Of all the farming decisions one has to make, culling is the one most delayed and manipulated, but nothing has a more profound impact on the growth and development of a farm. 

Of a life too.. really. 

Culling is the practice by which the herdsman aims to improve the quality of the whole by removing the inferior.

 Like the shepherd of your own life- by taking stock of relationships, habits & behaviors, these same principles can be applied as a means of “weeding out” undesirable ways of being. 

“A flower crowded by weeds cannot grow.”

 So perhaps the things that could have the most impact might not be what we need to ADD to our already harried lives.
But, when was the last time you culled an undesirable element that's not serving you in living the type of life you want to live?

 For as Robert Greene pointed out:
It's often the weakest parts of our character responsible for establishing daily habits.

…because they require no conscious effort whatsoever to maintain. 

Building...

Most of the focus concerning training & progress is on the stress of the work performed. Exercises, sets and reps, and the ever-contentious intensity vs volume become the point of interest and argument. When in reality, the training is merely the stimulus from which your body makes the improved adaptations, but only when punctuated with proper recovery. You need the stress, but more so you need the recovery
& recovery — like anything — is a practice.

The majority of us just sorta wait for time to do its thing. Completing grueling training sessions and then waiting 24 hours to repeat the process. It is rarely progressive, hardly intuitive & at times counterproductive. There is something to be said about the amount of progress someone can make (& for how long) by merely improving their ability to recover.
Here is a starting list of practices and considerations that can potentially help convert your hard work into real performance. 

The first and foremost rule — in sequence not importanc...

I think one reason why adults get so upset with children for asking “why?” all the time is that it reminds us how rarely we ask ourselves that same thing.

In fact – that is the first question I tend to ask 99% of individuals who come to me with fitness problems. – “Why do you think you need to go to a gym?” – the athletes, the competitors, someone who's taken the leap and signed up for a race or event… They are the easy ones. They have a solid answer. They have numbers and measurable goals. They have a concrete reason… – but for most of us the answer is more vague… “i want to be healthier/stronger/more fit” – “i want to be lighter/more muscled/leaner” –
In most cases these are symbols and not the source – if you just want to lose belly-fat or tone up your arms, or grow a bigger butt- why don’t you just get liposuction? Why don't you get injections or implants? really. why not? do you consider that “cheating”? Is that too easy..? ...Why? What does a flat stomach or lean arms & a perky a...

If “little efforts matter” then little mistakes matter just as much.

In the beginning, the little things don't mean shit. 

It's hard enough to lace up your shoes and get your ass moving. The weights are heavy. 

You may be sore for days at a time. 

This may discourage some & reaffirm others that a hard effort had been given. 

You can half-ass workouts, skip them, do them hungover…

Nonetheless, along the way, you assimilate the work & begin adapting to it- you learn lessons. 

Progress becomes rapid. 

The feedback- overwhelmingly positive, and you wish to hold that feeling forever. 

More positive feedback & tiny wins follow until quite suddenly, one day, you begin to reach the upper tier of your performance. A level that demands everything from you just to keep up with your new & improved, high performing self. The thrills of positive feedback & speedy progress rapidly fade. You remember it, but cannot seem to recreate it most days. Every day you show up seems infinitesimal and...

I  stepped into the trap this weekend. I overdosed on intensity. I blunted my spear.

Physical activity has always been a metaphor to me though.
A lens to focus on something larger: life…Generally.

Exercise taught me that effort matters.
That what I put out usually corresponds to what I get out.
Output informs outcome.
Sometimes output equals outcome and those days are the best — when we give everything and at the end of the day receive it all back.

Exercise taught me to focus. When we want to improve- on anything, we must concentrate. Concentration means exclusion- if it has been decided that the current performance or condition is unsatisfactory, we must first exclude. & do only what improves.
Ignore what distracts or degrades. Reject what opposes.
Focus means just that: making the subject crystal clear & blurring the periphery—or all the other shit that doesn't matter.

Exercise taught me honesty. When you are honest with yourself about your current condition & the requirements of ...

I was never patient until I had to be. I always got away with pushing barriers out of my way. Or I climbed over them. I bent what resisted me with sheer force of will. Sometimes I turned it to advantage. It was easy. I was alone, with no one to count on and no one counting on me. When all I knew was intensity I “made” it work for me. And then one day - or one year - it didn’t work anymore. I had to take a different path.

Training hard produces results when you have never done it before. & of course, it strokes the ego to gut through something you never believed possible. It’s a great feeling that fades just as quickly as you can make it happen. What then? The prescription is, “Again, faster.” …Or whatever.  

Just keep repeating yourself harder, faster, heavier, longer & over time, I'll tell you-
Intensity repeated mindlessly loses its shine.

Because (like a drug) intensity- what you once did doesn’t get you high anymore - it doesn’t get you more fit & often-fails to maintain.

I f...

High-intensity effort puts us in direct confrontation with ourselves. 

We are changed by the effort such that those who chose the work beforehand may weaken & so lose their belief in the ability to finish along the way. 

Advised by this doubt, one may question whether to continue or not.

Thus begins the hard conversation: “quit or don't quit.”

Such internal dialogue is not restricted to sport or exercise, but high intensity effort compels its asking commonly enough that the negotiation itself appears to be an integral part of physical training. Consistently hosting this conversation allows us to change the outcome- hence many of our workouts feature the built in opportunity to do so.

However, understanding the difference between quitting & failure is prerequisite to the “quit/ dont quit” dilemma. Rather than resorting to the merriam-webster definitions, we shall have a look at the broad terms relative to responsibility, ego, unconscious meanings, and how the words are used in ...

Unless pre-fatigue has something to do with enhancing the main course, the prescribed warm-ups in Homebodies PERSIST cycles are intentionally short, sweet & to the damn point..I frequently get my head wrapped around an axle on how one should prepare themselves for hard efforts, but it is incredibly difficult to translate & sometimes a mistake to generalize.

So, in our daily practice- we simply prime & prep the muscle tissue just enough to get the party started.

There is very little to be heard &/or understood when one is in the throes of a truly intense effort. The world seems a blur…

& yet, most believe—incorrectly—that this is where the magic happens.
It is not.
Yes, intensity is required for improvement, but improvement is at the crossroads of intentional action and conflict with self—I would say most of it occurs before conflict with self. 

Progress happens when repetition is under a most conscious state- it is directly correlated with attention & solidified only in deep-subcon...

"Watch your thoughts,

For they become your words.

Watch your words,

For they become your actions.

Watch your actions,

For they become your habits.

Watch your habits,

For they become your character. 

Watch your character,

For it becomes your destiny."

-Lao Tzu

All that we achieve & all that we fail to achieve is a direct result of our thoughts.

Your words -especially the ones you speak to yourself- are effective & powerful.
Over time they will build or destroy you.

We CANT directly choose our circumstances, 

but we CAN choose our thoughts & words…

& so indirectly, yet surely, [re]shape our circumstances.

"Can't" is a seed of doubt planted in the mind, 

taking root to produce more of its own-

invasive weeds that blossom with no action, bearing no fruit-

…only unpleasant external conditions.

Thoughts of doubt & fear never accomplish anything, and never can.

They inevitably always lead to failure.

Purpose, energy, power to do & all strong words & thoughts 

cease when do...

Sayings that really suck 

• “Forgiveness is really a gift to yourself.”
• “It is important to accept yourself as you are, ask forgiveness of yourself, show yourself grace, you are deserving of wonderful things.”

Enough forgiveness & acceptance to diminish the impulse to improve..
Enough to slide by & be average- 

We seem to fear our highest possibilities (as well as our lowest ones)
Allowing the fear of our own heights lowers our own ceiling for growth.
This normalcy is a kind of sickness that we share with everybody else & therefore don't notice.
normalcy or averageness becomes the best we can expect.
We become content with it.

You can perform only to the level of your expectations
& if you are constantly expecting to forgive yourself;
It is only rational to expect stagnation.

Growth & comfort unfortunately cannot coexist.

Replace entitlement with effort-
Take extreme accountability & ownership of yourself- your time, your actions, your inactions.

& be ruthlessly UNFORGIVING W...