In Bruce Lee’s book The Tao of Jeet Kun Do, one of the core principles of kicking ass is “hack away the nonessentials.”
In other words, while you’re beating CPPS, try to do as little else as possible.
Think of all the stuff you do every week. It’s a lot. Modern life is crazy. It used to be “get up, hunt, carry home woolly mammoth flank, feed everybody, get it on, fall asleep, repeat.” You know, barring all of the disease and tribal warfare and superstitious incidents.
Now your schedule is full of varied pursuits. You’re going to have to cut down your activities so you can focus on building new habits that beat CPPS.
| Your weekly schedule now | Modified for effectiveness |
| Work 50 hours Play with kids Date with wife Housework Go to gym 3 times/week Go to Thursday baseball Meet with professionals’ coffee group Renovate basement Deliver groceries for extra income | Work 40 hours (or less if you can!) Play with kids Date with wife Housework |
Multitasking is a surefire way to fail at everything. It’s scientifically proven that our effectiveness at completing and optimizing any task decreases by massive amounts when we pair it with other tasks.
The more complicated the tasks, the worse they’ll turn out. Like a computer, your brain only has so much RAM with which to load and cache all variables innate to each process.
Cut down on your activities while you work through this course, and you will reduce your anxiety and stress while giving yourself the time and resources to conquer CPPS.
You can come back to your extracurriculars later, if you miss them.
Personal example: I once tried to write a book, study MMA, work a full time job, renovate my house, and adapt my life to my first child – at the same time.
I sucked at everything. It took forever. None of my goals seemed to get done.
So I cut it down. And stuff got done.
Retired Navy SEAL Mark Divine says Navy SEALs are dangerous primarily because they learn to zero in on one and only one target at a time. They have a priority list, and lots to do, but it’s one task at a time until it’s done perfectly.
How does this apply to this course?
In the Cure CPPS course, learn one unit at a time, and don’t move on until everything in it is an inextricable habit.
You will receive measurable criteria that you must meet before moving on. It’s not a test and it’s not hard – it just makes sure you’ve made up the right habits your own.
If your life is crazy with work, kids, and other life insanity, do no more than one lesson per day, or even per week.
Further, the core principle of ALL rehab work is:
CONSISTENCY.
If you can do the bare minimum, every day, you will improve. If you want to improve faster, do more and read farther into the unit. But only do that when it isn’t taking time away from earlier lessons.
INSERT: YOUTUBE VIDEO on CONSISTENCY
To be consistent, you must plan the activity, do the activity, and then plan to do it again. Repeating this cycle builds a habit. And a habit guards you from the problems that made you do all this in the first place.
That means you exercise a bare minimum, too.
You’re going to have to give up the gym for a little bit, if you haven’t already.
No, you won’t get fat. You can’t exercise faster than you take in calories unless you’re part of the Bhutan Death March. And I guarantee those guys wouldn’t recommend that as a diet or lifestyle.
You will still exercise – in the form of stretching and frequent walks. And that’s it until you reach Unit 4.
I’m an exercise fiend. I actually can’t sleep unless I get some tiny amount of cardio in a day, following any naps. If you’re like that, do the bare minimum amount. Get your heart and lungs going, and then take a walk.
And cut down your screen time
Relax – treating all this is hard work. I think you should watch a show every now and then and escape.
But if you use your phone, tablet, or computer for social media and/or news, that will raise your cortisol levels. As in, it’s stressing you out and slowing your recovery. Part of the problem with all of our mental health issues today is an overload of information – much of which is chock full of advertising or just old fashioned B.S.
So get rid of it. Delete your social media apps if you need. And only visit those sites on a schedule, if you absolutely have to. Do you really need to know everybody’s complaints about the state of politics, or their posts from their vacations? It’s time to take care of you and your family.
YOUR MISSION:
Create a three-part schedule in your journal. You can revise it later.
Part 1: Morning routine
Part 2: Work routine
Part 3: Evening routine
And cut out everything that doesn’t involve you or your family’s immediate interests. News time, social media time, keeping up with shows, baseball games, everything.