Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – You Don’t Need Motivation to do What You Love

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Commitment, Dedication, Exercising, Focus, Learning, Meditating, motivation, passion, Reading, Writing

Image by rawpixel from Pixabay

Happy Monday!

What do you have planned this week? I had a great conversation with my wife yesterday. She just placed 2nd and 5th in two different bodybuilding categories at a competition in Las Vegas. I asked her what she did to get into the shape she got into for the competition. Here’s a bit.

Two workout sessions each day in the final 8 weeks. She does 1 hour of cardio (treadmill) followed by 45 minutes in the Sauna. She eats only chicken, rice, oatmeal (dry), protein shake, and egg whites. In the last 4 days, prior to the competition, she ate only chicken with ¼ cup of rice in the evening. Her weight training sessions are an hour to an hour and a half after a long day of work (she’s a special education teacher). She eats about 1.5 lbs of chicken each day. The only thing she can drink is water. No coffee, no tea, no soda, no protein shakes, nothing.

Sounds tough right? Not if you are driven, dedicated, and motivated and love what you are doing. My wife loves exercise and lifting and competing. To her this is not that big of a deal. She inspires me.

The picture above is in Las Vegas this last Saturday. So proud of my wife!!!

So what do you want to do, but can’t seem to get yourself to do? Take a measure of your motivation. Do you really want to do this? Is there something else you would rather do? Find something that really motivates you. Maybe your drives lead you to writing a book, starting a business, learning a new language, traveling, or something else. Find that thing. Find the thing you can dedicate your time to without breaking yourself against your own willpower.

We all need to exercise and eat right. These are a given, but we don’t need to put ourselves into a situation like my wife does. She does it because she loves it. Find that thing that you need to put a little effort into, but is really effortless. We all have that one or two things that we are excited about.

Here are the things I enjoy every day. I love exercising, reading, writing, meditating, and learning. I also love video games, movies, and music. I exercise every day. I read every day. I write every day. I meditate every day (twice), and I love learning (I’m learning computer programming via Codecademy). Initially, I had to figure out how to get all these things into my day. Once I figured out how to get all of these things into my day, I moved to tracking them by putting them on a to-do list that repeats indefinitely. I used Google tasks for this process. Google tasks is available in your Gmail account, can be displayed to the right of Google calendar, and is an app you can download to your phone. Since most of my work is on my computer, I keep track of what I’ve done and what I haven’t done on my computer using the task list in Google Calendar.

Start small, especially if you are trying something new. When I built my reading habit, it was literally reading just a few pages each day. Now I’m up to a chapter a day. I read a few pages in my Bible and then I read a chapter.

What about scheduling you ask? Well, that depends on your life. I’m retired so my schedule is a little more dynamic. I tend to just tackle what I need to in no specific order. My exercise routine used to be first thing in the morning, but that’s tough when either my Mom or I have to be home to take care of my Dad. He has “episodes” where he literally passes out and someone must be here every day with him to make sure we are around to revive him if this happens. So, I have to work around my Mom’s errands and such so one of us can be with Dad. No problem. I can exercise with my exercise bands, I can use one of my exercise apps. The rest is all at my computer, so not a big deal.

You may be working, so you’ll have to look at what you want to do daily and physically schedule this stuff in on your calendar at specific times. Find out what you are truly passionate about and get to work.

Here’s my plan for the upcoming week:

• Read 1 chapter daily
• Write one section in my book daily
• Read my Bible daily
• Exercise – Cardio and Weights, Bands, or Calisthenics daily
• Meditate 2x daily
• Complete one lesson on Codecademy daily

I hope each of you has a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Self-discipline

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Balance, Harold Klemp, Holy Spirit, Key Areas, Love, passion, Self-discipline, spirituality

Self-discipline is an absolute necessity if one is to have a productive spiritual life. Replace old tastes and preferences with new, better ones. But do it in the name of the Holy Spirit, with love and a sincere heart, or nothing will come of this experiment.

—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

Self-discipline is nothing more than doing what you agree to do. These agreements can be about your exercise routine, your diet, planning your day, and any other topic you can think of that requires effort. A person who can evaluate themselves and come up with a game plan to improve weaknesses or bolster their strengths are powerful people. They can do anything because they are willing to commit and stick with it.

Change is difficult. Evaluating yourself is difficult. Holding yourself to a new standard is also difficult. Self-discipline enables these and more.

So many people just ramble through life. They occupy their time with meaningless activities with no forethought. Think about all the people who literally live on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or Pinterest. What are they accomplishing?

Are you happy with your life? If so, change nothing. Keep doing what you are doing. It’s your life. If you’re happy and fulfilled, why change anything. This article is for the rest of us that are not happy with our current circumstances. We want to lose weight, get in better shape, eat better, and build skills that will garner us the ability to make an income throughout our lives.

Where do you start? This is probably the hardest thing to do—decide. We only have so many hours in the day. What will you spend your time on? Do you want to write a book, start a blog, or create poetry? Do you want to learn a new language? Do you want to start an exercise program? Do you want to start a business? What other things can you do each day that will contribute and build?

I started my search online. I wanted to know what I could do to improve my life, make lasting change, and build skills that would provide me with an income as I pursue a third career. I chose specific areas of my life to look at. These areas are Physical (eating right, getting enough sleep, and exercise), Mental (reading and learning every day), Social (staying connected with friends and family and make new friends and connections), and Spiritual (daily meditation, religious readings, attending spiritual events and retreats).

The areas I want to learn are two-fold. Write books (nonfiction and fiction) and learn how to write computer programs. Once I began my investigation into these areas, I found all kinds of resources to help me on my quest. These are now daily habits that I dedicate my time to. I write every day for this blog and work on my books. I also code every day. I have made great strides in both areas because I do a little each day to add to my abilities.

I need a little discipline in these areas because I love both. I love writing and I love coding. They are closely related because a programming language has rules and a whole new language to learn to enable my code to work. Book writing is a combination of actual writing every day and learning the craft. I try to read a writing book daily and find courses online that can teach me the various aspects of writing whether these classes are on grammar, style, or the specifics of writing a book. There are books on plot development, world building, and character development. The learning never ceases.

What are your passions? What would you like to do with the rest of your life when you retire? Do you want to keep working? Do you want multiple streams of income? Take time on a weekend and think about some of these things. Once you have discovered what you’d like to do, add that to your day. Do a little on these areas each day. How long does exercise need to be to be a benefit? How much writing do you want to do each day? What can you fit into your schedule after your workday is done and you’ve attended to your home responsibilities?

When you start out, put in a half-hour or so to each thing you’d like to try. I would recommend grabbing one item you’d like to add to your day. Then, once you’ve solidified your newfound habit, add another and another, until you are hitting all the things you want to pursue. You’ll be amazed how many things you can do by chipping away a little at a time.

Well, folks. I hope you are having a great Saturday! Enjoy your weekend. If anyone is interested, comment on this thread. I am more than happy to give you some ideas to help you move forward.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – How Are You Using Your Time?

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Achievement, Goals, Meaning, passion, Planning, Procrastination, time, Waste

“Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent new minutes. And you can’t save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you’ve wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.” ―Denis Waitley

I love this quote. I remember reading it a few years ago. It was an epiphany for me. It forced me to ask, “What do I do with my time?” My answer at the time was a little embarrassing.

I love video games. I love movies. I love TV shows. I used to waste an unbelievable amount of time on these things. I’d work, I’d come home and flick on the TV or the XBOX and that was my night. When I look back, I realize how much time I wasted on frivolous things.

Entertainment is fine. We all need to relax our minds from time-to-time. When this entertainment takes over your life, it is no longer fine. I used entertainment to escape my responsibilities—the important things in life, like exercise, meditation, writing, reading, and learning. Now, when I am seeking entertainment, I enjoy it. It isn’t a numbing experience. It is not an escape or a means of procrastination.

There’s a good exercise you can do, to see how you are spending your time. Write everything you do in 5-minute increments for 5 working days. You don’t have to be exact. Just capture as much as you can to see where you are putting your time. The results will amaze you when you take your 5 recorded days and look at what you did or didn’t do.

We all have more time than we will admit. When I did this exercise, I discovered that I was wasting my life. I got up, ate, went to work, worked, came home, watched TV, and went back to bed. What a dismal unengaged life right?

What do you want to do with your time? Do you want to exercise? Do you want to read? Do you want to write? Do you want to build and run a business? The possibilities are endless. Choose the things you want to do and get them on your schedule. My first choice was exercise. I wanted to get in shape and feel better. So, I carved out some time in the morning to exercise every day. This is where I started.

Now, that I am retired, I structured my day with a bunch of activities. Reading, writing, learning, exercise, and meditation all take up a part of my day. I also enjoy reading the news, keeping my email in-boxes cleaned out, and interact on a few social networks. These are the things I enjoy doing. All of them contribute to the goals I have set for myself.

What are you going to do with your day? What are your goals? Where do you want to be at the end of the year? In five years? You can do whatever you want to do. It is up to you. Make choices. After you’ve chosen the areas you want to pursue, plan how much time you want to spend on each area of interest. Then get these things on a daily list or calendar.

Go out and find self-help books on planning, goal setting, and time management. Watch some YouTube videos. Take some online courses. You can also ask yourself, “What have I always wanted to do but never had the time to pursue?” If you’ve done the above time-tracking exercise, you realize how much time you really have. Go after this thing you’ve always wanted to do. Maybe you wanted to learn how to garden. Maybe you want to start a coin or stamp collection. Maybe you want to start an exercise routine, take up yoga, or learn to ballroom dance. The possibilities are endless.

Life continues. Time continues. Why continue to follow the same path if you are unhappy with it? You can do whatever you want to. Weigh your options. Explore. Choose. You’ll be glad you did.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday –

Tags

Content, Contributing, motivation, passion, Unique, Walt Disney, Writing

“I believe in being an innovator.” Walt Disney

Read more at: Brainy Quote

There is so much content available online and it continues to perpetuate itself. Making your own contributions online is daunting, particularly when you second-guess yourself. You ask yourself questions like: Who will find my work? Who will like my work? Am I good enough?

You are unique. You have a voice. This voice is different. There are people who want to hear your words. Get it out there.

I love blogging. I love writing. I blog and write because I have things to say. I like to put my “two cents” out there.

When Disney came on the scene, there was no such thing as a theme park or full-length animated film. He brought both ideas to the market. Today, millions of people flock to Disney’s theme parks and watch his movies. Mickey Mouse is an icon known across the globe.

You never know who will read your words. You never know who will enjoy them. Get them out there. Pursue your dreams. You’ll never know until you do it.

Some people don’t like to write. That’s ok. Pursue the things you love. Pursue your unique interests. We all have a place in this world. Your passions are where you need to focus your time and effort. There is a need for your unique contribution.

Every single person we consider great, started with an idea. Henry Ford’s idea was the automobile. Edison’s idea was the light bulb. Disney’s idea was creating products that allowed people to escape their normal lives and experience “The Happiest Place on Earth”. Disney sold happiness and wonder. Who wouldn’t want to buy that?

If you know where your passions lie, pursue them. Even if you only have time to dedicate an hour a day, use that hour to pursue that passion. You’ll feel more alive during that hour than the rest of your day.

If you want to make money pursuing your passion, research. You could write a book about your passion, write a blog about your passion, or even teach others about your passion by creating course content for YouTube or an online education hub like Udemy. There are people who have monetized their passions in the same way. Look around. You’ll find these people and learn how they did it.

My Week

I’ll be working on my 2^nd draft of my book. I’m doing a chapter a day. This week will be chapters 6-10. My daily exercise regimen is in the home because of the bad weather we are experiencing in Michigan. I’ll be getting back to the gym in March.

I’m reading 5 books. I enjoy reading multiple books at a time. I read one fiction book, a book on history, a religious book, a self-help book, and a book on philosophy. I use a service called Scribd. Scribd is a service that gives you access to books, magazines, audio books, and papers. It is a terrific service for the $8.99/month. I recommend this service if you read as much as I do.

I read digitally. It takes a while to get used to reading this way. My folks have had a real difficulty reading digitally. They still enjoy reading paper books. Print books take up too much space. Digital books allow me to get as many books as I want. They take up zero space, other than the digital space they consume on my phone or computer.

I hope all of you have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Finding Your Dream Job

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Focus, Investigate, Love the work, motivation, passion, Paying the price, Productivity, Resistance

“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four-hour days.”― Zig Ziglar

One of the biggest challenges in life is to figure out what we will do with our lives. I remember contemplating this question when I was about to finish high school. Many of my friends already knew what they would do. Not me. I did not understand what I wanted to do.

Looking back, I would have told myself to choose an area of interest and try it out. As I have matured, I realized that every profession requires a certain price to pay. If you choose a particular area, investigate this area by reading about the people that exist in that field and excel. Learn about what they have to do to be on top of their fields. When you see the price, they are paying you can decide about your willingness to pay the same price. You can do this over several career paths to find the role or roles you will pay the price for.

Once I discovered my desire to be a writer and pursue my dream of learning computer programming life smoothed out. I felt a congruence in my life I had not felt before. When I wake up in the morning, I have a sense of purpose. I know what I will do and I look forward to it.

Once you realize that you’ve made a good choice, you have no resistance to learning, or the work involved in your profession. Writing and programming are a joy. Each day I write, or work on a programming project, it feels like fun rather than work. This was the final confirmation for me. When I realized that my work was really more like play, my efforts in both areas took off.

Like the above quote suggests, focus is the way to productivity and achievement. When you observe people that love what they do for a living, you sense a joy of purpose. The work they do seems effortless. They will work harder than their peers. You can see the joy they experience when they do this work.  You can also see people who are in the wrong position. You see them procrastinate, complain, and do the bare minimum to earn their paycheck. There is no love or purpose behind their work.

This is the key difference between people who are engaged in meaningful work they love and people in the wrong role. Their passion overcomes the price they pay to be in that profession. This passion provides the drive to be the best in their field because it is not work to them. They embrace the training and outside learning the job requires. They work longer and harder. Their work is of a higher quality.

If you are in a position you consider work, maybe it’s time to look at other roles. Research. Investigate these fields. Find out what the top people in these fields do and the price they pay to be the best. If you believe you can pay the same price, try it out. You will never know until you do. The average worker spends roughly 75% of their time at work. Why not do something you love?

This week, I’ll continue my regimen of working on my book, working through my current programming project, reading the five books I’ve selected, and hitting my daily exercise routine. I’ll continue to journal and meditate. I’m making good progress across all areas. I hope each of you has a terrific day!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday

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Angela Lee Duckworth, Grit, passion, Permanent Change, perseverence, persistance

 

I wanted to highlight this book because I didn’t realize this Ted Talk featured the author of this book–a book I read last year. I think you’ll enjoy both! As a reminder, I am not an affiliate of Amazon and make ZERO if you buy this book. It was just a great read and I believe a book you will benefit from.

Grit is literally the ability to set goals and continue plugging away at them until you achieve them. Grit doesn’t care about failing, missing the mark, or challenges you face along the way. Grit is literally the definition of continuing, regardless of whatever.

If you are having a hard time with a personal goal, kickstarting a workout regimen, changing your diet or anything else you have your sights set on–read this book and watch this Ted Talk!

Changing your life for the better is not about a quick fix. It is not about doing it for a few weeks. Real change– a change that will benefit you forever–requires an internal shift. It requires a commitment to a new way of doing things, a new way of living, a new set of habits that are internalized into your core. You can’t cheat it, you can’t game it, you can’t go around what is required–you have to do it and keep doing it.

I hope each of you has a terrific day!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Today’s Quote – Life Fulfilling Work

Tags

90-day Goals, Eileen Fisher, Follow Your Heart, Life Fulfilling Work, Listen to yourself, passion

“Life fulfilling work is never about the money – when you feel true passion for something, you instinctively find ways to nurture it.” – Eileen Fisher

This is truly where a rich and wondrous life is gained or lost. Each of us is born with God-given talents. Each of us is unique. Sometimes we discover our talents by accident, other times we have a “feeling” that this is what I’m supposed to do.

I mentioned how goals can sometimes slip from us. I have found that the goals that slip by the wayside are those that either belongs to someone else or it just isn’t the right time to pursue them. You have to be your own judge in this respect. This is why I’ve changed the time I use to pursue a goal. Instead of setting long-term goals or a yearly goal (except my book reading goals), I tend to look at 90 days and that’s it. If after 90 days I lose interest in something, I put it aside and focus on something else.

Sometimes you have a great goal that will go beyond 90 days. That’s ok. I would recommend breaking that goal down into a 90-day window and see where it takes you. If you achieve that interim goal, set another for the next 90 days and see what happens. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.

Your life fulfilling work could be writing, drawing, music, creating a business, creating a non-profit organization, a religious pursuit, or anything not mentioned here. Listen to yourself inside. Experiment. Find out what really wakes you up in the morning and pursue that.

I discovered my love of writing while in school. I attended college in 2003 and didn’t stop until around 2014. I earned a Bachelor’s degree, a Masters degree, and completed all coursework and what is called the comprehensives for my doctorate. I didn’t finish the dissertation but did discover I had a knack for writing. I began writing short stories soon after. None of them are published, but I enjoyed writing stories. I know what I like in a story and know that I can create stories that others will enjoy.

In January I’ll begin work on a number of books. Some of them will be non-fiction, but the ones I really look forward to are going to be fiction. I have so many ideas at this point that I’m taking the time to really figure out between now and January which one I want to start with. I’m close, but still deciding.

Whether my books become best sellers or aren’t bought by anyone is irrelevant. I just want to tell a story and get it out there. One of the best things about publishing a book is that it never goes away. It will be there for people to read forever. It’s nice to think that I will be leaving some semblance of myself that others can enjoy when I’m gone.

Have you found your life’s passion? Have you figured out what wakes you up every day? If so, start putting together a plan to pursue it.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Bryant H. McGill, Enthusiasm, Excitement, passion

Today’s Quote

“Enthusiasm is the energy and force that builds literal momentum of the human soul and mind.” – Bryant H. McGill

I was looking around the web for some advice on building enthusiasm and found this great article called: 10 ways to have amazing enthusiasm. The ten “B”s are below. I recommend a quick read of this posting—it’s terrific.

• Be Passionate
• Be Grateful
• Be Positive
• Be Proud
• Be Creative
• Be Proactive
• Be Reasonable
• Be Patient
• Be Enlightened
• Be Evolving

Until Next time…

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Biz Stone, habits, passion, Perseverance, Timing, Trying

Today’s Quote

“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” – Biz Stone

I know every one of my readers has heard the statement: If it’s too good to be true; it isn’t. That’s what this quote tells me. Regardless of the field you pursue, there is one underlying truth–you won’t be great without putting in the hard work. There really is no substitute.

Another thing we need to do well with our pursuits is to have an underlying reason or passion for the pursuit. Perhaps you survived a disease and want to tell your story. Maybe you’ve seen the suffering of others and want to educate people so they can avoid the same fate. Whatever your reasoning, it must be something that wakes you up–really excites you.

I’m a really big Tim Ferris fan. The stuff he publishes is just so “common sense”. Why would you do something if you’re not interested in doing it?

Don’t get me wrong, there’s always that one thing we don’t like to do (clean the bathroom, do laundry, make the bed, etc.). What Tim is referring to is the stuff we really don’t have to do if we don’t want to. Why would you push yourself through a book that you just aren’t interested in? I used to do this a lot. I would start to read a book and for some reason, even after I’ve decided the story just isn’t there for me, I would continue to trudge through the book regardless because I wanted to finish what I started. No more.

This is just one small example of volunteering to be miserable. If the task you have to do isn’t super important or necessary, drop doing it, at least for today. Maybe tomorrow you’ll feel like doing it. Maybe not. Do the things you are passionate about.

On a side note, there will be things that you have to do that you may not like to do initially but grow on you over time. Exercise is one of them. Many people do not like exercising. They just don’t want to do it. This is one exception to the rule above–there will be things that are super important and necessary that you need to do. If you don’t like doing them, try to experiment with different ways you can do these things so you do like them. Maybe a small reward for yourself each time you hit the gym or do that task. Use your creativity.

Until tomorrow…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Arianna Huffington, Love, passion, Quality, Success, Work

Today’s Quote:

“We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.” – Arianna Huffington

I call this “going through the motions”.

Any of us can go through the motion of doing our work. We show up on time, we sit at our desks and we do the work we are assigned without any thought, creativity, or purpose. It is so easy to fall into this trap.

The key to success in this life is to do the best you can, regardless of who is watching or the potential for reward. Do it out of love. Do it for God.

When you put your heart into something it really shows. I read an article a long time ago that described how a Mother always cooked her family’s food with love. Anyone that ate that food knew it was because of the love this Mother had for her family.

Put your love into everything you do. Put your love into making your bed, cleaning the dishes, raking the leaves, mowing the lawn, or even doing your laundry. You’ll be amazed at how good you feel when you’re done and the difference in the results you achieve.

Until tomorrow…