Sport – Achilles & Aristotle

Bouldering

I've had 'bouldering' on my to do list for a while.

Not even sure what it was, I thought it was some kind of paddling through streams, clambering on boulders thingy. And that seemed like a good 'Dad and Daughter' activity – following clambering about in trees last Christmas holidays.

So I googled it – and it turns out it's not quite that. It's low level free climbing without ropes; and what great fun it has turned out to be…

Climbing shoes tightly on, we've been three times now; and have tackled 'slabs', overhangs, bulges and 'volumes'… with a bit of traversing yesterday to boot.

The indoor walls we've found are generally full of cheerful, lean, taughtly-muscled young folk – but they're all very encouraging and just seem happy that you share their interest.

It certainly tests the muscles though! And even though you don't get that high, it's high enough to test the nerves a bit too.

What a lovely little world we've discovered – in an old disused biscuit factory (of all things) which has found a new life.

Bouldering is a keeper. There's no better place to hang out for an hour at the weekend.

Achilles, Odysseus, Psychology, Science, Sport, Work

Optimism Epiphany

I’ve had an epiphany. It all comes down to three Ps; and avoiding learned helplessness…

First discovered in dogs and then in humans, Wikipedia takes up the strain here:

Research has found that human reactions to a lack of control differ both between individuals and between situations. For example, learned helplessness sometimes remains specific to one situation but at other times generalizes across situations.

An influential view is that such variations depend on an individual’s attributional or explanatory style. According to this view, how someone interprets or explains adverse events affects their likelihood of acquiring learned helplessness and subsequent depression.

For example, people with pessimistic explanatory style tend to see negative events as permanent (“it will never change”), personal (“it’s my fault”), and pervasive (“I can’t do anything correctly”), are likely to suffer from learned helplessness and depression.

If you want to bounce back fast from setbacks and beat the blues, Martin Seligman’s book and the thesis of learned optimism are well worth a read. It’s certainly working for me.

I’m ruminating less, and actively breaking up permanent, pervasive and personal interpretations of bad situations when I hit them…

I’m regularly reminding myself:

“It’ll pass”, “it’s just one part of my life”, “it’s not me that’s causing this.”

And directing myself – and others – toward action, not helplessness:

“Ok but what can we do about it right now”, “OK if we can’t fix that, what else can we fix” and “if anyone is going to make this better we can, so let’s have a go.”

I feel a lot better, and people around me do too. It transpires the main benefit of pessimism is you predict the future better.

Optimism might help change it.

Achilles, Aristotle, Art, Life, Music, Philosophy, Photography, Poetry, Science, Sport, Writing

Relevant Complexity

Here’s to a brand new year.

And to celebrate I’ve bashed out a new blog, based on what I’ve learned about life, the world and everything since I started Achilles and Aristotle in 2010.

Time flies – or rather it doesn’t; a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. But ‘Relevant Complexity’ was a fairly early discovery, I first wrote about it in January 2012 here.

Like all good things in the writing life, the more you write about it, the more you think about it, the more it changes you and what you do – Aristotle said as much.

I’ll plan to keep both blogs going: this one as a reminder of what I was up to in years to come; the new one to remind me to live for the day and enjoy a life full of ‘Relevant Complexity’.

Achilles, Life, Sport, Work

Hagler

It ain’t always pretty; but boxing has a primal quality, which whether you like it or not, makes it one of the ‘pure’ sports.

There are sports with complex rules and sports with fancy equipment. And then there are sports which have been there ever since there have been people – who can run fastest, throw farthest or batter their opponent to submission before being battered themselves.

I’m no pugilist, but sometimes you have to fight for what you believe in. And in my line of business, words are sometimes punches. So after an important bout this week, I reflected to a good friend it had been like Hagler vs Durán.

For me Marvellous Marvin is pound for pound the best fighter I have seen. Less brutal than Tyson, not the showman that was Sugar Ray and I’m too young to have seen really Ali in his pomp. But when I watched Sportsnight as a kid, the precision, focus, efficiency and relentlessness of Hagler made him the best I saw.

Because he wasn’t a heavyweight he didn’t always get the profile. As a taciturn guy with a shaven head he didn’t always please the cameras. And because he didn’t dance around he wasn’t much feted. But as I fighter you wouldn’t want facing you, for me, he stood out.

Always going forward, never dominated, quick, precise, focused and hard as nails. As I often joke when people try to get me wound up ‘I’m a lover, not a fighter’. But if I have to fight Hagler is the model – not a big man, no frills, no showboating, just a precise, focused, bald head, hitting you hard; bang bang bang.

Achilles, Death, Life, Sport

The 3 Big Questions in Life

There are only three questions that really matter in life… So said Britain’s oldest man on his 109th birthday.

They are:

1) Where did I come from?
2) Who am I?
3) Where am I going?

He died yesterday at 110. One short of the classic superstitious cricket score 111 aka ‘Nelson‘ when unlucky things are believed to happen. A pretty good innings though.

He said he knew the answer to 1) and 2) but not yet to 3). I’d be ok on 1). And pretty good on 2) too. But 3) is always the undiscovered continent until you get there.