Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Experience

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Albert Einstein, Experience, Getting out there, Learning, Living, Spiritual, wisdom

“The only source of knowledge is experience.” – Albert Einstein

Quote provided by: Brainyquote.com

Read about any sport. Now go play the sport you read about. Huge difference right? This is what Albert is referring to. Albert Einstein is well known for his thought experiments but also for his prowess in Math and Physics.

Look at anyone who is gifted in a particular area. All of them practice. All of them do. They gain knowledge of their sport, their gift, or their talent by learning how to do it themselves. Look at any sports hero you admire. Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan started out just as ignorant as the rest of the folks who ever picked up a baseball bat or basketball.

I don’t care what field of study or endeavor you look at. Every person has to start out as a beginner and work there way to expert. Some read about what they need to know to accomplish something, others learn from a coach or mentor, some just grit through it and learn on their own.

Think back to a time you learned to ride a bike, drive a car, or learned how to operate a cash register in your first job. Someone told you how to do it, then they showed you how to do it, and then they let you do it. It took a little time, but you learned. With time, you can now ride a bike, drive a car, and operate a computer or some other complicated machine with ease.

We learn all kinds of things through experience. We learn how to ask a girl out on a date. We learn what it means to be nice or polite. We learn how important it is to keep our commitments to other people. Some of this learning is through trial and error. We ask a girl out on a date and totally flub it up. Then we ask out another girl and it goes a little better. We learn what to say. We learn how to react to the responses a girl gives.

Sometimes experience isn’t so nice. Think about a time you committed to something and couldn’t keep your promise. The person we made the commitment to is upset with us and we feel guilty. We learn that we need to be more careful when committing to something because breaking that commitment hurts worse than the disappointment someone expresses when we tell them we can’t do this or that.

There are so many experiences in a lifetime. All of them teach us something about ourselves and other people. We learn all the time if we pay attention. We learn more if we are willing to get out there and do something. Life is about gaining experience. We need experience to grow. We need to learn what to do and what not to do. Through experience we gain wisdom.

I hope each of you has a great Saturday! The weatherman predicts thunderstorms today. Today will be a day of reading, writing, gaming, and catching a series or movie in the den with Dad. What are you doing today?

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Choose Laughter, Humor, and Happiness

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Happiness, Harold Klemp, Humor, Jumping the Gun, Laughter, Rush to Judgment, Spiritual

“This is how we work with Divine Spirit. We try to look at life and find the laughter wherever we can, whenever we can, because laughter is the healer.”

—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

Happy Saturday, folks! It’s 16 degrees in Michigan this morning and I am enjoying some soothing music and a cup of coffee.

In today’s crazy world, it is so easy to get riled up and upset with what’s going on in any country. Scandals, crime, disaster, are all the talk of the day. If you go to Twitter, it comes at you lightning fast, spreading, in some cases, rumors that have no basis in reality. Take it easy. Relax. Wait for a story to unfold before jumping on the first tweet or online article that hits the wire. So many people in journalism jump the gun to get the scoop without the necessary fact checking and due diligence, then have to walk it back when the truth comes out.

The same actions can be taken with our lives. So many of us are blind-sided by things. We get bad news and we lose our minds over-reacting. We make assumptions and run with them without knowing the facts. We are all moving at such a fast pace that we forget to take the time to really think about what has occurred.

Take your time, evaluate, look at all of the things you can do to fix the problem or make your situation better. When you take the time to think through things, instead of quick reaction, you’ll start to feel better. Yes, there are real tragedies that hit our lives, there is no way to argue against that. Even these tragedies have a silver lining in most cases. Think. Evaluate. Plan. Execute.

When the reality of your situation is out of your control, you have a choice. You can be pissed off or you can find humor in it. It’s going to be there regardless, so why not be happy with your situation and move on? Laughter makes us feel better. Humor is the antidote to hard times. There will always be challenges in our lives, tragedies, and just outright bad luck. Life is not about what happens to us. It is about how we react to the things that happen to us. You have a choice. I choose happiness.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thinking Thursday

Tags

End of Year, Goal Setting, Mental, Physical, Social, Spiritual

I am really enjoying the holidays!

We had a nice post-Christmas day yesterday. We had leftovers, sat around our Christmas Tree to talk about various topics, and got to watch a good movie as a family last night. We watched Infinity War and it lived up to all the hype that surrounded it when it hit theaters.

If you’re a Marvel fan and missed out on this film when it was at the movie theaters, it was just released on Netflix. It is a long movie (about 2 hours) but is really good. I won’t provide any spoilers so you’ll have to watch it.

The remainder of this week I’ll be doing my annual readings of Getting Things Done, Mini-habits, and the 7 habits. I am reading The One Thing currently, along with a fiction book called 2136.

My exercise routine will be on hold until the New Year. I’ve been going at it hard and want to give my body a little breather as we approach the New Year. Then it’s off to the races!

I’m also working on my goals for the New Year. I’ll post these on New Year’s Eve. My goals will revolve around the spiritual dimension, physical dimension, mental dimension, and social dimension. One area I am seriously lacking is the social dimension. Since retirement and moving back to Michigan, my social network (besides the virtual one) have been seriously deteriorated. This year will be a focus of getting out there. I’m contemplating doing a lot of my writing at local coffee shops to just get out there and meet and interact with people. More on this later.

Well, that’s it for today, folks!

Until next time,

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

Tags

Dimensions of Life, Emotional, Julius Erving, Mental, Physical, Spiritual

“The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life – mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical.” – Julius Erving

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/spiritual

How do you know what to pursue when you are setting goals? Should you only pursue those goals that provide you with the ability to make more money or should you invest in your time to your church, synagogue, or mosque? Should you spend time learning more or work more on your physique in the gym?

I recommend that you pursue a balanced life by pursuing the four areas “Dr. J” provides us in today’s quote. Dr. Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People agrees. We should learn new things (mental), cultivate and sustain relationships (emotional/social), pursue a life of service and goodness (spiritual), and build strong and healthy bodies.

We are all different. We possess certain skills and abilities. This characteristic is not limiting; it is liberating. We all have the opportunity to do great things in our lifetimes. We have the ability to improve our knowledge and skills, we have the ability to create, we have the ability to improve our physical bodies (regardless of age). We can also improve our relationship with our loved ones, future friends, and God.

When you begin adding to your list of goals, take a quick look at your list. Is it balanced? Is it pursuing multiple areas to improve, all of which are synergistic in nature? Some that can learn new things will always find employment or be enabled to provide for himself. Being rich is vacant, if your body is broken, you have no one to share your wealth with, and you ignore the finiteness of your life. At some point, you will leave everything behind. The only thing you will leave this Earth with is you, the toys, loved ones, things you know, and all the rest will be left behind. Pretty dark thought, right?

If you take any one of these areas and improve that while ignoring the others your life will be pretty vacant. I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t specialize in areas where our strengths already exist. I’m suggesting that each area should have some of our efforts. This provides us with a balance in our lives and allows us the ability to truly live a rich life.

If you are healthy, your brain will work better and allow you the ability to pursue all of the things you want without limit. If you are intelligent, you can learn new things. You can also apply that knowledge to the other areas. If you have a strong social network, you will be more resilient when life’s “surprises” show up at your door.

Religious beliefs, in my opinion, bring everything together. Regardless of your path, believing in something greater than yourself, pursuing a life of love, charity, and service are valuable goals. This is also one area where improvement is not something you can measure. It is more about consistency and practice. If you are a Christian, your daily acts will be guided by your denomination. If you are a Buddhist, Muslim, Zoroastrian, Taoist, or Eckist, each faith has requirements. These requirements could be meditation, reading of holy books, celebrating certain holidays, and following certain creeds or rules required by your religious pursuit.

Each week look at each one of these areas and determine what actions you can take to move each of these areas forward. What could you learn? What exercise could you participate in? Who would you like to spend time with? What spiritual events are required of you this week by your path?

I use Sundays to take inventory. Then I set out and begin putting my week together, looking for opportunities to grow in each of these areas for the week. Nothing huge, just little things that move me forward.

I hope you are having a terrific Saturday! Enjoy your weekend!!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

Tags

Dedication, Discipline, Doing your Best, God, Spiritual

“Give your best effort each day, and leave the rest to Spirit.”—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

All of us have an internal measure of what our best is. Do that. It doesn’t matter if you make mistakes or fail. Do your best.

When I was in the Army, my first few years were a little rough. I did what I could to get by. I didn’t really dedicate myself as much as I should have. Then, I got the idea that maybe, just maybe, I should give everything I had to be the best soldier I could be. The day I decided to do that was the day my career changed forever.

You see, I put everything I had to keep my uniform looking a little better than the next guy’s uniform. I took pride in what I was accomplishing. I kept my room and my equipment a little cleaner than the other guys. I began studying regulations, field manuals and reading military history. I began putting extra effort into the gym at night when the other guys were going out and chasing girls.

I gave it my all and it paid off. This is all this quote is talking about. You give everything you have, and God will step in and give some help. That’s the way it works.

If you think your job sucks, your relationships suck, your life sucks, give everything your all. You will slowly begin to see that your job improves, your relationships improve, and yes, your life will improve. You will be expressing your gratitude for this life by giving life everything you have. That’s exactly what God put you here to do.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Goals, Mental, Physical, Social, Spiritual, Systems and rituals, Your "why"

“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

I’m going to give you some “inside information” about how I tailor my life. From all of the readings I have done, I believe there are four areas of life: Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and Social. Going forward I’ll be discussing my efforts in each of these areas, along with my goals. Then you can keep me honest!

Before getting into that (below), I’d like to say that you will only get the things you want in your life by going after them in a thoughtful and systematic way. ACT! You won’t get anything if you sit on your duff and dream about it. You have to get up, get moving, and do something! Before you commence work in any area, however, really understand why YOU want to do it. Never pursue a goal that someone else is doing or someone wants you to do. You pursue the goals you want to but understand why you want to achieve it. The WHY is really important. The WHY will help you pay the price your goal requires.

Physical:

My goal is to get my body fat down to 15% by year’s end.

My last weigh-in was this morning: 225 lbs.

I have a scale that I use to calculate body fat. It says: 36%

I just finished the Kris Gethin 8-week Hardcore trainer yesterday and lost 20 lbs. I weighed 245 lbs when I started and probably upward of 45% body fat.

This week will be a maintenance week to recover a bit and then it’s off to the races next week with another program. This one will be another Kris Gethin workout called 4 weeks to shred. I wanted to change up the routine a bit and this workout will do nicely.

Until I hit my target, my workouts will be concentrating on either weight loss workout routines or transformation routines.

Wish me luck!

Mental:

My goal is to finish 12 online courses by year’s end. I am at 6 so far. I finished the Udemy Non-fiction writing course last week. Still working on Public Policy and Learning How to Learn.

I also want to read 36 books this year. I’m at 17 so far.

Spiritual:

My goal here is to finish my discourse by year’s end, read my Bible daily, Meditate/Pray twice a day, and keep a dream and gratitude journal. All of this is on track so far.

I am participating in a workshop in Canada, another workshop here in Michigan in September, and already served on a panel and gave a talk at our spiritual center in February.

Social:

My goals are to build my readership to 500 by year’s end. I’m currently at 368! If you know anyone that would benefit from my blog, please send them my way!

I am also going to a comedy show with my Sister this weekend in Detroit and enjoy interacting with folks at both gyms I go to (Planet Fitness and Cutting Edge).

Well, that’s my week folks! I hope you have a terrific week!

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday!

Tags

Mental, motivation, Physical, Social, Spiritual

Happy Monday, folks!

This week we’ll be tackling week 7 of Kris Gethin’s 8-week Hardcore Trainer, which means? You guessed it, we are upping cardio sessions another 5 minutes. This week we are doing two 50-minute cardio sessions.

I recorded my weight at 234, which is 11 pounds down from my starting 245. That’s good progress because I feel my body fat percentage decreasing as well. Last year, when I visited my physician for an annual physical and blood work, I was at 33%. I’m set to hit my annual physical again in September and know by the time I knock this workout and the others I have scheduled for 2018 that I will be much lower, probably around 24-20%. That’s the goal anyway.

This week’s macros are reduced again. I’ll be eating 190 grams of protein and 111 grams of carbohydrates on training days and 190 grams of protein and 89 grams of carbohydrates on non-training days (Saturday and Sunday). With this current workout regimen, I hit cardio twice a day, 7 days a week. So, that means these rest days are deemed “active” rest days.

That covers the physical component of my week. Now we look at the mental or learning portion. I will be finishing up my Udemy course on non-fiction book writing, start week 2 for Learning how to learn, offered by UC San Diego via Coursera, and continuing with the Public Policy course offered by Hillsdale College.

Spiritually, I’ll be doing some random acts of kindness online, by reaching out to friends and telling them how much they mean to me. I’ll pick a few I have not spoken with in a while and it’ll be a nice thing. Along with this my spiritual reading: The Living Word Book 2 by Sri Harold Klemp, The Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad by Paul Twitchell, and two spiritual exercises daily. One is a written form, while the other is a meditative practice that I conduct prior to going to bed (usually around midnight).

Within the social realm, I am going to my monthly meetup group today at 4 PM, then we have Father’s Day this week. I’ll be taking my Mom and Dad out to a dine-in Theater to watch a movie of their choice. I’ll also be doing some video calls with one of my good friends, brother, and sister this week.

My other reading includes: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Andersonville, The Transformer (Kris Gethin), The Orion Plague, and that is all she wrote folks.

What do you have planned for the week folks? If you are comfortable sharing, leave me a note in the comments section.

Have a great week everyone!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – Karen Lamb – SMART Goal Setting

Tags

Goal Setting, Mental, Physical, SMART acronym, Social, Spiritual

Today’s Quote:

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb

Regret. It is a bad feeling, particularly when you beat yourself up over it. Don’t. We make decisions. Sometimes they are bad. Sometimes they are good.

Learn from them. Make adjustments.

Goal Setting, pursuing goals, and all the rest is a personal preference. Start on those goals, but stick with those goals you can knock out in 90-100 days. If you have a big goal like getting a degree, that’s ok. Break this big goal down over each of these 90-day periods. Perhaps, your goal would be to get an A in your class.

Goals should cover a few areas. I like to focus on four key areas for my goals. Mental – learn something new; Physical – workout; Social – make new friends and network; Spiritual – read my Bible daily and meditate. To measure these I set specific goals that I can track. By setting a timetable, I try to set achievable goals that I can meet with effort in 13 weeks. If you haven’t heard about it, there’s a great acronym for goal setting. It’s called S M A R T.

• Specific (simple, sensible, significant).
• Measurable (meaningful, motivating).
• Achievable (agreed, attainable).
• Relevant (reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based).
• Time-bound (time-based, time-limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive).

Bullets above are from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/smart-goals.htm

Check this link out for more detail. Here’s an example for my Mental area.

I will read 3 non-fiction books by Feb 1, 2018, to learn more about writing novels. 

This goal is specific to learning (Mental), it is measurable (3 books is 3 books), it is achievable (reading a chapter a day), relevant to my future writing career, and time-bound (due on February 1, 2018). This is as simple as it gets. You can set these goals for any area of your life. Try this out. Start out simple. Maybe you can only pursue 1 goal for the next 13 weeks. Figure out the total amount of work you have to do and spread it out monthly, weekly, and daily. You’ll be amazed how much you can get done. You’ll also be amazed how quickly you’ll attain some of your goals with the right daily focus.

That’s it for today!

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – Joanne Bonomi – Goal Setting

Tags

Goal Setting, Joanne Bonomi, journaling, Making it Public, Mental, Physical, Social, Spiritual

Today’s Quote:

“Goal Setting is the core of existence that defines life.” – Joanne Bonomi

There’s another quote that addresses this issue (author unknown). “You are either moving forward or moving backward.” Goals keep us engaged. Goals stretch our capabilities. Goals guide our days.

There are a lot of people who do not have any goals. There are others who are goal oriented. What is best? Personally, I think goal setting is a good practice. I only choose 3 things to pursue during a 13-week period. I started this practice when I picked up the BestSelf company’s journal.

I would like to pursue 4 goals the next time around because I am a firm believer in a balanced life. My articles on the mental, spiritual, physical, and social domains are part of my belief system. Subsequently, this next 13 weeks will focus on all four areas.

Mentally, I like reading to learn and be entertained. I will read at least 3 books during the next 13 weeks. Spiritually I enjoy meditation and will goal myself to meditate twice a day (morning and evening). My physical goal is to lose 11% body fat. I’m currently at 26% and would like to reduce down to 15%. Finally, I would like to pursue 100 more readers on this blog (Social). Wish me luck!!

These will be my goals starting in November, once I finish my current journal. I just received my new journal and will begin setting it up in the last week of October. I enjoy setting goals and achieving them. There is always a rush when a goal is checked off!

It is also recommended to make your goals public. They are above! To make this even more interesting (for me), I’ll begin tracking these goals and be updating my results with you on a weekly basis (Saturday when I post my weekly favorite Ted Talk).

Well, that’s it for today folks!

Until next time…

Dave