“Don’t rest on your laurels, for they could be poison ivy”. Greg “Spanky” Ellison (Famous poet? No, my 6th grade basketball coach)
Housekeeping
I managed to get all the previous Gut Pilot posts into an archive, but work needs to be done with titling and transferring links inside the pages.
So why the photo of John Legend? He popped up after I queried Microsoft’s Copilot (Bing AI app) to come up with a blend between Neil Diamond and Tommy Tutone, the markers laid down last week for success or failure in creating a Gut Pilot “Greatest Hits” archive. I’m not sold on John Legend as an in-between.
Based on my fledgling technology skills, I’m feeling like Neil Diamond so far. Check out the archive link and let me know what you think. You can vote here.
Gut Health and Complacency
Rich Gasaway is a consultant from Saint Paul, Minnesota and he has a block of instruction titled Situational Awareness Matters. I highly recommend this read in general but it has some especially applicable connections to what I’ve learned on my gut health journey and what I’ve observed from people I’ve helped along the way.
Essentially, Rich sums up complacency as a barrier to situational awareness. Being aware of our environment and paying attention to what’s going on around us keeps us “on guard”. Complacency is an easy way of letting our guard down.
Complacency
I would typically drop a Merriam-Webster definition right here but I’m going to use a couple of photos to recreate one of the clearest examples of complacency and letting one’s guard down.
I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for two years while serving in the Army. My parents made the roughly 3087-mile trek to visit us. Interior Alaska is not the most picturesque part of Alaska, but it is home to some of the best “Northern Lights” viewing, the World Ice Carving Championships, and most importantly it was home to their two grandsons.
This picture was taken atop a plateau outside of Fairbanks with a magnificent view of Denali, formerly named Mt. McKinley. The highest mountain peak in North America can be seen from Fairbanks, some 150 miles away. As my Dad said, “That’s a pretty big hill”.
What could go wrong?
We piled six people into our 5-passenger 1997 Toyota 4Runner on a bright sunny morning for a quick 10-minute drive outside of town. How did we get six people into a 5-passenger SUV? Well of course we took out the emergency kit bag from the cargo area so my Dad could squeeze in.
The emergency kit bag, which included blankets, food, and a small shovel was left in a corner of our heated garage while we went for a quick photo.
If you sense some foreshadowing here, you might be right.
When we reached the base of the plateau, I made everyone exit so I could drive up to check the passability of the trail at the top. I briefly had the requisite situational awareness to ensure all six of us didn’t get stranded, should the snow be too deep.
The snowpack was about two feet on the trail, but quickly rose to about 3 feet of powder off the trail. This reconnaissance method works if you traverse the route, and then duplicate the route exactly when you retrace back down the mountain.
We loaded up, climbed the short ascent, and took some amazing pictures. The below-zero temps encouraged a shorter stay so we piled back inside to make the journey down the mountain to head home.
As if Rich Gasaway was whispering in my ear “Complacency will be the architecture of your downfall”, I proceeded to make a large, lazy left turn, leaving the snowpack I reconned just a few minutes earlier.
And after a soft “thud”, there was a deafening silence.
My 4Runner sunk in three feet of powder snow… all the way up to the axles!
The snow was so high that my door was pinned shut. I had to exit “Dukes of Hazzard” style- through the driver’s window.
Since my emergency kit was safe and sound in my heated garage 10 minutes away, I had to dig my way out of the snow.
With an ice scraper!
By myself!
Because my Dad was dressed in walking orthopedic shoes with gabardine action slacks!
One last indictment from Rich to sum this thought up:
“In general, the more experience you get the better you become at your work. Your knowledge increases, your skills improve and your abilities become advanced. When you are on guard, your situational awareness also improves because experience helps you know what clues and cues are important. Experience helps you efficiently sort through volumes of information and identify the most important things you need to know for good decision making.”
Complacency and the Gut Health Connection
If we just imagine the last quote in terms of gut health, the more experience we get at eating, exercising, sleeping, and managing stress, the more we improve. This allows us to graduate from beginners to advanced gut pilots.
I can say with conviction in my own case as well as every person I’ve helped, gains have been made with gut health modifications. But the gains are directly proportional to how well we apply what we learn, and how well we guard against complacency.
Knowing what to do and how to do it is only half of the equation. The kicker is you have to do it.
I’m not referring to the occasional misstep or intentional deviation from “the plan”, say to enjoy the company of others, or “eat that birthday cake”.
Moments like that need to be celebrated and life needs to be enjoyed, free from kefir and chia seeds. (can't believe I just said that)
But in the sword fight we call gut health, there is a difference between dropping your guard or “flinching” and holstering your sword. The former I compare to getting comfortable and the latter is outright complacency.
Gut health is about striving for consistency and defending against complacency.
Next Week
Technology can be both a blessing and a curse. I’ll share some of the ways I tap inexpensive and often free technology to help in the gut health fight.
Thanks for reading,
Jeff
