Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Consistency

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Consistency, Exercise, Goals, Goodreads, Monday, motivation, Reading, Routine

Good morning! Happy President’s Day!

How do you stay motivated for your daily tasks and goals when it’s a holiday? I follow a pretty rigid schedule of Monday – Friday, even while retired. There are certain things I do everyday, regardless of what holiday falls on Monday. The caveat to that is during the month of December, I pretty much take the whole month off.

I find consistency is the key to getting anything done that requires more than a day’s work. Take reading, for example. I use Goodreads to track all of my reading. I set a goal of roughly 60 books a year. If I read 5 books simultaneously each month (5 chapters a day), I will typically meet or exceed the 60 book goal I set. A lot of that depends on how big the books are. During those years I am reading a lot of history or non-fiction books, the number I hit tends to be lower. Most of these books (at least the ones I am interested in) tend to be quite long (400 or more pages). Subsequently, it’s harder to knock those ones down compared to a 200-250 page novel, which tends to move along more quickly. Anyway, for me it is better to do the same things each day on a schedule than just wing it. By doing a little each day, you can achieve quite a lot by year’s end.

For exercise this week, I’ll be doing some home workouts. I’m not a huge fan of driving in the snow or in inclimate weather. Here’s my workout:

Monday (Quads and Calves)

Tuesday (Hams and Abs)

Wednesday (Back and Biceps)

Thursday (Chest and Triceps)

Friday (Shoulders)

Each day I’ll do 50 reps for each body part.

I hope each of you has a great Monday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – Benefits of Exercise

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Appetite, Benefits, Body, Exercise, Fun, Sleep, Ted Talk, TedEd, Thinking

For those of you who fell off the exercise wagon over the last couple years of COVID, here’s a video that will give you some things to think about when you begin again. For me, exercise helps me sleep. When I wasn’t exercising consistently, my sleep patterns were thrown way off, my appetite was off, and my energy levels were in the pits.

After reading Tim Ferris’ 4-hour body last year, I also realized that much of the hype surrounding supplements, exercise routines where you are killing yourself everyday in the gym, are all falsehoods. A few good workouts a week can do the trick and they can be done in the comfort of your home or at a gym.

I hope you learn something from this video and if you are not exercising, find a little motivation in this video to begin something, anything to get moving.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Reframing

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Exercise, Monday, motivation, Read, Reframe, Simplify, Socialize, Spiritualize, Stick to basics, To-do Lists, Write

One of the benefits of retirement is I have a lot of freedom to choose what to do today or tomorrow or throughout the week. One of the detriments of retirement is I have a lot of freedom to choose what to do today or tomorrow or throughout the week.

When my daily to-do list gets out of hand, I return to the basics. I reframe what I need to do each day. It simplifies things, makes it easy to get done my most important tasks, and reignites my motivation to get things done, because I have “less” to do.

My key things are: physical (exercise, eat right, sleep, water), mental (read, write, learn), social (stay in contact with friends, colleagues via phone or social media), and spiritual (journaling, reading, spiritual exercises).

Obviously, things will come up, but my daily to-dos focus on doing something in each of these areas consistently every day. Over time one can get a lot done!

If you have found your motivation waning, it may have to do with stacking your plate too high with too many things. Or it may involve trying to do too much. For those that still work, this is a recipe for disaster. Keep it simple. If you want to read, read a chapter or a few pages, whatever time permits. If you want to write, start a simple journal like a diary, dream journal or gratitude journal, or for those of us here, write something in your blog. I try to keep my blog entries to within a 200-300 word chunk if possible. I also try to keep the volume of my writing in my journal to this amount as well. If you want to exercise, do something simple like walking up and down stairs, some pushups, situps, air squats, or inclined pushups on the stairs. Spiritual things like prayer, meditation, and the like are up to you. Read a spiritual book, meditate, pray at some point in the day. I find this to be most important to schedule. Then I know I’ll get it done and not miss a day of this important aspect of my life. Socially, I stick to family. After retirement and moving back to Michigan, many of my daily contacts have reduced to a facebook posting or quick response here and there. I focus on family first, then others if time allows.

Reframing your to-do list is a simple practice of reducing things down to the basics. Read, write, socialize, and spiritualize. If you can reduce your daily to-dos (habits) down to their core, you’ll find it much easier to tackle the list and get things done.

My exercise this week, will be another change of pace. I’m sticking to home this week, because the weather has turned absolutely brutal (it’s in the single digits outside) and I enjoy staying indoors. So this week, it’ll be a focus on upper body, lower body, and cardio (each of these twice a week). Here is what it looks like:

Lower body (Monday and Thursday)

Upper body (Tuesday and Friday)

Cardio (Wednesday and Saturday)

I hope all of you have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Motivation is Coupled to Your Mood

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anxiety, depression, Exercise, Fall, Holidays, Monday, Mood, motivation, Sister, Sun Lights, Winter

This time of year it gets dark and stays dark. We have a lot of dark, rainy days in the fall, or dark snowy days. It’s just that time of year for Michiganders. Many people in my neck of the woods suffer from an ailment (I do not know the name), where the dark impacts their moods. My sister is one of them.

She and I are the exact opposite when it comes to this time of year. It is my favorite time. For her it is absolute torment. One solution she came up with was getting herself a light that she sits in for about an hour before doing anything else. It was the trick.

Do you have any fall challenges? Do the darker months impact you? You may want to look into a light like my sister did. Perhaps you have other challenges with the fall and winter months. Maybe you do not like to be cooped up. Learn some winter sports like cross-country skiing, hiking, or even just walking. There are a lot of things to do if you look for them.

Motivation and mood are tied to one another. It is hard to be motivated if you are pissed off or depressed. Find the root cause of these things; get some help if you need it. It is really hard to be motivated if you don’t feel well, or are suffering from depression.

Another thing you may look into is exercise. Exercise for me is like going to a psychologist. I just feel so good when I go to the gym, get in some exercise, and sweat a little. It is something about the body moving, the endorphins that are released when we exert ourselves, and the boost to the self esteem that comes when you do something that is hard to do.

Well, that’s it for today, folks. Enjoy the changing colors of the leaves, the snow that will come soon, if it is not here already where you live, and the great food and family time that accompanies this time of year. It’s great to be alive, isn’t it?

Have a great Monday, folks.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Self Care

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Exercise, good music, Hobbies, motivation, Self Care, spas, staycations

It’s time for some self-care. When you work hard, you have multiple priorities, and they are all tugging at you simultaneously, you need some respite. What do you do to destress?

Music has always been a great source of relaxation for me. The right music, calms me right down. Another source I used to distress is to get involved with a hobby. I like video games, so that’s my go to.

Did you realize that exercise can also be a huge stress reliever? Exercise stresses the body, but this stress releases what scientists call the “feel good” brain chemicals called endorphins. You can monitor this the next time you do some exercise. It occurs about 10-15 minutes into any workout. When it hits, you get a “second wind” that makes it feel like you could continue to workout for another hour. Anyway, exercise reduces stress by the release of these endorphins and how the body reacts to the stresses you put on it in the gym. It gets stronger. I’m not just talking muscles, but nervous system, circulatory system, skeletal system–the whole works.

What do you do to relieve stress? What hobbies do you have? What types of exercise do you enjoy?

When was the last time you got a massage, manicure, pedicure? My wife introduced me to manicures and pedicures, and they are terrific. Talk about spoiling yourself. Then there are the spas. When have you been to a spa for a weekend, getting pampered, eating terrific food, and just relaxing with herbal tea and a good book?

For those of you who have a hard time getting away, there’s always the “staycation” where you go to a local hotel and stay the night or for a weekend, letting someone else cook for you, watching some shows on the television, or getting out and taking part in some local events that normally escape your calendar.

We have many priorities and demands. Take some time to relax. You’ll be more efficient and ready to take on those challenges again when you get back from your excursion.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Some Goals Should Be Dropped

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Achievement, Drive, Exercise, Goals, Hobbies, losing motivation, motivation, persistance, Resistance, someday-maybe list

I wanted to continue the conversation about your mid-year goal evaluation and assessment I discussed last week. One thing I forgot to mention is the importance of putting some goals aside. We start the year strong, really motivated to tackle all of our stuff, but suddenly, as life catches up, and our priorities change, some goals we set just aren’t right.

This is the time to do a little hedge trimming. What goal do you constantly struggle with? When I use the word struggle, I am talking about internal resistance. You want to do something, but you resist it by procrastinating, rushing through it, or just making a puny effort to get it done for the day. These are the goals you really want to take a look at. One goal, regardless of how you feel about it or resist it, should never be removed from your goal list–exercise. This is one exception to the rule of hedging your goals. The body has to move, work, and exercise. Our internal systems are stupid in a way, but also very efficient. This is the double-edged sword. If you do not work the body, it will react in kind, by reducing muscle, bone density, the whole gambit. When the body goes, so does the mind, and the mechanism you use to get anything done deteriorates.

The rest of your goals are open game. It makes no sense to pursue a goal, you ‘re not into anymore. Put in on a someday-maybe list. Then attack the rest of your goals with vigor. We all change. Our attitudes change, our tastes change, and yes, even our dreams change. Don’t punish yourself by pursuing a goal that you just aren’t into anymore. Get it off your goal list and attack the ones you are excited about.

Here’s an example: One of my goals this year was to draw. I started out on fire, watching YouTube videos, reading articles, and trying out my ideas on paper. Because I am a novice at this, I didn’t spend a bunch of money on expensive drawing paper or the pencils many artists use. I just grabbed the ole number 2 pencils and sketched inside one of my blank notebooks. Around April or so, I lost interest. I liked sketching, but just didn’t feel like doing it anymore. So, I put it on hold. It was my goal. Who cares? Why torture yourself?

The goals I love are related to my passions–reading, writing, learning, exercise, and video gaming. I love working on my laptop with a nice cup of coffee or another of my favorite beverages (Monster, anyone?). As long as it is caffeinated, I’m there.

I have one blogger friend who is passionate about crafts. She makes quilts, handbags, you name it. Another blogger friend is a true-blue author. I have other blogger friends who love to travel, collect stamps or coins, or even make models. My true hobby and love is video games. I can’t get enough of Call of Duty, running around a digital map, and playing the role of action-hero, blowing away the enemy with a growing list of weapons, ranging from a simple baseball bat to a 20mm Sniper rifle. It is such great fun. I also enjoy the Far Cry series, which is bringing out Far Cry 6 this year. It’ll be great fun. I particularly like cooperative playing games, because this is the way my brother (who is in Arizona), nephew, and I stay in touch. He loves video games as well.

Well, that’s enough for this week. The key take-away is to stop torturing yourself over goals you’ve lost the fire in your belly for, OTHER THAN EXERCISE. Exercise is critical to your long-term health and well-being.

Have a great week, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Thursday – Building Muscle

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Exercise, fitness, gym, health, Ted Talk, Thinking Thursday, working out

Now that I am going back to my gym (Yes!), I figured it would be good to share a video about how to build muscle. So here it is.

I hope you enjoy this one. It’s pretty informative.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful/Thinking Thursday – Consistent Reading, Writing, and Learning

Tags

Consistency, Exercise, huge results, Learning, Reading, small actions, Udemy, Writing

Photo credit: CallofDuty.com

Over the last few years, as more of my schedule has come under my control, I have found that doing a little each day compounds into huge results. A little exercise, a little reading, a little writing, and a few minutes watching, listening, or reading some educational material can go a long way.

Some of you are working from home. The beauty of working from home is you can get a lot of things done in a more efficient way. You are not forced to work only for your boss and then look at that pile of laundry, dirty dishes, or snow-filled driveway on your own time. Now you can work on both sets of priorities simultaneously, other than those ZOOM conference calls that eat up a good portion of the workday. Why not take an hour a day and knock out a little in each area: reading, writing, exercise, and learning? It doesn’t take long.

The average length of a session on Udemy is roughly 5-6 minutes long. If you take a few courses, you’re looking at 20-30 minutes each day. You’ll get your graduation certificates in no time, and if you take the right courses, you’ll be adding some critical skills to your toolbox. If you select the 4+ star-rated courses on Udemy, you’ll also be entertained by popular instructors that make the material fun and interesting. 30 minutes a day for 6 days (assuming you subscribe to my “do nothing day” policy) is 3 hours of learning!

If you take the time to analyze what you do each day, I think you’ll be amazed at how much time you spend watching television or streaming videos, and other activities, that although entertaining, don’t build anything. I’m a huge video game fan. My current favorite is Call of Duty, Black Ops, Cold War. It’s a great game and very popular (over 100 million players worldwide). I could play that game for 10+hours a day and still have more energy to play even more. Balance is the key. We all need our downtime to relax, recharge, and rejuvenate. Watch those shows, play those games, get some of that “me” time, but balance this out with some productive activities that will keep your mind working. It is really exciting to me when I pick up some new skill that I can apply immediately to what I do every day.

That’s all I got today, folks. Have a great Thursday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursdays – Winter

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cocoa, Coffee, December, Exercise, family, Reading, reflecting, tea, Winter, Writing

Many people cringe when the snow comes. Not me. I love the cold, the snow, and the comfort of looking at all of that while I drink a cup of coffee. The winter in Michigan is a long one. We typically do not get moderate weather until late April.

What do I do? Pretty much the same thing I do every day — Read, Write, Learn, Socialize on this site and others, stick with my religious disciplines, exercise, and squeeze in some leisure time. My favorite things to do for fun are to read a good fiction book, non-fiction book, watch a show or a series, and play video games. Now that most games are networked, my brother and I can play in and around his work schedule. It’s great fun.

So today, I’m thankful for the Winter season. The holidays are terrific, the in-house time is relaxing and rejuvenating, and it’s a great time to reflect on the past year, and get ready for the next.

I hope each of you has a terrific Thursday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Workout Routine – Week of November 15, 2020.

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50/50 workout, Biceps, Discipline, Exercise, healthy living, Jim Stoppani, Workout Routine

This week, we’re going to change things up again. I’m going to kick into a 50/50 workout to work on my biceps.

Monday – Sunday: 2 sessions 50 reps bicep curls.

See you at the finish line!

Dave