Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Never Quit.

Tags

habits, Improvise, Innovate, Learning, Persistence, Puzzle, Quitting, Resilience

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Confucius

Confucius is one of my favorite sources for quotes. He truly is an inspiration. When I think about history, I am amazed at the wisdom our forefathers and foremothers learned ahead of us. It would be wise of all of us to learn from those that opened the doors we have access to today.

The accurate measure of us is not how well we do when things are going exactly the way we want them to; it is how well we do things when things are not going so well.

Each time you fail, you learn. Each time you learn from these failures, you learn what does not work to push toward your goals. So take heart. Failure is learning, as long as you don’t fail the same way repeatedly. Then you show you are failing and learning nothing from these failures.

When trying something new, remind yourself that there is always a way. There is another door you can go through, another way to write that paragraph, another way to build that tool. There are websites, tutorials, people, and books you can read for inspiration. Perhaps you failed because you were missing one of the puzzle pieces required to finish your task. Find that missing puzzle piece and try again.

If you keep putting effort to the task at hand, you will finish it. You just have to keep trying. Quitting can become a horrible habit and crutch. When you quit, you stop learning. You stop progressing. You accept that you are not good enough, not smart enough, or not talented enough. When this happens, you are lost.

Be stubborn. Be resilient. Be persistent.

Keep going. You have nothing to lose by trying. You have everything to lose if you quit. When you quit, you have truly lost. So don’t quit.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Obstacles

Tags

Consistency, Goals, Henry Ford, Lessons, Obstacles, Persistence, puddles, road blocks, rocks, self-created

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

Henry Ford

Regardless of which path you take in life, you will run across rocks, puddles filled with mud, and other barriers. This is part of life.

When trying something new, most of the obstacles we face are built by us. We think something is too hard. We don’t think we’re good enough. We imagine all of these horrific things happening. In the end, when we’ve walked the path we’ve chosen, we realize that we created most of our problems. In fact, we created all of them.

How can you reframe all of it? Look at obstacles in a different way. Treat each obstacle as a lesson. Treat each obstacle as a stepping stone. Treat each obstacle as a means rather than an impediment. The moment you become detached from the obstacles you face, the less they will bother you.

Everything you face in life can be looked at in two ways. These obstacles can be looked at something that is done to us, or something that is done for us. Change “to” to “for” and the whole context of an obstacle or problem changes.

Deal with obstacles as they arise. Don’t create them in your mind. Trest each obstacle as something to learn from, rather than fret over. Keep your eyes on your goal. The obstacles will be meaningless, when you see the goal on the other side of them.

I hope each of you are progressing toward the goals you set this year. Keep going. You’ll get there. Just keep chipping away at them. If you keep chipping away, you’ll get to the finish line.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Workout Routine – Week of May 4, 2020.

Tags

Consistency, Discipline, Exercise, healthy living, Keep going, Persistence, workout

Here we are! We’re in a new week!

This week’s routine will involve 2 x 25 reps for each body part and alternate between upper and lower body each day.

Monday – Wednesday – Thursday: Upper Body

Tuesday – Thursday – Saturday: Lower Body

Sunday: Off

These routines do not take that long, but they are helpful to continue conditioning during lockdown. Doing something is always better than doing nothing. Keep this in mind, particularly if you are new to a home workout routine. It is better to do something than do nothing. The gym will re-open. In the meantime, get something done at home, even if it is walking around the block every day.

That’s all I got for today, folks!

Have a glorious week!

See you at the finish line…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Keep Going

Tags

Churchill, Keep Doing, Keep going, Keep Moving, Keep Writing, Monday, motivation, Persistence

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill

There’ll be times that anything you do will be painful. You just won’t have the drive to do anything. Even the things you love will be painful. I don’t know if you’d call this depression or another psychological concept, but this happens to everyone from time-to-time.

What do you do? Keep going.

These changes in mood are part of the human condition. Keep going. You’re writing a book—keep writing. You’re trying to lose weight—keep moving. Whatever you are doing—keep going.

The mood you’re in will leave as quickly as it arrived. Keep going.

Have a great Monday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Mondays – Never Give Up

Tags

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 – Bonus Material – My Wife and Her Trophies

Tags

Achievement, Bodybuilding, Cardio, Exercise, healthy living, Persistence, Self-discipline, Weightlifting

My wife and her trophies

Daily Ramblings – Workout Routine – Cardio

Tags

Bodybuilding, Cardio, Exercise, healthy living, motivation, Persistence, workout

Workout:

Cardio 20 minutes HIIT

See you at the finish line!!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Persistence

Tags

Exercise, Insomnia, Learning, My week, Persistence, Reading, Spiritual Work, Writing

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas A. Edison

Hello, folks! Happy Monday!

I found this quote and felt it was exactly in alignment with what I wanted to talk about today–persistence. Persistence is what gets you through anything. It helps you when you doubt what you are doing. It helps when the obstacles to your progress pile up. It is supported by faith. The faith that you do have what it takes to succeed. We all have this capability. We just have to stick with what we are doing to get to where we want to go.

I try to keep my life simple. Read daily, write daily, learn daily, exercise daily, and spiritual exercises daily. This is it. Where I have fallen down this year is in the exercise arena. I go, then I don’t go, I start this program and then I stop this program. Today, I’m revamping my exercise routine and starting again. Exercise is important to me and once in a while I’ll lose track of that key point. I’m not into exercising for aesthetic purposes. I don’t care about posting an infinite amount of selfies showing off this or that. For me, it is just about feeling good, sleeping well, and taking care of myself.

For a few weeks, I was going through some horrific insomnia. I couldn’t sleep. One of the primary causes for this insomnia was my lack of consistent exercise. You see, I have always been hyperactive. If I don’t get rid of some energy doing yard work, exercise, and some actual brain work every day, I am not tired at all when I go to bed. I just lay there tossing and turning. I realize some folks suffer a form of insomnia because of worry. I do not fall into this category. My life is pretty calm, without too much drama. I feel for you if you cannot sleep because of excessive worry. This is a horrible place to be.

Ok. This week, we’ll be hitting it hard in the gym (check my workouts on my Workout Routine posts). I’ll be doing some work on my book, continue to post here, and work through an NLP course I signed up for on Udemy. I’ve also got my daily yard work to do, pending the weather. I hope each of you has a terrific week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Workout Routine – My New Torture Device

Tags

Achievement, Bodybuilding, Cardio, Exercise, healthy living, motivation, Persistence, Stair Stepper, workout

Today’s workout was interval training. I chose the stair-stepper for this routine’s cardio source.

20 minutes of interval training. 1 minute intense, 2 minutes slow. Great workout and a good sweat!!

See you at the finish line!!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Failure Builds Character

Tags

Character, failure, Learning, motivation, Persistence, primitive brains, Success

Image by yogesh more from Pixabay

“You Learn More From Failure Than From Success. Don’t Let It Stop You. Failure Builds Character.” – Unknown

Quote courtesy of http://www.briantracy.com

Failure. We all fear it. It’s interesting when you think about how our brains work. The brain doesn’t like change. It doesn’t like trying new things. It doesn’t like this because change is fearful to that part of our brain that warns us about danger.

Why? Well, our ancestors needed to be warned about everything by their primitive brains because mistakes could be deadly, particularly when there were creatures all around that wanted a meal. The brain’s warning system worked pretty good. We are still here after all.

How do you counteract this part of your brain to try new things? Our brains are much different from our ancestors’ brains. Our brains are much larger and have evolved to a point that we can override this prehistoric brain. We can choose to make changes despite our brain’s warnings.

Our ability to direct ourselves to do things that are unknown or challenging is a gift. We still have to deal with the fear of failure and all the rest, but now we have the ability to reason with ourselves. We can evaluate an action and deem it safe, despite the risks for failure and move forward. This is challenging, but possible. It merely requires us to be persistent and push forward with our goals.

All of us are unique. Some of us see a threat while others see an opportunity. What I have found to ease my angst is to get out there and learn from other people. I learn from books, online courses, and YouTube videos. If you see someone else doing something you want to do, the fear dissipates somewhat. I say to myself, “If they can do it, so can I.”

Then there’s practice. It’s hard to learn something new without getting your hands dirty. You can read about a topic, learn about a topic, and even watch someone else does something, but it is so much different when you do it. You will make mistakes. You will mess up. Each time you mess up, you learn. You learn that this is not the way. Then, if you are paying attention, you’ll avoid that mistake in the future and go on to the next step.

Fail. There is nothing wrong with it. Learn from it. Start again. Persist. You can’t lose if you don’t quit.

This week is a busy one. I’ve got a few books to finish, a chapter to write in my book, workouts to do, and of course, posting to this blog. It’ll be a great week!

Until next time…

Dave