Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Lessons From the "Extreme Makeovers"

When they first used to produce these "reality shows," they'd actually take several months to effect these dramatic transformations in people -- until they finally came around to realizing that it didn't take weeks, months or years to effect such transformations, but could be done virtually instantaneously once one had the winning formula down.

It's a lot like writing computer programs -- in that it may take a while to solve a problem for the first time, but once that has been done, one can repeat that process over and over very quickly.

Many years ago when I ran the Scientific Weight-training program at the Boston YMCA as one of the first adult education co-ed classes in weight training in the mid70s, we used to take exhaustive information and measurements to verify our actual results as proof that a very brief amount of intense exercise could sustain noticeable, undeniable results -- including taking before and after pictures at six-week intervals.

What became fairly obvious to me was that with training, it became possible for advanced subjects to alter their appearance (shape and condition) as dramatically in one session, as they could in the difference between the before and after pictures taken six weeks apart.

That's how I got the idea and notion, that the difference was not time and energy consumed, but a difference in their understanding and ability to effect change -- instantaneously, once they developed the skill to do so -- and maintained that skill and practice daily. Even exercise as a minimum daily practice is still regarded as a revolution in the thinking that one needs to take a break from "too much" exercise.

If one does too much exercise, it is well recognized that one requires a break of a day or two to recover and grow from that stimulus -- but is there an amount of exercise that doesn't exhaust those recovery abilities to that extraordinary extent. That would be a deliberately limited mini-workout not exceeding five minutes -- in which one invariably is left feeling one "could" do more, and likely will -- but that regimen doesn't need to be enforced, but is predisposed.

That right amount, is generally what athletes in any competitive activity, usually do as a warm up -- not thinking it is very important -- except for the exceptional few, who do everything as though it matters greatly. It is this attention to detail into what most others would consider not important, that will distinguish those functioning on a much higher level of achievement and performance.

The world-class performer does everything as a performance -- because they exceed the parameters of expectation that greatly, so that their least effort surpasses most people's best efforts. That's kind of shocking to believe in most daily activities which largely centers around the average "expectation" -- rather than is witnessed in its most extreme -- usually by others with those same pre-inclinations and talents, and is therefore likely then to be taken for granted as the "average."

But it is far from the average -- for most of the general population. In like manner, many are not or haven't been exposed to people with great abilities to transform themselves greatly, instantaneously -- but those subpopulations exist in every arena of human activity -- as extraordinary talent and ability that cannot be learned, or worked for. However, even among the gifted, there are secrets to doing things better, easier and more effectively -- which only they have the gifts to manifest fully, but 90% of that benefit, can be learned and benefited by the average person -- once it is observed and identified as the significant factor in a phenomenon.

What is the 10% that gives one 90% of the results (effects)? That is what is significant to know and master.

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