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Daily Ramblings…

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Daily Ramblings…

Category Archives: Productivity

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Daily Rituals

21 Monday May 2018

Posted by Dave Gardner in Motivation Monday, Productivity, Quotes, rituals, Workout Routine

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Daily Rituals, Daily Routine, Exercise, Learning, Mike Murdock, motivation, Reading, Social Connection, Writing

“The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.” – Mike Murdock

It’s Monday Motivation on Daily Ramblings. This quote is appropriate for today! I am a stickler for a daily routine or daily rituals. I arrived upon this current state by reading through a lot of the habits literature and came to the realization that our daily routines are merely a collection of habits.

Some of my daily habits are:

Reading multiple books (a few pages up to a chapter depending on length)

Writing (Blog Posting and Book Writing)

  • Exercise (currently two cardio sessions each day with weight lifting Mon-Fri)
  • Spiritual Practices (Dream Journaling, Daily Reflection, Reading Spiritual Works)
  • Daily Learning (Currently a Course on the US Presidents, Course on Happiness and Well Being offered by Yale on Coursera, and a Nonfiction Book Writing Course on Udemy)
  • Social Media and Connection (stay in touch with family, friends, and interact with people at the coffee shops, gymnasiums, and libraries I frequent)

This week’s exercise routine:

2 cardio sessions 35 minutes each day (Monday – Sunday)

Weight Lifting: Monday (Quadriceps, Lower Abs, and Calves); Tuesday (Chest and Shoulders); Wednesday (Arms); Thursday (Hamstrings, Lower Back, Upper Abs, and Calves); and Friday (Upper Back)

I find these rituals to be extremely productive and fruitful.

I hope each of you has a tremendous week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – Amelia Earhart – Taking Action

28 Saturday Oct 2017

Posted by Dave Gardner in Goal Setting, Productivity, Quotes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Amelia Earhart, compelling, Evaluate your goals, motivation, Paying the price

Happy Saturday!

Today’s quote:

“The most effective way to do it, is to do it.” – Amelia Earhart

This is a great quote about getting to whatever it is we want to do. I find that the most simple aspects of life are difficult because of the price these simple things require of us. Saving money means we spend less than we earn. Losing weight is nothing more than lowering our intake of food. If you really think about it, any of us have the ability to accomplish whatever we want. Yet, so many fail over and over and over.

Doing something is better than doing nothing when it comes to pursuing our goals. Today I don’t really feel like going to the gym. It doesn’t matter how I feel. I’m going to the gym. That’s it. I am willing to pay the price to improve my health.

Intermittent fasting is also challenging because it requires that we not eat during a 16-hour window. I started my fast last night at 8 pm and will not be able to eat for another 30 minutes. I want to lose weight, so I am pursuing the strategies that I believe will work.

The key to paying the price for anything we want in life is about knowing your “why”. If your “why” is compelling to you, you will have no problem paying the price for what you want. If your “why” is not compelling to you, you will not be willing to pay the price to achieve whatever your goal is.

How do you find your “why”? My “why” has always been about being my best self. I want to lose weight, I want to continue to learn, I want to create content that people will enjoy reading. I want to be fulfilled. These are mine.

If you are having difficulty pursuing a goal, take a step back and think about why you are pursuing a goal. Is your “why” compelling enough to pay the price your goal requires of you? If it isn’t, maybe you should put that goal on hold. In my experience, you’ll just waste your time pursuing something that really isn’t what you want.

Have a great Saturday everyone!

I’m heading to the gym in about 20 minutes to knock out my leg day workout.

Until next time…

Dave

Overwhelming…

03 Friday Feb 2017

Posted by Dave Gardner in Productivity

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Productivity, reality, social media, time-management, twitter, virtual

via Daily Prompt: Overwhelming

I enjoy these daily prompts, particularly on those days when I either have too many ideas or too few ideas about what I would like to write about. I write every day and will either post here, or work on one of the many book ideas I have. My primary project will deal with technical recruiting and provides me a way to give back to the profession that gave so much to me. The word overwhelming could be applied to so many things today. Social media is overwhelming, particularly if you are a member of more than one of these sites. I enjoy Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Facebook. When these media sites are at their peak during the day, it is amazing how many things are being discussed, posted, and reposted.

Like email, I limit myself to a few visits to these sites each day, this blog included. On days that I am absolutely bored and unmotivated, I’ll gravitate from one board to another, clicking like, retweet, etc. During these days the time flies because we become so mesmerized by the blur of activity, funny videos, pictures of our friends, and so on.

As a way to provide some value to my readers, I’ll get to my point. Social media is “virtual” life. It is not real. Sure it’s fun to have someone give you a like for a posting, just like it is a real treat to get likes on my postings here, but frankly, the people you consider your friends in these mediums barely scratch the surface of what true friendship and family are.

These sites are fun. They are interesting and allow us to connect with people that in the past we would have had no access to. I treat the people in my networks as pen pals. Pen pals were something I learned about in elementary school. Our teacher got us to sign up and we each had a friend from another country that we would write to and so forth. After a few years I lost track of my pen pal, but today I have thousands of them.

I’m in America and have friends in Indonesia, the Phillippines, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, India, and many other places. It is so interesting to see what other people find funny, sad, or even how they celebrate. You can see it all on social media. Now, it may not be an exact representation of what you would consider traditional, but it is so heartwarming to see a friend put up pictures of a newborn, or pictures of a far-away place they’ve visited.

Spend time with your family. Spend real time with your family away from the social media, the mobile phones, and really listen to them. Control the amount of time you spend on these sites. They will suck the life out of you and minimize your ability to do anything creatively, pursue your dreams, or accomplish your goals.

I treat them just like I do email. I review my email 4 times a day. I visit my email mid-morning after my morning ritual, I visit again after lunch, evening after dinner, and during my evening ritual. When I’m going through my email I’ll also check my sites, sometimes only for a few seconds if no one has responded to my postings, I have no new friend invites, and so on.

Social media is here to stay. It is fun, it is interesting, and it is definitely entertaining. It is not a substitute for life or real relationships with your friends, family, and loved ones. Now go hug your wife, your kids, your mother and father. That is where our time needs to be placed.

Until next time…

Daily Rituals…

30 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by Dave Gardner in Productivity, Quotes

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

daily, flow, habit, habits, Productivity, rituals, self-improvement, system, workflow

I’ve recently read a book called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey. This book lists out all of the Artists and thinkers over the years and how they ran their days. Some didn’t have any plan at all, but these were rare. Most had a very specific list of things they did each day. They got up the same time, retired the same time, and followed a system. I’ve always believed in rituals because they build consistency in my day and reinforce the things I want to focus on.

Let’s look at some things that are good for us. Sleeping 7-8 hours a night, exercising, meditation, reading, writing, hygiene, social networking, etc. By focusing on these simple things, you build a habit of doing these things and building a solid foundation that has been proven to be healthy and efficient. Who wouldn’t want that?

Here’s what my morning ritual looks like:

  • Rise
  • Record my dreams if I recall anything
  • Make my bed
  • Hygiene
  • Meditate
  • Visualize the completion of my most important goal
  • Breakfast
  • Check Email
  • Check Facebook, Twitter, Blog, and LinkedIn, and email iteration 1
  • Post quotes to social media sites and write down my recorded dream in my dream journal
  • Writing in my Gratitude Journal
  • Verifying my plan for the day (top 2-3 things I set to accomplish)

Daily rituals are cool because they provide a stability to my day. Now that I’m retired it gives me a structure, a system to follow, addressing what I consider important. I also have an evening ritual.

Here’s what my evening ritual looks like:

  • Dinner
  • Exercise
  • Planning for tomorrow
  • Gratitude Journal
  • Check Facebook, Twitter, Blog, and LinkedIn, and email iteration 3
  • Write in my Gratitude Journal
  • Write in my diary
  • Hygiene
  • Evening Reading
  • Retire

These are things I do every day. Not necessarily in the order, I’ve put them in. Things happen. If I’m sick or have an appointment that disrupts my ability to accomplish some of those ritualistic things, I’ll blow them off that day. The key to rituals is they build habits that are strong enough to deal with the chaos of our lives and survive as templates for our activities.

The key to building a great ritual is to select those things you deem important to your life or are very passionate about. Some of the things on my list may be a given for you, like hygiene. Some folks may decide hygiene isn’t one of those things they want to deal with in a ritual because they are going to do it. The ritual can be composed of anything you want. The key is to build your ritual on those things that you believe will provide value to your life if they are done consistently.

After using rituals for the last 6 months I am a firm believer in their efficacy. I am on automatic each morning and launch into my evening rituals with the same tenacity. My morning ritual is triggered by my waking in the morning and the bulk of my evening ritual is triggered by my dinner. After dinner is complete, I exercise, plan for the next day, check social media and this blog, hit my gratitude journal and my diary, and get ready for a relaxing evening.

I hope some of these ideas are helpful and wish you well on creating rituals that provide value to your day.

Until next time…

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