Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Technology

Tags

Appreciative, Apps, Dreams, Goals, Grateful, technology, Thankful, Websites

If you can dream something, you can do it. As long as you do not align your actions with your dreams, you are not fulfilling your destiny. — Harold Klemp
The Language of Soul

I’m thankful for my dreams. I enjoy pursuing things to accomplish. I am grateful for services like Codecademy, Udemy, and Coursera. These services allow me to learn different things, like coding, writing, and virtually any topic I find myself intrigued by. I am grateful for services like Bodybuilding.com which give me access to workout routines, diet and nutritional information. I am also grateful for their app called Bodyspace. Another fitness app I am enjoying is 5MHW (5 minute home workout) which I use when the gym is not a viable option. I am grateful for Scrivener, Scapple, and ProWritingAid, which help me generate book ideas, help me with grammar and style, and map out new ideas for stories and books. These websites and services contribute to my ability to pursue my interests and enjoy the journey.

 

I am grateful for my technology gear, like my iPhone 10 and laptop, which allow me to do my work anywhere I wish, read a book, watch a movie or show, or enjoy some of my favorite music. Technology allows us to do so many things that in previous eras were difficult or impossible to do.

 

All these tools help me work toward my goals and dreams. It is truly a great time to be alive. I hope each of you has a terrific Thursday! I am banging out my tasks and getting things done.

List any tech or app you use that helps you tackle your projects and goals. I’d be curious to see if there is something out there that I don’t use currently that would help me. Post your favorite tech or app in the comments below.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Pursuing Your Dreams

Tags

100 List, Achievement, Challenges, Dreams, failure, Fear, Goals, persistance, Planning, Starting, William Longgood

Dreams and dedication are a powerful combination—William Longgood

It is so easy to get bogged down with the trivial in life. We binge-watch television, we explore the postings in social media, or we gossip with our friends. The trivial things in life create nothing, contribute nothing, and accomplish nothing.

If you could accomplish anything you wanted in life, with no possibility of failing, what would you pursue? Keep this in mind while you list 100 things you’d like to do before your life ends. What did you write down? Did it involve traveling? Learning? Building a skill? Starting a business? Getting in shape? Seriously, use your imagination and dream a little. Whatever is on that list you can accomplish it. Dream big!

Once you have a list, go through it. Find that one thing on your list you can get to work on right now. Got your item picked? Good. Now look at what that finished task or goal looks like when you’ve achieved it. Do you have a good picture in your mind? Can you feel how good it will be when you’ve accomplished it? Who in your family is celebrating with you? Where are you when you complete this task? What colors are prevalent in your picture? What smells? How do you feel? Now, go backward from that moment and begin writing down all the things that need to happen to accomplish it. Now go through that list and make sure your tasks/milestones are in place. Is the time you’ve allotted between milestones realistic? Did you make sure your tasks are in order? In other words, are there any tasks that must go before another can be started?

Now commit. Commit to begin working on your dream task tomorrow. Begin working toward your first milestone daily until you hit it. Then look at the next milestone and begin working toward that. Stuck? Look at the milestone and your list of tasks, you may need to break these milestones down into even smaller tasks to get the job done. Do that. Get these milestones broke into small chunks that can be completed in 25-minute chunks. Now schedule these 25-minutes each day. Is it on your calendar? Good.

Does this seem easy? It is. The problem most people have when trying to accomplish something is they fail to take themselves or their dreams seriously. They dream about doing something and it stays in the dream state. The dream stays where it is and we get bogged down with our chores, our day job, or something else. These day-to-day commitments become a ball and chain that prevents us from pursuing what we’d really like to do. We let the mundane become more important than what we dream about. As the years roll by, we are still dreaming and not any closer to achieving the dream.

Everything in our lives become one big distraction, one more reason to delay, one more excuse waiting to happen. After a while we become like the circus elephant trained to believe that the small rope spiked to the ground is impossible for us to break. We learn how to be helpless. We create our own prisons. We give up the dreams that could be ours and replace them with the mundane. Instead of working on our book for 30 minutes a night, we get caught up in a television series about zombies. Instead of taking that trip to Iceland, we waste our money on junk food or material things we don’t need. Instead of pursuing that business idea we play video games. You get the point.

You don’t have to join the crowd. You can begin today and start living your life. Pursue that dream you have in your head. Plan it out as if you could not fail. Begin taking steps to accomplish it. You will be floored when you achieve it one day and the journey you take to get there will be something you will always cherish for the rest of your life.

You’ll wake up one day and look at yourself in the mirror with a pride you’ve never experienced before. You did it. Hell, you may even tear up because you’re so proud of yourself and what you’ve accomplished. Your family and friends will be proud. At the end of that glorious day, while you lay in bed, you’ll begin thinking about the next thing you’d like to do. And you know what? The next day you’ll begin planning and setting up your calendar to pursue your next dream.

Think about Edison, Ford, Lincoln, Washington, Einstein, Disney, Gates, Buffet, and Musk. Think about Keller, Curie, Earhart, Roosevelt, Thatcher, Rowling, Beyonce, and Oprah. The stories are alike. They started from nothing, with huge obstacles to overcome and naysayers in the background. They all had a dream and pursued it. Was it easy? No. Did they suffer at times? Yes. Did they experience failure and shortfall and doubt? You bet. The difference between you and them? They went for it. While their friends were diddling around with the mundane, they pursued their dreams. They stuck with it. When they failed, the got up, dusted themselves off, and started again.

It’s Wednesday, the 24th of April 2019. Over the next few days, put together your 100 list. Pick one thing you’d like to pursue. Get your plans set to begin execution on May 1st. You can do it. I believe in you. You have nothing to lose but the opportunity to learn more about yourself and gain the satisfaction that comes from starting your journey.

I wish you well.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Action Items, Bucket List, Dreams, Goals, Learning from Others, Organizing, Scheduling, Taking action, Visualization

Photo Credit: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/nelson_mandela_378967?src=t_motivational

Is there a task or goal you have that you are procrastinating on? You know you want to do it but you’re stuck. In the meantime, it keeps eating at you day after day. What do you do?

Like Nelson Mandela explains above, these tasks are not as big as we build up in our minds. The best way to handle a new task or undertaking is to learn how others have done it. Look for a tutorial on YouTube, post a question on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Ask your friends, your family members, your colleagues at work or church. It is highly likely that someone in your circle will know someone that can help or at least point you in the right direction.

I take a lot of online courses. I do this with a specific goal in mind. First, to learn something new. Second, to learn about something I want to know about that will help me achieve what I want. Recently, I took a non-fiction book writing course. It was terrific! It gave me a framework to work with. It provided key steps to take to write the book–the most important part being the creation of an outline. I discovered that once the brainstorming for things I wanted to talk about took shape, the writing of the book is actually pretty easy.

During this time I also had an epiphany. I took a look at my blog. In the last two years, I have easily written a book or two in content. So, I use my blog as the model. I write each section of my book and treat it like a daily blog post. Now, it’s a simple undertaking. Yeah, there are other unknowns out there like: How will I publish the book? Who will I get to edit the book? and other future questions, but the key, for now, is to get the content on paper. That’s what I’m focusing on now–content.

If you have any bucket list items, goals, or aspirations–don’t hesitate to begin searching for someone who has already done it. You’d be surprised. There are a lot of people in the world. There are a lot of people who post their achievements on YouTube and many other places. You’ll find out exactly what you need to find out.

The key to all of this is to act. You can talk about something, you can think about something, you can dream about something. If this is all you do, you’ll never get this thing done and you’ll be talking about it 6 months from now. Get off your butt and do something. You’ll be amazed how much you can get done if you just chop away a little a day.

This week is week 2 of the Kris Gethin 4-week to shred workout routine. I’m up to 40 minutes of cardio two times a day, along with a heavy-duty workout routine. I’m feeling pretty good and it feels even better when I’ve checked that second workout off of my daily to-do list.

I’m also reading some books, writing here and working on my book, and pursuing my spiritual interests. It’s going to be a great week!

Nothing is impossible folks. You just have to take a breath, visualize, come up with a plan, organize the action steps, set a basic timeline, and get to work. It’s that simple. I wish all of you a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Journaling Series Finale

Tags

Benefits, C.S. Lewis, Daily reflection, Dreams, Exercise Journal, Gratitude, journaling, Nutrition Journal

“But what am I to do? I must have some drug, and reading isn’t a strong enough drug now.” —C.S. Lewis, writing about journaling after his wife died in A Grief Observed

Dear reader,

I was looking through my blog this morning and discovered that I forgot to wrap up my Journaling series. If there was one piece of advice I could pass on to others, it would be this: Start journaling. Journaling allows us to communicate with ourselves. It allows us to air out our problems and be totally open without having to pretend or act a different way. You get to talk to yourself as yourself.

As I mentioned in my Journaling series, there are plenty of journals, even ones that I did not address. I only wanted to address the journaling that I do, not cover types of journals that I do not have experience with.

As promised, I also wanted to provide you with the ritual I associate with my personal journaling. My ritual for journaling involves two time periods. The morning is for my dream journal and gratitude journal. I enjoy recording my dreams. I have found that the more time I put into my dream journal the more memorable my dreams are. They are not like this all the time, but the detail and my recall have improved over time. My gratitude journal is used just for that—to record all the things I am grateful for.

I use the evening to reflect on my day. I call this my daily reflection. My daily reflection is more like a diary. I record the events of the day. I also have conversations with myself about things that are troubling me, things that I’m thinking about, and even the problems I’m trying to work through.

I also log my food into an app called My Fitness Pal and my exercises into another app called Body Space. The app I use for my gratitude, dream, and daily reflection journals is called Diaro (www.diaro.com).

Look around the web and for “benefits of journaling” and you’ll find an endless list of good things that come to those of us that journal. The benefits that I derive from journaling is the ability to get things out of my head. Sometimes when I’m writing in my journals I get impressions or ideas. These ideas help me solve a problem or provide an answer to a question. Sometimes these impressions point me in a direction to learn something or give me a nudge to act in some way.

One question I’ve wondered about. Should a journal be handwritten or typed? I’ve been torn between the two but settled on typed. I cannot read my own handwriting. This is the reason. I like to go back through my journaling and dreams and read them. It is amazing how much transpires in our lives that we forget about a few months later. It is also a great way to remember great things that happened during the day. I always discuss things that have happened as a sort of record of my life. I think it would be nice to pass down to my relatives once I’m gone.

A journal is your own biography. It tells a story about your feelings, your dreams, the people you’ve loved, your fears, and your happy times. It is your history.

Journaling has been one of the best decisions I have ever made and committed to. Honestly, there are some days I just don’t want to have anything to do with journaling and those days the entries are pretty short, but there are other days when I have a lot to talk about and fill a few pages.

In some respects, even this blog is a journal. The content I contribute to this community is from me. It is mine, but it is tempered. There are things I would never put on my blog. Those things are reserved for my journal.

I used C.S Lewis’ quote because he used his journal to get through the death of his wife. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. A journal can be that “ear” when you need one. It can be a very healing process. I have used my journal during some tough times and it helps—it really does.

Well, this is the end of my journaling series. I hope you had a chance to read through my other entries. I also hope that this series influences you to begin your own journaling practice. You won’t be disappointed.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday

Tags

Achievement, Character, Dreams, failing, Goals, Your "why"

“Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/h_jackson_brown_jr_101336?src=t_wisdom

This is such a great quote. I think we can all admit we have done things that we might not be too proud of when we think no one is looking. Aren’t all the great quotes the ones that demand a little more from us?

Character, like our minds and bodies, is a product of our experiences, decisions, and actions. What you are today is the resulting combination of these things. If you want to look at where people have the most difficulty in character development, look no further than online marketing ads.

Ads with the new magic weight-loss pill, the pill that will help you perform sexually, the pill that will add 20 pounds to your biceps and all the rest. Applications that will help you invest better, live longer, be happier.

Why do you think New Year’s Eve resolutions fail? The things we want are hard to achieve. They require us to be disciplined. They require us to stretch beyond our current capabilities. More importantly, they require us to commit, even when no one else is looking.

A buddy of mine approached me about exercise and losing weight a while back. Like most, he jumped right in with both feet. Then, after a week, he admitted he stopped exercising. He also admitted that he had 4 pizzas, two boxes of Cheese-Its, two bags of potato chips, and a family-sized bag of Fritos—in one weekend!

This is why you can only provide advice to people when they ask and let them do with the advice what they will. This is why you can’t compel anyone to do what they should want to do themselves. This is also why, YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE “WHY” behind your motivation to do something, whether it is to lose weight, exercise, eat right, meditate, write, or whatever.

I don’t care what goal you set for yourself. You will have a real challenge getting to the finish line if you do not know you’re own personal “why”. The “why” cannot come from outside of you. The goal must be yours and yours alone and you have to know why you want it.

I worked out with my brother for a few months a few years ago. The same result. He wanted to feel better, get into better shape, but he did not want to pay the price as badly as I did. He is eating better and avoiding foods his body knows aren’t good for him, but his exercise routine is drastically different than mine. That’s ok. He found the sweet spot for his personal exercise plan. The key is this exercise plan works for him and satisfies his “why”. His “why” was to just feel better and it is working.

If you really understand your “why” and you’re not lying to yourself, you will achieve anything you want. You’ll be willing to pay the price. Your “why” will be stronger than any price you have to pay. You will succeed. You won’t cheat on your diet, you won’t eat foods that are unhealthy or off your diet plan, you’ll do the exercise deliberately, and you won’t miss exercise days. You will be true to yourself because you have a compelling reason to do the work.

If you don’t have a “why” for a goal you are pursuing, put it aside for a while. Don’t torture yourself. Admit that you are not willing to pay the price it requires and feel good about that decision. You can always pursue it later. It is better to do this than attempt to do something you are not truly motivated to do. You’ll feel bad when you fail, you’ll beat yourself up, and you will still fail to accomplish what you set out to do. Leave it alone. If it’s important to you, you’ll discover your “why” and execute. If you don’t, that’s ok. Pursue another goal—a goal you really have a drive and the ability to complete. You’ll feel great and may be in a position to return to a previous “dream” and make it a reality.

I wish all of you the very best in achieving your dreams, whatever they may be.

Until next time…

Dave

Weekly Ramblings – Journal Series – Your Dream Journal

Tags

Dream Journal, Dreams, Insights, journaling, Past lives

Journaling Series

For this week’s rambling, I wanted to start a series of articles about journaling. This article will discuss what I call a dream journal. Follow on articles will deal with gratitude journals, diaries, journals for reflection, and so on. I hope this helps you decide what journals will serve you best.

I have tried a great deal of the commercial journals on the market and have found that each has its benefits and disadvantages. I’ll give you a review of each of these journals at the end of the series to save you some time or at least some foresight before you spend your money on them.

Enjoy!

The Dream Journal

Like other journals, the dream journal should be something that you use daily. Obviously, you’ll have some nights where you can’t sleep. These nights you won’t dream. On other nights you’ll have no recollection of your dreams whatsoever. These are both ok.

The purpose of the dream journal is to give our inner experiences reverence. The dream worlds we explore are just as real as our daily reality is, if we give them the respect we give our daily existence. When you have a dream, write it down as soon as you can. They tend to leave us quickly when we awake and become reoriented to our present reality.

I use the recorder on my iPhone sometimes. Other times, I will have such a strong impression when I awake that I can write it down as soon as I’m up and about. You’ll be the best judge of that as you move along with your journaling.

At other times you will awake with an impression. An impression is a feeling, nothing more. This feeling, however, does give us some clue as to what we may have experienced inwardly.

There are all types of dreams. Some are affected by what we did that day. Others are random and confusing. Still, others are with people we seem to know and others involving our family, friends, coworkers, etc. If you believe in past lives and reincarnation, some of your dreams could be a glimpse of the future or even some recall of a past life.

How to Start

Simply get yourself a writing pad or journal (you can buy them on Amazon for about $6). Write down the date and write down what the dream was or the impression you had when you awoke. Initially, you won’t have any clue about what your dream means. That’s ok. You’ll start to get an intuition about them over time. You’ll also discover that your dreams become more detailed. You’ll remember more about these inner experiences the more importance you place on them. By writing them down, this part will be taken care of.

Once you’ve gone a few months, go back and review your dream journal. I tend to look at my dreams at the end of the month. This review will help you identify different objects, colors, sounds, and other specifics to your dream world that are unique to you. If you see specific objects come up over and over, you may want to jot these down in another part of your journal we’ll call your dream dictionary. Simply write down the object, color, sound, or other description. Then write down what you think this “symbol” means.

You can also look up this “dream symbol” online to see if there is any particular relation to what you believe the symbol means. Go with your gut. Over time you’ll refine their meaning or even change it.

Why a Dream Journal?

What benefit is a dream journal? The dream journal will unlock a special part of you. Dreams have been recorded by many people throughout history. Some people give their dreams specific importance, particularly when they are making big life decisions. You can too, if you believe there is some guidance you are receiving.

We spend a good portion of our lives sleeping, why not record some of your adventures? You’ll find that recording your dreams in your journal will help you learn more about yourself. You’ll also find that the attention you pay to your inner worlds, the more focused and attentive you’ll be in the waking state. The reverse is also true.

Let’s say you are having trouble with details in your dreams. You can do a quick exercise everyday to help out in this arena. Pick a room or place and simply record all of the things you see. Pay particular attention to colors, things that appear out of place, or even the smells, sounds, and colors. You’ll find this little exercise will pay off in your dream worlds.

Dreams Provide Answers

Have you ever read an article that proposes the act of asking or contemplating a question you have before going to sleep? It works! Now, whether you believe your subconscious mind is working on these answers while you sleep, or the answers come to you from a higher power is best left to you. I believe we receive answers to our questions or hints how to live a better life from a higher power, but that’s my belief. If it works or if it could work, why not try it out.

Past Lives

Again, another sticky area if you do not believe in reincarnation. I believe reincarnation is real. This article was not designed to convince you one way or another. Some believe that are dreams contain pieces of our past, sometimes our present, and sometimes our future. Look through history at any number of people that journaled or wrote about their dreams and you’ll see the importance these historical icons gave to their sleeping hours.

Again, believe this if you want or don’t. I have come to know that past lives are real, through some of the inner experiences I have had throughout my life. I had one dream during my attendance at the U.S. Army’s Ranger School. The dream was literally a depiction of me graduating from the school. From that day forth I had no doubt I would graduate. I did. This is just one example of dreams and their relevance to our waking lives.

I hope this helps you discover your inner worlds.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Belief, Dreams, Harold Klemp, Inner Experiences, Knowingness, Revelations

Today’s Quote

“Those living the high spiritual life are the knowers, not believers. There is a world of difference between knowing and believing.” – Harold Klemp – The Language of Soul

Belief and knowing are infinitely apart. When one of us has a revelation, a memorable dream, or some other form of inner experience, it is sometimes very difficult to explain it to others. We try, but at times we’ll get strange looks or a “thanks for sharing, but…”

When you experience what is called knowingness, it is beyond the mind. It comes directly to you. When it does, you know in your heart that it is truth and a reality that is beyond explanation. The experience comes from deep within and you know that it is yours to treasure.

Thanks for visiting!

See you tomorrow…