Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Health and wellness’ Category

The Best Rivalry: Improving Together Through Sports

Posted in Daily Life, Health and wellness, Hobbies, tagged , , , , , , , on December 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Playing sports with my boys has been a wonderful way to bond. We’ve taken lessons, watched videos, and practiced together. I didn’t have much formal training as a child and didn’t train efficiently, so I’m glad I can now relive some of my childhood dreams. Though I’m no longer young and need more recovery time, I’ve become more conscientious and train in a more productive way, and there are far more resources available today.

My ten year old son is already better at basketball than I was at his age. One of our rituals is playing one-on-one at the end of practice. Like Sawakita from Slam Dunk, we want to see at what age he can beat me when I’m playing seriously. I think he’ll feel the same satisfaction and joy like Sawakita did the first time he wins. This motivates me to stay fit and keep improving so I can be a worthy opponent.

One of this year’s most satisfying moments was winning a two-on-two pickup game against two middle/high school teenagers. While my son struggled on defense because of the height difference, he made his shots and held his own on offense. That experience inspired me to look for more parent–child team competitions so we can train and improve together.

Our family also started learning badminton together, and I’m considering integrating sports training into some of our trips. It seems like a great way to meet like-minded people and have fun while traveling.

Recent one-on-one games (I called it the Sawakita challenge):

Game 1:

Game 2:

Read Full Post »

Book Notes: The Mind of a Champion & Badminton

Posted in anime, Books, Health and wellness, Hobbies, tagged , , , , on August 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I started learning badminton recently, partly inspired by the Blue Box anime and partly because I think it’s a hobby I can enjoy into old age with family and friends. It’s also a sport in which many Asians excel. Whether it’s singles, doubles, or mixed, it’s easy to find players to root for. But as I wrote before, I much prefer being a participant over a spectator, and I feel I have room for one more sport.

Lately, I’ve been watching more badminton videos and just finished reading The Mind of a Champion by Viktor Axelson. Interestingly, both Viktor and Taiki share a similar reason for loving the sport. [Viktor:]”I liked that I was master of my own destiny, that the outcome would be decided by my performance on court. It was up to me and only me.” Badminton seems like a perfect fit for someone who values agency.

Excerpts:

Is it your thoughts that are telling you that you can’t continue? Or is it in fact your body saying stop?

“Be nice to the people you pass on your way up because you’ll pass them again on your way down”. In other words, it’s okay to be all in, to show both frustration and celebrate success on court – of course while being respective to my opponent. But off court, a more humble or low-key attitude was the way to go.

I find it helpful to remind myself that 20 or 40 years from now, no one will recall who wrote what on social media. That thought forces me to stay rational when I read or hear something about myself. At the end of the day, it’s not important.

It is those kinds of negative thoughts I have worked on eliminating, and I think I succeeded at a young age because I was raised in the belief that envy doesn’t do anything good for you.

It made me realise that when I was struggling being happy about the success of my competitors, it was human nature. They are universal thoughts, but I could practice and learn how to handle them when they appeared. So, I would practice feeling happy if my fellow players were successful. And it actually felt energising. Today it has become an integral part of who I am.

Had I been able to give 17-year-old Viktor a piece of advice, I would have said to him: “Stand by yourself and your choices. Listen to what people say, but never let yourself be limited by others.” To reach high performance is about courage. Most people are so focused on fitting in that they forget that if they do like others, they will be like one of many others. I would tell myself to own up to being different and experimental.

Regardless of which limitations other people see in you, never let the opinion of others get in the way of chasing your dream.

Seek inspiration from others even if they have a different background or come from a different culture than yours. Find your own unique path or approach.

For me there is not one right way: There are many paths to greatness.

Depending on how the match evolved, I would have to adapt, see myself from the outside and be able to tell myself to change the tactics. “Be kind to yourself when you make mistakes.” “Stay calm and be patient in the duels.”

He said: “Let’s focus on what we can do from here. And not let what has already happened ruin the day”.

If there is something nagging you off the court, it can affect your physical state. If you have a negative focus on court or even before your match, there is a risk that you will make more or bigger mistakes on the court. Simply because you are “pre-programmed” to think negative thoughts. I assume this phenomenon is not isolated to neither badminton nor sports, but could also have an impact on your life and career.

Here it is helpful that my overall goal is not to achieve certain results, but to become as good as I possibly can. To achieve my full potential.

Is this how I am chasing my full potential? I know it’s an abstract goal. I know that no one knows what the result will be. I don’t even have the answer to that myself. It works for me because I have a series of sub-goals. They are measurable and evaluated as honestly as the rest of my life.

People should not be measured by their mistakes, but by what they do to correct them.

Having the right mindset is not something you learn once and that’s it. B.S. and I talk about how I can never become complacent because I win. “It’s about keeping your room clean,” as he says. This means I must use exactly the same tools, even if I feel good. It forces me to think about why things are going well. I must consistently evaluate my development – even when I am progressing.

We should never fear losing, but fear not learning from our losses.

Getting better requires you to try things that mean you fall a little short or risk doing so in the moment.

What if I could decide how much and when I wanted to practice? What if my need for optimisation could finally be satisfied? What if my potential would never face a single limitation? What if the optimal conditions actually existed? What if it was entirely up to me, and I never had to settle for anything less than perfect? That’s my best answer to the question: to chase the optimal conditions for my development.

If I don’t eat right, I can’t last the distance in my sport. So, when I optimise on all parameters, it’s both about pushing and taking care of my body. That’s why food is a tool to help my body perform. It might sound harsh, but I don’t eat for pleasure. I eat what is optimal for me and I am very strict about my diet. I am always very aware of what and when I eat.

Read Full Post »

Hyrox II

Posted in Health and wellness, tagged on July 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

This was my second time joining the event, competing in the Men’s Doubles with my gym coach. The event remains popular with a great atmosphere, and it’s good to see so many fit, health-conscious people.

I’m not sure I will participate in future events, unless a family member wants to join, or I feel the desire to try a solo competition to see how I fare in my age group. Most of these exercises I can do on my own if the aim is to stay fit, and I prefer to focus more on improving in specific sports.

Read Full Post »

Spectator vs. Participant

Posted in Happiness, Health and wellness, Hobbies, Reflection, tagged , , on May 28, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Rooting for a favorite team or player is like riding a roller coaster. When a team I support loses an important game, I might feel down for a whole day. While many people find joy in cheering for their heroes, I find deeper satisfaction in doing things well myself. This comes from a desire for agency. I may feel elated when those I admire succeed or disappointed when they falter, but ultimately, I’m just a spectator. Their outcomes are beyond my control. When I’m the one performing, I can influence the result. If I don’t play well in a basketball game, I can reflect, adjust my training, and improve. Success isn’t guaranteed, but at least I can act.

That said, I appreciate greatness in others and draw inspiration from it. When I see manga or illustrations I love, I pick up my sketchbook, hoping to capture that same magic someday. After hearing a moving melody at a concert, I return to practice, wanting to evoke the same feeling. Watching Slam Dunk or NBA games drives me to the neighborhood court. After binging Blue Box, I made a plan to start learning badminton.

At my age, I’m unlikely to become a professional. But if I enjoy the process, that’s already a win. There’s always room to grow, and each small improvement brings its own joy. Mastering a tough piano passage or seeing my shooting percentage rise after weeks of effort offers a satisfaction no passive observation can match. If I crave competition, I can measure myself against my past self or others in my age group. It’s encouraging to know I can still improve, defying the idea that peak performance belongs only to the young.

There’s nothing wrong with being a dedicated fan. Fans created culture, support artists and athletes, and build community. We need both participants and appreciators. But for me, the deepest fulfillment comes from doing the work myself. True satisfaction rarely comes from watching perfection, but from experiencing growth.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

Read Full Post »

Friendship

Posted in Happiness, Health and wellness, Links, Relationship, tagged , , on May 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Noah Smith has written a good article on making and having friends after age 30. For an introvert like myself, big groups and frequent socializing events are too draining. However, I do enjoy occasional small group gatherings with friends or interesting people. The challenge is consciously planning and seeking out opportunities to make these connections happen, even if only occasionally. Smith also touches on what constitutes close friendships.

There’s no hard-and-fast boundary between close friends and more casual friends; it’s a spectrum. Closeness tends to develop gradually over time, and it feels a little different in each case…

There are basically two things that define a really close friendship: understanding, and interdependence. Your close friend has to understand who you really are, and you also have to know that you can count on them if you need help. If a friendship has only one of those things and not the other, it’s not really a close one. 

Understanding gets built up over time, but it can’t reach a truly deep level without confessions. We all have certain things that we’re reluctant to tell other people about ourselves — not necessarily secrets, but core truths of our lives that we don’t like yelling at everyone we meet at a party. Occasionally these might be facts about your life, but usually they’re just vulnerabilities and desires and fears. 

In order to make a really close friend, you have to tell them at least some of those things, and they have to tell you theirs. You have to have moments when you open yourself to another person and make yourself vulnerable to them. And you also have to have moments where they do this for you. You don’t both have to do it at the same time, but it has to happen on both sides….

The other thing you need for a close friendship is interdependence — you need to know you can rely on your friend, and they need to know they can rely on you. There’s no way to prove this in an absolute sense, of course — you’ll almost certainly never know if your friend would really lay down their life for you, because that sort of situation almost never actually comes up…

And I agree with his conclusion:

So I think you have to work at it. Having friends is one of the most important components of a complete, fulfilled human life. It’s just too important to leave entirely to chance.

Read Full Post »

Hyrox Training

Posted in Health and wellness, tagged , , on September 11, 2024| 1 Comment »

My gym coach invited me to join a Hyrox team relay, which is an event that requires a good balance of aerobic fitness and strength. We placed 25th out of about 125 teams.

It was a great experience, providing motivation for training and suiting both competitive individuals as well as those looking to have fun while exercising. I’m considering trying the Double next time to train for every station.

It’s encouraging to see that, with proper training and discipline, even someone over 40 can perform as well, if not better, than many younger participants. Both of my boys want to join the next Hyrox event for kids, so it’s also a good source of inspiration.

For those interested in seeing how the event is like, here’s a link to the men’s world championship. And here’s an earlier one in Taiwan featuring one of the Korean Physical 100 celebrities.

Read Full Post »

Book Notes: Second Act – What Late Bloomers Can Tell about Reinventing Your Life by Henry Oliver

Posted in Books, Health and wellness, Reflection, tagged , , on July 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I consider myself a late bloomer. During my teens, I was immature in handling relationships, and I’m still amazed at how silly some of my past senseless actions were when I reflect on them. It seems my maturity has always lagged a step behind my peers. I would like to think I’m more mature now, yet I suspect that in a few years, I might cringe at some actions I take today. This suggests I am still changing, hopefully for the better. While not everyone may become more productive or successful later in life, I think it’s beneficial to believe we can always grow. As Henry Oliver might say, I hope to continue becoming my true self as I age.

Excerpts from the book:

Personal transformation happens through cultural immersion, sampling the world and changing our surroundings. In new circumstances, gradually sampling our way into a new mode of thinking, living or working, we can change our opportunities, perhaps even change ourselves.

Late bloomers are serious, perhaps, intense, obsessive, occasionally eccentric, volatile, or weird. Not infrequently, the people around them don’t quite understand who they are capable of being. Their earnestness can make them seem strange, off-putting, and makes it difficult to see how and where their talent could flourish: their capability often hides in plain sight…Their ambitions are usually secret, or unknown to themselves for a long time. They pursue their interests quietly. Their ability and confidence growth with experience.

Our time is not guaranteed to be well spent. How many people every year are lost to weariness, laziness, mental decline, exhaustion, redundancy? As Jimmy Carter wrote in his memoir of post-presidential life, The Virtues of Aging, ‘Each of us is old when we think we are – when we accept an attitude of dormancy…a substantial limitation on our physical and mental activity…As I know from experience, this is not tied very closely to the number of years we have lived.’

Addiction to success, habit, and love of status had prevented them from travelling or seeing their children. One important type of late bloomer is someone who successfully changes the balance of their life.

[Late bloomers] They tend to be smart (which doesn’t have to mean successful at school), self-educating and self-directing. They follow their own interests and take lifelong education seriously. They never stop teaching themselves; often, they set their own agenda…Another thing that characterises many late bloomers is a period of withdrawal for reflection.

[Jerry Seinfeld on producing Seinfeld] If you’re efficient, you’re doing it the wrong way. The right way is the hard way. The show was successful because I micro-managed it – every word, every line, every take, every edit, every casting. That’s my way of life.

Rather, knowledge was sought for its ability to improve our character: ‘A man always makes himself greater as he increases his knowledge.’

Take Samuel Johnson’s advice. Resolve, work, fail, and resolve again. We should do this not just for ambition, for ‘hope of a better fortune’, but because ‘the time comes at last, in which life has no more to promise’ and all we can do then is remember our lives; and ‘virtue will be all that we can recollect with pleasure’. We should keep working and keep trying, keep expanding our perspectives and horizons, our stock of knowledge and our range of experiences, not just for aspiration, but so we will know at the end of our lives that we did.

First, the culture we live in has a huge influence on our work: our circumstances change who we become. Second, our mental powers do not inevitably decline as we age: the more work we produce, the more likely we are to be successful.

It matters who you surround yourself with and what circumstances you put yourself in. Influence builds up over time.

‘The feeling of being in a great culture isn’t smoothness – it’s the feeling of solving hard problems with people you admire.‘

This is not the direct influence of peer pressure but the indirect influence of sampling the world via your network.

Different people are influenced by different things. Some people are more strongly influenced by their parents but not by their peers, and vice versa. Some people are going to be strongly susceptible to the influence of music but not painting. Many people are what Belsky calls a ‘mosaic’ – rather than fitting a neat pattern, we are influenced by different things in different ways.

That is why key transitional moments in life affect us differently. Just as the war affected the young delinquents in various ways, so will retirement, children, redundancy and other moments of change affect people.

We should aim to be comfortable at being incompetent when we try new things. The more we branch out, the more we can discover what we are really good at. We had to be incompetent for a long time while we developed our current expertise, and sometimes we should be willing to be incompetent again.

Late bloomers spend a lot of time cultivating themselves. They often experience life as a long, organic process, where decisions emerge out of previous experience. They are always becoming themselves.

‘The best predictor of exceptional creativity is productivity. It’s lots of hard work.’

‘Leonardo da Vinci demonstrated the potential of drawing as a form of research and as a medium for the generation of new ideas.’ Michelangelo’s drawings are full of repetition. He draws the same figures over and over with slight variations in posture, pose, angle. It’s how he encoded basic forms into his memory and how he discovered ways of being original.

Ask yourself as Audrey Sutherland did, ‘What part of my goal can I achieve now? What can I do now to achieve my goal later?’

Read Full Post »

Lessons from Roger Federer

Posted in Health and wellness, Links, Psychology, tagged , , on June 25, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Excerpt from his recent Dartmouth speech:

“Effortless”… is a myth.

I mean it.

I say that as someone who has heard that word a lot. “Effortless.”

People would say my play was effortless. Most of the time, they meant it as a compliment… But it used to frustrate me when they would say, “He barely broke a sweat!”

Or “Is he even trying?”

The truth is, I had to work very hard… to make it look easy.

I spent years whining… swearing… throwing my racket… before I learned to keep my cool.

The wakeup call came early in my career, when an opponent at the Italian Open publicly questioned my mental discipline. He said, “Roger will be the favorite for the first two hours, and then I’ll be the favorite after that.”

I was puzzled at first. But eventually, I realized what he was trying to say. Everybody can play well the first two hours. You’re fit, you’re fast, you’re clear… and after two hours, your legs get wobbly, your mind starts wandering, and your discipline starts to fade.

It made me understand… I have so much work ahead of me, and I’m ready to go on this journey now. I get it.

My parents, my coaches, my fitness coach, everyone had really been calling me out—and now even my rivals were doing it. Players!!! Thank you! I’m eternally grateful for what you did.

So I started training harder. A lot harder.

But then I realized: winning effortlessly is the ultimate achievement.

I got that reputation because my warm-ups at the tournaments were so casual that people didn’t think I had been training hard. But I had been working hard… before the tournament, when nobody was watching.

Maybe you’ve seen a version of this at Dartmouth.

How many times did you feel like your classmates were racking up “A” after “A” without even trying… while you were pulling all-nighters… loading up on caffeine… crying softly in a corner of Sanborn Library?

Hopefully, like me, you learned that “effortless” is a myth.

I didn’t get where I got on pure talent alone. I got there by trying to outwork my opponents.

I believed in myself. But BELIEF in yourself has to be earned.

There was a moment in 2003 when my self-belief really kicked in.

It was at the ATP Finals, where only the best eight players qualify.

I beat some top players I really admired—by aiming right at their strengths. Before, I would run away from their strengths. If a guy had a strong forehand, I would try to hit to his backhand. But now… I would try to go after his forehand. I tried to beat the baseliners from the baseline. I tried to beat the attackers by attacking. I tried to beat the net rushers from the net.

I took a chance by doing that. So why did I do it?

To amplify my game and expand my options. You need a whole arsenal of strengths… so if one of them breaks down, you’ve got something left.

When your game is clicking like that, winning is easy—relatively.

Then there are days when you just feel broken.

Your back hurts… your knee hurts… Maybe you’re a little sick… or scared…

But you still find a way to win.

And those are the victories we can be most proud of.

Because they prove that you can win not just when you are at your best, but especially when you aren’t.

Yes, talent matters. I’m not going to stand here and tell you it doesn’t.

But talent has a broad definition.

Most of the time, it’s not about having a gift. It’s about having grit.

In tennis, a great forehand with sick racquet head speed can be called a talent.

But in tennis… like in life… discipline is also a talent. And so is patience.

Trusting yourself is a talent. Embracing the process, loving the process, is a talent.

Managing your life, managing yourself… these can be talents, too.

Some people are born with them. Everybody has to work at them.

From this day forward, some people are going to assume that because you graduated from Dartmouth, it all comes easy for you.

And you know what? Let them believe that…

As long as you don’t.

OK, second lesson:

It’s only a point.

Let me explain.

You can work harder than you thought possible… and still lose. I have.

Tennis is brutal. There’s no getting around the fact that every tournament ends the same way… one player gets a trophy… Every other player gets back on a plane, stares out of the window, and thinks… “how the hell did I miss that shot?”

Imagine if, today, only one of you got a degree.

Congratulations, this year’s graduate! Let’s give her a hand.

The rest of you… the other one thousand of you… better luck next time!

So, you know, I tried not to lose.

But I did lose… sometimes big. For me, one of the biggest was the finals at Wimbledon in 2008. Me vs. Nadal. Some call it the greatest match of all time. OK, all respect to Rafa, but I think it would have been way way better if I had won…

Losing at Wimbledon was a big deal… because winning Wimbledon is everything.

Obviously, except winning the Dartmouth Masters pong title, sophomore summer.

I mean, I’ve gotten to play in some amazing venues around the world, but when you have the chance to walk onto Centre Court at Wimbledon… the cathedral of tennis… and when you finish as the champion… you feel the magnitude of the moment. There’s nothing like it.

In 2008, I was going for a record sixth consecutive title. I was playing for history.

I’m not going to walk you through the match, point by point. If I did, we would be here for hours.

Almost five hours, to be exact.

There were rain delays, the sun went down… Rafa won two sets, I won the next two sets in tiebreaks, and we found ourselves at seven all in the fifth.

I understand why people focus on the end… the final minutes so dark I could barely see the chalk on the grass. But looking back… I feel like I lost at the very first point of the match.

I looked across the net and I saw a guy who, just a few weeks earlier, crushed me in straight sets at the French Open, and I thought… this guy is maybe hungrier than I am… And he’s finally got my number.

It took me until the third set before I remembered… hey, buddy, you’re the five-time defending champion! And you’re on grass, by the way. You know how to do this… But that came too late, and Rafa won. And it was well-deserved.

Some defeats hurt more than others.

I knew I would never get another shot at six in a row.

I lost Wimbledon. I lost my number-one ranking. And suddenly, people said, “He had a great run. Is this the changing of the guard?”

But I knew what I had to do… keep working. And keep competing.

In tennis, perfection is impossible… In the 1,526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches… Now, I have a question for all of you… what percentage of the POINTS do you think I won in those matches?

Only 54%.

In other words, even top-ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play.

When you lose every second point, on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot.

You teach yourself to think: OK, I double-faulted. It’s only a point.

OK, I came to the net and I got passed again. It’s only a point.

Even a great shot, an overhead backhand smash that ends up on ESPN’s Top Ten Plays: that, too, is just a point.

Here’s why I am telling you this.

When you’re playing a point, it is the most important thing in the world.

But when it’s behind you, it’s behind you… This mindset is really crucial, because it frees you to fully commit to the next point… and the next one after that… with intensity, clarity and focus.

The truth is, whatever game you play in life… sometimes you’re going to lose. A point, a match, a season, a job… it’s a roller coaster, with many ups and downs.

And it’s natural, when you’re down, to doubt yourself. To feel sorry for yourself.

And by the way, your opponents have self-doubt, too. Don’t ever forget that.

But negative energy is wasted energy.

You want to become a master at overcoming hard moments. That to me is the sign of a champion.

The best in the world are not the best because they win every point… It’s because they know they’ll lose… again and again… and have learned how to deal with it.

You accept it. Cry it out if you need to… then force a smile.

You move on. Be relentless. Adapt and grow.

Work harder. Work smarter. Remember: work smarter.”

Read Full Post »

More Advices from Kevin Kelly

Posted in Happiness, Health and wellness, Links, tagged , on April 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »

101 Additional Advices
Some of my favourites:

Don’t save up the good stuff (fancy wine, or china) for that rare occasion that will never happen; instead use them whenever you can.

Try to define yourself by what you love and embrace, rather than what you hate and refuse.

You can become the world’s best in something primarily by caring more about it than anyone else.

When you are stuck or overwhelmed, focus on the smallest possible thing that moves your project forward.

In a museum you need to spend at least 10 minutes with an artwork to truly see it. Aim to view 5 pieces at 10 minutes each rather than 100 at 30 seconds each.

You have no obligation to like everyone, and you are free to intensely dislike a person. But you owe everyone—even those you dislike—basic respect.

Discover people whom you love doing “nothing” with, and do nothing with them on a regular basis. The longer you can maintain those relationships, the longer you will live.

Write your own obituary, the one you’d like to have, and then everyday work towards making it true.

The highest form of wealth is deciding you have enough.

A good sign that you are doing the kind of work you should be doing is that you enjoy the tedious parts that other people find tortuous. 

Being envious is a toxin. Instead take joy in the success of others and treat their success as your gain. Celebrating the success of others costs you nothing, and increases the happiness of everyone, including you.

Get good at being corrected without being offended.

Slow progress is still a million times better than no progress. 

Recipe for greatness: expect much of yourself and little of others.

Read Full Post »

Distance, Loneliness, and Acceptance

Posted in Happiness, Health and wellness, Philosophy, Relationship, tagged on February 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I thought one of the saddest things in the world is feeling a vast distance despite being physically close to someone (or someone we’d known for years). But perhaps this doesn’t have to be the case:

Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky.

Rainer Maria Rilke 

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »