Getting Past Athletic Depression
For medical-grade depression, best to see your doc.
My condition, for most of 2021, is better described as "the blahs." I was fully functional, grinding away, often angry and rarely engaged.
I wrote about what we were going to do in our marriage HERE. 20 weeks later, it worked far better than I expected - schedule time with those you love.
I have proven judgement about what it's going to take to make things better. Just need to get off my butt and follow my own advice!
This piece is about three small changes I made in my life. The payback was in a strange currency => I've been repaid by feeling better.
I'm feeling better because I'm not fixated on the negative.
Happier is the absence of.... [whatever was bothering us, I guess].
HRV is the addition I wish I made earlier
Tracking my heart rate variability has proven to be a game changer.
I'm giving HRV a lot of credit but before y'all head out and buy another gizmo, I want to share something Scott Molina once told me
G-Man, sometimes you simply need someone else to tell you the same thing.
We were talking elite ironman training protocols but, like everything, it applies to everything.
Once I heard HRVs "message", I was able to see it elsewhere.
What I perceived as a problem with my life situation was, mostly, a recovery issue. My emotional state was being screwed up by excessive fatigue.
HRV, and periodic misery, got me to change.
The change is what nudged me towards better.
I wasted a lot of time thinking I needed to change _everything_ when the solution was a bit more sleep and not making myself "more tired when tired."
Turned my watch alarm off, and reduced load.
Remove time in your worst environment.
The cherry on top was spending $75 a week to retire from driving my kids.
Driving, itself, wasn't the issue.
I noticed my worst moments were happening in my car.
Change the environment, change the result.
I stopped hanging out in my car, I felt better.
Over 20 years, I've redirected my environment => one choice at a time.
Simple project, visible feedback
I have a habit of rejecting the part of my personality that craves external feedback. I pretend I am above external approval, I'm not.
I brought back external feedback by way of my return to Twitter.
Playing a low-stakes game where you get random, positive feedback => surprisingly useful.
I am going to repeat that... if you have the blahs then you should try...
A low-stakes game
That pays out randomly
With positive emotional feedback
I shouldn't be surprised! Before I left Private Equity in 2000, I had a message board (pre-Facebook) where we used to shoot the breeze just like Twitter. Loved it, met some great people.
My Twitter Game => seek to help a stranger daily.
Huge leverage, near-infinite niche opportunities.
Previous simple games: improve aerobic run performance and log daily training minutes. These two games kept me engaged for over a decade!
Simple games work because they offer a focus different from my negative fixations. They are most powerful when attached to a system of daily rewards.
Another game was “breakfast after one positive step”.
The purpose of the game is neither to win nor to finish.
The purpose of the game is to keep me from getting fixated on something with the potential to ruin my life.