Dad-Scaping

Dad-Scape
pronounced [dad – skeyp]
verb
1 – To maintain one’s Lion/Silverback Gorilla physicality and mental fortitude for his own life therefore setting an indisputable example for others.

Let’s talk about having a family for a minute. When a man first becomes a father he is hit with thoughts such as How the hell do I do this? I guess my social life is over…Well I guess I need to take a break from exercise…No more travel for us…Time to buckle down at work…I guess I need to max out my life insurance…I guess I shouldn’t take anymore risks financially…No more risks physically. Man, just thinking about all these ideas puts a man in a depressive mood! A man is a wild animal that has high aspirations for himself physically and mentally, he is like a Lion, King of the Plains, King of his life and his future! My wife will “like” the former lines but she knows what I’m talking about! In all seriousness though when you were a young man did you say to yourself “I’m going to finish school, get a great job, find a great woman (or man), then have a kid and stop doing anything for myself”? Pretty sure nobody has ever said that. Gentlemen, you absolutely cannot stop working on yourself as an individual. What sort of example will you be setting for your sons and daughters by doing nothing but working yourself into a stressful oblivion for a mere few weeks of vacation per year with hopes of saving enough money to retire in your sixties so you can really start “living”? Well I say screw that. Let’s talk about a few things to do for yourself so you are not just a father but still a Lion.

Maintain/Create Gorilla Physicality (aka exercise)

I dare to say that most people hate exercise (as many readers nod yeah duh). Some are probably reading this hoping for the magical motivation feeling you get on those certain days. I hate to tell you but motivation is like one of those high end Michelin Star restaurants where you get some amazing food but the portion is super tiny! As soon as you get a bite or two and start to love the taste, it’s gone! Where as what you actually need is pure discipline which is the water glass (the tap not the Sanpellegrino) which continues to get refilled over the course of your meal experience (aka life). The water does not provide a luxurious taste or a “Wow!” with every sip but it is one of the items on the table that your body needs the most! So think of your exercise or training as water, drink it down every day so it can be refilled for the next and the next and the next! Motivation runs out, sometimes very quickly or sometimes over an extended time period but it always runs out!

Think of your exercise or training as water (tap not Sanpellegrino), drink it down every day so it can be refilled for the next and the next and the next!

Pick something simple and stick to it! Start doing pushups and squats without weight everyday. you can bang out 10 pushups then 20 squats while your morning coffee brews, it literally will take you 2-3 minutes then reward yourself with the rise from the grave charcoal nectarine made from dirt beans! Do this everyday for a week then up the ante, add some reps or knock out a couple pull-ups or sit-ups. I know what you are thinking, how will this get me results fast? Well sucka the answer is it doesn’t and it won’t! Suck it up buttercup and just do something small to start everyday, it literally doesn’t matter how small just do something. I guarantee that if you do just 5 pushups in the morning then you have already been more physically active than 90% of the great Red, White, and Blue. You know what happens when you take small steps to greatness? You get there eventually. Guess what happens when you take zero steps…yeah not a damn thing. In order for your kids or others around you to want to be better then you have to be better and also you need to live a long time for your kids so make it about you but also about them! Starting to get tired of a workout routine? Change it up, start walking, jogging, jumping jacks, brush your teeth while holding a squat whatever it takes! Think about your children and if that doesn’t motivate you to want to be healthier and stay alive longer then I don’t know what will. Fitness has become a fad and many are motivated (not disciplined) to perform, the key is that when the fad passes will you be the outlier and remain diligent or just follow everyone else? Now go get some!

Couple Real Simple Thoughts (Don’t know how, well my friend let me introduce you to Youtube)

1. Walk in the morning for 10 minutes
2. Do pushups
3. Do squats
4. Do sit-ups
5. Take small incremental steps to make large consistent changes over time. Rome wasn’t built in a day and blah blah blah you know the rest. Stop looking for motivation and find your discipline!

Work Your Creative Outlet

If you stop learning then you will become irrelevant. You must continue learning new things and trying new things. Ever met that one disgruntled employee who clearly have not changed their ways or learned something new in the last 20 years? Yeah, don’t become that person. That  person is generally unhappy and does not enjoy the section of life that is work. You have to learn new things and utilize your creative side. Start writing (cough..cough..this one helps me), draw, paint, build a birdhouse, create a website, learn a new skill, become a wine aficionado, whatever it is just start doing something else. My wife uses a thing called a Cricut to make all sorts of things from banners to baby onesies and she loves doing it and finds every excuse to make something. I write Motivational Father and pretty much try about 20 new things per year, however I still have not quite found that one thing yet. The point is to continue trying new things forever. Start a blog, I never though this was for me but once I started doing it I received some feedback from friends that was mostly positive which helped me to want to continue. Just put yourself out there and give anything a shot!

If your mind is like mine then it’s a crazy place with thousands of ideas flying around! If I could imagine that email was delivered via actual mail trucks on a 10 lane highway then that is what my mind would look like on a daily basis. Ideas zip in and zip out all day, sometimes I have so many that I start to forget ones that I was excited about, I should take my own advice here ad start writing them down in a notebook (idea number one today get a small notebook for writing notes about notes).

Ever notice how your kids are much more interested in you when you are doing something that you do not do everyday? No? Well next time you are watching TV with your kids get up and go in your garage and start using a screwdriver on something or just go lay down in the floor of their bedroom. All of the sudden they no longer care about TV they want to see what new interesting thing you are up to. Try it then report back with funny stories please! This past weekend my son helped me clean the entire garage and he was out there for about 2 hours! My garage is mostly a gym with all the equipment so we moved it all outside and sprayed it down with the hose, which he obviously loved. He helped me sweep, spray, and we even worked in a couple squats at his command! We had a great time, got something done, and was moving all day long! As dads we must keep moving and doing new things so our kids will live life to the fullest oh and also so they will still find us interesting…at least until the teenage years!

Stay busy, stay active, drink the water and stay disciplined!

Small incremental improvements this is what Dad-Scaping is all about…now GO!!!

Thanks for reading! Please leave your thoughts or advice in the comments!

-Matt