“The More I Learn, The More I Realize How Much I Don’t Know.” – Albert Einstein

Or how I like to say it, “The more I know, the less I realize I know”. 

Right now I can absolutely garauntee that my opinion on something now is going to change in 5 years. I don’t know what it is, but I crave learning new things whether it’s international affairs, training in fitness, new recipes, whatever, I know it’s going to change. How do I know this?

Because I’m constantly being humbled and learning new things that allow me to change and form an opinion that I had previously. If you want to learn something new, open your bubble, listen to different perspectives on a topic not just the information you agree with, then form an opinion based off of the facts/experiences/opinions of those who have provided insights on the matter.

Basic example: Almonds

My dad was eating almonds this weekend and I said something along the lines of, “Almonds? Almonds are trash.” 

Then he threw an almond at me and I ate it and now I’m an almond guy, team almond from here on out. I never really ate them before but had a preconcieved notion that I wouldn’t like them so I never gave those little tasty bastards a chance.

Now that’s something that’s innocent, let’s breakdown a lifestyle opinion that’s recently changed of mine related to  Training for fitness.

Because I am a moron, my training philosophy in High School and majority of college was: “Crush yourself in preparation of what’s going to be expected. And don’t be a baby (my self-talk is to be hard on myself, I don’t know, it works)”. So I would run 4 miles then continue to crush my legs with calisthenics (hundreds of reps) , without a warm-up, progression plan, or mindset that training harder doesn’t always mean smarter.

So for many years I had the mindset that if I just crushed myself, then I would be able to perform when it mattered because I’ve already exposed my body in that position before. And to be honest that mindset is good in some areas like building mental toughness, but in the longrun it destroys your body. 

My philosophy on training changed when I started working out at a gym with a trainer who knew how to train people depending on their desired results.  It was like landing on the Moon for the first time, it was eye-opening. I then searched for podcasts that talk about training and pretty much pushed a button the side of my brain and vaccuumed up all the information I could from experts like Jeff Nichols from Virginia High Performance and John Welbourn from Power Athlete HQ. Lesson: If you don’t know what your doing,  put your ego aside and ask for and actively seek help.

Meditation

I remember in college I thought meditation was done only by monks in Asia while sitting pretzel style humming to themselves (did I say I was a moron yet?). Until I took a class on Stress Management and we did meditation every friday. It was awesome, relaxing and calming.

 That experience didn’t fully pull me in until I heard Tim Ferriss’ podcast where he said that most millionaires, elite athletes, and the most successful people at their craft, all have one thing in common; a meditation practice every day. Lightbulb moment times a trillion, I downloaded HeadSpace on my phone and there is a free 10-day practice, 10 minutes a day, narrated by an Australian dude named Andy with a sweet accent. Couldn’t recommend it enough.

Wine

Hated on it growing up because my family didn’t drink wine. It was mostly just beer. Once I got into college, beer still remained, but I started dabbling in wine. Wine with dinner especially out at restaurants changed my view on wine as a whole. Not only do I look like a sophisticated and elegant lad, I enjoy it too.

Still haven’t really cracked into the white wine world yet, mostly when out to dinner at a nice restaurant Meiomi Pinot Noir is the wine of choice. Wine with steak, can’t get much better than that. I know it’s Red with meats and White with chicken/seafood, but I’ve been soley Red on both. Recommend me a White Wine to try.

UPDATE: I recently learned about Ice Wine. You sneaky so sneaky Canadian and German bastards have been hiding this treasure from us Americans for far too long. I have yet to try it because it’s expensive as fuck at restaurants ($135 for 1 glass), but I think I’m going to order a bottle for Christmas (Inniskillian preferably).

Blue Cheese

“You put Blue Cheese on your buffalo wings? What do you not like the hotness?” (While eyes are essentially crying, sinuses are being cleared out, and mouth is on fire). 

Blue Freakin’ Cheese is glorious. Whenever I eat buffalo chicken I have to have it accompanied with Blue Cheese or else I end up crying without it. I just can’t take the spiciness I guess, so Blue Cheese replaces the spiciness with a flavor that I love, perfect combo.

Foreign Films

If a movie was in another language I used to just push it to the side, “Get that nonsense out of my face.” Or “You can’t even understand what they are saying.”

But Matt there are subtitles. One night your boy was browsing top #250 movies on IMdB and Intouchables is rated #38 and 8.6/10. I wrote a shitty movie review/experience a bit ago about it. Basically once you get passed having to read and watch at the same time, it’s awesome.

Summary: I describe Foreign films as, “You can’t have a beer and watch it”, you need to fully immerse yourself in order to follow along and enjoy it. Give me a movie to watch

Sayings: “Practice makes perfect.” That’s bullshit and I’ll give a real example of how it’s impacting me now.

So I workout a lot because I need to be strong and fast for the job I’m pursuing. I swim very often and I have perfected the stroke itself, but not my push off the wall into the glide that leads into the stroke. I can keep practicing the way I’m doing it now but all it’s going to lead to is bad habits, shitty form, and less efficiency in the water.

I learned from John Welbourn on his Power Athlete podcast that “Practice doesn’t make perfect, Perfect Practice makes Perfect.” It’s so fucking true and once you understand this, you’ll start looking at ways to make it perfect, rather than doing the same dumb shit expecting results with little improvement.

Opinions 

Most people have no idea what they’re talking about. Some people also say things often times to just hear themselves talk, it’s an odd sight to see honestly.

Just because you hold a position doesn’t mean that what you say is credible or even reliable, that’s what separates those who are good at their craft apart from those who suck.

Examples: Teachers in school. Everybody has had a bad teacher and will never forget them because they sucked so bad. Pure misery for an hour straight, its awful. Then you have a teacher who can apply real life experience with the topic of discussion and everyone is happy.

 I could expand on the different examples but its all essentially the same thing; always look for new ways to improve or get run over and left behind by those who are.

I was going to talk about fear but this blog is already pretty long so I might dedicate an entire post to talk about how fear isn’t always a bad thing.

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