Daily Ramblings – Weekly Review – Do Nothing Days – President’s Day

Tags

Weekly Review, Review, Do Nothing Days, President's Day, Catch Up, Gauge, Plan, Track

Hello, readers. I wanted to reach out to you today to discuss giving yourself a down day during your week. A down day allows you to contemplate what you’ve done, assess your progress toward your goals, and let you relax and enjoy quiet time with yourself. I use Sunday as my “do nothing day”.

Do Nothing Days and The Weekly Review

Having a day during the week where I can choose what I want to do is a great way to give my mind a break, have fun, and get caught up on things that required my attention during the week but fell to the wayside. It is also the day I do my laundry, clean up my office, and organize for the upcoming week.

There are daily habits I do not miss. I always meditate, read, write, and exercise. I also take time to spend on one of my classes I am taking to keep the brain engaged. The habits I stick to on Sundays are my critical to-dos I want to continue to build as strong habits.

The other thing I do is what I call a “weekly review”. This is a practice of taking stock of what I have done, where I am regarding my goals, and making a note of anything I must do in the upcoming week is not already in my planner. If you have not done a weekly review before or don’t know what it is, I recommend a book by David Allen called Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity. In this book, David describes best-practices for you to use for your weekly review.

Here’s a snapshot of what I do. I clean out my “Paper” Inbox. This is where I capture any snail-mail I receive during the week. This could be bills you have received. This could be magazines you haven’t glanced at. Then I look at all my ongoing projects. Am I on track with my book writing, my programming course, my other courses? How about my exercise routine? Is it working for me? What about my bucket list? Is it up-to-date? Are there other things I came up with during the week I want to add to my bucket list? Your weekly review will differ from mine, since you will have other priorities, other things you must do personally, and other ideas about the things you’d like to do with your life. Finally, I test my progress toward my goals.

What do I do for the rest of the day? I watch a movie I’ve tagged to watch; I get in some extra fiction reading; I go to a nice coffee shop and just hang out; I get in some video game playing. The sky is the limit. I strive to do something I don’t do the rest of the week to give my mind a break. I really enjoy doing mindless things that give me a mental and physical break.

President’s Day

Tomorrow is President’s Day. If you live outside the states, this holiday is where Americans celebrate the Presidents of the past and present. It is a national holiday recognized by most employers. This means that this is a 3-day weekend for those of my readership that still work at an office.

I use holidays as another day to relax and do what I want. I still work on my priorities but take it easy and do something fun. Playing video games, watching some TV, listening to music and enjoying a cup of coffee are my ideas of having fun.

My Weekly Review

I am on track with all my goals so far. I am well on my way to reading 48 books this year. I am making progress on my weight loss. I have changed my diet and enjoying the benefits. My writing is on track and I am making steady progress toward all my classes I am engaged in. I have no special appointments or activities to take care of this week and everything is in a state of flow. Today, I’ll get in some video game play after I have knocked out all my daily to-dos. One of my to-dos is to straighten out my home office and get laundry done. Besides that, the rest of the day is mine!

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday. I also hope you have something fun planned for President’s Day (If you celebrate this holiday).

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

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Action Plans, Focus, moving forward, Opportunities, Overwhelm, Procrastination, Resistance

Divine Spirit opens new opportunities, but we must take them. We must make our own choices with the best information at hand.—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

Opportunities present themselves to us constantly. What do we do with them? Do we grab the opportunity, investigate it, and make a choice to use or not use it or do we let it pass by because we are too busy to take the time and test its value? I think many people do the latter. Why? Perhaps we are exceptionally busy being banged and bumped around by life.

Unlike the person above, another person may grab every opportunity that comes their way and scatter their attention and efforts to the wind. They run down this rabbit hole and then another, accomplishing nothing. This too can be problematic and aid a person’s procrastination. Both routes can lead to missed opportunities and add to a person’s level of confusion.

Again, I ask why? Why would one person be oblivious to opportunity and another be hyper-actively pursuing all these new ideas? Fear. Person #1 is fearful and avoids everything. They are like the cartoon Ostrich that buries its head in the ground. Person #2 is fearful and pursues everything around them, enabling procrastination. They are like a puppy in a brand-new home, running this way and that, smelling and investigating everything that comes their way. If you watch people in these states, you soon see how ineffective it is to follow either path. What’s the solution?

The solution to these problems is focus. Focused people stay on track. They move forward with their goals. They concentrate their efforts on what they must do today to move them one step closer to their goals and avoid getting side-tracked by that next idea that pops up in their head. They track these ideas, however. They write their ideas down. They capture these ideas and process them later.

An idea comes, you capture it, and get back to your work. This way you are capturing all the ideas that come your way and avoiding the scatterbrain effects of moving on everything you receive right now. This is the most efficient way of maintaining a steady flow of ideas and remaining focused on the task at hand.

If you find yourself in either of these states (ignoring your ideas or chasing every idea that comes) take a moment and ask yourself some questions:

Am I working on my goals or am I doing busy work?

Am I missing opportunities or capturing them?

If you are doing too much busy work and avoiding the pursuit of your goals, take time to think about why you are resisting action. Is the next task too big? Are you lacking information? Are you lacking the skill to accomplish the next step in your plan? When we resist something, it is likely because of one of these reasons. Brainstorm. Think about all the things you could do right now to move yourself forward. If you are lacking information or skills, look for some online tutorials, classes, or YouTube videos that could give you some ideas. Once you find the solution, add that to your goal’s action plan, schedule it, and get to work. If the next task on your action plan is too big, break it down into more action steps and continue.

I hope this helps some of you. I find myself in this place from time-to-time. When I recognize that I’m stuck or resisting an action step in my plan, I look at the step and ask the above questions.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Funny Friday

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Funny Friday, Giggle, Humor, Joke, Laughter, Rodney Dangerfield, Weekend

“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

I hope you enjoyed this little joke. Have a great weekend folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursdays – Happy Valentine’s Day

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Challenges, God, Grateful, Loved, Satisfied, Thankful, Valentine's Day

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”―Seneca

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you that celebrate. Today is the day we celebrate our loved ones. It is a day of delivering cards, candies, and taking the time to express our gratitude to the one’s we love.

How opportune that Valentine’s Day aligns with my Thankful Thursday posts. I am grateful for my wife. I love her beyond words. She is the one who takes care of me when I’m sick. She laughs with me, cries with me, and shares the burden of life with me. I am grateful she chose me to live her life with. I am eternally grateful for my wife.

I am also thankful for the new followers this week. I hope my blog is meeting your expectations. If you’re new, today is the one day a week I express my gratitude publicly for the things I have. We all have something to be grateful for. I use Thursdays to express my gratitude publicly to remind you you have something to be grateful for.

I am grateful for life’s challenges. Challenges provide us with the opportunity to solve problems. Challenges keep things interesting. Challenges make us stronger and more resilient.

I am grateful for my family and friends. I am grateful for good health. I am grateful for the opportunity to spend time with my folks are in their late seventies and enjoy their senior years with them. I am grateful for the morning conversations over coffee, talking about the news of the day, family memories, or what we will do today.

I am grateful for health. I am grateful that I can go to the gym and push myself beyond my limits every day. I am grateful for the access I have to good food. I am grateful for the technology we have available to us that allows me to learn new things, read new books, listen to music, play the games I like, and to create.

I am grateful for my new followers and the conversations I have with them. I am grateful for the ability to create a blog that people enjoy.

I am grateful for this life. It is an adventure that keeps me going, provides a multitude of opportunities, and challenges me daily.

I am grateful for God’s love. A love that transcends all and provides me with a feeling I am never alone.

I am grateful.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Exploring the Unknown

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Advice, Inner voice, Muse, Nudge, Regret, Suggestion, The Void, Thriving

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.” Arthur C. Clarke

Read more at: Brainy Quotes

Anything we do with our lives should be at the fringes of our capability. Anyone can continue to do what they are comfortable doing. The excitement lives in our ability to travel into unknown areas and conquer them. This is thriving.

All of us aspire to something better. We want to see new places, learn new things, and have new experiences. All of us are natural explorers. Take any person and put them into a new surrounding and they immediately look around and assess their environment. We all do this. When we investigate a new environment, we are alive. We are using every capability we have.

None of us grow when we lack a challenge. Instead, we stagnate. The mundane and calming existence we all crave from time-to-time, becomes like a prison. This prison is mediocrity, comfort, and changelessness. No one is happy in these circumstances. The mundane evolves to boredom.

When I examine my life, I see periods of growth and periods of rest. I also see periods of decline in certain areas. I have also noticed something else. I noticed a “something” in me that is always making suggestions. It is a still voice that gives me little nudges. These nudges, when I act on them, have resulted in some of the best times in my life. One characteristic about each of these nudges is the absolute chaos that ensues when I take the first step.

Chaos always results when we try something new. The unknown is frightening. We don’t know what to do; we don’t know where to turn; we don’t know what will happen. We make lots of mistakes, stubbing our toes, bruising ourselves, as we bumble about trying to adapt to our new environment. After we orient ourselves and explore this new area, we find out that most of our fears were for nothing. Then we get a nice boost. We feel a new confidence arise from stepping into the void and surviving one more time. Then we rest and look for the next area of the void to explore.

Listen to this inner voice. It will typically provide solutions to your problems you never knew were there. It will point you in the right direction. Use your discrimination when you hear this advice. You always want to have a confirmation that the advice you are receiving is right. In my case, I typically receive one or more confirmations I have made a good choice.

These confirmations can be in the form of reading something in a book, hearing something on a radio, or the same suggestion coming from friends or family members. While you are waiting for confirmations to arrive, take a few steps. These first few steps are always scary. Once you take a few steps, however, you will get a feeling you are doing the right thing. I can’t explain it. It is more like a knowing. You know you are doing the right thing for yourself.

Life is a fleeting thing. Some people find themselves at the end of their lives with lots of regrets. They regret asking that beautiful woman out on a date; they regret ignoring the book idea they had; they regret starting that business. They regret ignoring the inner voice and ended up living a life of comfortable boredom.

When does this inner voice speak? I find my inner voice speaks during the quiet times. It speaks when I am reading a book. It speaks when I am thinking. It speaks when I am working on my blog or my book. Some call this inner voice our conscience, Others call it God. Still others call it the muse. Whatever you think it is, it is there. It is there for all of us. One thing I know for sure. The more you listen to this voice, the louder it becomes. This voice is not like the voices of your friends or family. It is like an idea that pops into your mind. That’s the best way I can explain it. My voice has always been a nudge. It is like a suggestion that comes out of nowhere.

Take time today to listen for this voice. Ask a question, present it a problem, or ask it for advice. Listen. Be patient. Wait. The answer will come. It always comes.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk – Deeyah Khan

Tags

Deeyah Khan, Extremism, Isolation, Prejudice, Tragedy

Trigger Warning: This is not a pleasant Ted Talk.

Deeyah Khan describes her childhood and how she overcame prejudice, death threats, and being ostracized by her family to make films that answer some of the pressing problems surrounding extremism. It all starts at home. Enjoy!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Ambition and Hard Work

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Achievement, Ambition, Dedication, Discipline, Hard Work, Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.”―Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have you ever wondered about what you wanted to do? I remember when I was in high school and wondered about this very question. How did people end up where they are? Why did people choose a job of doing his or that? This question haunted me for a few years until I came across the idea of enlisting in the Army.

When I enlisted back in the 80s, my first few years weren’t that great. After a short while I began to doubt my decision. Then I had a revelation. I asked myself, “Why not put all you have into this?” From the moment I decided to put everything I had into being the best soldier I could be, my military career took off.

I knew in high school that I wanted to do something I liked. I learned in the Army that what I liked is what I chose to dedicate myself to. In other words, everything I thought had an order to it, was backward. Obviously, you need some driver to get you to act. For me, the Army represented a full-time job, benefits, and the ability to support myself.

After I had decided to join the Army, it was now up to me to embrace that decision. I could have just messed around during my first enlistment, doing the bare minimum, but my thinking at the time drove me to do something worthwhile. Why waste my time in the Army, when I was going to be there anyway? So that’s what I did.

Each of us comes to a crossroads in our lives. We know we want a certain end-state. We then began scanning our environment to find the means of alleviating the dissonance between where we are and where we want to be. Our ambitions drive this part of us.

Once we have decided what we want or where we want our lives to be, we must work. We take advantage of our opportunities and do the work. Doing the work, we slowly begin creating the future we have envisioned.

When do we win? We win when we have worked hard enough, chiseled away enough of our current situation to achieve the life we want. Imagine the life you want and begin scanning your environment for ways to get yourself to that point. What do you have to do? What actions do you need to take? Once you understand what your life will “look” like it is nothing more than working your butt off to get there.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Bonus Content – The GOYA Principle

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Albert Schweitzer, Analysis Paralysis, Friends, Heroes, inspiration, Slumps, The GOYA Principle

“At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” – Albert Schweitzer

We all experience a slump. Nothing seems to work well. We lose our motivation or desire to do what we set out to do. We begin to doubt what we are doing is worth doing.

How can you get yourself out of a slump? Use the GOYA principle. If you are unfamiliar with the GOYA principle, you can thank Tom Hopkins. Tom is the author of How to Master the Art of Selling. In this book he describes a slump in his life. He was a fledgling real estate salesman and was having a tough time of it. The story about how he got himself out of his slump involved his boss taking him on a ride to cool off. Once they had driven around for a bit, his boss told him to get out of the car. He then told Tom to knock on every door of every house on his way back to the office. By the time he got back to the office he had a few leads and some potential homes to sell. The moral of the story: Use the GOYA principle. What is the GOYA principle you ask?

G-Get

O-Off

Y-Your

A-Ass

When you let your mind and emotions get in your way and over-analyze what you are doing, you will begin doing more analysis than work. Slumps come when you stop doing the work that works in your field of endeavor. We all do this from time-to-time. We sabotage our own efforts when we stop doing what we already know works.

In this example, Tom’s boss was the catalyst that rekindled Tom’s faith in the process of selling homes. Who is your go to when you are in a slump? Is it a boss? Is it your wife or significant other? Is it a good friend who knows you better than yourself? For me, my catalyst has always been the many great authors of the world.

I discovered this this morning as I worked through my morning journaling. I obtain inspiration from the books I read. I obtain inspiration from the stories of heroes taking on challenges and overcoming them. I read about others who have struggled with their inner demons and conquered them. My heroes are the scientists, philosophers, explorers, generals, writers, artists, musicians, and poets. I am also inspired by quotes. I pass along the quotes I find to my followers with the hope they will do for you what they do for me. Quotes inspire, motivate, and awaken us to the wisdom of the ages.

Slumps come and go. Work through them. Get back to basics. Stop analyzing. GET OFF YOUR ASS.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Choose Laughter, Humor, and Happiness

Tags

Happiness, Harold Klemp, Humor, Jumping the Gun, Laughter, Rush to Judgment, Spiritual

“This is how we work with Divine Spirit. We try to look at life and find the laughter wherever we can, whenever we can, because laughter is the healer.”

—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

Happy Saturday, folks! It’s 16 degrees in Michigan this morning and I am enjoying some soothing music and a cup of coffee.

In today’s crazy world, it is so easy to get riled up and upset with what’s going on in any country. Scandals, crime, disaster, are all the talk of the day. If you go to Twitter, it comes at you lightning fast, spreading, in some cases, rumors that have no basis in reality. Take it easy. Relax. Wait for a story to unfold before jumping on the first tweet or online article that hits the wire. So many people in journalism jump the gun to get the scoop without the necessary fact checking and due diligence, then have to walk it back when the truth comes out.

The same actions can be taken with our lives. So many of us are blind-sided by things. We get bad news and we lose our minds over-reacting. We make assumptions and run with them without knowing the facts. We are all moving at such a fast pace that we forget to take the time to really think about what has occurred.

Take your time, evaluate, look at all of the things you can do to fix the problem or make your situation better. When you take the time to think through things, instead of quick reaction, you’ll start to feel better. Yes, there are real tragedies that hit our lives, there is no way to argue against that. Even these tragedies have a silver lining in most cases. Think. Evaluate. Plan. Execute.

When the reality of your situation is out of your control, you have a choice. You can be pissed off or you can find humor in it. It’s going to be there regardless, so why not be happy with your situation and move on? Laughter makes us feel better. Humor is the antidote to hard times. There will always be challenges in our lives, tragedies, and just outright bad luck. Life is not about what happens to us. It is about how we react to the things that happen to us. You have a choice. I choose happiness.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Funny Friday – Internet Outages

Tags

Crackup, Funny, Giggles, Happy, Joy, Laughter

Last night the Internet stopped working so I spent a few hours with my family. They seem like good people.-http://coolfunnyquotes.com 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Until next time…

Dave