Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Strengthening Your Intrinsic Motivation

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Extrinsic Motivation, Finding your Calling, habits, Intrinsic Motivation, Rewards, rituals

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Sometimes when I write an article to post to Daily Ramblings, I just begin writing and then I try to find a quote or some other theme for the post. Most days I have lots of content to get out to you, but other days I am absolutely dumbfounded about what I want to write about to keep it fresh.

Motivation is personal. What motivates one person may not motivate another. Some motivations are driven by a drive to succeed, while others are driven by avoiding something. Some exercise because they want to look and feel good. Others exercise to avoid disease. See how this works?

Motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation comes from within. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of us. There are a slew of articles about which is more effective. Hands down, intrinsic motivation wins. Intrinsic motivation is hard to cultivate, however. Why do you think there is such a huge market for weight loss supplements, weight loss surgery, and weight loss diets? Motivating yourself to do something that is beneficial for you is tough. Having someone yell or scream at you to get off your butt and workout is easier, because it comes from the outside. You don’t need to fight yourself; you have someone else to provide your motivation. Extrinsic motivation is less effective because if you remove that outside influence, there is nothing driving you to exercise.

How do you cultivate internal motivation? Well, it begins with picking something that you really want to do. Then, it’s about supporting yourself by rewarding yourself early on in the habit-building process. Do you know what got me to the gym initially? Coffee. I would always treat myself to a Starbucks coffee after a workout. I know, I know. Not the healthiest option, but it worked. You see internal motivation to exercise increases once you begin to see and feel the benefits. After a time, you are internally motivated to exercise because you want to feel and look better and better. Your brain makes the connection. Exercise = feel good and look good.

This same process can be used for anything, but you need to find what that thing is. Maybe it’s starting a blog like this one, or maybe you want to learn another language, or learn to play an instrument, or you want to begin the practice of journaling or taking time every evening to plan out your next day. The list is endless, and it is all up to you.

When I began my self-improvement journey many years ago, I decided to look at a few different areas. I wanted to exercise more; I wanted to read more, and I wanted to write more. You might be saying right now, come on. You were in the Army for 20 years. Why is exercise so hard for you? Because there is a huge difference between someone telling you to exercise every day and you telling yourself to exercise every day. We return, yet again, to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Exercising in the Army is much easier to do because it is the first thing you do every day and it is early. You wake up, you head out to first formation, and you exercise. When you have to motivate yourself, schedule it, and do it, it is a totally different story.

Do you want to do something that is hard to motivate yourself to do? Here are a few things you can do to start building that intrinsic motivation.

• Start very small
• Do that task the same time everyday
• Reward yourself each time you do it

When I started my exercising routine a few years back, I started very small. I did a few pushups, did a few sit-ups, and walked for 10 minutes every day. That was it. Once I had some momentum I began looking at going to a gym. I visited some gyms in my area and began looking at what I wanted to accomplish. I also wanted to pick an economical option that wouldn’t break the bank.

Once I got my membership, I was motivated to go to the gym because I was paying for it! Each day I got to the gym I rewarded myself with a little treat, whether it was a coffee or a bag of gummy bears, I was rewarding myself with something immediately after my workout. I realize eating gummy bears or having a Starbucks coffee are not the healthiest options, but it worked for me. You’ll have to find something to reward yourself with that means something to you.

Here are some example rewards you could give yourself to build your intrinsic motivation:

• A goodie (candy, chips, coffee, ice cream)
• Video Game time
• A Netflix movie or an episode of your favorite series (You could also use Amazon or Vudu).
• Surf the Web for 30 minutes

The rewards you give yourself or the way you minimize the activity are totally up to you. The trick or hack is to make the task so easy that it is hard not to do it. You reinforce this simple habit with a reward.

Maybe you have a problem with deciding what to do. Do a web search for things to do to improve your health, improve your writing, reduce stress, or achieve more focus. Do a search for sources that can help you learn the thing(s) you want to learn. Do a web search for ways to improve productivity, or come up with ideas for your morning or evening ritual. The information you have access to is endless, now that we have the Internet.

There are endless courses, YouTube videos, blogs, and other information sources available to you for free or a minimal amount. I just started a writing course on Skill Success for $19 US. This bundle is 5 separate courses on establishing writing habits, planning your writing, and a bunch of other great content. I found this site on Flipboard, which I look at every day for my news and interesting articles. I try to take and finish 8-10 courses a year. This is me, however. You may be motivated or driven to do other things. Whatever that “thing” is, you’ll find someone that is already doing it and teaching others to do it.

As always, my week will be attacking my goals on multiple fronts. I will be working on my book, exercising every day, taking some classes, doing my daily reading, doing my daily meditations and spiritual reading, and getting in some fun time with Netflix, Amazon, or Vudu, and maybe even getting in some game time on the XBOX.

I hope all of you have a terrific week!

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Habits

Tags

Chunking, Consistency, Daily Actions, Feed good habits, habits, rituals, Starve bad habits

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay 

“There is no influence like the influence of habit.” Gilbert Parker

Read more at: Brainy Quote

Habit is a terrific thing, as long as the habit is good. Good habits like eating right, exercise, working on your goals, keeping your living space tidy, and all the rest. Habits are hard to break once they have been built, especially bad ones. You are capable of whittling these habits down, however. You stop feeding them little by little and they will fade away.

I have written about this before, but it is worth mentioning again. It is the daily little things that build on one another. My goal this year is to read 48 books. Each year I participate in Goodreads’ reading challenge. I read every day to accomplish this goal. Some days I’ll read for a few hours. Other days I may only get in a chapter or so. I like reading multiple books at a time. I typically read a history book, self-help book, a religious or spiritual book, and a fiction book. I like the variety. On a typical day, I’ll read a chapter out of each book. If one of them catches my interest, I’ll put more time into that one, after I’ve knocked out my chapter requirement. This way, I am chiseling away at all the books I am slated to read for the month (4 books per month x 12 = 48). I read more than just books. I read articles on Flipboard. I read the news briefly. I also read my emails and any messages I receive in my Facebook feed.

One interesting thing I have discovered is that when you do one type of task, it is easier to clump these like-tasks together. For example, I tend to do my journaling and my blogging together because they both involve writing. Then I do all my reading together. Then I do my exercises. Then I do my meditation. Then I do some learning and finally some admin (paying bills, keeping track of my bank accounts, and tying up loose ends with anything else I have that is upcoming. These clusters of habits I call rituals. Each ritual involves certain key items before the ritual is completed. When I journal, I have a dream journal, a gratitude journal, and my diary (morning pages and daily review). My book writing I keep separate. This is in the evening when the house is quiet and I can sit in solitude and just write without interruptions by the family (who don’t mean anything by it). I also seem to be my most creative in the evening, so around 10 pm I do another stint of writing, first doing my daily review, followed by my book writing. The goal I set for myself is 500 words a day. I don’t set a time limit. Some days I knock out 500 words in a short amount of time. On nights where I am struggling with my words, it could take me a lot longer to hit the 500-word goal.

I have found with much trial and error the optimal times for me to do certain things during the day. I like to journal first thing. Then I like to read. Then I like to meditate and take a short nap if needed. Then it’s learning for the remainder of my first work session. Then it’s an evening of some shows and some video games, then at 10 PM I cut off the fun time and get back to writing, my daily review, and all of my relaxation techniques to hit the sack. I have found by putting these “like” habits together that I am more efficient and these rituals are in sync with my daily rhythm.

I took two days off from the gym this weekend. My sister was visiting, and we actually had our first tornado warning yesterday afternoon. It was a false alarm. The storm that hit us rained a lot with a little thunder, but moved through the area quickly. We did not see any report of a touchdown anywhere in our county.

I hope each of you has a great week! Continue to push forward on any goals or initiatives you have. You can’t lose if you don’t quit. You can’t fail if you don’t quit. You can win as long as you keep going.

Until next time…

Dave.

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Taking Action

Tags

Action, Execution, habits, moving forward, Planning, rituals, Steps, Taking the next step

“Infuse your life with action. Don’t wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen… yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.” – Bradley Whitford

Read more at: Brainy Quote

One of the simplest things I have discovered is the need to take action. You can plan, dream, and use every trick in the book to motivate yourself, but action is what gets things done. Action eliminates procrastination. Action achieves. Action is what turns dreams into reality.

When I read this quote, it explains the crux of what each of us must do if we want to get where we want to go. Take that next step. Make the move. Decide. Your action will get you moving toward what you want.

Taking action does not eliminate the need to plan or strategize. These steps are also necessary. If you act without deciding where you want to go, you’ll waste time. You have to take the time to list out the actions you want to take before you execute the plan.

If you are taking action on a new goal or trying to learn something new as part of your action plan, there will be mistakes. You will fail. Failure is not a problem, as long as your failures do not cause you to quit trying. Your failures are your guide posts. They are nudges that suggest a different way to your end result. Failing quickly is a great strategy because it causes you to notice what is not working and learn from it. Every plan will have its weak points. Reality will identify those weak points much more quickly than trying to outwit a mistake before you make it. Make the mistakes. This is where the learning is. Winners fail more than losers do. Winners take those failures and turn them into victories. Losers give up. Losers keep making the same mistakes because they don’t take the time to learn from them and adjust their sails.

Think about this for a moment. If you do not quit, you cannot fail. Keep moving forward. It is that simple.

This week will focus on my rituals, which are daily reading, learning, writing, programming, exercising, and meditating. It is surprising how efficient it is to pursue key areas and just work on each of them a piece at a time. Each day I am building new skills, crafting new ideas, and taking action in little chunks that slowly build on the previous day’s work.

I hope each of you has a great week! Attack! Get at it! You can do it. If you’re stuck, take some time to read, take a course, do some research, and you’ll find the solution to your problem. Then you can adjust your plan, get it scheduled out, and then it’s back to execution again.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Time Tracking

Tags

Achievement, Goals, Google Sheets, Hack, motivation, Planning, rituals, Technique, Time Tracking, Trick

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” – Zig Ziglar

Image by Free Photos on Pixabay

It’s another Monday folks, and it’s time to get to work. What are you looking to do today? Are you on track to achieving your goals?

Today, I wanted to discuss a great way to track your day. I just started this last week. It is merely a way to watch how you use your time. Some recommend tracking every 5-minute chunk. I think this is a little over the top. Instead, I use a time tracker to log when I start a task and then put another time at the end of the task. Then I create a simple formula (time end – time start = time used). This formula, my title of the task I am doing and the category of what that task is related to are all in a Google Sheet. Each day I add a new tab labeled by the month and day the time is tracked. What I’ve discovered is that my ability to monotask has increased tremendously.

Why is monotasking important? First, let’s discuss what monotasking is. Monotasking is the opposite of multitasking. Monotasking is doing one thing and one thing only. By adding a time tracking task, I avoid multitasking, which is a horrible habit to get into. It is easy on a computer to do this because there are so many things grasping for our attention, but if you monitor the time you spend doing something, it can really benefit you. Stick to one task at a time, monitor the time you spend doing it (start time and end time) and after a while you’ll have some data about what you do, how long you do it, and when you do it.

I want to come up with a day that aligns well with my habits. I have discovered further efficiency by doing like things at like times. For example, I workout first thing in the morning. Then, I do my journaling. Then, I do my blogging, which I’m doing right now. This is followed by my book writing. After my writing is completed, I’ll take a break and do an hour of meditation, eat some breakfast, then move into my course work (online learning). Once all of my learning is completed, I do some administrative tasks like check email, check social media, review the news (Google News and Flipboard), then I get into my reading. If I have some today-only tasks, I will knock them out after I have done all of my “administrative” tasks. Reading is the final thing I do all the way until 4 PM. So whatever time I have left after courses and I dedicate the rest of my day to my reading.

4 PM is when I stop working and enjoy the rest of my afternoon and evening relaxing, playing some video games, and watching a few shows on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or Vudu. That’s my day in a nutshell. Recently, I changed my sleep schedule to heading to bed around 10 pm, so I get enough rest for my wake up at 5 am. It’s terrific to get to the gym this early because the gym is so empty. I love an empty gym. I get in, get my workout done, and get out before the morning crew shows up.

These kinds of changes occur when you seriously tackle the goals you have set for yourself. You will see new areas to adapt to for efficiency’s sake. I really enjoy the journey toward goals. Meeting a goal is fun, but literally opens new doors for new goals and achievements. I hope all of you have a great Monday and are ready to attack the week. If you have any “tricks” or “hacks” to offer, provide them in the comments below.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Taking Action

Tags

Achievement, Action, Goals, Rabindranath Tagore, Recharging, Relaxing, rituals

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” – Rabindranath Tagore

Brainyquote

Action is the only way to achieve what you want in life. You can think about, pray about, or talk about the things you’d like to do, but action is the only way to change what you want to do into a result. I used to be a “think about” guy. I’d think, I’d think, and I’d think, but never achieved. You would think this was common sense, but it isn’t. There are all kinds of ways to avoid achieving something. Fear is big. The fear of failure has probably thwarted more people throughout history than any other reason I can think of.

The reason successful people win is that they fail more than anyone else. Each time they fail, they learn something. They gain wisdom. This is the advantage that comes to those that try. The more they try, the more they fail, the more they learn.

This week I’ll be focusing on my JavaScript course, my LPIP course from Centerpointe Research Institute, and my NLP course offered by Udemy. I’ll also continue revising and editing my book (3^rd draft). Meditation and exercise will also be on my agenda for the week. Finally, my reading schedule. I’m reading two books on writing. Story Engineering, is one book I’m reading; the other is on outlining for non-fiction writing. What I am learning as I begin my writing career is the importance of pre-writing or sketching out a story, characters, world building, and the research that feeds these areas of a work. I learned the importance of outlining for any writing. It helps form more organized works and allows the author to flesh out their thoughts in an organized way.

I had a great weekend. I’m a huge advocate for video games. I continue to do my daily rituals, but my entertainment is video games and watching shows on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. On the weekends I recharge my batteries for the upcoming week. It’s great! This weekend we met with friends in Flint, Michigan at one of our favorite Thai Restaurants. The food is great, and the company was awesome. We do this monthly so we can stay in touch and enjoy some good food.

I enjoy having a balance of work and play. When I’m playing video games or watching a great show, it takes my mind off things I must do and gives the mind time to consolidate and reorganize itself. Some of my best ideas for writing or anything I am pursuing comes while I play a game or enjoy a good movie.

What do you do to relax? What do you do to recharge? What are your goals this week? What are you looking to achieve by week’s end?

I hope all of you have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – The Simple Things

Tags

Peace, Reading, rituals, Simple Things, solitude, Tranquility, wisdom, Writing

“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.”―Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I took quite a few years to realize the wisdom Paulo Coelho refers to in this quote. Like, all young men, I sought fame, glory, and riches. I had a terrific military career in the Army, spanning 20 years. When I retired, I transitioned into technical recruiting, my second career. This career was very lucrative and set me up for an early retirement. Now I am pursuing a third career in writing, teaching, and writing programs for the web and mobile devices.

I enjoyed making a lot of money but discovered it was empty, at least for me. When my Dad’s illness kicked in, I returned home to help my folks. My days are simple, yet productive. I work through my daily routine, enjoy a few cups of coffee and good meals (I love to cook), and really enjoy the solitude and peacefulness that accompany my morning journaling. During the winter months it is even more special because the warmth of my coffee is a stark contrast to the cold on the other side of my living room window.

I used to use a desktop computer only for my work. Now I find my laptop to be a better companion. It allows me to enjoy different parts of my home as I work through my daily rituals. My core activities are exercise, meditation, journaling, working on my book projects, and working through various online courses, pursuing my varied areas of interest. I take my laptop everywhere, especially the coffee shops I enjoy going to.

My life is simple but rich. I take comfort in my routines and my little joys. I enjoy a warm cup of coffee in the morning. I enjoy the peace that accompanies my writing. I am engaged when I am learning new coding techniques and other topics. One of my greatest joys is relaxing while I read. Reading is a true joy, particularly when I am learning something new, or engrossed in a story.

When you slow down, you notice the little things that make life a grand experience. Petting the family dog, eating a meal with your family, conversations in the morning over coffee, looking at the snow, and enjoying those moments you realize how terrific life is. The simple things in life are the things that make life worth living.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Discovering Latent Skills

Tags

Boredom, Building Skills, Creating Your Day, Habit Formation, Latent Skills, Research, rituals

“I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.” – Lucille Ball

Read more at: Brainy Quotes

Boredom

This quote got me thinking about different times in my life. I recalled a time when my life was very predictable. I would get up, go to work, come home, drone out in front of my TV and go to bed. It was comfortable but boring.

Our brains automate everything. The brain doesn’t like change. The brain uses a lot of energy to alter the patterns or grooves it wires for itself. Each time you do something new, the brain creates a neural pathway to automate that action. If you perform this action over and over, the brain continues to reinforce that pathway until it becomes automatic. This process occurs over and over again subconsciously. The brain resists change because the creation and reinforcement of these neural pathways eats up a lot of the brain’s energy. Your brain is always trying to automate things to conserve energy. Our brains love being static. The less energy your brain uses the happier it is. Changing things is hard and requires consistency for the changes you make to take hold.

Change

If life bores you, you might explore for things you could do differently. Do you have any hobbies? Do you read? Do you do any writing? Do you exercise? Do you create any art? Do you play an instrument? These are things I questioned when I was exploring for something new in my life.

You are unique. You have more talent than you know. Each of us comes into this world with active talents and latent talents. Active talents are those talents we develop out of necessity. Latent talents are those we have but are unused or undiscovered. How do we find these talents if we do not know what they are? We can find our hidden talents by trying new things.

Discovering Latent Talents

My search started with the Internet. I wanted to know the things I could do to add spice to my life. I wanted to find things that other people were doing to add flavor and excitement into their lives. I wanted to find things to do that would assist me with generating an income I could earn on my own, without having to go to a company or work for another boss. I wanted more control over my life, and I wanted to be doing something that built a life with a solid foundation. A foundation that would fulfill me and provide me with an income.

Next, I wanted to find out what successful people were doing with their lives. What is Tim Ferris, Bill Gates, and other successful people doing? What was the template? To learn about these people, I read. I read articles about morning rituals, evening rituals, habits and their formation, planning and goal setting. I saw a pattern emerge. Successful people concentrated their efforts on those things that provide the greatest benefit to their lives.

I followed the advice these people were offering. This led to reading more books, chasing after meditation, writing, exercise, reading, and lifelong learning. I saw areas in my life that needed improvement and discovered things I would like to try. This led me to writing.

Writing was something I liked early in life but never really pursued. I used to be a huge Dungeons and Dragons fan. To run a game for my friends, I had to create entire worlds from scratch. I had to create characters, scenes, and dungeons, filled with monsters for my players to fight. I had to create plot lines that would react and evolve with my player’s actions. Then, I joined the Army and my childhood writing ceased.

Another area I discovered during my search for latent skills and change was computer programming. I love video games. I don’t play a lot. These games are very addictive and eat up a lot of time. I play them, however, and because I play them, I became interested in how they work. This led me to reading about programming, earning a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in IT, and dabbling in programming languages throughout. Again, I didn’t take these skills to the next level.

When I retired in 2016, I learned why people who retire get bored. They no longer have an organization giving them things to do. There is no structure in their lives, other than what they structure. I decided after a few months of piddling around that I needed a daily structure of doing things to build new skills and pursue paths towards residual income. I had to choose paths that would allow me to work, build content, and sell that content for the rest of my life. Writing and programming became my focus. These were two latent skills I uncovered by accident.

Building Skills

This is a wonderful time to be alive. Technology allows all of us to find information we seek. Technology has also altered the education landscape. To build my writing and my programming skills, I needed to find out who was teaching these things and work towards proficiency. I found multiple resources for writing and programming and have built in daily activities to achieve my goals. My goals are to build a large following for my blog and write books. I also want to build programs and applications that will serve people in ways unavailable to people now or improve on existing applications that are good but could be better.

Using all the knowledge I gained around goal setting, planning, habit formation, and daily rituals (collections of habits that are synergistic), I planned a daily regimen of writing, programming, reading, exercising, meditating, and learning. Applying what I learned has helped me plan a fulfilling day of activities that help me forge ahead toward my goals.

You Can Do It

Anyone can do what I’ve done. It really starts with the motivation to change your life. Are you bored like I was? Is something missing in your life? Get out there and look. Experiment with different areas you are interested in. You may find some hidden talents you never knew existed. Once you have clues that uncover one talent or another, get out there and find the resources you need to improve these skills. All that’s left is figuring out how to monetize these skills so you can continue to support yourself.

I hope each of you takes risks. I hope each of you pursues the things that interest you and excite you. I hope each of you attain your dreams. I hope you pursue all the things you want in this life and avoid the regret that accompanies a life of inaction, mediocrity, and fear. Take risks, explore, and try things out. You’ll never know what your life could truly be, if you don’t get out there and try.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Journals and Rituals

Tags

Grateful, Gratitude, habits, journaling, Journals, Learning, Reading, rituals, Thanks, Writing

A big thank you to all the new followers this week. I finally hit my 500-follower goal and now I am off to hit 1000. I appreciate all my readers and hope you find my daily inputs to your day fruitful and interesting. Today, I’ll be revisiting an important aspect of my day—gratitude journaling.

I work with three journals currently. One is my daily journal where I do a daily mind dump of all my thoughts first thing in the morning. Second is my dream journal, which I write in as soon as I awake. Finally, I add to my gratitude and affirmations journal.

My gratitude journal starts with my daily affirmations. As you all know, I am working monthly to build my character in the same way Benjamin Franklin did during his day. Each month I add one more character trait and these in turn are part of my daily affirmations. Following this I write about all the things I am grateful for.

My gratitude extends to my family and friends, my learning, my pets, and the many aspects of my life. I like taking the time to consider all the great things I have in my life, along with the wondrous experiences I am grateful for. This morning journaling sets a terrific tone for the rest of my day.

Over time you would think that this exercise would get boring, trivial, or lose its meaning. Surprisingly, it does not. It took me a while to build the habit but performing the act daily has made this a well-earned ritual I perform religiously.

Speaking of rituals, I tend to keep like habits with like habits. I do most of my writing in the morning in and around my journaling. Next, I move to reading. After my daily reading is completed, I move to my learning habits, running through the online courses I am enrolled in, my coding exercises, and the YouTube lectures I am working through. Then I do my religious studies, getting in a meditation session and reading my religious discourses for the month. Exercise comes later in the day after my first meal, which is around 4 PM. I eat late because I do intermittent fasting daily. My schedule is from 12 midnight to 4 PM daily. The only thing I consume is water, coffee, tea, or a pre-workout drink. Some say drinking the pre-workout during the fasting period breaks the fast, but I don’t care. It is healthy and is a great start to my day.

These daily rituals formed all by themselves. Over time it just made sense to move through my daily habits in an organized fashion so I could stay within certain contexts that would provide more efficiency to my day. Rituals are the best description for this behavior because they literally guide each action, within the confines of the context they fall under.

Well, folks that’s it for today. I hope all of you have a terrific Thursday.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Monday Motivation – Baby Steps

Tags

Baby Steps, Consistency, Focus, motivation, Peter Marshall, rituals, Simplifying, Small Deeds

“Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.” – Peter Marshall

Read more at: Brainy Quotes

This quote explains the importance of consistent, small actions. Some people have these great plans set for themselves but rarely attain them because they fail to break these big things down into actionable steps. Let’s tackle a simple task like reading a certain number of books in a year.

Let’s say you want to read 24 books this year. You take the 24 books, divide by 12 and discover you only need to read 2 books a month to achieve your goal. You take a look at your books and discover you have 30 chapters to read (15 chapters in each book) in 30 days. Read 1 chapter a day and you’ll hit the 30 chapters (finishing both books) and you’re well on your way to reading your 24 books, provided you stick with reading 1 chapter a day.

How am I doing on my goals? I’m on track. I finished the rough draft of my book over the weekend. Now it’s time to begin the re-write. I’m looking at what I will do daily to complete my first draft in 6 months and will dig into this new process on Feb 4, 2019. I’ll figure out how much writing I need to do, what tools I need, and then dig in daily.

I’m shooting for 12 online courses by year’s end. I have completed two so far and taking another two currently. I am also goaled to read 48 books this year. I am on track with three books completed and one more to go this month to keep on track.

My exercise goals are always about gaining muscle and losing weight. It is hard to do both but keep this as a goal regardless. Right now, I am in a bulking phase, just to get some more muscle on my frame. Then, once I am at a certain point, I’ll cut for a few months, then back to bulk, and so on. I’m going to continue to bulk until April and then cut for a few months to get ready for the Summer. My exercise plan is literally going to the gym daily or, in case of inclement weather, I exercise at home. That’s it. Daily exercise involving both weights and some cardio.

My spiritual goals are to read my Bible daily, meditate daily, journal daily, and continue with my book discussion once per month. All of these are on track. Simple things each day help me achieve big things by year’s end and build strong ritualized habits.

My social goals are slacking somewhat. I tend to interact a bit on social media, but it’s important to interact with other people face-to-face. The challenge currently is the big snow storms we are being hit with in the Midwest. It is not safe to drive if you do not need to, so for now, social media daily and Skyping with my friends will be the best alternative.

How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions? Are you still pushing forward or are you stalling? If you are stalling, look at what you want to do and minimize what you are doing daily to a point you can achieve little pushes each day. You’ll be amazed by what you can accomplish over time.

Little actions steps daily will build healthy habits, rewire your brain for these activities, and help you establish rituals of habits that you knock out each day. It is so easy if you take a chance and try this. I wish all of you well on this year’s goals.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday

Tags

Achievement, Character Building, Coach John Wooden, Goals, habits, Little Things, Making time, rituals, Time Chunking

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” – John Wooden

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_wooden_384652?src=t_wisdom

John Wooden is best known for his history as Coach of UCLA basketball. This quote relates to a part of his coaching philosophy. If you’d like to learn more, you can visit his official website at http://www.coachwooden.com/

Each of us has habits. Each of us follows a certain ritual each day. We get up. We go to work. We conduct that work. We go home. We go to bed.

What is important are the things we do in between all these mandated activities. What do you do with your time? Do you watch TV? Do you play video games? Do you read? Do you write? Do you learn?

It’s interesting when you look at your efforts over a given period. I looked at my blog this morning like I always do. Since Daily Rambling’s creation, I have posted more than 500 posts. I spend about 20-30 minutes on my daily postings. That 20-30 minutes doesn’t seem like much but when you add that 20-30 minutes up over 2 years you arrive at a pretty big number.

If you examine your life like John Wooden would do with the teams he’s coached over the years you will begin to realize how important these small contributions are over time. This is the crux of this quote. Small things turn into big things. This is one of my key learnings over the years as I have studied success, productivity, accomplishment, and all the rest. I learned that habits are important, but rituals are more important to a person’s overall success. Rituals are habits packaged up together in a synchronous and synergistic way to gain maximum advantage.

My rituals take on context. I write in chunks of time. I read in chunks of time. I exercise in chunks of time. I pursue my learning in chunks of time. I plan in chunks of time. These rituals are important because they literally guide your day. You get up, you make your bed, you brush your teeth, you eat.

If you work, you have rituals as well. You get up at a certain time, you clean up your room, you wash up, you eat, and you head out the door. When you get to work you fire up your workstation or do whatever your work requires. There are hidden rituals that occur all day long despite your awareness of them.

The impetus of my topic today is on actively and purposefully documenting your personal rituals to begin gaining an awareness of what you do every day so you can find out what you can change to achieve those things that are outside of work. Do you want to exercise? Find a place in your calendar and make the time. What will you add to that exercise ritual? Packing your gym bag, putting it in your trunk so you can workout before or after work? What type of exercises will you do? What gym or park will you go to?

If you’ve never exercised before, you may want to start small. Maybe you buy a second-hand workout bench and some used dumbbells. Maybe you find a used stair-stepper or treadmill that someone wants to get rid of. Whatever you choose, create a ritual that you can commit to. Maybe you’re like me and must do your first workout routine in the morning before anything else. Maybe you’re comfortable doing it on the way home from work. Regardless of what you choose to do, try it out for a bit. Does it work, or do you need to change it? If you need to change it–do it.

You can create rituals for hobbies you’d like to pursue, exercise programs, sitting down and getting on with writing the book you’ve always wanted to write, or any number of things.

My rituals surround a few topic areas. These topic areas are writing (blog, book, school work), exercise (aerobic, weight lifting, sleep, supplementation, tracking my food), reading (nonfiction and fiction), and learning (helping my wife with her degree program, Coursera, Hillsdale College, and others), and spiritual pursuits (praying and spiritual reading daily).

You have the freedom to pursue whatever you are interested in. You can pursue whatever drives you from day-to-day. Make some choices. It’s ok to watch Netflix (I do). It’s ok to watch your favorite sports teams when they appear. Just keep it in balance. Find the areas of your life that you believe need some work, write down a plan, get it on your calendar, and execute. Start small and grow the ritual as you see fit. After a while, you may decide that the price a certain goal or activity is too much for you right now. Put it to the side and continue with the others you have selected and are willing to pay the price for. You can always go back to one of these things should you decide to.

Little things add up to big things. 20 minutes of exercise a day, reading a chapter a day, writing a few paragraphs for your book each day, spending 15 minutes on a video course each day are all actions that are very doable and will deliver huge results over time. I wish all of you well on your life’s journey and hope you achieve what you want to in this lifetime.

Until next time…

Dave