An associate of mine has said he couldn’t do what I do.He is concerned about his weight, and I’ve watched him go through diets, which failed, and go down to the gym religiously for a months trying to lose weight, with no significant result. He says he could not do what I do, the changes I’ve made in my diet and lifestyle to lose weight, the willpower to refuse eat certain foods. He likes to tempt me with cinnamon rolls and cookies. I don’t eat them.

Now for his weight he is trying a different approach. He has taken up weightlifting. In appearance, he now looks more muscular than fat. His shoulders, arms and neck are filling out and look muscular. He looks stronger and powerful, without the muscle-bound look of a body builder, because he is not working on appearance, he is working on results. He can now bench press 340 pounds. That is very impressive. That is more than double my weight, and he weighs more than twice as much as me. If he gave me one good push I’d be gone.

Weight training has never thrilled me. I have attempted it about a half dozen times through my life, but didn’t stick to it. Not my thing. I am very pleased with his efforts, am delighted that his weight training is going very well, and wish him well.

I don’t consider myself remarkable, and think that if I can do something, everyone else should be able to do it. I am coming to realize that is not the case. For health, I know of very few people that successfully, long-term changed their lifestyles for the better, improved their health, lost weight and kept it off. I know too many that failed. In early 2002 I weighed around 200 pounds. As of this writing my weight is 165 pounds. Read more about my health on my About Me page.

I have a cousin who says he could not do what I do. He gets a steady paycheck. He’s had a steady paycheck for the last 25 years, is aiming to retire soon with a good pension, and has a ‘dream job’ created and waiting for him, whenever he wants. I’ve been self-employed for the past twenty years, with a family to support, and until my company was established and growing, didn’t have a steady paycheck for most of those twenty years, and didn’t know how much money I’d make each month. Some months were good, some were very lean. My cousin doesn’t know how I could do that. I don’t know how he can do what he does. He is in the military. He has done two tours in Afghanistan, one in the Gulf, one in Haiti, a couple in the former Yugoslavia. He has spent years out of the country and away from his remarkable, supportive family. I don’t know how he gets on the plane sometimes. I don’t think I could do what he does. I will say he is braver than me, but that is relative for some things.

We are not all able to do what others do. We are all unique, with our own views, beliefs, fears, and biases on how we see the world, which comes about as a result of our biology, experiences, knowledge, and current physical and mental states. When we are presented with a situation, we don’t see that situation in isolation. We filter it through that combination of all our views, beliefs, fears, biases, biology, experiences, knowledge, physical and mental states. The best term for this is the Id.