Watch your “Watching vs Doing” Ratio (a cautionary tale)
I’m 40 years old, and someone who works in front of a PC all day (and often all night too). As such, I struggle with sustaining my weight, physical fitness, and energy levels, etc. Often, to myself, I wonder why I struggle so much, but I’m sure an outside observer could pinpoint the problem right away. I spend more time watching, consuming, and observing than I do creating, building, performing, and participating.
In short, I have my “Watching vs Doing” ratio all out of whack.
This weekend was different. I went and played paintball with my 14 year old son, I mowed, weed-whacked, edged, hoe’ed, replanted, and otherwise groomed the yard (while getting a nice suntan on my pasty skin) at my humble abode.
The first thing I noticed this weekend was how tired I was. I was huffing and puffing a few minutes into the first paintball game. My legs turned to jelly, but I didn’t care because we were having fun and my adrenaline kept me going well beyond my physical fitness level. The last thing I noticed tonight was how relaxed I am. As-if my muscles, as tired as they are, were busy rejoicing at finally having been used, and gladly deciding not to continue their inevitable march towards atrophy and entropy.
After generations of breeding hard working masses of farmers and workers carving the New World frontiers from a wilderness into hospitable land, nowadays our greatest conquest is often getting off the couch to get our own soda, or walking to our garage, getting in our car, and driving to the nearest fast-food joint and ordering a burger.
I’m proud if only for one weekend, to have rejected the decades of consumerism drilled into our mass psyche and stepped outside to do something that used more than the 10-pound lump above my shoulders. After the activity was done, eventually when I took a break to rest, I quickly got restless and ended up here, posting my thoughts on this blog.
This too is helping to re-balance my Watching vs Doing ratio, since rather than spending pointless hours consuming other people’s inane articles, I’m instead creating my own inane article, and sharing it with you guys, the masses of fellow consumer-minded people who may just need to re-balance your ratios too. :)
