The paradoxes of life to think about
Hello, everyone. Good morning to you. Are you on your walk? If so, say good morning to someone walking past you if there is. If it's a Londoner, watch out for the hook that's coming back your way.
Speaker 1:If you're in Northern part of England or Wales, you'll have a hello back, won't you? Or the Southwest potentially. Okay let's go into this voice note now. Let me turn this music off right here we go. So the first I wanna talk about paradoxes and I saw these online reading about them and I thought they're really interested and a good way to think.
Speaker 1:So a paradox is defined as something that is self like, it contradicts itself. Right? But when you look into it deeper, actually, it's well founded or it's true. So, you know, what we're saying is life is full of paradoxes and, you know, looking at them and figuring them out is good way to go. So let's go with the first one.
Speaker 1:And I think this is something me and my friend Jack spoke with the other day, the persuasion paradox. Have you noticed that the most argumentative people rarely persuade anyone of well anything, nothing, zero. The most persuasive people don't argue, they observe, observe, listen, ask questions. So if you argue less you persuade more. That's the way you See how it's been trying to trying to hammer something on to change minds.
Speaker 1:Not happening. There's another okay the next one the effort paradox. The more you have to put in more effort to make something appear effortless. So effortless or elegant performances are often the result of a large volume of effortful gritty practice. For example, Roger Federer playing tennis looks like he is gliding across the courts, but obviously you know that there's been ungodly amount of hours gone in to his game which makes it look effortless for him.
Speaker 1:The wisdom paradox, something you'll all eventually, if you haven't already, get with. The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know. And Socrates says the same. So the more you learn, the more you're exposed to the immense unknown. You basically it's quite frightening in a sense.
Speaker 1:You you learn more. You learn more. You learn more. You go you go, wow. I really am clueless.
Speaker 1:But that's the good sign because it makes you embrace lifelong learning. Isn't it? So I think that's a good one. It's kinda like the opposite of the, Drunen Kruger effect where you just start learning about something. You've read one blog post and you think you're an expert and you go online and you start arguing with everyone and your dad never changes anyone's mind and then you're back to square one and then you keep learning you go, yeah, I was full of shit.
Speaker 1:I had no clue what I was on about. Okay. The productivity paradox. Parkinson's law says that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. So you work longer and you get less done.
Speaker 1:When you established fixed hours to your work you find unproductive ways to fill it. This is % true. So if you say I'll take for six hours, it'll take six hours, it takes four hours, it takes four hours. You do an assignment during six months it'll take you six months. We leave it to the last minute.
Speaker 1:So it's best really for me anyways when you do sprints. A bit of rest, repeat like a lion. So you do, okay, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna give myself two days of blitz it out. Boom boom.
Speaker 1:Or one day or a few hours I'm gonna blitz it out. You rest, and then you repeat again. Might be a better way of looking at things. So that might be something one of you guys wanna try as opposed to saying I gotta work for eight hours because in real in reality, working eight hours nonstop is not something that is, it's not really practical either like it's not I'm just burnout. And I think there's, if you look at the Pomodoro Technique, which is you work for twenty five minutes nonstop, no disruptions whatsoever.
Speaker 1:You do one task for twenty five minutes and you take a five minute break and then you do another twenty five minutes and you do this four times until you get like an hour break. And if you do that you'll get more done in four Pomodoros than you would have done in a you know eight hours of work. So give that a go. Okay. The growth paradox.
Speaker 1:Growth takes a much longer time coming than you think and then it happens much faster than you ever thought possible. So growth happens gradually then suddenly like compounds. So when you realize this you do things differently. So for example, you're trying to lose weight for five weeks, six weeks, eight weeks. You're on week four and you're like Scott I don't feel like I've lost much weight, I don't know what's going on, I feel like I haven't made any gains.
Speaker 1:Then one day you wake up and you're four pounds lighter called the whoosh effect and the water essentially drops off. All of a sudden things change. You're like wow. I just made that gains one like no, you haven't. It's the accumulation of things and then they kind of start clicking and growing then you get new set motivation.
Speaker 1:You're like oh wow actually okay works. I've been training hard, I've done it, I look lean, I've dropped weight, I feel stronger now all of a sudden the moods uplifting and you go again and again and something it compounds it compounds. That's how it works in fitness. Fitness. When it comes to working or business or anything it seems to be what you're doing what you're learning is pointless pointless pointless until it's not.
Speaker 1:Until it's not then boom. Boom boom boom. Okay the failure paradox. You have to fail more to succeed. Our greatest moments of growth often basically come directly from big boy failures.
Speaker 1:So obviously, we've all heard that we don't wanna fear failure. We wanna go straight out there, punch it in the nose, go straight through it. But, yeah, the more we fail, the more we succeed. Right? I think Michael Jordan's got an amazing quote on this.
Speaker 1:He's like, you know, I've won I've done more shots. I've done Ollie's more than anyone else, but I've also missed more shots than anyone else. So he's the best, but he's also the person who's got the worst at which is he's missed most of the shots that I've been in in basketball. And that's crazy. But we don't look at the missed.
Speaker 1:We look at what you can achieve, what's been achieved. Yeah? The say no paradox. I mean, I say this all the time. Take on less, accomplish more.
Speaker 1:Commit to less, do more. Okay? If you say yes to everything coming away, got bad news for you. You are a slave to somebody else's life and ambitions and dreams, and you're not really doing what you wanna be doing or what's good for you. So you need to learn to say, well, yes to what matters, say no to what doesn't, and protect your time like you would protect your bank account.
Speaker 1:Or if you had a wad of cash in your house someone comes in to try and take it I'm sure you will put a fight up. When it comes to your time, yeah take them in, take my time. Don't you worry about it, take my time I've got unlimited time until you haven't. You don't have a limited time. The speed paradox.
Speaker 1:Again, I've said this before. Truly believe in this one. You have to go slow to go fast. I know it sounds nuts, but if you're slower, steadier, focused, learning, you're doing stuff with resourcefulness, with efficiency, and you're taking one step at a time especially when it comes to fat loss versus your yo dieting, you'll actually get your goal faster than your yo dieters because they took steps forward three steps back. You're going slower but you're never really taking steps back.
Speaker 1:You might be taking some steps to the side and to the side there to the left to the right but you're essentially moving forward slow back. And by moving slow you are blitzing the pace of a yo yo dieter. They've done four yo yo diet cycles. You're beyond. You can't even see them in the wind in the wind mirror.
Speaker 1:They're gone. Ta da boy. You're not seeing them again. So think about that now. Don't be tempted to quit the process because it's not going fast enough.
Speaker 1:That's a fool's game. That's a fool's idea. Don't be a fool. The death paradox. You must know your death in order to live your life.
Speaker 1:Mel Memento Mori by the Stoics is this. Remember you will die. I've got a painting on my wall. Well, just like a portrait y thing next to Steve Jobs and Napoleon. That is that memento mori.
Speaker 1:You know, they die, the great men die, we all go. So live now basically just it just reminds you like it will go one day. You don't wanna be lounging about all the time being a slave to your phone, a slave to other people's arguments and gossip and stuff like that because it can sap your time away. Next thing you know one year's past, two years past, you still haven't tried the hobby you've always wanted to do. You still haven't tried that fitness plan you always wanted to do.
Speaker 1:You still haven't tried to be healthy, you still haven't tried for that promotion, you still haven't tried to you know be a better partner. Whatever it is you just kind of time sucks away and you go oh it's too late now. And you just let it all turn into a whirlwind of poo poo. And then he says, it's gone. So don't be like that.
Speaker 1:Don't be like that. So if there's anything you really wanted to do it's time to you'd have to drop everything now, but you need to take deliberate things each day. So like if you wanted start a new hobby, can fake the actions of doing it like maybe do a one Google search or I've done Google search nothing about. If you're really serious about it, phone these places up. Ask them in beginning the classes or whatever.
Speaker 1:Get them on the blower and then commit to something and go. Don't don't wait for friends to join you on these things because it take forever. You know, some people wanna travel the world and visit countries. They never do because there's got no friends to go with them. Bad news.
Speaker 1:Your friends are never gonna be reliable for going on holiday when you can. You've got everyone's got their conflicts and calendars. So if you're always waiting for your friends, you're always gonna wait forever. Aren't you? So do your shit now.
Speaker 1:You have to do the class tonight, but book in to do the class tonight for another time. You know You know what I'm saying. Okay the fear paradox. The thing we fear the most is often the thing we need the most. Fears when avoided become limiters to our growth and life.
Speaker 1:Make a habit of getting closer to your fears. Again, the biggest resistance we feel from something means that's the exact place we've got to go. I know it's nuts. Oh, I'm really scared of that. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Go that way then. %. Do it. No.
Speaker 1:No. No. No. That's that's the I should be the opposite. No, Scott, because I'm scared.
Speaker 1:No. You should blitz through that. That's the it's your your you, your insight, your whatever rigid instincts that is telling you is scary, but that's exactly where you've gotta go. It's like a signal. It's like an arrow.
Speaker 1:It's like an arrow guys. It's like an arrow. Okay. The news paradox. The more news you consume, the the less well informed you are.
Speaker 1:%. The more news you're taking in guys is full of shit. Song by a few billionaires. Alright. Journalists just doing a good clickbait stuff and you're listening to that and you're reading there all the time.
Speaker 1:Pull yourself away. Read the old books. Think for yourself. Start writing your thoughts out. Because only when you start writing your thoughts out, actually clarify and come up with new ideas.
Speaker 1:That's the important part. You clarify ideas, write them on. Okay. It can make sense. So, yeah, pull away from the news because it is it's not reporting on the stuff that matters either.
Speaker 1:AKA NHS bill, it's going through now. Where's the BBC? Silence. Silence. Silence.
Speaker 1:Silence. The Icarus paradox. We finish with this one, guys. I hope you've been thinking about things. I hope it's been going into your head.
Speaker 1:Icarus paradox. Icarus crafted wings out of feathers and beeswax to escape an island. He began to fly, the wings working wonders, but he quickly became blinded by his own engineering prowess and flew too close to the sun which caused the beeswax to melt and sent him plummeting to his death. This is a Greek mythology tale. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's not real. What makes you successful can lead to your downfall. Early on a success can cause overconfidence and then boom, blind disruption on the other side. I've spoke about this before. One of the biggest mistakes one of the biggest successes I thought at the time, now back years ago, funding Rugby Warfare investors.
Speaker 1:Oh, this is great news. I've made it, boys. I've made it. Turned out to be one of the worst decisions I made. Got cocky.
Speaker 1:Thought I had it. Had to spend the money on stock and the stock didn't sell. That comes with a cost. Big cost of import duty, delivery charges, stock not selling, depreciation, big losses. So often you gotta think about the successes.
Speaker 1:You gotta think about what appears to be super great and you've made. Like you gotta look at that just as you look at failures. Can't you can't like, for for me now, with this if something's working, something's working, I'm not gonna think it's gonna be something that works forever. And if something big appears to be like an amazing triumph, you gotta be skeptical about that. That's the best way to go about things in my opinion.
Speaker 1:But in terms of this one which talks about you know the success that can lead to a downfall, it's kind of like when you go from fat loss phase to maintenance. What works for fat loss doesn't quite work for maintenance. When go to maintenance you've got to go higher in your macros. You've got to be a bit more lenient and flexible again. You've to be even more flexible because you've got to be you have to allow for things.
Speaker 1:You have to allow kind of like your weight's gonna go up and down more on maintenance, and you have to accept that. That's the first thing. Right? So weight isn't know, it's gonna be a bit of a trickier indication. And then when you go to maintenance, eating more calories and carbs and, you know, you're thinking how is this possible, am I gonna not gain fat on this.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like this didn't this is the opposite essentially of fat loss and it's kind of like you're trying to keep on to the fat loss thing by eating lower than your maintenance, but then if you eat lower than your maintenance you're still in a deficit. And if you're in a deficit for too long there's many things that happen that's not good news. Your t3 comes down, your hormones essentially plummet down, your stress goes up because it is stressful being a deficit and you're not giving your body the recovery of a maintenance. If you're not getting the recovery of maintenance where your hormones go back up to baseline, you feel stronger, your body's got the nutrients and energy needs to be fully functional and not have to worry about taking energy from fast ores, you're literally doing the exact opposite what you've got to do there and it's actually detrimental. I've spoke to a few people who've tried to go to maintenance and haven't been able to do so properly because they're scared and they stay in the deficit, and it's exactly where we don't wanna be.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that's a big one. That's a big one. That's a big one. What works for fat loss doesn't actually work for maintenance. Sounds obvious.
Speaker 1:That's just that's just true. Guys, hopefully, that was helpful. Hopefully there was a thing few things that have stretched your mind. Think about different things, different paradoxes. Obviously the main one is the slow going fast.
Speaker 1:I think we need to drill in, is the most important one I would say from this list for you guys. But do overthink about them. Do overthink about them. Let me know what one is your favorite and I will be back tomorrow with some more hopefully information, wisdom, whatever you wanna call it to help you live your day to day life. Now but before I leave you let's zoom back into today.
Speaker 1:It's Thursday. Let's get back in. Twenty four hours ahead of you. Same twenty four hours. Everyone's got twenty four hours.
Speaker 1:Amazing, isn't it, class? Basically, plan your workout. When are you gonna do it? The morning, evening? Get that done.
Speaker 1:Track your macros, get that in the watch your one big thing, try and get that done. Work like a lion, sprint, rest, sprint, rest. Don't try and think of it as an eight hour long session, break it down into sprints and rest. Pomodoro Technique maybe try that to get more work done. See if we can be more efficient and the more rest we can have the more chill, the more level brain wonder, the more we can have maybe, the more time we can have to read and learn.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Give it a go. Give the Pomodoro a go and let me know if it works. But I'll see you tomorrow.
