Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – When Things Go Wrong – GOOD!

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Failures are wins, Good, Jocko Willink, Keep going, motivation, Navy Seals, Obstacles are Stepping Stones, Problems are Solutions, Video

If you’re not familiar with Jocko Willink. Here you go:

Jocko Willink is a decorated retired Navy SEAL officer, author of the book Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, and Co-founder of Echelon Front, where he is a leadership instructor, speaker, and executive coach. His podcast, The Jocko Podcast, is also available for download via iTunes & Stitcher.

This guy is awesome, and this is a great motivational video. Enjoy your Saturday, peeps!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Compensating

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Attacking the Week, Compensating, Do What you Can, Making Adjustments, Monday, motivation, sticking with the plan, Tracking Results

One of the hardest time to be motivated is when I’m sick. Last week, I did most of the things I set out to, but put a lot of it on hold to recover. So, here we are! I’m finally over this cold. I still have remnants of sickness, still blowing the nose and the like, but the difficult part is over. I attribute this to knowing what to do to take care of myself.

The first thing I did was turn off exercise. There’s no sense in it. You go to some popular websites and they talk about driving through, or continuing to exercise, but honestly, it just doesn’t make any sense to me. When you get sick, your whole body is in a war with the virus or bacteria that broke through. I believe the best way to fight this is to go to a doctor (if needed), get the necessary drugs or OTC medicine, get plenty of rest, drink a lot of water, and stick with the regimen of less is better when you’re sick. For me, this works. For others, going to the gym and continuing with their exercise regimen works for them. Enough said.

This week, we’re back on track. Here’s my schedule:

• Reading daily
• Working on my Fiction Book daily
• Exercise (but taking it easy) daily
• Learning daily (currently taking an MS Publisher course)
• Coding daily (Python is the language I’m learning)
• Meditating daily
• Blogging daily
• Posting quotes and articles to Social Media daily

This is it for the week, folks. I hope everyone is having a great week so far. Happy Monday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Mondays – Never Give Up

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Always a Solution, Always an Answer, Always an Opportunity, End of Year Push, motivation, Persistence, Success

Never, never, never give up.

Winston Churchill

There is always a way. Wise words.

Too many give up on their dreams. They blame others. They stop searching for a solution when one is waiting for them around the next corner. Don’t be one of these people. You can find solutions to your problems. You can find ways to overcome obstacles. You can succeed when it is seemingly all lost.

We only have 15 days left. Try to knock out a little bit more. Take a few more steps. Finish the year strong!

Here’s my schedule for the week:

• Exercise daily
• Meditate daily
• Read daily
• Learn daily
• Code daily
• Finish my assigned tasks and to-dos daily

I know you’ve got family coming in. You’re decorating. You’re doing all of that last-minute shopping. Put a little time each day toward your most important goals. You can still get a lot done, despite the “extras” during the holidays.

If you don’t make it, fine. You have next year. Your goals aren’t missed unless you stop working toward them. Always keep moving forward.

I hope all of you have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Completing your yearly goals

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Consistency, December!, End of Year Eval, Holiday Season, motivation, Serving Others, Setting New Goals, Weekly Schedule

Well, we are in the last month of the year. It went by quickly didn’t it?

This is the month to grind it out before we hit the holiday weeks. When the holiday week hits, the family will be coming, you’ll be doing last-minute holiday shopping, and it will preclude anything you want to finish. So dig in now, at the early part of the month and knock down any of the goals you have left. It’s not too late.

Between Christmas and New Year’s is the perfect time to take a tally of what you set out to do this year, where you missed the mark, and plan accordingly for the new year. There are a few goals I missed, not due to a lack of effort, but they reached a little too far. This year, I’ll use that data and set more realistic goals that I can achieve by the end of next year. They’ll still stretch me, but won’t be so far off in the distance that it will be impossible to accomplish.

One of the greatest learnings I have discovered this year is consistently showing up. I started the year with a goal of reading 48 books, at last count, I am at 60+ for the year and still going. I also finished the rough draft of my non-fiction book on technical recruiting and began work on my fiction story. These would not have been possible, had I not done something every day to move the needle forward.

What goals did you set? Did you accomplish them? Did you fall short like I did? If you fell short, how will you goal yourself in that area next year? I’m really curious to hear from others on this topic. Feel free to respond in the comments below. Ok, here’s my weekly schedule!

This week:

• Work on Story Beats for my Fiction book daily
• Exercise daily (see my workout routine for the week of Dec 1, 2019)
• Read 1 hour daily
• Meditate daily
• Complete 1 session for each of the 5 classes I’m taking daily
• Clear the circles on my Apple Watch Daily
• Hang out at my local coffee shops or a restaurant daily
• Read my Bible Daily
• Do a random act of kindness while I’m out running errands daily
• Help my wife with her Master’s Degree work daily
• Have some fun daily (Netflix, Xbox, NFL Football, or Disney+) daily
• Log my food in MyFitnessPal daily

Well, that’s it for now, folks! I hope each of you are looking forward to the holidays like I am. I realize there are some in my audience who dread the holidays and my heart goes out to you. You know what I’ve found? When you’re down, volunteer. Go to an animal shelter, an orphanage, hospice, or some other charitable organization and pitch in. It’s a great time to do this, and it is also a way to focus on something else. I have always found that giving and serving others is a great way to cheer up.

Have a great Monday, all!

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Do Not Stop

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Consistency, Continuous Improvement, Elastic Habits, habits, motivation, rituals, Stephen Guise

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”

Confucius

Here we are! I like this quote because it aligns perfectly with a book I’m reading, called Elastic Habits by Stephen Guise. His new book describes how to have flexible habits so that on days that suck, you do the bare minimum to continue your streak, medium level habits for normal days when you are motivated to get something done, and elite level for those days that you are wired to crush the day. He also provides alternative tasks that augment your goals. Let’s say you want to get in the habit of exercising every day.

You could pick weight exercises, cardio exercises, and perhaps a sport like swimming, basketball, or tennis. On a bad day, you do a pushup, walk for a minute, or knock a few balls around on the court. For your medium-level you could do 20 pushups, or a 20-minute run, or play a set of tennis with a friend. For elite-level you could do 100 pushups, run for 45 minutes, or swim 10 laps in the pool. This lateral as well as multiple levels of your habits, provide you with maximal choice and the ability to elevate or deflate your daily accomplishments based on your mood, time available or energy available.

If you are interested, you can pick up a copy on Amazon. Elastic Habits on Amazon.

I am not an affiliate, just a HUGE fan of Stephen’s work. The book will run you 7.99 and is only available in e-book form.

The advice provided by Confucius aligns perfectly with this book, because Stephen provides you a mechanism to always take one step forward with all of your habits. I can’t recommend this book enough!

Here’s my week:

• Get an advertisement in the Jeffersonian for my book discussion on Dreams
• Get copyright message on Poster for book discussion on Dreams
• Help my wife study for a teacher’s certification test daily
• Exercise daily (see workout routine)
• Eat a vegetarian breakfast (altered from my workout routine for breakfast instead of lunch) daily
• Meditate daily
• Take online classes daily
• Blog daily
• Work on my fiction book daily (outlining, story beats, character development, world creation, etc.)
• Read a chapter daily
• Post quotes daily
• Share an article daily
• Eat out for lunch daily

Well, that’s it for this week folks. I hope all of you achieve your goals and have fun while you are doing it. Living a life with healthy habits is a wonderful thing. This new book, Elastic Habits, will show you how to do it with no chance of failure.

Have a GREAT week, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Act as if

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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!!

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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?

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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

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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 – Motivation Monday – What to do When You Are Unmotivated

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Do What you Can, Getting Started, Habit Formation, Minimalize, motivation, My Weekly Routine

We all have those days. The days we don’t want to get out of bed, tempted to call out sick, and binge-watch Netflix all day. The same follows for anything you are trying to accomplish. You lose the drive and excitement that caused you to start your journey. How do you do what you need to do when you just lack the motivation or willpower to follow through?

Minimize it. Obviously, going to the gym and hitting one machine and calling it a day is not great, but it is if you are unmotivated. It is better to do something than do nothing. You can apply this to anything in your day. Simple look at the task and minimize it, so you can get it done today and check it off of your list. If you are reading a chapter a day and you are in one of those moods, read a page. If you are working on that book or paper for class, write a paragraph and call it a day. You can do this with most anything you are trying to turn into a habit. The key to habit formation is to do something that you have agreed with yourself you would do. So do it, just don’t put as much effort into it on days like the one I have described. Minimize it, shrink it down, just take a baby-step.

The odds are good you’ll do more than you thought you could just by getting started. If you only knock out a little, you’ll still get it off of your list and feel good that you didn’t bail on yourself. Try this out the next time you are in this funk state. OK. Onward to this week!

 

Weekly agenda:

• daily planning
• daily meditation
• daily writing (Blog and Book Writing)
• exercise 3 x per day (one at gym, two at home, Mon-Fri)
• daily coding, reading, and learning
• gratitude and Dream Journaling daily
• daily review
• weekly review

I hope all of you have a terrific week! I am ready to roll!

Until next time…

Dave