Laser Words

Author

Geoff Girvitz
September 04, 2024

  • Fatherhood: Don’t punish progress

  • Fitness: Building capacities

  • Focus: Laser words

  • A book, a quote, a dad joke

Fatherhood: Don't punish progress

I can remember the vibe from my own childhood — if not the specific words. “Look who decided to take out the trash!” Or, “I see that you got tired of living in a pigsty and cleaned up your room.” I get it because there are examples of where I’ve asked my kid to do something a zillion times and — when he finally does it — it’s like a pressure release. It can be tempting to say something snarky in that moment.

However…

If you have been complaining about a lack of momentum, then don’t get in the way of the dominoes when they finally start to fall.

Fitness: Building capacities

Let’s say that you want to build physical capability for a certain sport or activity. I think that there are three categories to consider: your senses, your skills, and your capacities. Here’s what your capacities look like:

  • Range (flexibility, joint movement, etc)

  • Strength

  • Endurance

  • Speed (power, agility, etc)

The requirements for any given physical activity will have a range within each of these categories. For example, the demands in yoga are different than for powerlifting. There will also be cases of a clear maximum. For example there is an upper limit to the speed required for 10-pin bowling. More speed won’t help.

Below, these spider graphs show the value of different capacities for two different sports. What are your favourite activities — and what do the ranges of capacities look like?

Bonus: I put out a piece for AskMen recently that involves some smart modifications to the squat, bench press and deadlift — all via some of my favourite coaches. You can read it here.

Focus: Laser words

The fuzzier your statement about any kind of habit, the harder it is to execute on. Compare the two following ideas:

  • I’m going to keep my workspace neat

  • Every Wednesday, after my regular 4-5PM meeting ends, I will set a countdown timer for three minutes and make my workspace as neat as possible before the timer goes off

Not only is the second statement clearer, it requires less mental space. It has a time, a place, and a clear duration. You can’t design focus with fuzz.

What I'm reading/listening to

Quote: Unnecessary toughness

Toughness is appealing. However, the divide between too tough and not tough enough can be tricky to bridge. A fear of being too hardcore can leave you soft and a fear of being too soft can fracture your coccyx.

If you're thinking that this feels a little specific for a metaphor, you're right. This is a story about unnecessary toughness that took place on the set of Deliverance — recounted by Burt Reynolds via comedian, Norm MacDonald,.

“For a scene where a boat goes over a waterfall, the director, John Frankenheimer, wanted to use a stuntman. Reynolds said, ‘No, we don’t want that.’ Frankenheimer says, ‘ok or a dummy,’” but Burt Reynolds refused and fought to shoot the scene himself. Here's how it played out:

“...His shoulder really hit a rock, and his head hit another rock. And then he said the next thing he remembered was he was way down stream, all of his clothes were torn off. [...] Next thing he remembers, he's waking up in the hospital, John Frankenheimer's at his bedside. And he goes, 'I said to John, how'd it look... on the dailies?' And John Frankenheimer said, 'It looked like a dummy falling over a waterfall.'”

Dad joke

Where did the pirate get his hook?

At the second-hand store.