This chapter is for:
• Do 6 pack, bookworm badasses exist?
• Is it possible to regret our dreams becoming reality?
• “The devil in the details” and some other dream traps
• Ways to improve attention span
• How to increase work efficiency
• From KFC through M&M to McD as workout routines
• How one can be losing while winning and winning while losing

This time I will tell you my Zumba story.

Apart from the trainer being a cute chick, the music was selected in such a way, that you may start enjoying even if it’s your first.
I discovered after some time that dancing isn’t that quite unattainable or the not appropriately manly enough thing, as I suppose most or at least some men think it is.

As with a lot of things in life (if not all), there too was a downside. Zumba sessions were at a rather inconvenient time. Zumba sessions are each Tuesday and Thursday from 6 PM. Unfortunately.
Why you may ask?
First, because I am usually at work in the evening especially in Tuesday. Additionally, those Thursdays I’ve began my gourmet soirees cycle and I also had the temporary option to join a group with improvisational games and exercises on creativity.
Exactly because I usually work on evenings and weekends, daily visits to the fitness are more suitable. They were both discounted and less crowded.
My card has daily access till 4 PM. One time, however, I lost track of time while working out and I saw some people doing/playing/dancing Zumba in the group sessions room. I walked in for just a bit and I decided to give it try some other time.

I don’t know about you, but for me ”some other time” is not like quantum physics, but a concept with tangible results.

Gradually, I changed my schedule in order to have a free night and zumba session.

Captain’s Tips N Tricks (a.k.a. TnT) №1

If you want the change, both new steps and sacrifice are needed.

**It occurs to me, that people always want to achieve something. It occurs to me, because they imagine life as a store. They go there, they take something, and end up owning it (while still remaining the same people).

The ugly truth is that when we want to change something, we have to change ourselves. It is something that people don’t like doing and prefer not to think of it. By weightlifting you will gain muscle, but only if at the same time you stop forklifting. Otherwise you would mostly gain fat.
Likewise, to get smarter you need to read and learn, but this needs time. Time you need to get out of somewhere – usually the things that you enjoy.
I’ve also noticed that people dream of achieving their goals, but their hidden dream is not to put any effort or pay the price for it – sacrificing privileges they already have.
Once we already have something, it is difficult to let go of it and that is why we rarely see bookworms with a 6 pack or well-read body builders.
As John Ruskin once said: “Tell me what you do and I’ll tell you who you are”. What we do, we begin identifying with it: brain or brawn. By gaining benefits from either, we don’t easily give up on them for some potential future ones.**

If you want something, first decide on what to let go.

Well, I already know that so I plan in advance on what I am willing to give up on to get something.

In this particular case, to have a Zumba session, I had to sacrifice twice as much from my valluable time, than the session itself, because I had to enter in 3:59 PM when my card was still valid and to work out till 6 PM when it starts.

So, on the decided day, I’ve entered the club, as usual, two hours prior to the session and worked out lightly.

I was wrong.

I shouldn’t have worked out at all.

Turned out Zumba was far more exhausting than while watching it.

Same goes for other things, wouldn’t you agree?

I did Zumba this once and I was enthralled.

It might’ve helped that I was the only man and the instructor treated me specially. She even tried to dance with me, though I couldn’t call it exactly a success. I keep the idea that one has to be above enjoying the little things or be troubled by the setbacks of life, but (t)here I was.

So I tried to have another session ASAP and then I decided not to make the error of working out even lightly. For the first 2 months I’ve managed to go on 3 or 4 zumba sessions. Not that bad keeping the whole logistics in mind. As I had to access the club 2 h in advance due to my card, I tried to fill the gaps. I entertained the thought that I never get enough time to read due to my work, so I tried to catch up on this intellectually endorsing activity by getting the maximum number of pages covered. It made me guilt free for losing my time. As I wasn’t reading an all-consuming fiction, but a book of Erich Fromm, whenever I became tired from reading, I gave the stationary bicycle another go.

I also hoped that once the Spa center opens, time will go by effortlessly. Which brings me to the/my next point: time loss and time optimization. Yes, I know, some schedules are not possible changing, but that’s no excuse for trying.

TnT №2

Try to prepare for the event of a time gap: waiting for a date or business meeting, time spent on public transport, being stuck at the airport or in a traffic jam etc. Instead of fooling around and feel deprived of time, it pays off to be ready to do something useful.

E.g: answering emails reading or listening to an audiobook, planning for the near future etc. These are all things that we usually postpone, but they improve our quality of life. In this way, time wasted becomes time gained.

The spa eventually did open. I could already taste the combo of going there and zumba, same way a person who is fasting, thinks about the upcoming holiday.

And indeed national holidays were just around the corner, which gave me the option to catch up on my other tasks. But then came …

To be continued in Patrt 4