But also in my inbox were a few messages of gratitude. As you know, the afternoon of the quake knocked out train lines all over the greater Tokyo area. Most people had to sleep in offices or hotels until the next morning when limited public transport restarted.
But a few former PCPers took the bull by the horns and just walked home. One of them had a 5 hour trek from a stopped train, the other had a 9 hour hike all the way from downtown Tokyo to Yokohama. And they had emailed me to say thanks for helping them get in shape. They both noted that their old fat selves wouldn't have even considered the journey, but with strong, lean bodies they knew they could do it.
During the earthquake I had my own grateful moment, when my heavy convection oven was close to toppling from its shelf I was able to get to it and ease it to the ground. As I was doing this I thought, "hey, this is just like a curl!"
And this is the point I want to make in this post. Getting in shape is great. You can look good in your clothes and go to the pool with your head held high. But the real benefit of a healthy body is when things get REAL.
You might have heard of Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Black Swan Theory. (I highly recommend his book The Black Swan) The idea is that we humans underestimate the power of randomness and chance and overestimate our ability to shape and control situations. We don't take into account the unexpected Black Swan events like terrorist attacks, natural disasters, or rise of the internet. Instead, we go back with hindsight and fit these events into our neat timeline of how history unfolds. We also we do silly things like award CEOs massive bonuses simply because they've filled the role during boom times, and then are taken by surprise when an unpredictable event causes the good times to end, when we fire that same CEO for "doing a bad job."
The point of Black Swan Theory isn't to predict the next curveball that the world will throw at us. By definition, a Black Swan is unexpected and cannot be planned for. What we can do is acknowledge that Black Swans will occur and be realistic about our limited ability to control them.
Which is all to say that, at least once in your life you are going to have an unexpected Black Swan event that transpires in your immediate physical world. It could be something as dramatic as a magnitude 9 earthquake and thirty foot tsunami, or something close to home like a household accident or sudden illness. We have woven such a tight cocoon of technology around ourselves that these events can be a real wake up call.
A few months ago I had to carry an ill family member down three flights of stairs and a few hundred yards to a waiting car, and I barely managed it. The last few meters every muscle in my legs and shoulders was on fire and I really had to dig deep to finish the task. But luckily, I have 100s of hours of experience dealing with muscle fatigue and working through the burn, I knew exactly how much I was capable of and was able to keep a clear head. This is the same kind of thing my former clients walking home were expressing in their emails, how glad they were to have well functioning bodies that could see them through the crisis.
This is not meant to be a "check it out aren't we awesome!?" kind of post, it's a question I want to put on the table for everyone. When your Black Swan comes crashing into your life, do you have the physical tools to deal with it? Can you sprint 100 meters to safety? Can you climb up or down several stories on uneven ground? Can you carry a sick or injured person for any distance? Can you lift your body weight to get out of an overturned vehicle? Have you ever even thought about these things?
I know sitting in front of your screen reading this in a comfortable chair these scenarios seem far off and highly unlikely. But one of them is out there and it has your name on it. Why not do the bare minimum to prepare for it; lose those excess pounds, get some muscle on your body, and gain some confidence in your physicality. There is no downside here. Even if your Black Swan event never transpires, you'll be looking better and adding years to your life.
Be honest with yourself and make some changes. You can either be pulled from the rubble, or be the one helping others. With every bad meal or missed workout you are making your choice!
