Often times, I discuss the world with people (well, I USED to I should say, but whatever).

And countries in general.

Comparing countries and how they stack up. Politics. What is going on. And so forth.

And of course, the actual nitty gritties of LIFE in the countries.

And I don’t mean life as you see in those places in the movies. Or everyday life.

Or, the “touristy” stuff.

It’s amazing, but people still go on tours of Europe and other such vastly diverse places in a tour bus and expect to cover everything in the itenary in a trifling 10 days or so (or whatever the length of the tour is).

And of course, if we’re talking Asians (and specifically Indians and Chinese), for whatever reason they start to “miss home” as soon as they set foot abroad on foreign shores, even if that’s through the window of a tour bus.

Oh boy. IF there is anything more stupid than wanting (for example) Chinese food when you go to visit various parts of the USA to the point you’re not willing to try real American food, I’m yet to hear it.

Or, the Indians that jump up and down about “where is my curry” when they travel abroad.

Or, those that travel to the Himalayas in India, one of my FAVORITE Places to travel and visit in this world (there may be others, hehe) and never set foot outside the car.

Gorging on food all the time and getting FATTER and more miserable all the time, and then complaining about “I didn’t lose any weight on them hills”.

Yeah. Sure you didn’t!

Anyway, where was I?

Ah yes . . .

Personally, for me, if I travel someplace, I like to visit ONE place. And do so in detail.

Not for me the running around from one place to the other as we once did in China a few years back, a trip that was great fun, but a trip that with all the driving involved (and there is more to this story! Which I won’t share here, hehe?) was anything BUT fun sometimes. Often times, I’d just want to go back to the hotel, get a beer, and CRASH!

Anyway . . .

Point being this.

When you VISIT a country, you see what is “outside”. Or what the tour guides show you.

But when you actually LIVE in that country, and actually get to know the customs, the languages, and the nitty gritties of the country, then that is quite another experience.

For instance, the Chinese often mark my packages as delivered when they’re not. Apparently that’s “become the thing to do” for most delivery companies to avoid being penalized for late deliveries, at least in mainland China.

And to me, this is utterly unacceptable.

Not so to the cHinese, and to people in general who stare at me incredulously and gape like a fish out of water when I rant on about just how UNPROFESSIONAL it is.

Anyway, I’m here to tell you something that might sound a bit surprising given my recent posts.

China, all in all, isn’t really that bad of a place to live in overall – IF you toe their line, of course.

But take away the Commie part, and even then, for a third world country (and lets face it, that’s what China is for the most part even now beneath the gloss and glitter), it’s a pretty decent place to live actually.

It doesn’t have many of the issues associated with most third world countries (not any more at least) . . .

Of course, the reasons for that are the land grabs and the resources and other things they steal and so forth. Everything comes at a price.

But still . . .

Is China PERFECT?

Hell no.

But a lot of people think it’s like a slightly nicer version of Sudan or Ethiopia for instance on the grand scale of things.

Not so my friend.

And I KNOW, because . . . well, I didn’t just visit. I put down roots there, hehe.

Anyway . . . how does this apply to fitness you might ask?

Simple.

Just READING about fitness ain’t gonna get it one.

You can TALK about doing pull-ups like Bourne all you want, but until you actually get down to doing them, you’ll get nowhere (and indeed, just talk might HURT your chances of actually getting better at them more than you think!).

And so forth.

Climbing hills is great, but you have to literally FEEL how it feels on your fourth climb out there in the blazing sun to be considered a true IRONMAN, for one.

And so on and so forth.

Get past the gloss and glitter my friend.

Start DOING – today.

Not only will you make a better YOU by doing this – but you’ll make the WORLD a far better place too!

And that’s that for now. Back soon!

Best,

Rahul Mookerjee

PS – I just received the following email from a potential translator for one of my books (Fitness PIONEER) –

“Hi, Rahul! I'd like to translate your book, I find it really interesting and different from others related to fitness, it's not only about the body but our attitude. I'm overweighed and I know how it feels, haha. Hope to hear from you. Thanks. P.S: I speak latin american Spanish.”

Did he have it right? Me thinks so, amigo! Hehe.