The 4-Hour Body_ An Uncommon Guide to Ra - Timothy Ferriss [192]
Partial Completeness
Most of us have resigned ourselves to a partial completeness, just as Chad Fowler did before losing more than 100 pounds. Partial completeness can take many forms, usually in the form of self-talk like:
“I’m just not [thin, fast, strong, muscular, etc.]. That’s the way it is.”
“XYZ doesn’t matter. It’s not that important.”
These are said or thought for many reasons. Oftentimes, they’re used to excuse something on the outside that people believe they can’t change.
The beauty is, almost all of it can be changed.
More important, the reason to change the physical isn’t physical at all.
In 2007, I was interviewed for the monthly newsletter of Eben Pagan, who runs a $30 million per year relationship-advice empire. One of his first questions was:
“What’s the fastest way for someone to improve their inner game?”
To which I responded:
“Improve your outer game.”
If you want to be more confident or effective, rather than relying on easily-defeated positive thinking and mental gymnastics, learn to run faster, lift more than your peers, or lose those last ten pounds. It’s measurable, it’s clear, you can’t lie to yourself. It therefore works.
Recall Richard Branson’s answer to the question “How do you become more productive?”: work out.
The Cartesian separation of mind and body is false. They’re reciprocal. Start with the precision of changing physical reality and a domino effect will often take care of the internal.
Becoming Complete
Your body is almost always within your control.
This is rare in life, perhaps unique. Simply focusing on some measurable element of your physical nature can prevent you from becoming a “Dow Joneser,” someone whose self-worth is dependent on things largely outside of their control.
Job not going well? Company having issues? Some idiot making life difficult? If you add ten laps to your swimming, or if you cut five seconds off your best mile time, it can still be a great week.
Controlling your body puts you in life’s driver’s seat.
Fifteen months after giving birth to her first child, Dara Torres took home the U.S. Nationals gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle … at age 40. Three days later she broke her own record in the youth-dominated 50-meter freestyle, a record she’d set at age 15.
At age 45, George Foreman knocked out Michael Moorer, age 26, to become heavyweight boxing champion of the world, reclaiming the title he’d lost to Muhammad Ali two decades earlier.
Jack “The Dipsea Demon” Kirk ran the infamous Dipsea trail race for the first time in 1905. He proceeded to run it 67 times, the last at age 94, and broke the record for consecutive foot races held by Boston Marathon legend Johnny Kelley. Jack’s oft-repeated saying was “You don’t stop running ’cause you get old. You get old if you stop running!”
Refuse to accept partial completeness.
Take the next step: uncap a pen and take an inventory of all the things in the physical realm that you’ve resigned yourself to being poor at. Now ask: if I couldn’t fail, what would I want to be exceptional at? Circle these alternate realities.
This list, circles staring back at you, gives you a blueprint for not just a new body, but an entirely new life.
It’s never too late to reinvent yourself.
Computer scientist Alan Kay once said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
Where will you start?
APPENDICES AND EXTRAS
HELPFUL MEASUREMENTS
AND CONVERSIONS
Weight (Food)
QUANTITY GRAMS
1 ounce 28 g
4 ounces or 1/4 pound 113 g
1/3 pound 150 g
8 ounces or 1/2 pound 230 g
2/3 pound 300 g
12 ounces or 3/4 pound 340 g
16 ounces or 1 pound 450 g
Body Weight
POUNDS (LBS) KILOGRAMS (KGS)
100 45.4
120 54.4
140 63.5
160 72.6
180 81.6
200 90.7
220 99.8
240 108.9
GETTING TESTED—
FROM NUTRIENTS TO MUSCLE FIBERS
There’s no need to spend a fortune on testing.
The critical few in this section are ordered from least to most expensive,1 and I’ve put asterisks (***) next to the tests that yielded the most actionable results for me and other test subjects in the book.