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

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Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Fear of Failure

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Accomplishment, failure, Fear, Frank Herbert, Mistakes, motivation, Overcoming Fear

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”―Frank Herbert,Dune

Fear. It causes us to pause, to procrastinate, to react to all those hidden demons our minds create. Fear warns us that we are not good enough. Fear predicts our total ruin. Fear predicts the destruction of our reputation. Fear is an enemy to be dealt with if you are going to do anything meaningful with your life.

We all deal with fear in one way or another. Fear can come in many guises. We can be fearful of a confrontation with a colleague or a loved one. We can be fearful of failure. We can be fearful of standing up for ourselves. We can be fearful of moving forward with a project we really want to accomplish.

I have found that the best way to conquer fear is to eliminate the ego. How many wars or arguments could have been avoided if both parties put their egos to the side. The ego is something you’ll never get rid of, but it can be put to the side. When you are creating something new, you will make mistakes. Embrace mistakes. Embrace failure. These are two things you have to get through if you are going to achieve anything. If you avoid assigning failures and mistakes to yourself personally, you will feel bad, upset, angry, etc. Instead, play a game. Laugh at yourself. Realize what you’ve learned. Look at the failure or mistake and dissect it. How did it happen? What did I miss? More importantly, how can I avoid this mistake in the future?

Set your goals, establish a plan to achieve the goals you have set, and stake out actions to move you through your road map. Make your daily contributions so minuscule that you’ll do them without resistance. You’ll make mistakes. You will discover your plan has problems and needs to be adjusted. Failure occurs only when you fail to act or give up on your goals and dreams. Keep this in the forefront of your mind—failure occurs when you quit. You avoid failure if you keep moving forward.

I had a heck of a time yesterday with my Dad watching the Superbowl. We were a little disappointed in the game. The commercials were OK, but not barn burners. The game was exciting toward the end, but the first half was boring. In the end, however, it was nice watching the game with my Dad.

Tomorrow is the State of the Union and I’ll be engaged with that most of the day. This week I’ll continue my reading, writing, exercise, meditation, and learning schedule. I interact with a lot of authors online and discovered a great writing tool. It’s called Scrivener. I just downloaded it today and will be working through tutorials and such for most of the week. Once I’ve got a good idea of how to use the tool, I’ll begin moving my book to it. I discovered that using a word document straight up is probably not the most efficient way of putting together a book, particularly now that I am in the re-write phase of the operation.

That’s it for today folks. Have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Monday Motivation – Baby Steps

Tags

Baby Steps, Consistency, Focus, motivation, Peter Marshall, rituals, Simplifying, Small Deeds

“Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.” – Peter Marshall

Read more at: Brainy Quotes

This quote explains the importance of consistent, small actions. Some people have these great plans set for themselves but rarely attain them because they fail to break these big things down into actionable steps. Let’s tackle a simple task like reading a certain number of books in a year.

Let’s say you want to read 24 books this year. You take the 24 books, divide by 12 and discover you only need to read 2 books a month to achieve your goal. You take a look at your books and discover you have 30 chapters to read (15 chapters in each book) in 30 days. Read 1 chapter a day and you’ll hit the 30 chapters (finishing both books) and you’re well on your way to reading your 24 books, provided you stick with reading 1 chapter a day.

How am I doing on my goals? I’m on track. I finished the rough draft of my book over the weekend. Now it’s time to begin the re-write. I’m looking at what I will do daily to complete my first draft in 6 months and will dig into this new process on Feb 4, 2019. I’ll figure out how much writing I need to do, what tools I need, and then dig in daily.

I’m shooting for 12 online courses by year’s end. I have completed two so far and taking another two currently. I am also goaled to read 48 books this year. I am on track with three books completed and one more to go this month to keep on track.

My exercise goals are always about gaining muscle and losing weight. It is hard to do both but keep this as a goal regardless. Right now, I am in a bulking phase, just to get some more muscle on my frame. Then, once I am at a certain point, I’ll cut for a few months, then back to bulk, and so on. I’m going to continue to bulk until April and then cut for a few months to get ready for the Summer. My exercise plan is literally going to the gym daily or, in case of inclement weather, I exercise at home. That’s it. Daily exercise involving both weights and some cardio.

My spiritual goals are to read my Bible daily, meditate daily, journal daily, and continue with my book discussion once per month. All of these are on track. Simple things each day help me achieve big things by year’s end and build strong ritualized habits.

My social goals are slacking somewhat. I tend to interact a bit on social media, but it’s important to interact with other people face-to-face. The challenge currently is the big snow storms we are being hit with in the Midwest. It is not safe to drive if you do not need to, so for now, social media daily and Skyping with my friends will be the best alternative.

How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions? Are you still pushing forward or are you stalling? If you are stalling, look at what you want to do and minimize what you are doing daily to a point you can achieve little pushes each day. You’ll be amazed by what you can accomplish over time.

Little actions steps daily will build healthy habits, rewire your brain for these activities, and help you establish rituals of habits that you knock out each day. It is so easy if you take a chance and try this. I wish all of you well on this year’s goals.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Consistency, Exercise, Learning, motivation, Patience, perseverence, Persistence, Skills, spirituality

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.” Walter Elliot

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/walter_elliot_190719?src=t_motivational

Want to learn a secret? Here’s a secret that will change your life.

You will accomplish whatever you set out to do if you do not quit trying to accomplish it.

I don’t care if you are trying to lose weight, stop smoking, read more, write more, learn more. Say you want to learn a new language. Learning a new language is hard. Quitting a bad habit is hard. Learning how to do something you’ve never done before is hard.

Learn incrementally and continuously. Take a little bit of new information, study it, read it, do something with it in little bite-size chunks on a daily basis and before you know it you’ll own that new knowledge. You’ll build the skill. The challenge with this type of learning is consistency. You have to keep doing it over and over and over and never stop. You must really want the new knowledge or skill.

If you keep pushing forward, keep digging in consistently, keep pushing the envelope, you’ll see some dramatic results over time. Stick with it and you’ll achieve your goal over time. It’s really that simple.

Here’s what I’m up to this week:

• I’m leading a Book discussion class on Past lives, dreams, and Soul travel today at a local library
• I’m still sick but doing some home workouts to get back into my routine of daily exercise
• I’ve read 2 books of the 48 I am goaled for and currently reading 5 books simultaneously. Each month I’m tackling 4 books—one fiction book, one history book, one book on philosophy, and one on self-help. Currently I’m reading book 2 of the 2136 series, book on Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, Unit 731 – Japanese biological warfare unit in WWII, and The One Thing.
• I’m finalizing the initial rough draft of my technical recruiting book.
• I am working through a basic JavaScript programming course on Codecademy.
• I just wrapped up a course on WWII that was offered for free by Hillsdale College (hillsdale.edu).
• I’m watching a course offered by Dr. Jordan Peterson on Personality and transformation on YouTube. He currently teaches at the University of Toronto. All his courses are available on his YouTube channel. The current lecture series is composed of 20 lectures spanning between an hour and two hours each. It is time-consuming but interesting.
• I’m starting to brainstorm my own YouTube channel. I am still thinking about what I would like to do with this. This is probably something I’ll investigate next year but will begin putting together a plan for this by the end of this year.

Well, that’s it for today, folks. I hope all of you are keep pushing forward with your goals.

Have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Goals, Going for it, Meaning, motivation, Persistence, Purpose, Structure

“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.” – Charles Kettering

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/charles_kettering_121333

I’m finally over this bug and got back to the gym this morning! It felt good to get in there and get moving. Today was a full body workout with weights. We had some snow come in last night and it was nice looking at the white covering everything as I drove to the gym.

Today is a work day. Since I’ve retired, I’ve learned that I need structure. So, I treat my Monday through Friday as my work days. Subsequently, I’ll be working on my book, getting my reading in, my JavaScript programming courses, lectures by Dr. Peterson at the University of Toronto, and pursuing my other interests. For those of you who haven’t retired, keep this in mind. You may not be working for other people, but we all require some structure and goals to pursue. This provides us with meaning. The folks who reduce their lives to watching tv, playing video games, and all the rest, won’t last that long. When you lose meaning and purpose in your life, your life tends to turn into absolute misery and boredom. Stay busy and pursue the things you couldn’t when you worked. The world still needs you!

I’ve recently signed up to the Poetry Foundation. You can find this at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/ It’s a great site and if you sign up (it’s free), they’ll send you a daily poem to read. I really enjoy the random poems they send because it exposes me to people I would have never found on my own. Try it out if you’re interested.

We’re in the part of the year when we reexamine our lives and look forward to the new year. Some of you may have already set your New Year’s resolutions, while others may still be looking at what you are going to accomplish this year. As today’s quote states, set your goals so that you pursue something meaningful. What do you want to do? What have you always wanted to do but decided not to pursue because you’ve convinced yourself you can’t do it? Take the can’t out of that sentence and go for it. It is really liberating to pursue something you might have to work really hard to achieve. Imagine how you will feel if you accomplish something you didn’t think you could?

Goals should stretch you. Why set up something you know you could accomplish? Is that really a goal? Failure? You can’t fail if you keep moving toward your goal, regardless if you crawl, walk, or run. You can’t fail if you don’t quit. Get at it!

My decision to learn how to write computer programs has been exhilarating. Yeah, there are times I get stuck and frustrated. That’s normal when you’re learning new things. Imagine how much impact this new skill would have on your ability to make money or just create useful programs for yourself and your family?

I wish all of you the best of luck this year! I hope all of you achieve what you have set out to do. Persist. Adapt. Continue. You’ll get where you want to if you keep walking.

Until next time…

Dave

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

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