twenties, I tried jogging occasionally. When trying to achieve a bit of braking action going down some of the hills would invariably cause my size twelve converse all-stars to slap the pavement loudly, bringing me more attention than I would have preferred.
Once, at the bottom of one of those hills, as I had to start to labor back up, I had a 9 yr old on a bike shout at me to “get out of the way, grandpa!” This did not help my self-image at all, of course.
Later that year, still hoping to build up my muscles some, I stopped to talk to the people who owned a fitness gym. I told the owner I was looking to build a few muscles and increase the old stamina.
At the gym.
He sat me down in his office and said that, at our age, we probably wouldn’t build muscles so much as simply maintain what we already had. I was depressed for three or four days, but decided to prove him wrong, joined, and was given a bright yellow t-shirt with the gym name on it, surrounded by a drawing of a couple of huge biceps.
I worked out a lot at that gym, but never grew enough muscles to make me feel comfortable enough to wear my t-shirt in public cutting grass.
This article is actually about muscles.
Writing involves a muscle.
You can’t come late to the game and bench press your body weight. You have to do it steadily.
Hold what you’ve got!
If you start late you may not become ripped, but you can polish up the writing muscles you have right now.
When I was in high school and even earlier, I made to-do lists and schedules, and goals. I loved to make them. They made me feel good. I just didn’t like adhering. I didn’t like following through.
Times that I did successfully start and continue a schedule and a to-do list, I wouldn’t last much over a couple of weeks.
Long way to say “do as I say, not as I do.”
I still need to listen more to my own advice. The important thing is consistency. I have a huge amount of work to do each week — my fault and my blessing. The most important thing is that I must do a chunk every day. No sliding- a chunk every day.
Starting tomorrow!
(This story was first on my writing blog on Oct 4, 2020.)