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Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Week of January 20, 2020

20 Monday Jan 2020

Posted by Dave Gardner in Motivation Monday

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Consistency, Goals, Keep Pushing, motivation, rituals, You can do it

Well, my Mom returned late last night from a trip to Texas and things are back to normal in the Gardner home. While she was gone, I took care of my Dad, who has been suffering from Dementia for a few years. He is still able to do most things, but he has to be watched.

Recently, we had to get him set up with physical therapy, because he has been stumbling around and falling. The doc told us his quadriceps and muscles surrounding his hips have become significantly weak, so Dad is going to PT twice a week for the next month.

I didn’t get much sleep last night, but today’s tasks are waiting, so I’ll make this a brief one today.

Here’s my schedule:

  • Blog Daily
  • Code Daily
  • Work on Book Daily
  • Read Daily
  • Exercise Daily
  • Meditate Daily
  • Journal Daily
  • Learn Daily

I hope all of you have a terrific week!

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Do Not Stop

18 Monday Nov 2019

Posted by Dave Gardner in Motivation Monday

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Consistency, Continuous Improvement, Elastic Habits, habits, motivation, rituals, Stephen Guise

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”

Confucius

Here we are! I like this quote because it aligns perfectly with a book I’m reading, called Elastic Habits by Stephen Guise. His new book describes how to have flexible habits so that on days that suck, you do the bare minimum to continue your streak, medium level habits for normal days when you are motivated to get something done, and elite level for those days that you are wired to crush the day. He also provides alternative tasks that augment your goals. Let’s say you want to get in the habit of exercising every day.

You could pick weight exercises, cardio exercises, and perhaps a sport like swimming, basketball, or tennis. On a bad day, you do a pushup, walk for a minute, or knock a few balls around on the court. For your medium-level you could do 20 pushups, or a 20-minute run, or play a set of tennis with a friend. For elite-level you could do 100 pushups, run for 45 minutes, or swim 10 laps in the pool. This lateral as well as multiple levels of your habits, provide you with maximal choice and the ability to elevate or deflate your daily accomplishments based on your mood, time available or energy available.

If you are interested, you can pick up a copy on Amazon. Elastic Habits on Amazon.

I am not an affiliate, just a HUGE fan of Stephen’s work. The book will run you 7.99 and is only available in e-book form.

The advice provided by Confucius aligns perfectly with this book, because Stephen provides you a mechanism to always take one step forward with all of your habits. I can’t recommend this book enough!

Here’s my week:

  • Get an advertisement in the Jeffersonian for my book discussion on Dreams
  • Get copyright message on Poster for book discussion on Dreams
  • Help my wife study for a teacher’s certification test daily
  • Exercise daily (see workout routine)
  • Eat a vegetarian breakfast (altered from my workout routine for breakfast instead of lunch) daily
  • Meditate daily
  • Take online classes daily
  • Blog daily
  • Work on my fiction book daily (outlining, story beats, character development, world creation, etc.)
  • Read a chapter daily
  • Post quotes daily
  • Share an article daily
  • Eat out for lunch daily

Well, that’s it for this week folks. I hope all of you achieve your goals and have fun while you are doing it. Living a life with healthy habits is a wonderful thing. This new book, Elastic Habits, will show you how to do it with no chance of failure.

Have a GREAT week, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

 

 

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Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday -Here We Go!!

28 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by Dave Gardner in Motivation Monday

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Achievement, Consistency, Dreading Monday, Drive, Goals, habits, motivation, rituals, Routines

It’s time to grind folks!

Are you one of those folks who dreads Monday? I think it’s pretty common across all cultures. For those of us that work Monday – Friday, the weekend is our relax, binge-watch, and laze-around time. Then we have to get up on Monday and head to work.

Since retirement, I’ve tried to keep a Monday-Friday schedule. Last week I tried an experiment of not having a real weekend. In other words, I kept my daily schedule consistent across 7 days. I still have a blow-off day on Sunday called “my do nothing day”, but this last week I continued to plug away at all the things I schedule for myself daily.  What did I discover? My Monday wasn’t that bad when I consistently kept doing what I normally do during the Monday-Friday workweek.

For me, consistency is the key to accomplishing what I have set out to do. This consistency is what keeps me going. I love to habitualize everything. I find comfort in the consistency of my schedule and the automation of daily tasks and routines. The key, however, is I love everything I am doing.

When I retired I knew I would still want to be active. I didn’t want to fall into the trap of binge-watching videos, playing video games 12 hours a day, and all the rest. I wanted to finally do what I have always wanted to do–focus on exercise, learning, writing, reading, meditating, and coding. Subsequently, this is my day. I love what I do. Since I love what I do, I am no longer “working”. It is a great place to be.

For those of you that are still doing the 9-5, find aspects of your job that you love. Then, carry some of these things into the weekend with you. Instead of piling up all the personal things you have to do during the weekend, spread them out through the week. Clean as you go, do your laundry in batches, prep all of your meals on Saturday or Sunday. What you’ll find is your weekend will slowly begin to blend in with your workweek and each day will be more consistent.

I started doing this in my final years in professional recruiting. I used to do something work-related each weekend day. Maybe I would source for candidates and begin building out call logs for my work week. Maybe I would do some research into some company or new technology hitting the market place. I could even knock out some social networking. I thought that if I make everyday the same, there will be no more “Monday dread” because there would be no separation from my work day and my weekend.

Give this a try. You may be like me. You may enjoy the consistency of your day and thrive on it. I know I do. I just feel good when I can knock out little chuncks of my goals each day. I wake up each day knowing what I am going to do and it never changes. This consistency is my life line. I’ll stop here.

Here’s my schedule for the week:

  • Work on my book daily
  • Work on my blog daily
  • Learn daily
  • Journal daily
  • Meditate/Spiritual Exercise daily
  • Exercise daily (See my Workout Routine Posting today)
  • Eat less than 2500 calories daily
  • Read daily
  • Get out of the house and interact with the public daily

Ok, folks. Get out there and crush your goals and have a great week ahead!

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – The Journey is More Important than the Destination

14 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by Dave Gardner in Motivation Monday

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Achievements, Consistency, Goals, motivation, rituals, Systems, The Journey

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

Zig Ziglar

I have always been motivated by goals and achievements. In the last few years, I have evolved. After reading books like Mini-Habits and Atomic Habits, I am now more focused on the systems that support achievement. These systems or rituals are more important in my opinion.

For example, I set a goal in the Goodreads’ reading challenge to 48 books this year. I achieved and moved beyond this goal last month. How? By reading 1 chapter a day. That’s it. Simple, right? My system of reading 1 chapter a day helped me hit my goal, which occurred without even thinking about it. If they system supports your goal, you’ll achieve it. You cannot do anything else but succeed.

 

Systems or rituals can be used to achieve all of your goals. If you select the right things to do, you’ll achieve your goals unconsciously. It’s just that simple. It’s the rituals and systems that are more important because they build habits or patterns in your daily life that should be beneficial. Reading, writing, exercise, meditation, connecting with friends and family, are all important and beneficial things. Create systems that allow you to touch the things that are important to you every day and your life will be rich and fulfilling. On to my weekly schedule.

Weekly Schedule:

  • Read a chapter daily
  • Write a section of my book daily
  • Code daily
  • Meditate daily
  • Blog daily
  • Exercise daily
  • Spend time with friends and family daily
  • Run a monthly book discussion (today)

I’ve also started a habit of getting out and about daily. This could be a meal at a restaurant, visiting a library, or setting down at a coffee shop. I also go to the gym and run errands. I try to interact with different people each time I go out. It’s great fun!

Happy Monday! I hope all of you have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Take Time to Plan

09 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by Dave Gardner in Wisdom Wednesday

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Alchemist, brain type, Chunking, Efficiency, planners, Planning, Project EVO, rituals

Image by rawpixel from Pixabay

I think many people avoid planning because they want to avoid pushing themselves into a corner or they feel they don’t have the time. They ramble through their days, constantly reminding themselves they have this to do or that to do and just do things as they rise to the attention level that mandates they do something. I used to be one of these people.

I’m not here to judge you. If you still operate this way, cool. I just found it has become easy to get a lot of things done, track everything, and cultivate a more organized, efficient, and productive way of doing things. If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that I ritualize everything and constantly look for new ways to become even more “automated”.

First, I’m a night owl. I start my new day at Midnight. This is when I do the bulk of my writing. The house is quiet, my inner muse is active, and the words just come. Subsequently, all of my writing tasks are between 12:00 Midnight – 2:00 AM. During this time, I knock out a section of my book, complete my blog posting for the day, work on any drafts of letters I am working on, along with any other writing on my radar. During this time I also do my planning for the day. I typically head to bed between 2 and 3 AM. I like to plan before I go to bed to take advantage of the subconscious mind’s ability to work on these things while I sleep. Later today, at 9 AM when I rise, I’ll dig right in and knock out the day.

I also take advantage of a technique called chunking. I write in a chunk right now. I learn in a chunk, moving through all the online courses and tutorials I am enrolled in. Finally, I read in a 1 and 1/2 hour chunk. The only thing I do not chunk is my exercise routine. This week that routine is 1 mini workout as soon as I get up, followed by a gym visit in mid-afternoon, and then ending with another mini-workout early evening.

Let’s talk about rituals for a moment. My rituals are trigger points, coupled with other trigger points. My first trigger is getting out of bed. Before I do anything, I do my first mini-workout. Meals trigger my next workouts. I workout at the gym after I eat lunch. I workout in the evening after I eat dinner. It’s a great way to settle the stomach and take advantage of those recently digested calories.

Meditation triggers the start of my day at Midnight. These triggers or antecedent events cause a cascade of events that are automatic. It took me a while to get in this position, but now that I am here, it is terrific. The day flows by smoothly.

That’s all fine and good, Dave, but what happens when your schedule gets blind-sided by something you have to take care of that is not in your ritualized day? This is when planning is most important.

Let’s say I have a project or a problem I’m need to solve. I plan thinking time to iron out what I will do. Note: Even when emergency problems arise, I take the time to think through a solution. Initially, I’ll brainstorm. Brainstorming is nothing more than writing every idea that comes to mind without judging or critiquing them. I enjoy using mind mapping software for this. Once I have all of my ideas down and cannot think of anything else, I look at all the potential solutions to my problem and choose the best course of action. Once I make a choice, I outline all the things that have to happen and organize them into a pecking order. Then, I transfer that outline to my current to-do app and begin knocking out the steps.

Here’s an easy checklist you can use:

  1. Problem or situation arises that requires your action
  2. Brainstorm
  3. Critique ideas on time available, funds available, feasibility (can you execute all these steps without further training), and quality.
  4. Choose the best solution
  5. Visualize the end state of your solution
  6. Work backward from this end state to the beginning of your work effort
  7. Outline the steps or actions you must take to get from initial steps to final deliverable
  8. Transfer your steps into your to-do app or a list you will track as you work through your project

 

I have recently purchased a new planning journal, called the Project EVO daily planner, and must say it is terrific. I realize there are a lot of planners out there. Investigate these and decide for yourself. What I like about the EVO planner is the test you take at the beginning to figure out what your brain type is. My category is Alchemist. My brain type is accurate (scary accurate). The initial evaluation is free. Once you complete it and order your planner, they’ll send you a planner for your brain type. If you’re curious, check them out here.

 

Another great thing about their service is the accompanying app they offer in the Google Play and iTunes stores. This app is used to scan your daily planner to track your daily and weekly results. It is awesome!

I hope all of you are having a terrific week so far! I appreciate all of you and hope my advice helps. I am constantly seeking new ways to organize myself and squeeze more and more efficiency out of my day. These hacks will help.

Well, that’s it for now.

Until next time…

Dave

 

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Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Building Habits and Rituals

30 Monday Sep 2019

Posted by Dave Gardner in Motivation Monday

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Behavior Chains, Ciotti, Consistency, habits, macro goals, micro quotas, motivation, rituals

Today’s Monday Motivation article: 5 Scientific Ways to Build Habits that Stick (Ciotti, 2013), provides some great advice on how to form habits. To check it out, click the link below under the Reference header. These are the 5 ways:

  1. Make “micro quotas” and “macro goals”
  2. Create behavior chains
  3. Eliminate excessive options
  4. Process plan (but don’t fantasize)
  5. Eliminate “ah-screw-its”

One of the best of his ideas is the use of micro quotas and macro goals. What does this mean? It means we set big goals and then create small actions that we can execute every day that will build into these big goals. The best example that I’ve implemented is writing a book. The book is the macro goal. The micro quota is writing a section of my book each day. Your micro quota may involve writing to a set time limit, like 20 minutes each day or a specific word count, like 500 words per day.

I have done a few things to improve my productivity. I have purchased an EVO planner (see https://projectevo.org/). This is a cool planner that has a digital component. You scan your days and weeks, after you’ve reviewed your performance for the day. It also features a free test to determine what your brain type is. Mine is The Alchemist. I have to say it is pretty accurate.  Check it out. This may be a good solution for you to try out.

I have also become quite proficient with my daily rituals and decided to triple my efforts by creating what are called mini-days. I run through 3 mini-days each day, starting tomorrow. Each day will involve something related to the mental, physical, spiritual, and social components of my life. I found that I have become so efficient that I need to add more activities to my day to fill it. Bonus all around!

Here’s my agenda for the week:

  • Exercise daily
  • Meditate daily
  • Learn something new daily
  • Get out and socialize daily by eating out, working at a coffee shop, or writing at a library
  • Read my Bible daily
  • Write one section of my book daily
  • Code daily

 

Here’s another suggestion for you if you would like an easier time of automating your to-dos. Use a task app. I use Toodledo (see https://www.toodledo.com/tasks/index.php). I set all of my tasks that are part of my daily ritual to repeat daily. As I complete them, they move to the next day. You can use other apps too. Wunderlist and ToDoist are also good.

 

Well, that’s it for today! Have a great Monday!!

Until next time…

Dave

Reference

Ciotti, G. (2013). 5 scientific ways to build habits that stick. Retrieved from: https://99u.adobe.com/articles/17123/5-scientific-ways-to-build-habits-that-stick

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Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Making Adjustments When Things Don’t Feel Right

04 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by Dave Gardner in Wisdom Wednesday

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Exciting, Fresh, Goals, Readjust, Reevaluate, Reinvigorating, Reset, rituals, To-dos

Have you ever experienced a time in your life where you didn’t feel right? You can’t put your finger on what it is, but something isn’t right. How do you get rid of that feeling?

The first thing to realize is that we are all growing or shrinking. This is constant. Some days you’re ready to take on the world and you feel like you’re in a sweet spot. At other times you just don’t feel right. It isn’t a physical sensation. It is a mental one.

I was in this funk a few months ago. I felt out of place. I wasn’t motivated to do anything. I was feeling out of sorts. So, here’s what I did to get out of it.

I revisited all of my goals. I looked at my daily rituals and tasks. What could I change?

I returned to basics. I looked at the areas I always focus on. The mental areas, the social areas, the physical areas, and the spiritual areas. Where was I falling short?

I began to reformulate what I set out to do at the beginning of the year. I began reading articles and books. I was searching for ways to get out of the funk I was in.

I went through my entire day and redid everything. I reexamined goals, eliminated all of my daily to-dos and reset everything. After a few days of working through my new to-do list, refreshing my motivation to get back at my goals, and pushing through my rituals, I started to feel better.

I began anchoring myself back to the trajectory I set for myself at the end of last year. Things started making sense again. I felt invigorated and aligned again. I dug myself out of the hole I created for myself.

When you feel like I did, the easiest way to get out of this is to reexamine what you are doing, how you are doing it, and evaluate each goal you have set for yourself. Are you really pushing yourself to be better or going through the motions? Are the goals you are pursuing really important to you or are they someone else’s goals? Are you really doing what you want to be doing?

If your goals are really something you want to do, sometimes you can change up how you are tackling the discrete steps you have created. Sometimes you have to drop a goal you are working on and move forward with another one. The key is to change up what you are doing, so it is fresh again. Once you do, you will inject a sense of excitement back into your life. Once you’ve done that, all is well again.

To summarize. We all get to a point where we feel we are stagnating. Sometimes the goals we have set are not ready to be tackled yet. Other things need to get done first. Or you may just be tired of pursuing what your pursuing. In either case, reevaluate what you are doing, reset your daily to-dos, rituals, and goals. It helped me get out of my hole; this process may help you as well.

As always, have a great Wednesday, readers. I wish you well with all the goals you have set for yourself.

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Recovery

26 Monday Aug 2019

Posted by Dave Gardner in Motivation Monday

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Getting Organized, motivation, Recovery, Religious Retreats, rituals, Routines

Happy Monday!

I just got back from one of our annual religious retreats. It is hard to describe the feeling of the Holy Spirit, Love, and connection one receives when attending an event, free from the daily to-dos and other responsibilities we all have to deal with. I am still reeling from the experience. That being said, I am slowly returning to reality and getting back to work.

This week, I’m hitting the book writing, courses, exercise regimen, meditation, and other activities I’ve got scheduled this week. I’ll be unpacking, doing laundry, and getting myself set back up for all of my routines.

Whenever you go away on a business trip, vacation, or religious retreat, there’s always a bit of a letdown when you return to the normalcy of day-to-day living. This is why having your rituals and day-to-day tasks listed out in one of the many to-do apps is so important. Your computer or other tech devices give you the guidance you took time to set up so you can get right back at it without much delay.

Today, I’ll get most of my stuff done, but some will be put on hold until tomorrow, as I get my office set up, get caught up on emails, do some grocery shopping, and get reoriented to the daily routine. Today, will be much less difficult because I have all of my recurring tasks sitting in my to-do app, ready for me to attack.

I hope each of you has a terrific week.

Until next time…

Dave

 

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Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Strengthening Your Intrinsic Motivation

12 Monday Aug 2019

Posted by Dave Gardner in Motivation Monday

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

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

20 Monday May 2019

Posted by Dave Gardner in Motivation Monday

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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.

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