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I decided to just start fresh on this challenge then carry over my "OODA Loop" one I created last week. The idea behind the OODA Loop is still in place but mentally, I'm trying to morph into something else entirely. I'm trying to shapeshift into a Renaissance Man of Lethality. So what exactly is a "Renaissance Man of Lethality? Ironically, he's basically what a Nerd Fitness Ranger is: A jack-of-all-trades but master of none, Rangers are well equipped for any situation....and so is the RMoL (Renaissance Man of Lethality). The video above breaks down a massive amount of things that a RMoL should have in his bag of tricks. Some of these "tricks" just are not obtainable at the moment, but I don't want to focus on the things I can't do. I want to focus on things I can. Things like: Fitness: Power Speed Agility Endurance Flexibility Every Day Carry (EDC) Verbal Judo Military History Now, on to things I would like to obtain at some point. (A lot of things are put on hold because of the COVID stuff😞 Martial Arts ground game standing game disarming improvised weapons Emergency Medical Firearms Pistol Concealed Carry Run-N-Gun Rifle Shotgun Precision Shooting Cyber Security/IT Criminal Psychology Bushcraft "Don't get tunnel visioned in to the sexy thing you saw on Instragram, in terms of 'THAT is self-defense and protection!'. Instead I want us to be really well balanced... so that if we were in a video game you would choose yourself as the avatar - as the good, well-rounded person of lethality." - John Lovell on "Be the Renaissance Man of Lethality" So! How does this translate to my challenge goals. I'm so glad you asked Goal #1: Learning A true Warrior Poet... a true Renaissance Man of Lethality is going to soak up as much knowledge as he possible can. He's going to read. He's going to research. He's going to be open to new ideas. He's going to be humble. He's going to be sensitive and vulnerable in the right situation. He's going to test theories, ideas and hypothesis. This goal will entail a few things. Reading is the first part. Instead of a goal to finish this book or that book, the goal is to read/listen for 7 hours a week. That's 1 hour a day. This can be reading a book on Military History. This could be reading a book on Verbal Judo. This could be meditating on the Bible... which is really something I should do every day anyways. But the goal is to read and learn and apply if applicable. The second part is teaching my kids what I know (and even what I don't know). If they ask me a question about WW2 Tanks. I want to do some research and watch documentaries with them that can help explain the various tanks in WW2 and how they functioned. If they want to know why the sky is blue or how big the sun is, I want to be able to tell them the correct answers and be involved with the development of their mind. We home school our kids and for the first time since they've been doing home school, I am able to be a teacher and a presence in their life that can help them find the answers to the questions they are seeking. The goal would be to find time, be it 10 min or 1 hour a day, in helping them answer life's most burning questions and expanding their minds. Stats Earned: +4 WIS, +1 CHA Goal #2: Lifting Due to the fact that one day is still just 24 hours long, I needed to scale back my training. I'm not scaling back the intensity, just the days of the week i'm at the gym because 5+ days a week is just too much. Maybe not for me, but adding in more training days takes away from time I could be spending with my family. Luckily for me, I paid for a program last year from Athlean-X. The problem with last year is the workouts were taking 90 min to complete when I only had 60 min to train. Now that I'm working from home on a more permanent basis, working out for 90 min is no big deal. So, I'm going back to the BeaXst Program and starting at day 1. The program itself is 3x a week lifting, utilizing a full-body split. The days I'll be lifting are M/W/F. Tu/Th will be active recovery days (like yoga or KB metcons) as well as days I can help my wife train and help her reach her fitness goals too. I always forget to take before/after pics but I'm doing my before pics today, 09/08, and will be taking after pics at the end of the challenge, 10/17. I will post them for accountability. I'm also going to do better at writing my workouts down and tracking them as I progress through the program. Stats Earned: +2 STR, +2 DEX, +1 END Goal #3: Loving If you've known me a while, you know I love my wife and kids. However, his is an area I want to improve. I want to be more purposeful about the time I spend with them. I want more date nights with my wife..even if our (almost) 18 mo old daughter has to tag along. I want to be more purposeful about doing things with my kids. I was listening to a podcast a while back called Dad Tired, which is a good podcast for all fathers out there, and he mentioned something he did with his two boys. Once a month, he would do something with them on they specific day they were born on. For example, Racer was born on May 4th, so, on the 4th of each month, I would do something special with him. And the same goes for the other boys. It doesn't have to be anything crazy. It could simply be playing with Lego's for an hour or drawing made up Pokemon. I've already missed Jamison's, Racer's and Declan's this month because they are the 1st, 4th and 5th respectively. Jamison's is tougher because we get him every other weekend so I won't always have him on the 1st of the month. I'll find time to make that up to them. And, as mentioned above, I want to find more time to have a "date night" with Heather. Trixie is still pretty clingy but she's recently started eating more solids the last month or so and she FINALLY sleeps in her own bed. It actually didn't take a lot of effort to get her used to that. It's been AMAZING to have our bed back to ourselves because you wouldn't believe the room that little girl can take up, lol. Anyways, because of the recent development's with Trixie, Heather and I should have more opportunities to get away with just the two of us for a couple hours. That's enough time to go have dinner or even see a movie! I want to make stuff like this a priority and continue to strengthen the relationship between my kids and my wife. Stats Earned: +1 WIS, +2 CHA, +2 CON As you can see, a Renaissance Man of Lethality is going to be a continued work-in-progress. I doubt I'll ever reach a pinnacle of excellence because I feel like there's always so much more to learn and skills to sharpen. We'll take it one step at a time and that starts with keeping my challenge afloat lol. Happy Challenging, Nerds! Wolf