I just recently started to diet and exercise again. It’s so funny how you can’t tell how much freaking weight you’ve gained until you want to lose it. I mean, I knew that I definitely wasn’t in tip-top shape anymore. But I definitely didn’t realize that I’d become so chubby. I guess one warning should have been the fact that I cannot fit into most of my skinny jeans anymore, and even if I do, they pretty much suffocate me throughout the day.

I was looking at myself in the mirror this morning, shirtless, and there were a couple things that I thought. First, I realized that my tan line is absolutely disgusting, and I need to stand out in the sun more without a shirt. I mean, my chest is SUPER PALE while any part of my body that has been exposed to the sun is super dark. Pretty gross. Second, I couldn’t help but wonder “how sexy would I look if I had kept up the diet and exercise I started a while ago?”

The problem with me is that I keep going in and out of “diet and exercise” stage. I’m sure many of you guys can relate. I think every year my body weight swings by at least 20 pounds. Last year, for instance, I went from 158 lbs to 142. Right now I’m at a STARTLING (I was so scared to step on a weight scale because of this) 164 LBS. This is ridiculous because at my height, my “ideal” weight is somewhere around 140 lbs. I weigh just as much as my friend who’s about 4 inches taller than I am. I’m aiming to drop my weight down to around 140 lbs. This has GOT to be bad for my body somehow.

And yet, the nagging question is persistently chirping in the back of my head: “what if you had stayed consistent…” I’m pretty sure I would have a six pack by now. I should have just listened to Michael Liu’s article, “How to Stay Fit as a Postgrad.” FREAK.

I share this little tidbit to reiterate a cliche: consistency is key. As hackneyed as this phrase is, and as many times as we hear it over and over again, the truth and weight of the statement doesn’t really hit home for a lot of us. We all expect results instantly. One of the reasons why I stopped dieting and exercising is because I wanted to get a six pack. I tried extremely hard for 2 months, and when I didn’t see the results that I had been hoping for, I became discouraged and stopped trying.

So many of us are working jobs we don’t necessarily like, or constantly switching back and forth between a million different decisions because we all want to see success NOW. We’re unhappy with the uncertainty, and once we hit a wall that we just can’t seem to get past, instead of pushing through and staying consistent, we become discouraged and try something else. But what if you just KEPT pursuing this one path, and fought through the walls with determination? What if you stayed consistent? Where would you be today?

Anytime you want to pursue anything in life, there’s always going to be reasons why you shouldn’t do it. Instead of creating reasons for why you should give up and do something else, sometimes you just got to make the decision to stick with the plan, and see it through till the end. I woke up this morning, and my body was incredibly sore from the past two days of exercising. The last thing I want to do is exercise again, and I hate Tony Horton with a passion. However, I’m beginning to realize more and more that pushing through the days when you really just don’t want to do it is the key to success. If you want to see the success in life you’ve always longed for, or want to be fit and healthy…the only way you’re going to do that is with a lot of consistency. Or, you could win the lottery. Frankly, I’m kind of hoping for the latter – but working towards the former.

We’ve mentioned this on the site before; things slow to a crawl when you graduate from college. Maybe your metabolism, maybe your sociability, maybe even your love life. One thing seems to go for sure, though – your discipline to stay fit. I know that happened to me. I’m a generally fit person. I’ve always been conscious of my diet and exercise routine, but when you have your whole life to live before you and maybe nobody to impress, exercise just doesn’t take precedence. But here’s to the new year and maybe, if you’re like me, a set of new resolutions. Judging by the post-holiday population increase at the gym, getting fit is one of the biggies. So how can you get there?

1. Set a realistic goal. Keep it simple and obtainable. Lose 10 pounds. Lose 2 inches in the waist. Be able to run a mile in under 8 minutes. It’s hard to find the discipline if there’s no feasible goal in sight. I know it took a clear goal for me to hit the gym the last couple of weeks. After a heartbreaking loss at a football game, I vowed to work harder and get stronger so that in the rematch (coming up in 2 weeks), I wouldn’t be so helpless. And it has really helped. I’ve been much more disciplined in the past couple of weeks and can already see great results.

2. Realize that it takes work. Nothing comes easy, especially in regards to physical fitness. Professional athletes capable of amazing physical feats wouldn’t be able to compete very well if they weren’t disciplined in their training. A lot of the time, their success during the regular season directly correlates with the amount of work they put in during the off season. Sure, you can get by on natural talent to a certain degree, but if you want actual results, you need to put in the work. So consider your realistic goal from number 1, research it and figure out the best way to break it down to bite-sized pieces, and figure out what quality ‘work’ you can do to get to that goal.

3. Gather your resources. There is no clearcut way to stay fit. If you’re not able to go to the gym solo, then go with a dedicated group of friends. If you can’t run by yourself, take your dog out for a brisk run. A way that has helped me personally has been my iPhone. Yes, there’s an app for that. It’s called iFitness and it’s probably one of my most useful apps right now. There are pictures and videos that teach you how to execute certain exercises at the gym. You can build your own workout to help you focus on different muscle groups or accomplish certain goals. The best part, by far, is that you can log every exercise you do. As I go from workout to workout, electronically logging every exercise I do, I can clearly evaluate my progress over a given time period. When you feel like you’re actually accomplishing something, then the goal that you’ve set isn’t something unattainable. Because you feel capable, you’ll find that staying fit isn’t so much an impossibility but just a matter of willpower.

What are some of your personal goals this year?

Recently, while navigating the internet, I stumbled upon some amazing quotes that truly inspired me on many levels. As a Postgrad, especially in the 21st century, one of the things that many of us desire and lack are mentors in our lives that can challenge us, and guide us as we wrestle the difficulties of the real world. It’s easy to get caught up in the independence that many of us champion–this is not a bad thing, by any means. However, because we wear the badge of independence sometimes a little bit too proudly, many of us exclude voices of the older generation. It’s a great paradox–we desire for people to mentor us, but we don’t have a posture to receive the mentorship that we seek.

I know I’ve experienced that before. I love and respect my parents tremendously, and in many ways they have definitely been a positive and molding voice in my life. But having a mentor that you can relate with on a real world professional level, or that lives life with you as you struggle through the transitional stages is something that I’ve always desired.

You know, the Mr. Myagi of Karate Kid. The Phil Jackson to Kobe Bryant. The Gandalf to Frodo. Every one has seen and experienced this longing for a mentor before; the archetype of the mentor is definitely enduring.

It is with this that I introduce one of the greatest mentors to have ever lived in our generation. John Wooden. I realize that with the Bruin bias, it’s easy for me to promote from such an adamant position the greatness that is Wooden. However, from a completely objective point of view, Wooden stands for everything that sports was meant to be. He is a man of character, a man of honor, a man of great reputation. While at UCLA, he won 10 championships. He only coached there for 12 years. Considering that the college basketball championship is the most difficult championship to win because of a 64 pool single elimination tournament, this accomplishment is mind boggling.

He’s been recognized with numerous awards, and has authored many inspirational books. He’s always stood by his beliefs and convictions. As a matter of fact, Wooden in spite of all his success, never earned more than $35,000 and never asked for a raise. Being offered the job to coach the Los Angeles Lakers, Wooden could have netted at least ten times as much as he was making while coaching the Bruins. But because he loved the challenge of mentoring the younger generation, he declined the offer and kept his meager salary.

Read and appreciate the wonderful insights of a great man. Let the words speak into your life. These quotes were found on BrainyQuote.com, and have been the source of inspiration for me during the week, and I am sure, will continue to inspire me until the day I die. I want to let the older generation speak into my life, and teach me wisdom and knowledge that their lives have afforded them. I want to grow, learn, and improve myself every day. Here are 10 quotes from the man himself:

1. “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
2. “If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.”
3. “It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.”
4. “It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.”
5. “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”
6. “Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”
7. “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”
8. “You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.”
9. “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”
10. “Make every day your masterpiece.“

I had a singular focus after I graduated college: success. I desperately wanted immediate success, and anything short of that felt unsatisfactory. It got so bad that I even started putting some money into the stock market when it plummeted to death. In particular, I bought some Washington Mutual Bank stocks. Obviously, that was a bad idea.

Once the appeal of the stock market sort of faded, I began hoping and dreaming to win that one glorious prize universally held dear: the lottery. Not just any lottery, mind you. The Mega Millions Multi-state lottery that paid out a total of $150,000,000. I started obsessing over this particular cash prize, really believing that I was going to win. As a matter of fact, one night I stayed up till 4 AM planning what I would do with every single dollar that I made. There’s even a website that is devoted to what you should do once you win the lottery, which of course, I read thoroughly with careful detail. I wanted to make sure that once I won, I would be ready!

It was all great to plan and dream, but when the night of the lottery came, it left me in the same condition that I had previously found myself in: not a millionaire. I actually came really close one time to winning, which is pretty crazy cause I only usually get $2 of lottery tickets every time I buy it. I had 3 numbers + the mega million number matching, and ended up winning $157 dollars on my $2 investment. That’s pretty solid. But it’s definitely not $150,000,000.

And so, here I am, the non-millionaire version of me. I don’t know if I’ll ever be a millionaire. But I think somewhere along the way, I stopped caring as much as I used to. Because I realized that life is pretty damn awesome if you’re willing to enjoy it.

And I guess that’s what this post is all about. After graduating college, you’re going to be stuck in this perpetual state of lostness. You’re not going to know how to attain that success that you so desperately desire. You’re going to have questions, doubts, and uncertainties. All the meanwhile, you’re going to be pretty darn impatient to make lots of money and win lots of fame.

My advice to you is simple: enjoy the journey of life. It’s definitely nice to get to where you want to go. However, if you can’t enjoy the journey of getting there, you’re going to miss out on some pretty amazing experiences. I strongly recommend watching the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, and letting it speak into your life. Life would be stale without it’s ups and downs. As much as we hate the bad times, it gives our life flavor and meaningfulness. We grow through difficulties, and become more mature and independent as a result of them.

I heard this anecdote once that really helped me to gain perspective on this idea of “enjoying the journey”.

One day, a little boy saw a teenager, and said to himself, “I can’t wait to be like him! Because then I can drive a car, and be happy.” The teenager, however, desired the freedom of a college student, and therefore could not wait till he got to college. He hated being a teenager, and being couped up in his house.

The college student, of course,  was very discontent with not having money and a career. So he began dreaming about the days when he would finally be able to join the real world and establish his own career and lifepath like the young adult. The young adult, though, did not like the instability and uncertainty of his situation. He wanted to be successful and have his life already defined. As such, he couldn’t wait to be middle aged, married, and settled.

The middle aged man? Of course, he wasn’t happy, either, because he hated working. He wanted to be old and retire already. Live off his 401K plan.

The old man sat there, silently thinking about his life. He had done quite a lot of things, and had lived quite a long life. But the whole time, the only thing he could do was stare at the little kid in the room and think to himself, “Oh, to be young again.”

If you’re always looking ahead, you can never enjoy the present. Life is full of seasons. Life is full of different experiences. Enjoy the journey. Enjoy your life.

Recently, I read the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People“, and was really moved by what Stephen Covey had to say. It is an inspirational and powerful work, and I really encourage everyone to buy a copy of the book for themselves at some point in their lives. I’m not really going to do an extensive review of the book here, but if you want to take a look at it in closer detail, just click the above link and go to amazon and get more information on it. If you can, and desire an amazing read, buy that book. It’s worth every penny.

Anyways, one thing that the book discussed in detail that I wanted to talk about today is the difference between living for self-improvement and living for principle. Covey’s thoughts on this subject are very thought provoking and profound–I hope they encourage you through some dry seasons of life as they have mine.

We all want self-improvement.  Not even the most confident of us believes that we’re perfect (unless you’re incredibly dense) because there’s always something that needs work somewhere in our lives. And there’s no fault in that. Part of our thirst for greatness and excellence demands that we are self-critical. If none of us experienced any anxiety or guilt when it comes to self-perception, none of us would ever strive to become better people. That little voice that challenges all our insecurities is what compels us to exact change in our lives, and improve the areas in which we are weak.

And so with that thirst for self-improvement, we embark on various solutions to fix the problem. If we feel like we’re gaining too much weight, we exercise. If we feel like we’re not productive enough, we buy that productivity book. Whatever the issue is, there is some tangible method to fix it instantly. This is all fine, in theory. But the problem is most of the times, when we quick fix these issues, all we’ve essentially done is put a bandage over a much, much deeper issue.

For instance, you lose a ton of weight after exercising, but then after you’ve lost 20 lbs, you start eating fast food again, drinking soda, getting “lazy” with your jogging/running schedule. This is because although you’ve lost weight, you’ve never really changed what you believe about health. You’ve never actually adopted a life principle that asserted “my health is important to me”. That’s why all that hard work and effort you put into getting into shape is quickly lost in two months of careless maintenance!

Ever been here before? Because I know I have!

So the question is, how do we make lasting and permanent change in our lives? How do we really “improve” ourselves, and not simply cover up our weaknesses with facades, bandages, and whip cream? Covey suggests something that I believe young twenty somethings need to wrap their minds around and embrace: we need to change our principles.

Principle is the core essence of why you do something. Principle is the motivating force that compels you to act a certain way, live a certain way, and value a certain thing. Principle is where our convictions come from, where our lifestyle comes from.

Going back to the issue of maintaining our health, when you change your “principles” on the issue, the reason why you maintain your health is NOT to simply fix a problem. The reason why you maintain your health is because you KNOW that it is a very worthy life endeavor to invest in. You don’t simply “fix” the obesity. You decide to invest in a lifestyle of health for more happiness, more energy, and more self-esteem. Your perspective changes–it’s no longer an issue of losing weight, it’s an issue of investing in yourself as a person. Change your principle, change your lifestyle.

If we want to make changes in our lives, we need to invest in improving ourselves on a deeper level. In an era of quick fix fiends, we need to be willing to put the time, effort and energy into changing ourselves on a heart level. If you want to attain that success that you’ve always wanted after graduation, constantly improving yourself will go a long way in helping with that endeavor.

I hope all of you had a productive Veterans Day. For me, a friend of mine invited me to go watch an NBA game at the hallowed Staples Center, home of the world champion Los Angeles Lakers, out of the blue. The problem is we were going to watch the Los Angeles Clippers play the Oklahoma City Thunder. Not exactly a desirable matchup, but a free game is a free game and I wasn’t about to let this golden opportunity pass me up. With injuries plaguing the Clippers, I wasn’t too surprised when they fell apart in the fourth quarter due to their slackening on defense and jump shots characteristically clanging off the iron. It’s just the Clippers being the Clippers, right?

Now if you even just casually follow professional basketball, you’ll know that the Los Angeles Clippers are the ‘other’ basketball team in Los Angeles; the illegitimate half-brother of the Los Angeles Lakers that prefers Walmart to Melrose. The year that the Lakers finally ascended to the pinnacle of professional basketball achievement by winning the NBA championship, the Clippers tallied a record of 19-63, attained an overall number one draft pick via lottery and pretty much quietly concluded another humdrum, typically Clipperesque season.

So what am I trying to get at? The Clippers are bad. That’s already pretty much a given. But do the players expect themselves to be bad? There has been a culture of failure associated with the Clippers organization for so long. Is there an expectation to underperform once you’ve inked your contract? Of course not. Even when situations become blasé, there is still reason to hope.

1. The past is history. If you want to succeed at anything in life, you have to disassociate yourself from the past. Neither your past failures nor your past successes define who you are at the moment. Your failures were a learning experience, a stepping stone on your way to future success. Some people have more stepping stones than others, but it’s not about how many you have; it’s about your persistence in continuing on and accomplishing your goals in the end.

2. There’s hope for the future. You aren’t the person you once were. You’ve really come a long way, even though to you it might seem almost imperceptible. You might still have a long way to go but you have less of a distance to travel today than you did yesterday. So consider the future with a hopeful attitude. Your day will come so don’t give up!

What does this have to do with the Los Angeles Clippers? Not much, except if they’ve still got hope and are still showing up for professional basketball games, then you have no reason to not show up in life. They might be bruised, battered and at times look sloppy as a D2 college team playing summer ball, but they’re not playing because they expect to lose, and with the future resting on the shoulders of young studs like Blake Griffin, Al Thornton and Eric Gordon, mark my words, the Los Angeles Clippers are definitely in for better days.

If you’re not careful, your mind can easily go downhill after college. It shouldn’t be surprising; even if you’re jumping into a career right out of college, everything you learn from then on has to do with your specialization. If you don’t deliberately challenge your mind to work in different ways, you’ll get so used to your daily routine that every other part of your mind will enter a state of atrophy. Upkeep is very important and can be done through various methods. One of these methods is to join a book club.

The term ‘book club’ usually comes with a lot of baggage. I know when I hear it, I imagine a troop of bored housewives sitting around their local Starbucks weekday mornings after they’ve dropped off their kids at school, killing time together by offering their empty insights on the latest Nicholas Sparks novel. I get bored myself thinking about joining in on such aimless discussion, but this scenario is not ideal. I would gouge out my own eyes before joining a group like that.

I may be biased as an English major, but to me, the written word isn’t given a fair shake in terms of societal clout. I’ve spent my college days agonizing over homework reading assignments, learning to hate books solely because they were assigned. I made myself read them and there was little to no enjoyment in the process. And yet, when I thumb through the books now, I finally understand why they were assigned in the first place. They are all influential pieces of literature, inspired books that greatly impacted the society at that time.

So why is it that the regular person rarely touches a printed word apart from a magazine, if even that? Why is it that we read and write more in our instant message windows in a month than we’ve read and written in the last couple of years? Why is it that we can spend our days absorbing gigabyte after gigabyte of digital data but leave tome upon tome of literature untouched? Why is it that print is considered to be dead?

If you want to keep your mind active, a book club is one way to go. Not your mom’s book club, but a book club nonetheless. A real book club is a gathering of likeminded individuals determined to expand their worldview through a communal experience of the written word and an active discussion of various themes in the books that affect you, in the here and now. You’ll learn to discipline yourself to read to a schedule, analyze the book in terms of relevant themes and verbally express your ideas. I know it’s not for everyone, but give it a try. You might be surprised how much you’ll get out of it.

The beauty of joining a book club is that you’re not doing it for any teacher, any reading assignment or any research paper. You’re completely doing it for yourself and for that reason, you receive much more insight from the literature. If you can’t find one to join, create your own. It doesn’t have to be too formal. In fact, it’d probably be easier for you to create a comfortable environment if you put the group together yourself. There are tons of resources out there designed to help you get started. Check out BBC’s Top 100 books. If you’re like me, you haven’t read them all so figure out a book you want to start on with your friends, buy it and just do it! My friends and I just finished Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild last week, and we watched the movie this past weekend. We all really enjoyed the whole experience. Next up: Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and hopefully we’ll be able to catch Tim Burton’s creepy take on Alice in Wonderland early 2010.

What are some of your book recommendations for a book club? Maybe your book will be next on our list!

I’ve got an 11-month old German Shepherd/Labrador mix that I adopted from a friend. Her name is Mia and she’s absolutely…impossible sometimes. She’s also gotten pretty big, pretty fast. Not surprising given her stock, but the problem lies in that she’s a puppy stuck in a big dog’s body. She’s impulsive, reckless, always hungry, always craving attention, and can’t seem to stay away from tasting her own fecal matter. And that’s not even the worst thing. The worst thing is that she rarely obeys.

I say “sit!” and she decides to dart off. I say “don’t jump!” and she’s all over the houseguest. It’d be kinda cute — if she just didn’t crush you with her oversized paws. The only time she’s remotely obedient is when there’s food being withheld, but honestly, what dog isn’t? So to remedy this position, I felt that dog obedience school was the answer.

The class is operated by the local community center, so you can imagine the characters it draws in. I’m pretty much the only one from my age bracket (18-35). Everyone else there is either 55+ or 12 years old and younger. It’s not something I mind that much. We’re all in the same boat there. I remember on the first day of class when we had our orientation meeting (without our disobedient canine counterparts), I looked around at the awkward group dynamic of the class and had to ask myself if I was the participant of some TV sitcom caught unawares.

Comedic value aside, it’s already the seventh week and I can already see how beneficial the class is. Like most things in life, there’s been nothing taught that couldn’t have been learned simply via the internet so the class can easily be written off as a waste of time, but there’s the intangibles that we tend to gloss over so easily, especially when viewed from the lens of a tech-oriented and impatient generation. Here are some key things I’ve picked up from this class that can help you:

1. There’s much to be learned firsthand from the experienced. There’s a wealth of knowledge that the instructor has that I wouldn’t be able to reproduce anywhere else. He teaches something conceptually and doesn’t hesitate to execute said concept on one of the wayward dogs of our pack. We see the benefit of his technique and experience right before our eyes, and when it’s accomplished with the worst dogs of the lot, we begin to believe in our own ability.

2. You can’t downplay the environment. My puppy, Mia, loves people. When she’s out at the dog park, she’d much rather spend time playing with the other owners than their dog counterparts. In fact, she’s scared to death of the other dogs. They sense her eager puppy attitude and quickly take advantage of her. Most of the time, she ends up with her tail tucked securely between her legs by my side. So when I take her to a class of 20 or so disobedient dogs, she’s in a place she wouldn’t be if she were training with me alone at home. In class, she’s much more guarded and willing to receive instruction.

3. The most important element is discipline. By discipline, I don’t mean my right to exact my unholy wrath upon Mia when she’s ripped out all the wiring to the sprinkler system in my backyard for the fourth time in two weeks. I mean the discipline I need to put upon myself to commit to training her forty minutes a day for eight weeks straight. For Mia’s meager puppy mind to retain anything, there needs to be consistency. There can’t be other people doing the training and I can’t skip training sessions because of trivial things like a movie night or bad weather. If I want something to change (in her), then I need to be willing to put in the consistent effort and time to help her enable the change. So in the end, the responsibility for her bad behavior has nothing to do with her and everything to do with me. Hopefully she’ll be able to graduate the class come Thanksgiving. The burden of success is on me.

I didn’t want to be a part of the obedience class in the beginning. It’s on Thursday nights, it takes up the bulk of my time, and I have to commit hours of my week to training Mia, but in the end I’ve found that more good came out of it than bad. Next time you’re in a situation that you don’t want to be in (i.e. your boss telling you to do something you deem below you at work), try to apply these three principles. You yourself need to be able to be taught, to see yourself as a vital part in the work environment and to exact the discipline necessary to achieve success.

This post was originally posted at Goldsea.com.