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This just in: As I do every year, I will summarize my experiences. I don’t do this for you so much as keeping a record for myself.

Let’s start with this – I saw an online survey the other day where people were asked about bad habits that they wish they didn’t have. A huge amount of them were things like, “I shouldn’t spend so much time on my phone” or “I shouldn’t get hooked on youtube videos for hour after hour,” or “I should play fewer online games.”

I get this. At one point, earlier this year, I felt like I was wasting a lot of time reading news and such. I set out to fix this. I made a list of 20 things I wanted to accomplish on a daily basis. My goal was to actually do at least 10 out of the 20 every day. Below is my list. I actually failed to meet my goal since I only accomplished 8.8 per day on an average. Note the “points”, I keep track of this as each point is about a calorie burned. This year I got 145,000 points which represents the number of calories in about 45 pounds of fat. Note: I started the year at 207 pounds and ended at 196 pounds.

Pushup (1 point for a normal pushup and 2 points per pushup using a device that makes them harder). This year I did 7,900 pushups. I started with 10 per day and my highest day was 180.
Pullups (5 points per pullup) I started with 5 per day and finished the year with 7,500 pullups doing 160 on my highest day.
Stationary bike (5 points per minute) I did 43 hours this year.
Walking (5 points per minute) walking must be something I do extra. I don’t get points for walking the dog or walking around the house.
Morning Yoga and Core exercise (200 points) I do 30 minutes of this every day before I leave the bedroom. I have done this 292 days in a row. It has saved my back which has 2.5 herniated discs.
Hit golf balls or play golf.
Write (15 minutes minimum)
Do a random act of kindness
Meditate (15 minutes minimum)
Learn Chinese (15 minutes minimum)
Practice Spanish (15 minutes minimum)
Hang upside down (for my back)
Watch an online course from TheGreatCourses.com (15 minutes minimum)
Drink 2 tablespoons of vinegar
Drink a glass of water
Call a friend or family member
Don’t eat desert
Eat a salad
Read a book (15 minutes minimum)
Bush teeth AND Dental pick And Neti pot

That’s it for fitness. Now for a few other highlights.

I visited Canada and 13 states. I flew 140,000 miles on 105 different planes and spent 80 nights in hotels. I worked with about 15 different companies on projects of varying size.

The New Year’s resolution for 2018 was “Expansion”. This means experiencing more of life in a variety of ways.

I feel like I accomplished this to some degree.

My list was a big help. I was stuck in a routine and felt like I was wasting time that could otherwise be more productive or value added as far as life experiences go.

The list worked for me. However, we are all different and such a thing may not work for you. I do know this, I’m going to take credit for writing for 15 minutes today just because of this blog post. So…at least the list made me do that.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: In keeping with my tradition of blogging about stuff I know nothing about, today I will talk golf.

My skill level? On a bad day…I’ll shoot 105. The last time I played, I shot a 92. Tiger Woods has nothing to fear from me.

Here are my tips…written as if I know something.

If you golf right-handed, your right hand should be just tight enough so that it can move with the club. Act as if you are holding an egg with it. This “super soft” grip applies to the back swing as much as the downswing. A tight grip may cause you to let that hand get involved with swinging the clubhead through…which is not what you want to happen. The soft grip also reminds you to relax. Tension at any point in the swing will change the path of the club.

On the driving range, spray foot powder on the club face. It dries quickly into a white powder. When you hit the ball, you can tell where it struck the club face. Are you to close? Is the ball too far forward in your stance? This trick can help a lot. Before, I would hit a good one and then a bad one and have no idea where I went wrong. Turns out, this trick gives you a lot of information. It’s the single best trick I have learned.

Take a lesson where they will digitize your shots. I did this and told the instructor “I’m not looking for help. I just want to see how far I hit each club when I hit the club well.” The instructor spent the hour on his phone while I dialed in the correct distance for each club. Now, if I want to go 150 yards, I don’t try to muscle a pitching wedge because I know a smoothly hit 9 iron is what I really need.

On your drive, stand with your feet no farther apart than they are when you hit your irons. I used to have a super wide stance with my driver. The plan was to have a strong stance so I wouldn’t come up and out of my shoes when I swung as hard as possible. Turns out to be a bad idea. A wider stance inhibits your rotation and thus…messes up your shot.

On the putting green, use two balls and ignore the flags. Don’t putt at a hole/flag. Instead, putt one ball at the other. Since a ball is a much smaller target than a hole, you will have to be more accurate. It’s been my experience that this alone shaves about 5 to 10 putts a round off of my score.

So, there you have it. I don’t know what a real golfer would think of these hints. It really doesn’t matter to me. My game is becoming more and more consistent as a result. So…at least these work for me.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

Tag Archives: golf

Golf Tips From a Lifelong Hacker