Vividlee

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Incompetence. Acute and chronic. Tactical and strategic. Our response to the global pandemic is very late.

This is what incompetence looks like. No leadership. Confusion. Chaos and panic. Blame someone else and keep blaming.

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Daily step counts are measured passively by smart devices like iPhones and fitness trackers. Activity levels represented by numbers and quantities can help us visualize and evaluate. We somehow ‘know’ or are wired to think ‘more is better’. Seeing a number helps us compare and can even motivate us to action.

Get a higher daily step count. Lift a heavier weight. Complete more repetitions. Walk more minutes. Run more miles. Eat more vegetables. Score more points. Win that game.

If repeated enough, maybe a habit will form. Maybe we don’t need the numbers so much anymore. Maybe we like the journey, the process, the sweat and the struggle. We find out that we are tough. We can handle it. It’s no big deal.

The medicine, the remedy or the cure can be just as much a part of our routine as the hits we take.

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Daily step counts are measured passively by smart devices like iPhones and fitness trackers. Activity levels represented by numbers and quantities can help us visualize and evaluate. We somehow ‘know’ or are wired to think ‘more is better’. Seeing a number helps us compare and can even motivate us to action.

Get a higher daily step count. Lift a heavier weight. Complete more repetitions. Walk more minutes. Run more miles. Eat more vegetables. Score more points. Win that game.

If repeated enough, maybe a habit will form. Maybe we don’t need the numbers so much anymore. Maybe we like the journey, the process, the sweat and the struggle. We find out that we are tough. We can handle it. It’s no big deal.

The medicine, the remedy or the cure can be just as much a part of our routine as the hits we take.

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Small actions repeated over and over can have big impacts over time.

A small and slow drip of water in a cave can form stalactites and stalagmites of immense size.

A mouthful of refined sugar or highly processed trans fat. A puff of tobacco. A sip of alcohol. A shot of caffeine. A jolt of adrenaline from inescapable abuse or violence. Our bodies can handle small insults. We survive these things.

How many is too many? How many might make us sick? How many will cause cancer or other disease? How many will kill us?

The numbers get big fast. For a 40 year old, a daily action will be over 15,000 repetitions. For a three times a day action will be 45,000 repetitions. Ten times a day is 150,000 times. 20 times a day is 300,000.

Big numbers add up to chronic stress on bodily systems. Maybe we can cope and heal from tiny wounds. But may scar tissue builds or damage accumulates. Maybe what we think of harmless or invisible is not? Maybe over time the body can’t take thousands and thousands of hits, sips, puffs or bites of poison.

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• Bear market
• Correction
• Contraction
• Recession

These are all negative terms for stock market performance, stock prices and economic trends. Stock market performance and stock prices are a more short term focus in general. Thinks monthly and quarterly performance. While economic performance and trends are longer term measures. Years and decades are used to measure economic expansions and recessions.

February 2020 will probably be the high mark for the latest expansion that started in 2009. The longest economic expansion in history makes us forget what a recession is, what it looks and feels like. Depression is like a forgotten expression. But it is used to describe a widespread and long term economic downturn.

The economic struggles of most people is very dire. The stress affects behaviors and lives. We tune out and ignore the struggles of the poor. But that doesn’t make it go away.

Recessions last for 12 to 18 months. The Great Depression lasted over 40 months. I am totally guessing here, but I will say the current downturn will last much longer than the normal 12 to 18 months. Economic monetary policy has been mismanaged and is unsustainable. It’s literally killing people.

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Stocks and market indexes go up and they go down. The classic mountain peak is the classic shape of both individual stock prices and stock market indexes when graphed over time.

If prices rise much more rapidly than previous time spans, buyers should be wary. Sellers need to act fast. The inevitable reversal, drop or crash is almost always faster than the rise. It is a pattern repeated over and over again.

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The human body consists of cells. One major type of cell is the muscle cell. It is common to hear of fast and slow twitch muscle cells. What does that mean? It refers to muscles primary function being short term action or long term endurance acting. I have never considered it important to know about this particular property.

What is maybe more important to know is that muscle cells come in three major forms and functions. Skeletal muscles are elongated and can shorten at our command. We can affect the performance, efficiency and size of skeletal muscles. How? Exercise or loading and unloading. Maybe more importantly overloading muscles can illicit adaptations that make them larger and stronger. Weight lifters and body builders know this.

Another type of muscle cell is the cardiac muscle controlled by the autonomic nervous system. They are blocky shaped and act strongly and rhythmically.

The third type of muscle is the smooth type. Blood vessels and other hollow internal organs consist of this muscle type. They act slowly and rhythmically and are also controlled by the autonomic nervous system. Again not under our conscious control.

The differences are interesting, but like fast and slow twitch, maybe useless knowledge. The similarities maybe more important. Skeletal muscles need movement to stay healthy, supple and strong. Chronic inflammation, prolonged inactivity or disease may damage cell types equally. Atrophy, stiffness and weakness of muscle cells of all types is not a good thing.

Modern so called ‘lifestyle’ disease may not be inevitable outcomes for us. Heart disease, stroke and Alzheimer’s may be simple muscle cell damage caused primarily by chronic inflammation. What is a source of chronic inflammation? Consumption of refined carbohydrates and processed fats. Also know as sugar, flour, saturated and trans fats found in highly processed long shelf life ‘food like’ products.

I’m like a broken record that keeps repeating itself.

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Another way to deeper understanding is to consider the time scale. The duration of a value or condition could be short lived and instant. Or it could be durable and a long lasting condition. So the time scale of an event can amplify or maybe dampen the thing we are considering.

If you could be super happy and content. Life would be wonderful. But if this condition were a one time thing or short lived? Well that doesn’t sound so wonderful now does it?

Conversely, one could be moderately happy and moderately content for a lifetime. Well now, that starts to look different when you are just comparing levels of happiness and contentment.

People’s awareness of time are quite different. The very young only know how they feel at the moment. Awareness of time is low. As children get older, the concept of time and the passage of time is an understandable concept. But there are people who find it difficult to think about the future and far future.

Delaying gratification for a future goal is a basic concept. That when exercised regularly can be a more mature and wise attitude. It can become second nature to look at the bigger picture. To consider the longer time spans before acting. Some goals are only achievable with repeating actions over the long term. Commitment or repetition over time can become a habit.

Small actions over time can become big movements. Viewed on a short time scale actions can be insignificant. Viewed on a long time scale, once hidden patterns and trends become discernible.