{"id":379,"date":"2017-04-08T10:08:05","date_gmt":"2017-04-08T17:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jick.net\/wordpress\/?p=379"},"modified":"2017-04-08T10:10:36","modified_gmt":"2017-04-08T17:10:36","slug":"yes-you-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/?p=379","title":{"rendered":"Yes You Can!"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may\u00a0not like this. \u00a0We live in an era of excuses, and everyone has lots of them. \u00a0I’m here to tell you that they are mostly illusory and are holding you back from a better life. \u00a0You will probably think I’m just lacking compassion. \u00a0I don’t mind if you come to that conclusion after<\/em> you’ve heard me out and given my words some thought, but if you start<\/em> with that assumption, we both lose.<\/p>\n

Case in point: I am 71 years old, and I just had my first cataract operation last week. \u00a0It wasn’t so bad. \u00a0My eye’s still a bit sore and the new lens hasn’t completely settled into position yet, so my vision hasn’t really improved so far, but I’m confident it will soon.<\/p>\n

The problem is, I was told not to lift anything heavier than 10 pounds for 3 weeks, and “strenuous exercise” is a no-no for at least that long. \u00a0So I have to “act like an old man” for 3 weeks. \u00a0Sounds easy, right? My knees and back could use some “down time” to recover from running hurdles.<\/p>\n

But after less than a week of enforced lethargy, it’s already becoming a habit! \u00a0Right now I feel weak and fragile — pretty much like the stereotypical\u00a071-year-old man — and it’s hard to imagine doing one<\/em> pushup, never mind my usual 22. \u00a0If I didn’t have documented evidence that I can indeed run the hurdles in Provincial age-group record time, I’d find it fantastical.<\/p>\n

Which puts me in a position to understand why so many older people firmly believe that athletic competition is a thing of their distant past; that they will never be able to drop those extra pounds; that heavy lifting would be insanely reckless; that they’d better hang on to all the handrails lest they fall and fracture that doubtless-fragile hip joint; that their walks should not be too brisk lest the ol’ ticker get stressed out and stop ticking. \u00a0Hell, I’ve been advised of all<\/em> those myths by family, friends and medical personnel, many times.<\/p>\n

So without empirical evidence to the contrary<\/em>, why would I question the stereotype? \u00a0And if I did “act my age”, how long would it take to make the stereotype true<\/em>? \u00a0Longer than 3 weeks, I hope!<\/p>\n

Here’s the thing: how can anyone acquire<\/em> enough\u00a0empirical evidence to the contrary to convince themselves that they c<\/strong>an<\/strong><\/em> Do It? \u00a0One can watch others<\/em> Doing It and get inspiration from that, but it’s surprisingly (well, not really) difficult for people to draw conclusions about themselves from evidence about others. \u00a0(That’s called a “failure of enlightenment effect<\/em>” by Psychologists, I believe.) \u00a0The only<\/em> thing that’s going to convince you that you<\/em> can Do It is Doing It yourself<\/em>! \u00a0(That’s called a “Catch-22<\/em>“, I believe.)<\/p>\n

If you’re like me, that means more than just Doing It once and patting yourself on the back. \u00a0The conviction dies within days when I try to ignore societal stereotypes of what I can and can’t Do. \u00a0I have to Do It\u00a0as often as possible, and try to Do It better each time — or at least not worse over the short term. \u00a0Perhaps I’m insecure. \u00a0Well, if you’re not, this should be a lot easier for you!<\/p>\n

Shall I run through an inventory of excuses? \u00a0No, that would be both mean and<\/em> pointless. \u00a0Deep in your heart you know what actually prevents you from Doing It (whatever It might be for you) and what is just an excuse, doubtless backed up by a firmly entrenched stereotype. \u00a0Pain is real. \u00a0Bones do break. \u00a0Fat is hard to burn off (my metabolism seems to convert every gram of carbs directly into an ounce of fat). \u00a0Spines compress with age. \u00a0(I found out last week at that I am 2.25 inches shorter than I was at 25. \u00a0Over two inches! \u00a0Ack! \u00a0it must be bone-on-bone all the way down now.) \u00a0Pulmonary embolisms (I’ve had two) reduce your lung capacity. \u00a0Chemo has many impacts. \u00a0Shit happens. \u00a0You are definitely going to slow down with age; but that’s what the\u00a0Age-Graded Tables<\/a>\u00a0are for!<\/p>\n

As long as you give yourself a full\u00a0list of meaningful and worthy “It<\/strong>“s,<\/p>\n

You Can<\/strong> Do It<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now for the surprise: I am not just lecturing old people<\/em>. \u00a0You younger folks have plenty of excuses too, and are prone to regard great accomplishments and heroic deeds as out of your reach, for reasons you can recite by heart. \u00a0 Most of them are perfectly valid as far as they go, which is usually not as far as you think. \u00a0The most important lesson I have learned in my life is that<\/p>\n

You Can Do Far More Than You Think You Can.<\/em><\/p>\n

And you’ll be glad you did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may\u00a0not like this. \u00a0We live in an era of excuses, and everyone has lots of them. \u00a0I’m here to tell you that they are mostly illusory and are holding you back from a better life. \u00a0You will probably think I’m just lacking compassion. \u00a0I don’t mind if you comeRead More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","category-rants"],"gutentor_comment":2,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":381,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions\/381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}