Skip to main content

Goal Oriented! Yes, Men Need To Be Tools To Feel Useful

Most men need to be healthy and be productive in order to be happy. I know it's an insult in some ways, but we're tools. 😁


I mean it as a compliment though! We need to give ourselves goals so that we, as tools, can be used to work towards that goal.

 

We're only useful when we are being used. Not that kind of used! But used in a productive way in which we are proud of our results.


A lot of men have lost that usefulness in 2020 as their goals were either destroyed by government lockdowns or forcibly modified as a result of this "new normal." As with the former, we are goal oriented creatures, and we lose that motivation when the goal is removed. A tool that just sits there isn't making itself useful. As with the latter, sometimes the new goals don't reflect what we are used to doing, and we feel at best awkward when trying for these modified goals. Using a knife to loosen a screw doesn't work very well, doesn't it; a knife is used in cutting things.

During this period, a lot of men have either given up to despair or have committed suicide, feeling their lack of usefulness in society. This is where some intervention is necessary.

I lost two longtime friends to suicide last year; one was such a shock because he ran a very successful personal training business. Being forced to close down his studio must have been such a blow to him that he might have felt there was nothing else to do. He did pour his time and effort into that business to the point where it defined him. Take away his business and I guess his soul was taken from him.

Although I don't have a studio, I am associated with a couple of gyms. Most of the time, my appointments were personal, either making house calls or having a session in a park or a beach. With this Covid Panic last year, "personal" was thrown out the window. So I'm converting the business to a virtual format.
 
 

One of my normal beach sessions turned virtual; seems like a nice setting to use.


It's been awkward at times, like that knife being asked to loosen screws. But I'm slowly coming around to adopting the 21st century tech to go virtual.

And as a result of the loss I felt from my friends' suicides, I want to reach out to others who might feel lost with this new paradigm. We're not alone, and that if you need any advice, don't hesitate to contact me or other people in your life. Sometimes it takes a simple evaluation of all of your talents to figure out what might work for you from here forward.

The sooner you can re-evaluate yourself and establish new goals and start moving forward on them, the less you'll feel useless, get yourself into despair, and minimize your chance of getting suicidal tendencies.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

RACE: WATCHUNG WINTER ULTRA

M Tu W Th F Sa Su Total Swim Off 2000m Off Off 2000m Off - 4000m Bike 15mi. Off 15mi 10mi 10mi Off Off 50mi Run 4mi. Off 5mi 4mi Off 21mi - 34mi RACE: WATCHUNG WINTER ULTRA Result: Did not finish (finished 2 of 3 laps for 21 miles) Conditions: Hazardous ice rutted trails covered with newer snow. Weather: Cloudy sunless day with temps ranging from 18 to 26 degrees. Little wind. Time: 5 hours 15 minutes. Pace was 15 min/mile. I had to make the decision to stop after 2 laps and is never easy to do so. These were easily the toughest conditions I've ever been on, although I have a feeling that this is the norm in the ultra world and that these conditions are tame considering where other ultras are held. That's OK though. Training in tough conditions will help me toughen up, right? Who knows, maybe I'll be out there one year at the Arrowhead 135 in northern Minnesota with temps as cold as 10 degrees below zero because of this race, right? Still, the positives I can take from thi...
2 comments
Read more

The Double Edged Sword of The Internet and Social Media - How To Be Productive There and Stop Wasting Time

Note: Men, one of the best things you need to do in becoming strong is to be productive. Time management is HUGE in this regard. If you get a handle on this issue below, you will be well on your way to taking your time back and being efficient again! How many people do you know spend most of their times in front of a screen? Phones, desktops, laptops, you name it, a lot of people live and die with what happens in front of a screen.   I believe that there is such thing as internet addiction. With so much information at your fingertips, it has a "sensory overload effect", numbing and scattering your thoughts to the winds. This will render you largely unproductive.   And it's having a very negative effect on society. All of our genuine bonds between family and friends have been frayed or even destroyed by our "new connections" to the internet. The internet was supposed to be the game changer that was supposed to bring all of us together, make us a lot more producti...
Post a Comment
Read more

Original Framework for 2011 Season

The 2011 season will have see 2 -3  100 mile ultramarathons. The one in May is the Massanutten 100, and hope to be in good base shape when I toe the line. I am not sure if I'm doing Vermont again, but I placed it into the framework just in case. My decision will depend on how the training works out.  The big "A" race has got to be the Leadville 100, The Race Across The Sky. This race absolutely scares the wits out of me because of the high altitude (10,000 ft+ in most places). I have got to be in pristine shape if I am to ever finish this race. Throw in a Double Ironman in October and a few other ultras and here is the overall framework for the season: (it's a bit hard to see from here, but click on the picture to see it more clearly) I have two sets of 4-week Base mesocycles in the beginning to adapt and set a good base, after which I start to build on that base for three mesocycles. This should put me on pretty good shape to tackle Massanutten. The longer Overdistan...
Post a Comment
Read more