Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Getting Started

Tags

Baseline, Goals, habits, improvement, Mark Twain, Planning for 2020, Stretch Goals, Tracking

” The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain

Courtesy: Brainy Quotes

We are getting close to that time of year when we begin looking ahead to the new year. What did we do? Did we achieve what we set out to do? Did we give up on some things?

Take the month of December and think about 3 or 4 things you want to do next year. I would recommend setting a goal physically (health), intellectually (learning), social (improving/establishing relationships), and spiritual (if you follow a religious path).

When you select a goal, be realistic, set milestones you believe you’ll hit every 90 days, and track your results digitally or on paper. I’ll let you know how I did this year before the end of 2019 and will share my goals for 2020.

Goals don’t have to be crazy. Maybe you’d like to read more. Good! Set a goal to read 12 books this year. Physical goals could be about nutrition, losing weight, exercising more consistently or something along these lines. Intellectually, you could set out to learn something (instrument, language, computer programing, digital art making, etc.). Socially, you could join a local meetup, a book club, volunteer for charity work, or spend more time with your family and friends. If you are religious, set yourself a religious goal. Maybe you could volunteer more or read/study more, or get more consistent with the practices your religion asks of you.

The key is to start and start early. The best place to start is to find out where you are right now, then set some goals that will stretch you in the areas you want to grow in. I picked these four areas, but you may have more to choose from. It’s up to you. Take some time doing this, write out your plans, set dates and times when you look to be at a certain level and you’ll do well.

Well, that’s it for now. Here’s my week:

Before I get started, this is a holiday week for Americans. I have family coming in on Wednesday to celebrate Thanksgiving at my home. These days will be mandatory do nothing days to hang out with my sister and family.

Mon-Tue (Work); Wed-Thu – off for Thanksgiving; Fri-Sun (Work)

• Exercise daily
• Meditate daily
• Work on my Fiction Book daily
• Blog daily
• Take my classes daily
• Code daily
• Journal daily
• Socialize in the community daily
• Read my bible and religious study daily
• Have some fun daily

Have a great week, everyone.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Practical Work

Tags

Achievement, creativity, Embrace Fear, Fail often, Fail Quickly, Failure = Learning, Fear, Goals, The Wilds, Your Comfort Zone

“The cycle of creative action begins with a concept we carry in our minds of what we wish to do. The next step is to outline on paper some plan of how to accomplish this. The final step is action in carrying out the plan.” – Harold Klemp – The Language of Soul

Stephen Covey discusses the first and second creation in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He discusses this while covering the second habit: Begin with the End in Mind. The first creation is what we visualize in our mind. It is the pictures, sounds, feelings, and smells of our end product. This end product could be a goal, a destination, or a situation. The second creation is when we breathe life into the first creation by taking all the actions necessary to make our vision a reality.

If you examine Harold Klemp’s process, it is simple. Visualize. Plan. Act. If this were so simple, why do so many people fail to accomplish their goals? My guess is that they can visualize a better life, but ignore the planning and acting parts of this equation.

What’s the reason? Why do people dream about things to do, achieve, or accomplish, yet fail to do anything about these dreams? FEAR.

We fear trying new things. We fear failing. We fear we aren’t good enough. We fear we lack the skills, time, or money. We fear what our social network will think. We are so fearful of these things we continue to dream and hunger for change, but just don’t get around to it. We are so comfortable with our current situations that we prefer this comfort zone, rather than those scary “wilds” outside that comfort zone. These wilds are so scary we just can’t step into them to pursue something that could transform our lives for the better.

How do we overcome this? First, your desire has to be stronger than the fear that is holding you back. When your desire is stronger than fear, you’ll act. Second, your current circumstances are no longer comfortable. Here, your discomfort outweighs the fear you have of the wilds.

You are the only person who can make a decision to act. You are the only person that can risk venturing into the wilds to find your personal pot of gold.

One thing you can do, if you are still hesitant is to take small steps into the wild. If you have a good visual of what you want, start with a brainstorming session. Don’t commit to anything, just begin exploring what you would have to do if you ever got around to doing something. This is the first step. Once you begin brainstorming and thinking about potential solutions, the wilds will be less intimidating. They will be less scary because your brainstorming session will begin to show you what actions you could take to get where you are going. In other words, the wilds become more familiar because you are starting to chart a map through the wilds to your vision or goal (plan).

Once you have brainstormed, you can begin to evaluate and organize these steps into an action plan. Then all you have to do is the act. This action is like sticking your toes in the cold water. Commit to taking one action on your list. Once you’ve done this, take another, and another. Before you know it, you’ll be closer to your goal and those scary wilds will be less intimidating. You are acting and getting closer to your destination.

Eliminate fear by taking small steps. Brainstorm, plan, take small actions. You will bring that dream into reality. The first time you explore the wilds, it will be uncomfortable, but the more you do it, even if they are small excursions, the more this discomfort will dissipate. The territory you thought was scary is not so bad. In fact, it is less dangerous than the predictable, boring, and complacent comfort zone you now occupy.

The people that attain their dreams are not better than you. They just took a leap of faith before you did. They have failed more than you have been comfortable with. They have failed so many times, failure no longer has a hold on them. They’ve figured out what everyone figures out. Failure is part of the growth process. You’ll never learn or do something new without screwing up. So enjoy failure. Enjoy the process. Every time you fail you learn something–you learn what doesn’t work.

I hope you have a terrific Wednesday!

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Act as if

Tags

Achievement, Act as if, Faith, Goals, Keep going, motivation, Optimism

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

Helen Keller

How many of your friends talk about doing this or that, but never quite get around to it? I used to do that all the time, many years ago. What did I discover? I discovered that we have to act as if. We have to act as if we have the skills, knowledge, and ability to achieve whatever goals you set for yourself. At a minimum, this will at least help you move forward. You can only fail at something if you quit. It’s just that simple.

So dream. Dream big. Then, set your sails for that destination.

Here’s my week:

Build an annotated bibliography

Reduce my topic of focus down to a research question

Read daily

Write daily

Learn daily

Spiritual Exercise/Meditate daily

Exercise daily

I hope all of you have a terrific week! You’ve got this!

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday -Here We Go!!

Tags

Achievement, Consistency, Dreading Monday, Drive, Goals, habits, motivation, rituals, Routines

It’s time to grind folks!

Are you one of those folks who dreads Monday? I think it’s pretty common across all cultures. For those of us that work Monday – Friday, the weekend is our relax, binge-watch, and laze-around time. Then we have to get up on Monday and head to work.

Since retirement, I’ve tried to keep a Monday-Friday schedule. Last week I tried an experiment of not having a real weekend. In other words, I kept my daily schedule consistent across 7 days. I still have a blow-off day on Sunday called “my do nothing day”, but this last week I continued to plug away at all the things I schedule for myself daily.  What did I discover? My Monday wasn’t that bad when I consistently kept doing what I normally do during the Monday-Friday workweek.

For me, consistency is the key to accomplishing what I have set out to do. This consistency is what keeps me going. I love to habitualize everything. I find comfort in the consistency of my schedule and the automation of daily tasks and routines. The key, however, is I love everything I am doing.

When I retired I knew I would still want to be active. I didn’t want to fall into the trap of binge-watching videos, playing video games 12 hours a day, and all the rest. I wanted to finally do what I have always wanted to do–focus on exercise, learning, writing, reading, meditating, and coding. Subsequently, this is my day. I love what I do. Since I love what I do, I am no longer “working”. It is a great place to be.

For those of you that are still doing the 9-5, find aspects of your job that you love. Then, carry some of these things into the weekend with you. Instead of piling up all the personal things you have to do during the weekend, spread them out through the week. Clean as you go, do your laundry in batches, prep all of your meals on Saturday or Sunday. What you’ll find is your weekend will slowly begin to blend in with your workweek and each day will be more consistent.

I started doing this in my final years in professional recruiting. I used to do something work-related each weekend day. Maybe I would source for candidates and begin building out call logs for my work week. Maybe I would do some research into some company or new technology hitting the market place. I could even knock out some social networking. I thought that if I make everyday the same, there will be no more “Monday dread” because there would be no separation from my work day and my weekend.

Give this a try. You may be like me. You may enjoy the consistency of your day and thrive on it. I know I do. I just feel good when I can knock out little chuncks of my goals each day. I wake up each day knowing what I am going to do and it never changes. This consistency is my life line. I’ll stop here.

Here’s my schedule for the week:

• Work on my book daily
• Work on my blog daily
• Learn daily
• Journal daily
• Meditate/Spiritual Exercise daily
• Exercise daily (See my Workout Routine Posting today)
• Eat less than 2500 calories daily
• Read daily
• Get out of the house and interact with the public daily

Ok, folks. Get out there and crush your goals and have a great week ahead!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Who Do You Want To Be?

Tags

Achievement, Attack!, Get at it, Goals, Grind it out, motivation, Plans, Push, Strive, Succeed

I hope you enjoy this video. I like to watch these on Monday morning or Sunday evening to get me pumped for the weekend. You can do this with motivational videos like this one on YouTube, a quote, or a great song! Whatever works for you, you should use. We all need a pump up now and then and I use videos, quotes, anything I can find that gives me an edge to the beginning of the week.

 

Here’s my schedule for the week:

• Read daily (currently at 61 books for the year) (Mental)
• Learn something new daily (taking 5 courses across many platforms) (Mental)
• Write daily (on track to finish a rough draft of my recruiting book by end-of-year, daily journaling) (mental, spiritual)
• Exercise daily (see workout routine) (physical)
• Meditate Daily (I am using Headspace) (spiritual)
• Blog Daily (social)
• Code daily (48% through the Computer Science Path on Codecademy) (mental)
• Track my success daily (EVO planner, MyFitnessPal, Apple Health on my Apple Watch, Toodledo) (mental, physical, social, spiritual)
• Share articles on social media, here, and help my wife with her teaching credential prep (Social)

Get out there and crush it this week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – The Journey is More Important than the Destination

Tags

Achievements, Consistency, Goals, motivation, rituals, Systems, The Journey

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

Zig Ziglar

I have always been motivated by goals and achievements. In the last few years, I have evolved. After reading books like Mini-Habits and Atomic Habits, I am now more focused on the systems that support achievement. These systems or rituals are more important in my opinion.

For example, I set a goal in the Goodreads’ reading challenge to 48 books this year. I achieved and moved beyond this goal last month. How? By reading 1 chapter a day. That’s it. Simple, right? My system of reading 1 chapter a day helped me hit my goal, which occurred without even thinking about it. If they system supports your goal, you’ll achieve it. You cannot do anything else but succeed.

 

Systems or rituals can be used to achieve all of your goals. If you select the right things to do, you’ll achieve your goals unconsciously. It’s just that simple. It’s the rituals and systems that are more important because they build habits or patterns in your daily life that should be beneficial. Reading, writing, exercise, meditation, connecting with friends and family, are all important and beneficial things. Create systems that allow you to touch the things that are important to you every day and your life will be rich and fulfilling. On to my weekly schedule.

Weekly Schedule:

• Read a chapter daily
• Write a section of my book daily
• Code daily
• Meditate daily
• Blog daily
• Exercise daily
• Spend time with friends and family daily
• Run a monthly book discussion (today)

I’ve also started a habit of getting out and about daily. This could be a meal at a restaurant, visiting a library, or setting down at a coffee shop. I also go to the gym and run errands. I try to interact with different people each time I go out. It’s great fun!

Happy Monday! I hope all of you have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Let Divine Spirit Do It’s Work

Tags

Achievements, answers, Confirmations, Divine Spirit, Faith, Goals, Intuition, Patience, questions, Trust

Image by Dean Moriarty from Pixabay

When you don’t put a definite shape to what you imagine, Divine Spirit can have unlimited freedom to fill that mold. But if you put a limit to it, you often strike out because you’ve allowed for only one possible outcome.

—Harold Klemp

The Language of Soul

Think about the last thing you wanted to do or accomplish. How did you do it? Did you visualize an outcome, did you have a vague idea about what you wanted, or were you trudging along blind?

I began experimenting with what Harold discusses in this quote a few years ago. It came about because I was doing the opposite of what this quote posits. I was putting a definite “how” to accomplishing my goal. As stated, I kept running into problems, frustration, and ultimately gave up in anger.

I don’t know what your beliefs are, but I started to believe this quote when I tried again with achieving something that I wanted. This time, I just kept my eye on the end state of the goal, not on how it would come about. I became relaxed. I knew my daily actions would get me to the goal; I knew I would make mistakes; I knew obstacles would come up during the journey, but I soon discovered that it also provided me with ways to work around these mistakes and obstacles. I followed my instincts or perhaps an inner intuition that said, “Ok, no problem. Do this now.”

I believe in Divine Spirit. I believe that it passes on little clues or tidbits of information to achieve what we envision. It doesn’t do this because we are special or particularly holy or worthy. The mechanism is the visualization of what we want and keeping a focus on that picture day-to-day. Whenever I run into a problem or difficulty, I ask, “So what now?” As I wait for the answer to come I continue to plod along with the daily tasks I have set out for myself that will edge me closer to the picture I have in my mind. You know what? The answers come.

I have talked with friends and family about this and they all concur. Each of us gets an answer to our questions. One thing I have discovered is not getting wrapped around the context of what that answer will be or what form it will come in.

Have you ever had a question answered by coming across a website that spells it out? What about a passage in a book? How about a conversation you have with someone or what you overhear someone talks about? Have you ever found an answer coming across in a radio program, podcast, or a billboard?

This is what I am talking about. If you ask a question and remain patient, aware, and open, the answer comes. It will probably not be what you thought it should be. It will be clear. Now comes your ability to have faith in the response. Sometimes, what comes through is something that makes little sense. How do you compensate for that?

You test it. Let’s say you ask about your current job? You recognize some tell-tale signs that things might not be going well with your employer. You read articles in the paper; You see people leave the organization. These signs tell you that your organization is going through some financial stress, despite the positive notes or messages the leadership is passing out to everyone. You ask and wait.

The answer comes and says, “Time to look for a new role.” Before you do that, ask for a confirmation. The confirmation can be anything. I used a yellow bird as a confirmation. I waited patiently.

One morning, as I’m looking through some articles on Flipboard, I see an article about a business laying people off and within the same web page that displayed the article’s headline, was a yellow bird, depicted on the page. I got my answer and a confirmation. I left that job and within two weeks after my leaving that position for a new role in a different state; I heard through the grapevine that company laid off my entire team, including our market president.

Random? Lucky? Unbelievable? Maybe. This is one thing you must prove to yourself. It’s the only way for you to understand what I’m talking about. Experience this for yourself.

Imagine being able to ask these types of questions and getting answers to them. I don’t care what topic they relate to. Maybe you want to find out whether to continue a relationship. Maybe you are considering a move. Maybe you are considering a new project. Whatever that is, ask and figure out if this works for you. It may; It may not. If it works, imagine how powerful that is? It works for me and I trust it more and more.

I’ll stop here. I wish all of you a terrific Saturday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Making Adjustments When Things Don’t Feel Right

Tags

Exciting, Fresh, Goals, Readjust, Reevaluate, Reinvigorating, Reset, rituals, To-dos

Have you ever experienced a time in your life where you didn’t feel right? You can’t put your finger on what it is, but something isn’t right. How do you get rid of that feeling?

The first thing to realize is that we are all growing or shrinking. This is constant. Some days you’re ready to take on the world and you feel like you’re in a sweet spot. At other times you just don’t feel right. It isn’t a physical sensation. It is a mental one.

I was in this funk a few months ago. I felt out of place. I wasn’t motivated to do anything. I was feeling out of sorts. So, here’s what I did to get out of it.

I revisited all of my goals. I looked at my daily rituals and tasks. What could I change?

I returned to basics. I looked at the areas I always focus on. The mental areas, the social areas, the physical areas, and the spiritual areas. Where was I falling short?

I began to reformulate what I set out to do at the beginning of the year. I began reading articles and books. I was searching for ways to get out of the funk I was in.

I went through my entire day and redid everything. I reexamined goals, eliminated all of my daily to-dos and reset everything. After a few days of working through my new to-do list, refreshing my motivation to get back at my goals, and pushing through my rituals, I started to feel better.

I began anchoring myself back to the trajectory I set for myself at the end of last year. Things started making sense again. I felt invigorated and aligned again. I dug myself out of the hole I created for myself.

When you feel like I did, the easiest way to get out of this is to reexamine what you are doing, how you are doing it, and evaluate each goal you have set for yourself. Are you really pushing yourself to be better or going through the motions? Are the goals you are pursuing really important to you or are they someone else’s goals? Are you really doing what you want to be doing?

If your goals are really something you want to do, sometimes you can change up how you are tackling the discrete steps you have created. Sometimes you have to drop a goal you are working on and move forward with another one. The key is to change up what you are doing, so it is fresh again. Once you do, you will inject a sense of excitement back into your life. Once you’ve done that, all is well again.

To summarize. We all get to a point where we feel we are stagnating. Sometimes the goals we have set are not ready to be tackled yet. Other things need to get done first. Or you may just be tired of pursuing what your pursuing. In either case, reevaluate what you are doing, reset your daily to-dos, rituals, and goals. It helped me get out of my hole; this process may help you as well.

As always, have a great Wednesday, readers. I wish you well with all the goals you have set for yourself.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Why?

Tags

Achievement, Exercise, Goals, Learning, Meditation, Reading, What is your "why"?, Writing

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Happy Monday!

My nephew is visiting, and it’s a great time. We are catching up on things that are happening in Arizona and enjoying his company. My Mom and Dad are thrilled he is here and enjoying the time with him.

This week I’ll be writing, exercising, meditating, programming, reading, and learning. I’ll also be doing some stuff with my nephew and getting ready for a religious retreat this weekend. It’ll be a great week!

I was pondering the reasons why I do what I do. I do the things I do because I enjoy them. I like to write because it helps me clarify my thinking, organize my thoughts, and express myself. I like to exercise because it provides a sense of accomplishment and I feel good after I’ve completed it. Exercise for me is a daily battle but one that I typically win. I try to exercise early in the day to get it done. It sets the tone for the rest of the day. Meditation is a no-brainer for me. The benefits of consistent meditation is just too good to miss out on. I enjoy the mental clarity that comes from meditating, along with the focus I am able to achieve. Learning and programming have always been passions of mine. I am currently working through a Python course and taking a writing course. Both are ways for me to improve myself and learn something that I can use for an income. Reading is always a joy. I enjoy reading because I learn from the authors I select and it is entertaining.

I like having a format to my day. I like waking up and looking at my to-do list, the bulk of which is recurring. There are always things that I need to do that pop up now and then but for the most part, my schedule is pretty consistent.

What is your why? Why are you pursuing what you are pursuing? Why do you have goals? Why do you want to achieve them? These are great questions to ask, particularly if you are finding that you’ve lost interest in what you are doing or need to alter what your game plan is for the day. I tend to do an inventory of these things a few times a year. Sometimes I get burned out on taking courses, so I’ll take a break from them. Sometimes I enjoy reading multiple books at once. Other times I enjoy one book. My exercise fluctuates from going to the gym every day to doing a home workout. My meditations use an app some days and do not use anything other days. I keep my days fresh by redoing my inventory of doing things once in a while. I never drop my goals, but I do change what goals I am focusing on, just to avoid monotony.

Most of my goals now are bucket list items. These are the things I want to accomplish before I leave this Earth. Writing a book or two, attaining and maintaining a certain weight, writing a mobile app and a computer app that I can sell are also bucket item lists. These are long-term goals. I have some short-term goals (yearly), like taking so many courses, reading so many books. I also have some indefinite goals or things that I pursue all the time that do not have a finish date or final state of being. Goals like weight loss, eating healthy, and maintaining my financials are ongoing, never-ending goals.

Take a few moments to understand why you have the goals you have. Are you making progress? Are you driven to attain them? If you find yourself resisting goals you want to achieve, try to understand what is driving you to achieve that goal? Maybe your why isn’t strong enough. Maybe you’ve lost interest. That’s ok. Move on to something else and put that goal on hold for a bit. It doesn’t mean you’ve quit, it just means you want to focus on goals you are really driven to achieve in this moment. You can always return to it later.

Well, that’s it for today, folks. Have a great Monday and a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

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