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Go Hiking And Live the Charged Life

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Book Titles really lend themselves to discussing hiking. I mean that if you are hiking then you are living the charged life. No doubt about it. So now you want to know why that might be, right?

Here is the deal. There are four ways hiking contributes to living a charged life. So here they are for your consideration.

Nature

Just being in nature rejuvenates the body and mind, but appreciating it is even more important. You need to love that tree and the sky and the wind. There will come a time when you won’t be able to feel the wind on your face. Think about that every time you feel a breeze. You will appreciate nature and life.

Consistently exposing yourself to the elements makes you stronger. You could even take a lesson fro Wim How, the “Ice Man” and go hiking with in shorts and no shirt when it is 30 degrees or colder. No, that is appreciating nature.

Energy

Any kind of exercise will provide you with more energy, but there is something about climbing a mountain that takes it to another level. Maybe it is that you feel you have accomplished something significant and no matter what the rest of your day holds you will have that spark to face it.

It doesn’t matter if your muscles are sore and tired. The energy is still there. It will fuel you throughout the rest of your day.

Purpose

You hear a lot about having a purpose these days. Every self-help book discusses it. I don’t think people have only one purpose, they have multiple. One purpose might be to provide for your family. Another to become physically healthy and fit. All of these keep you charged.

My favorite purpose is to make it to the top of a mountain every week. There is nothing like to keep you charged and focused.

In his book “Charged,” Brendon Burchard quotes Tom Robbins on purpose. Tom says, “Our purpose is to consciously, deliberately evolve towards a wiser, more liberated and luminous state of being.” A great way to get to that state is to climb a mountain every week. You get wiser, more liberated and definitely more luminous!

Challenge

There is nothing like a weekly climb up a mountain to stoke your need for a challenge. Even if you have climbed the same mountain a hundred times (and I have done that), it is still a challenge every time.

Challenge in life is seriously important. Think about the people that enter Spartan races. My guess is most of these people are extremely successful and live a comfortable life. They need adversity and challenges in their life so they go looking for it. At my age, a weekly climb up a mountain is plenty of challenge and I don’t have to pay an entrance fee.

Bookish Weapon Number Thirty-Nine

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Brendon Burchard is a motivational speaker and ever-present online video encourager. He has written several books and one he wrote in 2012 had an impression on me. It is called, “The Charge.”

As with all of his books Brendon is passionate. I underlined the following right at the beginning of the book:

“The Charged Life, the truly lived life, is not routine existence in some quaint, picturesque village of safety and certainty. No, the life with living is out therein the wooded wilds of the unknown, on the craggy battlefields that test our wits and wills in the daily fights with our own demons.”

All The Lives

The author discusses other kinds of lives that may not be so “charged” such as the “caged life,” and the “comfortable life.”

The caged life is when you live in the past or in the expectations of others. You think you are stuck and can’t make the changes you need to make and have to be a certain way. You are asking “will I survive.” Brendon says unless life flips you upside down it is very hard to get out of this, but it can be done.

The comfortable life is “an everything is ok” kind of life. A ho-hum existence. It isn’t like a cage but more like a rut he says.

The Charged Life “calls to us after we have done what we were supposed to do, become who we thought we were supposed to be, lived as we thought we were supposed to live.”

The Motivation

Most motivational speakers use information from other motivational speakers. Tony Robbins borrows from Jim Rohn and others. Burchard borrows from Tony Robbins when he discusses human drives. He talks about how you control the meaning of everything or as Tony said it, “Nothing has any meaning except the meaning we give it.”

Burchard goes on to advise you to not spend your time on time wasters. In 2020 that would be on your phone. He mentioned TV and surfing the net. And then he says “For every bit of data that comes into your life, your brain attaches meaning and emotion to it.”

Competence

Burchard discusses the ten human drives. One of them is competence. It is important. When we are doing well and conquering our world we reinforce the feeling of competence. He calls this the “competence-confidence loop.” Then he says, “…the second our internal competence scale tips from self-assured to self-doubting is the moment we begin feeling defeat. We start questioning our ability, intelligence, strengths – or entire future.”

He says that if we can understand our world, perform in it and master it then we have competence. If not we don’t feel competent. If we know we can “figure it out” we are good. He says, “Personal agency is a term psychologists use to describe how confident you feel in your ability to control your actions and shape the outcomes in your life.” This is important.

There is so much more in this book but I thought the above was the best.

Go Hiking And Don’t Hurry?

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No, it is not possible. When you are hiking, as I have said over and over again, you go to beat your personal fastest time to the top. There is just no other way. Is there?

Well, maybe. You could slow down once in a while. How often? Say every three months take your time. No!

Rhythms

With hiking, you are going to follow the natural rhythms of life. You don’t need to purposely slow down. You will know when your body is overstressed or overly tired and adjust the day’s hike. Find a smaller mountain. Still, you want to go as fat as you are able.

Then there is the rhythm of the hike itself. Some areas are not as steep as others so you go faster. Then on the steep stretches, you naturally go a little slower.

Life

Life itself will slow you down on its own. You might get sick and need to cancel the hike. That is one reason why you never miss a hike because you are going to miss one for some reason anyway.

Consider the situation we are in now with both the State and National parks closed due to the Pandemic. Nothing you can do. No hikes.

Alternatives

How can there be an alternative to a hike? Nothing can replace it. True, but you can be creative when for reasons beyond your control you can’t hit the trails.

Design an “at home” training schedule for yourself. One that will help you go FASTER when you get back on the mountain.

Adapt

One of the things Navy Seals discuss is their ability to adapt to circumstances. So let’s say, like me, you live in a small apartment, you’re broke, and have no “home gym” equipment. What to do?

First, you can use that backpack for weight-bearing exercise. Fill it up with water bottles. It can get pretty heavy. Then progressively add a bottle every week. You can do light squats (better than air squats), curls, shoulder presses and even push-ups with the pack on your back. Do everything FAST!

Then use those big multi-gallon jugs of water to do Farmer carries. They have nice handles on them and they weigh about 50 pounds.

Make It Harder

When you design a workout for yourself keep in mind that a hike is four to five hours long. So make your workout at least three hours long. If your gym is closed you are doing daily workouts as well. Those should be at least an hour and a half. Do multiple rounds with Burpees, Mountain Climbers interspersed between shoulder presses or squats.

The idea is to make it harder than the gym workout. It won’t be harder than hiking but do your best.

Bookish Weapon Number Thirty-Eight

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John Mark Comer’s book, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry,” is a tough one for me. On the book cover the word “Hurry” is crossed out. Gone. This kind of goes against my philosophy. I am always saying, go fast up that mountain.

Actually I am always rushing through things to the point where they are incomplete or shoddy (maybe even this post). I am not sure if I am hurrying toward something or away from something. But never mind that, let’s take a closer look at this book.

Level Seven

In just the first few pages the book taught me something about myself that I didn’t know. I am a “Level Seven.” That must be from these video games that the young whippersnappers play twenty-four hours a day. Ok, I confess, we even had levels back in “Space Invader” days. Anyway, Comer sounds a bit alarmed that he just hit thirty and that meant he was a level three. I am halfway into my seventies so I guess that makes me a level seven and maybe even a seven and a half.

What could be better than being a level seven? The higher the level the more of a master at whatever game you are playing, right? Thanks, Mark!

Hurry Hurry Hurry

Comer or should I respectfully say Pastor Comer, alarmed himself when he realized he was rushing through life. His mentors (maybe level sevens, you think?) told him that he should do everything he could to eliminate hurry in his life. One of the mentors, Dallas Willard, is quoted: “There is nothing else. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” Sounds good on the surface.

Being a Pastor he says Jesus was unhurried and therefore if you follow his “Way” you should strive for that as well. Sounds good to me. Even below the surface. Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life as Willard says above. Well, can you imagine the current Dali Lama running someplace?

The Evidence

He goes on to make a real case for how unnecessarily hurried our society has become. Smartphones, crammed schedules, rushing here and there.

Comer asks if you think you might suffer from any of a number of things like irritability, hypersensitivity, restlessness, workaholism, emotional numbness, out-of-order-priorities, lack of care for your body, escapist behaviors, slippage of spiritual disciplines, and isolation. Guilty?

The Answer

Comer provides you with a solution to all these problems. They are being silent and solitary once a week. It is called the Sabbath in religious terms. He makes a great case for it if you are Christian and I like to think I am one so of course, I feel guilty for not practicing it. We call that being “convicted.” Simplicity is the second. Have you heard of minimalism? Slowing is the third.

All these practices make sense for everyone, not just Christians. You all know about minimalism so I don’t think I have to belabor that. Sell or give away what you don’t need and don’t buy what you don’t need. Slowing is more interesting.

With “Slowing,” he suggests some practices. They include driving the speed limit, getting into the slow lane, get into the longest checkout line at the grocery store ( I tried, I really tried), get a flip phone or ditch your phone altogether, kill your TV (got that one right), walk slower (NO), and journaling (of course).

I left out a lot, but you get the idea. It may take me a while to implement more of these, but I think it will be worth the effort.

Go Hiking Because You Matter

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That seems pretty logical, doesn’t it? Hiking adds to your life and is one more thing that helps you be the person you need to be for the world.

Stay Screwed Into The Socket

Brian Johnson of Optimize Me fame, reviews books and one author asked if we were the light bulb or the light. Light is the energy source of life. Another author he reviewed said we all just needed to keep ourselves screwed into the light socket. The was our job. Exercise helps do that and that is one reason hiking helps with it.

Another reason would be that no other place has more energy than nature. So you are tightly screwed into that socket when you are out there.

Death Again

Yes, this has been a subject of these posts from time to time, but bear with me because it is important. It is one of the reasons you do matter. If you were immortal then your life would not be as precious. But you are not so you have a unique fingerprint that you have placed on life.

Now, during this COVID-19 Pandemic, we are all reminded of death. They have locked down the hiking trails at the state parks. No hiking. That is a sort of death for me. It will be another month at least before they open again. Nothing can be taken for granted. So when you get a chance go hiking. It might be the last time you are able to for lots of reasons.

More Life

One of the reasons hiking became so important to me is that as I aged I realized that a person needs to remain vital and active as long as possible. Many folks in their 60s and 70s are retired, sitting around waiting for the grim reaper. You have to have interests that stoke your passions.

I am very fortunate that I am not retired. That I am working every day, exercising and hiking. It makes life feel full. Now if they would just open the trails again all would be well.

Bookish Weapon Number Thirty-Eight

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“You Matter,” is written by Matthew Emerzian and is an attempt to persuade you of three things. First that you indeed do matter, second that others matter too and third, that all of us together matter. I thought it was well presented with some fun stories in it as well.

You

It is basically the idea that you are unique and as such can have an impact. Your uniqueness means you matter. Everybody can make a difference in the world just by being alive. He puts it this way, “You matter because you are unique. You matter because you are a gift to the world. You matter because you are one in some eight billion. You matter because you are a mom, a dad, a brother, a sister. You matter because you belong here.” Nicely said, Matt!

He says that you should find a song that is “your song” and play it all the time. I liked that. He calls it “your official song.” That is a good idea. Do it.

He also asks you what matters most to you. He has you make a list. He says, “What matters most to you is what you spend most of your time and resources on. Are you spending most of your time and resources on things that bring you joy and feel authentically “you?”

Others

“Life is not meant to be done alone.” That is a real kick in the butt for me. I have been alone for over thirty years. Oh well. He goes on and makes a case for this and he is right I am sure.

He discusses being creative and doing things for other people. Writing to them. I liked his idea of writing a note to people that are most important in your life. A little appreciation note. Great idea. He also suggests you write a letter to yourself.

We

Emerzian tells the story about how he was afraid of flying and what ultimately got him past that was internalizing the idea that his “mission” to help others was more important than his fears. One significant event that helped him was having a woman tell him he prevented her from committing suicide. That would certainly do it for me. Then he asks what fear you might have that prevents you from being of service.

He tells you to ask your self these questions, “What is the one thing you hate about your community? Great. What are you doing to change it.”

This was a decent book. I think his attempt at helping people realize that they matter didn’t have much heart in it. His passion it seems is with helping others and that’s good.