[SB #219] I probably shouldn’t write this week

I’m Matt, and welcome to Steady Beats. If you like to walk for a better life, and also like Dire Straits’ “Walk of Life,” you just might like this newsletter.

I probably shouldn’t write this week.

I’ll be into fitness as long as my body allows. But I don’t feel much like writing about it at the moment. You know you should do it. I am plagued with a persistent thought right now that writing about fitness, amongst a sea of a fitness content from people more qualified than me, will not make any difference whatsoever.

So I probably shouldn’t write this week.

And then I would give advice anyway, such as saying never ever do anything remotely like this in a gym, and that you should run (stretch first) from any trainer who proposes anything like this.

You’re not a bear doing tricks at the circus. You’re a human being trying to be healthy.

So I probably shouldn’t write this week.

Even here in sunny Florida, there’s something that’s a bit of a bummer about the lessening daylight. Even though shorter days simply mean the air will be lighter and more comfortable for a few months. We still get daily blasts of restorative sunshine, just in smaller doses. But you can still feel the energy shift, even if ever so slightly.

So I probably shouldn’t write this week.

I have realized, when working with students and team members from every continent that doesn't end in “artica,” that I cannot speak more than five consecutive sentences without using a sports analogy or terminology. It’s hopeless, even I as watch well-meaning people from around the world melt into confusion because of course they don’t understand what I’m saying. How could they? I’m using very specific American references, and I shouldn't. Might be too late in life for me to clean that up completely, however.

So I probably shouldn’t write this week.

I sometimes feel an urge to go full sports nerd in the newsletter, trying to find a way to write about sports in an interesting way that doesn’t just chase the latest headline or outrage. Not writing that fires off hot takes, but an approach that looks at history or dives deep on strategy. But, honestly, I’m afraid you would all leave if I experimented. So I don’t do it.

So I probably shouldn’t write this week.

My parents lost a close friend this week, my oldest daughter recently turned 20, and I’m nearing a face-off with a rather significant birthday. The trifecta forms a powerful punch, a reminder of how fast this life whizzes by. Life is a fragile and uncontrollable projectile ripping through time and space. All we can do is try to leave the unsettled dust in the contrail a little more useful and interesting than we found it.

So I probably shouldn’t write this week.

Even in weeks when it it tougher to write, I have this drive, like going to an early morning workout after a short night, to grind it out and check the box, even if the output is substandard.

So I probably shouldn’t write this week.

And yet, I just did.

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