Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

Tags

Action Plans, Focus, moving forward, Opportunities, Overwhelm, Procrastination, Resistance

Divine Spirit opens new opportunities, but we must take them. We must make our own choices with the best information at hand.—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

Opportunities present themselves to us constantly. What do we do with them? Do we grab the opportunity, investigate it, and make a choice to use or not use it or do we let it pass by because we are too busy to take the time and test its value? I think many people do the latter. Why? Perhaps we are exceptionally busy being banged and bumped around by life.

Unlike the person above, another person may grab every opportunity that comes their way and scatter their attention and efforts to the wind. They run down this rabbit hole and then another, accomplishing nothing. This too can be problematic and aid a person’s procrastination. Both routes can lead to missed opportunities and add to a person’s level of confusion.

Again, I ask why? Why would one person be oblivious to opportunity and another be hyper-actively pursuing all these new ideas? Fear. Person #1 is fearful and avoids everything. They are like the cartoon Ostrich that buries its head in the ground. Person #2 is fearful and pursues everything around them, enabling procrastination. They are like a puppy in a brand-new home, running this way and that, smelling and investigating everything that comes their way. If you watch people in these states, you soon see how ineffective it is to follow either path. What’s the solution?

The solution to these problems is focus. Focused people stay on track. They move forward with their goals. They concentrate their efforts on what they must do today to move them one step closer to their goals and avoid getting side-tracked by that next idea that pops up in their head. They track these ideas, however. They write their ideas down. They capture these ideas and process them later.

An idea comes, you capture it, and get back to your work. This way you are capturing all the ideas that come your way and avoiding the scatterbrain effects of moving on everything you receive right now. This is the most efficient way of maintaining a steady flow of ideas and remaining focused on the task at hand.

If you find yourself in either of these states (ignoring your ideas or chasing every idea that comes) take a moment and ask yourself some questions:

Am I working on my goals or am I doing busy work?

Am I missing opportunities or capturing them?

If you are doing too much busy work and avoiding the pursuit of your goals, take time to think about why you are resisting action. Is the next task too big? Are you lacking information? Are you lacking the skill to accomplish the next step in your plan? When we resist something, it is likely because of one of these reasons. Brainstorm. Think about all the things you could do right now to move yourself forward. If you are lacking information or skills, look for some online tutorials, classes, or YouTube videos that could give you some ideas. Once you find the solution, add that to your goal’s action plan, schedule it, and get to work. If the next task on your action plan is too big, break it down into more action steps and continue.

I hope this helps some of you. I find myself in this place from time-to-time. When I recognize that I’m stuck or resisting an action step in my plan, I look at the step and ask the above questions.

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Focusing on the Good

Tags

Focus, Goals, Gratitude, habits, Meditation, spirituality, Thoughts

“Thoughts are things, and it is important to keep our thoughts of a spiritual nature, to put attention on living a life that is a clear step toward growth.”—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

One of the many benefits of meditation is the ability to focus. We concentrate on our breath or do a body scan. Whenever our attention drifts away from the breath, we gently return to the it. Each day is different, but the process is the same. The daily practice is one that trains the mind to stay where it is, to truly focus the mind on one thing. If you can keep the mind focused on your breath, an object, or a chant, the rest of your reality will fade away.

The calming effects of meditation work well because of this focus. The mind fights it initially by going this way and that, bringing up a torrent of thoughts that appear out of nowhere. Over time, one can rise above the thought stream and just observe. This new state is quite tranquil. Spending as little as 10 minutes in this state brings one to place of peace and calm that will last for the rest of your day.

The practice of meditating trains the mind and allows the real you to begin observing the thoughts that are most beneficial to you. As the quote above says, “Thoughts are things…” They can bring good things to your life and they can bring bad things. As you observe your thoughts, you can discriminate between the good and bad thoughts in your thought stream and only give life to those thoughts that are helpful and serving. The practice of sifting through your thoughts as they float by is a good habit to get into. It takes time to develop the skill, but it will become habit if you focus your efforts on this.

One of the best ways to begin is to formulate your goals. Each goal will require effort on your part and will require your attention each day. If you set a few goals, you’ll have quite a few daily actions that have to be accomplished in order to move yourself toward the goals you have set. These actions can be set to your calendar, a to-do app, or even a hand-written daily planner. Then, as long as you stick to the daily actions you have set up, you will begin to have more good things to focus your mind on throughout the day. This focus on your daily actions and the productive mindset that ensues are the exact combination that will keep your mind focused on productive, good thoughts, and help you avoid bad thoughts—thoughts that will get you into trouble.

If your life is just not going the way you’d like, try some of my suggestions mentioned here. They work. Your mind likes to create things. A mind that is focused on good things will produce more good things. A mind that is focused on good and bad things will produce good and bad things. A mind that is focused on bad things will produce bad things. You are more powerful than you realize.

Stay focused on the good things in life. Express gratitude for even the smallest thing in your life that delivers joy. If you can keep your mind focused on the good, your life will turn around to the good. You are the only one that can do this. I wish you well on your journey.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Monday Motivation – Baby Steps

Tags

Baby Steps, Consistency, Focus, motivation, Peter Marshall, rituals, Simplifying, Small Deeds

“Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.” – Peter Marshall

Read more at: Brainy Quotes

This quote explains the importance of consistent, small actions. Some people have these great plans set for themselves but rarely attain them because they fail to break these big things down into actionable steps. Let’s tackle a simple task like reading a certain number of books in a year.

Let’s say you want to read 24 books this year. You take the 24 books, divide by 12 and discover you only need to read 2 books a month to achieve your goal. You take a look at your books and discover you have 30 chapters to read (15 chapters in each book) in 30 days. Read 1 chapter a day and you’ll hit the 30 chapters (finishing both books) and you’re well on your way to reading your 24 books, provided you stick with reading 1 chapter a day.

How am I doing on my goals? I’m on track. I finished the rough draft of my book over the weekend. Now it’s time to begin the re-write. I’m looking at what I will do daily to complete my first draft in 6 months and will dig into this new process on Feb 4, 2019. I’ll figure out how much writing I need to do, what tools I need, and then dig in daily.

I’m shooting for 12 online courses by year’s end. I have completed two so far and taking another two currently. I am also goaled to read 48 books this year. I am on track with three books completed and one more to go this month to keep on track.

My exercise goals are always about gaining muscle and losing weight. It is hard to do both but keep this as a goal regardless. Right now, I am in a bulking phase, just to get some more muscle on my frame. Then, once I am at a certain point, I’ll cut for a few months, then back to bulk, and so on. I’m going to continue to bulk until April and then cut for a few months to get ready for the Summer. My exercise plan is literally going to the gym daily or, in case of inclement weather, I exercise at home. That’s it. Daily exercise involving both weights and some cardio.

My spiritual goals are to read my Bible daily, meditate daily, journal daily, and continue with my book discussion once per month. All of these are on track. Simple things each day help me achieve big things by year’s end and build strong ritualized habits.

My social goals are slacking somewhat. I tend to interact a bit on social media, but it’s important to interact with other people face-to-face. The challenge currently is the big snow storms we are being hit with in the Midwest. It is not safe to drive if you do not need to, so for now, social media daily and Skyping with my friends will be the best alternative.

How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions? Are you still pushing forward or are you stalling? If you are stalling, look at what you want to do and minimize what you are doing daily to a point you can achieve little pushes each day. You’ll be amazed by what you can accomplish over time.

Little actions steps daily will build healthy habits, rewire your brain for these activities, and help you establish rituals of habits that you knock out each day. It is so easy if you take a chance and try this. I wish all of you well on this year’s goals.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesdays

Tags

Achievement, Focus, Lewis Carroll, Meaning, wisdom

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/lewis_carroll_165865?src=t_wisdom

One of the challenges all of us face is the ability to choose what we want to do—what we want to achieve. Obviously, we cannot do everything. We must choose. This fact was recently emphasized as I was reading The One Thing by Gary Keller. This book teaches that the best way to achieve success is to determine the most important thing to do each day to push you forward toward your goals.

We all have areas of focus. Health priorities, relationship priorities, learning priorities, and spiritual priorities. Of these we will also have priorities that we deem most important. According to Keller, this is our one thing. This is the thing you dedicate your time to. I enjoyed reading this book but offer a caution—each of us has multiple priorities we need to pursue in order t maintain a balance in our lives. You cannot neglect your physical priorities, to pursue a business interest. You cannot forego a business interest to pursue a spiritual focus. We must attack multiple areas in order to succeed. We must maintain our relationships, our bodies, our spiritual pursuits, and our focus on learning new skills.

If you neglect any of these, you will suffer. Make a lot of money, while sacrificing our families, our religious practices, and our physical health is not tenable. Balance is key and is attainable. Just pick something you can do to push each of these areas forward in a given week and you’ll achieve what I’m talking about.

Spiritually, you can attend a religious meeting once a week or read your religious text daily. Socially, you can set a date with your wife or significant other. Learning can be achieved by setting a consistent schedule for reading or writing, online tutorials, or one of many free online courses. Physically, you can workout a few times this week. If you plan out your week you can make sure you pick one or two things to do in each of these areas to continue pursuing your goals that are specific to each of them.

What happens if you have no focus? You’ll end up spending your time on a lot of worthless activities. You’ll be spending your time on entertainment and other time wasters. It’s OK to have some downtime, watching a good movie or moving through one of the many television series that are available, but without focus, you’ll spend more and more time on activities that will result in nothing moving you forward. This is truly a wasted life.

The best book I can recommend to you if you are lost is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. This book will provide you with character building habits and provide you example after example of what to do to move your life forward in a productive and balanced way. This book changed my life.

Once you are focused on certain things you want to pursue—pursue them. This self-motivated purpose will help you achieve a great deal of meaning in your life. Purpose provides meaning. Meaning gives us a reason for living. Meaning gives us something to look forward to and enjoy—a means of transcending mediocrity and suffering.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Choices, Focus, Goals, My Schedule, Paying the price, Visualizing your Perfect Self, Your "why"

“All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.” – Juvenal

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/juvenal_122569

Choices

Are there things you want to do with your life? Do you have goals that you’d like to achieve? Do you have a bucket list? What is the one thing you’d like to do before you leave this Earth?

The main problem with setting goals is choosing. We can only do so much in a day. We have only so much time on this Earth. We cannot do everything we want because it is impossible to achieve mastery in all the areas we contemplate doing well in. If you spread your efforts across too many things you will fail to achieve the mastery you desire.

Focus

To truly achieve what we set out to, we must first choose what we want to dedicate our time towards. Then, we need to understand where we are. What level of proficiency do we have currently? What do we need to do next to achieve the next level of mastery? When will be finished?

If you know where you are you can set up a process or plan to get where we want to go. By understanding the field of endeavor, we are pursuing, we know the next steps. Once we have an action plan it is nothing more than focusing on each discreet step to achieve what we set out to do.

Paying the Price

To achieve anything, we must pay a price. That price will your time, your energy, and your commitment to seeing what you start to your designated end. If you are willing to dedicate your time, energy, and commitment to this thing, you will achieve it at some point, if your goals are realistic. Setting a goal to be an Olympic swimmer or professional athlete in your late-sixties may be a stretch, but you could set a goal to be in the best shape you are capable of.

Your “why”

Your willingness to pay the price depends on the reasons you are pursuing the goal in the first place. Are you truly looking to lose weight, write a book, learn a new language, learn to play an instrument, or gain some other skill or talent because you want it or someone else wants it? Are you willing to do what is necessary to achieve your goal? If not, rethink your “why”.

The reason you embark on a personal journey must be compelling. You must be motivated, interested, and hunger for the goal(s) you set for yourself. Your “why” will be the one thing that drives you to get up and go to the gym, open your word processor and crank out some writing, go to your studio and pick up the brushes, or set down at the piano and practice.

No Goals

Maybe you do not have any goals. Maybe you are not motivated to pursue anything. Maybe life has just beat you up so badly that it is hard to even get out of bed, let alone set a goal to achieve anything. What’s the bother, right? What difference will any of this make?

Imagine a life where you could do anything you wanted. Money is no issue, time is no issue, and your inherent talents are no issue. You literally can do anything you want to. Now, pick something you’d do if this were the case. Seriously. Pick one thing you’d do if you had the money, time, and ability to do it. What would you do?

In my case, I looked at myself and visualized a more perfect me—a prototype of a better self if you will. Once I visualized that me, I began to think about where I was at the time and what I would have to do to get to that improved self. Then, I wrote down all the things I would have to do to get there. These are now my goals.

Maybe you want to become an artist or musician, a writer, a computer programmer, a weightlifter. Perhaps you want to travel the world, learn a new language, or explore ancient ruins. Maybe you want to become a film, restaurant, or music critic. Maybe you want to start your own non-profit, get more involved in politics, or get involved with charitable organizations.

Brainstorm the things your perfect self would do if you could. Feels liberating doesn’t it? Believe it or not, the great successes in our history made choices, wrote down their goals, and focused on what they wanted. They decided to pay the price and did it. Whether you are a Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or any number of high-achievers—they all decided what they wanted, agreed to pay a price, and stayed focused on achieving that vision of their more perfect selves.

Here are the things I’m working on this week:

I am in the middle of week 3 of the Jim Stoppani Shortcut to Size program;

I am working through a couple of books;

I am taking courses on mini-habits, cascading style sheets (CSS) programming, and mindfulness;

I am writing a section of my non-fiction book a day (around 500 words);

I am building articles for my blog pages;

I am meditating daily to achieve more calm in my life and improving my focus;

I am watching some shows on Netflix and Amazon prime (after work hours);

Well, that’s it for today folks. I hope all of you have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – Cycles and Focus

Tags

Cycles of Rest, Cycles of Work, Execution, Focus, Planning, The Pomodoro Technique

Today’s Quote:

“Don’t waste a single second. Just move forward as fast as you can and go for it.” – Rebecca Woodcock

This is one tough order to fill. Can we ever just move forward as fast as we can without some period of rest and recuperation? I don’t think we can.

Cycles

Our reality is filled with cycles. We awake, and we sleep. We work and rest. Even our hearts have pauses between the beats.

I think each of us has a consciousness about when we work best and when we just need a break. These breaks could be a nap, relaxing on the couch, doing some mindless web surfing, or taking a breather at the gym. We must have periods of rest that accompany our work.

Focus

When we work, we should focus on the work. Like I’ve said before, I use the Pomodoro technique when I am doing focused work. I work for 25 minutes, take 5 minutes for a break and again and again. Try this for yourself. Maybe 25 and 5 don’t work for you. Maybe 30 and 10 or 45 and 15. Whatever the break down is, use that as a starting point. Heck, you can even reduce these numbers. Say you start with 15 minutes and take a 5-minute break. Whatever you start with, begin with this and adjust the numbers as you gain more comfort with it. The timer on your phone or computer is just fine. There’s no need to download an app for this.

If you’ve never done this before, you’ll find that your focus muscles will need work. It is so easy to drift off and do something else. If you find yourself having difficulty with focus you can also use another tool that I have used over the years with great success—meditation.

Meditation in its simplest form is literally nothing more than focusing on the breath. Breath in. Breath out. Again, you’ll find this to be a little challenging initially. I use two different meditation apps to help. One is called Calm; the other is called headspace. There are probably a number of others out there, but these are the two that I gravitated to. You’ll find over time that you’ll be more relaxed and focusing will be much easier. You can focus on your breath at any time.

So, remember that there are cycles of work and rest. During our work, we should focus on the work and nothing else. Pick one task, focus on it until you’re complete. If it is a big task, break that into smaller tasks that can be accomplished with one or more 25-minute periods of work. Once you’re done, move on to the next and so on.

This stuff works if you give it a chance. You’ll find yourself getting more done in a shorter amount of time and you’ll automatically be more productive. I hope you give this a try. Feel free to reply to this posting with any questions, successes, or challenges you come across.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – Scott Reed – Focus

Tags

Focus, Monotasking, Scott Reed, The Pomodoro Technique

Today’s Quote:

“This one step—choosing a goal and sticking to it—changes everything.” – Scott Read

This quote reminds us of the importance of focus.

Focus, is one of the many facets of accomplishment that will help us remain on target for the achievement of our goals. Focus, requires us to make choices. Focus, requires the discipline to stay on task.

This brings to mind a tool I use. It’s called the Pomodoro Technique. It works like this:

• Use any type of timer and set it for 25 minutes
• Take a short rest for 5 minutes at the end of the 25-minute work period
• Repeat the above two steps until you get to the 4^th iteration and take a long break
• Then the cycle begins again with 25 minutes of work with 5-minute rest periods

There are a few more rules. If you stop work during the 25 minutes for any reason that Pomodoro does not count toward your daily count. During the 25-minute work period, you work on one single task and do not deviate.

This will take some practice, particularly in the beginning, when you’ll find that you will underestimate the time it takes to do something. This is ok. For tasks that take longer than 25 minutes, you’ll schedule multiple Pomodoros for that task. When you have completed the work, you move to the next task on your schedule and work for 25 minutes at a time to accomplish it.

It is highly suggested that you work on one task until it is complete. Don’t scatter your efforts. If one task eats up your workday, no problem. The goal is to accomplish things not do busy work. After a while, you’ll get really good at estimating the number of Pomodoros it takes to do something, particularly if the work you are doing involves doing the same things over and over.

I use an app called Focus Keeper. I found this one in the Apple App store.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – Quality Work

Tags

Arianna Huffington, Focus, Pomodoro Technique, Quality of work, Quantity of work

Today’s Quote:

“We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of the time we put in.” – Arianna Huffington

I think this is a really important point. What is quality work? To me, quality work occurs when we are focused on the task at hand and the effort we put into the task results in what we set out to do in the first place. I’ll use writing as an example.

I think anyone in my reading audience would agree with this statement: “You can write down 200 words one day and it is absolute crap. The next day those 200 words are a masterpiece.” The question is: “How can we achieve that 200-word masterpiece every day?”

I think the best way to achieve quality is to focus. Focus causes us to stick with one thing until we’re done with it. This focus will keep us on task and allow us to continue working on something until it achieves the “end state” we are seeking.

Some folks can focus without any outside help. I am jealous of those people. I have to use tools. One of the tools I use is “The Pomodoro Technique”. This technique involves the use of a timer. The basic idea behind this technique is to concentrate on a single task for 25 minutes then take a 5-minute break. This continues until we are completed with our task. It is suggested that we should never try to accomplish a task that takes longer than 5 sessions (25 minutes each). This is easy if you break your larger tasks down into 25-minute sessions.

Initially, this is tough. I always underestimate or overestimate the length of time it takes to get something done. However, over time you’ll find that the tasks you do day in and day out are roughly the same. You’ll start to get better at estimating the time it takes to do things and you will become more efficient at scheduling your time.

If you’ve never heard of The Pomodoro Technique, just do a quick google search and you’ll find a lot of information about it everywhere. Try it out. You may find that your productivity actually improves quite a bit.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – Focus

Tags

Focus, Goal Completion, Priorities

Today’s quote:

“You can do anything, but not everything.” – Anonymous

Focus is so important in our lives. Focus is what allows us to finish a project we start and begin working on the next. Focus ensures that we only choose to pursue a few things at once instead of too many.

This is the primary reason I finally broke down and began only working toward’s my goals in 13-week chunks. It is so much easier to remain focused on the goals I have set in 13 weeks, vs. setting goals for 6 months or a year. It also forces me to choose what my top three goals are for this particular 13-week period.

Focusing on 3 goals over 13 weeks is so much easier than trying to focus on more. Do we have to make a choice? Yes. Do we have to give up on everything else? No. Write down anything you want to do when it comes to mind. When it comes time to attack a new set of goals add that one into the three you are going to pursue if it still holds some importance against the other goals you want to achieve.

By remaining focused on smaller amounts of goals, you greatly improve your odds of actually checking them off of your list. Focus wins.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – Kim Garst

Tags

Charity, Focus, Kim Garst, Priorities

Today’s Quote:

“If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents—start charging for it.” – Kim Garst

This is a really important quote and one that I come back to over and over again. When you work for someone else, you should expect to be compensated, unless it is a charitable event or helping out a family member.

If you’re like me, I really enjoy writing. I may opt to use a paying service like Patron or something else in the future, but for now, I enjoy working on this blog for the sake of the writing. I am also working on some books. A nonfiction book on Technical Recruiting and some ideas about some novels I’d like to write and publish. Writing a book is not an easy task. If it were, everyone would do it. I will be seeking a fee for my books, once completed.

This is all about personal preference. If you are seeking an income from blogging or some other service you provide for others—go for it. If your work is worth something, people will pay you for it.

What I think is most important is your time. If you are faced with a conflict between doing your writing or some other personal work, your work should be the priority. Don’t let people guilt you out. Your time is exactly that—your time. Don’t be afraid to say “no” to other people, particularly if what they want you to do will detract from what you are focused on.

I don’t want to be seen as evil hearted, but there’s a big difference in helping family or friends and saying “yes” to everyone. This will put you in a hard place and could cause you to miss deadlines you’ve set for yourself. Then the resentment will kick in.

Be willing to give of yourself to others, but not by sacrificing your personal goals and aspirations. These should be paramount in your life and should not be sacrificed by being too much of a “yes” man or woman.

Until next time…

Dave