Tag: maintenance

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Maintenance Required

Your body is the vehicle you use to traverse Life. Every vehicle performs more smoothly and over a longer period of time when it is well maintained. Small, consistent actions, repeated over time, lead to remarkable results.

Neglect

My first car was a 1962 Ford Fairlane; blue, with bucket seats. I don’t remember how much it cost – I paid for it working part time as a bag boy at Winn Dixie. I loved that car but I drove it hard — teenage driver. And I never did anything to maintain it. Never changed the oil. Never checked belts or hoses. Rarely checked the air in the tires . . . unless one got really low. I did not take care of the car and it didn’t last very long.

It required several years and getting stuck with broken down cars for me to learn the importance of maintenance – doing the small but important tasks to keep the car running smoothly. But I eventually got the lesson. Every machine performs better longer when it is properly maintained and cared for. And this includes you and me.

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An Orderly Life

“As within, so without.” Our external world is a reflection of our internal world. If your external world is peaceful and ordered, then your inner life is peaceful and ordered. If your inner life is chaotic, your external world is likely to be a mess.

An Experiment In Decluttering

A number of years ago, I devised an experiment. In an effort to remove clutter and begin living an orderly life, I decided to get rid of — toss, give away, or recycle — two items every day. And for 60 days, that’s what I did.

I kept a record of what I cleared out, which I still have on my computer. Analyzing it, I see that about 40 percent of the items – 47 – went to Goodwill and 41 items were tossed in the garbage. The rest were recycled. The most items I discarded were books (22) and clothes (19). Other items were memorabilia of various sorts, old medications, and just plain trash – broken things, old receipts, outdated product manuals, and some papers I could no longer identify.

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Why You Need A Reserve

To reach the peak of Maslow’s Hierarchy (self-actualization), you must first get the basic needs met. After you build and keep a reserve in these areas, then you are able to focus on achieving your full potential.

Out Of Gas

A few months after I got my driver’s license, I drove to a neighboring town to apply for a summer job. On my way back to school, the car quit running, slowed down and came to a stop on the side of the road. It was out of gas.

I had seen that the gas was low but foolishly thought I could drive till I made it back home. Now I was stuck.

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Willpower Offense

Those who use willpower wisely don’t use it to fight temptation, they use willpower to avoid temptation. Instead of willpower defense, they play willpower offense.(1)

Choose Once

When I stepped on the scale and it hit 265, I decided it was time to do something about my weight. So I joined Weight Watchers.

The Wednesday evening sessions I attended had two leaders, Paul and Marlon, both of whom had successfully lost many pounds. Both were engaging and funny. And they both understood the ups and downs of weight loss. Marlon once told about going on a cruise and gaining 15 pounds in one week. And he was a Weight Watcher leader at the time!

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Simplifying Simplicity

“Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Searching for the next Big Idea

I am in love with ideas. I am intrigued and fascinated by them. One of my Signature Strengths his Love Of Learning. I like to learn new things and new ways to do old things. I am constantly searching for shiny new ideas and new twists on old concepts.

One reason is that I, like many people, 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 least amount of effort. So I am regularly on the look out for the newest big idea that will get me what I want. I flit from this book to that audio CD seminar to the latest program of something or other.

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How To Get The Golden Eggs? (Take care of the goose.)

“An empty lantern provides no light. Self-care is the fuel that allows your light to shine brightly.” ~ Source Unknown

“The Goose And The Golden Egg”

Once a poor farmer possessed a goose. One morning when he went to her nest, he discovered a glittering golden egg. He took the egg to the market and sold it for a good price.

The next morning, the farmer discovered another golden egg. Again, he sold it at the market for a good sum.

Each day, the farmer found another golden egg that the goose had laid. Soon, he became wealthy. Continue reading “How To Get The Golden Eggs? (Take care of the goose.)”

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A PLACE For Everything

“. . . most clutter enters our lives through the ‘more is better’ door. It comes from the disease of materialism, of looking for inner fulfillment in outer possessions.” ~ Joe Dominquez

Gazingus Pins

In the book Your Money Or Your Life, Joe Dominguez introduces the concept of the “gazingus pin”. A gazingus pin is that thing you can’t pass by in a store without buying. It can be anything, “from pocket calculators and tiny screwdrivers to shoes, pens and chocolate kisses”. [Robin & Dominguez, p. 25]

When you see your gazingus pin, your eyes glaze over, your mind goes on auto pilot, and you forget that you already have 10 or 100 or 1000 gazingus pins at home that you never use. All your attention is focused on this fresh, clean, lovely, new and improved gazingus pin. And “before you know it, an alien arm (attached to your body) has reached out and picked up the gazingus pin, and off you go to the checkout, still functioning like a windup zombie.” [Robin & Dominguez, 25 – 26] When you finally come to your senses, you find yourself adding a new gazingus pin to your drawer that is already full of other gazingus pins.

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Where To Have A Reserve . . . And How

“Build a superreserve in every area: have more than enough.” ~ Thomas Leonard

Out Of Gas

I was on my way to work and decided to stop at a nearby store to fill my car’s gas tank. As I was waiting for the tank to fill, I noticed a woman who was trying to fill a gas can but was obviously having trouble understanding how to use the pump. I walked over and offered to help.

As I filled the can, she told me that she had run out of gas a short way from the gas station. A policeman had given her a ride to the store. She said she had a pre-op appointment with her doctor that morning. She had spent the night with her mother because it was closer to the doctor’s office.

Now, she was in danger of missing this important meeting with her doctor because she had run out of gas. As she told me her story, I thought to myself, “Here is a person who needs to keep a reserve.”

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How To Have Willpower When You Need It

“It’s not that you don’t know what to do, but rather that you don’t have the discipline to make yourself do what you should do, whether you feel like it or not.” ~ Brian Tracy

Your Chances For Parole May Vary

Pretend for a moment that you are a prisoner about to appear before a judge to request parole. (It’s a stretch I know, but use your imagination.) When would you want to go before the judge? First thing in the morning? Right before lunch? Middle of the afternoon? Last case of the day? Continue reading “How To Have Willpower When You Need It”

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What To Do Before Breakfast

 

“There’s something magical about repeating the same positive habits every single day.” ~ SJ Scott

The “Magic Hours”

What do you do before breakfast? Hyrum Smith calls the early morning hours the “magic hours”, a block of uninterrupted time when you can concentrate on things beyond the normal urgency and routine of the day. Brian Tracy refers to this time as the Golden Hours — the first hours of the day which set the tone for the rest of the day. Continue reading “What To Do Before Breakfast”