Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

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Exercise, Gene Tunney, healthy living, Quote

Today’s Quote:

“To enjoy the glow of good health, you must exercise.” Gene Tunney

Exercise. So, simple. So, hard.

Why are the things that are really good for us so easy to do, yet so hard to do? It’s a great question, right?

Doctors tell us to eat right, get out and exercise, get plenty of sleep, and all the rest, yet the United States is suffering from an epidemic of obesity. We are driven to work harder and work longer. We are driven to spend our money on things we don’t need and will rarely use. We eat out more and more because we don’t have time to cook a healthy nutritious meal. We drink energy drinks instead of water. It’s one big vicious cycle, more, faster, longer, harder, quicker, and the merry-go-round continues…

I’ve found over time that exercise is really about the individual. I hear all kinds of excuses revolving around exercise. Here are a few:

• I don’t have a gym close to me.
• I don’t have time.
• My work schedule won’t allow it.

I learned a really hard lesson a while ago. The lesson is: You can’t drag someone to the gym. They either want to go and realize how beneficial it is, or they don’t want to go and there is nothing that will motivate them. Worry about yourself. If you have a friend who wants to join you at the gym, terrific! Just don’t depend on them. This is your body, your exercise routine. If you find a true partner who is just as motivated as you–awesome! Just don’t pin your results or your schedule with someone else. They show up when you agree to meet, cool. If not, get to work. They’ll text you or call you with an excuse. That’s ok. This is all about you and your routine.

If you want to feel good, alleviate some stress, sleep better, and look better—Exercise. It is really that simple. I recommend starting very small. Start with a pushup a day, a sit-up a day, or begin walking 5-10 minutes a day (purposeful walking, beyond your normal routine).

If you need any help, reach out. I have all kinds of resources for you to use to get started.

See you tomorrow…

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

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Experience, Good times, Life, Quote, trouble, Victoria Holt

Happy Saturday Readers!

Today’s quote:

“Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.” – Victoria Holt

I really like this quote because it speaks to life. Our life is a series of experiences. Our attitudes, values, norms, and beliefs are what dictate whether an experience is good or bad. Imagine taking a stance where all experience was good because of its contribution to our learning.

We learn when we mess up right? We really do not learn anything when we get things right. We really do not learn anything when we are having an easy time of it. When things are easy we tend to sit back and enjoy it. It’s the hard times that truly benefit us, even though we wished they didn’t happen. Who likes to get hurt, sick, lose a loved one, or run into financial troubles? How do we react to these situations?

At first, we’re in shock. No one ever expects a loved one to die or leave us for another. No one ever expects to lose their job without notice. No one ever expects to be told they have a new condition or disease to worry about and no one purposely goes out of their way to sprain an ankle or break an arm.

What do we do? We deal with these things. We learn to compensate, we learn to be happy without someone being around, and we learn how to pick up the pieces and find a new job. All of this takes time, mind you, but we all adapt to our misfortunes and climb our way out of the hole we’ve dug. Interestingly, if we pay attention, our situations, after we’ve overcome hardships, tend to get better.

We end up with someone that is better for us. We end up with a new job that is better tailored to our circumstances. We end up compensating physically to an illness, disease, or condition, and learn new skills or find new alternatives. Ultimately, we become stronger, better, and more resilient, only to be hit by another challenge in the future.

Pay attention.

Learn.

Experience.

After a while, the ebbs and flows of life won’t matter. You’ll be strong enough to handle anything and take it in stride. You’ll enjoy the good times more deeply and you’ll deal with future problems with grace and love. After all, what are we here to do in this life? We are here to learn how to give and receive love.

I hope you have a terrific Saturday!

See you tomorrow…

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

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Education, John F Kennedy, Learning, Life-long Learning, Quote

Today’s Quote:

“The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.” – John F. Kennedy

Life-long learning is something all of us should strive for. Whatever your interests, pursue everything there is to know about that interest. Maybe you like history, nature, science, fashion, or even writing—pursue your interests and read everything you can. Take tutorials online, take a college course, or find a mentor to teach you.

The truth is a tough topic. Before you can claim something as truth you have to measure it two ways. The first way is to determine if it applies universally. The second way is to determine if it is subject to change. If it applies universally and is not subject to change, you may have found the truth. The best we can do as a human being is to verify everything we read, see, and hear, and double-check and verify again. We should also remember that truth is sometimes an individual thing. What may be a truth to me may not be a truth to another.

Critical thinking is what I’m driving at here. We should all be skeptical of what we read, what we hear, what we see. The primary reason is that we are all biased. We all have a way of looking at the world. Many times we see what we want to see or what is filtered by our internal paradigms. Subsequently, there will always be a personal slant to everything we view. Look at another viewpoint, ask questions, look for evidence to support your ideas and claims.

There is also a lot of evidence that many of our “trusted” news sources are no longer reliable. Resources like the New York Times, Washington Post, LA times, and CNN have all been tagged as “Fake” news. Honestly, I haven’t read or watched the news seriously in years. If you really listen to these anchor people, it is just one lie after another. It is almost comical that they think people believe what they say. Anyways, I’ll leave this for another day.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

See you tomorrow…

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

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Isaac Asimov, Quote

“Self-education is, I firmly believe the only kind of education there is.” – Isaac Asimov

Isaac is on point with this quote!

Internal motivation is a primary factor in learning anything. We have to have that internal “why?”. I learn to do things that I believe are important to achieving my goals. I like reading, I like to write, I like technology. These are the things I tend to learn about because they contribute knowledge in areas that I am interested in. My “why” is because it is interesting and I enjoy these things.

Ask a doctoral student there “why” and you will get a whole host of responses. Some are interested in saving the planet, others want to become practitioners in the fields of sociology or psychology. Others want to teach and continue researching.

Don’t get me wrong, extrinsic motivation is also a good one. I mean we have all experienced our K-12 education, right? Perhaps we even experienced a little extrinsic motivation from our parents. Personally, when I went back to school in the late ‘90s, my motivation was due to my looming retirement. I knew I needed a degree to get a job doing the kinds of things I wanted to do and to make the money and get the benefits I would need when I retired.

We really learn better when we have that internal need to learn. The learning we experience while we are in this state is deeper and more satisfying. It’s like exploring a cave and finding treasure. Each time we learn something new, it adds to us. It provides us a little more skill, a little more ability, a little more than we were before learning that new thing, be it a task, a piece of information, or a new skill or ability.

Readers, I wish all of you a terrific Thursday!

See you tomorrow!

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

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Architecture, Quote, Zaha Adid

Today’s quote is a tribute to Zaha Adid. She passed away a year ago today and was highlighted on Google’s search engine today. After a quick little read, I figured out why she was presented today. She was the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize. This prize is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize, but for architects.

I found one of her quotes below:

“I will never give myself the luxury of thinking, ‘I’ve made it.'” – Zaha Hadid

Wise advice for anyone who is pursuing prominence in their field. The primary culprit of a fall for most folks is complacency. They get too big for their britches and stop working. The moment someone stops working, sticking to the basics of their profession, is the moment they fall down.

It was terrific learning something about this woman today. I’m glad I took a look around for information on her. What a great history and background!

Until tomorrow!!

 

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

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parable, Quote, Taoism, Taoist

“I accommodated myself to the water, not the water to me. Without thinking, I allowed myself to be shaped by it. Plunging into the swirl, I came out with the swirl. This is how I survived.” – Taoist Parable

This is such a great quote. I don’t want to contribute what I think of this one because I think this will allow each of you to come to your own conclusions without any interference from me. Enjoy thinking about this one if you are interested.

Until tomorrow…

 

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

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Conscience, Horace, Mind, Quote

“Rule your mind or it will rule you.” – Horace

Our mind is a very powerful force in our lives. It allows us to interact with our environments, maintain the systems we need to live without any purposeful thinking and is very good at comparing and categorizing our day-to-day experiences. The mind, however, is a horrible task master.

The mind is a horrible task master because of a few inherent aspects that allow really good things to happen, but also really bad things. For example, the mind likes to automate things, because it is efficient. Once you learn to ride a bike, tie your shoes, or pick up food with a fork, the mind automates this task. You literally do these things subconsciously after a little practice.

This same process is what makes the mind dangerous. Good habits like eating right, exercising, proper hygiene, and anything else you can think of that are positive are just awesome when we are doing them subconsciously. Bad habits like smoking, drinking in excess, eating unhealthy foods like processed sugar, unhealthy fats, using drugs (non-prescribed) are horrible for you, but the mind does not differentiate these things. Good or bad, the mind automates to save processing power.

How do we take control? We have to begin listening for that internal voice (Conscience, God, the Universe, whatever you want to call it.) This internal voice is separate from the mind. The problem with this voice is its volume is affected by the attention we give to it. The more you listen to this voice, the louder it gets. Conversely, the more you ignore the voice, the less you’ll hear it.

Try listening to this voice. It will provide you with input that allows you to change your life for the better. It will also give you a nudge when you are doing something wrong or harmful. Initially, the voice will be very quiet. Once you begin listening to it, however, it will grow in volume and will become a very helpful partner.

Rule your mind by going outside of it to get the “right” input. If you don’t, the mind will control you and believe me, it is not a good place to be.

Until tomorrow…