I Could Kick Diana Nyad's Butt

It's important to keep your eye on the goal . . .

I could easily kick the butt of sexagenarian Diana Nyad. Yeah, over the holiday weekend she took a little 100-mile swim from Cuba to Florida protected only by a small electrical current to keep the sharks at bay and a head-to-toe rubber suit to avoid the jellyfish that doomed her last attempt while I floated around my sister’s pool sipping on a strawberry margarita. But I could so totally beat her in the complaining-about-getting-older contest. Hands down.

This has been one of those years when I’ve considered throwing in the towel when it comes to fighting the aging process.  I’ve fallen twice, which has meant that much of my weekly socializing has been done in my physical therapist’s office. For the first time since July I’ve lifted a big 5 lbs.! But my shoulder hurt, and my rebuilt neck hurt, and my arthritic knee hurt after “chasing” my arthritic dog down the sidewalk. I finally broke down and hired landscapers to whip my garden into shape because I’m not really good at the kneeling or pulling thing. I huffed and puffed when trying to put an elasticized slipcover over my couch cushion. Yes, I made enough noise when putting on a slipcover that my husband came in to see if I needed help.

So I could totally beat Nyad at a getting-older-sucks complaint contest.

This complaining about age is new to me. And frankly, I think I’m finally getting as tired of my complaints as everyone else is who’s had to listen to me.

even when the goal seems out of sight at times . . .

I wonder what Diana Nyad complains about? Certainly not jellyfish or she would just decide against jumping into the wide ocean. Does she complain about Miley Cyrus twerking? She probably is too busy laying out the steps to accomplish grand goals to watch Entertainment Tonight.

Diana Nyad is example to all of us in mid-life or later. The example of this daunting feat, though, does not imply that we all have to set extreme goals to become the best on the planet in something. If that’s what you want, fine. Go beat some 20-something hipsters at their own game now! Nyad’s example is more simply that we should never stop setting goals. Chasing dreams and achieving specific goals gives us direction. It gives us focus to our day. It brings us peace because we know what we want each day.

But as we get older and give more thought to family, work, aches and pains we probably begin to sabotage ourselves. Or maybe we can just blame it on our brains. Psychologists have found that the more we fantasize about our ambitions, the less likely we are to achieve them. We visualize the success so completely, that we let up on the motivation to actually achieve it. Furthermore, our mind loves robotic motion, i.e., busy work. It gravitates toward work that gets “something” done, but not the kind of work that produces measurable results.

And that’s where, again I say, I could kick Diana Nyad’s butt. I’m such a champ at busy work that I’ve branched off into the related sport of complaining that I can’t accomplish any of my dreams because I’m just so “busy.”

 or you feel about to go over the edge

Instead of those young literary or technological upstarts who were already on the way down by the age of thirty I’m going to join the ranks of those who followed dreams after mid-life. It’s really not that hard, I decided. Today after spending half the day researching phones, phone plans, and the process of switching from one provider to another, then researching it all again after lunch because, well, you know, choosing the perfect phone can make or break a life, I was all ready to put hand to head in a dramatic fashion and say (although there was no one but the dog to see), “Oh woe is me! I’m too tired/there is not enough time left in the day/my mind is too muddled with phone business to sit down and get any writing done. I guess I’ll make a frozen pizza and go to bed.”

But then I pulled up my big girl panties and decided Ms. Nyad didn’t get to be the only one to have an aim in life and follow through. I sat down at the computer and sketched out bits and pieces for essays, THEN followed it up by writing the blog piece I should have published Tuesday.

(and the crowd goes wild! cheers cheers cheers!)

Share in the comments box what gets you off track from setting or achieving goals. How do you regain that motivation?

I’m finally getting around to watching the Netflix series “House of Cards,” starring Kevin Spacey and a terrific cast. Seriously – it’s a reason to subscribe to Netflix. He recently gave a speech at the Edinburgh Television Festival about the future of mainstream media. And what does this have to do with being Diana Nyad? Nothing, really. Except perhaps it reminds us how much people with vision can accomplish. You really should watch him say many smart things that matter to all of us.

It's Not Exactly Up There With Climbing Mt. Everest -- My FiftyFifty Challenge

"If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes." -Andrew Carnegie

I’m going to come right out and say it: laziness is my standard operating mode.  That doesn’t mean you’ll find me sitting around all day watching Court TV.  Dog walking, traveling, and gardening are default activities  Over my 50+ years, though, the path of “good enough” seemed my favorite to travel.  I did just enough to be good at things but not enough to excel.  In music, I could play what was put in front of me, but I didn’t push myself to be at a professional level.  I could write and play softball, but since others were better at it I did it only for fun.  I exercise now just enough to be able to continue hiking and pick up my large dog, but not enough to actually get into great shape.  I did manage to finish my Ph.d dissertation.

However, the crave for a real challenge gurgles in my stomach.  Before I bow out of this life I want to grab hold of difficult goals and wrestle them to the ground.  I want to be Rocky running up the steps with his theme music swelling in the background.  Horrid visions of myself sitting in front of the television with a microwave dinner on a TV tray and watching Lawrence Welk reruns while my neighbors jog past on their way to salsa dancing lessons fill my waking hours (say, when sitting in front of the television watching Republican debate #632).

Some my age who wake up one morning with a sudden urge for challenges might run a marathon or eat bugs in Malaysia or something like that.  Extremes are not my thing, though.  Hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back up, or get that darn book written, or find myself published in something every month of the year would be great goals.  But, gee, they all require such long-term commitments.  They all demand so much of me.  Even that learning French aspiration has faded a bit (although it’s time to ratchet it up before traveling again this summer).

"There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, Yes, I've got dreams, of course I've got dreams. Then they put the box away and bring it out once in a while to look in it, and yep, they're still there." - Erma Bombeck

So I was glad to find a challenge right up my alley -- the FiftyFifty Challenge – 50 books and 50 movies in one year. My house is overflowing with books and movies, so you would think that this would be a cinch.  However, I have a tendency to read three books at once and not finish any.  And I frequently fall asleep while watching movies at home and never see the end.  Plus I’m so undisciplined about it all, tackling things broadly but never deeply.  I might read one Jane Austen, but I’ve never read all.  When teaching and researching at the university level, all of my reading was so targeted, such clear objectives.  I never had to ask myself what next.  Now I just dabble.

Easy-peasy, right?  Each week just skip a couple of Law and Order reruns to watch a movie.  And there are plenty of short Hemingway novels out there to breeze through.  It doesn’t all have to be Dostoevsky.  But where’s the challenge in that?  In fact, one definition of challenge is “to stimulate by making demands on the intellect.”  Ah, so there’s the catch. I have to make demands on myself.

And so I will.  I’m going to read and watch according to themes and report back to you on a separate page on this blog.

My movie goals:
- 10  foreign movies (I’m behind in my watching)
- 10 contemporary movies (whatever is in the theaters or came out in 2011)
- 10 documentaries (what can I learn?)
- 10 pre-1950 movies (I love old movies so an excuse to find some I haven’t seen)
- 10 Sundance award winners (find something I wouldn’t normally watch)

My book goals:
- 10 craft books on writing (I usually end up skimming them)
- 10 literary fiction or poetry (William Faulkner, here I come)
- 10 travel books (I’ll start with the large stack under my bedside table)
- 10 memoirs (if I want to write like that I need to read a variety)
- 10 by or about Edith Wharton (getting deeply into a writer I love)
 

 "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.  Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.  Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." 
-Calvin Coolidge

Join me in this undertaking (although let’s hope it doesn’t put me completely under).  You can sign on and see how others are approaching the challenge at the FiftyFifty website.  If 50/50 is too much, try your own half-marathon challenge and do 25/25.  Or if books and movies aren’t your thing find two other interests to do 50/50, e.g., 50 jigsaw puzzles and 50 bikes rides of at least five miles.

Something tells me that if I can discipline myself to do this one thing, at the end of the year several other goals that had been languishing in my dream box will be crossed off my to-do list.  Mais oui!  For now, though, it’s all about pressing on.

Do you have any long-term challenges for yourself this year?  What are they and why did you choose them If you tried the 50/50 what movie or book themes would you tackle?  For example, would you “major” in sci-fi films and minor in Martin Scorcese? ?  If you developed your own 50/50 challenge, what would you pair to accomplish it?  Share your thoughts in the comments box.

Maybe Skyler and I can make a dent in one of several bookcases in my house