2.5x reduced anxiety, the ultimate question, an upside down workout

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Good afternoon, 66.1ers.

As mentioned, we’ve moved from Substack to beehiiv. It’ll be a better newsletter. Much more to come in the way of positive change in the next couple weeks.

If anything looks funky with your subscription, please reply here and let us know.

Make sure marcus@66point1 and [email protected] are in your address book so you don’t miss our newsletters now that we’ve made the shift.

Food for thought:

Yesterday, I was talking with a friend at the co-working space where I spend my workdays. I was picking his brain about the challenges of parenting (one of the bigger challenges in this life, it seems).

He was sharing that his 8-year-old son often ambushes him with the question, “What are we going to do now?” as soon as an activity is complete. The father is a bit miffed by this appetite to always do more.

Says he doesn’t remember kids being so impatient back when he was growing up.
I don’t, either.

Personally, whenever my brother or I dropped the cursed words, “I’m bored”, our mother sent us outside immediately. It didn’t matter if it was 0 degrees in the middle of a Minnesota winter. Or if we were sick. Outside was a good way to keep us from being bored. Better yet, it was a good way to keep us from declaring boredom in the future.

This conversation got me to wondering what’s changed in the past 20 years. Of course, smartphones, tablets, and streaming services have taken over the world. And with it, it seems our attention spans have dwindled and our imaginations atrophied.

What to do about this problem?

1. Get your kids outside

   According to this study, kids who made it outside less than once a week had a 2.5 times greater risk of anxiety compared to kids who got fresh air daily.

2. Let them get bored

   Boredom is the root of most of my best memories as a kid. Football games, basketball games, mud fights, whiffle ball, a slip ‘n slide. All happened after we got bored and went outside.

With summer on the horizon, it’s worth sharing this photo from a trek last summer (see if you can find me).

A question for you:

How are you spending your days?

I talked to a 53-year-old woman earlier this week.
A patient of mine.
Super active.
Fitness coach.
Incredibly positive attitude.

When we talked earlier this year, she was chasing the goal of doing 15 consecutive pull-ups.

She’s also battling breast cancer.
It’s spread to her bones.

Medications aren’t working as advertised.
The cancer is winning.
Doesn’t mean it will win, but you wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

Such an encounter raises the question…

How are you spending your days?

Which raises a whole subset of questions:

Who do you need to reach out to that you haven’t?
What’s there to lose?
Are you making the world a better place?
Does your calendar match your values?
Who (and what) are you spending way too much time thinking about?

Workout of the week 💪🏼

Wall walks

This one’s going to smoke your shoulders.
You’ll feel it in your upper back and traps, too.

That’s all for this Wednesday.
See you on Saturday.
Have fun out there.

Marcus