Stop Making Excuses And Do It: Lessons From Doctor Do It

Why don’t we exercise? Why don’t we get out into Nature? Why don’t we connect with God and Christ? Why don’t we feed our spirits? Why don’t we nourish our souls? Why don’t we stretch our minds?

Why don’t we?

Why do we atrophy, whether physically, spiritually, emotionally, socially, or mentally? Why do we let ourselves just waste away, in any one – or all – of these areas? Why do we deny ourselves a better life?

What “Doctor Do It” Says

The other day I was talking to a childhood friend about this very trait we humans have: To stop doing. In fact, he’d just written his Doctoral dissertation* about this subject from a physical perspective.

To understand the depth of his concern, you must know him as I have. From our childhood, he was always the most in-shape, active person I ever knew. An early fan of Bruce Lee, he studied and practiced martial arts. He told me (paraphrasing Bruce Lee) that “When you put limits on yourself, you hold yourself back.” He also believes in the concept attributed to the Navy Seals but used throughout the military: “When you reach where your mind says is your limit, you have only approached 40% of your capability in whatever it is you are doing.”

He ran track, played hoops, and was involved in all sorts of sports on a personal and team level. As a result, his body, his physical presence, was the envy of everyone who knew him.

And it didn’t stop as he grew older. In college at BYU, he was on the university’s track team. He played hoops there, too, and almost any other sport he could think of. He wasn’t a star athlete, but he was in shape, and being in shape was important to him.

This kept up as he got older. After college, he made a career out of the Army, where he was a Ranger. In fact, we’d always kid him about jumping out of perfectly good airplanes just for fun.

Being Active When You Are Older

Most of us, sometime around our 30s or 40s, put away our sports dreams. We start to sit around more and more. Maybe we get out and do things outdoors, or play rec soccer or pickleball. But it becomes easier and easier to just … sit.

Not so my friend. After the Army, he started a cross-fit gym just outside of Denver. And this is where he started formulating his thesis for his Doctorate paper. He told me: “I see people come into the gym all the time who should know better. Doctors. Former trainers. Former athletes. And every one of them starts to go downhill the minute they say: “I can’t do that” or “I don’t want to do that” or “That would not be good for me because of XYZ reason.” And they start to atrophy.”

He is a big fan of this line from a movie: “Don’t use all of your muscles (brain cells, talents, etc.), only the ones you want to keep.”

He told me: “Our society tells us that at certain ages we have to change or stop doing things. This is so ingrained into our psyche that we almost automatically stop doing things. It takes a leap of faith to try to do them again.”

Eating His Own Dogfood

Interestingly, it was while he was working on his Doctoral thesis that he experienced the most profound insights into just how easy it is to fall into that “Do Nothing” trap. At almost the same time as he started putting in extra hours studying and writing, he got Covid. Bad. It laid him up for weeks. He could barely do more than study and work on his thesis.

When he recovered from Covid, he found himself making excuses to not go work out as much as he used to. “I’m still sick” he’d tell himself. “I need to work on this dissertation.” “There are other things I need to do.”

He felt himself spiraling downward, not only physically, but emotionally and mentally as well.

That’s when it hit him: Even when you don’t WANT to do something, get out and do it. In fact, he said that he discovered the best way to know you need to do something, is when you don’t want to do it.

Do it anyway.

He shared this “aha” moment with me: “Be positive. Avoid talking or thinking negatively about yourself in anything. Our church leaders have continually urged us to be positive. Even when we’re injured or spiritually or emotionally down, we have to be positive, we have to take that first step, no matter how small. That is progress.”

Everything Is Interconnected

At this point in our discussion, I realized I’d had the same epiphany the day before, about getting out and being in Nature, connecting to God and Christ in Nature, finding peace “out there”, and grounding and recharging.

I’d been feeling disconnected, out of sorts. There was a lack of peace in my life, and I felt like I was wandering and floundering, and not in a good way. I knew what the solution was. In fact, my wife wrote a book about finding peace in Nature and connecting with God and Christ. It outlines how we can find and connect with our core sacred selves, and how we can feel the message of love, peace, and joy that The Creator sends out through His Creations in Nature.

Every time I felt the urge to go out in the woods, to go down by the creek, to do something on our property, to “get my hands dirty”, I would find some excuse to stay indoors, to not do what I needed to do to reconnect. “I have to clean. I have to plan. I have to do laundry.” Or, even worse, “It’s too hot. It’s too bright. It’s too cold. It’s too windy. Not now, I have a headache.”

Doing Brings Healing

As my friend and I discussed his dissertation, and our mutual experiences, we realized that the problems were all interconnected. If you feel bad physically, you are off-center spiritually. If you’re disconnected emotionally, you don’t feel good physically or mentally. And on and on it goes.

But the solution is simple: Do it. Whatever it is that is holding you back, do it. No excuses. No logically reasoning. Just do it. If you’re hurting and feeling sluggish physically, go do something physical. Feeling “bleh” mentally? Challenge yourself by writing something, or solving a problem, or working on a mental task. Emotionally and socially disconnected? One of my favorite solutions is going out and doing karaoke, or going to a comedy club and laughing it up with others.

Disconnected from God? Study His Word. Listen to uplifting talks about Him. Pray. Ungrounded and disconnected from life? Get out into Nature. Touch a plant. Take photos of birds, flowers, bugs. Stare at the stars. Howl at the moon. Wave good morning to the sunrise. (In fact, this is on my mind so much recently that I wrote a blog about it a few days ago! https://spirittreefarms.com/when-natures-peace-isnt-working/ )

As my friend discovered, and as others have known for years, whatever the disconnect is, the solution, the healing, is found in doing the thing which seems so difficult. He points out that “When you stop doing things, they appear more difficult than they are, your confidence fails and you end up avoiding the thing you should be doing.”

In the opposite vein, when we start doing things, they become easier because our ability to do them increases, we gain confidence, and we end up doing the thing we should be doing.

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

In fact, as I’m writing this piece, I’m thinking I should call my friend by a new name: Doctor Do It.

Who Says What To Do?

As Dr. Do It and I discussed this, I realized something vital: While we may turn to others for help and advice in what to do and how to do it, ultimately, we have to decide, ourselves, what we are going to do.

In part, Dr. Do It gave me the inspiration for this. What I realized is that, in his gym, people come in seeking answers. They want him to tell them: “Do 50 of these, then 20 of these, then 100 of these, then repeat.” And for some people, that works.

Often, though, he works with them to help them decide and discover what THEY think they can do. And when they say they can’t do anything, then he encourages them by telling them to just do something.

Connecting With Nature Should NOT Be Just Another Bucket List Item

We have the same response when we at Spirit Tree Farms encourage people to get out into Nature, to find God and Christ’s peace in Nature. We often hear: “Oh, we don’t live out in the woods like you do. It’s too hard to get out and connect like you can.”

Someone recently told me that. My response? “Do you have a balcony? Go out and look at the sky. Do you have a front door? Step outside and feel the sun on your face. Is there a tree, a bush, a flower, a plant nearby? Maybe you even have one inside. Look at it. Examine it. Discover the wonder of that small bit of Nature.”

We hear too many people say: “Oh, I love going to the beach, to the woods, to the mountains. I love getting away from it all, and getting recharged. But I don’t do it enough.”

While bucket list trips are great, if that’s the only time we’re connecting with God and Christ in Nature, we’re missing the boat. Literally. Mother Nature is fantastic, whether on thousands of acres in Northwest Georgia, or hundreds of thousands of square miles in southern Utah, or a balcony view in Seattle, or rooftop garden in Harlem, or a small birdfeeder in Milwaukee.

After all, it’s not a contest to see how much, how big, you can experience Nature. Feeling God and Christ’s peace in Nature can be as wide as looking out over the Grand Canyon at sunset, or as small as seeing a blue wasp on a native wildflower. It can be as planned out as taking a long-awaited trip to the coast, or as spontaneous as waving at a flock of migrating geese honking wildly as they fly in their moving V over your back yard (can you tell what just happened to me?)

In much of the Northern Hemisphere right now, it’s autumn. Pick up a colored leaf, or watch it fall and float on the air, or tumble down the street. Feel the change in seasons. Smell the new scents. Taste the richness of the Earth.

Remember What Doctor Do It Says

Ok, I got sidetracked into Nature a bit. So that’s an example (Oh, look! A new type of native bee just landed on my deck railing!) No matter what it is that you’re feeling stuck with, and no matter how you feel, and no matter what your excuses are, the bottom line is to remember what my friend, Dr. Do It, says:

“Do something. Anything. Do it. And then do it some more. And then do more. And then find other things to do, and do them.”

Because, if you don’t do something, anything, you not only die.

You fail to live.

*Dr. Do It’s Dissertation can be found here: https://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqm&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:31300247

It is titled:

“PERCEPTIONS OF CROSSFIT PARTICIPANTS AGED 50-65 ABOUT HOW THEY MOTIVATE THEMSELVES TO ENGAGE IN INTENSE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY”

By MICHAEL J. VOGL, COL (Retired) US Army

Owner/Coach CrossFit Evergreen, Personal Defense Readiness Coach

University of Arizona Global Campus for DOCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY

(“Bear Down”)

Lifting Field Work From Drudgery to Nature Joy: Prose

Backstory: We take care of (earth partnership, earth stewardship) six acres of land, including woods, wildflowers, fields, and gardens, at Spirit Tree Farms in Northwest Georgia.

The other day I was out working in the field, planting chard, lettuce, and raking in wildflower seeds into a large area we’d burned a few days before. Sweating, I looked up at the sky and caught myself resenting the work I HAD to do. I noticed that I was feeling down in my soul.

Just then, several birds flew overhead. As they called out in a Springtime serenade, I felt my heart lift, and my soul rejoice. I continued what I was doing, but it was no longer with sadness or resentment, but with a glad and joyful heart.

Why is it that we can do the exact same thing, especially working out on the land, and it can either be a task or chore of druudgery, or something we do with joy and gladness? What is it that leaves us feeling uplifted and strengthened? What is it that makes the change?

As I thought about it, out in the field, I realized that the mere act of THINKING about what I was doing, and changing my mind about how I felt about my field work, helped me feel better about the tasks I was doing out in Nature.

Even more importantly, as I pondered about it, I had to ask myself: “Why am I doing this?” When I decided that I was doing what Heavenly Father — often — has asked me to do (partner with the land, heal the Earth), they my soul was uplifted. In fact, it was the birds flying overhead that reminded me that I was in partnership with them, and with all of Natiure. And whjen you feel like you’re part of something bigger and more significant, that you’re helping and serving the Earth and everything on it, that you’re working to heal the Land, then it is easier to feel joy in what you are doing.

Of course, that means you do have to ASK Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ — the Creator — WHAT they want you to do. What part are you to play in Earth partnership? They are the great biologists, the perfect gardeners. In The Book of Mormon, the prophet Amulek said: “Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them.” (Alma 34:24). But I think it’s even more than your crops prospering. It’s YOU prospering in the crops of your fields, learning, growing with them, connecting. Even if what the Creator tells you to do doesn’t work out the way you think it should, you will learn from it and grow and change.

Most of all, you’ll feel connected with the Earth. You’ll feel part of a greater whole. And that connection lets you #FindNatureJoy in ways that will keep you doing what you need to do, what you should be doing, in ways that will support you and bring you joy.

Finding Nature Joy

As the birds soared and circled and called out to me as I begrugingly worked in the field that Spring day, I felt connected to them, and to what I was husbanding, planting, and tending in the field. I felt connected to the sun, the clouds, the breeze, the dirt. Smiling, I turned my face upward and waved at the birds. Then, weeping, I waved at them, thanked them out loud “THANK YOU!” for their song and their visit, and plunged my hands deep into the ground.

ANd felt connected to the Creator, to the Earth, to Nature, to all of Creation. Because I was a part of it.

Youth Sunday School Teacher Apology Letter

Backstory: My wife and I teach Sunday School to 12-17 year-old youth at the Chattanooga Valley Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Flintstone, Georgia, twice a month. This year, our study is on the Book of Mormon.

The first class was to be a discussion of what the Book of Mormon is, how it was written originally, how it came to be in our time, how it was translated, and how it is a second witness, along with the Bible, to the divinity of Jesus Christ. Normally, we engage students in give-and-take discussions, where we learn as much (or more) than they do. However, there was so much history to get through, and such limited time, that I basically took control of the discussion and “firehose taught” the lesson.

Afterwards, my wife told me that she’d never seen me “teach” that way before, and she didn’t like it. One of the students said “Well, he’s showing that he knows more than we do,” and another said that I was, sometimes, rude. In response, I wrote this email of apology to the parents of the students, as well as to the leaders of the congregation. Lesson learned (I hope) —

“In today’s youth Sunday school lesson about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, I departed from my usual Socratic, discussion-oriented teaching style. In an effort to get through a lot of material very quickly, I used a very aggressive question and answer style that negated a lot of discussion and a lot of testimony. In an effort to discuss the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the history of the Book of Mormon, and a way that the youth could summarize what the Book of Mormon was, how it came about, and how it related to particular points in history, I basically steamrolled any discussion.

In an effort to express my fervent testimony and belief that the Book of Mormon is divinely inspired and that it is a second witness of the Divinity of Jesus Christ, I cut off any discussions or expressions of testimony from the youth.

As a result, the class members, your children, may feel compromised, negated, hurt, and not validated. This is certainly not my intention. I admire the youth in our class, and think they’re easily the finest and most well thought out class I’ve ever taught. But I’m certain it didn’t come across like that.

I apologize for being offensive, I apologize for any feelings that I may have hurt. Please be aware that your children and those you may be responsible for may not like what happened in class today. If this is the case, I would welcome the opportunity to speak with them and you and to offer my sincere apologies.

The Book of Mormon is the Word of God. Jesus Christ is the Savior. His Church has been restored on the Earth. But my enthusiasm for those truths should never trample the great commandment of loving my neighbor, and not offending the children.

Again, I’m deeply sorry.
David Kuhns”

Facing Insurmountable Tasks Advice — Partnering With Nature: Prose

Recently, I read a post in a Native Habitat social media group. The person asked the group what they should do about their recently-purchased three acre property that was disorganized and overrun with non-native, invasive species, some so thick as to make walking through the property nearly impossible.With some passion and frustration, they explained that they didn’t know where to start or what to do. Almost to the point of despair, they said they were worried because there were non-native vines all over the trees, not only strangling them but threatening to collapse the larger branches, as well as creating a dense shadow on the forest floor where nothing could grow. They specifically asked what poisons and herbicides to apply, and how to apply them, to control these troublesome invaders.

As you can imagine, there were many answers, ranging from the drastic to the thoughtful. Interestingly, most suggested the property owners focus on assessment and inventory.
Suggestions included:
*Get a plant app (such as PlantNet), and go through the property, identifying and labeling all the plants
*Make a calendar and a schedule, going through each section at a time to clear out invasives and control what is wantedSome were more drastic, including:
*Do a controlled undergrowth burn, protecting the big trees, and see what grows back

*Chop away everything invasive, and apply deep-acting herbicides to the roots

As I read these responses, I thought of our own experience at our six-acre Spirit Tree Farms in Catoosa County, Northwest Georgia. I realized that the original post exhibited the same fears and frustrations I’d felt when I first purchased the property:

I didn’t know what was invasive, non-native, and undesirable, compared to what was native and welcome
It was such a large task, I was overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start
I was afraid to make a mistake

Lessons Learned From Partnering With Nature

It was then I understood the lessons I’d learned from listening to and working with Nature as a partner. This was the advice I gave:

Listen to the land. Many people think we have to use our own wisdom and knowledge to “Save the Earth”. The reality is, Mother Earth knows what she needs. Nature understands, even on a small scale, the actions we as partners should take. When partnering with Nature, work with the land.
Know what you want to do — in an overarching way. The original poster wanted a property filled with native trees, bushes, wildflowers, and other plants. Others might want a giant play area for their kids and grandkids. Some might want a food production focus, to be self sustaining. Still others might want a food plot for deer, rabbits, and game birds. At Spirit Tree Farms, we want walkable areas where we can teach and model partnering with Nature, along with Nature observation and creativity. These are all valid uses of the land, but they all require different solutions.
Do something. Do anything. Yes, making an inventory, designing an overarching plan, creating a calendar, are all vital — but they will not do anything to change the land or fix the problems. A favorite quote from my youth states: “The song I came to sing remains unsung. I spent my life stringing and unstringing my instrument.”
UPDATE: As I’m editing these piece some months later, I’ll add this thought: Do research sooner rather than later. I FINALLY got my soil tested (University of Georgia County Extension program). Turns out that I’d planted the blueberry bushes and ginseng roots in completely the wrong place. (The soil pH is way off). In other words, partnering with Nature means being smart, too!

I suggested that they pick one thing to do, and start doing that for a set time each day. I suggested the land owner start with spending an hour each morning and an hour each evening (during the cooler part of the day), and focus on one task. I pointed out that, if they didn’t have that much time on some days, even 15 minutes daily would bring a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

I pointed out that, in the original post, they seemed especially concerned about the invasive vines which were strangling the native trees. I suggested they go out with a small saw or a pair of pruning loppers and spend their time cutting and killing the vines at the base of the trees. I reminded them that they didn’t need to pull the vines off the trees just yet; killing them would (a) begin to solve the problem and (b) make it easier to pull them off later on. The key was to do something, and to focus on the highest priority, or their greatest concern.

Pulling Privet Parable

In my own experience, I listened to the land and discovered that a highly-invasive non-native plant, Chinese privet, was creating a mono-culture where nothing else could grow. Not only were these plants rapidly spreading, but they shaded out the sunshine, took up all the soil nutrients and water, and their roots and leaves distributed poison which prevented the growth of native plants.By listening to the land, I became “a man on a mission”. I would go out every day and pull up or cut down privet. Some of these bushes were as large around as my thigh, and would grow back shoots and runners even after I’d cut the main trunk. But I’d learned that applying herbicides to the trunk would potentially ooze through the roots, killing desirable plants around the privet. Instead, I kept cutting off the shoots, and eventually the entire privet system would die and rot to the point that I could use my angle-handled Fiskar shovel and leverage out the rootball.

I also learned to take advantage of what Mother Earth provided. Many people won’t go out and work on the land after a hard rain. “It’s too wet, it’s too muddy, it’s too gooey” they argue. Fortunately, I lived for 25 years in the Seattle area, where if you don’t work outside when it rains, you don’t work outside.

What I discovered is that, after a hard rain, small- and medium-sized privet plants — because of their shallow root system — came out quickly and easily with a firm tug. In fact, I now relish the rain, because I learned that I can pull out about ten times more privet and other invasive species when the ground is wet than when it is dry.

I explained to the original poster that, by listening to the land, and by working on what concerned them the most, they would probably learn lessons and get unexpected benefits as well. For example, after cleaning out a space of over 100 yards x 10 feet deep of privet lining my rural driveway — a giant monoculture — by the next year, more than 27 different native trees, shrubs, wildflowers and other plants sprang up in place of the privet. These native and beneficial species were there the entire time, but the privet was crowding them out.

This was such an impactful lesson to us that my wife used it as part of a presentation on Finding Peace in Nature. You can watch her first presentation about it here. It was received so enthusiastically that she expanded the concept, creating a book, journal, and training on it. Explore that here: SpiritTreeFarms.com/Peace. It focuses on how we as humans should put aside our hubris and vanity in trying to “fix Mother Earth”, and instead listen to her as she explains to us not only what she needs, but what we need and can learn from her.

Partnering With Nature Needs Organization

This privet parable had such a deep influence in my life that now, when I go out to work on what I feel I should do on the property (yes, I pray about what I should do, what would be most beneficial to myself AND the land), I take a notebook (or my phone) along. When I get the thought to “plant / transplant something here” or “trim this /remove that from there” or even “burn this section of field”, I take notes.

I explained to the landowner that one of the most beneficial suggestions I’d received was from my wife, who is very organized. She noticed I was getting a huge list of things to do, but — other than the privet — wasn’t getting much done. She created a spreadsheet, and had me populate it with tasks, including the what, where, when and how (and, sometimes, when I need motivation, a note on “why”.) Now, when I’m inspired to do a task, I not only start working on it, but I put it into the spreadsheet, so the inspiration becomes captured and actionable.Ultimately, the lessons I’m learning from this experience at Spirit Tree Farms are:
*Listen to Nature and The Creator
*Do something / ANYTHING
*Capture
*Review
*Continue to listen
*Be inspired
*Learn

Many of these thoughts and lessons are captured on only in SpiritTreeFarms.com/Peace, but in other writings on NaturesGuy.com, CreationGirl.com, and my creative blog, CyranoWriter.com

When nature observation becomes more than forest bathing -- learning from wildflower wandering how be tap into creativity

Why Say What You Are? Non-Boxing Advice: Revolutionary Blogging Prose

“I’m a single.”
Or
“I’m single.”
I hear it so often,
it makes me want to
cry.

Why say what you are?
Or what you think you are?
Unless you say
“I am a child of God.”
“I am a son of God.”
“I am a daughter of Heavenly Father.”

“I am a single”
is a statement
about your state of life.
It is
WHERE
you are,
not WHO
or WHAT
you are.

That statement
brings so many
other statements,
judgements,
traits,
emotions.
Most of them
are not WHO
or WHAT
I am.

Isn’t it more accurate
to state:
“I am IN
the single phase
of my life”?

That allows us
possibilities.
That lets us
NOT be put in a box.

There is nothing wrong
with being in
the single phase
of life.
But it may not be
where we are
permanently.

And it is not
who we are
completely.

Because we are
so much more
than single.