I don’t remember the last time I was this tired, so I hope you’ll pardon me keeping it short. Wednesday I swam across the Hudson River, about 1 km across, though the current took us from across from about 70th Street to 35th Street. The distance the current took us didn’t tire me, but I walked to 39th Street from home and from 35th Street home. I take cold showers[…] Keep reading →

Interviewing Joe De Sena for the podcast led to each of us inspiring each other, which led to friendship, which led to him inviting me to his Vermont farm, which is where I am. Joe founded The Spartan Race, an obstacle course that grew a movement. This picture illustrates the community. Several people I told I was coming up here knew about this farm and said, “You’re doing the Death[…] Keep reading →

I knew my daily streaks of writing in my blog and doing burpees of nearly ten years were just starts. I like to find role models. I discovered sidcha streaks that dwarf mine, in fact that started before I was born. Two organizations—Streak Runners International and United States Running Streak Association—track people who have run at least a mile per day. Their slogan: “Through weather, injury, illness, and life events,[…] Keep reading →

I want to clarify a point of confusion, probably my fault. Since I talk a lot about sidchas and habits, one could conclude that I focus on habits as a big part of my life. On the contrary, though I consider them important, they are less a big part of my life than they make worry and insecurity a small part of my life. For clients that come to me[…] Keep reading →

I recently shared this experience with someone who described the feeling of suffering after beating their personal best for rowing a 2k: Your story reminds me of finishing my first running marathon. In the area where runners could get their bags and put on warm clothes, some happy-go-lucky guy, despite also having just finished, jauntily walks in saying spritely, “You did it! It hurts now, but the pain will pass[…] Keep reading →

For years I had to wear orthotics when running in regular running shoes and still felt back pain to where I gave up running. Switching to minimal running shoes returned me to pain-free running. Interviewing podcast guest Nir Eyal, he talked about barefoot running. Most people mean ‘minimal shoe’ when they say ‘barefoot,’ but Nir meant barefoot. I decided to experiment running barefoot. Switching to minimal shoe running, where I[…] Keep reading →

If you haven’t seen the pictures recently published by Charles Custer, who drove America’s route 66 with his wife in 1950-51, you’re in for a treat—and, for some of you, a challenge to preconceived notions about progress. They show in wonderful detail, composition, and style, an America now gone, replaced by uniformity, efficiency, and overpopulation. I’ll take the liberty of posting one, but there are 148 of them here, and[…] Keep reading →

Reading in one of my online groups about people struggling to keep habits without external structure—something I think I can safely claim expertise in—I offered to share what I’ve found works in 150,000 burpees, etc. I made an interactive webinar out of my experience—my most comprehensive, useful compilation of a decade of experience creating structure, discipline, and mental freedom. Most relevant now, I did it at no cost, not needing[…] Keep reading →

According to my spreadsheet that calculates my burpee count, I did my hundred-fifty-thousandth today. Actually, that would be my hundred-fifty-thousandth as part of my burpee-based sidcha. I occasionally do more, like to show people how to do them, or when I see how long I take to do a hundred, but I never do less. My total expenditures on them is still $0.00, including equipment, trainer, travel, etc. I haven’t[…] Keep reading →