You Are What You Do

 Many people ask why they should exercise -- and if it really makes a difference to one's quality of existence.  Such people like to argue that they are happy as they are -- and it is the doctor's job to make them better -- and not that they should do anything themselves to ensure that result.  So of course, when they reach their senior years, they have no idea what they can do to make their lives (health) better -- because they've never done anything like it before, and often think nobody else should do anything either.  Instead, they believe that somebody else should ensure their well-being, while they themselves contribute nothing to that favorable outcome -- and in fact, feel entitled to do everything possible to undermine those efforts.

That of course, is the zero-sum game -- of merely opposing anybody else -- as what they think is the proper purpose of human relations and societal productivity.  That is the kind of conditioning they've had -- to believe that they have to be in constant competition with everybody else, and never for a moment thinking far more can be achieved and accomplished working everything together for a common purpose.  And even in describing the functioning human body, they believe the muscles were designed merely to oppose one another -- rather than that at all times, it naturally wants to complement each other for the most productive outcomes.

So they believe that the biceps is designed to oppose the triceps -- rather than to work in synchronicity to produce a desirable effect.  In no circumstances would it be advantageous or useful merely to cancel out one's own efforts -- so nothing could be achieved, much less get ahead.  Instead, one conditioned with that mindset, is likely to be the least productive member of society, and even counterproductive to it.  That's what criminals ultimately are.

In each individual human body, that is what disease and dysfunction is -- that which undermines the health and well-being of that organism, willfully and unknowingly.  That's why things go wrong -- first and foremost.  Of course there can be statistical anomalies -- but for the most part, what we are, is what we make ourselves to be -- whether that is an athlete, writer, researcher, thinker, gourmand, etc. is That is the statistical 95% -- and the exceptions are what only a rare few have to consider, and discover their unique path -- either as the geniuses and prodigies of that field, or on the other end of the spectrum, the hopelessly incompetent and inept.

It is usually safe to assume that one falls within the 95% -- rather than the 2.5% on either end of the human spectrum.  Generally, what works for most people, will probably work -- but obviously, most do not become the world champion at that activity, and even those who do, do not reign for long.  They have their time -- and then that passes.  And then they are faced with the next challenges and stages of life.  But those skills and habits are not lost in the next and every subsequent stage, but most of those lessons can be transferred to the new.

But if one has never bothered to master anything, the chances are not good that they will get better with time and age -- and so at every age, one learns that they have to do their best, and not just anything will do.  That is what will make a difference -- in anything, and everything one does.  That is why a few become good, and even extraordinary at what they do, while the mass majority have no idea what is going on -- except to do whatever they think everybody else is doing -- to meager and even nonproductive results.

But if they do the "right" thing, the results are invariably immediately manifested and unmistakable.  One just can't fake hitting a homerun.  Either one does, or one doesn't -- but merely wishing it were so, doesn't make it so.  So when people ask, "How long does it take before I can see any results," is an indication that one is not doing the right thing -- because it is self-validating.  It "feels" right -- and everything else just falls into their proper place.

In the quest to achieve lifelong optimal health, there shouldn't be this constant uphill struggle, but rather, a sense that there is nothing else that makes more sense to do -- in living the life one wants to live.  It shouldn't be a hard life -- but rather, an intelligent life, and how one manifests that.  Now I know most people grow up thinking that intelligence is the score they get on an inteically.ligence test -- and are never expected to manifest (actualize) it in any real-world activity or application -- but that is the only real meaning and merit of it. 

That is readily apparent to those with any proficiency in anything.  It doesn't have to be in that same field of expertise to be recognizable as such -- because the same scientific method applies to each.  It is the same processing of information and inputs that make it successful in every field of endeavor.  All one needs to do is master any one -- to know how that applies in every other.  Information processing is that same way no matter what the industry.  Machines do that unfailingly, but so do a few people -- systematically and methodically.  That can be applied even to those activities previously thought to be ruled only by brute force.

That has been the evolution of physical education from dumb muscle to neuromuscular functioning -- or the action of the brain fully manifested in the actuality.  That resulting action is the only way we know that the mind is still alive.  When there is no connection, it's hard to say what that quality of life is -- and that is the sadness of the dementias -- that the vital signs are still present, but nothing else is.  So the inquiring mind asks, how does one not get there?

That requires integrating the mind and muscle so tightly, that ii is inconceivable that one can be without the other.  There is no mind over matter -- because they are so inextricably linked.  In that way, the muscle keeps the mind alive -- and vice-versa.  One cannot conceive of the one without the other.  That is one way of doing it -- and presently, I know of no other.  Then when there is no link, what does it really matter? -- or how could one tell any difference?  In either case, one is simply gone.

In earlier times, such people would simply be allowed to wander off -- or stay behind so that the greater body could survive and go on.  That was the very real reason for keeping one's edge and being fit to go on.  The terrain and challenges are slightly different now -- as they always have been.  That is what evolution is all about -- being fit not only in one way, but all the ways -- to meet all the challenges, even that of the sedentary life made possible by automatons.

That being the case, individuals must devise their own strategies for optimizing their health -- not limited to running faster, jumping higher, lifting more weight -- but doing directly what is required for maintaining optimal health and functioning -- and not as a secondary and extraneous benefit.  And so we think it would be nice if those good things happen -- but not as a primary objective in itself -- as the highest attainment of our being.  That almost seems heretical to consider.  That would put all the health care professionals out of business.

No, they too would have to up their game to a higher level and advise the healthy rather than merely treat the sick.  We already see that evolution coming.  While it is noble to treat the sickest among us, attending to the greatest actualization of human potential serves the greater society better -- as the template for what is possible not just for the few, but most.  That's the 95% of humanity.  But first, one has to develop the prototype for those possibilities -- and manifest it.  That's not just the work of a few geniuses among us, but the essential work of every human being who lives.  That is what gives every life meaning and purpose -- to be the leader in that way.

That is the new model of civilization in the 21st century -- going where we have not gone before.