It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I’m interested in health and fitness. I mean, really? Of course I am. It was my first and main career. It has been my avocation even longer than it was my vocation. So I think about it but I also read, listen, and seek out other advice on the topic.

I found this quote, from a promotional piece of stuff, but still. I love the quote. I’m not quite certain who wrote it. But here it is.

Do one hard thing every day to prove you’re still alive.

We are over stressed because we are under challenged. The email isn’t a saber tooth tiger. The phone call isn’t a lion. The small daily irritations are not a pack of jackals. Our system evolved for a different environment than the one we have presently created.

A million or two years ago, as humanoids first started roaming around, the dangers were quite different. The flight or fight instinct was rarely triggered, but when it was, you better know if you were alone and prey or with your group and predator. Either way, the adrenaline flooding your system would help you survive the encounter. Damn, it wasn’t a lion, it was something innocuous. Or it was a lion, but your group vanquished the threat. Either way, you were safe. The adrenaline and cortisol could dissipate and you returned to homeostasis.

Today, the little pings just keep coming. There are minor issues that in our stressed lives feel like nearly insurmountable problems but are really notifications, emails, phone calls, traffic. We don’t face lions and tigers and bears, oh my. We are being pecked to death by ducks and suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and stop on the way home and go through the drive-through at Starbucks for a coffee. This is not the same as hoping to find food and water to live another day while competing with predators that looked at you as the menu.

I’ve made dinner thousands of time. I know how. I know the shortcuts. I know what works.
I’ve been driving for decades. I know how. I know what works.
I’ve been living my life for what I believe might be eons now and I have my routines, my patterns, my usual go-to things. I do this and that even though there a millions of other thises and thats I could be doing because my routine is what I always do.

The videos I’ve been making are totally outside my comfort zone. I’ve joined Toastmasters and that is completely out there for me. I joined a Senior Center and meet with other crocheters or knitters once a week. I’ve been making strides into the unknown.

Is it stressful? Oh my, yes! Is it fun? Sometimes. Those first couple videos were terrorizing which is stupid. I was not being attacked by anything other than my own insecurities. The last one was only slightly scary. They scare me, but I’m doing them anyway.

I am going to be participating in a leadership role for Toastmasters this week. I’m as prepared as I can be and nervous as hell anyway. But I’m on paper as doing this, so I will strive forth with prepared paper in hand as a sword with which I will slay the dragon – the fear.

Pick something new to do or try each day. It doesn’t have to be monumental. Read the hard book even if it takes a long time. Learn a new craft/skill and be bad at something entirely new. Go to a different grocery store where you don’t know where anything is and try to complete a shopping list without crying.

Shake up your routined, regulated, normal world. Search for something on the internet you aren’t familiar with. Find out about it and then see how you can learn from the experience.

Something I thought I might do before I picked up three new challenges for the price of one, was read the featured article from Wikipedia each day. I still may try it when what I’m doing now becomes more routine. Google has an “I’m feeling lucky” option that isn’t just luck. There are many different things you can feel. Try it. You might like it.

New is hard. Routine is lethal. Choose carefully.
Stay balanced.