EJ’s “tactics” for achieving physical and mental longevity. Part 2 of 2

In Part 1 of this 2 Part intro to my life experiment, I provided the logistical approach to longevity.   You can see how I often challenge traditional wisdom across three main areas that make up the bulk of what people consider important for longevity.    Physical, Mental, and Diet are three areas that determine how we’ll fare in both the short run and, most importantly over time.    This blog moves from the logistical planning, the underlying themes and concepts that I live by, into the tactics and specific actions I take to move in the direction I want to go with my mind and body.   Tactics are personal, and new tactics can be invented, or other previously used tactics can be applied for the same results.    Obviously, some tactics will produce better results than others, but if they move you in the direction of your goals, they have value in your experiment for longevity.

Before we get started, let’s bust through some common longevity killers that are not usually seen as a threat in your daily life.

1. Setting Creature comforts as a goal.   Life isn’t easy, and shouldn’t be.   Overcoming challenges before you are the main course in the meal we call life.   Creating a life with no challenges is a life with no meaning, no sense of accomplishment, and one that is wasted.   Being comfortable, by definition, means you are neither challenging your mind nor your body.  Pushing beyond your comfort zone is, by definition, the only time you are expanding your capacity, and being close to it, is the only time you are maintaining.   This doesn’t mean hurting and being miserable, it means that what society is feeding you every day 24 hours/day is the idea of a vacation on the beach, sitting on your couch watching TV and not having to do anything.    There are appropriate times for these enjoyable activities, and it isn’t always the enemy of success in limited quantity.    Rewards, resting, resetting, family time, etc. etc. are all awesome and should all be guilt-free, wonderful experiences.    However, creature comforts make terrible goals for anyone seeking longevity.   They can be available at your leisure, like alcohol, but not be held up as a sign of success.
2. Believing what you hear, read, or see if it doesn’t support your goals for longevity.    There were a thousand scientific, religious, societal, and gut-feeling reasons why the Earth was flat and the center of the universe at one point.    Columbus said, “Stick it in your ear” and sailed west to go east knowing that his life depended on it working out.    He was correct in his assessment of the round earth, but he still had to sail a rickety boat and a crew of sceptics on dangerous waters to prove it.   He could have had a single incident thwart his goals and it would have changed history forever.    However, he chose to be committed to his purpose, and push forward to prove to himself first, that he knows what he is talking about, and the world second, and his journey changed the world map.    What does that have to do with longevity?  The fountain of youth is the most sought-after place, concept, drug, religion, and science in the world.    Yet, everyone wants to simply drink from a fountain.   The fountain isn’t an easy sip of water.   It is the nearly unlimited source of physical energy, brain power, enthusiasm, and obstacle-overcoming intelligence/grit that is inside of everyone.    The fountain comes from within.   
3. Thinking that the people who care most about you will give you the best advice- BIG MISTAKE.    This is hard to write because you should always hear out any advice that anyone close to you has to offer and consider it.   I believe that 100%.  Never discount input from those you care about and who care about you.   However, think about where the advice comes from and what kind of advice you are most likely to get.    If it is the subject of dropping out of college to be a kayaker, or staying one more year and getting an engineering degree, and then going kayaking, what is the advice going to be if you are a mom, dad, sister, grandmother, guidance councillor, mentor, etc. etc.??   100% of the time, 99% of the time, it will be to get the degree.    I am using my example to make a point here, but it can be easily put in your world by thinking of any goal that you have that wasn’t in the norm.    If a loved one cares about you would they suggest that you bet your life on something that statistically is 500,000 to 1, according to my current Google Search???  NO CHANCE!   However, the person who sets that goal, won’t give up that goal and doesn’t hedge their bets, has a very good chance, compared to the 500,000 to 1, and if it brings them happiness and no regrets then it is a great thing to go for.   90% of my biggest accomplishments were very heavily advised against.  I’ll give some examples below, just to add a bit of color to this “theory”.
   1. The kayaking thing- I did drop out.  Dean’s list engineering- quit, started kayaking full time.   5 years later, and lots of struggles to get there, I made the USA Team.  3 years after that went to the Olympics, and 1 year after that, won my first world championships, 2 years later, started making some decent money.   1999 took my wife and kids around the world for three months as a kayaker.
   2. Jackson Kayak-  in 2003 I quit Wavesport and polled 80 kayak shops if they thought I should start a new kayak company.   80 out of the 80 said a very loud “NO”.   Zero positive feedback.  I then asked a bunch, “What do you think about a kayak for 30-80-pound kids”?  Zero thought it was a good idea.   ZERO! No one inkling of positive feedback.   Three months later I announced that I was starting a new kayak brand called Jackson Kayak and our first boat was a kid’s kayak for 30-80 pound kids.   Three years later we were the #1 selling whitewater brand.   Why the negative feedback?  Because it is a hard business, because the market was flooded and confused, it seemed that another brand like the rest was destined to fail.   However, this was in a market that I understood and I was watching all of the other brands make the same mistakes (they were also doing a lot of awesome stuff, of course).   I just knew that if my boats were lighter weight, stronger, and marketed by real kayakers, and we did sizes that nobody else did, we should crush it.   We did.   
   3. Fishing- In 2011 JK created our first fishing kayak.  It is no secret why our first fishing kayak was a whitewater bass fishing kayak.  I love whitewater and bass fishing.  Combining the two was something I could get behind and sell.    Fishing kayaks were a small market.  Kayak dealers service a very small market. Fishing is the largest sport in the USA in both dollars and participation.   For us to only sell our kayaks in big numbers, I needed to reach the core of the bass fishing world, Pro Bass Fishing.   The biggest brands in fishing all gave tournament bass fishing credit for 80% of their sales.     OK, that is a big deal.  Strike King Lures, etc. etc.   Well, I need to be front and center in this market, and I need Jackson Kayak to be there with me.   I worked for a few years to get myself on the Pro-Bass Tour, the FLW Tour to be specific.  I pulled every card I could, including the “sponsor card” to get on tour in 2016.    At every event, my Jackson Kayak RV was in the mosh pit of the most hardcore fishing fans and anglers in the world.   I did this for 5 years.    I fought off some full-on anger and resistance from internal people that I was out there “not even fishing out of kayak”.    I didn’t care, because this action on my part grew the kayak fishing market from a very small niche thing to the fastest-growing market in kayaking.   BASS jumped on board and so did Hobie kayaks, and soon the biggest segment in fishing was promoting our sport, kayak fishing.    The point of it all?   Don’t expect love and admiration from even your closest friends, business partners, etc. for doing things that are not “best practices” or widely known to be successful.    If you know something can succeed, and you know you can find a way to do it, and you want to do it, then don’t let those around you “talk sense into you.”

What do these things have to do with longevity?  Mental longevity requires overcoming obstacles and thinking creatively.    It means being out of your comfort zone.    ChatGBT is a great tool and I love using it for simple tasks.  However, 100% of the time, it delivers the most white bread product that breaks no molds and will achieve nothing great.    Just ask it to draw illustrations of the best whitewater kayak designs over the years.    It will draw recreational kayaks, and big open cockpits, and will be so off-base that it is useless.   It draws from a huge database of “best practices” and stereotypes.    Your life will be a recreational kayak drawn by a non-whitewater kayaker if you allow those around you to be your only guiding light. 

OK_ now to the “DOs- Tactics that work for me.   

Remember that the logistical planning part of my blog is the critical part, where you can create a winning plan.    This part shows the motions, the blocking and tackling, and the creative ways I found to get things done to support my plan.

Physical Longevity:

“That which can be measured can be managed.”

Your Body-   I am not going to sugar-coat anything here.   Your body is a machine.   It has certain capabilities and limitations.   What if you are in an accident on a mountain road with no cell service and stuck in your car with a broken leg?  Let’s say you rolled 1,000 feet below the road on a slippery wet, cold rocky hillside.  Who do you want to find you?   An overweight person who hasn’t walked off road in 20 years and can’t physically scramble down the mountainside to get you, or somebody who has taken good care of themselves and can not only get down to you, but bust you out of the car, and help drag, carry, and assist you up the hillside to safety?   That is just a theoretical situation.    Every day you are either a drag on others or assisting others due to your physical condition.   We know this from taking care of grandparents or parents that reach a point where they are at the end of their lives and can’t take care of themselves any more.    I believe the concept of “love your body” no matter what abuse you give it no matter how diminished it is from lack of use and overindulgence is such a terrible message.    Self-image is critical to success and feeling bad about oneself is a tough place to try to operate from.  However, the machine we call a body is no different from a car.   If it has a flat tire, operating on 3 cylinders, the brakes are shot, battery not holding a charge, then it is not well maintained and not a part of your success, it is holding you back.    You can show it love, and feel good about it, by cleaning it up, tuning it up, and fixing everything that is possible to fix.  Otherwise, when it isn’t holding you back, it is holding others back.   When it breaks down due to clogged arteries, it costs everyone money, heartache, and valuable time and mental energy.   That is on the owner, not the doctors.   Your body, is your responsibility.     Of course, some people get a lemon that they have to deal with, or an accident, etc.   That is different from mistreatment and neglect.   Even the lemon and accident people are still responsible based on their actions.   Helen Keller took responsibility for communicating and succeeding as a blind, deaf person.   That is all I have to say about that.  

So, the tactics to assure a body that is an asset and not a liability?  Remember the President’s council for physical fitness?  

• Weight- here is the best way to think about weight. Since your bones are not that variable you have three things you can control- Fat, Muscle and Water.   Take inventory first:
  • Fat: Men 8-15% of your Total weight in fat is a good place to live.    More than that and your ability to run, lift your weight repeatedly, etc. are diminished.  Women- 20-30% same thing.
  • Muscle- Being able to handle your body weight with enough muscle to be effective: pull-ups, dips, push-ups, and running.    
    • Getting strong enough to pull yourself up with your arms at least one time is the baseline.   More reps= higher performance.   
    • Dips- same thing- 2 is the minimum- different muscles, critical- if you can great, if you can’t “uh…”.  The more the better, of course.
    • Push-ups- same thing- 10 should be the baseline. 
    • Running- it is what your legs were designed for.  If you can run you can climb.   Off-road is better than the road, as the flat ground has its limitations and messes with your brain.   Running 1 mile in 12 minutes is a minimum.    More miles and faster is better.   

How to achieve the above?

If you are there already, the goal is to improve performance to ensure the body systems have a “margin for error” and can handle crisis, sickness, or simply do more fun things with better success. 

If you want to make a change, bring your body to new heights, or even just get back to past performance levels:

1. Set a goal for weight, and fitness.  Find the best time, place, and people to help ensure you have a workout routine that becomes a Habit.    
2. It is about doing something every day, and ideally 2 times/day.   Cardio, strength.  Inside, outside.  
   1. Most people can accomplish more in two sessions/day than one long one.   
   2. Choose a routine that doesn’t challenge you mentally every time you do it.  Repeat what works in the beginning, and only change when needed or new goals emerge.
      1. I do the same circuit weights if I am lifting because I like what it delivers, especially for a competitive kayaker. 
         1. PNFs (rotator cuff light dumbbell warm-ups)
         2. Bench
         3. Pullups
         4. Dips
         5. Curls
         6. Overhead
         7. Rows
         8. Abs
         9. Repeat 1 or 2 times.
      2. Cardio-running or biking, or swimming, or kayaking\
         1. 30-60 minutes at a minimum of actual work- 70% of max heart rate or greater. 
      3. Sprints- strides- if you want to ensure you can do high intensity, and your stride doesn’t get shorter every year, you need to open up and go full speed and keep your stride going.   I do this by playing disc golf and sprinting between holes after about a 5-hole warm-up of jogging up and down hills.   I have an 18-hole disc golf course on my property and can hit it any time during the day from my home office.  Dane plays with me.

Diet tactics:

Don’t try everything at once, but always push one thing forward at any given time.    Losing weight:   Eat less, but eat consistently.    Don’t make eating a chore.  Enjoy your food, but weigh yourself at least 2 times/day.   It isn’t about positive or negative feedback, it is about feedback you can use to manage your intake, period.   Anyone who says the scale doesn’t define you hasn’t talked to a 2 year old.   100% of everyone in the world knows if you are overweight or not.  For the morbidly obese person, you might be where they wish they were, but they won’t define you as athletic if you are overweight.   If you are overweight, you can choose not to be, and it can be a fun, rewarding process to get to where you WANT to be.   If you don’t care if you are overweight, then that is fine too.   If you are comfortable with it, so am I!   I am not ever going to suggest that my goals are yours.    I won’t invite you on an expedition, or anything that requires a level of physical fitness that you are willing to work for, but we can be friends and I have no issues with your weight.    So back to the tactics in bullet format:

• If you feel your weight is not in the zone you want- 
  • Cut back on portion size at every meal.
  • Drink less everyday day.
  • Try skipping a meal, and replacing it with a lower-calorie snack.
  • Try working or working out when you would normally eat- it often makes you lose any hunger.

Mental longevity tactics:

 

Try to stay mentally agile:   Push your brain through more challenging exercises.   Overcome obstacles that you never had before.  Learn to deal with uncertainty in a positive way.  

Disclaimer- everyone has their personality the way they look at things and what they are willing to do.  Your comfort zone is your own.   Anyone who believes they are stuck and there is no growth or expanding that zone possible is right.   “If you think you can or can’t, you are right.”    My examples are from somebody who doesn’t get embarrassed.  (I made it a point to learn that trait).  I see opportunity where most see risk and a low chance of success.   I see fun whereas many just see work.  With all of that said, the concepts work across the board.   Expanding your mental capacity to deal with uncertainty in a positive way to allow you to push past previous limitations is available to everyone all of the time at any level.  You just have to do it one step at a time.

Exercises to expand your mental horizons- Tactics-

“This is good.”  The first tactic that helps with better decision-making in life is to begin practising, and turn into a habit and a rule-  when anything happens in life, say out loud or at least to yourself- “This is good.”   Then search for the good that comes from that situation, or good that you can create from the situation.    By focusing on what could be good in a situation, you can both protect that potential upside or even take a direction through good decision-making that you couldn’t have done otherwise.  Recognize that many/most others will be focused on the negative in the situation and some may not understand why you can’t see the negative and would be so crass as to suggest anything positive could come from it.    In a business environment, it is always welcome at the top levels of management and always the way to survive and thrive.   Think of it as being dealt a hand of cards.   It is all you have to play with, so you can either look at what is good about the hand and play it that way, or give up and guarantee your failure.  

Question Everything-  You don’t have to always do it verbally, or even let others know you are doing it, but you are delivered an overabundance of information every day through your devices and in person.    By recognizing that everyone who ever writes, says, or does something has an agenda, can you then practice the skill of identifying the agenda behind the information, and therefore being able to filter and center the information before taking it at face value?    The easiest examples would be what you hear on MSNBC as fact and Fox News as fact.   If you switch back and forth, you hear how everything anyone is doing who is Republican is bad on MSNBC and every policy is bad, and they are quite convincing.    The same happens on Fox News, but towards the democrat party.  When I read a report on diet, for example, and what the science says,  I try to determine the gender, race, age, political leanings, and ultimately the diet the writer has.   Why?   Some are obvious- if the author is a vegan, you won’t get any positive information related to meat eating, and likely you’ll get some subtle (influencers/authors are smart enough to know not to be too obvious in their agenda, or they will lose much of their audience) guilt trips, etc. thrown in with the statistics.    What you won’t get are statistics that support meat eating.  (This isn’t me saying one way or another is better, just pointing out a way to improve your information gathering that takes your mind past being a garbage disposal )

Benefits of this kind of social profiling.   Yes, I believe social profiling is one of the most important skills of a human being.  It is “intuition, with training.” It may save your life one day, or it will allow you to have better relationships and deeper conversations.   Here is how you could approach it:  FYI- Mentalists use this technique to appear to “read minds” in public performances.    I just came back from Vegas where I got to watch Catherine Fisher (formerly Catherine Hickland- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Hickland ) who is a long-time soap opera TV star, did some movies, broadway, and more, become a mentalist.   She made some amazing “connections” with some friends of mine in business and “read their minds”.   She will say, herself, that it is intuition, or social profiling taken to the next level. 

 

When you look at someone, you can in 5 seconds get much of who they are internalized.   Is this racist, sexist, etc..?   No, it is insightful and only with practice can you dial in the accuracy and get close enough to do the following:

Successfully approach people with the demeanor, greetings, and conversation that the other party can relate to and engage with.  

Understand what that person is likely to do or be thinking given different situations and conversations.   This helps in any negotiations or communications.   

How does this help in mental longevity?   Understanding people is one of the more challenging games in the world.   Many of the world’s brightest minds have spent much of their lives focused on breaking down the techniques and training methods you can use.    There are plenty of books on the subject, such as “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” Dale Carnegie.     (Old school).   Your brain is playing a game of chess during all waking hours if you are reading body language, words, dress codes, grooming, and other cues to best understand the thought process, moods, and motivations of those around you.    To not do this is, in my opinion, disrespectful to others.    Anyone who suggests that it is disrespectful isn’t thinking it through.   Everyone enjoys conversations with people who “get them”.   

Turn your social profiling on yourself.   Most people don’t spend much time analyzing why they think and do the things they do.   One of my favorite questions to get the process started is:  “Are your prejudices inherited, or are they your own?”    This question goes deep if you let it.   My parents were from a small town in Ohio called Leetonia.    It was fueled by steel mills back until the 50s-60s but they went out of business.   Conservative, 99.5% white, mostly protestant.   My mom went to a Methodist church.   So, I was baptized a Methodist and told everyone that was what I was.    Why was my mom one?  Because her parents were Methodist, and so on.   What was wrong with Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, or some other religion, or no religion?   To not ask that question and decide for yourself is to give away your freedom and accept your “lot in life”.   Such is true with every other “point of view” that we get from our parents, schools, friends, family, or other influences.    If we are spoon-fed ideas that we base our lives around, and internalize them as important, without an objective and thorough analysis to decide for ourselves if they have enough merit to run with that concept, then we are irresponsible and in extreme cases, dangerous.    Jihad is an extreme example of simply adopting the beliefs of parents, teachers, and religious leaders without question, or exposure to other beliefs or openness to them.   In other areas you can look at yourself and learn about yourself and determine how much of what you do is intentional, and how much is to fit into the group you associate with.

• What clothes, shoes, accessories, and hair do you have?   Do you wear a uniform to ensure that you don’t stick out from those you spend the most time with?   Dr. Martins used to be just cool boots from England.   Over the past 30 years, they have been adopted by a few user groups.   Lesbians, Goths, and formerly Punk Rockers.    No, not 100%- I wear them, and plenty of others, but Doc Martins runs in groups.  If you find one pair, there will be at least one more with them, most of the time.  I call that a uniform.   Is anything wrong with it?  No.   
  

  Pink Hair? Might throw off the social profiling.

• What causes do you feel need your attention?   This often breaks from “inherited”, and goes in the ‘rebellion” category as the next generation tends to find new things that are do or die, however, each generation also tends to group up into the same causes.     Many important causes deserve attention, but the fact that certain ones reach critical mass and are “trending” is a function of herd mentality and lack of independent thinking of 90% of the people who list that cause as the most important thing to them.    What is an action item you can do, for longevity of the mind, and be effective?   Find a cause that you will do something about, versus something you really “care about” and talk about and do nothing about.   Mental stress and even mental illness often comes from focusing a lot of energy and thought on things you have no control over.    Media companies’ primary objective as businesses are to keep you engaged and watching.   They know that presenting emotionally disturbing messaging and visuals in categories that you are interested in, but are not in a position to do anything about is the best way to get you watching and talking about the subject matter to those around you who feel the same way.   There is no difference between character, kindness, intelligence, and wanting the best for our country in the Donald Trump supporter who feels they need to support him to protect our democracy and the Biden supporter who feels they need to support him to protect our democracy.     Yes, there is a huge difference between the two leaders and what will transpire under each and one is more likely to produce better results than the other in every category they affect.    But, followers of both people, in this example, have been manipulated by the media they tune into in ways that have created strong feelings one way or another to the point that few can have a casual conversation.   I am not suggesting that there isn’t a best choice, but for mental longevity, you need control over your mind and to think in ways that are healthy and productive, versus being in a constant battle of good versus evil and seeing good people as evil people.   If people who are Trump voters are evil and Biden voters are good, then some of the kindest, most hard-working, giving, loving, people in the world would be cast aside.   The same goes the other way.    Longevity is about control of mind and body, not being a puppet to people who don’t care about you.   Action items:
  • Choose your mindset all day, every day.    Choose your emotions, thoughts, and actions.   
    • Example: If you are in the middle of an important work project and need to focus and somebody says or does something that would cause most people to get angry or sad, you can choose to not react emotionally, AT ALL, and continue to work and get the job done, and then ACT intelligently if something needs to be done about it, and never get upset.   

Emotions should be enjoyed, like a child, but not rule the rational mind. Yes, plenty of people would say that people who control their emotions are cold or not as “human” as people who are ruled by emotion at all times. You choose.   I suggest that the people who we look up to throughout history were people who could be in the most dire of circumstances and instead of breaking down crying, getting angry and yelling at people, they were the most calm in the room and made good decisions, and took decisive actions, one after another, until the best outcome, given the situation, happened.  Emotion free isn’t the goal, but allowing emotions to nullify your ability to succeed in any given situation, will greatly diminish your success rate in everything you do in life, including having longevity in your mental arena. 

Additional Tactics for Mental Longevity:

Surround yourself with people who talk about ideas.   “Losers talk about people, the average person talks about events, and winners talk about ideas.”     People assimilate to those around them.    Everyone knows the feeling of talking to somebody about things that stretch the imagination, are positive and energetic and make you feel like you can do anything.   Everyone is also familiar with that downward, wet blanket feeling you can get when you get into a conversation about another individual who you can’t do anything about, but is somehow doing bad things, saying bad things, or worse, that you don’t even know, and you have your problems to deal with, but you are avoiding them at the moment.  Sometimes it is family who want to talk about people and dominate large blocks of your time in that arena.   You can train your family members without saying a word, by engaging deeply in any conversation about ideas, and to a lesser extent events, and walking politely away from conversations about people that you can’t do anything about.   

Spend some time each day just thinking about your life, and what you want from it, the broad picture.   Here is a video from 2017 describing how I look at life.

This is your course correction time, versus reaction, and dealing with the cards in your hand time.  It is hard to think about your life and what you want out of it during times of crisis, but those times are the most important because those moments are the times that you are most likely to have a forced fork in the road due to an obstacle.    Your house just burnt down.   My gut reaction would be, “Get insurance, and rebuild, or buy another in town.”    Instead, think opportunity, “house burnt down- hmm… if we could use the insurance money for another house anywhere, where would we want to live?”    Could that event be the catalyst for a better life somewhere else or just a better house somewhere else?    When Bodi, my dog, backed my RV into the lake, I took that approach immediately.   I never had a single bad feeling in my mind, never got upset or angry, but felt pretty good about it from the beginning.    I got some good publicity out of it, and, in the end, got $15,000 more from the insurance company than we paid for the RV.   When people ask if Bodi got in trouble, I say, “Of course, not, he still gets treats as I never had a dog make me $15,000 before.”    

Treat your mind as a flexible and scaleable feature of your make-up.   You can grow, change, improve, and are not “who you are”, exactly.   With that said, remember that it is much easier to do things you are good at than not good at.    If you can read this, you are old enough to know what your inherent strengths are.    Don’t let people get you focusing all of your energy on what you are not good at, because you are not good at it.  Find situations, purpose, goals, etc. that align with your strong suits.   If you are 6’5” and have 300 pounds of muscle and can run super fast, freestyle kayaking might not be your sport, but football or rugby might.    Elevating what you are naturally good at is easier and more fun than constantly living in a place where your focus is on things you are not good at, and don’t enjoy.

In summary of the Tactics of Physical and Mental Longevity here are a few takeaways. 

Always refer back to your logistical approach to longevity, your purpose, what you want out of life and what you will contribute.   In learning your tactics that deliver on your promises to yourself to create value for the world and yourself in the form of a “worthy purpose”, remember that both body and mind are either growing in performance or dying.   Take ownership of your body and mind.   Fitness, diet, health, and a focus on moving in the direction you want for your body.   For your mind, remember that your first reaction to things is mostly learned, and if those reactions and feelings are not moving you in the direction you want, your brain is flexible and scalable, and you can learn to approach challenges with confidence and excitement, versus despair and fear.   Self-improvement, the most important measurement of your chances of longevity of mind and body, is also the best way to improve the lives of those around you.  You can’t give away that which you don’t have.   Let’s have some fun with this.   Moments make up a life.   Doing things you’ll remember for a long time, make up the best momements, such as deeply communicating with others, sharing your love with others, working hard with others, or doing hard things by yourself.