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

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – It’s Sunday Night, and All is Quiet

Tags

Blogging, Comments, Flexibility, habits, Meditation, motivation, rituals, Variety

Hey there!

I was reading through a few blog posts and saw the time. It’s Monday Motivation time. I’ll time this post if I finish early or just post it at midnight. I love the variety in the blogs I follow. One had a family visit to a great tropical resort, another is in Japan, and yet another got to the gym and knocked out some treadmill work. We are all so unique, yet the same. We like to write (obviously), we like to tell our stories, and we like the occasional response to our work. I try to respond to all the blogs I read, hoping folks will do the same on mine. I really enjoy getting comments. It makes my day!

OK. Off we go!

This week I’ll be following my daily regimen. Writing, reading, learning, meditating, coding, exercising, and all the rest. I enjoy my rituals. I schedule enough work to keep me busy and the rest of the day is mine. Rituals are nice because they slowly become a habit. I do not follow a daily schedule, because I would rarely follow it. I get all of my stuff done. It’s nice to have some flexibility in the day and attack what I want to when I feel it.

One thing I do is cluster like tasks together. When I’m done with this blog post, I’ll hit my journaling, posting quotes, sharing articles, and letter writing. Tomorrow during the day when I’m fresh, I’ll do some work on my classwork and coding exercises. I’ll get my exercise in, and I try to meditate every afternoon between 2:30 and 4:30 pm. I like this time of day because there is little chance I’ll fall asleep. I tried morning meditations and before-bed meditations, but I always fall asleep. The afternoon sessions are perfect.

I hope all of you have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Week of January 20, 2020

Tags

Consistency, Goals, Keep Pushing, motivation, rituals, You can do it

Well, my Mom returned late last night from a trip to Texas and things are back to normal in the Gardner home. While she was gone, I took care of my Dad, who has been suffering from Dementia for a few years. He is still able to do most things, but he has to be watched.

Recently, we had to get him set up with physical therapy, because he has been stumbling around and falling. The doc told us his quadriceps and muscles surrounding his hips have become significantly weak, so Dad is going to PT twice a week for the next month.

I didn’t get much sleep last night, but today’s tasks are waiting, so I’ll make this a brief one today.

Here’s my schedule:

• Blog Daily
• Code Daily
• Work on Book Daily
• Read Daily
• Exercise Daily
• Meditate Daily
• Journal Daily
• Learn Daily

I hope all of you have a terrific week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Compensating

Tags

Attacking the Week, Compensating, Do What you Can, Making Adjustments, Monday, motivation, sticking with the plan, Tracking Results

One of the hardest time to be motivated is when I’m sick. Last week, I did most of the things I set out to, but put a lot of it on hold to recover. So, here we are! I’m finally over this cold. I still have remnants of sickness, still blowing the nose and the like, but the difficult part is over. I attribute this to knowing what to do to take care of myself.

The first thing I did was turn off exercise. There’s no sense in it. You go to some popular websites and they talk about driving through, or continuing to exercise, but honestly, it just doesn’t make any sense to me. When you get sick, your whole body is in a war with the virus or bacteria that broke through. I believe the best way to fight this is to go to a doctor (if needed), get the necessary drugs or OTC medicine, get plenty of rest, drink a lot of water, and stick with the regimen of less is better when you’re sick. For me, this works. For others, going to the gym and continuing with their exercise regimen works for them. Enough said.

This week, we’re back on track. Here’s my schedule:

• Reading daily
• Working on my Fiction Book daily
• Exercise (but taking it easy) daily
• Learning daily (currently taking an MS Publisher course)
• Coding daily (Python is the language I’m learning)
• Meditating daily
• Blogging daily
• Posting quotes and articles to Social Media daily

This is it for the week, folks. I hope everyone is having a great week so far. Happy Monday!

Until next time…

Dave