This is something that I think we can all relate to especially if you are involved in the Health and Fitness industry, high level sport or any realm of progressive human endeavour. As you build yourself as an athlete, person or bodybuilder it can be easy to admire your own achievements, to get caught up in the biggest and smallest cult of them all, the cult of one's self.
Sure it's good to take stock every now and again to appreciate the journey you have been on and the progress you have made on the way. To look at old photos of the old skinny / fat / stupid / nieve / poor / ignorant version of yourself and to think about just how much better you are now then you used to be. The glow of self accomplishment is a pleasant one but it can be a dangerous folly.
Over confidence and blindness to new ideas.
It can be easy to look inwardly on ones self and reflect on how intelligent you are and how much better you are then your peers. How great your ideas are and how amazing the methods you used to get you where you currently are, are... (awful alliteration).
Sure the metolds and ideas you used in the past are great and all but they are just ideas there is an entire intellectual galaxy out there, to blind yourself to choice by believing in your own accomplishment is a terrible waste.
"The fool speaks as the wise man listens"
If you remain humble, take in new information, pay special attention to ideas that jar you and go against the grain of the things you currently believe in you will be much better for it.
If you remain humble, take in new information, pay special attention to ideas that jar you and go against the grain of the things you currently believe in you will be much better for it.
Self satisfaction and the disregard for others.
I have mentioned this saying before but I find it to be fascinatingly prescient "you are a combination of the people you meet and the books you read.".
If you become so absorbed inside the cult of one that you disregard the opinions of others off hand or simply don't have time to engage with others in a meaningful way because you are too busy admiring your own achievements and ideas you will miss out on one of life's true joys.
The truthful and genuine exchange of ideas and knowledge between two people is one of the most rewarding and enjoyable activities in our concious experience. You can get to the heart of someone's learning and experience in one long heartfelt conversation. To rob yourself of that kind of experience through our own self infatuation is to be hamstrung severely
Your body is a shell, your mind is your experience.
If you choose to believe it our not you are nothing except for a congregation of molecules and chemicals the experience you currently inhabit is very likely to be the only one you get.
Being in good physical shape is an excellent endeavour and one of the most worth while activities anyone can engage in it is rewarding, challenging and character building.
To get to embroiled in the outcome, to worry only about how you look, how you perform, where you place in competition, the size of your pay check the size of your house, the number of friends you have or any other marker of "success" leads very quickly to unhappiness and a lack of fulfilment.
To really gain happiness and fulfilment you should constantly look for new experiences, challenge yourself physically and mentally, do things for the love of doing them and don't become so outcome or self obsessed that you let life pass you by.
Marc.
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