Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Week of April 6, 2020.

Tags

Daily activities, Mental, Monday, motivation, Physical, rituals, Social, Spiritual

Here we go, folks! Start your engines!!

Weekly schedule:

Physical (Exercise daily)

Mental (Coursework daily, Book writing daily, Read a chapter a day)

Social (Post to this blog daily, share quotes and articles daily, and stay in touch with friends and family via social media or phone)

Spiritual (Religious Discourse work daily, Spiritual Exercise daily, and read my Bible daily)

Relaxation (Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, Curiosity Stream, and Xbox Games)

Have a great week, everybody!!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Being Motivated in Lockdown.

Tags

Excited, Lockdown, Mental, Motivated, motivation, Physical, Pumped, Social, Spiritual

Well, folks, it’s been tough for a lot of folks for quite a while. Countries all over the world are being hit by this virus and it doesn’t appear to be letting up. I continue to hope that you, my readers, are safe and doing OK.

For most of you, being stuck at home is a real change. Americans, in fact, most of us, love our freedom to head out to eat, go to the gym, go to the library, or even go to work. When something like this sticks its ugly head up, it can be hard for people to make a significant change like this.

If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I’m a homebody. I head out to the gym, library, or coffee shop, but I can work out at home, I have access to over 10,000 digital books in my collection, and I have a terrific little Keurig coffee machine for my caffeine intake. I’m used to this lifestyle because my Dad has dementia and cannot be home alone. So either my Mom or I am here with him, while the other heads out for errands or whatever. So, not so much of a change for the Gardner family.

Anyway, here’s my schedule:

• Physical – exercise daily, eat right daily, drink water daily, and get plenty of sleep daily.
• Mental – school work daily, journal daily, book writing daily.
• Spiritual – Meditate (spiritual exercise) daily, read Bible daily.
• Social – Blog daily, post helpful articles (non-coronavirus or political articles) daily, post good quotes daily, help the folks daily, and interact with family via text and phone daily (Brother, Wife, Niece, and Nephew are in AZ, Mom and Dad are home, Sister is 2 hours away in Michigan).
• Coronavirus – White house briefing daily, Check WHO and CDC daily, check Michigan Health Department daily, and check Local information resources daily.

***I ignore any other new source (CNN, MSNBC, NPR, FOX news, all the rest). I ignore everything on social media feeds.***

Well, folks. That’s my week. Have a great Monday!

Be safe, stay informed, and follow guidance.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Week of March 23, 2020.

Tags

Activity, Follow Guidance, Mental, motivation, Physical, Social, Spiritual, Stay Informed, Stay Safe, Weekly Schedule

I hope all of you are safe, healthy, and paying attention to the new in your area so you can remain that way. From what I’ve seen, the U.S. government is doing all it can to help those hardest hit, and my local authorities in Michigan are doing what they can.

Stay safe, stay informed, and follow local guidance.

Here’s my week, folks. Luckily, since I complete all of my work on my laptop, my productivity has been unaffected by recent events. I know some of you are dealing with some real adversity. I hope you are OK, and conditions in your home country continue to improve for you and your loved ones.

Daily activities:

• Mental – Writing (Journaling, working on my fiction book, blogging, and writing assignments for school)
• Physical – Exercise (Home workout using extension bands)
• Mental – Learning (Computer Science path (Codecademy), Algebra course, NLP course (Udemy), and Foundations in Autism course)
• Spiritual (Spiritual discourses, reading my Bible, daily meditation)
• Social (practicing social distancing, but staying in touch with Wife, Brother, Sister, and friends)

I hope all of you are safe and remain that way. If anyone is isolated or alone, and you need someone to talk with, feel free to reach out to me in the comments. We can work something out to connect with each other via phone, video chat, or some other medium.

Well, that’s all I got for now. Have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Week of March 16, 2020 – Updated

Tags

Blogging, Coronavirus, Exercise, Learning, motivation, Reading, social media, spirituality, Writing

***Both of my gyms have closed. I’ll be moving all of my workouts into the home with my exercise bands.*** 

Well, it’s another week, folks!

What are you working on? As always, I packed my week with reading, writing, educating myself, spiritual work, and exercise. It’s going to be great fun!

My schedule:

• Scene construction for my fiction book – daily.
• Blogging – daily.
• Spiritual reading – daily.
• Spiritual exercises (meditation) – daily.
• Exercise – daily (see my workout routine) – daily.
• Algebra, Spanish, Python, NLP classes – daily.
• Post articles and quotes to social media – daily.
• Read writing book, fiction book, and Bible – daily.
• Journal – daily.

With all the news about the coronavirus (COVID-19), I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss it briefly. My advice: take all measures specified by your government. If you get sick, stay home, watch your symptoms, and get yourself to a hospital if your symptoms get worse.

Take care of yourself. Eat right, drink plenty of fluids, keep social distance, and help out your friends and family if they need it. My folks are in their late 70s and early 80s, so I’ll be on hand to step in and help if they get sick. We’re in a pretty small town and have not had any cases arise yet. We’re monitoring it.

What to do? Read, catch up on your movie watching, pay attention to your new outlets, exercise at home if your gym is closed or too far away, and follow any protocols your employer has put in place. My brother, sister, wife, niece, and nephew have all been moved to remote work/school, so life will be different for a few weeks.

Most important: Do Not Panic. I know it’s hard with the 24-hour news cycle, but use your common sense and don’t go overboard. Everything will be alright.

Have a great week, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Week of March 9, 2020

Tags

Consistency, Exercise, Learning, Monday Motivation, Productivity, Reading, rituals, Social, Spiritual, Writing

I had my monthly book discussion today and fell a little behind schedule, so I’m scrambling a bit to get caught up and knock out my daily tasks. Here’s my weekly schedule:

Read daily – chapter a day

Write daily – Blog postings, any homework assignments, and work on my book.

Exercise daily – Gym, diet, sleep, meditation

Learn daily – Computer Science Path (Codecademy), Algebra course, NLP course, Course on Autism Spectrum Disorder

Spiritual daily – Read Bible daily, Journal daily, Spiritual exercises daily

Social daily – post quotes daily, share articles daily, get out into the community daily, hang out at the coffee shop on Saturday, hang out at a library on Friday

That’s all I got for today, folks. Have a great week!!

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Staying Busy

Tags

Code, Consistency, Flexibility, Learn, Meditate, Monitor, motivation, Read, Staying Busy, Write

I’m a dabbler. I enjoy doing lots of things during the day and love the variety of tasks I set for myself. My motivation is provided by the variety. A variety of books to read (I read multiple books simultaneously), a variety of classes to take, going to the gym, running errands, working on my book, and all the rest.

If you are bored or overwhelmed, adjust your schedule. Either add more things to your day or take some away. Be flexible and monitor yourself at the end of the day. If I consistently finish all of my stuff too quickly and find myself getting antsy, I add some stuff to my calendar for the next day. If I can’t finish all the things I have scheduled or feeling resistance to my daily rituals, I back some things off.

Ok, folks. Here’s my schedule for the week:

• Work on Book Daily
• Read Daily
• Blog Daily
• Journal Daily
• Code Daily (Computer Science Course Codecademy)
• Meditate Daily
• Exercise Daily (See my Workout Routine post for the week)
• Learn daily (classes in Algebra, American History, Autism Spectrum Disorder)
• Budget Daily

I hope all of you have a terrific week! Remember, take time to monitor how you feel about your daily routines. Be flexible and be prepared to adjust, keeping in mind your core priorities.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – This is Your Moment

Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.

Oprah Winfrey

It’s the beginning of the week. It’s time. It’s time to do that thing you keep putting off. It’s time to write that page, learn that topic, make the speech, apply to that job, write that song, sing that tune, make that movie, build that product, start that business…

I could go on and on, but your “one thing” is different from everyone else’s “one thing”. Your “one thing” is special to you. It calls you. It warms you. It begs you.

Get out there and do that “one thing”. Who cares if you fail. You already expect that anyway. You see, the failure is part of the journey. It’s the part that happens when we try anything new. But you know, after you’ve failed a few times, you start to win. You start to get good at that “one thing”. You make progress. Before you know it, the “one thing” you couldn’t do, changes to something else you couldn’t do.

You finally realize that everything you think you can’t do, evolves to something you can do. Then you have to find something else you can’t do. The cycle continues.

Before long you realize there isn’t anything you can’t do.

All because you tried to do the one thing you knew you couldn’t do.

You’ve got this. Have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Fall down, stand up

Tags

Continue, Get back on the horse, habits, motivation, Persist, rituals, Take your lumps, Weekly Schedule

If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.

H. G. Wells

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Life has a tendency to smack us around a bit. Like the picture above, life gives us a toss. Then we get back up and keep moving forward or we decide to stay off that crazy horse. It’s all up to us.

I choose to get up. I don’t care how many times the horse kicks me off. I’ll keep getting back on until that horse figures out that I am crazy enough to keep getting back on. I’m like the Irishmen who keeps blind-siding the bully until the bully gets tired of breaking his hands on my face.

The moral of the story: Don’t quit. Keep going. This ancient wisdom make so much sense, yet so many quit anyway.

Here’s my schedule for the week:

• Learn Spanish daily
• Python daily
• Work on my book daily
• American History daily
• Algebra daily
• MS Publisher daily
• Blog daily
• Social Media daily
• Exercise daily
• Meditate daily
• Read 1 chapter daily
• Journal daily

I hope all of you have a great week! Feliz lunes para ti (Happy Monday to you).

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Repetition

Tags

Daily to-dos, Exercise, Meditation, motivation, Practice, Reading, Repetition, Weekly Schedule, Writing

Like I said, repetition in practice and hard work.

Jerry Rice

Ask any sports legend, concert pianist, actor, writer, anyone with any skill and they will all tell you they got where they are by practice and repetition. They practiced, and practiced, and practiced.

When I served in the Army, we did the same thing. We practiced. We repeated. We worked on something until you could do it in your sleep. That’s the key. To transform a skill from conscious practice to subconscious execution. Then you practice more.

Repetition can be boring. It is tough to stick with something every day. But for those of you who understand the power behind repetition, you know that sometimes you dread doing something you did yesterday, and the day before. The mind loves novelty and will fight it.

Stick with it. Keep doing it. Don’t stop. Greatness and mastery are on the other side of the boredom and repetition.

Here’s my schedule for the week:

• Work on character development for my fiction book – daily
• Learn Graphs in Python – daily
• Blog daily
• Journal daily
• MS Publisher Course – daily
• Exercise – daily
• Meditate – daily
• Read a chapter – daily

Have a great Monday, folks.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Life Will Hit You

Tags

Consistency, DON'T QUIT, Drive Through, Get Up Off the Dirt, Persist, relentless, The Wall, You Got This

Here’s a great video to start your week.

I remember when I was in Ranger School going through the land navigation portion in the Ranger School’s zero week. It rained cats and dogs and that Georgia clay turned to glue. I was running out of time and ran the entire way back to the start point to pass the test. I passed, but the price I paid for running in the glue called mud in Georgia were two hyper-extended knees.

I said to myself, “Fuck. If these knees don’t settle down, I will wash out in the first week.” I don’t know how but in a few days my knees got better. I think this is what this video refers to. You set your sights on a goal. Everything is going well. Then…BAM!! Life beats you upside the head and says, “What you got now?” You keep pushing and the universe steps in and gives you a hand.

One of my favorite quotes is: You can’t lose if you don’t quit

It’s part of a title for the Skip Calhoun’s book, You Can’t Lose if You Don’t Quit: The Life and Times of Doyle Hall. What a great quote right? But this simple collection of seven words is the key to succeeding at anything. With that, let’s get to this week’s schedule.

This week:

• Work on Fiction Book daily
• Learn Algebra daily
• Computer Science Path daily
• Exercise Routine daily
• Meditate Daily
• Read 1 Chapter daily
• MS Publisher Class daily
• Journal Daily
• Blog Daily

Thanks for all the new followers this week and the comments. I’m enjoying the interaction and look forward to more. If any of you would like help to put together your own daily rituals, reach out. We can connect and I’ll walk you through it. It’s easy and powerful when you realize how much you can do by doing little things each day.

Well, that’s it for today. Have a great Monday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave