Perfecting One's Art (Movement)

The value of "exercise" is not burning (wasting) as many calories as possible -- but actually learning how to conserve energy -- which is the great principle of the universe, the Conservation of Energy.  That is what drives life, progress and evolution -- and not increasing randomness, which is anti-life.  What distinguishes life from death and deterioration -- is its increasing organization and order (orderliness), and that is why it evolves to higher orders of being.

This happens first in individual lives and existences -- the specific adding up to the general observation and rule -- and doesn't just happen, no matter what.  There is a reason why it (things) happens.

Realizing this, a simple practice, is simply to do anything and everything -- well (as though it matters) -- rather than not caring, and not realizing there is a difference.  That is to be a discerning and discriminating individual -- who can tell these differences, and not that it doesn't matter, and the properly educated person, is one who can't tell any difference of significance -- and that is to be adjudged "correct," even if it leads to the most egregious errors and catastrophes.

That is why a lot of these so-called experts belie their own knowledge -- achieving no results with what they practice -- because what they know, doesn't work, and no amount of explaining, can alter that fact.  They think it is enough that they know, and have been "certified" that they do -- which they believe it gives them the right to say anything they want -- under the sanction of that certifying agency -- which is surely not God, but a self-aggrandizing group or individual, who claims to have jurisdiction over such matters -- whether they deserve to or not, and expecting (demanding) mutual agreement (respect) from others claiming their own turf.

But reality is not that way.  It is always open to challenges from all-comers, from any point of view -- and not just those who have agreed to all think and talk the same way, and thus none among them, will ever contradict any other -- if they all agree to stick together unquestioningly.  And that is why "everybody" can be wrong -- if they all agree not to question their assumptions and premises -- but hold them as common tenets, among which is the hierarchy by which they accept these truths, and not that they should ever independently discover the truth of these matters for themselves.

So that means practice and experimentation -- in getting better, and not worse -- or thinking there can be any diffeence, because surely what matters, is how a person does anything -- and not simply in thinking that anything is just as good as anything else, or nothing, for that matter.  That is the important consideration absent in most people's exercise programs -- the reason being to improve their movement -- which is their art (form), and not that it doesn't matter what they do, because a calorie is a calorie is a calorie -- so it makes no difference.

That is what separates the healthy (intelligent) from the unhealthy -- the recognition of these significant differences -- that really make a difference, whether one calls themselves a "doctor," "teacher," "personal trainer," "researcher," "reporter," etc. -- that don't make a difference.

Practice is seldom doing 10 or 15 repetitions of anything and stopping -- thinking that is all that is necessary to do.  What is one doing?  And what is one practicing?  If one does not know, or has ever thought about it -- then how can one be mastering anything -- which is the reason for practice, repeating, and any doing.  One has to become good at what one is doing, and in fact, the best at what one is doing -- and not simply that 10 or 15 repetitions is all one needs to know -- and that is their problem.

That is why they're in the condition they're in.

Aging in Hawaii (and Elsewhere too)

Anybody growing up in Hawaii knows that they already start hearing people rationalizing their bad (health) habits at 20 to "old age."

The effects of bad health habits begin to accumulate throughout their lives but can always be reversed (and eliminated) with good health practices -- at any time.  But one has to change their thinking first -- or they are just reinforcing the status quo, which is the very problem of culture in Hawaii -- to reinforce the "old ways" even if better ways are being discovered as the very reason for life and existence.

That is what "evolution" and "progress" is all about -- the better ways survive, and the many things that don't work, don't survive -- with good reason.  That has disastrous effects if one is conditioned to believed that they can't change or should never change -- because that is the way they are, and who they are -- because their whole conditioning and orientation in life, is merely to protect the status quo.

One has to be "discriminating" or discerning those differences that really matter and make a difference, instead of promoting that all discrimination is wrong, and should never be practiced.  Discrimination is not prejudice, but the very antidote to prejudice -- because it means to look into the facts, and not just continuing with what one believes -- no matter what the facts are.  And that is what it means to be prejudiced -- to have one's mind already made up and set for life -- despite what their senses are telling them -- that what they are doing, is killing themselves.

But that is the fate they accept, and the lives they live -- because that is the best they can hope for, since it is already "Paradise" -- no matter what they do.  But "doing," makes all the difference in their lives, and is the meaning of it, and the obvious result of that living.  It's a simple thing -- that people want to complicate and make very hard, instead of realizing, that is the easiest way to live -- without the health problems, including aging -- which is a sign that whatever one is doing, is not working, but another way might.  And that's what they have to find -- sometime in their lives before it is over -- a way that works, and nothing else is more important for them to do -- especially in "retirement," or getting older.

The quantum leap in thinking, is that it doesn't have to be what most people have been conditioned to think it has to be -- which doesn't work as they get older, because their primary purpose was to eliminate the competition, rather than optimize human functioning -- which is an entirely different matter altogether.  Previously in history, most people didn't live to old age -- being eliminated by wars, diseases, famine, catastrophes -- but now when most people do, what is the strategy for optimizing a lengthy life, has to be created anew -- and not just accepting the old paradigm of dying each day once one has survived the perilous childhood years.

The Best Predictor of Future Success

It mostly depends on whether one can avoid catastrophic events in their lives or not.

If they have a major health crisis -- which is the most likely disaster people can do something about but don't,  that will drain all one's life savings -- and they won't have the capacity to enjoy any of it.

If they have bad relationships -- including bad financial managers, there goes the whole ball game.

If they drive recklessly, and feel they have to go through their whole bucket list before they die, that could cost them their lives -- or quality of life.

The best predictor of future success, has always been present success: if one is doing the best they can with what they have, they will continue to do so -- probably all their lives.  

If they have no idea what they are doing, but rely on others (experts) to do all their thinking for them, they will be hopelessly lost at the critical times they really need to be right.  So rather than planning for that success sometime in the future, thoughtful people need to be making the best of each day -- as the model for any future success, and not think that it will miraculously materialize when they have a certain amount of money, that big house or fancy car, the latest cosmetic surgery -- or latest "formula for success."

What you do presently, will be what you have -- as well as are, and that is a life worth living -- and not just saving for some future delusion of a fantasy existence.