Dooley Noted: 10/9/2017
On my 39th birthday, I found myself reflecting on some key things I learned by age 39.
1. Life doesn’t linearly improve with a dog. It exponentially improves and encourages one to be an all-around better person.
2. The above is also true with the right life partner.
3. You can stand your ground and think you’re right, and then realize being right doesn’t equal being free from hurt. Being right does not equal being happy.
4. Trying to live a life free from judging others does not exempt you from being judged. Give others what they need, not what you want.
5. Don’t skip the simple when what seems complicated shows up. Run the basics.
6. You can call it a ketogenic diet, but it was Atkins in the 70s and in the 90s. And it’s still Atkins – with a hot new label.
7. You can think you’re fit, but those stairs on Elephant Mountain in Taipei will make you question it.
8. There is nothing better for training gait and/or any sports-related issue than the Turkish getup. So don’t forget to include it and don’t stop perfecting it.
9. You might get treated like you’re famous in one country and barely recognized in your own country. None of that matters. Just do good work.
10. Kindness can make people more upset that it makes them happy. Deliver it anyway.
11. Pull-ups go away just as fast as they came. Grease the groove daily.
12. In training and in life, everything goes much better with a little grip training.
13. What you are avoiding is likely where your focus needs to be.
14. Students will tell you they are overwhelmed, which is another way to admit they lack focus. Help them focus.
15. If your lunge is imperfect, then your squat is, too. Regress to progress.
16. If record holder and free diver Stig Severinson can hold a 24-minute exhale, then I can do much, much better than I am doing. Rise up.
17. There is no exercise worth doing that makes you lose breath control. If you can’t breathe in it, you don’t own it.
18. All the things wanted and not achieved in childhood will haunt you as an adult. Get them all, from a pull-up – to a handstand – to a lesson on self-nourishment. All of it – give to your younger self by earning it, finally, as an adult.
19. A true partner doesn’t want to make you happy. He or she wants you to make yourself happy and share it. Be that partner while you seek that partner.
20. If you don’t have a sport, train daily so you can one day help on Moving Day or whatever life tasks demand.
21. Breaking your lease is expensive, but an extra nine months being less happy than you could be is more expensive.
22. Don’t do things just because you think you should, or you will feel very empty afterward. This is the nature of yin deficiency.
23. Plants flourish next to a humidifier and some sunlight. People do, too.
24. Sneak in your cardio on your transit: like running sprints, taking stairs, walking, and riding a bike. Leave the gym time for strength.
25. Relaxation is a discipline. It must be approached with consistency.
26. No matter how stressful a health scare can be, check to assure you’ve done everything you can on your end. Breathing: check. Diet: check. Meditation and mindset: check. Proper work, proper rest: check. No matter what the tests state, do your part. No victimizing. Just do it.
27. It’s ok to say “no” to flying for reasons outside of work. People can come see you, too, once in a while. The connections go both ways.
28. An equal number of people are ready to build you up as burn you down. Don’t do things for others. Do things for you, and let those who can benefit from your efforts.
29. Marriage is the hardest job I’ve ever loved this deeply – and I DEEPLY love all my jobs.
30. It’s so challenging to be called an expert of anatomy and then start to distrust everything you’ve ever read. When you are taught the autonomic nervous system is involuntary – and then you learn to alter it voluntarily – you know that expertise is a fallacy and the learning never stops.
31. Quinoa is reason alone to never go low-carb.
32. Glute-ham raises are underused in programs and are damn-near curative for locked-long hamstrings in people with who have earned solid core control.
33. Avoid drinking – even when it’s free – on international flights to avoid jet-lag.
34. Daily olive consumption can encourage healthy nail and cuticle growth.
35. Get life insurance while you’re young, because everything gets more expensive the older you get.
36. Don’t necessarily encourage your children to be president, because you might accidentally encourage that child to model himself or herself after our current administration.
37. Never forget to express respect and gratitude to those that paved your way.
38. As anatomy is slashed worldwide in nearly every educational program, our health professionals know less and the patients are paying the price.
39. 1-38 are true enough to set me ablaze with passion for who I am, what I do, and what I represent for another 39 years.
I’ll cherish every day I have left, but I hope I get at least 39 more.
As always, universe, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley