Tag Archives: Life

Update on The 1-3-6 Weight Loss Experiment

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This post’s an update to the one I wrote on 10th July, 2011 about a weight loss experiment. The numbers don’t lie…

Current (May 2012) weight: 82 kg (181 lbs)

That’s just 1 kg (2.2 lbs) less than nearly a year ago and way off the target weight of 77 kg by 31st Dec, 2011.

What Went ‘Wrong’?

First of all, I was not on a diet. Never have been, in fact. (Other than the ‘sea-food diet’ i.e. when I ‘see food’, I eat it…)

Joking aside, here are my comments on the three actions I planned to take that would increase the odds of achieving my goal.

Increase Daily Walking:

Planned: 10 to 20 minutes

Actual: 50 minutes (30 AM and 20 PM)

This is working out well and allows me to ‘power walk’ twice daily (Mon to Fri.)

Add 7 Minutes Circuit Sessions:

Planned: Add after running-in-the-park sessions.

Actual: Completed twice weekly during the warm summer and early autumn mornings or evenings. Stopped once it became too dark and cold…

Climb Stairs:

Planned: Walk Up 9 Flights of Stairs Approx. 3 Times Daily:

Actual: Walking up 9 flights of stairs (28 m vertical height) approx. 5 times daily. Maximum daily climb was 13 times. A round trip (up and down) the stairs takes about 3 minutes. This adds at least 15 minutes to the daily exercise routine.

In addition, since beginning the ‘7 Summits Challenge‘ I’ve noticed both my leg strength and toning have noticeably improved.

Two out of three isn’t bad, especially when their implementation in daily life went beyond what was planned.

But what about those ’6′ things I was to stop doing?

1) Planned: Eliminate all snacking after 9 pm: This was probably 50/50. Sometimes I’d have a coffee and biscuit around 10pm but at least there was very little secret munching of big choco bars…

2) Planned: Stop all weekday beers: Epic Failure. A 350 ml can is about 12 fluid ounces. Mid-week, I’d down two cold ones (not every night haha!) – perhaps a subconscious ‘reward’ for the evening walk homeward?

3) Go to bed by 11 pm: Actually, I was lucky if I was in bed by midnight and then up again at 5:30.

4) Stop Buying TGIF Chocolate: Another 50/50. I still feel a need to treat myself. But for what?

5) Start Standing Up More: This is on track because the stair climbing has me doing something active every 60 minutes.

6) ?? I still can’t find a sixth ‘cease and desist’ (lol!) that fits this rubric…

Is The Ladder Leaning Against the Wrong Wall?

It’s quite possible that 77 kg is a goal I’m unlikely to achieve without half starving myself to death. And that’s because I was probably only ever less than 80 kg (176 lbs; 12.5 stone) in my teens! Once weight training for running became a part of my early 20s lifestyle…

Looking now at a 2002 health check report I had here in Japan, I was also 82 kg.

Nevertheless, I’m keen to see the inches melt away from the ‘jelly belly’. I’ll therefore continue working with the 1-3-6(5) system described above, but will modify the target goal to be:

Decrease waist size from 37″ to 35″ ( 95 cm to 89 cm) by 31 Dec 2012.

My expectation is that toning up the waist line will naturally reduce the body mass…

I plan to use a great core abs workout video as my guide – thanks to my daughter for pointing me to the folks at Sparkpeople.com.

I can include some of Nicole’s workout in my morning and evening push up / sit up routine – now at 26/74. (See this post on ‘rediscovering willpower‘ for details.)

However, as my ‘core’ is somewhat weak in relation to legs, shoulders and arms, I’ll start by adding the Sparkpeople exercises every other day.

Break-Fix Exercise Habits

So, that’s where I’m at with exercising this 51 years old body.

How about you?

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Push’n'Go Career Change

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It’s been almost three years since I did this email interview about mid-life career transition with Singapore-based writer, entrepreneur and owner of ‘goal-setting-college’, Ms. Ellesse Chow.

Reading it now, but with the benefit of hindsight, I can see where my optimism about mid-career change (as a coach) was about to collide head-on with severe economic turbulence.

Of course, since then we’ve experienced what the Western media have been calling the ‘Global Financial Crisis’, but in Japan is more often referred to as the ‘Lehman shock’.

As we approach the end of 2010, here are my three ‘rules’ of career change (not set in stone, just based on what 36 months of living and breathing untethered from the corporate teat have taught me.)

Mid-Career Change Rule #1 – S##t Happens

Mid-career change is not a ‘walk in the park.’ Stuff just, well, stuff just happens. That’s life. Be prepared and open to change before you embark on such an adventure.

Mid-Career Change Rule #2 – Know Your Strengths

This is where a good inventory of your skills, experience and interests can be a godsend.
I wrote about Prof Ed Schein’s career anchors approach in Dec 2007. And the advice I received in that report about my career anchors has been, almost uncannily, spot on.

Will this type of research-based and guided self-analysis work for someone just starting out in life and thinking of career change?

push-and-go-fire-truckIt’s very possible.

Back in Xmas 1986, I was preparing to swap my science teaching career for an IT training career with McDonnell Douglas Information Systems.

You can get a sense of that transition story in Ellesse’s interview, and also from my ‘About Mark McClure’ page on this blog.

Anyway, on the last day of School, my class of 16-year olds gave me some ‘goodbye’ presents.

It was very sweet of them and I recall those days fondly – even more so when my daughter and I visited the school in March this year. Walking into a school again almost 24 years later is a very humbling experience, especially when so few of the staff there still knew who I was!

The one present that’s survived all those years is the push’nGo firetruck shown in the picture. For the life of me I can’t remember why they chose that. Perhaps I resembled the driver haha!

Looking at the toy this afternoon, I can see how the driver’s head is cracked, the truck’s paintwork is fading, and one wheel kind of wobbles when the head is pushed down.

But it’s still a toy fire truck.

Admittedly, a somewhat beaten up truck, but recognizably one.

And I, at heart, remain a teacher; using my skills in one way or another.

For example, what’s a career coach?
He or she, in my opinion, is a teacher of the self.
A mirror of possibilities and probabilities that another person can use to teach themselves.

And what about a tech case study writer or white paper writer or personal growth writer? (My current three writing loves.)

The best writers use words to help teach the prospect or customer about solutions to the problems they’re facing. And if I’ve learned anything about copywriting and human nature, it’s that people are most interested in ‘benefits’. They care much less for ‘features’.

So it’s in those three worlds – coaching, teaching and writing – that my days are experienced. Funny how those three attributes have morphed and changed as career companions over the years. I don’t expect them to go away while I still draw breath.

Returning to the question of identifying what ‘career anchors’ a person might discover for themselves from their 20s onwards.

Although I didn’t have the advantage of Ed Schein’s work or of the Internet 25 years ago, I did have my own intuitive feeling about what work engaged me, and what bored me. This is sometimes expressed by career writers with a personal growth bias as, “do what you love“.

It’s also regularly disparaged by people of a more pragmatic persuasion. These people quite rightly see career choices and rewards becoming ever more competitive and uncertain, especially as the ‘globalized economy‘ continues to add hundreds of millions of equally ambitious people into the equation.

Who is right? Well, I believe both are.

And that brings me to express the final rule in this way:

Mid-Career Change Rule #3 – Aim at Doing More of What You Love

Books can (and are) written about this precept to “do what you love.”
It is, of course, easier to say so on a full stomach, under a dry roof, and in a clean bed.

That’s why you have to be careful about following the advice of those who advocate, “Yes, go do what you love. The money will follow.” It aint necessarily so and you would therefore be wise to AIM at doing more of what you love while also taking care of providing daily sustenance for you and yours.

It’s at this point – that of providing daily sustenance – where some people get stuck.

Of course, they dream about how wonderful it would be have a job they both love and get well paid for. But this ‘daily sustenance providing’ is a real drag. And it can be, if your circumstances demand almost all of your time and energy to get to first base. There are no simple answers here.

However, there are questions you can ask that may eventually lead to answers appropriate for you.

Here’s one example of this type of question to finish on, and one which also allows me to introduce a very deep thinker and believer in human happiness – the late (and ex) Father Anthony De Mello.

The question is : “Do you want to be unconditionally happy?”

Let that one simmer on the back burner but be aware, it might take time for you to wake up and answer it.

In the meantime, kindly give your attention to these audio recordings of Dr. De Mello doing his thing at a retreat. I don’t know exactly where or when, but it was many years ago. Whoever made the YouTube videos has added some entrancing Nature shots but those are just a backdrop for the ‘magic’ our good Doctor is working.

In fact, these two clips are almost word for word what is written in his book, “Awareness“, between pages 9 and 15. The first clip is insightful and I often ponder on the contrasts between unconditional selfishness and unconditional selflessness. The second clip is, well, hilarious! Enjoy…

Well, what did you think?
I’d be interested to read any constructive comments.

That question again: “Do you want to be unconditionally happy?”

Try applying it to your ideas on doing more of what you love and see what comes back. Keep a journal or blog about your thinking. That’s partly what I’ve been doing with this blog since Nov 2007…

- Mark McClure

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Mindful Mid-Career Change

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Here’s an excellent article about Harvard psychologist, Ellen Langer, and her lifetime’s research into ‘mindfulness’.

I was impressed by her bestselling book of that name some years ago, and while I’m still often far from mindful, I’m grateful that her words helped stimulate my thinking into the kind of learned behavior that’s so strong it becomes habitual.

Although her original study at the monastery was with elderly people, I suspect the positive ramifications of mindfulness for middle-aged people considering a career change are equally significant.

What I took from her book was to pay more attention to the seemingly inconsequential things and happenings around me. Why? Because it appears there’s a kind of “living placebo” at work within me that I’m not consciously aware of most of the time.

How to start experiencing mindfulness

I found the easiest way was to begin with my breath since I enjoy running and exercise so much. Plus the automatic nature of breathing is fascinating in its own right and its gentle observation encourages a peaceful, easy feeling (as ‘The Eagles’ used to sing.)

From that place of calmness eventually came another voice, one that I feel has my best interests at heart and, as far as I can tell, the highest good of others around me.

On a practical level I find this voice makes allowances for both the work necessary to “put bread on the table” and the vocational aspect of what I truly enjoy doing – in my case, writing, teaching, reading and running.

The Harvard article also mentions Jennifer Aniston’s plans for a film of her life story.
That looks interesting. I didn’t know she had another book, Counterclockwise, out too.

- Mark McClure

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Human Capital Obsolescence

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This post’s title was inspired by an article in TechCrunch.
Go read “Silicon Valley’s Dark Secret: It’s All About Age“, including the comments, and then come back here.

I’ll wait ;-)

The author’s focus is on tech talent (particularly software programmers) in Silicon Valley but I think the lessons apply to almost anyone in an IT tech role and based in the developed world.

Note the advice he offers within points 1, 2 and 3.
I imagine these are well-known by IT Pros in their 30s and 40s, but I often wonder how many are actively planning to do anything about it before events force their hand?

By events, I mean: economic black swans such as the “Lehman shock” (as the global 2008 financial pandemonium is called here in Japan), corporate outsourcing to developing countries, and technology changes.

For me, the wake up call was reading Ashutosh Sheshabalaya’s book, “Rising Elephant”, around 2005/6. He was very clear that big changes were coming for both the US and Europe as India’s offshoring juggernaut built global momentum.

With the perspective of hindsight, here’s a very prescient interview of the author in 2004 – and remember that the debt-fueled boom of many Western nations was in full swing at that time, and minds were not alert as to what would happen when the ‘inevitable’ bust arrived.

“Author Says Offshoring ‘Real WMD’ for US”

And now that many countries are still in the economic doldrums, 2 years beyond the 2008 debacle, you can imagine the pressures to cut costs, “do more with less” mantras that are fueling corporations’ planning and decisions.

Excepting a major and ‘unexpected’ geopolitical event (e.g. resource wars…) that might derail the ‘global playing field’, the outsourcing trend (in my opinion) is likely to accelerate in the years ahead. Driven not just by skills and wage arbitrage but by technologies such as ‘telepresence’, it will be easier and cheaper to create, monitor and manage virtual office environments. (Although time differences will always suck…!)

A small ripple in this economic pool are the changes to the ex-pat population in Japan (mainly Tokyo). A lot of people have apparently ‘disappeared’, as this article in Japan-based entrepreneur Terrie Lloyd’s ezine of 24th August reveals:

“… many of those missing 4,700 people are in fact foreigners.
We are hearing repeated stories of luxury apartments going
for 50% or less of their pre-Lehman shock rentals…”

You can probably guess what’s happened to the missing – sacked, repatriated or relocated (in many cases to Singapore).

This can happen to anyone, at virtually any time.

Be prepared…

- Mark McClure

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30-Day Accountability Update

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The 30-day accountability experiment has finished on a high note for me.

I went the entire month of June without wasting time in aimless surfing during the weekday evenings. In addition, not a single drop of alcohol passed my lips.

And so that Guinness I enjoyed on Thu 1 July was all the sweeter for being well-earned!

Aside from the productive time gained each week – an extra 10 hours – it was also gratifying to know that a new habit can be programmed in about a month or so with the aid of ‘spotlighting’ and some degree of public commitment.

How Personal Accountability Helps To Enable Desired Behavior

(However, your mileage may vary as there’s some research evidence out there, the link escapes me just now, that suggests people who make their goals public tend to underachieve. Oh dear! All I can say is… it depends!)

By the way, this time around I did not use the ‘MotivAider’ gizmo to automatically remind me of my intention.

I suspect that the (almost) daily comments I added to the 3-day accountability blog post acted as their own reminder and helped keep things on track. It was all rather effortless (after the first few days!)

To your habitual success!
- Mark McClure

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