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The beach, Thanksgiving weekend.

I've been thinking about direction and focus lately. This year has been a particularly interesting one. In many ways I can't wait for it to be over, but then reality slaps me in the face because WAIT! You have projects due in January! You can't make the days go faster or you'll never make deadline!

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One day at a time.

I went back to this post to see if I had made, and kept, any resolutions, and it appears I have. For trying something (almost) new, I attempted detestable bobbles on one project, and for improving on the old, I did some lo-fi cable technique on St Léger. Cables on a single-color background are easy-peasy, but cables on a striped, 3-color background in the round are absolutely FUN, not the least bit complicated, and I highly recommend that you try it for yourself. As for detestable bobbles, it popped up in my radar from the mental list of knitterly things I'd like to try. (Process knitter that I am.) So now that I was successful with this year's resolutions, I need to come up with another non-committal one for next year! Steeks, perhaps?

Anyway, on to reading material!

The first two books, Nerve by Taylor Clark and Extreme Fear by Jeff Wise, are related to each other. In both, the authors discuss the amygdala, that portion of the brain that governs the fear response. They cited many examples, even the same ones, most of them having to do with flight, wild animals, and nuclear destruction. All really interesting stuff (really, it *is* interesting), but the passages that drew me in where the ones about sport. It's fairly common knowledge that mental training is as important as physical training in any sport and at any level, but particularly for professional athletes and Olympians. The books examined the mental games of ball player Larry Bird (here's a snippet from the book) and speed skater Dan Jansen, among others, and how they and other athletes pushed (or failed to push) through the mental barrier. However, whereas Nerve and Extreme Fear just examined causes and examples, the last book offered solutions.

Lanny Bassham's With Winning In Mind is all about sport psychology; the name says it all. While I am neither an Olympian nor a pro climber, I think the techniques discussed in the book are highly relevant because they are all about overcoming mental barriers that keep people from succeeding in competitions physical and otherwise. (The otherwise part applies to every aspect of life, really. I mean, Lamaze breathing technique is all about calming the expectant mother and reducing panic, right?) What got me reading this book was my fear of falling: years ago I fell 20 feet from a route (the average 2-story building), and while I'm still climbing, that fear has never really left me. Routines and repetition are all good, yes, and I've been able to break through my fear to redpoint some f*cking hard routes. But once in a while the fear comes back, and that's where Bassham's book comes in handy. I highly recommend this to anyone who's hit a mental or physical wall.

Happy Monday!