Category: Life Management & Event Control

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Do The Thing You Have To Do

“Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.” ~ Thomas Henry Huxley, Collected Essays of Thomas Henry Huxley

The need for willpower

Has this ever happened to you? You set a goal to lose weight and decide you need to eat a healthier diet. So you pass up the doughnuts at work, eat a salad for lunch, snack on almonds or raw veggies in the afternoon . . . then at home, after work, you find yourself sitting on the 2nd shelf of the refrigerator, eating everything in sight. Or you decide to start an exercise program and to go to the gym directly after work every day. You load your gym bag in the car with every intention of going to the gym after work. But at the end of the day, you are so tired you drive straight home – past the gym – and collapse in a heap in front of the TV. What happened? Where did your willpower go? Continue reading “Do The Thing You Have To Do”

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The Two Easies

 

“[F]ailure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.” ~ Jim Rohn

This morning, like most mornings, I got up, spent a few minutes meditating, wrote in my journal, then went for a brisk walk (in the rain), followed by a few minutes of calisthenics and stretching. When I finished, I felt pretty good. If I hadn’t got up and done these things, how do you think I would have felt? Actually, on the mornings I don’t do this routine, I feel pretty good. To tell the truth, I don’t feel much different after I do or don’t do my morning routine.

I expect you have had much the same experience. If you exercise, you feel OK. If you don’t, you probably feel OK, too. Continue reading “The Two Easies”

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Start Small

“Be the person with embarrassing goals and impressive results instead of one of the many people with impressive goals and embarrassing results.”
~ Stephen Guise

After stepping on the scales one morning and realizing I had gained 60 pounds, I decided it was time to lose the excess weight “once and for all”. So I set a goal for myself: “I weigh 190 lbs. by December 31, xxxx.” This was definitely a stretch goal for me but I gave myself some time – 9 months – and I calculated I only needed to lose a little over 1 pound per week to reach my goal. So I started strong! Continue reading “Start Small”

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Radical Simplicity

“Complexity is the curse of the digital age. It is a type of intellectual pollution that smothers clear thought and which has direct negative benefits on individual productivity . . .” ~ Gary Ryan Blair

I am in love with ideas. Ideas intrigue and fascinate me. I like to learn new things and new ways to do old things. I am constantly searching for new twists on old ideas or concepts. One reason is that I am basically lazy. I want to have and do and be various things — and I want to have and do and be them NOW with the smallest amount of effort. Continue reading “Radical Simplicity”

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A Simpler Life

“Designing a simple life means having fewer distractions in your life, so you can focus on what matters. It’s about saying no to everything that gets in the way, but saying yes to what’s right for you.” ~ Melissa Camara Wilkins

What Is Required For A Simple Life?

“If less is more, then nothing is everything.” [CoachU]

What is required to live a simple life? Does it mean giving up all luxuries? Going “off the grid”? Giving up your job? Cleaning out your possessions?

Actually, it could mean that and does for some people – but it isn’t a requirement. Most of us could lead simpler lives and create more time, energy, and resources for pursuing the things that really matter.

For example, research shows that people who have shorter commutes generally have a higher sense of well-being. [Morin] Yet, the trend is to move further away from our jobs to the suburbs and larger and larger houses. Most of us would be happier living in a smaller house, closer to work, but we have been enculturated to think bigger is better and more is preferable.

Continue reading “A Simpler Life”
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Boost Your Willpower

Automate decisions. The more decisions you can automate, the more will-power you save for situations where you need it. What decisions do you make every day that you could put on auto-pilot?

Today is the 111th day of 2016. A little over 100 days of this year are past and gone. It’s a good time for you and me to evaluate our progress toward our BIG goals. I confess I haven’t made as much progress as I would like but I continue to look for ways to devote more time to my goal, and I continue to work on the basics, the fundamentals, to become the person who can achieve the goals I set for myself.

Continue reading “Boost Your Willpower”
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An Uncluttered Life

“The more I examine the issue of clutter, the more effort I put into combating it, because it really does act as a weight.” ` Gretchen Rubin

Unclutter For An Energy Boost

Do you need an energy boost? Or do you want to attract something new (a relationship, a client, an opportunity, etc.) into your life? Do you want to strengthen your willpower as you build the habits you need to accomplish your BIG goal? Then you should seriously unclutter your life.

Piles of papers, overstuffed drawers, packed closets, broken tools and toys, too much to do — all clutter in various forms — drain energy from you. Clutter often consists of things you don’t really want that you must clean and maintain or those things that nag you to do something about them. Either way, you are expending energy that you could put to better use.

You must have space in order to think, to create, to breathe, and to receive. Clutter can be anything that is in your way, that isn’t useful (to you) or beautiful (to you).

Continue reading “An Uncluttered Life”
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The Rules Of Time

Time management is a misnomer — you can’t really manage time. You can, however, manage yourself and the way you use time. Executive, teacher, doctor, student, stay-at-home mom (or dad), artist, builder, unemployed – all have the same number of hours in a day. It’s how they – and you and I – use these hours that makes a difference in our lives.

Although you can’t manage time, there are some rules of time you can use to better understand how you can use time to your advantage. These rules aren’t written down anywhere — in fact, I made them up. But they have been helpful to me in my own attempts to manage my life and time and I think they are worth sharing. Here they are in no particular order.

Continue reading “The Rules Of Time”