KISS, YAGNI and GTD really do work, so if your New Year's Resolution to lose 157 pounds is not working out as planned, please lend me your ears for about 7 minutes.
Before we get started, please put down your protein shake. Forget for a moment the new wonder herb you are about to mix into your fat free milk. Before you swallow either, you need to know how to do this the easy way. I promise that the definition of YAGNI is in the footnote* below. Now, here's the secret to losing 7 pounds by Valentines Day. Are you ready?
(Oh, BTW, I am giving away a LOT of FREE stuff today that I will need to pay for, so please click on one or two sponsor links; thanks. TLOML reminded me about her new AlienWare laptop LOL)
Let me tell you the story of a man named Jed.....**
My Uncle Buck was an old sailor. Growing up on the Western Slope of Colorado, as a 10 year old boy seemed the strongest and smartest man alive; maybe best cowboy I ever met next to my Grandad Verne. Which is why I always laughed when he would say, "Hell, I don't know, I'm just a city slicker, but your Grandad told me how to do that." We may have been talking about how to pack a string of horses up Lost Solar Creek, or climbing down to the log jam up the South Fork of the White River, or maybe Mom's only brother John's expedition last year deep into the darkness of Spring Cave. Let's pretend it was me asking how to keep the milk cold in the little steam running in front of the cabin. I said, "We don't have a refrigerator."*
Instead of describing the process sitting on the porch of the cabin, he showed me how to keep milk cold 20 miles from the nearest electrical outlet; he jumped up, said follow me to the big tree down there. He showed me the old blue plastic cooler, the kind you have in the garage from the 2008 vacation trip to Wyoming that you forgot you had. He opened the lid knowing I didn't understand my own question. "Gee, Uncle Buck, I know that's where we keep the ice, but how are we going to keep the milk cold?" He pointed to the half gallon paper jug. Of milk. I had never noticed it before. Because I had always taken it for granted. In that very short moment - a millisecond of time really - I learned what I am about to tell you. Eating right is not that hard.
Uncle Buck grew up in Colorado Springs. a life lesson he would teach me years later when TLOML said here's what Uncle Buck meant. Or, what Mr. Khonke said, "it's not what you wish you knew, it's how to remember to use what you already have." Uncle Buck taught me what I needed to know for THAT moment, not what I needed to eat for breakfast on Nov 10th. In other words, when I started this journey, I didn't know all the things necessary for dropping from 367 pounds to 210 pounds in 15 months. "Uncle Buck, all I want to know right now is how keep the milk cold." He used other words, but now I now he said, "Start eating right." Seems logical to me today that I only need to the next thing do do. Later, God would prompt me on what to do next through men that stand in for Uncle Buck: Wayne Crull, Mark Kleinbach, and Sylvain, not to mention Microsoft who put Sunscreen on their Microsoft Smart Phone. The rest of the host of angels are too numerous for me to remember now, but God will remind me someday.
So, before you finish that protein shake, or add that herb to your milk, ask yourself this question. In the context of today, knowing where you are now,
what is the very next thing you need to do to lose those 7 pounds before the big game on February 5th when you want to look like the sexiest thing alive in front of your TLOML?
(Okay, now you can eat both the shake and the herb supplement; it's okay. At least you are doing something. Fifteen months from now you will understand the power and beauty of your youth. You will understand why my son wrote these lyrics, "Turn It Up, Turn The Page....."
[END OF GOOD STUFF]
[Que the Important Stuff]
[Details if you want them]
* Footnotes
(Warning - some links open in a new window; others don't, so if you still need to make some notes about what you learned from Uncle Buck's lesson (God bless you!) then don't click them YET!)
KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid (what my wife said about why she liked yesterday's post)
(not for Kia - listen to Wayne; he knows what you're saying; you need to hear what he's saying)
YAGNI - You Ain't Gonna Need It (what Uncle Buck said about why I didn't need the ladder)
GTD - Getting Things Done is more than a system described by David Allen
Spring Cave - shortcut to a Google Search you might find handy; you pick the one you think is interesting, but I liked some of the details in this outdated page from
Big Daddy Maps.
South Fork of the White River and Lost Solar Creek
Trust Me On The Sunscreen - (sorry, running out of time and the editor said something about deadlines)
The Family Cabin. (sorry, that's a story for another day. Can't give you everything all at once).
TLOML - Cheryl, my bride of 31 years, who has for 15 months been explaining the things God and Uncle Buck have been telling me. Feel free to redefine that acronym for YLOYL.
Microsoft - I'm sure you can find that web site by yourself, so let me pay tribute to them for what they did for me by putting this image on your screen.
(PS: Julie, now you understand?)
