Robert Greene's "Daily Law" for 10th of January is,
Embrace your weirdness
The idea is encapsulated by the concluding thought:
Always stick to what makes you weird, odd, strange, different. That's your source of power.
So, with that thought in mind, and having no appointments or classes today, I decided to embrace my weirdness by putting together a nice little early afternoon routine: Walk to my favourite park and try to do a 90 second deadhang, then pop into the supermarket on the way back to stock up on booze for the weekend.
Okay, nothing particularly "weird" about popping into the supermarket to buy some booze. Deadhanging, however, has been one of my minor projects for a couple of years now - mostly a dormant project, but every now and then it wakes up, and I go to the park and try to beat my previous record, and report on my progress.
At first, it definitely seemed a bit weird to try and deadhang for as long as possible in a park where... people... might... see... me! 😨
Look at than hen-na gaijin ("weird foreigner") swinging from the bars! Baka! ("Idiot!")
But I got used to it, and anyway, there aren't usually that many people in the park, and most of them are doing their own thing and completely ignoring everybody else.
So just embrace your weirdness and go and do your thing.
Early in 2023, my first deadhang target was 10 seconds! I really didn't have any confidence in my ability to hang on to a horizontal pole for that long! Happily, I was quickly able to extend my time to 20 seconds and then 40 seconds...
Last year, I managed to break the 60 second barrier and my record, before today, was 70 seconds.
So my current target is 90 seconds, ideally before the end of January 2025, and my stretch target is to do a two minute deadhang by the end of the year.
Okay, here's the video of today's adventure, complete with school kids jogging in the background! So much for the park not being crowded! 😅
So there you go, I wasn't able to hang for 90 seconds today. I could feel my fingers beginning to give way after a minute, but was able to hold on for 72 seconds to beat my previous record.
At the supermarket I bought a six pack of Kirin Ichiban Shibori, and a bottle of white wine - Sicilian organic Inzolia, light, fruity and pleasant, that I shall have with my daughter, who is back for the weekend.
Back at home, I recovered with a warm glass of Livegood Supergreens, and right now I'm looking at the clock and looking forward to the "two bells" that mark 5 o'clock and the first cool beer of the weekend to celebrate my new deadhanging record!
Cheers!
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus