One of the recent TED talks I’ve enjoyed… In it Daniel Kahneman discusses the ‘remembering self’ an the ‘experiencing self’ and poses an interesting thought experiment:
Imagine that your next vacation you know that at the end of the vacation all your pictures will be destroyed, and you’ll get an amnesic drug so that you won’t remember anything. Now, would you choose the same vacation? And if you would choose a different vacation, there is a conflict between your two selves, and you need to think about how to adjudicate that conflict, and it’s actually not at all obvious because, if you think in terms of time, then you get one answer. And if you think in terms of memories, you might get another answer. Why do we pick the vacations we do, is a problem that confronts us with a choice between the two selves.
It reminded me of this photo (which I know I’ve told lots of people about, but I don’t think I’ve posted yet)…
As part of this new blogging thing that I’m attempting (see my previous post), I’ve been thinking about topics for posts. Stuff that I have an opinion about. Stuff that I know about. Stuff that doesn’t cause any potential conflict of interest or issues (real or perceived) in my professional life. And one of the things I’ve come up with is exercise and weight loss. I’m not quite sure about how much detail about my personal journey I’ll want to get in to, but I’m going to start with a little celebration….
Today is one year to the day since I started personal training with the lovely Rose Males at Pro-fit Health Club. Twelve months ago I was overweight. And terribly unfit. We did a short session (maybe only 30 minutes) and I was lying down on the ground feeling ill after about 5 minutes on the bike! I left shaking and feeling nauseous. It was tough. But I kept going back. Week after week. And I began to enjoy it. I began to ‘need’ it. Twelve months on I am 13kg lighter. 2 dress sizes smaller. And a whole heap fitter, healthier and happier. Seriously one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I feel so much stronger (physically, mentally, emotionally) and more capable. Things that were once too hard or too much effort are now entirely possible!
I’ve learned lots – about myself, about exercise, about health, about routine and balance – and I may share much of that here from time to time. I’m pretty good at beating myself up about all sorts of things. But on reflecting about where I was and where I’ve come with my health, I’m actually feeling pretty proud. So today I’m just going to give myself a little pat on the back, a celebratory glass of wine, and send a big heartfelt thank you to Rose!
So, this is my attempt at a first ‘real’ blog post… What do I mean by ‘real’? I mean content that is uniquely mine. My thoughts. My opinion. Rather than snippets of other people’s content that I collect and share…
I noticed how out of touch I was with my own opinion when I was putting together my application for the Centre for Sustainability Leadership‘s Fellowship Program (which was ultimately unsuccessful, but that’s another story…). As part of the application process I had to write a letter to the editor about a sustainability issue. I think of myself as reasonably well-informed about, and interested in, a range of sustainability topics, but I was really stuck. Stuck because I didn’t know what I thought, I didn’t know what my opinions were, I didn’t know what I was passionate about. As a public servant, I consistently write on behalf of others, communicating their views or intentions or decisions (and I like to think that I do this well). But, I felt quite shocked to realise that in perfecting my fluency in bureaucratese, I had neglected to nourish and develop my capacity to passionately articulate my own opinions. And this is something that I want to address!
I don’t think of myself as a good writer, or as particularly articulate or insightful, nor do I feel like an expert on anything in particular. I read a lot (books, blogs, articles etc) and consistently think that I could never come up with as good ideas, or sound as smart as the authors of the blogs I enjoy. I like the idea of having a blog. But it all seemed a bit too hard, and potentially embarrassing. And what would I write about? Nevertheless, inspired by this tweet, I have realised that if I want to become a good blogger, I may first need to start by being a terrible blogger. I’m certainly not going to get good at it simply by thinking about it!
I’m not doing this because I think that anyone will be particularly interested in what I write. Nor do I think I have any particular wisdom or knowledge that will educate or inspire readers. Rather, at least at this stage, this is purely an attempt at a little self-development exercise. Something that may help me find my voice. I’m looking forward to seeing how it pans out…
