Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Accepting Reality, Adapting to Reality, Calm, change, Complaining, Peace of Mind, Reacting to Reality, Viktor Frankl

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” – Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

I see so many people rail against reality. I see it in my friends, my family members from time-to-time, and even strangers who I come across in the gym or when I’m at the market. We all have problems to deal with. Some of these problems are self-inflicted, but a great deal of these problems is totally out of our control.

So, what do you do? Change yourself. This change isn’t about going against your values or your belief systems. It is about changing the way you react to something outside of you.

Here are some things that are outside of you that you will not change.

• Weather
• Governmental policies (other than voting and activism)
• Traffic conditions
• Your Genetic Makeup
• What other people do

By no means is the above list all-inclusive. I provided this list to give you an idea of what I’m talking about in case you’ve never considered the premise of this article. Anything that is out of your control is exactly that—out of your control. Subsequently, any complaining you do about things that are out of your control create meaningless stress in your life and perpetuate the ridiculousness of attempting to change something you cannot.

Complaining or letting these outside, uncontrollable circumstances effect your mood is really a huge waste of time. How do you do this? It is really a decision about how you want to be on a daily basis. Do you want to be happy or do you want to be miserable? Do you want to feel betrayed all of the time or are you willing to give people the benefit of the doubt?

The more detached you are from outside circumstances and unrealistic expectations the calmer and more collected you will be. The next time you catch yourself complaining about the weather, seek out the benefits of that weather pattern. I, for example, love when it rains or snows. I think it is relaxing to watch the rain from my office window or wake up in the morning to a fresh blanket of snow on the trees in my front yard.

Just some food for thought.

Here’s my week:

• I’m continuing my daily workout routine in the gym (I love my gym therapy!)
• I’m continuing to work on the rough draft of my technical recruiting book
• I’m continuing to work on my spiritual duties
• I’m also re-reading Mini-habits, The 7 Habits, and Getting Things Done
• I’m continuing my blogging, of course
• I’m also in the process of setting new goals for the New Year (I’ll post my 2019 goals toward the end of this month)
• Finally, I’m interacting on numerous social media platforms, getting to know new people, cultivating the relationships I have, and having fun

I hope all of you are excited about the holidays. This is truly my favorite time of the year.

Until the next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Bad Wolf, Building, Destroying, Good Wolf, Negative, Positive, Two Wolves

Featured Image Credit: https://wallpaper.wiki/wolf-backgrounds-free-download.html/black-white-wolf-backgrounds/

The Story of Two Wolves

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.” – Author Unknown

We make decisions every day. We choose to do what we set out to do or we choose not to. Do you really have control of your life? Do you do the things you know you need to do, or do you talk about doing things and just never get around to them? Do you have any friends who are like this? The guy or gal who “talks” but never really does?

I used to be that guy. I’d talk about doing this or doing that but never got moving on anything. Whether it was diet, exercise, writing a book, reading, learning something new, or pursuing a life-long goal, I just talked. No one likes living with a liar—not even you. There is that one wholesome, truthful, perfect version of yourself (the good wolf) that accomplishes what it sets out to do. There is also an unwholesome version of yourself (the evil wolf) that talks about doing things but never gets around to doing them, preferring porno, video games, binge-watching television shows or movies, or reading meaningless information. The evil wolf loves a sloth. The evil wolf loves laziness and a lack of self-discipline. The evil wolf loves excuses, complacency, and procrastination. The evil wolf loves getting lied to.

Each time you tell yourself you’ll do something, you make a promise. The good wolf wants to get moving and do the task because you promised yourself you would. The evil wolf intervenes. If it is being fed more than the good wolf it will win, and your promise is broken. The evil wolf is easy to feed. Do nothing, pursue nothing, achieve nothing, take the easy path, blame everything around you for your troubles, never take responsibility, and lie to yourself.

The good wolf is harder to feed. The good wolf will only accept good food. It will only accept consistency, truth, responsibility, dedication, and discipline. If his food comes in any other form, it will snub its nose at the food bowl and walk away.

Feeding the Good Wolf

Make one promise to yourself. Maybe it’s to make your bed every day. Maybe it’s to take a walk every day. Maybe it’s about putting together a cleaning routine for your home. Maybe it’s rebuilding a relationship. Maybe it’s beginning the process of learning something that you’ve always wanted to learn.

Start small. Very small. Make a promise to do that one thing today. Begin feeding the good wolf. You’ll discover that over time, the good wolf’s voice will be louder. As it gets louder, the evil wolf’s voice will become softer. It will have less strength and less influence. You’ll know when this happens. You’ll feel more in control. You’ll feel happier and more accomplished, even by doing just one little thing and keeping your promise.

Once you have built one habit of keeping a small promise to yourself, the good wolf will get stronger. It will guide you to do more. Perhaps you do another small thing, make another small promise to yourself. This is all it takes. Small, little steps. Each step brings you a little more self-control, a little more self-discipline, a little more accomplishment.

Feed the good wolf and ignore the evil wolf. The evil wolf’s voice will become ever quieter and quieter, just like the good wolf’s voice has been for so long. The good wolf will hunger for more and more productive, self-building things. The good wolf’s voice will guide you to good books, good music, good activities, productive actions.

The evil wolf will always be there, just like the good wolf was. If you break a promise to yourself, you feed the evil wolf. The evil wolf will come back, and his voice will again become stronger. Always be vigilant, stay true to the promises you make to yourself. Develop healthy habits and keep building more. Over time you’ll find that you do not have time for bad habits. Like the evil wolf, they will fade away, once you have discovered how great it is to have the good wolf in your life. I wish you well on your journey.

Here’s what I’m up to this week:

Physical:

• Still working through Jim Stoppani’s Shortcut-to-Strength routine.
• Intermittent fasting (16-hour fast/8-hour feeding window)
• Low-Carb, high protein/fat diet Mon-Friday, carb loading on the weekend

Mental:

• Finished the HTML and CSS courses on Codecademy. I just started the JavaScript course yesterday—great fun!
• I’m reading the first book of the 2136 trilogy. I’ll give you a review on a thinking Thursday after I’ve finished it.

Social:

• It’s Thanksgiving this week and I look forward to a quiet one with my Mom and Dad
• I’m also coordinating with friends and colleagues in Phoenix for my upcoming trip there between the 28^th of November and the 13^th of December. I can’t wait to hang out with everybody.

Spiritual:

• I read my bible daily (The Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad)
• I meditate daily
• I do a spiritual exercise daily

Entertainment:

• I’m watching the series Fortitude on Amazon Prime. It is good so far.
• I’m playing a few game apps on the iPhone – Tune Blast and Candy Crush Friends

If you’re a consistent reader of my blog, you’ve probably figured out that I have a passion for helping people improve their lives. It is tough. So many people out there lost and suffering for no reason. I am continuing to refine my message so that people will get off their butts and do something to improve their lives.

I hope this blog helps people. If you have any suggestions or would like to suggest different types of content, please leave a comment.

Have a great week everybody!!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Drive, Goals, H.G. Wells, habits, mini-habits, Movitation, Stephen Guise

“If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” – H. G. Wells

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/h_g_wells_163592?src=t_motivational

How many times have you set a goal for yourself, only to give up or screw up within a few days? (I raise my hand). It happens to all of us, right? Change is hard. The brain’s wiring is hard to overcome.

We get ourselves fired up and charge into the fight, only to fizzle out within days or hours. How do we overcome this cycle? I asked this question, searching for the answers and finally found the answer a few years ago. The answer is this: Create “stupid small” habits.

These habits are mentioned in Stephen Guise’s book: Mini Habits. You can find it online for $5.99. In his book, Stephen explains what “stupid small” means and why creating these stupid small habits are so effective. Imagine an exercise program consisting of one pushup. Imagine writing 50 words a day. Imagine creating a habit where you are only required to read 2 pages in a book or even 1 page if 2 is too much. You see the pattern here.

The beauty of these mini habits is they don’t require a lot of motivation and only tap minute levels of your willpower, which science has shown to be finite. Interestingly, they have also found that willpower can be exercised like a muscle and the more we train our willpower, the stronger it gets. Persistence is key. If you screw up today, you get back on the horse again tomorrow.

If for some reason you continue missing days or “screwing up” reduce your requirements even more. Ultimately, the goal of these mini habits is to create the ability to do something you want to do every day or every week and stick with it until it becomes second-nature. Once your internal wiring accepts the new habit, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to keep it going. The next step in this process is the bonus work you’ll get each time you use your newly formed habit. Think about reading a page in a book. If you are reading a great story, it’ll be hard to just read one page, right? The same goes for writing 50 words or doing 1 pushup. Each of these habits is so minimal, it would be easy to add to them. Just realize your only requirement is the mini habit you created. The bonus work you do is cool and will add dramatically to your self-esteem, but they are not required. Only the mini habit is. This is really important to remember: Only the mini habit is required. The bonus stuff you do is bonus stuff.

If you want to build some new habits get this book. I am not an affiliate of Amazon or Stephen Guise. I just like to pass on life-changing books that come into my life. It has had a huge effect on me and I hope it helps you attain your goals.

This week:

• I’m leading a book discussion today at a monthly meetup
• I’m healing from a hurt back (so workouts are minimum and low intensity)
• I’m continuing to work on my non-fiction book
• I’m learning a new game called Masters of Orion 2 (introduced by a buddy of mine)
• I am cooking some meals that will keep me satiated during my intermittent fasting
• I am going to finish a book I’ve been working on this week, called Armor
• I will be moving back into the non-fiction reading arena by starting a book by Immanuel Kant

I hope each of you has a terrific week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Francesco Cirillo, Mignon McLaughlin, mini-habits, Pomodoro Technique, Small Steps, Stephen Guise

“The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.” – Mignon McLaughlin

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/mignon_mclaughlin_161632

It’s another Monday!

What do you have planned this week? Anything overwhelming?

The key to moving forward on your projects is nothing more than taking small steps. It is very common to feel a little stress or a lot of stress when looking at a project. You can relieve much of this stress by sampling breaking these projects done into “stupid small” (Guise, 2013) steps.

Applying Mini Habits to Your Project Work

I’ve read the book Mini Habits by Stephen Guise and completed this book’s companion course on Udemy. It is so powerful. You can benefit from this power as well.

1. Look at your project
2. Brainstorm all the things you’ll have to do to get the project to your visualized end-state.
3. Refine the list by putting these things in order
4. If any steps seem to be too much, go back and break that task down even smaller
5. Once you have your list of things to do, start knocking them out day by day.
6. Finish your project!

It really is this simple.

The Importance of 25 minutes

The next time you are looking at accomplishing something, use the above list of action steps to get this thing written down, brainstormed, and organized for action. The best action steps will take you 25 minutes or less. Schedule this into your to-do list as “Project Name” and schedule work on this project every day for 25 minutes (or 1 Pomodoro). What is a Pomodoro?

The Pomodoro Technique

A Pomodoro is derived from the Pomodoro Technique. This technique involves periods of 25-minute, total-focus steps, separated by 5-minute breaks. I try to schedule reading a book for 25 minutes, writing projects for 25 minutes, and any project work I do to 25 minutes. I know that I’ll be done in 25 minutes. I know I can check that action off my list in 25 minutes. It is gratifying, zero-stress, and it gets you one day closer to finishing (Cirillo, 2018).

I cannot stress how important it is to focus on your tasks for finite periods of time. 25 minutes will be over with before you know it. Heck, the writing of this blog post took me less than 25 minutes. But, if you remember that any project you do can be broken down into 25-minute increments, then take 25 minutes of action against your step, you’ll get it done and be that much closer to the finish line.

I’ll provide you links to the Stephen Guise book and the Pomodoro Technique for you to use later if you are interested.

Here’s what I’m up to this week:

• Reading the book Armor and my Bible, The Shariyat Ki Sugmad (Translation: The Way of the Eternal)
• Continuing my workouts using Jim Stoppani’s Shortcut to Size
• Working on my non-fiction book
• Posting to this blog
• Learning CSS programming
• Learning Mindfulness
• Voting in the Mid-term Elections in the U.S.
• Watching Netflix
• Skyping with my buddy in the evening
• Meditating

I hope each of you has a great week! Remember, smaller is better when you are working through your projects. You’ll be effective, productive, and you’ll feel great knocking out a little more on your work each day.

Until next time…

Dave

References

Cirillo, F. (2018). The Pomodoro Technique. Retrieved from https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique

This is Francesco Cirillo’s business site. Check it out. It is really good and has had a dramatic impact on my productivity since I began using this technique over 10 years ago.

Guise, S. (2013). Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results. https://www.amazon.com/Mini-Habits-Smaller-Bigger-Results-ebook/dp/B00HGKNBDK/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1541453458&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=mini+habits&psc=1

One of the great books I read every year in December before kicking off the new year. It is worth a read!

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Choices, Focus, Goals, My Schedule, Paying the price, Visualizing your Perfect Self, Your "why"

“All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.” – Juvenal

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/juvenal_122569

Choices

Are there things you want to do with your life? Do you have goals that you’d like to achieve? Do you have a bucket list? What is the one thing you’d like to do before you leave this Earth?

The main problem with setting goals is choosing. We can only do so much in a day. We have only so much time on this Earth. We cannot do everything we want because it is impossible to achieve mastery in all the areas we contemplate doing well in. If you spread your efforts across too many things you will fail to achieve the mastery you desire.

Focus

To truly achieve what we set out to, we must first choose what we want to dedicate our time towards. Then, we need to understand where we are. What level of proficiency do we have currently? What do we need to do next to achieve the next level of mastery? When will be finished?

If you know where you are you can set up a process or plan to get where we want to go. By understanding the field of endeavor, we are pursuing, we know the next steps. Once we have an action plan it is nothing more than focusing on each discreet step to achieve what we set out to do.

Paying the Price

To achieve anything, we must pay a price. That price will your time, your energy, and your commitment to seeing what you start to your designated end. If you are willing to dedicate your time, energy, and commitment to this thing, you will achieve it at some point, if your goals are realistic. Setting a goal to be an Olympic swimmer or professional athlete in your late-sixties may be a stretch, but you could set a goal to be in the best shape you are capable of.

Your “why”

Your willingness to pay the price depends on the reasons you are pursuing the goal in the first place. Are you truly looking to lose weight, write a book, learn a new language, learn to play an instrument, or gain some other skill or talent because you want it or someone else wants it? Are you willing to do what is necessary to achieve your goal? If not, rethink your “why”.

The reason you embark on a personal journey must be compelling. You must be motivated, interested, and hunger for the goal(s) you set for yourself. Your “why” will be the one thing that drives you to get up and go to the gym, open your word processor and crank out some writing, go to your studio and pick up the brushes, or set down at the piano and practice.

No Goals

Maybe you do not have any goals. Maybe you are not motivated to pursue anything. Maybe life has just beat you up so badly that it is hard to even get out of bed, let alone set a goal to achieve anything. What’s the bother, right? What difference will any of this make?

Imagine a life where you could do anything you wanted. Money is no issue, time is no issue, and your inherent talents are no issue. You literally can do anything you want to. Now, pick something you’d do if this were the case. Seriously. Pick one thing you’d do if you had the money, time, and ability to do it. What would you do?

In my case, I looked at myself and visualized a more perfect me—a prototype of a better self if you will. Once I visualized that me, I began to think about where I was at the time and what I would have to do to get to that improved self. Then, I wrote down all the things I would have to do to get there. These are now my goals.

Maybe you want to become an artist or musician, a writer, a computer programmer, a weightlifter. Perhaps you want to travel the world, learn a new language, or explore ancient ruins. Maybe you want to become a film, restaurant, or music critic. Maybe you want to start your own non-profit, get more involved in politics, or get involved with charitable organizations.

Brainstorm the things your perfect self would do if you could. Feels liberating doesn’t it? Believe it or not, the great successes in our history made choices, wrote down their goals, and focused on what they wanted. They decided to pay the price and did it. Whether you are a Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or any number of high-achievers—they all decided what they wanted, agreed to pay a price, and stayed focused on achieving that vision of their more perfect selves.

Here are the things I’m working on this week:

I am in the middle of week 3 of the Jim Stoppani Shortcut to Size program;

I am working through a couple of books;

I am taking courses on mini-habits, cascading style sheets (CSS) programming, and mindfulness;

I am writing a section of my non-fiction book a day (around 500 words);

I am building articles for my blog pages;

I am meditating daily to achieve more calm in my life and improving my focus;

I am watching some shows on Netflix and Amazon prime (after work hours);

Well, that’s it for today folks. I hope all of you have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Consistency, Persistence, self-criticism, self-improvement, self-judgment, Self-love, self-support

“If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” – H. G. Wells

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/h_g_wells_163592

One of my largest challenges is learning how to be non-judgmental and self-criticizing. I want to do so many things, get moving toward them, and then…You know the rest. I wanted to take a little time today to discuss the importance of “giving yourself a break.”

I am currently working through a meditation series on my Calm app called the “Relationship with Self” series. It is a series of 10-minute meditations that address things like self-criticism, impatience with self, judgment of self. Think about how many times in the last week you said, “I should…”. For me, it is beyond counting.

I have discovered over the last month working with the discrimination character trait that when you rise above the mind and realize your true nature (awareness), the negative and positive of things fades away. There is no good or bad, up or down, here or there. It all just is. It is just experience. When the mind gets involved it must label, compare, or judge. This is what the mind does—it must examine and measure to make any sense of what it takes in.

Does beating yourself up really make any difference? Not really. It just adds to your guilt, your angst, and lowers your self-esteem each time you start ranting to yourself about how you should have done this or failed to do this. This doesn’t make any sense, does it?

Instead, look at each day as an experiment. What works? What doesn’t work? Just like the quote for today, we all fall, we all screw up, we all fail. Today, we can get up, and try again.

It’s the start of another week. Be patient with yourself, be kind to yourself, love yourself. You should be your best cheerleader, not your best critic.

This week I’ll continue to work through my coding classes, my mindfulness course, writing my book, blogging, and of course, working out. I’ll also squeeze in some reading here and there and journal.

I hope each of you has a terrific week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Challenges, Guidelines, Paradigm Shift, Paradigms, Problems, Robert H. Schuller, Signs, Trials

Image credit: http://www.brainyquote.com

I attend a monthly book discussion. This group discusses religious books and we interact with one another for about an hour about what we gained from the readings we have completed prior to the meeting. Today, we had a conversation about the challenges and trials each of us runs into throughout our lives.

One of my colleagues spoke up and said, “I think it is our mindset that causes the trouble. Some people may think that things are happening to them, while other people think things happen for them.” By changing that one word, problems, challenges, and trials all take on a whole new meaning. What if all of our problems, trials, and challenges happened for us and not to us. Something for you to think about.

This week is filled with working out, reading, writing, and interacting. From time-to-time I find myself stuck or waffling about trying to figure out how to move forward with one of my goals. The one I always find the most difficult is weight loss. So, yet again, I am tweaking my daily schedule to find that new thing I can do to move forward.

I finished the Kris Gethin’s 4-week-2-Shred program and lost some weight but not as much as I would like to. So, it’s off to a new program called Jim Stoppani’s Shortcut to Strength. I’m looking forward to this one.

I am at a point in my life that I consider anything that happens to me as something happening for me. We are all here in this lifetime to learn—to be better than we have been before. As our proficiency improves in one area the game changes to hit us with a previously conquered challenge and introduce a new challenge we must face to attain that next step forward.

The way we look at our world can cause us to be uplifted or degraded. What way would you like to look at the world? Are your problems outside of you, caused by other things and people, or are your problems inside you, caused by you and no one else? Do things happen for you or to you? These questions can only be answered by you.

Until next time…

Dave

Reference

Robert H. Schuller Quotes. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved October 8, 2018, from BrainyQuote.com Website: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/robert_h_schuller_107067

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Brainstorming, Exercise, Persistence, Reading, reflection, spirituality, Thomas Edison, Writing

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas A. Edison

Happy October!!

Here we are again at the beginning of a new week. I use Sundays to reflect on my life, reflect on the weekly goals I set the week before, and examine all my projects to determine where I am at and what I have left to do.

I realize where I made progress, realize where I messed up, and think about new ideas to move my projects and goals forward. I do what many call a weekly review. This allows me to look at my calendar, my mail, my email, my project lists, my to-do lists, my bucket lists, anything that I have some interest in. This one day a week I label my “do nothing day” but this is a misnomer. I really do things on Sunday but do less than I normally would and use the day to re-charge, re-focus, and restart stalled projects.

I think this is what Edison is driving at. If we learn that something we are doing isn’t working—we re-tool. We try again. If we realize we haven’t been doing this or that—we re-tool. We try again. If we catch some inefficiencies, we can re-work the game plan we have for a goal or project. We can try again.

If you are stuck, not motivated, and frustrated, take some time on Saturday or Sunday and re-think what you are doing. You’ll get new ideas, you’ll see potential opportunities to try something different, you’ll find avenues to travel you haven’t been down yet. Try them, explore them, take them.

This week:

Still plugging away at the Kris Gethin 4-week-to-shred workout. Still plugging away at my books and working through a 7-week course on Coursera. I’ll also be working on my non-fiction book. Spiritually, I’ll be meditating daily and reading my Bible and other spiritual works.

Have a great week everyone!

Until next time…

Dave

Reference

Thomas A. Edison Quotes. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved October 1, 2018, from BrainyQuote.com Website: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/thomas_a_edison_149049

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Action Items, Bucket List, Dreams, Goals, Learning from Others, Organizing, Scheduling, Taking action, Visualization

Photo Credit: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/nelson_mandela_378967?src=t_motivational

Is there a task or goal you have that you are procrastinating on? You know you want to do it but you’re stuck. In the meantime, it keeps eating at you day after day. What do you do?

Like Nelson Mandela explains above, these tasks are not as big as we build up in our minds. The best way to handle a new task or undertaking is to learn how others have done it. Look for a tutorial on YouTube, post a question on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Ask your friends, your family members, your colleagues at work or church. It is highly likely that someone in your circle will know someone that can help or at least point you in the right direction.

I take a lot of online courses. I do this with a specific goal in mind. First, to learn something new. Second, to learn about something I want to know about that will help me achieve what I want. Recently, I took a non-fiction book writing course. It was terrific! It gave me a framework to work with. It provided key steps to take to write the book–the most important part being the creation of an outline. I discovered that once the brainstorming for things I wanted to talk about took shape, the writing of the book is actually pretty easy.

During this time I also had an epiphany. I took a look at my blog. In the last two years, I have easily written a book or two in content. So, I use my blog as the model. I write each section of my book and treat it like a daily blog post. Now, it’s a simple undertaking. Yeah, there are other unknowns out there like: How will I publish the book? Who will I get to edit the book? and other future questions, but the key, for now, is to get the content on paper. That’s what I’m focusing on now–content.

If you have any bucket list items, goals, or aspirations–don’t hesitate to begin searching for someone who has already done it. You’d be surprised. There are a lot of people in the world. There are a lot of people who post their achievements on YouTube and many other places. You’ll find out exactly what you need to find out.

The key to all of this is to act. You can talk about something, you can think about something, you can dream about something. If this is all you do, you’ll never get this thing done and you’ll be talking about it 6 months from now. Get off your butt and do something. You’ll be amazed how much you can get done if you just chop away a little a day.

This week is week 2 of the Kris Gethin 4-week to shred workout routine. I’m up to 40 minutes of cardio two times a day, along with a heavy-duty workout routine. I’m feeling pretty good and it feels even better when I’ve checked that second workout off of my daily to-do list.

I’m also reading some books, writing here and working on my book, and pursuing my spiritual interests. It’s going to be a great week!

Nothing is impossible folks. You just have to take a breath, visualize, come up with a plan, organize the action steps, set a basic timeline, and get to work. It’s that simple. I wish all of you a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Attitude, change, Chaos, Lack of Control, Perseverance

Image above (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/walter_elliot_190719?src=t_motivational)

I screw up all of the time. It is part of my nature. I used to get so frustrated about making mistakes that I literally stopped making any effort to accomplish things. I was so freaked about making mistakes I would never begin anything. This is the result of fearing failure.

After studying various folks like Edison, Ford, Franklin, Gates, Jobs, and many other greats, I discovered that everyone makes mistakes. It is part of the learning process. We have to make mistakes in order to learn how to do a new thing.

One of the things I have learned over time is that we are truly unique–each one of us. What may work for Joe over there will not work for Jane here. We all have to pay attention to what is going on and make adjustments to what we are doing.

I really enjoy the gym. I like to go and begin the workout. I like the feeling of walking out after my routine is completed. I like the feeling of accomplishment, the feeling of self-discipline, the boost to my self-esteem.

This week I’m following my protocol–daily reading, daily writing, daily learning, daily exercise, and daily spiritual activities. This works for me but it may not work for you. You have to try things out–learn what works–then stick with what you learn. Be aware, however, that what works today may not work tomorrow. We all evolve as we go. Our interests change, our bodies change, our capabilities change. These changes dictate that we alter our pursuits to accommodate them.

Embrace the change. Embrace the things that disrupt your day. Embrace the things that are out of your control. All of these things will make you stronger–less susceptible to the things that occur outside of your ability to affect or control.

The metaphor of this is living in the “eye of the storm”. There are all kinds of chaos in the world. People are chaotic and unpredictable. The weather is chaotic and unpredictable. Anything you cannot control that is outside of you is chaotic and unpredictable. All of this chaos and unpredictability cannot upset you if you control the one thing you can control–your attitude and reaction to these things.

If you remain detached from these things they cannot affect you. Expect change. Expect loss. Expect the table to be overturned. Do your best despite these things and continue moving forward. Persist. If you keep moving, keep adjusting, keep accepting, you’ll achieve what you want to. You’ll get where you need to go. Just keep trying.

Here’s to a great week ahead!!

Until next time…

Dave