I see you have a cake next to your name! Happy birthday!! Hope it’s amazing!! 
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I love this so much!! You are going to be such a great group leader. What a fun and cool four year adventure!
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It was a very nice day thankyou. Can’t really believe i am 50 though, Really should think about growing up one day. 
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Thank you so much! I’m honestly not even sure if my friend is going to want to commit to that length of time… and not sure what kind of turnout we’ll get from either the residents at the facility OR people from church.
I may be sitting in a room by myself babbling about lamposts, wardrobes, and talking lions. 
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Nah! Being child-like is far more fun.
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Today’s Workout
Leg Press
DB Incline Chest Press
T Bar Row
External Rotation Band Things
Kinda short and sweet. I feel hungover from the weekend. Not from alcohol, but from just being busy.
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I don’t know, this doesn’t sound so terrible.
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As long as the room isn’t padded and you don’t have to turn the pages with your feet.
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HAHA! I agree.
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Recommended Viewing/Listening
Arthur Brooks is pretty brilliant. I’ve listened to this particular interview twice and had to dig up the YouTube video just to have as a reference.
If you’ve got some chores to do or a long drive ahead, give this a listen.
As usual, the thumbnail doesn’t tell the whole story. This discussion covers a lot, but he says that if he could give people just one thing to make them happier, it would be to get more eye contact and touch. That kinda blew my mind.
The other thing I loved is this idea about the 4 common idols, which were first addressed by Thomas Aquinas:
- Money/Markers of Importance
- Power/Ability to Control the Behavior of Others
- Pleasure/Hedonistic Activity
- Fame/Admiration from Certain People
One of these controls you more than the others. Mine was easy to figure out, but he shows you how to determine which is your greatest weakness. The pursuit of any of the common idols keeps people from being happy.
Got any podcast or YouTube episodes worth sharing? Drop your recommendations here!
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Buddhism teaches a very similar thing and goes deeper - the three causes of Dukkha (suffering) are ignorance, attachment, and aversion. I think the 4 you listed really only cover one category (attachment), but eliminating of the three causes is automatically better (in Buddhist view, anyway).
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Interesting! Regardless, I recommend listening to the interview. There was much more than the bits on Thomas Aquinas.
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Today’s Workout
Battle Ropes (Tabata)
Hip Thrust
Seated Chest Press
Arnold Press
Straight Arm Cable Pulldown
Tricep Pulldown
If you can’t get a good mind muscle connection in the glutes, use a staggered stance for one or two sets. The feeling is nearly unbearable and the following sets can go back to regular stance. You’ll feel every inch of every rep afterward.
Why the battle ropes? Because I wasn’t in the mood to work out. But a bunch of short intense intervals that gets you out of breath will shift your mood pretty quickly.
Do the thing now or wait?
One of my range buddies has nudged me to sign up for an outdoor match this weekend. And I really want to, but it’s scary. He said, “You won’t be the worst person there.”
And that’s reassuring, but also unsettling because other people are so good that I will for sure be one of the worst. I feel out of my league. And also, he could be wrong and I might end up on the very bottom. But then the other part of my brain says do it anyway. Even if that means being the worst. Someone’s gotta be the worst, and I’d be doing everyone else a favor by taking that spot. 
Other Things
If a dress has pockets, you have to do this. #Science
Yup.
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totally do it now.
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Okay well now I will! 
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IT’S HAPPENING.
I registered. And then I was able to look at the stages, and they are a thousand times more complicated than anything I’ve ever practiced before.
Like this one:
This right here makes me want to vomit.
That’s stage six. Here’s stage four.
I have an upcoming class, so maybe I can go over some of these stages with the instructor and get advice. He did tell me a couple weeks ago that the sooner I start shooting matches the better. So keeping that in mind makes me feel reassured about signing up.
Today’s Workout…
was a hike with Kipper. This guy needed an adventure, so we started at the crack of dawn.
It was early enough that there wasn’t anyone on the trail for most of the hike. When we saw someone approaching from a distance, I was able to leash him up.
I got him to smile by saying, “I love you buddy” in a high pitched happy voice.
We should probably tell our dogs that more often if it makes them smile like this.
I can’t think of too many things better than tall trees, moody clouds, and green mountains.
There are only three photos of me without makeup in existence. This is one of them.
My husband tolerates this face, and my dogs love it enough to make it a lollipop.
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Thats a really good face. Honest & trustworthy are the first twothings that came to mind.
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It did not go well.
The very stage I started on happened to be the hardest for a lot of people. It also happened to be the one where I only carried two, 17-round magazines. So when I couldn’t hit the little steel plates out in the distance, I freaked out, my accuracy got worse, I spent all my ammo and didn’t have my other magazines on me to reload.
So that meant I failed to engage a ton of targets, which subtracts a ton of points from your score. I missed several steel ones and a “tuxedo” target.
My next stage went a lot better, and the rest were pretty okay. But I couldn’t make up the points I lost in the beginning. And it messed with my mind to START on the wrong foot.
My range buddy left early after the second stage because of back problems, and it was super discouraging to be in the cool kids group (the very best guys) and also be the newest person there. I probably needed to be with other noobs.
A couple guys did end up adopting me and helped me with stage planning. They were amazing, but I still feel like trash. Partly from doing poorly and partly because this has just been a rough month. It sucks to suck.
Some good things happened:
- I got my yellow card, which means I can attend more competitions without having to take the safety class.
- I did not get DQ’d, which actually did happen to one guy who reloaded in a way that caused his muzzle to break the 180.
- I reconnected with an old gym friend. He was in charge of first time competitors.
- I helped set up a couple stages. Kinda neat to see what goes into it.
- It should be easy to out-perform myself next time. That’s the one benefit of being terrible. It’s easier to progress.
- And if somehow I don’t, that will be the definitive sign to just cut my losses.
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I don’t do competitive shooting at all.
I always felt that i made the most progress when I’m a small fish in a big pond. It tells me i havent made it yet. Sure, its an ego check, but learning from failure is the path to growth IMO.
It seems you’ve managed to network with some helpful individuals as well. It seems you’ve already done this, but I’d chalk this up as a huge win.
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