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 – Motivation Monday – Week of November 2, 2020.

Tags

Consistency, Determination, Discipline, Drive, motivation, Resilience, Resistance, will

Alright! Here we are! It’s Monday and we are facing another week!

Here’s my schedule:

Writing daily (blog, journaling, research, school, and book)

Coding daily (Python Course, Udemy)

Reading daily (Books, nonfiction and fiction)

Socializing daily (Social media, phone calls, Video calls)

Exercising daily (See Workout Routine)

Spirituality daily (discourses, Bible, contemplation)

Entertainment daily (movie, gaming)

That’s all I got for now, folks. Have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Moving Mountains

Tags

change, Consistency, Focus, habits, mini-habits, Moving Mountains, Resistance

Image by Frank Winkler from Pixabay 

“The man who moves a mountain begins carrying away small stones.” – Confucius

This is a great quote for anyone that is trying to do big things in their life and tries to do too much or is trying to do too many things at once. My wife and I had a quick chat yesterday, and she is focused on two things and nothing else. The first is a bodybuilding competition she’s headed to in 6 days; the second is a test she has to take for a teaching credential. The rest of her day is eating, maintenance, errands, and sleep. She knows that focus and consistency are important when accomplishing one’s goals. She also knows that you can’t do everything. You have to decide and execute.

Learning how to make a choice and sticking with something has always been a challenge for me. I like variety in my day. I like the spontaneity of the moment. Unfortunately, you can’t get anything meaningful done that way. So I began a search for information on how to get more focused, decisive, and consistent. During my search, I discovered a book called Mini Habits by Steven Guise. He suggests doing something very small each day will build a habit over time. The key is something small, but not too small. For example, Steven’s first Mini habit was doing 1 pushup every day.

I have used mini habits for a good 5 or 6 years now and it works. The trick is not to overwhelm yourself or expect yourself to do more than necessary. You really want to stick with small things until they become habitual. Each of us is unique. The time it takes for you to form a habit may be much shorter than it is for me or someone else. The key is to keep it small, so your mind doesn’t catch on that you are making a change. The mind gets overwhelmed very quickly, when taking on new things. If you try to start too many mini habits at once or your mini habit is too much (like I will write 1000 words today), the mini habit will not take hold.

I have had to learn this lesson more than once. Trust me. The mini habits work because they avoid overwhelming your brain, which will resist change if you hit it with too much. Start small. The key to the mini habit system is consistency. Reading for 10 minutes each day may not seem like a lot, but over a year that is 3650 minutes of reading. It may not seem like a lot, but if you are not reading at all right now, trust me, this is a lot of reading (60 hours).

You can apply mini habits for anything. You can use it for exercise like Steven did, you can use it for reading, writing, learning a language, learning to code, anything. You just have to use a little creativity, carve out a few minutes of your day to do the mini habit, and then track it. I use a repeating to-do list for mine using Google Tasks, but whatever you use, even a wall calendar and a marker will do. Try this out if you are having a hard time starting something you’d like to start working on. Resistance is psychological. It is your brain telling you this is too much. Some folks have very resistant brains, while others do not. It is very individual. Experiment until you find your own sweet spot.

I hope each of you is having a terrific Wednesday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Finding Your Dream Job

Tags

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 – Spiritual Saturday

Tags

Action Plans, Focus, moving forward, Opportunities, Overwhelm, Procrastination, Resistance

Divine Spirit opens new opportunities, but we must take them. We must make our own choices with the best information at hand.—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

Opportunities present themselves to us constantly. What do we do with them? Do we grab the opportunity, investigate it, and make a choice to use or not use it or do we let it pass by because we are too busy to take the time and test its value? I think many people do the latter. Why? Perhaps we are exceptionally busy being banged and bumped around by life.

Unlike the person above, another person may grab every opportunity that comes their way and scatter their attention and efforts to the wind. They run down this rabbit hole and then another, accomplishing nothing. This too can be problematic and aid a person’s procrastination. Both routes can lead to missed opportunities and add to a person’s level of confusion.

Again, I ask why? Why would one person be oblivious to opportunity and another be hyper-actively pursuing all these new ideas? Fear. Person #1 is fearful and avoids everything. They are like the cartoon Ostrich that buries its head in the ground. Person #2 is fearful and pursues everything around them, enabling procrastination. They are like a puppy in a brand-new home, running this way and that, smelling and investigating everything that comes their way. If you watch people in these states, you soon see how ineffective it is to follow either path. What’s the solution?

The solution to these problems is focus. Focused people stay on track. They move forward with their goals. They concentrate their efforts on what they must do today to move them one step closer to their goals and avoid getting side-tracked by that next idea that pops up in their head. They track these ideas, however. They write their ideas down. They capture these ideas and process them later.

An idea comes, you capture it, and get back to your work. This way you are capturing all the ideas that come your way and avoiding the scatterbrain effects of moving on everything you receive right now. This is the most efficient way of maintaining a steady flow of ideas and remaining focused on the task at hand.

If you find yourself in either of these states (ignoring your ideas or chasing every idea that comes) take a moment and ask yourself some questions:

Am I working on my goals or am I doing busy work?

Am I missing opportunities or capturing them?

If you are doing too much busy work and avoiding the pursuit of your goals, take time to think about why you are resisting action. Is the next task too big? Are you lacking information? Are you lacking the skill to accomplish the next step in your plan? When we resist something, it is likely because of one of these reasons. Brainstorm. Think about all the things you could do right now to move yourself forward. If you are lacking information or skills, look for some online tutorials, classes, or YouTube videos that could give you some ideas. Once you find the solution, add that to your goal’s action plan, schedule it, and get to work. If the next task on your action plan is too big, break it down into more action steps and continue.

I hope this helps some of you. I find myself in this place from time-to-time. When I recognize that I’m stuck or resisting an action step in my plan, I look at the step and ask the above questions.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Mark Twain, New Habits, Personal Change, Resistance

Today’s Quote:

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain

When we embark on anything new, perhaps a new project, learning a new skill, or trying to install a new habit, we will always experience resistance. This resistance is natural. Our brains are wired to automate things and have a tendency of getting into a groove, much like the groves on a record. To change, we start small, stay consistent, and suddenly this new “thing” becomes a habit–your mind has automated it.

The next time you feel resistance about starting that diet, your next book, a difficult project, or learning something new–keep in mind that resistance is part of the process. Ignore the resistance and move forward. If you decide that the thing you’re doing isn’t serving you, feel free to drop it. Keep experimenting, keep trying new things, particularly those new things that will improve your life.

I hope everyone is enjoying FRIDAY!!

Until next time…

Dave