Be tougher and live longer

If you follow this blog at all, I've probably bored you to tears with nonsense about class totals, and promotion dates. This one isn't about that stuff at all.

It is about motivations for figuring out stuff like that in such ridiculous detail.

Here's the boring part. My current figgering has me reaching Brown Belt rank at age 64, or if I intervene with a number of interesting strategies, it can be reduced to 63.

It's actually even a better improvement than one year. The original outcome age of 64 is based on absolutely perfect attendance, with no system in place to handle illnesses or injuries, nor even with an understanding that such absences needed to be corrected. The corrected plan tells me know that I would have to make up missed classes.

Missing a single class per month would add on 4 months to the whole thing, missing two increases that to 8, and so on. A more realistic completion age would have it ending with me aged 65, or more.

But why bother knowing this at all?

My challenge is really pretty trivial; to get as far along as I can, as fast as I can.

I bring creativity to this little challenge; determination, optimism, and a willingness to reach out to others for help.

Did you know that there are traits that make you better at handling the hardships of life? These are physical resilience, mental (which includes willpower), emotional, and social. There are studies that show that people who regularly stimulate these resiliences not only handle life's challenges better, but that boosting these four traits significantly increases lifespan. They can all be improved with use, and the more you do it, the better the improvement.

What does my plan have to do will all that?

I will be physically training significantly more in a shorter time than I would have without it. This will greatly boost my physical resilience. Doing the calculations, and then following through over a period best measured in years will boost my mental resilience. Will I enjoy having goals, and then experiencing the positive feelings of reward at every milestone and thus boosting my emotional resilience? You betcha. I will even be working more with friends and instructors to accomplish those milestones, thus boosting my social resilience.

So let's just say I get to my Brown Belt at the earlier date. I will also be more durable in all four resilience categories, and will have statistically added a little bit to my life span.

Let's also say that I didn't calculate any of this at all, and yet still manage to get a Brown Belt at the later date. I will not have done less to increase my resilience in any category, and will have had no chance to add to my life span.

Which route would you pick?