Growing Into You

“Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends, for it is one of God’s best gifts. It involves many things, but above all, the power of going out of one’s self and appreciating whatever is noble and loving in another.” –Thomas Hughes

About four months ago, I decided to begin my quest to improve all aspects of my life. In doing so, I have found my way onto many forums and blogs. For the first month and half or so, I sat back and just read all of the posts, soaking in all of the information I could take. Then, about two and a half months ago, something inside of me changed. It was not enough anymore to sit and watch people have conversations about topics I could join in on.

I finally decided to take the plunge into the online world of communication. In the past, I had sent e-mails and IM’s with my friends and other acquaintances I had in my personal life. I had not, however, ever actively gone out of my way to talk with people I did not know. This was definitely a new but exciting experience.

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“The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started.” –Dawson Trotman

Have you ever wanted or needed to get a task done but just didn’t have the motivation to complete it? Were you tired, lazy, or just content with doing nothing? Chances are, you most likely did nothing and regretted it the next day.

As I was sitting here thinking about writing this blog, I just could not get motivated to begin. It has been a LONG day. I got up, did four hours of homework, went to class, went to work, did two more hours of homework, and here I am. I would be very happy to just lie in bed and call it a night. If I did that though, I KNOW I would regret not posting an article tonight. I have been wanting to write an article all day long and trying to think of topics to write about to no avail. Finally, I got the idea to write about what I do to get started on a task that seems hard, endless, or just mundane.

So here is a list of tactics you can attempt when trying to get motivated to start an essential task.

1. Jump in the shower: If it has been a long day, jumping in the shower is a great way to relax and regroup. If you really want to create some energy, I recommend turning the hot water off and the cold water on for the last 30 seconds to a minute of your shower. The cold water will send a wake-up signal to your brain to get you amped and ready to go.

2. Go for a brisk walk/jog: Getting some light physical activity is a great way to get your blood pumping. Just as you would warm up for a sporting event, try warming up for your task. I think you will find this is a great way to clear your head and get motivation on your side.

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“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.” -Bertrand Russell

In May, I plan on graduating from Indiana University with my degree. After five years of playing baseball, attending school, and working, I will finally be able to leave my academic career behind. But wait, May is only a month away and I have so much to do!

Two things I MUST get done before then, as required by my degree, include completing an internship and finishing an Independent Study Macroeconomics class. The internship is something that causes absolutely no worry in my life because it is simply showing up and helping with baseball; something that I love to do. Macroeconomics, on the other hand, is something quite different!

Because of the procrastination tactics that I have taken on in completing the task (something I will discuss in future articles), I am left to complete a 16 week class in a matter of 4 weeks! If you do the math, that is about a chapter a day. This is on top of my regular class, internship hours, work, and writing for this blog. All of this studying could leave a lot of people to be very stressed out, but to me, it’s just another thing to do on my task list because I have learned to excel under pressure.

I have a simple approach to stress that I believe can be used in ANY situation. Is your financial situation stressing you out? How about your health? Just follow the five simple steps in order to feel secure and confident you are heading in the right direction and going to fix the stressor.

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A week ago, I wrote an article (Get Me In Shape!) telling you my goal of losing 30 pounds, how much time I have to do it, and how I was going to do it. I just wanted to give you a quick update on my progress.

Starting Weight: 210 pounds

Current Weight: 197 pounds

Time Left: 51 days

How: I have began the run/walk program in the Runner’s World. It is nothing too strenuous, but the fact that I have to get up off my couch and do physical activity really helps. I have also added in my own resistance program that has helped as well.

What I ate: I have not changed my eating habits drastically. I just watch my quantities.

I have decided that I will give daily updates in my Building Habits tab. This goal coorrelates with my focusing on writing EVERYTHING I eat down on paper. Please feel free to look at that tab to see where I stand. Feel free to let us know where you stand on your habit forming goals as well.

“Good habits, once established, are just as hard to break as are bad habits.” –Robert Puller

In my post, “My 21 Day Habit,” I told you I was going to focus on no more than two habits I either want to form or want to break for 21 days. 21 days represents the amount of time I believe it takes in order to form or break a habit. After the 21st day, if I have succeeded in forming those habits, then I will proceed to go after two more habits. This page will be continuously updated to inform you of my progress.

I encourage each one of you to try this on your own. Putting your goals out there for others to view allows others to hold you accountable (which I have discussed briefly in my article Why Blog? .) Being held accountable will put more emphasis on completing your tasks in order to not let the other readers down. Any encouragement I receive from you, whether via e-mail or posts, will give me more motivation to continue. Read the rest of this entry »

“First, we make our habits. Then, our habits make us.” -Charles C. Noble

When I was a kid, one thing sticks out in my mind. My father was a great motivator. Starting at a very young age, my dad always gave me motivational talks about what I needed to do in order to achieve great things in life. Being young, I would always shoot out of the box right after one of these speeches. Then, my mind would wander, and the fire would dwindle down.

There are two different points from my father’s speeches that I will never forget. The first, which came when I was slumping in baseball, was an acronym. He told me that that when I am getting ready to do a task, repeat the word “K.I.S.S.” in my head. I’m sure many of you have heard this acronym before. “K.I.S.S” stands for “Keep it simple stupid.” What he meant by that was don’t over think the situation, and most importantly, don’t over complicate it.

After my dad got tired of having his great motivational speeches work for about one week, he began to stress another point that has stuck with me. He told me that it takes 21 days to make a habit stick. So, after his speech, we would sit down and make a plan. No longer would I sprint out of the gate on a 400 meter dash only to run out of gas 300 meters in. Each day, for the first 21 days, I would focus solely on doing one or two habits differently. Any more than that and I would have been breaking the “K.I.S.S” code.

So here is the challenge I will set for you and myself. I will have my 21 day cycle running on a tab on the top of my home page. Each 21 day cycle, I will post no more than TWO habits that I am trying to form (or break.) Each day, I will report back to that page and let everybody know where I stand.

I encourage each one of you to do this with me. You can e-mail me what your habit is or you can post it through the comments section. The more times you e-mail me throughout the 21 days, the more likely you will make it through. You will be able to get encouragement and be held accountable from other readers and myself.

I am counting on each one of you to hold me accountable. Together, we can change our habits.

First, I would like to thank EVERYBODY who has subscribed to my blog over the past week. Seeing my subscriber numbers go up as quickly as they have has really come as a shock to me and it tells me I must be writing about something that is clicking with you.

I have been having some problems with my RSS Feeds. So to fix these problems, I just went ahead and started a new feed. So in order to fix the problem and get everybody on the same page, I am asking any person with a subscription to re-subscribe to the new address. Here is my new feed. The one that I had previously was http://feeds.feedburner.com/growingintoyoucom.

I am unsure what caused these problems. Being so new to blogging, I still have quite a few wrinkles to work out. I am learning quickly though.

So in a nutshell, could you please unsubscribe from the old feed and re-subscribe to the new one located above. I am TERRIBLY sorry for this inconvenience, but I want to make sure everybody is able to receive the articles. If you have any questions just e-mail me at tad@growingintoyou.com. I really enjoy hearing from each and every one of you. I hope you all have a great weekend.