Lots. But there are certain topics that are most strongly on my mind these days.

The career lifespan of fitness professionals is about five years. Or 1-3 years, depending on who you ask. That’s when people start dropping off, either from loss of interest or total burnout. But, five years is a good point to reflect, regardless of industry. It’s a good standard for relationships, too. And coaching is all about forming relationships, so it’s a double duty opportunity.

I’m right at five years. During which time I’ve worked harder than any other period of my life. I definitely need to reflect. I want to write about what that yields.

Exercise, games, sport, play, feats of strength and practicing of skills — these are fundamental human qualities that keep one’s mind sharp and quality of life high. Thoughtful strength and movement training is important, and offers a high return on personal investment. But it’s also a challenging industry, and there’s a lot of information of varying quality to wade through.

I’d like to see a more thoughtful, less dogmatic conversation between adherents of different training modalities. There’s an opportunity here to build a more positive, evolved, constructive, sincere, fun, and considerably less macho training community.

Speaking of: I also want to write about modern masculinity. We are in a very interesting time with a lot of shifts in what society needs and expects from its men. And what they expect of themselves. I, for one, could very much use such a discussion.

I read a lot, and I miss doing book reviews. I used to write reviews often on Goodreads, but became disillusioned with the number of people who would take a review, from a stranger, on the internet, as a personal slight. Especially this one fellow who had it out for me over my negative review of The Road. I love discussing books, and all the wonderful ideas and characters within. But I’d like to see less dogma around it. (Sensing a theme yet?) I dream of a world with less “OMG you didn’t like The Secret?” Or, just as bad or worse, “You haven’t read/seen/listened to/watched [INSERT MEDIA HERE]?” If you think the thing is important, tell me why. There’s way too much media to consume it all, and your habitual shock that I’ve not gotten to the things you have yet benefits nobody.

Which brings me to possibly my most major focus here: communication. Man, do we have some fucked up ideas around communication. How do we improve this? As individuals, but also as a society? We get most of our entertainment out of variations of watching the misfortunes of others. We celebrate callouts and gotchas. We’re all anxious, but we’re all shits to each other. Nobody gives each other room to make mistakes. It was pretty shocking to read a book originally published in 1964 that’s still somehow the most currently relevant thing I can remember reading.

Communication fascinates me. Not the least of which because I’m terrible at it, too. But I’m trying. I want to be better at communication, and so many other things. I want to write about that.

But really I just want to write. It helps me sort my mind, and gives me a place to practice better thinking and clearer communication. I train my body at the gym; I want to train my mind, as well. It needs it, as I’ll surely demonstrate in coming posts.