If You Don’t Do It Because You Love It, Do Something Else, But How Do You Know You Won’t Love It Until You REALLY Try It!

Water on a metal plate at the pool, or universal fractal patterns? You make of it what you will, just like your life, my friends.

Hi folks, welcome!

Remarkable writing - sentences you just won’t believe.

You create your life every day, so don’t waste this one.

Ever since I was a kid I loved Biology, reading and active sports. I’ve noticed that everything I learned from these interests, as unrelated as they might seem, came in useful for later activities. In fact, sometimes things sit for years and then up they come, and you say, “I’d forgotten all about that. Boy, I’m glad I did that.”

Take conic section mathematics and the movement of the planets as the classic example of things sitting around for ages until they find a use.

Each of my interests took me away into magical places. They were really obsessions. I guess I am a little OCD - who else could be happy running 50 laps of the track, or sitting on a trainer for 6 hours?

What were these hobbies/interests?

1. Microscopy (as a 12-year old kid and through the end of a 40-year career); resulted in my becoming a respectably accomplished veterinary pathologist.
2. Water polo (8 years, my teens); helps a lot in the Ironman swim when things get crazy.
   

   Lake Placid Ironman swim 2010. Photo by Randy Mews.

3. Martial arts (4 years, my 40s); my first real introduction to biomechanics and handling pain.
4. Weight lifting (5 years, my 40s); further studies of biomechanics, teaching me the critical role of good technique.
5. Playing the flute (15 years, my 30s); resulted in many fond memories of amateur orchestras and small chamber groups, and I learned to read a score, which can markedly enhance one’s understanding and enjoyment of large orchestral pieces.
6. The French language (10 years, my 30s); enabled me to have thoughts that I just could not adequately translate into English, revealing the power of language over my mental processes.
   

   Yes! FitOldDog could derive this from scratch, via imaginary numbers, to Euler trig functions, and series mathematics - this is true magic. It still defies my belief that someone actually worked this out. Hell, I could barely comprehend it.

7. Mathematics (6 years, my 50s) [indescribably beautiful, satisfying and frustrating at the same time]; opened my eyes to the wonder of this symbolic world, introducing me to concepts of which I never could have dreamed - just take Schrodinger’s equation, Eigen vectors, or the Taylor series as examples. Some things you just cannot even glimpse without a grasp of mathematics, but start early, it takes a while.
8. Most recently triathlons (17 years, my 50s, 60s, and now 70s); what a great sport, which introduces you to the power of the mind over the body (and vice versa), plus you get to go to great places, meet interesting people, and eat a lot of wonderful food.
9. Reading (all my life, as far back as I can remember); that one has really stuck with me.

I’m never so happy as when I find a great book.

The real key to a full and satisfying life is to keep on learning, and swap out your interests every so often, as your brain can adapt and change for the better.

-k @FitOldDog

 Important Note: These posts do not provide medical advice. You should always consult your physician before undertaking or significantly modifying an exercise program.

Copyright © 2010 Kevin T. Morgan aka FitOldDog, Old Dogs in Training, LLC.