Do. Or do not. There is no try.

Master Yoda Try Not - MotleyHealthMost people who read my blog really do not know me. It is probably a fact that most are not interested in who writes this blog (that is now a proper website) but only interested in the words and pictures that appear.

Well, who am I? Yes, I have a bio page, but that is the “professional” side of the website. It is not entirely the real me. Everything written there is real; I did do many martial arts, I did study health sciences and I do sometimes still lift weights. But life moves on and things get in the way.

Last month I turned 40 and for the last five years I have been self-employed. It was always an ambition to shake myself free from the shackles of London’s banking sector, but I can tell you, it is not all plain sailing. Working in The City is certainly the easy option, even with the lovely daily commute.


Recently more things seem to have got in the way of me living the sort of life that I preach. Things like work and family. But these are good things. So what is the problem? The main problem really is stress, panic, crisis, confusion, worry.

As Yoda never said, stress leads to apathy, apathy leads to sedentarism and sedentarism leads to being unfit and overweight.

And that is where I find myself: middle-aged, self-employed, overweight and a little stressed.

I was just brewing some coffee between writing assignments and I thought to myself – I never have the time to do anything. I am either running my business, writing things, chasing around after the kids or drinking coffee.

I hardly had time to read these days (although I have started reading short stories), I am behind on my latest studies (a FutureLearn course, Writing Fiction) have not even started the course on “Obesity: causes and consequences” that I enrolled on.


More importantly, I have not found the time use gym in months (and use the excuse that the garage is a mess and stinks of petrol). I did start running earlier this year but an old injury came back to haunt me and soon put a stop to that. So much for the health benefits of running!

I did just find the time to cycle to the shops and buy some more coffee beans though, so life is not all bad. It was while brewing said coffee that I thought to myself – I really must try to sort out my schedule and fit in more exercise.

And then I remembered Master Yoda’s wise words to Luke Skywalker: “Do. Or do not. There is no try”. This always reminds me of Bruce Lee’s words to his student in Enter The Dragon: “Don’t think, feeeeel”. Not really all that relevant, but each scene always reminds me of the other.

When people say that life gets in the way, the real issue is usually that stress gets in the way. If you are free of worry and well organised you can generally fit in most things. Stress, at least for me, results in a rabbit-in-the-headlights situation: I find myself just staring at oncoming disaster and unable to move myself to action.

The disaster is multi-faceted of course – my business, my health, my weight, my lack of coffee ….

I know many people who work full time, have families and still manage to compete in cycling, running and martial arts competitions on a regular basis. In fact, just about every person in the country has to do this – most people will eventually have a job, a family and many still find time to stay in shape.


But as we know, many people fail to stay in shape, and of these, many really want to stay in shape. It is a strange paradox. Stress, worry and life in general appears to be a big problem.

I have decided that less trying and thinking and more doing is in order.

Although first, I really do need to finish these writing assignments before I do the school run. And writing this blog post is not helping matters. Well, I am hoping it will help me with some medium to long-term goals; but it is not helping with the short-term goal that is to complete three short articles in the next two hours ……

But, there is always time to watch a little Bruce Lee ….

“We need emotional content. Try again!”


And of course, Master Yoda ….

Sometimes life tries to get in the way of you living a healthy life. Learn a little from Yoda, live a better life.

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