half-baked idea: building moral muscle

Part of my new plan for sidenote is to post more often, and that's going to result in me writing whatever bs is on my mind. Hopefully it's more good than bad, but either way I'll keep posting. 

--

It's Tuesday, day 2 of being back at school. Fortunately, I'm studying from home and Starbucks instead, so it still kind of feels like vacation. 

Looking over the surface anatomy of the gut, my head was definitely spinning in all the new vocab. I wonder if it would be easier to learn if I had abs. Damn Netter.. now I'm definitely self-conscious about the cookies I ate yesterday. Just did ten push ups. Also, I would have posted a real picture of my abs but this blog is rated PG.


sidenote - on the topic of anatomy, I had a half-baked about building moral muscle. I'm not sure who came up with the idea of moral muscle, but it sounds like moral muscle = intangibles.  sidenote within a sidenote - I have this philosophy that intangibles represents everything that actually matters about humans, but it also represents everything that's difficult to quantify. So instead, we judge people by silly measures like MCAT scores, salary, lbs bench pressed, etc. One my life missions is to figure out how to understand intangibles better. Anyways, back to my idea: is it possible to build intangibles in the same way you'd build regular muscle? 

ie - if I wanted better abs I would do two hundred sit-ups everyday for a year.  ergo - if we take use humility as an example - I'd force myself to do something I'm obviously bad at everyday, and the process of making mistakes and seeing my limitations would eventually make me more humble..? Kind of a fake-it-till-you-make-it strategy.

What we need is an app that could keep track of every time you do something humble, like a workout log.  We'd also need certified trainers that would tell us how to become humble, as well as workout buddies to keep us accountable.  I really like the parallel of athletics to life. I feel like this is going somewhere but I'm out of ideas.

See you on the other side,

from ken

taking requests for future blog posts. please comment or email.

7 comments:

  1. If you did 200 sit-ups everyday, you probably wouldn't be ripped. You'd just be really good at sit-ups. If you want to look like the picture above, you better mix up your ab workouts to keep challenging your muscles in different ways so they don't get used to the same motions. This is sort of like the list of 6 things to do to be noticed that you sent me yesterday. I feel like the take home point of that article was to just do new things and go out and make stories (easier said than done), but definitely a way to 'workout your intangible muscles'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good point - I love that you continued the exercise analogy. This is why you'd need the intangibles trainer - to keep your workouts varied, making sure you don't get stale, keeping you on track with the six pack goals.

      Delete
  2. Kevin Wildes would be proud of your App idea. Definitely half-baked.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Really like the idea of moral muscle exercises. Since the human is composed of two parts you have to exercise both your mind and your body. But what would a moral sit-up look like? I would hazard to state its consciously questioning and reevaluating your morals through all aspects of your life and daily activities. Does life reenforce your morals or create a discord with them? Are you getting a moral six pack or are you getting love handles? Are your morals strengthening your relationship with life or are they weighing you down and making life difficult for you? I like Amulya comment about just doing sit-ups, you cant just focus on one aspect, but act in a holistic manner to discover what activates your muscles. What activities and circumstances make you flex your moral muscles?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's an interesting question - "what activities make you flex your moral muscle?"

      I can't say I'd be a moral trainer, but if I was here are some half-baked workout ideas I would suggest.

      - go have a conversation with someone you vigorously disagree with and be nice to them
      - let someone cut in front of you in line
      - wake up earlier than you want to, and then do something you don't want to, like washing the dishes

      I feel like the common theme is - controlling your emotions so your actions aren't controlled by your emotions. Thoughts on that?

      Delete
  4. What do emotions represent? Are they feedback from your interactions with reality? By controlling your emotions do you place your self more in accord with reality?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Big questions.. Off the top of my head, I would say emotions represent reality well. What's more real to you than what you feel, right? At the same time, I'd also say experiencing reality to a T is not one of my priorities.

      Delete