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Do The Difficult Things And Life Becomes Easy
As a former athlete I used to ‘train heavy and race light’ meaning that my winter training bike was heavy and I would carry water bottles, tools and all sorts of everything else to get used to working hard on a slow bike, up hill. When it came to race season I would use a light fast bike, loose the weight and feel the benefits. Doing the hard thing is hard, like studying, working, investing in a relationship but the rewards are good. The same is true of home cooked meals as opposed to take-aways, or healthy drinks to replace alcohol, or exercise instead of gaming.
This doesn’t mean you need to abstain from everything and become a monk (but read below) but certainly a life without balance will impact your mind, body and spirit because as Aristotle said ‘You are what you repeatedly do’ (The Power of Habit) and ‘You are what you eat’ (Your Body is Chemistry / Biology) so inevitably what you ingest and what you do shape you.
The Stoics might suggest that to ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ is the best way to manage turbulence in life and Britains’ most popular poem suggests “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; “, which seems to hark back to a bygone era of heroes and manhood [Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), written circa 1895 as a tribute to Leander Starr Jameson. It is a literary example of Victorian-era stoicism]
DO THE EASY THING AND LIFE BECOMES HARD
Move forward 125 years and our view of the bygone era is very different. Issues of race, gender, the state, nationalism, and colonialism have changed. We are more educated, better informed, and arguably have enjoyed more peace, wealth and liberty in the last 75 years than any time in history. When you consider the wars raging at the current time that puts some perspective to the world of 100 years ago!
The world is easier than when Thomas Hobbes described it as ‘Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’ and our heroes and manhood appears no longer required or valued. Men have become gentlemen and metro-men, despite the protestations of Nietzsche for “Overman,” “Uberman”, or “Superhuman” for the the grounded human ideal.
Metrosexual is a portmanteau of metropolitan and heterosexual, coined in 1994 describing a man (especially one living in an urban, post-industrial, capitalist culture) who is especially meticulous about his grooming and appearance, typically spending a significant amount of time and money on shopping as part of this.
In our urban, post-industrial, capitalist culture fast food, on-line gaming, white collar jobs, on-line porn, social media, quick-divorce and social services, and other changes in home, work, life, and family have changed what it is to be human. It is ostensibly faster, easier, better, cheaper. But is it more fulfilling? Does it still have the same purpose if there is no challenge to procreate, protect, and provide?
IS A MODERN DEXOT THE SOLUTION?
The is an argument (Resources below) that giving-up on the quick-hits – a dopamine detox – (for example sugar, weed, alcohol, pornography) has long term benefits.
The NoFap community argue every bit of dopamine that you don’t receive, from sugar, or any other sudden dopamine inducing activity, is going to create a greater need for your body to achieve. Thus, your body will work towards achieving those assets that you don’t have, by giving you more confidence, energy, focus, motivation, and a lot else, all of which are better for real-life relationship and connected-ness
I would be interested in people’s experiences giving up any or all of sugar, weed, alcohol, either in the comments or privately and directly by getting on contact. I also welcome suggested books, blogs and videos.
References
Thomas Hobbes ‘Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’
https://yalebooksblog.co.uk/2013/04/05/thomas-hobbes-solitary-poor-nasty-brutish-and-short/
If by Rudyard Kipling
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if—
