Filling our treasure chests

            We live in a world where everything deemed good, enjoyable, exciting, and memorable has to immediately be recreated or packaged and mass produced.  Stop it. Part of being able to be present in the moment is directly tied to your ability to let a treasure be a treasure.  Being focused on the present and not trying to recreate the pleasures of the past on a constant basis allows us to be open and in tune with the potential that the world has to offer.  This is not to say that a great thing can't be recreated or enjoyed more than once. The message here is that maybe we need to take those moments that have, for one reason or another, become "cravings" and stop trying so hard to make them happen again. A particular person, event, meal, encounter, kiss, trip, meeting, or time period can be recalled and enjoyed again and again in our minds. Our ancestors did it all the time through group story telling and that is lost on us today. Let a treasure, whatever you definition of it may be, remain so. Who knows, the repeated event may never be as fulfilling or amazing as the first time around. Or to be all "financy" - the law of diminishing returns may wield its sword.  In brief, let go of the want, lock away your treasures and don't allow yourself to become an easily repeatable event to others.

Here is an example of an exchange between two fictional characters that perfectly encapsulates my point:

Irene Adler: “I don’t differ. I reject your whole premise. Our afternoon was one of the most unique and memorable of my life. It can’t be repeated. We could try, but that’s just a game of diminishing returns, isn’t it? I’d rather just remember it the way it was.”

Sherlock Holmes: “You preserve the integrity of the initial encounter by denying yourself further ones. Interesting.”

Irene Adler: “People don’t treasure things anymore. You should try it.”

Sherlock Holmes: “You’re not boring at all, are you?”

Irene Adler: “I try not to be.”

Irene Adler: “Is this all I am now? A piece of exercise equipment for your brain?”

Sherlock Holmes: “You’re the greatest piece of exercise equipment a man could ever hope to throw a leg over.”

Live primal......make memories...... fill your chest with booty!    ARRRRGH.....

Lessons from the SNATCH

So I purposely used the eye catching title only to get you reading.... stick with me.

The snatch is, and has been, my frienemy for quite some time now..... every time I think I have it, something else creeps its way into my mind and my technique goes totally haywire. But that's whats great about it too. I am of the mindset that a person can learn a lot about themselves at the bottom of a snatch, including important life lessons.

1.  Embrace what you suck at and attack it head on.  Do not shy away from something because of the degree of difficulty. Great things never happen without some risk taking.

2.  The shortest distance between two points is....... execution. Lines don't draw themselves.  Learn to do things the right way and all of a sudden some of the hardest challenges become effortless. Execute well and execute often .

3. We will only fail at the margins of our experiences, by expanding what we experience everyday, we are ensuring our future success.

4. Obstacles are what we see when we take our eyes off of our goals. This one really resonates with me. When I focus on where I want to be by years end with the snatch my mind stops thinking about the points of performance that I am still not mastering. Just like life, focus on the goal, enjoy the journey.

5. There are things in life that should be done because they make us better at everything else. In Fitness its the snatch, dead-lift, and squat. In life I think its reading, getting outside, learning about others, and paying attention to what we eat.

So there it is, my five life lessons gleaned from the feeling that my whole body is going to explode when I hit the bottom position. As always, live primal my friends...............