Weekly Ramblings – Journaling

Tags

5-minute journal, Best Journal, Daily reflection

This week was a weird week for weather in Michigan. We initially had a lot of snow, but then the temperatures warmed, and it has been raining for two days. Some call it the “Lake effect”, but I think it’s just plain crazy.

So, this was another week of in-home exercise. For those of you who have already fallen “off the wagon” for exercise, since New Year’s, you may want to try this. Take anything you really enjoy. For me it’s playing video games, particularly Call of Duty. In between sessions, I work out. You could do the same. Let’s say you’re into Netflix, Amazon Video, or Hulu. Watch an episode and then do some exercises. Watch another episode and do some more exercises.

Typically, my in-home full body workout looks like this:

Kettlebell curls, triceps kickbacks or triceps extensions, kettlebell front raises, lateral raises and shoulder presses. For chest, I do pushups (wide, close, and elevated), for back I do kettlebell rows. For legs I do standing calf presses, wall sits and bodyweight squats. You could also do lunges, but due to some nerve damage in my left leg, they are a little too difficult for me.

This week I wanted to talk about journaling. I’ve discussed this before in previous articles but wanted to emphasize how terrific the practice is. I use the Best Journal for my planning and goal setting, the 5-minute planner (digital version), a dream journal, and a daily diary that I fill out at night. This may seem a little over the top, but it works for me.

Journaling allows me to “brain dump” and examine my upcoming week. It also forces me to make choices. What are my goals for the next 90 days? The Best Journal has you set up three goals with intermittent steps every 90 days. It really works for me. The 5-minute journal allows me to write down some daily affirmations, express gratitude and has a great little quote and weekly challenge that I find fun. My daily reflections are in a plain white paper journal from Amazon for about 6 bucks. I date each page and write about anything that happened for the day. I developed this habit after going through my late grandmother’s journals. She listed down everything in her journal, from poetry she wrote herself to some of the bad things that happened to her and how she dealt with it.

I also do what is called a 15x exercise where I write down all the things I want to focus on. You could say I want to be: Healthy, wealthy, grateful, loved, and content. This could be your list. I use different ones, but the key is writing down each thing you want to become down 15 times. I have just started this, so I’ll keep you posted on how it works out.

Exercise and journaling are two of my cornerstone habits. They keep my body healthy and my mind clear. I hope each of you is having a terrific 2018. I look forward to hearing from you.

Until next week!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – Stephen Covey – Responsibility

Tags

Finding Happiness Within, Learning from Others, Planning, Reponsibility, Stephen Covey, Taking Charge

Today’s Quote:

“I’m not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen Covey

So many people who have problems to solve want to lay the blame for these problems on someone else, or something outside of themselves. Although comforting in some ways, it is a poor way to lead one’s life. It’s so easy to blame parents, your boss, a loved one, or the weather. The difficult road is to face yourself in the mirror and realize that you are the product of every decision you have made.

Honesty is the beginning of improvement. When we are honest with ourselves and truly take ownership of our situation in life, only then can we begin to take the actions that will lead us to a better tomorrow. Are you unhappy with your health or appearance, are you unhappy with the amount of money you make, are you unhappy with some of your relationships, are you unhappy?

Happiness starts within. It’s that simple. You choose to be happy or to be miserable. This is the first step. You have to be happy with yourself and not look for happiness elsewhere. If you are looking for something out there, you’ll always be looking. The same goes for only being happy when the circumstances are right, or some event occurs. Take a look at the people who are always influenced by outside circumstances. If everything is right they are happy, if something happens outside of themselves they are not happy with they are not happy. Can you visualize the roller coaster these people ride?

Once you realize that happiness is an attitude a way of thinking every day you’ve taken a huge step. Next, we have to look for the things we want to improve. Is it your appearance? If so, what about your appearance do you want to change? If it’s weight loss or lean muscle gain, do some research, figure out how you should eat, put together a plan, and begin working toward that goal.

If it’s money, think about what you need to do to make more of it. Is there a chance for promotion in your current firm or are you in a position that does not avail you of a promotion opportunity? If you can’t get promoted, then it’s time to look for a new position. Look around the Internet for job advertisements, improve your skill set, put together a plan and execute.

The key to self-improvement is determining where you are right now, then determine where you would like to be. Once you know these two things you can begin formulating a plan that will help you attain what you want. Plan on mistakes, setbacks, and faults in your plan, particularly if you are attempting something you’ve never done before. This is all about the learning process.

Sometimes you don’t need to start from scratch. If you do a little research, you may find someone else that was in your position and learn how they got themselves out of it. Learn from them, instead of making the same mistakes they did. This will not only help you grow but will also help you formulate a better plan.

The next time you start feeling sorry for yourself, take a quick inventory. Are you letting outside circumstances control you? Are you blaming someone or something else for your current situation? If you are STOP! You cannot control other people. You cannot control the weather. You cannot control anything that is outside of yourself. You can only control how you interpret and react to circumstances. It is your attitude that dictates how you feel.

Be honest with yourself, find happiness within you, and change your circumstances to the ones you want. No one is responsible for where you are but you. I wish you well on your self-improvement journey.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Striving

Tags

Exercise, Improving, Learning, Meditation, Reading, self-improvement, Striving, Studying, Writing

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” George Eliot

Wow, what a great quote right? How many stories have been told through the ages of a life wasted? Wow, he or she could have been this, if only….?

When you wake up in the morning, do you realize that you are the best you’ve ever been, ever? It only gets better moving forward. I realize this may sound to be a little over the top from a positivity perspective, but why can’t it be like that? It can be.

One of the things I’ve discovered since beginning this blog and following others is that there are a lot of folks who are striving. Striving to improve. Striving to be better. Striving to heal. Striving to be heard. I really enjoy reading the thoughts of others and try to put myself in their position, really feeling where they are in life. But, living a life well-lived is about the striving, right? I think it is.

I am striving for many things. I want to become a writer. I want to tweak my prose so people will be drawn to my books, my blog, or whatever I create for a reader to consume. I want to be in the best shape of my life so my brain and body will serve me as long as humanly possible. I strive toward this goal with daily exercise, eating right, a daily dose of reading, learning, writing, and meditation. I want to be loved, so I strive to interact with people, cultivate new relationships by putting myself out there, and maintaining the relationships I have with my family and my friends by staying in touch and doing those little things that make my loved ones know they are my world and they can depend on me.

I strive for a great many things that pertain to my physical well-being, my financial well-being, my mental and intellectual well-being, my spiritual well-being, and my social well-being. This striving is what keeps me alive. I continuously look for ways to improve and get better, all while taking care of the most important person in my life—me. If I am not striving for that next goal, that next hilltop, that next landmark, then I am moving backward.

Don’t get me wrong. We all get sick. We all get old. We all get blind-sided by those things that we didn’t see coming, which put us into a temporary tailspin. What I’m talking about here is purposeful striving, continuing forward, regardless of what we get hit with or encounter.

This is where the quote above really hit me. I don’t want to be that person that looks back over their life regretting that I didn’t do something I could have done. I don’t want to be that person that cowered in fear and avoided something because it might be too hard or too scary to even try. I want to look back on my life and say, I did the very best I could with what I had and from where I started. Man, what a great ride this life has been.

We all come to this world with our own baggage and circumstances. Some are outright advantageous, while others are the exact opposite. If you are ever discouraged, look around the web for a bit or go to your local library. You’ll find a story about a person who had it rougher than you and excelled. You’ll also find a person who had everything and wasted their opportunity. A well-lived life is not all about the accolades and accomplishments. It is about the striving.

By the way, I chose the Ballerina picture, as a way of demonstrating striving in action (they work really hard to get good at this particular kind of dance).

Until next time…