In the past two years as I learned fitness/exercise/gym as a habit, one thing that is very pertinent in life is that – If you don’t use it, you lose it.

One doesn’t have to be a kinesiology major to understand that. My experience has been that even if it has just been a week of inactivity, I notice a deline in my weight training (very obvious) or cardiovascular performance. How do I tell? The answer is the amount of soreness I can feel. Even more obvious is the immense soreness + pain whenever I start some new training. And hence, the need for us to emphasize on consistency of exercise. To avoid the benefits that we have worked so hard to archieve, it’s best to continue to do something at least, even just to maintain a moderate level of the benefits. In addition…

The idea of “If you don’t use it, you lose it” does not only apply to fitness and health. On my path of exploring and learning singing myself, I continuously discovered that many of the causes for my difficulty to produce more beautiful tone are muscular apathy of head/facial area muscles. It is over time when I consciously practice these muscles that I am able to improve.

Actually, not only is this the problem for people trying to learn how to sing, but this is the problem for people between ethnic group learning a foreign tongue. Certain languages only require us to use certain facial muscles. It is one of the many reasons that when we try to learn a new language that we have difficulty with announciation. What we need to do is to practice using all the muscles on our face :)

Well, another thing is that us humans have a tendency to be lazy and use less, or just enough, muscle to perform a certain task. That is exactly why we need to re-learn deep breathing for our health, and also exercise our mind to maintain our mental sharpness, and of course, exercise our body to make sure we don’t lose those muscle.

In fact, I would go as far to say that everything in our body is governed by this concept of “If you don’t use it, you lose it”. Therefore, everyday we need to consciously use every part of our body and push it to improve, expand, and realize our potentials!

Picture this scenario:
My friend D is a big muscular guy, 5′ 9″ and 200+ lbs while I am 5′ 5” and 130~ lbs. If D tells me, “Dude, go lift 300 lbs, it’s good for you.” and then forces me to do it. What would happen?

Before answering, let us jump to the conversation I had with my good friend, D, the other day at lunch, where we touched on the subject of the on-going war in Iraq. I would like to bring it up because I think that some comments from D are insightful and they go something like this…

D’s comments (paraphrased and with some of my interpretation):

Can’t we just leave those people alone? We are trying to help them but do they even appreciate it? They hate us. Why are we trying to help when they don’t want the help? It is just another form of bullying. We should just get out of there and leave them alone. What gives us the right to go in there and just slap on a democratic goverment when they had no idea what the heck democracy is in the first place? Let them evolve at their own pace.

My response:

Exactly, that is exactly what the problem is. They went in Iraq and enforced a democratic goverment out of no where. People had no idea what it is, and how are they suppose to make use of it? We would serve them better if we educate them critical thinking for themselves and their own society, and THEN freely choosing upon those thoughts, which are some of the most basic elements of democrary. (but at this point, I also think, hmmmm, look at America these days, Americans aren’t even thinking very clearly these days… anyways…)

This is exactly the problem! Now let’s go back to the scenario I told at the beginning and answer the question. If D does force me to lift 300 lbs, small guy as I am, I will certainly just break my back and hate him forever. THAT, I think, is a suitable analogy to what’s happening in Iraq.

With that said, we are led to the very thing that we should remember in personal development. The idea is to take small steps toward improvement everyday, which is what we should advocate and educate, instead of using shortcuts to propel to immediate success, which either will likely not work or just end up taking longer. Life is an evolution. Healthy changes need to be steady and continuous. Now I may not lift 300 lbs today, but if I work toward it everyday doing weight training, I will be able to do that. Whether I want to is another story :P

PS. This article has the naive assumption that US is still in Iraq to secure safety for the people there, not for the oil, not for any unspoken political reasons.

What is the most important attribute that will get us through any situation in best ways possible?

Over time, I have come to reach the answer of the question, and that is composure. I will relate the answer to Zen/Buddhism’s promotion of finding the stillness in mind, a imperturbable sense of calmness through continuous self-examination and self-discovery. Just a reminder that I am not preaching philosohy or religion, instead, I am stating something that has worked well for me and I believe in now.

I can still feel angry, disappointed, sad, happy, estatic, but I have come to realize that whatever emotions and feelings I may get, there is a stillness in my mind that can be kept. My mind is a part of my entity. Those emotions are not. And with a calm mind, I can maintain my awareness, assess the situation, and come up with the best way to respond or to handle those emotions. Some simple examples (taken from my personal experience):

• If you play basketball for a long time, fatigue starts to build up and your shots are becoming more inaccurate and your body becomes less coordinated, would it do you any good to fret and get scared to take shots?
• If you are a singer, half way into a song, gone over the most difficult part, and all the singing muscle becomes really tense, would it do you any good to panic and start thinking about not hitting the right pitch?
• If you are to present in front of some very important individuals, in school or at work, would it do you any good to get so nervous and studder through the presentation?

As smart as you all are :) the apparent answer to all those are, “No, it is best for us to remain as calm as possible in order to make it through the situation with best possible performance.” I am not saying we should never be nervous because that is not possible, as I get nervous myself too! But staying calm and keeping a still mind will allow us to deal out the best cards we can at those moments, albeit subpar. It could only be worse if you get nervous, panic, and have a mental break-down.

In other words, there is no reason for us to fret or panic about anything. The only thing panicing will do for us is to make matters worse. Even if the situation is desperate, dire, and nothing can be done to help, we can reason that everything will come to pass in life, which is the truth. Why should we panic, fret, and worry ourselves to death? Just aim and do our best possible with support of a calm and still mind.

The quote provides the most suitable description of what I just mentioned:

“When the mind begins to become still, we then begin to truly see it. When you first try to stabilize and pacify the mind, initially it will become very busy because it’s not accustomed to being still. In fact, it doesn’t even necessarily want to become still, but it is essential to get a hold of the mind to recognize its nature. This practice is extremely important. … Eventually you will find yourself in a state where your mind is clear and open all the time. It is just like when the clouds are removed from the sky and the sun can clearly be seen, shining all the time. This is coming close to the state of liberation, liberation from all traces of suffering. … The truth of this practice is universal. It isn’t necessary to call it a religion to practice it. Whether one is a Hindu or a Moslem or a Christian or a Buddhist simply doesn’t matter. Anyone can practice this because this is the nature of the mind, the nature of everyone’s mind. If you can get a handle on your mind, and pacify it in this way, you will definitely experience these results, and you will see them in your daily life situation. There is no need to put this into any kind of category, any kind of “ism.” Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche

So remember, you can be nervous, you can be angry, you can be overjoyed, but maintain a still mind that will help you get through any situation the best way possible.

The main reason for the title of this post sprouts from reading one article and another article regarding attempt to pass legislation that set aside 20 billion will help people from foreclosures in the subprime mortgage sector. And I won’t get started on how the goverment is over-spending (our poor tax money…) It’s a whole other rant.

Anyways, you ask, how does the legislation relate to responsibility, or the death of it?

Here is some background info, in a nutshell:
Yes, the subprime mortgage exists to help people with lesser credit to obtain money to be able to purchase a home. But couple years ago, a lot of people, who I would assume did not think and plan logically based on their cash flow and how the possibility of rate adjustment would affect their payment in future, take on these loans to purchase a home. And I am certain among those people, there are plenty who took it to the extreme to buy something they can only marginally afford. On top of that, they probably take the risk of buying such homes with the assumption that the market price will continue to rise. Needless to say, now that the market price is stagnant and probably will drop some more, and time has reached to point of rate reset, they can no longer afford their payments and face foreclosure.

Here is the answer why having the legislation is an irresponsible deed:
The word of significance from my explanation above is, RISK. Any market/business out there involves risk. Like buying stocks, people understand (I hope they do…) that they are at risk of buying something that which the value may drop and therefore, they can lose money. The logic isn’t too far off here. These people, who are now facing foreclosures, borrwed money and borrowed more than they can afford. There’s also probability that they did not try to fully comprehend the terms – what could happen with the rate and how a slight change in rate can strangle them by taking loans to the extreme. They took the bet, and they lost. Like gambling in casino, you don’t get your money back when you lost. Period

This takes me to the conclusion that the folks proposing the legislation are simply silly. If they go ahead with that, why don’t they have legislation to help cover the people who lost in the stock market. Next, help the people who started business and completely failed. While we are at it, let’s have legislation that bails out the folks who lost their shirts at casino. This really makes me want to laugh.

On top of this and outside of the financial arena, responsibility is also non-existent. A few points of support are:

• Most recently, from the Virginia Tech shooting, I talked about how people fail to look into themselves for the source of problem
• Another recent case, check out some news on Alberto Gonzales. The dude used 50+ times of “I don’t recall” as his answers in his own defense. Isn’t he the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation? If so, I would say, whether he is willing or not, whether he likes it or not, it’s his job, and he should be aware of the firing process of eight attorneys. Since he doesn’t recall of of that, he deserves to be fired, as a normal employee would on a job.
• A case of parents suing frat/school for the demise of their under-age-son because of alchohol. My argument – did the fraternity or the school make the decision for the boy to sneak in and over-drink? Even if it’s due to hazing, the kid chose to join the frat himself. I am sorry, but he has made a stupid choice.
• Few years back, a case where people attempt to sue the big four fast food restaurants “lying” to customers and need to offer healthier options to. What the heck, c’mon, we all know fast food are not healthy. Go eat something else if you want to be healthy or add exercise to the agenda.
• Domestic (unmarried) partner claiming the other person has held them back in life. This is an example I observed from personal life and my argument – pure excuses.

The list could go on if I really want to keep digging, but I think I have stated my point. It would really help if people do THINK before they make a decision, and also understand that whatever outcomes are the direct result of our own decisions and actions, and we need to stop blaming and take responsibility.

Like I said before, I have made the “final” payment for my car a little over a week ago and finally received the Certificate of Title :) So now I really, literally own “my” beautiful Scion tC.

Two good things I want to reiterate by doing this:
– I’m automatically “making” 6.15% return after tax
– The joy and happy feeling of having one less loan account to look at

So if you have outstanding loan/debt, you can get the same things by paying them off. Start with the one with the highest interest rate.