Tag Archives: book

DAY XCVIII

100 Days, , ,

Finished reading Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World’s Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself by Rich Roll (2012).

I’ll start by mentioning a line from page 195: “It’s not at all like me to engage in self-congratulatory hyperbole.” Oh yeah? Start with the title, “becoming one of the world’s fittest men and discovering myself.” The book became quite a slog as Rich paints a lengthy picture of himself as being “the worst” at everything — uncoordinated, weak kid who hated school and got picked on on the one hand, but excelling at swimming by age 8, reaching the national level by high school, maintaining perfect grades, and being accepted to both Princeton and Harvard but instead opting for Stanford. He is even better at being a drunk that anybody else, chugging his first taste of beer rather than sipping it, and living the life of a party animal for a decade starting in college, supposedly managing to drive a car and remain fully functional with a blood alcohol level that would be fatal to most people. Despite showing up drunk to present an important paper in law school, his writing and his presentation were so effective and insightful that the Russian embassy asked to share his paper with a group of Russian legal experts. Despite being, according to himself, possibly the worst employee ever during his law clerk days, he was invited to join a high-profile law firm; from there, despite being a hardcore alcoholic prone to binge-drinking and blackouts, he moved up to an even more successful firm. Ultimately, obviously, Roll quit drinking, and suddenly became the healthiest man in the world by turning to a vegan diet. And despite his claims to have never been a runner or being particularly athletic (huh? Nationally-ranked competitive swimming isn’t athletic?), within mere months he somehow went from “overweight” and gasping for breath while climbing a set of eight stairs to competing in Ironman-distance triathlon events, and within a couple of years to completing the first EPIC5 event, five Ironman-distance triathlons on five separate Hawaiian islands over the course of five (extended to seven due largely to technical and scheduling issues) days.

What almost had me throwing the book across the room, which I couldn’t in good conscience actually do since I borrowed the book from the library, was when he referred to a ten-minute mile running pace as “slovenly.” Well, screw you, Mister Fittest Man in the World; for me, a sustained ten-minute mile pace is really pushing hard. And despite being overweight and tending toward lazy, I’m in a lot better shape than most people I know.

Roll is an elitist, coming from money, working as an entertainment lawyer in Hollywood, and utterly failing to pass himself off as either a “regular guy” or as someone disinclined to “self-congratulatory hyperbole.”

A disappointing read, and definitely DE-motivational. All this book did was emphasize how pathetic and UN-exceptional I actually am, and I already knew that.

DAY XC

100 Days, , , ,

Last night I finished reading The Hoarder in You: How to Live a Happier, Healthier, Uncluttered Life (©2011) by Dr. Robin Zasio, the first of the “decluttering” books I requested from the library a few days ago. I found it an interesting and helpful book – I have already donated a box of magazines to the library book sale that I’ve been lugging around for fifteen years!

The main idea I gleaned from this book is the concept of “cognitive distortion,” of seeing or thinking about things differently than they actually are. In fact, I strongly, strongly recognize about eight and a half of the nine listed cognitive distortions detailed in Chapter 5, including:

  • All or none thinking, or dichotomous thinking: you see all things in black and white categories. If your performance falls short of perfect, you believe yourself to have failed.
  • Over-generalization: a single negative event seems to you a never-ending pattern of defeat.
  • Discounting the positive: you reject positive experiences by insisting that they don’t count and ignore successes.
  • Mind reading: you negatively interpret the thoughts or feelings of others even though there are no solid facts that support your conclusion.
  • Fortune-telling: anticipating that things will turn out badly and treating the prediction as an established fact.
  • Catastrophizing: expecting the worst possible outcome and responding as though your prediction will come true. This tends to lean toward highly exaggerated conclusions.
  • Emotional reasoning: Assuming that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are.
  • Should statements: you try to motivate yourself with shoulds and shouldn’ts. The emotional consequence is guilt and a perpetual feeling of failure.
  • Labeling: an extreme form of over-generalization in which, instead of identifying an error in your thinking, you attach a negative label to yourself, such as, “I’m a loser.”

I found the book easy to read, straightforward, and helpful in understanding the psychological side of not just cluttering/hoarding, but of low self-confidence in general.

DAY LXXXIV – Stuffocation

100 Days, , , , ,

On a work trip to New York or London, your boss announces that you are not needed today and can have the day off. Which would you do?

The above question appears on the Stuffocation.org web site as part of an online quiz. I ran across an article by James Wallman online today about his book and concept of “stuffocation,” of feeling suffocated by our stuff. Regular readers of Chamber of Chaos know that feeling suffocated by stuff, or “stuffocation,” is one of the ongoing issues around here. Wallman suggests that perhaps those of us who are overwhelmed by “stuff” should look at replacing owing things with having experiences, or to use his term, becoming an experientalist. Wallman is getting a fair amount of press for his observations.

To me, however, Wallman seems to dwell in the rarified atmosphere of those who have plenty of money and plenty of time. When was the last time my boss sent me on a business trip to New York or London? Let me think for a moment… oh, of course; that would be… NEVER!

You see, it’s not the well-heeled or the more-than-adequately compensated people who drown their sorrows in stuff. It’s the poor people. It’s the working class who actually have to work for a living. In an interview in Forbes, Wallman suggests that sharing current experiences via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook have become the new status symbols:

“But with all your friends, fans, and followers on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, many more will know that you’re at TEDxHOP, on a chairlift in Chamonix, or you’ve just got round a Tough Mudder course.”

On a chairlift in Chamonix. Yeah, right. I was in a big city WalMart once that had a wheelchair lift up to the second floor. That was pretty cool. But I don’t think tweeting about it would have helped my social status.

When it comes to books about hoarding and decluttering, and I’ve read quite a few, my number one recommendation is Clutter’s Last Stand by Don Aslett. Originally published in 1984 and updated in 2005, Aslett’s book addresses both the causes and the cures for clutter, for hoarding, and for finding yourself unable to let go of the stuff with which you’ve surrounded yourself. Thirty years before Wallman and his “experientalist” philosophy, Don Aslett was making the same suggestions to replace things with experiences; as an added bonus, Aslett’s writing style is hilarious and engaging as well as being inspiring.

The upside of reading about Stuffocation, and mentally comparing it to Clutter’s Last Stand (great pun, that title; I don’t know how many “of these kids today” would even get the reference), is that I’m finding myself re-inspired to continue my own assault on clutter… and I hope make a few bucks via eBay while I’m at it!

Back to jogging today: jogged 14k without walking, average pace 7:05/km. Weight is around 202.