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Welcome to another edition of “Built To Last”! I’m glad that you’ve been enjoying my Blog, and I hope that you are setting & achieving goals along the way, as well as envisioning & fulfilling your dreams! This month’s pictured images are a turn-of-the- century gymnasium, me, flexing my bicep to properly display the peak contraction while winning a “Best Poser” award, a brochure featuring turn-of-the-century farm equipment, and a 1940’s era Fairbanks scale that one of my clients actually gave to me!
All of the items, as in our previous blog editions, are well made, and are still functioning properly. The gym, while filled with classic equipment, can still be used in every way to strengthen and condition the human body. I am a believer in improvisation in all areas, but I have personally found this to be so in the area of exercise. Wherever you are, you can find a way to exercise. The body can perform all types of calisthenics, aerobic or anaerobic,  if equipment in unavailable.
While most modern farming methods and equipment may be superior in speed, output, and quantity in regards to production relating to cost & distribution, the modern machines are reliant on gas, oil, and other energy sources for productivity to continue. Being dependent on anything can cause one to rely totally upon that one avenue, whatever it may be. I believe it is important to continue, if not in practice, then in knowledge, older farming techniques. I have a client who has an employee who lives and farms in Pennsylvania, using traditional horse & plow farming methods. It may be a valuable piece of ‘know-how” someday, in the event of a catastrophe or attack.
The Fairbanks scale is just as easy to calibrate and use as the day it was made. No cheap mechanisms that break within the first month in this one. It was built to last, and last it did! Not a lot of items made it out of the forties due to the war and the need for metal at the time, but this one belonged to a doctor and was necessary. This one will be in my future home office! (Thanks, Tony!)
The well-built inanimate objects that we as humans use regularly as tools are wonderful examples of our ingenuity. But the more important objects that we must consider keeping strong & in good working order are our bodies. Nutrition, exercise, hydration, rest, vitamins, & minerals can be the tools that build & repair us! My physical goal is to be as fit as I am today well into my eighties, nineties, and even at 100 years old!!! And it will be so, because I will not succumb to using age as an excuse. I am just as fit today at 43 as I was at 23 years of age. This is because I take the time & steps to make my body this way, “built to last”. I also read daily to exercise my mind as I would like to reach the age of 100 with my wits still intact as well. I believe that reading and allowing the mind to be creative keeps the brain active & fit.
To finish our discussion, I’d like to leave you with a review of the prior three editions of “Built To Last”, and also to add a fourth important instruction. The first in the outline is “Decision,” the second is the “building blocks,” the third is “plans & goals,” & fourth and lastly, “application of goals”. The application of goals is the most important because it is the application of knowledge. What good is deciding to do something, gathering the materials, making the plan, and then not following through? We must apply the effort based on the knowledge, in this case being the creation of a stronger, healthier body that is “built to last!” It must become a lifestyle that enforces and re-enforces the aspect of “quality” in our every goal. Not a quick-fix, not a patch job, and not a quantity. A quality application of a goal, our best effort, our dedication, our persistence, and our unyielding human spirit guided by the Almighty! In the words of  Andrew Carnegie, “ACHIEVE, ACHIEVE, ACHIEVE!!!”
Thank you for reading “Built To Last”. This was the final edition of this segment, however I may make surprise “Built To Last” Special Editions from time to time. Visit us next month as I will cover the very important topic of amino acids and how it relates to the building and recovery of muscle tissue, our adrenals, and overall health.
Until next month,
John D.