Motivation

Motivational Monday: Find your peace

Are you spending your days trying to find peace?  If only my life was more organized, or I had less errands to run or activities to do.  If only I could organize my linen closet it would all come together (Is that only me who has thought this?)  The fact is that it doesn't matter how simple or slow our life becomes, if you can't find peace in the chaos of life, you are never going to find peace in the solitude.




Motivational Monday: Trust the Journey

One of my daily goals is to read/listen to ten minutes of personal development and I must say that while I wasn't sure at first, I'm loving it.  We are two thirds of the way into 2014.  That's right, only 4 months left of the year, and dare I saw, the busiest 4 months.  That is no reason to throw in the towel on our New Year's Resolutions that we (me) haven't started yet.  Look back 4 months.  If you had started working towards a goal 4 months ago, where would you be now?  If you added 25 sit ups to your day or 10 minutes of reading each night, where would you be?  Start small and build, because life is fast, and small will be big if you just let time do its thing.




Motivational Monday: Be Grateful!

I (we) spend so much time trying to be better.  Be stronger, healthier, more organized, richer.  The list goes on and on.  All in the name of reaching goals that will make us happier or better.  What if we stopped all that.  Not the eating healthy or exercising or working hard?  Just stopped doing all these things so that we could reach the goal of happiness.  Instead what if we just tried to be grateful.  That's it.  Each night with my kiddos we pray and say what we are thankful for.  Instead of waiting for night I am going to start each morning this week thinking about what I am grateful for.  A challenge you to do the same thing.  Let's bring gratitude back into our lives.  A little gratefulness could make the journey so much happier.


Motivational Monday: It's your birthday!

I was looking for a quote about birthdays.  Most of them have something to do with "wake up like its your birthday" or "Start each day likes its your birthday."  Well, today is my birthday and its a work day.  That being said I get their point.  Most people think that, each year we get to start over twice.  On New Year's Day and on our birthday.  Frankly though, I view every day as a chance to start over.  Don't wait for your birthday or the first of the month or a Monday.  Heck, don't wait until tomorrow.  Each moment is precious and each moment is a great chance to start becoming who you want to be, who you really are.


Motivational Monday: Make Yourself a Priority

Sometimes I think its best to view life like an airplane ride.  Get your oxygen on first.  If you aren't your best self how can you really help others achieve their best.  Whether its your children, your partner, your coworker, your friends or your family.  You are only good to them if you are taking care of yourself.  If you know what to do eating healthy doesn't have to take any longer than eating unhealthy.  A 30 minute work out is not even 2% of your day.  Make your happiness a priority today. 



Motivational Monday: Halfway there!

Today is the last day of the first half of 2014.  Its time to look back on the goals you set for yourself for the year.  The resolutions you made.  Have you started to try to reach them?  If not, what do you have to do to reach your goals?  Sit down and write out your resolutions and make a plan so that those resolutions turn into achievable goals.

(Stay tuned until tomorrow for more about how I did with my June goals, my July goals, and how I'm doing for 2014.)



Ask yourself if what you're doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow. #quote

Motivational Monday: Your First Step!

So many times I see inspirational quotes about taking the first step.  "The first step is the hardest."  Often times, the first step is the hardest because we think it needs to be a huge step. If you want to lose weight, is your first step to eat healthier or exercise?  What does eating healthy mean?  What kind of exercise?  There are so many questions that paralyze us before we even take the first step.

This is why I encourage you to make the first step a baby step.  A tiny little baby step.  You want to eat healthy?  Don't worry about a run to Whole Foods or revamping your entire eating plan.  If you put 2 tsps of sugar in your morning coffee, put 1.  If you put 1, put 1/2 tsp.  If you drink two sodas a day, drink 1 soda and 1 water.  If your goal is a big one, like running a marathon but you've only run 3 miles, run 3.5 and see how you feel.  Heck, run 3.1 miles.  The first step is only scary if it is big.  The big scary first step holds us all back.  Make the first step small, baby, simple.

Changing your life only takes one small step.  What is your first step to healthier you?


Second Daily Workout?

I lived years with no regular exercise.  After that caught up to me, I waged a battle with myself to stick with my workouts.  I would have a few weeks of working out 4-5 times and weeks when I would falter.  No matter what I did, I would go through spells where I wouldn't workout for weeks at a time.

It again took years to figure out what worked for me.  I HAVE to work out in the morning.  If I wait until after work, there are many days when it won't get done (and now that I have a daughter to get to bed, it is an impossibility for me).  Even so, even knowing this, I would go through spells where I just wouldn't.  I don't know if it was willpower, or that I let myself make excuses.  Maybe both.

I'm sure I will have times in my life when I falter and fail again.  And pick myself back up again.  But for now, I have gone 4 months without missing a single workout.....6-7 days a week.  I finally feel, for the first time in my life, like it's a non-negotiable.  No matter what is going on, no matter how late I stayed up the night before, I just get up and get it done.

But I'm the kind of person that doesn't settle.  I always need a new challenge to keep pushing myself forward.  Now that I have conquered my workouts, what's my new challenge?

Getting in a second workout each day.  I work full time and am a full time mom to an almost-two year old (she comes to work with me), so this will be a real challenge.  Nap time is reserved for uninterrupted work so I cannot use it for a workout.  My first big hurdle will be to find a time when I can get another workout done and then make myself stick to it, rather than getting wrapped up in the work I was doing.  I think I will start out with 10-15 minute workouts most of the time....abs or cardio....and build from there.  If the weather is nice and I can spare even more time, a walk with my daughter will be perfect.  Maybe I will try to fit more of those in after her dinner before I get her ready for bed.

All of these little what-ifs and maybe-I'll-try-this's is how I figure out what works for me.  I have to try different things and then see what works and what "sticks."  It's all about building workouts into a routine so you are less likely to make excuses.