What I Learnt Today

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In Atomic Habits, James Clear outlines the strategies for making good habits stick.

Ones of his ‘laws’ is to increase the negative consequences of not performing an action.

An accountability partner can create an immediate cost to inaction. We care deeply about what others think of us, and we do not want others to have a lesser opinion of us. A habit contract can be used to add a social cost to any behavior. It makes the costs of violating your promises public and painful.

Mat Buckley, our local exercise physiologist, is a fantastic coach. He may well be a disciple of James Clear.

Mat has signed us up as a team (Toned Up) for the push up challenge. This runs for 25 days beginning today, and our team of two has contracted publicly to complete 3318 pushups over that time.

Lucky for me, Mat will do 100 per day, and I have to do 37.2. That is 37.2 more that I have done each day for the last 10 years.

There are posters announcing the project all over Alstonville. I have a whole town as accountability partner.

You can track the progress of ‘Toned Up’ here

The aim of the push up challenge is to promote mental health. The target of 3318 represents the number of suicides in Australia in 2019.

Founded by Nick Hudson and a team of volunteers in 2017, the Push Up Foundation has more than 130,000 participants and has raised over $7 million for mental health organisations. If you want to join the 129,999 who are better at push up than I am, you sign up today at The Push Up Challenge

There are a number of organisations that benefit from the project. We have chosen Lifeline (Go Sally!), but I haven’t yet worked out how they get anything out of the deal. I suspect I will have to sponsor myself.

James Clear would be happy to see that extra bit of accountability – paying money for a habit – although he would suggest I have to pay more if I don;t meet my target.

Each day, when you log your push ups on the app, you receive a new message about mental health.

This is today’s mental health message

• Day 1 – 130 push-ups
• More than 1/10 Australians will consider ending their life: Over a lifetime, around 13% of Australians between the ages of 16-85 will seriously consider suicide. 4% of people will make a plan, and just over 3% will make an attempt.
• Suicidality is the term used to describe the state of thinking about, planning, or attempting suicide. It affects more than 1/10 Australians, so it’s not uncommon. We know that suicidality is a strong risk factor for completing suicide, so it’s important that people experiencing suicidality receive assistance.
• Even though it can be tough, the evidence suggests that asking someone about whether they are experiencing suicidality, including plans or attempts, does not increase the likelihood of them completing suicide. Asking your friends and loved ones about what is going on for them can identify those at risk and increase the chances that the person gets help.
• You can get some advice on how to have a conversation about suicide here:
• https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/suicide-prevention/worried-about-someone-suicidal/having-a-conversation-with-someone-you%27re-worried-about

What I Learnt On 1st June in other years

1st June 2011 The Baader-Meinhoff Phenomenon and Stochasticity

David Brookes, opinion columnist for the New York Times, wrote a university graduation speech for students unable to attend their graduation.

He is worried about the future of your maximum taste. Is it true “that 70 percent of the people you know are more boring at 30 than they were at 20?”

At University we are assigned hard things to do and challenging ways to think.

“After college, most of us resolve to keep doing this kind of thing, but we’re busy and our brains are tired at the end of the day. Months and years go by. We get caught up in stuff, settle for consuming Twitter and, frankly, journalism. Our maximum taste shrinks.”

David is fine with us watching Tiger King and Love is Blind, but he says we also need to extend the higher end of out thinking.

“The theory of maximum taste says that each person’s mind is defined by its upper limit—the best that it habitually consumes and is capable of consuming.””

“Because we don’t continue to put enough really excellent stuff into our brain, our reading-comprehension ability declines after college, and our ability to play with ideas. The upper limit of our mind becomes lower than it used to be.

“The “theory of maximum taste” is based on the idea that exposure to genius has the power to expand your consciousness. If you spend a lot of time with genius, your mind will end up bigger and broader than if you spend your time only with run-of-the-mill stuff.

We need to have a mixed mental diet.

What I Learnt On 31st May in other years

31st May 2011 The SMH iPad App – worth waiting for

Disclaimer : I own 0.0003 of a Bitcoin

What I Learnt On 30th May in other years

30th May 2011 Lonely Planet Best in Travel 2011 – Available Free for Two Weeks Only

In a landmark judgment, the Federal Court found the environment minister has a duty of care to young people, as reported in the Conversation.

It is remarkable that this was a matter for debate.

The court found that

one million of today’s Australian children are expected to be hospitalised because of a heat-stress episode, that substantial economic loss will be experienced, and that the Great Barrier Reef and most of Australia’s eucalypt forest won’t exist when they grow up.

Justice Bromberg said in his judgement:

It is difficult to characterise in a single phrase the devastation that the plausible evidence presented in this proceeding forecasts for the children. As Australian adults know their country, Australia will be lost and the world as we know it gone as well.

The physical environment will be harsher, far more extreme and devastatingly brutal when angry. As for the human experience – quality of life, opportunities to partake in nature’s treasures, the capacity to grow and prosper – all will be greatly diminished.

Lives will be cut short. Trauma will be far more common and good health harder to hold and maintain.

None of this will be the fault of nature itself. It will largely be inflicted by the inaction of this generation of adults, in what might fairly be described as the greatest inter-generational injustice ever inflicted by one generation of humans upon the next.

To say that the children are vulnerable is to understate their predicament.

What I Learnt On 29th May in other years

29th May 2020 Dustyesky – songs of struggle from the tundra of Mullumgrad

29th May 2011 Postcards from Ireland

At last – a zoom meeting you will stick out to the end

What I Learnt On 6th June in other years

6th June 2021 Good to Go in WA or Tassie? Don’t forget your g2gpass

6th June 2011 Lions and iClouds: News from the Black Skivvy