Time For Energy!
Creating a new three-year plan that takes our recent experiences and short/long term goals into account is a tricky thing. Tananarive and I have overlapping but slightly different goal priorities, so I have to be ready to support her in things I'm not inclined to, and she will have to do the same for me. So we'll start with the ENERGY necessary to face whatever challenges we have ahead. Rumsfeld's "unknown unknowns" lurk around the corner. Then there are the known unknowns, and the known knowns. The unknown knowns could be considered the aspects of the work we have already integrated at the level of unconscious competence. We've got it.
Unknown unknowns are the most dangerous, because I can dwell on those, and they create fear. But fear is just your body-mind preparing you for response. A "Fountain of Energy for Active Response" as it were.
And if there is no data, or insufficient data, you get your energy WAY up, then tune it WAY down to produce a high level of awareness, sensitivity, and courage. "Fatigue makes cowards of us all" and conversely, when you are high-energy you have great resistance to the negative aspects of fear.
The things we have to do to max out our energy will be in four basic categories:
Exercise. Yoga to reduce emotional or physical resistance, and align the skeletal structure. Strength training to solidify physical integration and minimize non-contractile tissue. Also mental focus. Aerobic/anaerobic work to train the physical energy systems.
Diet to optimize nutrition. Eating for energy and health rather than emotional comfort. Control of weight--every excess non-optimal pound costs you to carry around. Think of fat as bags of peanut butter you are hauling around. Your hind brain may well think that there's a famine coming. Just trying to keep you alive. You literally have to act counter to instinct to lose weight in an advanced society.
Rest. Planning for 8.5 hours of sleep a night. Start waking up at 7 hours, but its really decadent and luxurious to lounge a while..
Focus. Goal setting and modeling. Knowing WHY you want the energy, connecting every goal to all of my values. The biggest reason people lack motivation is that they don't really have a lot of reasons to do it. They have more reasons NOT to do it. Literally anything in your life you "kinda know you should do" but you aren't doing is a matter of attaching more PAIN than PLEASURE to doing it. More PLEASURE than PAIN to NOT doing it.
Those are the basic ways to raise energy, which is that pool of reserve power that helps you believe that no matter what happens, you can handle it. In fact, if there was just ONE goal you could have that would change everything in your life, for most people it would be "double my energy."
Inquiring into what that means, why you want it, how to do it, and who would be the experts and role models you would consult is life-transforming. Because you HAVE to connect body and mind to do it, it is a fine starting point for ANY goal, whether you currently know how to accomplish it or not.
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So…after the Writer's Room, we can see FAR more clearly how television gets made. The flow of the process. There is much to learn, and Tananarive looks at it and says "let me in, coach!"
Left to my own devices, I don't think I'd walk down that corridor as far as she wants to. But she's my baby, and I've got her back. If she wants to do this, if this is in alignment with her little girl AND her crone…then I guess I'd better put on my big boy pants and prepare to ride into battle.
She is definitely a carnival ride. Damn, I love this woman.
Steve
