Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Augmenting Your Tasks with Music

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Achievement, Getting Things Done, Heavy, Monday, motivation, Music, Setting Goals, Trance

There are a bunch of songs that I listen to over and over again and produce the same results–goosebumps. If you are ever down in the dumps or unmotivated to do what you need to do, listen to some music you know will pump you up. I find different kinds of music have different effects and I use them in different scenarios.

When I am reading and writing, I listen to instrumental, environmental, and electronic (focus-type) stuff. If something has any type of singing, words, etc., I cannot concentrate on anything. When I want to motivate myself, there are songs from Eminem, DeadMaus, Armin VanBuuren, and many others in the rap and techno genres. When I’m in the gym, it is heavy stuff like Arch Enemy, Slipknot, Disturbed, AC/DC, Metallica, Kataklysm, and the like. Anything heavy, with hard-charging lyrics, fast-paced guitar licks, and lots of double base stuff. The trance genre is also terrific if I’m going to do a bout of low-impact cardio, like treadmill, stepping, or rowing.

Music is my go to, when I need a boost. Obviously, coffee is another huge contender on Monday mornings to get myself moving, but music is by far the biggest influencer on my moods and augments what I am doing at the time.

I hope all of you are having a terrific Monday and will have a terrific week.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Setting Goals

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Discipline, Drive, Goals, Monday, motivation, Persistence, Setting Goals, SMART acronym

Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.

Tony Robbins

I set yearly goals each year. Last year I achieved most of them. This year I was on track. But then…you know the rest of the story. Covid-19 has put a damper on a lot of things, particularly now that it is back. But the goals I have set that Covid didn’t disrupt are all on track.

Setting goals gives us direction. They require us to decide about what we want to achieve. Once we’ve done this, however, we are on autopilot.

If you’ve never set goals before, just keep in mind the SMART acronym. This acronym stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. If you’d like to read about it and watch a short video, here is the link.

I think the most important benefit I receive when I set a goal is the ability to see where I am and how to finish the rest of the journey. Try it out. You won’t be sorry.

Here is my week:

Physical – I will concentrate on shoulders this week. Every day I will exercise shoulders and do nothing else (See workout routine)

Mental – Learn, read, write, and journal

Spiritual – read my Bible, do my spiritual exercises, do my discourse work, and share my goodwill to all

Social – post uplifting quotes and articles to my social media feeds, interact with friends and family wherever possible

That’s it for today, folks. Have a great Monday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Mondays – Failure is Not a Waste of Time

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Defeat, failure, Keep going, Learning, Setting Goals, Stretch Goals, The Journey

It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.

Bill Gates

As we wind down 2019, I wanted to use that time to address failure.

Failure is a teacher. It is not something to get upset about or worry about. Failure shows you how not to do something. It teaches us where we went wrong. If we pay attention. If you fail and learn nothing, the true failure is failing to learn something.

I set some stretch goals at the beginning of the year. Did I meet all of them? No. Was I planning to miss the mark? No. That’s what stretch goals are about. You stretch beyond what you did previously to see if you can pull it off. I’ll get into detail in a later post when I do my end-of-year evaluation and reset for next year, but when you achieve more, feel great! When you fail to achieve what you set out to do, learn from it. Did you stretch too far? Did you miss some principle or lack the technique or ability to do more? This is where the true wins are. You can fail over and over and over again. The key is to keep going.

Here’s my weekly schedule:

• Blog daily
• Work on my Story Beats daily
• Exercise daily
• Meditate daily
• Socialize daily
• Journal daily
• Learn daily
• Code daily
• Share articles and quotes daily

When you set your goals for next year (hopefully sometime this month), keep in mind that you may fail to achieve some of them. That’s OK. Goals are meant to stretch us. Sometimes you can’t stretch enough to achieve them. The real benefit of this exercise is to continue to do better than you did yesterday.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

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Learning, Limitations, Potential, Roy T. Bennett, Setting Goals, Taking action, Your Skill Set

“Believe in your infinite potential. Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself.”―Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

All of us have innate talents that we are blessed with. Some folks are good with music. Some folks are good at writing. Some folks are good at mechanics. Some folks are good with learning new things.

Each of us has a unique skill set that we are blessed with. Each of us has a unique place in the world, fulfilling some role we were put here to accomplish. Some are meant to be mothers and fathers. Some are meant to be captains of industry. Some are meant to explain the world to others. Some are meant to spread the word of God.

Regardless of your calling, use these talents. They are yours. We all have that special something that makes us unique in the world. We gravitate towards the things we are good at and are meant to use in this lifetime.

Today, take a moment to contemplate what you like doing. Take a moment to evaluate your skill set. How can you use these tools to be the best you?

It is so easy to make excuses. It is so easy to think you are not good enough. It is so easy to procrastinate.

If you’ve always wanted to do something, do it. Do that thing. Even if you just take a moment to do a little towards mastery, you’ll be doing more than you are doing now. Think about where you want to be and set a goal to get there. You may pursue that goal your whole life. The key is in the doing. Get out there. Do something, anything to move the needle forward.

You want to learn a new language? Get a language app and start working through these things. You want to learn a new technology? Find online educational resources or tutorials and begin learning that new technology.

Whatever you want to learn or develop is available to you on YouTube, numerous online schools, and websites that hold the secrets to mastering what you are striving for?

Keep your goals in mind daily. Keep visualizing what your life will be like when you attain your new goal. Keep moving forward. Take a step each day. You can’t fail if you keep moving forward to your finish line. You can only fail if you fail to act.

Each of us possesses God-given talents and skills. God has also given us the ability to learn, imagine, create, and make decisions. Use your talents and get moving. Stop wasting time dreaming about doing the things you want to do and DO THEM! You are the only obstacle. No one is out to get you. No one is out to stop you. Only you can stop you.

Imagine a life where you a pursuing your goals, attaining your objectives, doing that new thing. Imagine how you can inspire others with your example. Be the light for others. Demonstrate to other people that anything is possible. You’ll be amazed at the results.

As we approach the new year, take some time to really figure out what you want to do with yourself. Imagine what you would do if there were no obstacles. Imagine what you could do if there were no barriers. That is what a well-lived life is made of.

Until next time…

Dave

Weekly Ramblings – Journal Series – Exercise Journal

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Exercise Journal, journaling, Setting Goals, tracking progress

The Exercise Journal

Hello, readers!

This week we’ll discuss the exercise journal. The exercise journal is nothing more than tracking what you do when you work out. This is an important facet of any exercise program, because it is crucial that you track what you are doing in the gym. It is equally important to set goals to strive for, so your body continues to improve.

What to track

If you are lifting weights you’ll want to track the exercise, the weight you are lifting, and the number of repetitions you accomplish for each set. The nomenclature for this is simple. It looks like this:

Bench Press 20 x 100lbs; 15 x 120lbs; 10 x 150lbs; 7 x 200lbs

If you are doing cardio, you could track your progress like this:

Treadmill 25 minutes, Hill Program, Level 3

What about goals?

Let’s say you’ve been lifting weights and doing cardio for a few weeks. Now you want to set some goals—something to work towards. So, you look at your bench press and your treadmill work and decide you want to be able to lift 220lbs in 4 months. You also decide that you’d like to do cardio for 30 minutes using the Hill program at level 5.

Now you have some goals. Now it’s nothing more than tracking your progress toward these goals as you fill out your exercise journal.

Digital Versions

Personally, I like to track my workouts using MS One Note. It’s in the cloud, so I can access it on my phone, my laptop, and my desktop. You can use commercial exercise trackers, but I’ve discovered there’s always a glitch or some other issue to deal with. You can also use pen and paper. I chose to go digital with mine because I carry my phone anyways for the music I like to listen to. This is solely up to you.

Next week, we’ll discuss the food journal.

Hope this has been informative.

See you next week!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Today’s Quote – Tony Robbins – Goal Setting

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Evaluating Your Goals, Payoff vs Price, Setting Goals, Tony Robbins

Today’s quote:

“Setting Goals is the first step in turning the invisible into visible.” – Tony Robbins

It’s interesting when I read a new quote that emphasizes setting goals, focus, or any number of topics that revolve around getting something done. This is yet another quote that raises the importance of setting goals.

All of us are unique. We all have our own aspirations. These aspirations are the daydreams and visualizations of a better life, a future relationship, stable finances, visiting a place in the world we’ve never been before, or sculpting a better body in the gym.

The important point this quote makes is that in order to bring an idea into reality we have to commit ourselves to do it. We have to look at the “end state” of where we want to be and begin putting together the steps we envision that will make it a reality. This is so simple, yet so difficult.

The difficulty comes when we doubt ourselves, we lose interest in the goal, or we give up. The goal itself isn’t the issue—we are. The next time you begin a goal-setting session take some time to reflect on what you want. This I have found to be absolutely critical to accomplishing anything. We have to see the payoff at the end. In order for us to achieve anything, the payoff we receive has to be large enough to offset the price we pay to attain the goal. I’ve found that many of the goals I “thought” I wanted to accomplish either required too much of a price for the payoff or it really wasn’t something I wanted to do. This is ok.

This is why it is so important on the “front-end” of this process to really figure out what it is that you want and what it is you want to do. I call this finding your “why”. If you can find your “why” and can get excited about how your life will be when you accomplish this goal, you’re 75% there. The rest is the 25% of the effort you’ll need to get across the finish line.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – Anne Sweeney – Defining Success

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Anne Sweeney, Defining Success, Setting Goals, tracking progress, Weekly Review

Today’s quote:

“Defining success on your own terms, achieve it by your own rules, and build a life you’re proud to live.” – Anne Sweeney

One of the insights I gained from reading this quote is the importance of setting goals that we are truly motivated to achieve. These goals are not someone else’s goals, but ours alone. These are the kind of goals that really motivate me to accomplish them.

When selecting something I want to pursue I try to select a goal that will really help me improve—that will have a definite impact on my ability to be better physically, spiritually, mentally, and socially. I always gravitate toward those goals that will have the greatest impact on improving my life.

If you’ve read previous postings I tend to attack 4 goals every 13 weeks. Most of the build on previous goals because I am pursuing improvement in areas that hold the possibility of continuous improvement. You can always improve yourself physically, you can always improve what you know, you can always strive for more spiritual success, and you can always do something to improve the relationships with your coworkers, family, and friends.

When you select a goal, do a self-analysis. Where are your strengths? If you could change one thing, what would that one thing be about yourself? Again, try to minimize the goals you are focusing on or you’ll be too scattered. I’ve found 3-4 goals every 13 weeks is optimal, but this may be too much or too little. These are your goals. Try pursuing a certain number of them and see how you finish at the end of 13 weeks.

Tracking our goals is important. Since most of my goals are habitual in nature, I track them daily and then review my progress at the end of the week. Whatever you measure will keep you focused on where you are at along the goal completion continuum. If you slip up during a week, no problem. Look at what may have happened and adjust. If you hit your daily and weekly goals, then continue on your current “glide path”. Easy, right?

Well, that’s it for today!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Creating a Plan, Dr. Stephen Covey, Executing the Plan, Setting Goals, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Tony Robbins, Visualization

Today’s Quote:

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into visible.” – Tony Robbins

Dr. Stephen Covey discusses this concept in his book: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He mentions that when we create something it goes through two separate processes. The first is the mental creation—that which we visualize in our minds. This could be a project completed, a new car we want, a mate we are interested in, or maybe a trip somewhere. To bring this mental creation into reality, as Tony Robbins suggests, we must then set goals, develop a plan to achieve those goals, and then execute the plan.

I’m currently working on a book. Right now, I am focused on completing the rough draft. I wrote out the chapter headings and literally writing each chapter as I go to get all the content I want in my book segregated and organized. I have until October. I measure myself daily against my goals and the daily step I take is writing 500 words. Once I hit the 500 words I’m done. Slowly but surely, I’ll finish the rough draft. Then I’ll set myself another goal to get this thing to a final draft and get it off to various publishers.

This is how you bring the invisible into the visible. Visualize, plan, execute. It’s just that simple.

See you tomorrow…

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

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Accomplishment, Planning, Quotes, Setting Goals, William Shakespeare

Today’s Quote:

“Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing.” – William Shakespeare

I’m currently reading a book by Marcus Aurelius called “Meditations”. It is interesting to note how much of our present-day thought has been influenced by both of these men. I think that each of us should be taking the time to really plan out our actions; really watch what we are doing and accomplishing. Too many people just “wing it”. Though they may feel free, the effectiveness of these individuals is questionable.

Take the time to really plan out your day. Start today! It will make a difference in your life, knowing you are doing exactly what you planned to do. If you take this further, set a goal for a few months off and concentrate your efforts on this one goal for 12-13 weeks. You’ll be interested to know that this is the focus of one of the journals I’ll be writing about and posting here before the end of the weekend. I hope all of you can read it.

Setting goals, planning the steps to meet those goals, and accomplishing goals is a constant circle of activity. Accomplish this goal, on to the next. I hope this inspires some of you to plan each day and move closer to the things you want in life.

See you tomorrow…

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Aldous Huxley, Goals, Keep Pushing, Setting Goals

Today’s Quote:

“Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor, upon which one walks as a matter of course and prescriptive right.” – Aldous Huxley

Have you ever achieved a goal, only to find out there was something above that to reach for? This is what this quote means to me and it is so true.

I set a lot of goals in the gym. I want to bench press this by this date, etc. Well, once you achieve a certain weight, we don’t stop. We push to the next weight and the next and the next…ad infinitum.

The same goes with setting any goals. Who wants to sit down and stop moving forward? Not me. I’m sure this does not apply to you either. The goals you set yesterday become the floor you spring from to your next goal.

Have a great Saturday! I’m hanging out with my brother and niece who are visiting from Phoenix, AZ to get a break from the heat.

See you tomorrow…