Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Happy New Year, New Achievements, New Adventures, New Friends, New Goals, New Milestones

Happy New Year! I hope all of you have some fun things planned for New Year’s Eve! We are finally wrapping up 2018 and it feels good to start again. This last year was terrific for me and I look forward to a better 2019 with the new skills and habits I developed this year.

Here we are folks! It is that time to put up or shut up. Below you’ll find my yearly goals for 2019. You’ll notice that some of these goals are merely prescriptions for daily activities. The reason I utilize this format is because many of my achievements in one area or another are the result of daily rituals that I have found to be quite effective. My primary areas of progress are broken down in to the four dimensions of life I believe are relevant. What I’ll be doing on top of this is mapping out specific SMART goals wrapped into 90-day or quarterly windows. I’ll be posting this early next week as I continue to work through the mapping process from the below blueprint/plan to specific accomplishments.

Physical

• Workout 6 days each week (other than vacation days) with 1 rest day.
• Workouts will be full-body weights and a session of cardio
• Concentrate intake on protein macros
• Take Vitamins Daily
• Increase strength gains in each major exercise by 20% by year’s end
• Increase cardio capability to 60 minutes on Elliptical by year’s end
• Reduce body fat% by 10% by year’s end
• Increase Muscle Mass by 10 pounds by year’s end

Mental

• Read 48 books in 2019 (4 books per month – 1 spiritual book, 1 fiction book and 2 non-fiction books).
• Complete Web Dev Path on Codecademy
• Learn Visual Code IDE
• Complete 2nd draft of book
• Continue with current Blog Posting Schedule
• Begin working on Non-fiction Book (initial rough draft by year’s end)

Social

• Achieve 1000 followers by years’ end (currently at 481)
• Vacation in June
• Do my work at a coffee shop once a week (day off from gym – Sunday)
• Visit a library once per week, read work, whatever
• Find something fun to do in my area once per quarter
• Meet someone new each time I visit the library and coffee shop and strike up a conversation
• Build network on Codecademy’s #Slack Channel

Spiritual

• Read Bible Daily
• Spiritual Exercises daily
• Continue Book discussion in Croswell, MI
• Attend Regional Seminar and HI Retreat
• Continue Spiritual Discourse Work
• Continue to work through my 12-character trait development program

I wish all of you a great time at the New Year’s Eve parties you will be attending. I wish each of you great adventure, peace, happiness, success, and love for the upcoming year. Keep pushing toward your goals. You are the only one that can.

Here’s to a great New Year!!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

Tags

Assessment, Balance, Goal Setting, New Year, Planning, Review, Well-roundedness

Over the next few days I’m going to be reviewing 2018. I’m also going to be formulating what I want to do with my 2019. If you’ve never done this kind of exercise, I’d highly recommend it. The first challenge I ran across when I began my annual habit of re-reading good books I’ve found, was what areas to focus on?

Here are the areas I use to formulate a New Year:

Physical

• Diet Goals
• Weight-loss goals
• Exercise Goals
• Nutrition Goals

Mental

• What do I want to learn?
• How many books do I want to read?
• What podcasts do I want to watch/stop watching?
• What courses do I want to take?

Spiritual

• What spiritual practices do I want to continue?
• What do I want to do to contribute to my fellow man?
• What kindness can I spread to the world?
• What types of spiritual questions do I want to pursue an answer to?
• What spiritual books and courses do I want to take?

Social

• Where can I go to meet new people (physically)?
• Where can I go to meet new people (virtually)?
• What activities can I do to engage with people?
• How can I improve or maintain current relationships?
• How can I gain more followers to my blog?

These are just some thoughts you may be able to think about for your own review and goal setting. I like to work through exercises like this because they help me to capture what really worked previously, what didn’t work, and what I can do to keep moving forward in my life. I think the most important aspect of this exercise, along with others, that bring some semblance of order and meaning to my life.

We all want to wake up energized and anxious to get to work. As a retiree, this has become a really important thing for me. I want my retired life to be profitable, meaningful, contributing, and fulfilling. These things represent different things to different people. I would challenge you to really assess what you value. What you want to achieve. What you want to do with yourself in the next year.

As promised, I’ll be posting my finalized plan for 2019 on the 31^st of December. This was a good year. Next year will be better because I’ve built a solid foundation of writing, exercise, spiritual pursuits, and social activities. This year will be better because I am better. I have learned a great deal over the last year and look forward to begin applying all I have learned/re-learned.

I hope all of you have a terrific New Year’s Day! Take some time over the next few days and really think about all of your experiences in the last year. What did you learn? What do you want to apply to your future?

I’m excited to begin the new year and begin executing all of the things I am contemplating. I hope you have some time to figure out what you want and institute a plan that will bring all of your goals to fruition.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Funny Friday

Tags

Funny, Giggle, Hilarious, Joke, Laughter, Oscar Wilde, Smile

“Men always want to be a woman’s first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about these things. What (women) like is to be a man’s last romance.”― Oscar Wilde

Enjoy your Friday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thinking Thursday

Tags

End of Year, Goal Setting, Mental, Physical, Social, Spiritual

I am really enjoying the holidays!

We had a nice post-Christmas day yesterday. We had leftovers, sat around our Christmas Tree to talk about various topics, and got to watch a good movie as a family last night. We watched Infinity War and it lived up to all the hype that surrounded it when it hit theaters.

If you’re a Marvel fan and missed out on this film when it was at the movie theaters, it was just released on Netflix. It is a long movie (about 2 hours) but is really good. I won’t provide any spoilers so you’ll have to watch it.

The remainder of this week I’ll be doing my annual readings of Getting Things Done, Mini-habits, and the 7 habits. I am reading The One Thing currently, along with a fiction book called 2136.

My exercise routine will be on hold until the New Year. I’ve been going at it hard and want to give my body a little breather as we approach the New Year. Then it’s off to the races!

I’m also working on my goals for the New Year. I’ll post these on New Year’s Eve. My goals will revolve around the spiritual dimension, physical dimension, mental dimension, and social dimension. One area I am seriously lacking is the social dimension. Since retirement and moving back to Michigan, my social network (besides the virtual one) have been seriously deteriorated. This year will be a focus of getting out there. I’m contemplating doing a lot of my writing at local coffee shops to just get out there and meet and interact with people. More on this later.

Well, that’s it for today, folks!

Until next time,

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Post Christmas

Tags

Christmas, Contentment, Enjoyment, family, Friends, Joy, Love, Planning, reflection

Well, the family has gone home! It was a great two days, hanging out with my sister and her boyfriend. It was nice opening presents. It was awesome watching some movie favorites, like Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I enjoyed the holiday season this year because it was so great to revisit Phoenix and reconnect with friends and family there. It was also nice to come home and enjoy family, my Mom’s roast duck and all of the goodies I enjoy eating during the holidays.

Now it’s time to continue the celebration as we approach the New Year. This week, like the previous week will result in altered postings because I want to focus on the holidays and worry about the schedule again at the commencement of 2019.

I hope all of you had a great time with your families and friends and are looking to create the best year yet in 2019. I hope all of you have a safe and joyous New Year’s celebration.

All the best to you and your families during this precious time of the year.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Merry Christmas!

Tags

Board Games, Christmas, Christmas Eve, family, Friends, Good Food, Laughter, Relaxation

I’ll forego my typical Motivation Monday posting to wish all of you a Merry Christmas! My sister and her boyfriend are on the way, Mom is in the kitchen preparing the meal, and Dad is reading the paper in his favorite rocking chair.

The family dog is where she always is, relaxing at the foot of my desk as I compose this posting.

As a retired veteran, I would be remiss if I forgot to wish all the men and women of our Armed Forces a Merry Christmas too! I was separated from family many times throughout my career and it was nice to hear from folks back home, wishing me well. One year, a judge from my hometown wrote me a letter, explaining that he had served in the Korean War and missed quite a few Christmas holidays with his family. His letter meant a lot to me, particularly since I was reading it from a guard post on Christmas Eve at the now-disassembled Spandau Prison in W. Berlin, guarding Rudolph Hess, one of the last minions of Hitler’s inner circle.

I also want to wish our first-responders a Merry Christmas. Many of them will be working tonight, while we are sleeping, to keep us safe. I hope all of you have a quiet night and get home safe and sound to celebrate the day with your families.

I hope all of you have the time to think about 2018 and all of the great things you’ve accomplished. I also hope you take some time to begin thinking about all of the great things that lay ahead for you in 2019.

Use this time to enjoy your families, your pets, and your friends. Recharge your batteries and get ready for a great year!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Series Sunday – Character Traits

Tags

Benjamin Franklin, Character, Contentment, Mindfulness, satisfaction, Sunday Series, Traits

January 2018’s character trait will be contentment. I am striving to be more mindful, concentrating my thoughts and efforts on the present, rather than brooding over the past or worrying about the future.

As mentioned before, I am still working on discrimination, tolerance, and forgiveness. Each month I add a desirable character trait to work on, much like Benjamin Franklin did in his day.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

Tags

Learning, Limitations, Potential, Roy T. Bennett, Setting Goals, Taking action, Your Skill Set

“Believe in your infinite potential. Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself.”―Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

All of us have innate talents that we are blessed with. Some folks are good with music. Some folks are good at writing. Some folks are good at mechanics. Some folks are good with learning new things.

Each of us has a unique skill set that we are blessed with. Each of us has a unique place in the world, fulfilling some role we were put here to accomplish. Some are meant to be mothers and fathers. Some are meant to be captains of industry. Some are meant to explain the world to others. Some are meant to spread the word of God.

Regardless of your calling, use these talents. They are yours. We all have that special something that makes us unique in the world. We gravitate towards the things we are good at and are meant to use in this lifetime.

Today, take a moment to contemplate what you like doing. Take a moment to evaluate your skill set. How can you use these tools to be the best you?

It is so easy to make excuses. It is so easy to think you are not good enough. It is so easy to procrastinate.

If you’ve always wanted to do something, do it. Do that thing. Even if you just take a moment to do a little towards mastery, you’ll be doing more than you are doing now. Think about where you want to be and set a goal to get there. You may pursue that goal your whole life. The key is in the doing. Get out there. Do something, anything to move the needle forward.

You want to learn a new language? Get a language app and start working through these things. You want to learn a new technology? Find online educational resources or tutorials and begin learning that new technology.

Whatever you want to learn or develop is available to you on YouTube, numerous online schools, and websites that hold the secrets to mastering what you are striving for?

Keep your goals in mind daily. Keep visualizing what your life will be like when you attain your new goal. Keep moving forward. Take a step each day. You can’t fail if you keep moving forward to your finish line. You can only fail if you fail to act.

Each of us possesses God-given talents and skills. God has also given us the ability to learn, imagine, create, and make decisions. Use your talents and get moving. Stop wasting time dreaming about doing the things you want to do and DO THEM! You are the only obstacle. No one is out to get you. No one is out to stop you. Only you can stop you.

Imagine a life where you a pursuing your goals, attaining your objectives, doing that new thing. Imagine how you can inspire others with your example. Be the light for others. Demonstrate to other people that anything is possible. You’ll be amazed at the results.

As we approach the new year, take some time to really figure out what you want to do with yourself. Imagine what you would do if there were no obstacles. Imagine what you could do if there were no barriers. That is what a well-lived life is made of.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Funny Friday

Tags

Funny, Getting Ready for 2019, Giggle, Happy, Holidays, Laughter, Shopping

“Once I pulled a job, I was so stupid. I picked a guy’s pocket on an airplane and made a run for it.” ― Rodney Dangerfield

You have to love Rodney Dangerfield’s self-deprecation. He made a lot of money poking at himself. I really enjoy a lot of his stand-up routines.

I finished my Christmas shopping today. If you’re still hitting the shops, stores, and malls, be careful out there if you are in the U.S. We are getting crazy weather all over, particularly the East Coast. The closer we get to Christmas, the crazier the traffic and the stores get. Be safe, take your time, and pay attention.

I’ll be keeping my blogging schedule up through the holidays. Now that I have finished the big trip of the year, the rest of 2018 is a downhill slide. I hope this brought a little joy to your day. Enjoy your holidays, enjoy your family and friends. Now’s the time to take account of your life and begin looking at 2019. Keep an eye out for my goals for the next year.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thank you!!

Tags

22 away, Appreciation, Comments, New Followers, Referrals, Thank you

A hearty “Thank you!” to all of my new followers over the last few weeks. I am only 22 followers away from my goal of 500. If any of you know someone that would be open to following Daily Ramblings, send them my way.

For those of you who are new. Here is my weekly posting schedule:

• Motivation Monday
• Ted Talk Tuesday
• Wisdom Wednesday
• Thinking Thursday
• Funny Friday
• Spiritual Saturday
• Series Sunday (typically once a month as I am now working on one new character trait each month for the next year)

Thank you so much for the follow and the comments I have received. I really appreciate it.

Happy Blogging!

Dave