Expertise and Energy

The other day, on Facebook, a friend asked if I ever just sat around and did nothing. To which, of course, I had to reply, “Yes, but why would I ever post about it?”

A few years back, a buddy of mine and I were in the habit of driving a few hours down the highway to visit our tai chi and pentjack silat instructor, Steve Barnes. Steve got us doing a kicking exercise. It was pretty repetitive, so I got into the rhythm of it. I was a little surprised when Steve suggested I take a break. Then my legs stiffened up in the car.

The truth is, I don’t think about being energetic. I just do what I need to get done. I try to find some fun in all of it, but sometimes I just have to think about something else – you know, like everybody does when doing something they’d rather not. I never thought of myself as “energetic,” but then I started working younger people into the ground at our church’s 10,000 Villages sale and when the physical parts of my job.

Similarly, I don’t think I’m an expert in everything. Just look at that tag cloud. Look at all the topics about which I write. Those are just things that interest me. Granted, expertise is a matter of perspective. To the average person on the street, I might seem like an expert in some of those topics, but I certainly don’t possess advanced degrees or thousands of hours of training in all of them.

If I can borrow from Yoda, “There is no try. There is only do.” I don’t try to do all the things I do, I just do them. Try it. The more you do, the fitter you get, the more energy you have, and the more you can do. Voila.