What if you realized that everything you thought was important wasn't? What if you let go of all the anxiety that is keeping you from moving forward? With very little exception, the only thing in life that is truly permanent is death. Do not restrict your life by feeling controlled by your own decisions that you have every ability and opportunity to reverse, change, alter. Failure is entirely more eminent if you fear it, and will reach you far sooner than will success. Embrace all possibilities and they will all embrace you: The good, the great and the bad, ugly, and failed. Truly falling through failure more than once and in more than one ungraceful belly flop is both horrific and necessary and unique for everyone to fully reach their potential and their center. Fighting failure is failure...Let go, try, fail, learn, move on and repeat!
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Keep A Short List
It's not that you'll ever get through your to-do list as it is an ever growing list, but do try to keep a short list. Huh? A Short List is the ongoing dialogue of emotions and stressors in your daily life.....who frustrated you, who you are mad at, what your spouse did or didn't do that they should have, etc, etc, etc, the overwhelming, complicated triggers in our lives list. Don't hold on to that garbage, because it's only hurting you....it's not changing the idiot that cut you off in traffic, it's hurting you! Keep it short, simple, and sweet. Deal with your mess daily and don't carry the balance over 'til tomorrow!
Surprise Yourself!
Two sides to this coin for which I was recently reminded. Tackle the hard tasks first and Do what intimidates you (face your fears). If you know me well, you know the former is something I do daily. I come by my work ethic and tough as nails stubborness honestly through genetics. I think of my grandparents and know I have them to thank!
Seriously though if you tackle the tough tasks first, then the rest is like dessert ;-) This not only applies to all aspects of daily life & growth, but to our fitness journeys as well. If there is something you dread or do not like doing, Just Do It! Is it tracking your food, planning your food, doing your workouts, specific workout moves (burpees?)? Whatever it is, tackle it before procrastinating it tackles your success!!! Just like the first time you tried holding plank, this too gets easier and soon you will wonder what all the fuss was about in the first place. Don't believe me? Go ahead, prove me wrong....catch is, you will have to do it, and do it, and do it before you can tell me it doesn't work....Go ahead ;-)
I was recently in a situation that I wanted to turn away from because it was intimidating and seemed like a no win situation. I set my jaw and faced my fears by being prepared for all scenarios I went into the dreaded task at hand. As with most twists and turns in my life, I was surprised to discover the thing I thought was going to be a disaster was actually a blessing! That's the thing about our lives and our fitness journeys, you can't judge by your fears what is going to be the best path. Nor should you just wing every moment. I do love the saying that 'if you fail to plan you plan to fail'. It's true, you have to be prepared best you can for what you face and then Just Do It! Realize too that sometimes our best successes come out of the many failures along the way. Another saying I love and live by is that 'it is only a true failure and bad experience if you do not learn anything from it'. My life is built on the many lessons learned and I am truly blessed and better off for each rocky moment. Embrace the difficulty and move forward a stronger person for it!
"Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses, and disappointments, but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures." ~Joseph Addison
Seriously though if you tackle the tough tasks first, then the rest is like dessert ;-) This not only applies to all aspects of daily life & growth, but to our fitness journeys as well. If there is something you dread or do not like doing, Just Do It! Is it tracking your food, planning your food, doing your workouts, specific workout moves (burpees?)? Whatever it is, tackle it before procrastinating it tackles your success!!! Just like the first time you tried holding plank, this too gets easier and soon you will wonder what all the fuss was about in the first place. Don't believe me? Go ahead, prove me wrong....catch is, you will have to do it, and do it, and do it before you can tell me it doesn't work....Go ahead ;-)
I was recently in a situation that I wanted to turn away from because it was intimidating and seemed like a no win situation. I set my jaw and faced my fears by being prepared for all scenarios I went into the dreaded task at hand. As with most twists and turns in my life, I was surprised to discover the thing I thought was going to be a disaster was actually a blessing! That's the thing about our lives and our fitness journeys, you can't judge by your fears what is going to be the best path. Nor should you just wing every moment. I do love the saying that 'if you fail to plan you plan to fail'. It's true, you have to be prepared best you can for what you face and then Just Do It! Realize too that sometimes our best successes come out of the many failures along the way. Another saying I love and live by is that 'it is only a true failure and bad experience if you do not learn anything from it'. My life is built on the many lessons learned and I am truly blessed and better off for each rocky moment. Embrace the difficulty and move forward a stronger person for it!
"Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses, and disappointments, but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures." ~Joseph Addison
Monday, January 26, 2015
To Do's, Have To's & The Remainder
How is your "BALANCE Sheet" going this year? Are there more to do's than done's? How are you juggling all that you are responsible for? Trust me when I say I know that there are more days than not that you just want to throw your hands up and go 'whatever'....but life moves on and so too do you.
When I was a gradeschool child I remember my grandmother telling me that if you wipe down the tub after every bath you don't end up having to clean it as often. At the time I wondered why she was telling me this other than she was wanting me to wipe the tub down after every bath, and as I stood there contemplating using a dirty wash cloth to wipe down the tub (yes, even at an early age hygine & proper cleaning practices really mattered) she demonstrated how the task should work. Another tidbit was from a great aunt who would finatically clean her house before she would leave it to go anywhere, even if it was just up the street for a visit with a neighbor for a few minutes, because she was taught growing up that you never want to leave your house how you wouldn't want a stranger to find it because you never know what your future holds. It is words of wisdom like this that have stuck with me over the years. In part because they were stand out moments in my childhood either because of the circumstance in which they were delivered or because they seemed so odd they left an impression for me to ponder over the years. But if you really think about these two examples in particular and apply them not only to your life (home, work) but the way you view your fitness and nutrition routines, it really helps to put it all in perspective and balance.
Said very simply: Don't get overwhelmed with the big picture of everything you are trying to accomplish....rather, break it down, make a plan, and consistently tackle your plan. By doing what you can do moment by moment, day by day, amazingly it all gets done without any one thing undoing you. Sure, you still have "those days" but overall, so much easier than having overwhelming task after overwhelming task on your plate (as it were) that you have to try and tackle as a whole. Can be so defeating for sure! What doesn't work is putting it off until the list, stack, task is so large there isn't even an obvious starting place. This seriously applies to everything, fitness/health/nutrition included!
When I was a gradeschool child I remember my grandmother telling me that if you wipe down the tub after every bath you don't end up having to clean it as often. At the time I wondered why she was telling me this other than she was wanting me to wipe the tub down after every bath, and as I stood there contemplating using a dirty wash cloth to wipe down the tub (yes, even at an early age hygine & proper cleaning practices really mattered) she demonstrated how the task should work. Another tidbit was from a great aunt who would finatically clean her house before she would leave it to go anywhere, even if it was just up the street for a visit with a neighbor for a few minutes, because she was taught growing up that you never want to leave your house how you wouldn't want a stranger to find it because you never know what your future holds. It is words of wisdom like this that have stuck with me over the years. In part because they were stand out moments in my childhood either because of the circumstance in which they were delivered or because they seemed so odd they left an impression for me to ponder over the years. But if you really think about these two examples in particular and apply them not only to your life (home, work) but the way you view your fitness and nutrition routines, it really helps to put it all in perspective and balance.
Said very simply: Don't get overwhelmed with the big picture of everything you are trying to accomplish....rather, break it down, make a plan, and consistently tackle your plan. By doing what you can do moment by moment, day by day, amazingly it all gets done without any one thing undoing you. Sure, you still have "those days" but overall, so much easier than having overwhelming task after overwhelming task on your plate (as it were) that you have to try and tackle as a whole. Can be so defeating for sure! What doesn't work is putting it off until the list, stack, task is so large there isn't even an obvious starting place. This seriously applies to everything, fitness/health/nutrition included!
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Overwhelmed?
If you are breathing and responsible for anything other than showering, sleeping, and eating, you get overwhelmed. Life is complicated and the more obstacles you have the more obstacles you encounter...can be a vicious cycle for sure. Finding balance is key, but as I have said numerous times balance is fleeting and like happiness something you constantly have to appreciate while you have it and strive for when you don't.
Like superpowers, being overwhelmed should be used for good and not bad. Don't let your anxiety and stress cause you to forfeit your goals by giving up on them. Just because things seem impossible doesn't mean they are .... just means it's time to sit down and examine what is or isn't working and regroup. My personal experience is that if I am overwhelmed, anxious, and feeling like I should just surrender it's likely because I have let my boundaries be violated either by me or others in my life. The best thing at that point is for me to sit quietly by myself and honestly assess what my situation is and how to go about fixing it (not quitting it). There are good reasons to jump ship on something, but make sure you are doing them for the right reasons and not because you are stressed and it's just easier to bail than reflect and move forward. Two excellent books that have helped me tremendously are "Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life" by Henry Cloud and John Townsend & "Codependent No More" by Melody Beattie
"We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee." ~Marian Wright Edelman
"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it." ~John Ruskin
Like superpowers, being overwhelmed should be used for good and not bad. Don't let your anxiety and stress cause you to forfeit your goals by giving up on them. Just because things seem impossible doesn't mean they are .... just means it's time to sit down and examine what is or isn't working and regroup. My personal experience is that if I am overwhelmed, anxious, and feeling like I should just surrender it's likely because I have let my boundaries be violated either by me or others in my life. The best thing at that point is for me to sit quietly by myself and honestly assess what my situation is and how to go about fixing it (not quitting it). There are good reasons to jump ship on something, but make sure you are doing them for the right reasons and not because you are stressed and it's just easier to bail than reflect and move forward. Two excellent books that have helped me tremendously are "Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life" by Henry Cloud and John Townsend & "Codependent No More" by Melody Beattie
"We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee." ~Marian Wright Edelman
"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it." ~John Ruskin
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Balance
"Balance doesn't mean that things stop moving....it simply means that you are more able to deal with the fluctuations as they come up." ~Kathryn Budig
If we reach a balance in our lives, a true balance, enjoy it but also be prepared to make necessary adjustments as life is ever moving and so too does your focus need to be as well. Balance isn't something you figure out once and bam you are set. Balance is something that is fleeting if you do not work at it to keep it in check. All of the constant obstacles in life assure us that balance is fragile and something to strive for and maintain and honor once we reach it. Don't get discouraged if everything is hard. Use it rather as an opportunity to step back and get perspective on what is making it hard. Once you are able to grasp perspective on your existence and obstacles is when you can truly apply your hard earned and fought for life lessons to achieve your balance.
"Whatever we focus on we become--We also become whatever we practice. We need to focus on balance whenever something comes along to tilt us off balance, we need to be grateful, because it allows the opportunity to practice our focus. When you're in the middle, you don't go to either extreme. You allow both sides to exist." ~Lakota
"We must live as we think, otherwise we shall end up by thinking as we have lived." ~Paul Bourget
If we reach a balance in our lives, a true balance, enjoy it but also be prepared to make necessary adjustments as life is ever moving and so too does your focus need to be as well. Balance isn't something you figure out once and bam you are set. Balance is something that is fleeting if you do not work at it to keep it in check. All of the constant obstacles in life assure us that balance is fragile and something to strive for and maintain and honor once we reach it. Don't get discouraged if everything is hard. Use it rather as an opportunity to step back and get perspective on what is making it hard. Once you are able to grasp perspective on your existence and obstacles is when you can truly apply your hard earned and fought for life lessons to achieve your balance.
"Whatever we focus on we become--We also become whatever we practice. We need to focus on balance whenever something comes along to tilt us off balance, we need to be grateful, because it allows the opportunity to practice our focus. When you're in the middle, you don't go to either extreme. You allow both sides to exist." ~Lakota
"We must live as we think, otherwise we shall end up by thinking as we have lived." ~Paul Bourget
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