Module 8a: Wisdom & Self-Direction

Tech, Tools, and Testing | Module 8 - Wisdom and Trust | Self-Directed Training

Photo by Jakub Balon on Unsplash

Wisdom has to be experienced. It cannot be bought, collected, or given. By contrast, the only reason to not trust one’s intuition is when they lack the experience for it to have been developed.

In Module 1 we intentionally stayed away from wearable tech and noisy data. However, there is a place for these tools. Just like any tool, tests and benchmarks have their utility an limitations. For example, once a test becomes the thing which we are training for, it ceases to be a good measure of what we’re testing.

Also in Module 1, we criticized 30-day challenges by asking, what happens on day 31? This program isn’t above those same critiques. If there are 6 primary energy systems, each with about one month of programmed training, what happens on the first day of the 7th month?

This module is specifically designed to help you start thinking about programming your training for yourself. Of course, you’ve had opportunities to do that throughout each module, but it’s a different story when you’re left completely to your own devices for the month rather than a single session here and there.

There’s a fine line between resting and rusting out.

This module is not intended to be a “deload” month, but a “check your understanding” at scale. Perhaps you do need to “learn to rest” or to moderate intensity and pacing. Perhaps the opposite is true, you need to “bite the bullet” or “step up to the plate” a little more often.

Moreover, the point here isn’t to back off or be lazy. The point is to take inventory and reflect on the past 6 months. What has been difficult? What have you accomplished? Where do you still have left to grow?

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Tech and Tools:

The self-assessment and inventory tools from Module 1 are simple, effective, and never go out of style. Nevertheless, I think it’s somewhat foolish to not use all of the tools one has access to — just as it is foolish to stifle one’s own intuition with noisy data.

There certainly is a profound neurosis that can develop in many ways in today’s world, and the “bio-hacking” incentives of a quantified self are a leading example. The irony is that our lives are dynamic. Usually, about the time we really get into a routine, life throws us a curve ball and we have to re-calibrate yet again.

Weighing and measuring your food, tracking your steps and sleep habits, writing down your gym results and body composition changes, all help “calibrate” our internal barometer, intuition, and sense of direction.

The goal isn’t necessarily to treat yourself like a lab rat forever, but to gather about 30 days of data to get a snapshot of your life once or twice per year.

For example:

(A+B+C+D) = (X+Y+Z)

• A = daily movement / output

• B = training routine / output

• C = nutritional habits / recovery input

• D = sleep habits / recovery input

Combine to yield:

• X = body composition (weight / body fat)

• Y = biometrics and blood markers

• Z = mood, stress, libido, etc.

Similar to going to the dentist twice per year or getting your blood work done with an annual checkup, these things aren’t cumbersome, they’re preventative.

Doing them everyday would be a toil. Being able to extrapolate trends and principles to create behaviors and habits that will ensure you continue NOT having to do them everyday is a worthwhile investment.

Module 10 will contain bonus resources including apps, gear, books, supplements, and other resources I use (or have used) and recommend. Suffice to say for now that $200 in gear can get you a lifetime of data — that's far less than most people’s monthly health insurance premium.

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Tests and Benchmarks:

I had written the following essay a couple weeks before the video below came out, but as per usual, Michael does an excellent job sorting out the details of fitness culture’s perception and the difference between developing attributes versus capability.