Below is the introduction to Ready Every Day,in which I lay out an approach to performance that is simple, inexpensive, effective and sustainable #SI_lo_ES, it is available on Amazon Kindle. It is also available as an audiobook on my Patreon, when you join at the bronze tier also called the Ready Every Day tier, along with personalised interaction to help you in the implementation of the tools and techniques discussed. The Ready Every Day tier is accessed with a contribution of USD 4 monthly, one dollar per week, there is a seven day free trial to help you assess the value. I hope to see you there.
INTRODUCTION
I knew I was in trouble as we skidded down the straightaway from curve eight to curve nine, the mighty ‘Kriesel’ turning through 270 degrees, with three distinct pressure points and exerting 5Gs in places. Not the time for reflection I kept forcing my mind back to the present, in vain. We entered the curve and I did nothing right, we were going up and down like a dolphin in the wake of a pleasure boat, until finally we were going up when the curve ran out, and we were over.
One of the most spectacular moments in sporting history, which should have been the end of my brief bobsleigh career. Yet within six years and in the same race I would finish 10th on two of the 4 descents, 14th overall, one of the most remarkable feats in sporting history, from the agony of defeat to the thrill of victory.
I am Jamaican, but my journey began 400 miles north of Jamaica where I was born to missionaries on the tiny island of Grand Turk, in the Turks and Caicos. From there to falling off the curve in Calgary in 1988 was a journey in itself, from falling to 10th was intense, getting to my 7th decade in good health and motivation, again something special. This book is my attempt to codify the important things I have learnt and share them with others.
This is not some magic solution, it is not a religion, for sure it's not meant to replace any of the spiritual or medical approaches that you currently practice in your life. It is meant to give you a framework in which you can maintain your health, and improve your performance so as to have better life outcomes.
I am tempted to Define my market niche to name my audience. In my experience this does not work as every time I'm convinced of who would be interested in what I am doing I am surprised at the number of people seeing completely different perspectives who found the blog, podcast product or service useful, at times life changing. So while I think that this will be of particular relevance to young people , people just starting their adult lives, who suffer some disadvantage for whatever reason and are trying to make their way in nevertheless, it may well be applicable to anybody.
In Ready Every Day I lay out the SI lo ES way, a framework to arrange your life. Simple, Inexpensive, Effective and Sustainable this is the system that will help to get and keep you ready for the demands of life.. Yes it Is, SI lo ES.
Whether it's lifestyle, mindfulness, well being or performance the solutions generally available today are complicated, expensive, sometimes ineffective and mostly unsustainable. You can gain a significant advantage if you are able to reduce the cost to you of living the monetary costs and the cost in time and effort and so focus on creating the life that you want.
The SI lo ES way focuses in three areas first your health, the basis on which everything else is built secondly on our performance and thirdly on not winning but living which means that we first have to live in the right way in order to get the right outcome, in order to win so if we start off focusing on the winning then we will not develop the personal and interpersonal skills necessary to actually win. First you have to live with purpose and then the wins will follow.
Let me make it clear that if you are looking for something new, you will not find it here. Everything I speak about has been known to people for hundreds if not thousands of years. I have attempted to assemble this knowledge, which is scattered across many sources, in a way which appears to me to be simple to understand, Inexpensive to do, effective in outcomes, and requiring such resources as are readily available, replenishable, yes, sustainable. SI lo ES.
Most of what I speak about now has scientific backing, I have tried to provide links to the relevant work in case you want to learn more. When I began using many of the tools and techniques described there was no science in support, in fact there was a lot of science in opposition. There are still some things on which the science is undecided if not downright opposed to, such as the effects of ‘mega’ doses of vitamin C on health. Where I am out of step I point it out and make clear that this is in my own long experience.
Modern lifestyles evolved in the western world and which have proven so seductive to the rest of the globe have greatly increased the complexity and cost of living. Processed foods lead to illnesses which are treated with state of the art machinery and medicines that often do not fix the problem in any permanent way. A cycle is created and ever more complex ways to ‘fix’ it are devised by scientists and large businesses which benefit at every stage. Wealthy societies struggle to afford this approach, and increasingly more of their citizens fall off the wheel. Poorer societies have no chance with this cycle, and so remain impoverished. Technology has produced ways to preserve and prolong human life, but these will forever be inaccessible to most people, so while some are biohacking themselves, better to find out how the body (including your brain) works, what it needs from nature get the inputs right and then see how you can use these to boost performance, naturally.
This is an unequal world and from what I can see, is set to become even more so.
It is my hope that you find something useful in these pages, that you can use beginning now, to create and pursue your goals, become healthier, happier and hardened, an asset to your community.
