Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Drive, Goals, H.G. Wells, habits, mini-habits, Movitation, Stephen Guise

“If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” – H. G. Wells

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/h_g_wells_163592?src=t_motivational

How many times have you set a goal for yourself, only to give up or screw up within a few days? (I raise my hand). It happens to all of us, right? Change is hard. The brain’s wiring is hard to overcome.

We get ourselves fired up and charge into the fight, only to fizzle out within days or hours. How do we overcome this cycle? I asked this question, searching for the answers and finally found the answer a few years ago. The answer is this: Create “stupid small” habits.

These habits are mentioned in Stephen Guise’s book: Mini Habits. You can find it online for $5.99. In his book, Stephen explains what “stupid small” means and why creating these stupid small habits are so effective. Imagine an exercise program consisting of one pushup. Imagine writing 50 words a day. Imagine creating a habit where you are only required to read 2 pages in a book or even 1 page if 2 is too much. You see the pattern here.

The beauty of these mini habits is they don’t require a lot of motivation and only tap minute levels of your willpower, which science has shown to be finite. Interestingly, they have also found that willpower can be exercised like a muscle and the more we train our willpower, the stronger it gets. Persistence is key. If you screw up today, you get back on the horse again tomorrow.

If for some reason you continue missing days or “screwing up” reduce your requirements even more. Ultimately, the goal of these mini habits is to create the ability to do something you want to do every day or every week and stick with it until it becomes second-nature. Once your internal wiring accepts the new habit, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to keep it going. The next step in this process is the bonus work you’ll get each time you use your newly formed habit. Think about reading a page in a book. If you are reading a great story, it’ll be hard to just read one page, right? The same goes for writing 50 words or doing 1 pushup. Each of these habits is so minimal, it would be easy to add to them. Just realize your only requirement is the mini habit you created. The bonus work you do is cool and will add dramatically to your self-esteem, but they are not required. Only the mini habit is. This is really important to remember: Only the mini habit is required. The bonus stuff you do is bonus stuff.

If you want to build some new habits get this book. I am not an affiliate of Amazon or Stephen Guise. I just like to pass on life-changing books that come into my life. It has had a huge effect on me and I hope it helps you attain your goals.

This week:

• I’m leading a book discussion today at a monthly meetup
• I’m healing from a hurt back (so workouts are minimum and low intensity)
• I’m continuing to work on my non-fiction book
• I’m learning a new game called Masters of Orion 2 (introduced by a buddy of mine)
• I am cooking some meals that will keep me satiated during my intermittent fasting
• I am going to finish a book I’ve been working on this week, called Armor
• I will be moving back into the non-fiction reading arena by starting a book by Immanuel Kant

I hope each of you has a terrific week!

Until next time…

Dave

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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 – Thinking Thursday

Tags

Amazon Prime Video, Codecademy, Coursera, Goals, Movies, Netflix, TV Series, Udemy

Well, folks. Another week is almost gone. Before you know it, you’ll be bombarded with trick or treaters knocking on your door or hitting your doorbell. For me, Halloween is the beginning of my favorite part of the year—the Holidays! This year, I’m going to be good and continue to push forward with my weight loss. Last year, I took a hiatus from lifting and dieting and I paid for it, although it was fun eating all the cookies, cakes, and pies that go along with the holidays in my home.

This week is a week to reorganize my priorities. As you’ll see below, I’ve been binging quite a bit. I’m not neglecting my writing or my exercise, but I would like to do some more work on my learning sessions and my spiritual pursuits, which suffer a bit when I’m so engrossed in the next great series (It doesn’t help that my brother and sister keep passing along great shows to watch). Anyways, I hit the gym early today for my cardio. Tomorrow will be another cardio day. Then it’s off to week 3 for the Shortcut to Size program I’m on currently.

I’m up to a 14,000 word-count on my book and continue plugging away at it. One day at a time and I’ll get there! I’m also really enjoying my Calm Meditation App (see below in apps). My daily practice is really helping me with calmness and focus.

I had to help my Dad set up a new computer today. He loves YouTube. His other computer died yesterday, and I wanted to get it up and running for him. It took a while because we decided to use Mom’s laptop since she doesn’t use it much and it had a whole truckload of updates to do (around 6 hours or so).

One last thing. I baked my first batch of egg bites today, so I can get up nuke my eggs and eat them straight away. I love breakfast—but hate having to make something, particularly when I want to go to the gym. The batch I made today was just scrambled egg yolks, salt, and pepper. I’ll make another batch tomorrow and experiment with additives like cheese, bacon, peppers, onions, mushrooms, and kale. These are really easy to make and because I can bake 12 at a time, I can food prep my breakfast for the entire week in about 30 minutes.

Below are the things I’m doing to improve and change. I hope all of you have a great week!!

Exercise Program:

Jim Stoppani’s Shortcut to Size – (www.bodybuilding.com) – I’ve done this workout before and returning to it because it is just a good all-around weight routine. It’s 8 weeks in length, a 4-day split with 3 rest/cardio days mixed in.

Books:

Armor, Steakley – Recommended by an Army Buddy. A terrific book so far.

Ethics, Aristotle – Very dry, but required reading if you are seeking to learn from one of the world’s greatest philosophers. I enjoyed this book and found it really cool to find the quotes I like in the book.

The Shariyat Ki Sugmad, Paul Twitchell – This is my bible. I finished it and will re-read again. This book is a permanent fixture on my reading list.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe – Still plugging away on this one. I’ve put it on hold, not because it is a bad book but due to the nonfiction reading, I’m taking on (I love nonfiction books more than fiction).

Classes:

Web Development Path – Codecademy – Currently learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and REACT.

De-mystifying Mindfulness Course – Coursera

Documentaries:

Movies:

Fun:

Ozark – Netflix (in the cue) – Re-watching Season 1 to remind me what’s going on. I’ll kick into Season 2 when I’m back on track with this one.

Madam Secretary (Netflix) – I just finished season 4 of this show and have to say I really liked it. If you like Designated Survivor or West Wing, this show is right up there.

Haunting of Hill House (Netflix) – I just finished this one and if you’re in the Halloween mood like I am you’ll enjoy it. This is not scary because of gore or anything, it is just eerie. You will have to pay a lot of attention as there is a lot of jumping back and forth between characters and time periods. I had to watch a few episodes over again to catch what I missed. Great cast and good writing.

The Man in the High Castle, Season 3 (Amazon Prime) – All I can say is: “Wow!”

Interesting Apps:

Calm App – This is a meditation assistant application and comes packed with all kinds of great features, soundscapes, and guided meditations. There are so many features available I do not have enough space to tell you about it. All I can say is try it out if you like Headspace or any of the other meditation apps that are out there. By far, this is the best app I have ever used. Annual price: $59.99. The price is well worth it.

I hope all of you are having a terrific week! See you tomorrow for Funny Friday!!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday

Tags

Achievement, Adjusting Actions, Altering Actions, Altering Plans, Confucius, Goals, Review

“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” – Confucius

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/confucius_140548?src=t_wisdom

When we strike out to achieve something, the territory is unknown—we have never done this thing before. If we had, it really wouldn’t be something to pursue—we’ve mastered it already. Pursuing goals will result in mistakes, missed milestones, and frustration. It’s ok.

When we first map out a route to a goal, we are guessing. We have read what others have done; we follow some of the steps they have taken. As we walk this path we find out that what these others have done doesn’t work for us. Do we give up? Never.

As Confucius suggests, we measure where we are, we look at the finish line, and we adjust our sails. We reformulate a new plan to help us achieve the same end-state. This could result in altering our diet, altering our writing plan, or even learn a new skill that will contribute to our goal’s achievement. Whatever we do doesn’t give up the goal it merely changes the route we will take to get there.

The changes you’ll make will relate to what you do each day. The action steps you are taking each day to edge toward your goal. These action steps, although small, will build toward your goal.

Here’s an example. Let’s say your goal is set and you are making progress. Once a week you review your progress against all your goals and discover that you will not meet your deadline by the time you set it. Uh oh! If you’re writing a section of your book a day (typically around 500 words or so), you can adjust this by writing two sections (around 1000 words a day). At the end of the next week, you’ll be writing 7,000 words instead of 3,500. This small adjustment should make a dramatic improvement to your writing plan’s productivity.

Maybe it’s a planning issue. You set out a daily schedule and for some reason fall off your schedule consistently. Print out your daily routine and look at what happens when. Perhaps it is an energy issue? We all have those parts of the day that we are most productive. Maybe you could adjust your writing to the afternoon or evening? Try it out. You have nothing to lose.

For me, my prime time for exercise is when I get up. I know that if I don’t go to the gym as soon as I wake up I will miss that workout. This was my adjustment to achieving my goal of being in shape and trimming some weight. Does this make sense?

Whenever you are pursuing a goal, take some time to review your progress. I typically do this on Sundays (my do-nothing day) to check in with myself and see where I am making progress and where I am falling behind. As I plan the next week, I adjust my schedule. I think about what is working and what is not working—then I make a new plan and review my results again the next week.

I hope all of you are achieving what you want to in life. If not, take some of the advice that Confucius offers. Good luck on your journey to success!

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

Tags

Achievement, Character Building, Coach John Wooden, Goals, habits, Little Things, Making time, rituals, Time Chunking

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” – John Wooden

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_wooden_384652?src=t_wisdom

John Wooden is best known for his history as Coach of UCLA basketball. This quote relates to a part of his coaching philosophy. If you’d like to learn more, you can visit his official website at http://www.coachwooden.com/

Each of us has habits. Each of us follows a certain ritual each day. We get up. We go to work. We conduct that work. We go home. We go to bed.

What is important are the things we do in between all these mandated activities. What do you do with your time? Do you watch TV? Do you play video games? Do you read? Do you write? Do you learn?

It’s interesting when you look at your efforts over a given period. I looked at my blog this morning like I always do. Since Daily Rambling’s creation, I have posted more than 500 posts. I spend about 20-30 minutes on my daily postings. That 20-30 minutes doesn’t seem like much but when you add that 20-30 minutes up over 2 years you arrive at a pretty big number.

If you examine your life like John Wooden would do with the teams he’s coached over the years you will begin to realize how important these small contributions are over time. This is the crux of this quote. Small things turn into big things. This is one of my key learnings over the years as I have studied success, productivity, accomplishment, and all the rest. I learned that habits are important, but rituals are more important to a person’s overall success. Rituals are habits packaged up together in a synchronous and synergistic way to gain maximum advantage.

My rituals take on context. I write in chunks of time. I read in chunks of time. I exercise in chunks of time. I pursue my learning in chunks of time. I plan in chunks of time. These rituals are important because they literally guide your day. You get up, you make your bed, you brush your teeth, you eat.

If you work, you have rituals as well. You get up at a certain time, you clean up your room, you wash up, you eat, and you head out the door. When you get to work you fire up your workstation or do whatever your work requires. There are hidden rituals that occur all day long despite your awareness of them.

The impetus of my topic today is on actively and purposefully documenting your personal rituals to begin gaining an awareness of what you do every day so you can find out what you can change to achieve those things that are outside of work. Do you want to exercise? Find a place in your calendar and make the time. What will you add to that exercise ritual? Packing your gym bag, putting it in your trunk so you can workout before or after work? What type of exercises will you do? What gym or park will you go to?

If you’ve never exercised before, you may want to start small. Maybe you buy a second-hand workout bench and some used dumbbells. Maybe you find a used stair-stepper or treadmill that someone wants to get rid of. Whatever you choose, create a ritual that you can commit to. Maybe you’re like me and must do your first workout routine in the morning before anything else. Maybe you’re comfortable doing it on the way home from work. Regardless of what you choose to do, try it out for a bit. Does it work, or do you need to change it? If you need to change it–do it.

You can create rituals for hobbies you’d like to pursue, exercise programs, sitting down and getting on with writing the book you’ve always wanted to write, or any number of things.

My rituals surround a few topic areas. These topic areas are writing (blog, book, school work), exercise (aerobic, weight lifting, sleep, supplementation, tracking my food), reading (nonfiction and fiction), and learning (helping my wife with her degree program, Coursera, Hillsdale College, and others), and spiritual pursuits (praying and spiritual reading daily).

You have the freedom to pursue whatever you are interested in. You can pursue whatever drives you from day-to-day. Make some choices. It’s ok to watch Netflix (I do). It’s ok to watch your favorite sports teams when they appear. Just keep it in balance. Find the areas of your life that you believe need some work, write down a plan, get it on your calendar, and execute. Start small and grow the ritual as you see fit. After a while, you may decide that the price a certain goal or activity is too much for you right now. Put it to the side and continue with the others you have selected and are willing to pay the price for. You can always go back to one of these things should you decide to.

Little things add up to big things. 20 minutes of exercise a day, reading a chapter a day, writing a few paragraphs for your book each day, spending 15 minutes on a video course each day are all actions that are very doable and will deliver huge results over time. I wish all of you well on your life’s journey and hope you achieve what you want to in this lifetime.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Achievement, Attainment, Exercise, Fun, Goals, Reading, Self-compassion, spirituality, Writing

“The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power.” Unknown

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/unknown_159550?src=t_motivational

We can be our own worst enemy. I don’t know if this is a quote that belongs to someone but it sure is true when I deal with myself. I always tend to beat myself up if I fail to meet an objective, miss a workout, or eat the wrong thing. I’ll tell you this isn’t the healthiest thing to do. It’s ok to be objective when you measure your performance against your goals, but it is not when you begin fixating on what you did wrong or where you messed up.

Give yourself a break. The key to attaining anything is persisting. Who cares if you missed a workout yesterday—go today. Who cares if you ate a piece of pie while on a diet—eat right today. Who cares if you missed reading something you were scheduled to read today—read it tomorrow. If you are like me and more apt to beat up than cheer up, it’s ok. Just don’t fuss too much about yesterday; you’ll end up screwing up another day stewing about yesterday. Every day is a new day—embrace that.

Here’s my schedule for the week:

My workout routine is a two-a-day format. Cardio and weightlifting each session. I designed this workout and looking forward to it. I have found that my attention span wains after about 4 weeks, so I’ll be adjusting this every month, depending on the success I achieve. I typically hit the gym in the morning around 9 am and then again at 6 pm.

What I’m reading:

The Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad, Paul Twitchell

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe

Ethics, Aristotle

Rediscovering Americanism and The Tyranny of Progressivism, Mark R. Levin

Online Courses:

Designing your own weight-loss plan, Case Western University on Coursera

Western Heritage, Hillsdale College (free course on Hillsdale.edu)

Curious.com (a daily collection of interesting mini-courses, puzzles like crosswords, and other tidbits – this one is a monthly fee of $9.99)

Writing:

Technical Recruiting Book (Rough Draft due December 2018)

Blogging (Monday – Saturday and once a month on Sunday)

Journaling throughout the day

Entertainment:

West Wing, Netflix

Black Panther Movie (part way through), Netflix

Jack Ryan (in the queue), Amazon Prime

StarCraft II (online video game), with my buddy a few times a week, we are currently using the map editor to create our own battle maps—great fun.

Big events:

Mom’s birthday today! (She’s 75) – Diet and workout are not happening today—going to get some writing done and eat what I want when we take Mom out for dinner 😊

Religious Retreat Friday-Sunday)

I realize that my schedule is a little over the top but remember I am retired. I do not have kids in the house and I do not have to work anymore. Keep this in mind.

I hope each of you has a terrific week! Remember, don’t worry about yesterday—it’s gone. Tackle the day ahead and do your best—it’s all any of us can do.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thinking Thursday

Tags

Achievement, continuous effort, followers, Goals, Liane Cordes, Writing

“Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.” – Liane Cordes

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/liane_cordes_385862?src=t_intelligence

Thank you for following Daily Ramblings

Before I get into my posting, I wanted to thank my new readers who followed Daily Ramblings recently. I’m up to 441 followers and appreciate everyone who has decided to give my blog a whirl. I hope to keep you entertained. My goal for followers is 500 by year’s end. If you know of anyone in your blogging network that could benefit from my words, send them my way. One thing I want to note for everyone. I am not an affiliate of anyone right now. Who knows? Maybe in the future. Currently, however, I recommend products, websites, videos, and other services without any kickbacks from anyone. I enjoy sharing the things I find so that others may benefit from these things as well.

Thinking Thursday!

When I find a quote, I have been taking some extra time to find out more about the person who wrote it. In this case, Liane Cordes is the author of The Reflecting Pond – Meditations for Self-Discovery. I enjoy reading quotes that reflect my values. I value persistence.

I don’t know when I adopted this. Maybe it was ingrained in me as a child. The thing is I want to learn new things, I want to be a published author, I want to leave something behind for this world to ponder.

I was brought up to always leave a place in better shape than I found it. When I was in the Army and heading to a new assignment I tried to do everything I could for the person who would end up replacing me. I made sure furniture was clean and polished, ordered all the manuals, publications, and regulations the unit was missing, left some notes on things I wanted to do but didn’t get done. I also left private notes to my incoming replacement on any personnel issues they would need to know about (who is on vacation, who is up for promotion, that sort of thing).

I want to do the same thing with this blog, my personal, private writings (diaries and journals), and get a few books out there. Writing is one of these things that takes continuous effort. It takes practice. It takes learning about writing and reading about the challenges other authors have faced. Writing requires writing. It always feels good to get a comment that tells me what I wrote is what they needed today—this is what keeps me writing for this blog.

I use this blog to practice my craft. Sometimes the writing is great—other times, not so great. I return from time-to-time to earlier blog postings and wonder “how the heck did I think that was worthy of getting online?” Then I sit back and realize that we evolve. We improve. What we wrote a year ago isn’t the same level we are writing now. This evolution will continue I think.

On to my current activities. I’ve hit my goal of 36 books for the year. Now it’s on to 48 books next year. I will continue to read more books but wanted to brag a bit. I always get a rush when I hit a goal or achieve a major milestone. It feels awesome.

Books:

Ethics, Aristotle

The Shariyat Ki Sugmad, Paul Twitchell

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe

Kobo: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War, Herbert Strang – When I first found this book on the Project Gutenberg website I thought it was a history book. After reading it for a bit, I discovered it was a fictional story using the Japanese-Russian War as the backdrop. The story was terrific, and the characters were endearing.

Classes:

Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential, Coursera

Public Policy, Hillsdale College – Discusses the nature of changes that have taken place due to progressive influences across a large group of topics like immigration, education, taxation, and marriage. Great course! (Hillsdale.edu).

Western Heritage, Hillsdale College

Mini-Habits Course, Udemy

Documentaries:

I’m a Killer (Netflix)

Movies:

Ready Player One (Amazon Prime) – I haven’t watched this yet. My sister recommended it and it is on my hit list.

Fun:

The West Wing (Currently on Netflix)

Getting good at things, improving, evolving, and achieving your goals is all about continuous effort. If you just keep moving forward, you’ll get where you’re going.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Goals, Perseverance, problem-solving, Problems, Weight Loss

“Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.” – Robert H. Schuller

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/robert_h_schuller_107067?src=t_motivational

I’m still tracking my weight loss. Today’s weigh-in: 217lbs. One more pound. Steady and slow, but steady.

Today’s exercise routine was a Back and Bicep workout, coupled with 26 minutes of Cardio. I’m eating 5-6 meals a day but focusing on minimal carb intake (between 20 and 50 grams). I’ve discovered over the last year that I lose weight when I can keep the carbs low.

We are all unique. What works for me, may not work for you. What works for your brother or sister, may not work for you. It’s taken me a while to understand this concept, but it does apply to the types of foods you can eat and tolerate, the type of exercise your body responds to, the amount of sleep you need, and even the types of supplements that work or do not work.

I used to spend a lot of money on supplements. Now, I stick with just a pre- and -intra-workout powder. My body doesn’t like whey protein but loves meat. I can eat as much as I want and my body grinds through it. I recommend two different brands for pre-workouts that have proven to be effective—JYM Supplements and Kaged Muscle. I’m using Kaged Muscle’s pre- and intra-workout (named Prekaged and Inkaged appropriately). You can find these and other supplements on bodybuilding.com.

I’ll be candid with you. There are some days that I absolutely dread going to the gym. Today was one of those days. The caffeine and other ingredients in my pre-workout provide me with a nice boost and helps me get through days like today. Once I’m in the gym, I’m fine, but getting there is sometimes a challenge—this is when the pre-workouts really help me.

When we are pursuing goals, mistakes will be made, doubts will arise, and our motivation will be tested. These problems are all nudges to adjust our plans or reset milestones. When we pursue a goal, we are traveling over untraveled territory. Just like the settlers of the American West, we too will face challenges we are not prepared for. Like Schuller suggests, we adjust. We change gears. We pick a new route. We do not quit, we reformulate.

My road to weight loss will continue until I’ve gotten off the fat I want to get off. It will not stop. It will not cease. I will persevere.

Keep these things in mind as you pursue your goals of writing a book, creating a business, learning a new language or skill. You will run into problems—it is inevitable. Just remember: problems guide us, they identify something we didn’t think about when we first laid our plans. Keep going, keep adjusting, keep moving—you will get where you want to go—just don’t quit.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

Tags

Achievement, decisions, Goals, Planning, SMART acronym

“The way to work with Divine Spirit in our daily decisions is to consider quite honestly: What would I really like to do?

One must put aside thoughts of asceticism, thinking that God loves us more if we are poor. A business decision must be made using all input that’s available. What’s good for me, my family? It must allow one to grow.

Any decision is not without setbacks, for that’s the nature of life. What sets you apart is that you give it your best effort and more, staying open to the subtle nudges of Divine Spirit.”

—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

When was the last time you gave some thought to your life? What are you doing? Where are you going? What goals you have set for yourself? I found this to be the most difficult thing to do—to really understand what I wanted in life and where I wanted to go.

It really comes down to deciding. Decisions commit us to something. They say, “I’m going this way or that.” Sometimes it is easy to second-guess ourselves into believing that we may have decided too quickly, but we must realize we have the flexibility to change our minds. The key: 1) decide and 2) stick with it for a bit to really determine if it is something you want to do. More importantly, is it something you are willing to pay the price for (sacrifice, money, time, etc.).

Once you make your decision, you’ll find that tackling the task at hand will be easier. You won’t have to think about what you are doing, because you’ve decided. The focus this brings is liberating.

With focus, you’ll also gain access to little insights that will help you pursue your goal more efficiently. Make sure you write down any ideas that come through, particularly if you’ve hit a roadblock. This happens from time-to-time as we pursue something new. Expect it.

Steps:

• Decide which goals you want to pursue
• Make the best plan you can with the information and skillset you have
• Execute, adjusting your plan and resources as you go
• Mission accomplished, next…😊

These steps will help you accomplish anything you set your mind to. You’re probably saying to yourself, “Well, this is fine, Dave. What about multiple goals?”

The same steps apply, but you will have to allocate enough time to planning for each goal and executing toward each goal as you see fit. I would recommend picking the highest, most important goal you have and moving forward on that first. Once you have gained some traction, feel free to add more goals into the mix. One warning: Do not overwhelm yourself by pursuing too many goals at the same time or at least pick goals that contribute to one another.

Here are some examples:

Pursue a writing career (writing books), blogging, and freelance writing (all three goals align with another around the skill of writing).

Lose weight, get in shape, and eat right. Again, you can see the alignment between all these goals.

Each goal must be what is called S.M.A.R.T. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria

• S – Specific
• M – Measurable
• A – Assignable
• R – Realistic
• T – Time-related

Example Goal:

S – grow to 500 followers on Daily Ramblings by year’s end (2018)

M – 500 followers on WordPress.com

A – not applicable in this case

R – Yes, it is a realistic goal.

T – Yes, the time for achieving this goal is the end of 2018.

Well, that’s it for today folks. I hope you learned something and decide to pursue a goal you’ve been putting off.

Until next time…

Dave