The Path to Resilience ep9.0

June 13th, 2022

A quote has been floating around in my head the last couple days. 

“Clarity on what matters provides clarity on what doesn’t.” 

Typically, applying this line of thinking leads to two hard choices. 

Hard choice number one is deciding what does not matter. 

Hard choice number two is removing that which does not. 

While building Motionbox.io we’ve had a couple different moments of having to make these decisions. 

Whether it’s maintaining a contract, running an ad campaign, or the other day to days. Making decisions is what separates leaders from people with titles. 

Taking it a step further, in my personal life it’s been challenging. I conceptually know that I do best with an early morning wake up, coffee and a walk with my girlfriend, then jumping into work. But at night, my new favorite tv show Blue Bloods, has been calling my name. 

It may be clear, it may be simple, but the decision still needs to be made. 

Which leads me to my next thought. 

Oftentimes the things we want are quite simple to attain. Things like “I want to be a millionaire” Well you can do it in 10 years if you invest $1500 a month into the S&P 500. Or “I want abs” all you REALLY need to do is eat less than you expend. Success, growth and achievement are all incredibly simple, yet horribly challenging to enact. 

So, for my learnings on being resilient for the last week. I’ve decided to make my decisions based on my intention. Treating intention like the map to my goals. 

I have decided to simplify my goals, and then make it clear the actions I’ll take to get there.

Goal 1: Live a happy life with my girlfriend and dog. 

Goal 2: Build Motionbox to solve big problems for a big group of people. 

Goal 3: Don’t get fat. 

Action 1: Spend at least 20 minutes a day without my phone with Taylor and Cannoli. 

Action 2: Work in sprints. Set small daily goals, and smash them. 

Action 3: Walk 10,000 steps a day. Run twice a week. Lift four times a week.

Today was more of an eccentric release of thoughts onto a keyboard than anything. Hope you enjoyed.

The Path to Resilience ep8.0

June 6, 2022

Well, it’s been a while. 

I started a new job, and graduated college. I ended up in the hospital in the middle of the night, hours before my last final of college was due. Those are just some highlights. 

I’m writing this from 32,818 feet in the air. Flying back to California from Boston where we went to a wedding in one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. 

I love flying, like most, I abstained from it for a while due to covid. But getting back in the groove of it has reminded me how much I love the (for the most part) uninterrupted periods of time. I spent the first hour listening to one of my favorite albums, eyes closed. I haven’t gotten to do that in a long time. 

I like to put on the seatback screen the “My flight” page, that shows where your plane is, and how high up you are. The altitude is my favorite one to watch. 

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I also took some time to journal. I read about how high schoolers who spent 10 minutes a week journaling through their gratitude were happier and performed better in school. 

Not sure how much I care about the school part, but we’d all like to be happier right? 

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I think that times of challenge are important. They’re inflection points, as a mentor of mine likes to call them. And I’ve had a few fairly big ones in the last year. 

I tend to get focused on one or two concepts at a time, sometimes for a couple days, sometimes for longer. 

The concepts I’ve been thinking of now have come from a poem I love. 

Good Timber, by Douglas Malloch

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You can read it if you want, it’s short and phenomenal. 

My favorite excerpt, and the thesis of the work goes 

“The man who never had to toil To gain and farm his patch of soil, Who never had to win his share Of sun and sky and light and air, Never became a manly man

But lived and died as he began.”

Incredible. 

Suffering produces growth. 

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I’m not someone that enjoys suffering, I have no interest in going camping, I like bathrooms. 

I don’t like it when things are hard, I want it to be easy. 

It’s something I truly dislike about myself. I wish I was someone who jumped into freezing cold water for fun. But I’m not. 

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But when I avoid suffering, and challenges, I fluctuate. Almost as much as the altitude on this airplane. 

That’s something I am looking to change. 

Resilience is consistent. It’s the same every time. 

That’s my goal for this summer. Not to be exceptionally great, but to be exceptionally consistent in my chase for greatness. 

I will be sending this out once a week, and actually trying to grow it now. Look out for it on Sundays, and send it to a friend if you enjoyed. 

If you want to get this in your email every week, click here. 

Happy Monday. 

Reece

P.S. Pic from the wedding if you’re interested.

The Path to Resilience ep7.0

Happy Sunday! Every week I write a little bit about my path to learning what it means to be resilient. You can read why this started here. Otherwise, enjoy!

It’s been quite the week. On a good note, I regularly put my “3-2-1” practice to use. Between school, work, and life, things tend to add up and get fairly crazy. 

More than once over the last couple weeks I’ve felt like a failure. As a student, employee, boyfriend, dog dad. Any area I operate in, I’ve felt unexceptional at. 

This comes off the heels of midterms, and directly prior to the last few months of my last semester of college. I’m close. 

I’m essentially holding on for dear life, getting assignments turned in, working full days. Holding on for dear life. 

At various points this week I’ve contemplated the idea of “Running today’s race.” And how oftentimes, effort is circumstantial. 

We aren’t all professional athletes, we don’t often build our lives around a single event in our day. I used to train in the gym for hours on end. I made no excuses, and I did what was told of me by the whiteboard I wrote my workout on. 

That didn’t last, and these days, I try to show up with that no excuses mentality for anything, and it doesn’t work.

I’m slowly learning the art of operating as a normal human being, not someone defined by the rigidity of weight on a barbell, or calories on a bike. 

As I battle my own mental health, I’m realizing that sometimes, showing up for an entire day is a personal best. Making my girlfriend smile is a win. The art of being human lies in finding those small victories. 

So today’s race, and everyday’s race, is to find the small wins. 

Happy Sunday, find those small wins.

The Path to Resilience ep6.0

Happy Sunday! Every week I write a little bit about my path to learning what it means to be resilient. You can read why this started here. Otherwise, enjoy!

This is just a check in, for the sake of consistency. I launched a new thing, check it out here. 

I’m going to paste in my thoughts on consistent effort as opposed to spurts of effort. 

​​One of my all time favorite stories is that of the stonecutter. His entire career is devoted to taking giant boulders, and turning them into pebbles. Each process is quite the feat, and one would expect a giant piece of machinery, or a team of a hundred men.

But when one man shows up with a sledgehammer in tow, one would assume that he is especially strong or skilled.

But when he takes his first swing, and nothing happens, it’s normal to doubt. And that doubt continues to creep in. On the second swing, and the third, and the ninety ninth. Futile swing after futile swing, any belief in the stonecutter's ability has been lost.

The hundredth swing comes along and destroys the stone, and with it our doubt. Splitting the stone into two, it becomes clear that the stonecutter was not set apart by ability or talent. But rather by the ability to keep swinging in the face of failure. In theory, anyone can cut stone, all it takes is to keep swinging.

The stonecutter knew where to go, and that was forward.

So while climbing a mountain or cutting a stone may seem challenging, it is simply putting one foot in front of the other. That’s not to say climbing the mountain is easy, but it is simple.

Greatness isn’t about talent, it’s about direction.

Really helps me remember, that when things aren’t exactly going to plan, you have to keep chopping the stone. 

I actually have a “99” tattooed because of this story. 

Keep cutting the stone. Happy Sunday.

The Path to Resilience ep5.0

2/20/22

Happy Sunday! Every week I write a little bit about my path to learning what it means to be resilient. You can read why this started here. Otherwise, enjoy!

By now, it feels that this little experiment of mine has drifted from a journal on resilience to an in depth thought catalog on the concept of effort. I figured today I would try to introduce the two. 

But first, some housekeeping. To the two people that consistently open this email, thanks Taylor and TJ, they know why I do this. It’s a way to keep me in check. A way to force myself to continue what I’m doing and I want to further that level of checks and balances. 

Enter, Steph Smith, she does something I really like with her website. She updates it with what she’s specifically working on, whether it be courses, books, this that or the third. I love that concept, and I want to steal it, then make it my own. 

So starting next week, I’m going to keep a running tally of a few things. Some of them are trivial. 

Pages read, + Books read. 

Lunges done (I’m trying to do 400m of walking lunges on every training day, shout out to Cory Gregory for this one).

Minutes I’ve spent journaling. 

These will pop up on my website during the week. 

I think that tracking things on this level will really help me make mindful choices, and that is very important to me. I believe that resilience starts with a proper awareness of where I’m at. Which really boils down to being self aware all day. 

Effort, and resilience, how they go hand in hand. 

If you’re anything like me and have spent any amount of time in the CrossFit world, or seen the movie Lone Survivor, you’ve probably heard the saying “Moderation is for cowards.” It’s interesting, and effectively means that to do anything in moderation just means you’re scared. Scared to try, scared to fail, whatever it is, you’re scared. I used to love this quote, it’s actually written under the brim of many of my hats. 

But what I’ve learned recently is that mentality, that full bore at all times mentality, does very poor things for your resilience. 

Resilience is to be able to show up consistently every day, very few people can show up to everything they do with such a level of tenacity, inevitably some areas of life will suffer. 

I recently discovered this quote: “Everything in moderation, including moderation.”

The point being, every once in a while it’s ok to go full bore. But you need time to prepare and recover for the hunt. Or else you will not last long. 

Here’s to the hunt, and restful Sundays. Enjoy your week.

The Path to Resilience ep4.0

Happy Sunday! Every week I write a little bit about my path to learning what it means to be resilient. You can read why this started here. Otherwise, enjoy!

Thought I’d add in a new segment, on the content I have recently been digesting. I just finished rereading Atomic Habits by James Clear. It’s an incredible book, and has rekindled a mindset on tracking my habits everyday, and trying to create new ones. 

For the sake of accountability, my first habit that I want to work on for the next week is to every day when I wake up, the first thing I want to do is think about three good things. I’m sick of starting my days from the negative point of view of the news or whatever is going on in the world. 

Never Complain.

Another thing I’d like to attempt is to go 24 hours without complaining about anything. Both out loud, and in my head. I’m thinking about proposing a “Complaint jar” to my girlfriend. Where every time we complain we Venmo a dollar to a newly created Venmo account, or something like that. 

This idea partially comes from Ben Bergeron, the widely critiqued trailblazer of coaching competitive CrossFit, he often says “Never whine, never complain, never make excuses.” Even for trivial things, like the rain, or minor inconveniences, no complaints at all. 

The idea also comes from Shaan Puri, he’s been trying to do this for 30 days, and he’s failed 30 times. But I think it’s still beneficial. 

On to the other things, this week has been challenging. From covid scares, to doggy day care drama, to the joys of relationships. I wasn’t able to do my monthly investment strategy due to some surprise expenses which made me feel guilty but I’m trying to remember it is not a perfect art. 

Balance. 

I need to work on balance. I tend to not have balance in my life, something always gets kicked to the side. So at some point today I’m going to sit down and plan out my week, including school time, work time, and times to workout. I’ve let myself go over the last couple months, and I’d like to change that. 

I’m also trying to learn how to code, which has proved to be about as challenging as I expected. But I’m enjoying the challenge, and to have something that’s purely a hobby. 

Effort.

To close, this week’s thought on effort:

There’s a quote from the Bible that says “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loses his soul.” -Matthew 16:26. It’s been on my mind a bit more recently as I’ve started to become more busy, more on operating mode instead of living mode. I’ve been doing more getting through the day, then actually enjoying the day. My paycheck may be bigger, but am I enjoying life? When I get into this mode of just surviving, everything suffers. That’s where I think taking a mindful approach to my daily effort plays a role. I’ve long focused my effort on my calendar, on completing the events and checking things off. This week I’m going to concentrate my effort into enjoying each moment. Being thankful for everything that occurs. Always trying to remember that to feel pressure is a privilege. 

Happy Sunday, let’s crush the week but not ourselves.

The Path to Resilience ep3.0

Feeling the burn out this week, it’s been one of those days and weeks where it felt like everything just added up. I lost it a bit on Thursday, and wouldn’t you know it, I didn’t journal on Thursday either. It’s fairly crazy to see how much of an impact a simple session of journaling can have on my mindfulness throughout the day. So, noted, I need to do that every day. 

I really enjoyed last week writing about the concept of effort, so I decided to expand on that this week by writing about the concept of guided effort. 

Many are familiar with the 10,000 hours theory popularized by Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite authors, so obviously this theory is near and dear to my heart. However, in his book Range, David Epstein challenges this idea. 

Effectively, Epstein was saying that if 10,000 hours of practice should only be the golden rule if individuals are partaking in static events. Where the “competition” per say is usually the same. Things like golf, or an instrument. But as soon as it becomes a “wicked” environment, 10,000 hours is less helpful. This is because you are playing or competing against someone else, and their actions directly affect yours. 

So while effort surely is important, the kind of effort must depend on the activity. 

Happy sunday.

The Path to Resilience ep2.0

1/30/22

I’ve been sitting around, procrastinating writing this, for at least two hours. Browsing YouTube, and this video is what motivated me to sit down and write. If you didn’t know, Mac Miller is my favorite artist. I got one of my more prominent tattoos because of one of his songs, and watching this helped me snap out of whatever fog I had been in this morning. I started my last semester of college this week, and also worked somewhere around 50 hours. It was a pretty hard week, and honestly I lost a grip on a lot of my coping mechanisms. My budget has not been updated, I just updated it for the first time since Monday. I only journaled four times this week, and was barely meditating. Which is so counterintuitive, these are the things that will help me out the most, and yet I’m not doing them. I walked a lot, that was helpful, but it almost felt like I was hibernating. My girlfriend and I got into these big arguments Thursday, Friday, AND Saturday. Which is unlike us, but we’re both just incredibly stressed and I think it’s hard to remember to fight the problem instead of each other. My classes are much harder than I expected, I’ve always sorta breezed through school but I don’t think that will be the case this semester. This leads me to my thought of the week, the idea of effort. 

Effort is such a strange concept. Life doesn’t grade on effort, your worth is not summarized by how much you try. Rather it’s where that effort is placed. The median American net worth is $121,700. Jeff Bezos’ net worth is $170.4 billion. So does Jeff Bezos work 1.4 million times harder than the average American? Probably not. This isn’t at all a comment on capitalism or whatever, but rather a comment on how effort should not be the only recorded metric. Trying is simply not enough, you have to try in the right way, and with the right prerequisites. I see it often in the fitness world, especially with younger athletes. They come in, and they try incredibly hard, they’ll deadlift every day or train seven days a week. From the outside looking in, they’re doing the right thing, showing up and doing the work. But not many of these athletes play in college, even less go pro. So there’s clearly some sort of disconnect in how we approach effort. I think about it in terms of raw effort, and intuitive effort. Raw effort is often ineffective, intuitive effort on the other hand, takes into account the most effective place to give effort. 

If I were to grade myself this past week, raw effort I would have an easy A. But with intuitive effort, I would get a F. I skipped the things that would make my effort effective. I could have had the same exact week, schedule and all, but if I had done the right steps to prepare for the hunt the week could have been a breeze. 

Intuitive effort takes into account preparation and recovery from the hunt, raw effort tricks you into thinking you are constantly hunting. But even cheetahs need to rest check out this excerpt: 

“Cheetahs must cool down after they hunt if they expend too much energy running. Getting to such high speeds puts a tremendous toll on their bodies with their body temperature rising to dangerous heights. You'll often see them lounging in the shade after sprinting or running.”

If we don’t build in time to recover from the hunt, nature will do it for us.

Happy Sunday.

The Path to Resilience ep1.0

1/23/22

Every Sunday, I write a recap on my week, from the perspective of my 2022 path to developing mental resilience. This is my first real installment on the path to resilience for 2022. Just a recap, I’ve realized how often life knocks me off balance, and that is something I’d like to change. Some highlights of what I’ll be doing are; taking a 15 minute walk with no phone every day. Some kind of workout every day, following my budget, and idiot dancing at least once a week. For the whole first edition, find that here. 

I made some changes that I’d like to establish, I switched my coping mechanism a little bit. It used to be something a bit longer and complicated. My new one is:

3-2-1

3 deep breaths

2 things I’m thankful for

1 thing I’m looking forward to

I’ve used it a few times, on Friday, I’m not sure what happened but I got incredibly overwhelmed. I walked away, took a couple seconds, and then I was all good. Meditation has been fun, but a new type of challenge. 

I’m also trying to clean up a lot more, everyday I’d like to clean for at least 5 minutes. Nothing more specific than that, just 5 minutes of targeted cleaning. I also put an unclear goal in my monthly goal. Specifically it is to add to my savings/investments every month. I want to adjust that, I’d like to save and invest an equal amount every month. And my investing goal is to buy at least one share of SPY, every month. My far reaching goal is to buy 3 shares of SPY each month. I’m by no means an investor, but it is fun and exciting. And of course, this is not financial advice, if you followed my financial decisions you would also need a path to resilience. 

Overall, for the first few days, things have been better than I expected. I feel far more calm on a daily basis when I’m taking time to journal and meditate and walk. I start my last semester of college tomorrow, which is of course, very exciting. But I know it’s also going to be very stressful. I’m anxious for how I’ll handle my time, which makes my journaling and mental stability all the more important. 

I’m doing my best to slow down, to enjoy the moment, and remember that amidst chaos, that everything will be ok. 

Which leads me to this, my dad ends all his emails with the same email signature, and to be honest, it gets annoying. In any time of crisis, or freaking out, he’ll always bring it up. And every single time I think, why is this even being brought up? But every single time, he’s right. So just this once, I’m going to steal that email signature. 

“Calmness can lay great errors to rest.”

The Path to Resilience .01

1/20/22

Life got crazy. I realized that when things hit hard I get stressed out and anxious. And those in my sphere of influence suffer because of it. After a good talk with a mentor, I’ve decided to take the year of 2022 and make it my “path to resilience.” I’ll detail it all in the coming paragraphs. But one highlight is each Sunday, I’m going to post here about that week’s journey on the path to resilience.

What I’ve learned, I act like I am always “In the hunt.” Meaning my adrenaline is always on go, and I end up sprinting to burn out over and over again. I need to introduce time to prepare and recover for the hunt every day, and every week.

So each day I’ve committed to:

• At least 15 minutes of walking with no phone.

• Spend 10 minutes journaling, writing out what needs to be get done, and checking them off as they get done.

• Some sort of workout, running, yoga, lifting heavy things.

• Taking 5 minutes to meditate.

• Taking a couple minutes to update my budget.

Each week I’ve committed to:

• Not missing any class.

• Not missing any assignments.

• Not missing any bills.

• Not missing any workouts.

• Idiot dancing at least once a week.

• Writing for fun, at least once a week.

Each month I’ve committed to:

• No credit card debt at the end of the month.

• Add to savings or investments every month.

• Following my budget.

When things get stressful I will:

Admit that whatever is going on most likely sucks, and that I don’t like it.

Practice the 3-2-1:

3 deep breaths and list out 3 things I’m thankful for.

2 deep breaths and list out 2 things I’m excited for.

1 deep breath and 1 reminder that I’m going to be ok.

This is going to be my path to resilience. If you want to follow along, you can do so here, or on my substack.