Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Outstanding Blogger Award

Tags

Adapt, assignments, Determination, Drive, Eat that Frog, Goals, Improvise, Monday blues, motivation, Outstanding Blogger Award, Overcome, tasks

1. What has blogging added to your life? It has opened up a creative channel for my writing and allowed me to connect with people all across the globe, some of which are now friends.
2. Share the link for one of your favorite blog posts that you have written. I have a lot of favorites, but this is one I liked writing: https://wordpress.com/post/gardner1015.wordpress.com/737.
3. If you were stuck in the house for the entire weekend due to a snowstorm, what would you do with your time? I would read, write, learn, exercise, and play video games. Pretty much what I do now.
4. What household chore do you most enjoy, and what do you least enjoy? I enjoy vacuuming. I think it’s because of the repetition and movement. I dislike dusting.
5. What did you learn from surviving 2020? I learned you don’t need a lot of things cluttering up your life. Keep it simple. Stay busy, have a plan, and execute the plan. Adapt, adjust, improvise. Covid threw some of my goals in 2020 out the window, but I adapted to overcome what Covid threw at me.

tierneycreates recommended me for this award and I thank her for the opportunity to answer the above questions and highlight her blog. If you like crafts and quilting, she’s a great source of information.

Well, folks. It’s Monday. What will you do this week? Are you on track with your goals? Do you have any high-pressure tasks that have to be done? How do you feel?

Mondays are all about mindset. It is resetting yourself from “me” time on the weekend, to “we” time at the office wherever that is. It’s about getting into work mode, pushing aside the dread we can sometimes get about going back to work, and attacking our projects, goals, and assignments with vigor.

I ease into my work week with a daily set of goals and tasks that never change, unless I change them. Writing a blog post like this is one of them. What types of tasks do you like doing? What ones do you dread? I start my day with whatever is the hardest. This habit is called “eating the frog”. Eating a frog is used to designate those tasks that are distasteful or cause us the most angst. By knocking out the stuff we don’t want to do, the rest of the day becomes a downhill slide when that task is completed. So today, grab the reins of that one thing you dread doing and GET THAT THING DONE. The rest of your day will be a piece of cake once it’s over.

Have a great Monday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday/Sunday –

Tags

Adapt, change, Covid, Flexibility, habits, Improvise, Overcome, Resistance, viewpoint

I write articles for a newsletter for my religious group that is published every month and was prompted to write about change for the upcoming edition. Today’s post is about change. I hope you enjoy it.

We are still dealing with COVID; we are dealing with a new government, and we are dealing with all the changes these two events will have on our lives. Why do we fight change when it comes?

Change is difficult because we are all “wired” against it. Our brains are very sophisticated and seek efficiency at every turn. When a big change occurs, our brains fight it. Why? Because our brains exhaust a lot of energy when change comes. So the brain minimizes or even resists change because of the energy it requires to literally rewire ourselves to adapt a change.

My sister and wife both made job changes recently. It is interesting to watch both of them go through the changes of learning a new job, the training they are going through, and how each reacts to the changes brought on by these job changes. Think about the changes COVID has brought into your life. Are they easy for you or difficult? For most, the changes are hard.

Changes related to going out to dinner, changes related to staying home, changes related to wearing a mask, and changes related to the normal, mundane things we are all accustomed to. When change comes, we tend to think about what has been taken away, rather than what has been given.

Think about how much reading you’ve gotten done in light of these changes to our lives. Think about the new hobbies or activities you are now doing because of the virus. Think about how much more you interact with your family over the phone or via ZOOM, Skype, or Google Chat.

A wise man once said to me, “Things are not done to us; they are done for us.” Simple, right? Imagine if we looked at life this way. Everything in our life is done for us, not to us. A play on words, perhaps, but still a powerful message and a terrific way to look at life.

I am a person who always looks for the positive things in life. Despite the lockdowns, and all the other changes the virus has brought into our lives, there are many good things that resulted from the changes wrought by this nasty little bug. I read more than I have at any other time in my life. I have learned more in the last year than I did in previous years. I have had to alter my exercise regimen, but the new exercise plan I follow is just as good or better than when I went to the gym all the time. During the winter months I work out at home because our roads aren’t so great during the winter and I don’t like to take unnecessary risks when the snow comes. Not a huge change when you think about it.

COVID has touched my family. My wife, my brother, and my nephew and his girlfriend all got it. Luckily, no one was hospitalized. My parents have been COVID free, mainly because we are all hermits and I only go out to get groceries or run errands. Since retirement, I stay at home most of the time anyway. All of my work is done right on this laptop. I read, write, learn, and entertain myself on this laptop or my Xbox console.

This year will be a great learning year, because there are so many things I need to learn for the new position I hold in ECKANKAR. My role as the State of Michigan’s lead missionary, require knowledge in data science, digital marketing, MS Excel charts, graphic design, and yes, even some programming. Does the role require that I learn these things? Not really. But I’ve always been the person who likes to take a position to a new level. By learning these things, I’ll be better prepared to understand the data we are receiving from our website, Facebook page, and our numerous Meetups that we use to put out the ECKANKAR message in Michigan.

Change is only hard when we fight it. Change is only painful when we only look at what we have lost. Change can be good, if you look at the change in a positive light. Look at what you have gained over the last year. Look at the changes you took to protect yourself and comply with your government guidance. What changes did you make? Were they beneficial? Mine were.

There’s a story I read a long time ago about trees. There was a passage about willow trees and how they “bend” with the wind, instead of trying to fight it. The wind in this case is a metaphor for the changes that come into our lives. Those that are most flexible survive; those that are not tend to “snap”. Be the willow during these changing times. Your flexibility will allow you to survive the changes in these tumultuous times. The weight of these changes will not break you, because you will be flexible enough to let the weight of these changes fall from your limbs.

Life goes on. Regardless of the changes brought on by external events like COVID, governmental elections, or anything else, we also change over time. Change is inevitable. Change will happen. Accept the changes that come and do your best. Be grateful for all the things that change brings into your life. You’ll find a new gratitude for these changes and life will be much easier. Change is only hard when we resist it.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Workout Routine – Home Workouts

Tags

Adapt, conistency, Dedication, Discipline, Home Workouts, Improvise, Innovate, modify, Overcome

For many of you, gyms are still closed or opening and closing intermittently as our governments both federal and state tackle how to solve the COVID enigma. For us, it’s about choosing systems and processes that compensate for this chaos and introduce stability in our lives. Exercise is no different.

I adopted the use of exercise bands, so I could duplicate what I do in the gym to the home. Cardio is a no-brainer. Walk up your stairs a few times and your heart rate will jump up quite nicely. You can also take walks outside to get out of your house for a bit.

My workout this week, will duplicate last week’s, but add another set. So this week, I’ll be hitting all the big muscle groups (legs, back, chest, and abs) and smaller groups (arms, shoulders, and calves). So each day I’ll be doing two sets of each exercise for a full-body workout Monday – Saturday. I always take Sunday off from exercise, other than chores and walking around while shopping or running errands.

Have a great week, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Workout Routine – Adapting to the Lockdown

Tags

Adapt, Diet, health, Improvise, Overcome, Persist, Sleep, Supplements, Water, workout

This week, we are in week two of Michigan’s lockdown. The gyms are closed again; the restaurants are closed again; the libraries are closed again. So what to do?

This week, I’ll be using my bodyweight, exercise bands, and the stairs of my home to get in a good workout. This week, it’ll be about moving. I have a timer that is ongoing that is set for 30 minutes. Each 30 minutes, I’ll do 60 seconds of exercise, whether it be a set of pushups, situps, squats, stair stepping, or biceps curls. Each day I’ll hit every body part 2-3 times, as I get up and move every 30 minutes. If you’ve never tried something like this, it’ll keep you from turning into a couch potato for sure.

I hope each of you is safe and sound during the lockdowns that are occurring intermittently in your area of the globe.

The key to living a healthy life is eating right, managing stress, getting the sleep you need, drinking plenty of water, taking whatever supplements you need, and to KEEP MOVING! That’s all I got for now.

Have a great workout week!

See you at the finish line!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Lockdowns, again??

Tags

2021, Adapt, adjust, Covid, Goals, Improvise, Innovate, lockdowns, Overcome, Persist

If you’re in the U.S., you know we’re experiencing lockdowns again across the country. Michigan is on a 3-week lockdown as we speak. I hope all of you are safe and sound. Like anything in life, however, we have to adapt, improvise, and overcome. This is the month I begin setting my new goals in 2021. No one could have predicted the lockdowns we experienced in 2020, but now that we’ve dealt with them, assume they will be on and off again as the virus keeps reappearing, and the vaccine begins to get to the populations over time.

Lockdowns are great times for reading, writing, learning, exercising in the home, and yes, even socializing. ZOOM, Google Chat, Facebook Messenger’s video chat, are all technologies you can use and they are absolutely free. You even have Facetime on the Apple phone and an equivalent on Android devices. Everything can be accomplished if you put your mind to it, and work through any difficulties.

To compensate for not having a gym, I bought some great exercise bands with handles and door mounts that work really well. The weights range from 3lbs to 400lbs, so there’s no chance that I’ll excel beyond them. I also adjusted my schedule of going to the library and coffee shop each week to work in a different environment to just staying home. The key is to plan accordingly. We were all surprised by the lockdowns, and each of us dealt with this virus in our own way. Now that we know the lay of the land, going forward, we can adjust our goals to align with our new reality.

Like I did last year, I’ll publicly post my goals for 2021 in this forum, as a way of keeping myself accountable. I welcome all of you to do the same as a comment on that post when I get it up. It really does make a big difference when you write down your goals. It brings a whole new level of accountability and responsibility of achieving what you set out to do. If you’ve never had any success with this type of stuff, take it slow. Set three goals that you believe you can achieve with a little above-average effort, and you’ll be on your way.

Have a great Monday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Workout Routine – Week of Sep 7, 2020

Tags

Adapt, Bicycle, Cardio, Exercise, Exercise Bands, healthy living, Improvise, Overcome, Workout Routine

Gyms are still closed in Michigan and we are making do. This week, because of inclement weather, we’ll be doing cardio on the home cycle and exercising with exercise bands.

Here’s my workout schedule for the week:

Mon-Thu: Cardio 20 minutes, exercise bands (full-body)

Friday: Off

Saturday-Sunday: Cardio 20-minutes, exercise bands (full-body)

Have a great week, folks!

See you at the finish line!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Workout Routine – Week of July 13, 2020.

Tags

Body circuits, Constistency, Discipline, Exercise Bands, Home Workouts, Improvise, Overcome

Happy Monday, peeps!

This week’s routine will again be at home, because of the gym closures in our area. It appears we in the U.S. jumped the gun a little too quickly and are not facing some pretty big numbers of people getting the nasty bug running around. So now, many states are re-instituting lock downs in areas that are most affected.

This is the beauty of planning ahead. I developed a pretty decent workout routine with exercise bans and I am glad I 1) purchased them when I did and 2) use them on my workout days. It’s cool how a little bit of improvisation can eliminate the annoyance of not having a gym to go to right now.

On with the show!

Monday – Saturday – Full body circuits (3)

Full body circuit: Squats, Bridges, Ab crunches, Incline Chest Press, Triceps extensions, Bicep curls, Bent-over rows, Shoulder presses, and Calf presses. I try to do a set of 10 for each body part with no rest for the entire circuit, then rest and kick into the next circuit after about 2 minutes of hydration and resting.

I hope each of you are working out ways to continue your exercise routines, despite outside, uncontrollable circumstances.

See you at the finish line!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spread Your Wings Sunday – Weekly Challenge Week of April 19, 2020

Tags

Accomplish, Overcome, Spread Your Wings, The Mighty, Try New Things, Weekly Challenge

Weekly Challenge: Write out a list of 25 things you’ve overcome or accomplished.

This week’s challenge provided by The Mighty

As with these challenges, leave a note in the comments if you got this done!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Jury Duty

Tags

Adapt, Exercise Bands, Hacks, Improvise, Intertuptions, Jury Duty, motivation, Overcome

I am on the hook for potential jury duty this week. I wanted to pass this along, because if I am selected, my postings will be on hold during this time. I’m obligated to call into the court every day to find out if I need to report. They could select me today – Friday.

Life hands us all kinds of little surprises. These surprises can pose minor or major disruptions to a person’s schedule. This is where your ingenuity comes into play. As mentioned in previous posts, of all the daily things I do, exercise has always been a difficult one. Recently, I purchased exercise bands to overcome any issues with my workout schedule.

Some things that can disrupt a workout schedule, particularly in Michigan, is the weather. When I lived in Phoenix, weather was never an issue. Here in Michigan weather is a major issue to deal with. Whether it is a blizzard, ice storm, or thunderstorm, these make it difficult to get to a gym. Exercise bands allow me to get a decent workout, when I cannot get to the gym. The brand I use is: Serious Steel Exercise Bands. These bands come in 6 different weight levels. You’ve got to be a little creative with some exercises, but they work. These bands are easy to travel with and ensure I do not miss a workout other than blowing it off myself.

I also use a workout app called “5MHW”, which stands for the 5-minute home workout. I like this little app because it provides 6 different routines, ranging from cardio, legs and butt, abs, upper body, yoga, and pilates. My favorite workouts are the ab workouts, upper body, legs, and pilates exercise routines. Again, this little routine allows me to do something, when other options are not available. I use these workouts with any weight work I do with the bands.

This week’s schedule, pending on my jury duty will remain the same. I use a laptop primarily for my work, so it will go with me to the court, so I can still get some things done. I’ll be working on my book, posting to the blog, my spiritual exercises and religious readings, exercise routine, yard work, and coding on Codecademy.

I hope all of you have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave