Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Week of April 6, 2020.

Tags

Daily activities, Mental, Monday, motivation, Physical, rituals, Social, Spiritual

Here we go, folks! Start your engines!!

Weekly schedule:

Physical (Exercise daily)

Mental (Coursework daily, Book writing daily, Read a chapter a day)

Social (Post to this blog daily, share quotes and articles daily, and stay in touch with friends and family via social media or phone)

Spiritual (Religious Discourse work daily, Spiritual Exercise daily, and read my Bible daily)

Relaxation (Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, Curiosity Stream, and Xbox Games)

Have a great week, everybody!!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Being Motivated in Lockdown.

Tags

Excited, Lockdown, Mental, Motivated, motivation, Physical, Pumped, Social, Spiritual

Well, folks, it’s been tough for a lot of folks for quite a while. Countries all over the world are being hit by this virus and it doesn’t appear to be letting up. I continue to hope that you, my readers, are safe and doing OK.

For most of you, being stuck at home is a real change. Americans, in fact, most of us, love our freedom to head out to eat, go to the gym, go to the library, or even go to work. When something like this sticks its ugly head up, it can be hard for people to make a significant change like this.

If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I’m a homebody. I head out to the gym, library, or coffee shop, but I can work out at home, I have access to over 10,000 digital books in my collection, and I have a terrific little Keurig coffee machine for my caffeine intake. I’m used to this lifestyle because my Dad has dementia and cannot be home alone. So either my Mom or I am here with him, while the other heads out for errands or whatever. So, not so much of a change for the Gardner family.

Anyway, here’s my schedule:

• Physical – exercise daily, eat right daily, drink water daily, and get plenty of sleep daily.
• Mental – school work daily, journal daily, book writing daily.
• Spiritual – Meditate (spiritual exercise) daily, read Bible daily.
• Social – Blog daily, post helpful articles (non-coronavirus or political articles) daily, post good quotes daily, help the folks daily, and interact with family via text and phone daily (Brother, Wife, Niece, and Nephew are in AZ, Mom and Dad are home, Sister is 2 hours away in Michigan).
• Coronavirus – White house briefing daily, Check WHO and CDC daily, check Michigan Health Department daily, and check Local information resources daily.

***I ignore any other new source (CNN, MSNBC, NPR, FOX news, all the rest). I ignore everything on social media feeds.***

Well, folks. That’s my week. Have a great Monday!

Be safe, stay informed, and follow guidance.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Week of March 23, 2020.

Tags

Activity, Follow Guidance, Mental, motivation, Physical, Social, Spiritual, Stay Informed, Stay Safe, Weekly Schedule

I hope all of you are safe, healthy, and paying attention to the new in your area so you can remain that way. From what I’ve seen, the U.S. government is doing all it can to help those hardest hit, and my local authorities in Michigan are doing what they can.

Stay safe, stay informed, and follow local guidance.

Here’s my week, folks. Luckily, since I complete all of my work on my laptop, my productivity has been unaffected by recent events. I know some of you are dealing with some real adversity. I hope you are OK, and conditions in your home country continue to improve for you and your loved ones.

Daily activities:

• Mental – Writing (Journaling, working on my fiction book, blogging, and writing assignments for school)
• Physical – Exercise (Home workout using extension bands)
• Mental – Learning (Computer Science path (Codecademy), Algebra course, NLP course (Udemy), and Foundations in Autism course)
• Spiritual (Spiritual discourses, reading my Bible, daily meditation)
• Social (practicing social distancing, but staying in touch with Wife, Brother, Sister, and friends)

I hope all of you are safe and remain that way. If anyone is isolated or alone, and you need someone to talk with, feel free to reach out to me in the comments. We can work something out to connect with each other via phone, video chat, or some other medium.

Well, that’s all I got for now. Have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Week of March 16, 2020 – Updated

Tags

Blogging, Coronavirus, Exercise, Learning, motivation, Reading, social media, spirituality, Writing

***Both of my gyms have closed. I’ll be moving all of my workouts into the home with my exercise bands.*** 

Well, it’s another week, folks!

What are you working on? As always, I packed my week with reading, writing, educating myself, spiritual work, and exercise. It’s going to be great fun!

My schedule:

• Scene construction for my fiction book – daily.
• Blogging – daily.
• Spiritual reading – daily.
• Spiritual exercises (meditation) – daily.
• Exercise – daily (see my workout routine) – daily.
• Algebra, Spanish, Python, NLP classes – daily.
• Post articles and quotes to social media – daily.
• Read writing book, fiction book, and Bible – daily.
• Journal – daily.

With all the news about the coronavirus (COVID-19), I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss it briefly. My advice: take all measures specified by your government. If you get sick, stay home, watch your symptoms, and get yourself to a hospital if your symptoms get worse.

Take care of yourself. Eat right, drink plenty of fluids, keep social distance, and help out your friends and family if they need it. My folks are in their late 70s and early 80s, so I’ll be on hand to step in and help if they get sick. We’re in a pretty small town and have not had any cases arise yet. We’re monitoring it.

What to do? Read, catch up on your movie watching, pay attention to your new outlets, exercise at home if your gym is closed or too far away, and follow any protocols your employer has put in place. My brother, sister, wife, niece, and nephew have all been moved to remote work/school, so life will be different for a few weeks.

Most important: Do Not Panic. I know it’s hard with the 24-hour news cycle, but use your common sense and don’t go overboard. Everything will be alright.

Have a great week, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Staying Busy

Tags

Code, Consistency, Flexibility, Learn, Meditate, Monitor, motivation, Read, Staying Busy, Write

I’m a dabbler. I enjoy doing lots of things during the day and love the variety of tasks I set for myself. My motivation is provided by the variety. A variety of books to read (I read multiple books simultaneously), a variety of classes to take, going to the gym, running errands, working on my book, and all the rest.

If you are bored or overwhelmed, adjust your schedule. Either add more things to your day or take some away. Be flexible and monitor yourself at the end of the day. If I consistently finish all of my stuff too quickly and find myself getting antsy, I add some stuff to my calendar for the next day. If I can’t finish all the things I have scheduled or feeling resistance to my daily rituals, I back some things off.

Ok, folks. Here’s my schedule for the week:

• Work on Book Daily
• Read Daily
• Blog Daily
• Journal Daily
• Code Daily (Computer Science Course Codecademy)
• Meditate Daily
• Exercise Daily (See my Workout Routine post for the week)
• Learn daily (classes in Algebra, American History, Autism Spectrum Disorder)
• Budget Daily

I hope all of you have a terrific week! Remember, take time to monitor how you feel about your daily routines. Be flexible and be prepared to adjust, keeping in mind your core priorities.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Fall down, stand up

Tags

Continue, Get back on the horse, habits, motivation, Persist, rituals, Take your lumps, Weekly Schedule

If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.

H. G. Wells

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Life has a tendency to smack us around a bit. Like the picture above, life gives us a toss. Then we get back up and keep moving forward or we decide to stay off that crazy horse. It’s all up to us.

I choose to get up. I don’t care how many times the horse kicks me off. I’ll keep getting back on until that horse figures out that I am crazy enough to keep getting back on. I’m like the Irishmen who keeps blind-siding the bully until the bully gets tired of breaking his hands on my face.

The moral of the story: Don’t quit. Keep going. This ancient wisdom make so much sense, yet so many quit anyway.

Here’s my schedule for the week:

• Learn Spanish daily
• Python daily
• Work on my book daily
• American History daily
• Algebra daily
• MS Publisher daily
• Blog daily
• Social Media daily
• Exercise daily
• Meditate daily
• Read 1 chapter daily
• Journal daily

I hope all of you have a great week! Feliz lunes para ti (Happy Monday to you).

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Repetition

Tags

Daily to-dos, Exercise, Meditation, motivation, Practice, Reading, Repetition, Weekly Schedule, Writing

Like I said, repetition in practice and hard work.

Jerry Rice

Ask any sports legend, concert pianist, actor, writer, anyone with any skill and they will all tell you they got where they are by practice and repetition. They practiced, and practiced, and practiced.

When I served in the Army, we did the same thing. We practiced. We repeated. We worked on something until you could do it in your sleep. That’s the key. To transform a skill from conscious practice to subconscious execution. Then you practice more.

Repetition can be boring. It is tough to stick with something every day. But for those of you who understand the power behind repetition, you know that sometimes you dread doing something you did yesterday, and the day before. The mind loves novelty and will fight it.

Stick with it. Keep doing it. Don’t stop. Greatness and mastery are on the other side of the boredom and repetition.

Here’s my schedule for the week:

• Work on character development for my fiction book – daily
• Learn Graphs in Python – daily
• Blog daily
• Journal daily
• MS Publisher Course – daily
• Exercise – daily
• Meditate – daily
• Read a chapter – daily

Have a great Monday, folks.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – It’s Sunday Night, and All is Quiet

Tags

Blogging, Comments, Flexibility, habits, Meditation, motivation, rituals, Variety

Hey there!

I was reading through a few blog posts and saw the time. It’s Monday Motivation time. I’ll time this post if I finish early or just post it at midnight. I love the variety in the blogs I follow. One had a family visit to a great tropical resort, another is in Japan, and yet another got to the gym and knocked out some treadmill work. We are all so unique, yet the same. We like to write (obviously), we like to tell our stories, and we like the occasional response to our work. I try to respond to all the blogs I read, hoping folks will do the same on mine. I really enjoy getting comments. It makes my day!

OK. Off we go!

This week I’ll be following my daily regimen. Writing, reading, learning, meditating, coding, exercising, and all the rest. I enjoy my rituals. I schedule enough work to keep me busy and the rest of the day is mine. Rituals are nice because they slowly become a habit. I do not follow a daily schedule, because I would rarely follow it. I get all of my stuff done. It’s nice to have some flexibility in the day and attack what I want to when I feel it.

One thing I do is cluster like tasks together. When I’m done with this blog post, I’ll hit my journaling, posting quotes, sharing articles, and letter writing. Tomorrow during the day when I’m fresh, I’ll do some work on my classwork and coding exercises. I’ll get my exercise in, and I try to meditate every afternoon between 2:30 and 4:30 pm. I like this time of day because there is little chance I’ll fall asleep. I tried morning meditations and before-bed meditations, but I always fall asleep. The afternoon sessions are perfect.

I hope all of you have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Week of January 20, 2020

Tags

Consistency, Goals, Keep Pushing, motivation, rituals, You can do it

Well, my Mom returned late last night from a trip to Texas and things are back to normal in the Gardner home. While she was gone, I took care of my Dad, who has been suffering from Dementia for a few years. He is still able to do most things, but he has to be watched.

Recently, we had to get him set up with physical therapy, because he has been stumbling around and falling. The doc told us his quadriceps and muscles surrounding his hips have become significantly weak, so Dad is going to PT twice a week for the next month.

I didn’t get much sleep last night, but today’s tasks are waiting, so I’ll make this a brief one today.

Here’s my schedule:

• Blog Daily
• Code Daily
• Work on Book Daily
• Read Daily
• Exercise Daily
• Meditate Daily
• Journal Daily
• Learn Daily

I hope all of you have a terrific week!

Until next time…

Dave

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

Tags

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