Mental vs. PhysicalIt's the afternoon of December 31, 2010, and I hadn't thought about new year's resolutions at all until Andy just asked me on GTalk. Thinking about it, I recalled a conversation I had with Ken and Bentro a couple days ago after we got back from rock climbing. We were discussing whether mental things or physical things were more difficult. I thought physical things were; Ken thought mental things were. He said anyone can do physical things. It's just about consistency and having faith that your body will improve. But for mental things - some things are just very abstract and not everyone can grasp them. I think physical things are much harder because physical improvements require far more time and discipline. You can cram for a test in a night, but if you can't do two pull-ups, you won't be able to by just practicing for one day. Your muscles take a long time to grow, and in order to enlarge them, you have to maintain consistent exercise over a period of time, and this requires enormous mental discipline and patience. When you're doing something mental and you get tired, you can just go sleep for a while, and when you wake up, you'll be fresh again and ready to take on the mental thing again. Or, even when you're tired, you can still push yourself to keep going, and sometimes, you'll still make some breakthroughs. However, when you're doing something physical and you become spent, it generally doesn't matter how hard you push yourself if your muscles are tired. You're done. It may take days or even a week for your muscles to fully recover. You might even injure yourself, and then you can be out of commission for weeks or months. But when doing mental things, there's no risk of injuring your brain by thinking too hard (at least, I haven't heard of any cases). Anyways, one reason Ken and I might hold these different views, as Bentro suggested, is perhaps Ken has more experience with physical things while I have more experience with mental things. Ken suggested that I set, as a goal, being able to do ten consecutive pull-ups by March. I like this idea. And so, as a new year's resolution, I think I want to focus more on physical things. I've definitely been gaining weight, so one thing I want to do is lose some. However, to be able to do ten consecutive pull-ups, I'll need to both gain muscle and lose fat. To lose fat, I need to run more and watch my diet. Physical things - running, diet, working out, sports - will be the focus of 2011 for me. What's your resolution?
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