Doing the Right Thing(s)

Many people have been advised by those who have no idea what they are talking about -- that doing anything is the same as doing the right thing(s) -- to achieve successful outcomes, because they have been sold the belief that the only thing that matters is how much energy (calories) are expended (consumed), and beyond that, there is no difference.  Thus they come to the conclusion that going as fast as they can while driving a car is the only way to go, and lifting the heaviest weight is always what is required -- including building a house, garden, meal, body, anything worthwhile.

So the productive person realizes it is not enough simply to expend random energy and effort, but to achieve the greatest economy and efficiency in what they are doing -- or hope to do -- and that's what makes the difference.  However, that is not what is usually taught by those who should know better -- who fail to make those distinctions.  And so they are exasperated that they never achieve the results they hope for but then get lost in the efforts as the end in itself, and thus they come up with measurements that are purely arbitrary -- as though they meant something.

Then they will come up with pronouncements like everybody must do a minimum of 10,000 steps a day -- or hang from a chinning bar for 5 minutes -- or they won't see 100 -- to say nothing of the agony and injury they might endure in trying to achieve those "objectives."  They'll even  insist that if one can't even hang from a bar for even a second, one should keep trying until they can -- instead of merely and intelligently advising to do something they can do -- presently.   It is much more productive to do something one can do,  then to "try" to do something one can't do -- because it is entirely possible that even the strongest man in the world will not be able to stand on their toes -- without breaking all of them (as well as their neck) -- and suffer a crippling injury that will disable them for the rest of their lives.

Yet people are ill-advised to do such maneuvers under the blanket generalizations that "everybody can," -- and that the only ones that can't, have no chance for survival -- or fitness  by those standards, and so now the only commandment, is to be able to get off the floor without using one's hands -- because not using one's hands is the new commandment -- and only those who can kip up, are indicative of a long and healthy life.

And those who can't?  They should keep trying because everybody can -- if one person has proven it possible, as though everybody is on the same trajectory of possibilities and improvement.  That is not to say that some things are possible for virtually everybody, while others are just possible for a few -- and one should "discriminate" those differences that matter -- from that which doesn't.

Things happen for a reason -- and merely demanding that they don't doesn't alter the reality, but intelligent design and thought should align with those realities -- to be useful, and productive.  Simply doing whatever one wants to, is not going to get them the same results as that which invariably produces better outcomes -- which for every individual, is a healthier, better functioning existence.  That is what we are all here for --whether we realize it or not.  That is what drives all of life.

That which doesn't think so -- or behaves that way, is not around for long.  That is the primary drive in life and not whether one looks good doing so. It is the health that is primary -- and not the illusion of it.  One takes care of the other -- but not vice-versa.  That is the difference between causation and correlation -- and why one should not mistake one for the other.  Correlation doesn't care which came first -- or caused the other, and it is knowing that difference, and being able to tell that difference, is why some are successful while others just go through the motions wondering why they never achieve those successes.  It is not just a matter of doing it long enough that it must work -- but learning the significant difference that makes all the difference.

Those are the "right" things -- which is very different from any amount of the wrong things that do not matter.  That difficulty in understanding is the et the same results they got a barrier keeping most from achieving their own health -- in favoring of demanding everyone but themselves to produce it for them.  That's not how evolution works.  Individuals get better because they achieve it for themselves -- and not that the think-tanks in far away places have figured out the winning formula -- and winning lottery ticket, so that the rest of us know how to "game" the system. with life "hacks."

The hardest thing to see are the obvious -- but that plays out every day in every gym across the world.  The people in worst shape choose the worst exercises in the worst way.  It is no secret why it is not working.  They have come to the gym to do more resting -- and cell phoning -- like they do everything else in their lives -- with never any full attention to anything they do.  That is particularly true the older they get -- and that is why they don't even get the same results they got as a younger person.   They're not even doing that anymore -- because the weights are too heavy to allow them full-range movement.  But rather than lower the weights (resistance) to allow them full amplitude of movement, they keep the weights that now make those movements prohibitive -- and it is the full-range movement that makes them fit, rather than any amount of weight that restricts that articulation.  

And so it goes until they lose even further range of movement -- until finally they virtually immobilized -- not because they cannot move, but because they have forgotten how to move -- since they no longer express it, or know how anymore.  That's how they lose their movements -- but is an easy thing to maintain and improve -- as long as they do sufficient repetitions of it -- which is not five or ten before resting for ten minutes.    That is what got them into their present condition.

The human body is designed to optimize movement at the head, hands and feet -- and if those movements are maintained and practiced, the prognosis for the health of the rest of the body is excellent -- but not vice-versa.  You don't want to be the person whose heart is still beating for 25 years long after the head, hands and feet have stopped moving and responding.  Yet that is the pattern for all those people living in those places where the prognosis for recovery of those faculties are nonexistent -- who are prescribed movements and exercises for improving every other part of their body but those specifically.  It would indeed be miraculous if they worked.