Exercising, Energy & Production

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The human body is like a battery that requires sleep, food/water and exercise to recharge but lately I've been feeling like going to the gym isn't the best place to go as you spend a lot of energy not really producing anything other than whatever benefits it gives to the body.

What's better? 

Spending an hour at the gym or spending an hour walking around town picking up litter? Spending an hour at the gym or building a patio or cutting wood for the winter season? On one side, you go to a place where you do nothing but spend energy and on the other you spend energy and you contribute something.

Having spent the better part of my 20s at gyms, I can tell you that it isn't bad at all. There's a mediation aspect to working out at gyms and it's a great place to connect socially with people of similar interests. Now that I'm older, however, and have a better grasp of how limited energy/life is I tend to want to do exercises that also produces something of value to me.
The obvious issue, if the goal is to exercise and be productive at the same time, is to find activities that satisfies both requirements. While it’s not always possible to do so, I would encourage you to put some thought into it as working out for the sake of working out is good but working towards something is best.

Not Where We Want to Be

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It's not possible to feel like we're exactly where we want to be in life. The reason for this is that it's in our nature to want more. Once we get what we want, we instantly are looking for the next best thing.

This is a feeling that we'll likely struggle with either until we die or until we find peace.

Peace is to live life in the moment which is something difficult to do in a world filled with distractions that removes us from the moment. To find peace, we need to limit our exposures to the things that removes us from the moment. While we don't necessarily need to turn our back to them, we do need to find times during the day where we can simply be.

Where we Get our Answers

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When we're young, we look for outside sources in order to understand ourselves. Whether it be music, or visual entertainment, art can be a way for people to connect with themselves but as we age, and come to understand ourselves better, we rely less on these things for answers. This isn't to say there comes a point where we no longer listen to music but our preferences changes and we don't go to music for the same reasons as we used to when we were younger.

Where do "old people" find answers for themselves?

It depends on the person; Some have stopped looking while others have found some of their answers through various sources such as therapy, meditation, friends... the path to answers are as diverse as the people looking for them.

Part of all answers, however, is to find peace with the question. While there are some things that we can understand and improve about ourselves, others will forever be out of reach and we must come to terms with it in order to find some degree of happiness. "It is what it is" is a phrase that ends up making a lot more sense the older you get.

One thing that we all need to keep in mind is that there's been billions of people on this planet many of which have had the same questions/insecurities as us. The most important thing is to educate ourselves - look for answers from those that have been known to have had the same problem to resolve and see if the solution works for you as well.

In conclusion, I want to move away from the subject a bit...

Being older, I now understand that it's easier for companies to introduce new products to children than it is to adults. It's easier to get a young person to start "vaping" than it is for an older person to do so. It's easier for products to get into the minds of young people that are still seeking their place in the universe than older people that have their lives rooted in habits - habits that, obviously, doesn't include said new product. Some of the things that are part of daily lives today weren't for the previous generation and we're the ones that popularized it. A product can consider itself stable once a generation has adopted it and the following generation has always lived with it. It would be difficult, for example, to remove Coca Cola from store shelves as its been around for decades.

Start Small

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Because we're creatures of habits it can be difficult for us to make any meaningful changes in our lives. The easiest way to steer our lives into a different direction is to start small. We shouldn't be looking at ways to save to 100K as much as we should be looking at where we spend our cents on a day to day basis. We shouldn't be looking at ways to loose 100lbs before we look at what we put into our mouths each meals.

We all know what the end result looks like and it can be a daunting task if we look at it from the perspective of everything that we need to change in order to get there. If we start small, however, it makes everything more approachable and, perhaps more importantly, more believable.

After you started small, the next thing that you need is the discipline necessary to follow-through as it generally takes more than a day to achieve any meaningful goals. Discipline is the most important characteristic for anyone desiring to achieve their goals.