Use it or lose it...

The older I get the more this fact becomes apparent, vital and real.

USE IT OR LOSE IT!

That just might be the definitive reason and clear objective of life as we know it. What brought this fact to the forefront for me at this time is the latest little hobby I've taken up. Learning to fly Remote Control Helicopters. I've taken up some rather difficult things in my life but this one takes the cake for sure. Everyone in the Remote Control world made it extremely clear every time I brought it up that this was a complete waste of time and money. They all told horror stories about people wasting hundreds, if not thousands of dollars trying to perfect this and failing miserably in the end.

Even my Daughter who is a Helicopter Pilot told me she knows several Helicopter Pilots with thousands of hours of experience who bought into the hobby with extreme gusto and gave up in disgust in a surprisingly small amount of time and now have them sitting on a shelf in a closet somewhere in their homes collecting cobwebs, with nothing but cuss-words and shame for memories. Other than learning to actually fly them is the extreme learning curve on the transmitters. That's the control mechanism you hold in your hand to send the signals to the "Servos" which move the control surfaces on the Helicopter itself. That damn thing nowadays is a very sophisticated computer, would you believe. You can now program it to do just about anything except maybe butter your bread or give you a massage.

So along with trying to learn to fly this damn thing for more than three minutes without crashing and adding another $100 for repairs to my wonderful new hobby (say thank you, Terry at HobbyTown USA in Rocklin), I now have to learn another entire new computer language. Now as complainy as I sound, I actually am having a ball learning and adding all these new skill sets to my life.

That brings me to the gist of this new revelation. It's wonderful, challenging and exciting to have new hard as hell I should add, things to do to my life. It's so easy for everyone to just fall into normal routines of life. Hell, it's hard enough to just get by nowadays without purposely adding more complications to everything as it is, now isn't it? But ya know what? That's what keeps life new, interesting and anti-boring.

This "Use it or lose it" philosophy is true in every aspect of our lives. Ask any health professional and they'll tell you to use that body. Push it to it's limits at all times. Get off your lazy ass, get off the couch, turn off the boob tube and get moving. You see all the time quite old people at various stages of activity or lack of. The ones on the move are staying in pretty good shape and seem happy, vibrant and alive. Now discounting the very unfortunate facts of disease in it's every form, the plain lazy, weak ones are unfortunately sliding down the slippery slope of declining health right before our eyes. A generation or so ago, the thing to do was to retire as soon as you could, buy a great recliner for the front room and finally get to relax after working all ones life. Well, that lasted maybe a few months or years and then they achieved the ultimate relaxation staring up at the grass at the cemetery.

This whole thing also applies to all the parts of life also. Sex......Use it or lose it. Happy attitudes......Use it or lose it. Friendships......Use it or lose it. Skills, like cooking, playing an instrument, reading, writing, playing golf or any game. They all require one to keep on going full blast at all times. Just like exercise or using the hot tub (silly example but true). Each time I think of it, the first thing that comes to mind is "Dammit, that's just too much trouble, I'm kind of tired right now and don't feel like putting the effort out to do it". Then I force myself and ALWAYS, it's great and I'm super glad I did it.

Sooooooooooooooooooooo, get off your ass, start a new hobby, get outside and go for a walk, take up Kayaking, get in the car and go shopping in a new place you've never been before, learn something new. Something completely beyond your normal skill sets and desires.

By the way, come hell or high water, I WILL get this down. I WILL amaze and impress my daughter, her Helicopter Pilot husband and my friends one day soon. Well......... maybe next year but by God, I WILL DO THIS!

Whatchathink?

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Come on.......DO IT!