IMPERFECT GOALS? NO ONE SAID YOU HAVE TO BE PERFECT

Imperfect goals are a good reason to write, to explain, to instruct.

It doesn’t take a licensed teacher with three masters degrees to understand the pressures of perfection.

“Do your work the best you can and let it stand” is the right motto for moving forward.

The hard part is watching it all get torn to pieces. But that’s what moving forward, moving forward gives: perspective.

When you’re done, you’re done. The next challenge is waiting for you.

But, what if you can’t quite let things go? That haunting feeling that you could have done better won’t go away?

Relax. It never goes away, but you do.

Social media has been a boon for those stuck in the past. I love the access to everything on the internet as a history major, but it’s different when I wear my content creator hat.

If you search for information important to you, like how to cut and shape stone, you might find the right page. Along with a million others to review.

A novice stone cutter needs to know this: tools, technique, and protection.

Does the origin story of earth, the solar system, and universe matter? Not when you’ve got stone to cut, but it’s all there.

Along with everything else.

Imperfect Goals For Fitness

Everyone has fitness goals, whether they call it that or not.

Lose weight, add muscle? There are more goals, but boiled down to the essence of fitness, we perceive ourselves as fat and sloppy even if we’re not.

Mirror don’t lie, but don’t believe some strangers ideas on what YOU should do.

How does it work? First you learn that everything you’ve been doing is wrong, based on some shirtless guy with a shaved chest.

We see him and want to look just like him. More or less.

Or some CrossFit lady in tights and a sports bra confirms what the guy said: “Everything you’ve done until now is wrong.”

We know they must be right from what we see in the mirror. Now we need them sooo bad to improve fitness?

Or do we need to stop eating so much and laying around while we get puffy and inflamed?

Generic fitness advice usually comes with a product, a system, or a whole new approach to nutrition.

Instead of falling for yet another shot of snake oil, reduce calorie intake and increase calories burned.

It’s too simple to believe. No pills, no contraptions, no membership, pep talks, or fat shaming.

Instead, start with a smaller plate. Follow me for more diet advice.

Life Goals For The Living

Are your goals lined up with keeping a mind and body balance? That’s the ancient Greek ideal and a good one.

But things are different today.

The idea of ‘body balance’ can extend past our actual skin to the ‘body politic’ the ‘world body’ along with the ‘hot bod.’

Is ‘hot bod’ too much hype? Check your temperature. If it’s around 98.6, you’re hot enough. Glad to get past that.

Today’s ‘body politic’ includes some sketchy people working to convince themselves, and their listeners, that the right is violent and the left is soft.

The right is ‘for the people’ and the left just wants ‘bigger government.’

And they are both wrong when the right lined up to let covid19 run rampant and left couldn’t find a way to hose it down.

The covid vaccine helps. It’s helping more now that both sides recognize the threat.

The ‘world body’ is a study in imperfect goals. India is suffering, Japan called an emergency, and the threat of another lockdown is circulating if the virus variants increase their killing spree.

Do I expect a breakthrough covid surge in Milwaukee after the Buck won the NBA title and 65,000 fans jumped shoulder to shoulder together? I don’t see why not.

Goals For A Hot Bod

These are imperfect goals unless you’re a swimsuit model, instagram flasher, or on camera stripper.

In other words, these are your goals that only you will see and appreciate. At first.

Choose a muscle, or muscle group, and find a way to work it efficiently. Start small, like improving your grip. That’s a small thing until you start dropping and breaking dishes.

Or your calves. No one notices calves, or should.

If you exercise, if you do the work, you may see results over time. Even if you don’t, you’ve make a breakthrough with a new habit.

The key here is expanding the habit to another body region. Like your gut, now called your core.

Start by holding your stomach in and breathing at the same time. Call it Gut Yoga.

Along with eating from a smaller plate, you will eventually feel your belt loosen from Gut Yoga. Add stronger hands and sturdier calves and you’re on your way.

Stronger hands mean you’re ready to lift weights. The calf work means you’re ready to move up to thighs, which includes your butt. Find a routine you can stick to and the transformation is in gear.

You’ve got legs, arms, gut, and butt covered. Next is back and biceps to go along with chest and triceps.

Are you a fitness expert yet? You’ve got the look, and the experience, to tell someone else that they’re doing it all wrong. But save it.

Getting on someone else about their fitness routine is a good way to fall off yours.

Don’t be a quitter.