21 Day Challenge

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?  ~Satchel Paige

The Goal

To live a healthier, more vital and hopefully, longer life.

The Plan

1.  Walk 30 minutes per day…every day

2.  Floss and brush your teeth

3.  Drink green tea and lots of water

4.  Take pills (not valley of the dolls pills, but stuff like omega 3 and vitamins)

5.  Get your zzzs

6.  Meditate for 5 minutes

The Inspiration

If months of sitting on the couch watching “last 10 lbs boot camp” and “the biggest loser” haven’t done anything to budge that cute little muffin top then try logging on to www.realage.com.  Rather than setting flat, uninspired goals like lose 5lbs, the focus is on a longer and healthier life.  The aha moment for me came when reading the free report, especially the assertion that 2 inches off the middle could mean as much as 2 additional years with my family!  Maybe this is true and maybe it isn’t but it was just the encouragement I needed to get moving.  I can’t say that I manage all 6 every day, but I like that way that Dr.s Oz (of Oprah fame) and Roizen, make their suggestions realistic.  Meditate for 5 minutes?  Much more palatable than trying to find an hour a day. 

The book (but the website is free)
You: Staying Young: The Owner’s Manual for Extending Your Warranty

What’s with the book sales?

These are called “affiliate links” and generally it means that if you buy a book from chasing a link from a blog or website like mine the owner of the site makes a percentage, usually 4-6%.  I donate all proceeds to www.stephenlewisfoundation.org which provides funding towards grass roots efforts for women, orphans, grandmothers and people living with HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan countries.

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.  ~William Wordsworth

Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very;” your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.  ~Mark Twain

What is the difference between a good goal and a great goal?  A great goal has great meaning. 

The challenge for today is to dig deep and figure out what reaching this goal will give you that is even more meaningful and important than the goal itself. 

Put it down on paper.  To give your goal an added edge start keeping a log or a journal about your progress, struggles, obstacles and today use it to answer a few of these questions.  Let’s use the goal of becoming more organized by spending 15 minutes per day de-cluttering, as an example. 

a) What will becoming more organized give me that I don’t have now?

b) How will it feel to come home to a house that is clutter free, organized and peaceful?

c) Who could I be if I had a home that felt peaceful and organized?

d) Who else will benefit from this?

Still feeling blah and uninspired?  Now write down everything you have to lose by not reaching your goal. 

If this does happen to be your goal check out http://www.oprah.com/dated/oprahshow/oprahshow_20081029_messy as she has a “clean up your messy house” challenge on right now. 

“We are here on earth to do good for others. What the others are here for, I don’t know.” W.H. Auden

Yesterday we dealt with getting unstuck and with the new day brings more unexpected inspiration.  My clients are “helpers” either by trade or by habit/personality.  The kind of people who want to make the world a better place and are changing the world one person at a time.  As a result many of them are a bit worn out and have little left at the end of each day with which to inspire themselves.  They say “physician heal thyself” and laugh at the irony that they can help others through difficult times but find it almost impossible to reach their own goals.

Here are 3 things that inspired me today:

1.  A friend sent me a link to this music video, I hope you have access to Youtube so you can see it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY

2.  A client sent me the following Dr. Suess poem to congratulate me on getting past my “stuckness” yesterday and to prove that there is someone out there reading so I had better keep on going!  It’s from the lovely book “Oh the Places you’ll go”. 

“You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…

…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a sting of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That’s not for you!

Somehow you’ll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You’ll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.”

3.  Bill O’Hanlon.  One of my favorite writers, therapists, workshop presenters and all round great guys.  He can be found at www.brieftherapy.com and with his permission I have included an inspiring post from one of his news letters on “Developing a positive addiction”.  Please click more to read from his newsletter.    [click to continue...]

O.K. I have a confession to make.  I’m stuck!  I got so excited about this challenge that I forgot to take my own advice, I picked a date I thought would work without ever running it through my own schedule. Does this ever happen to you?  You book a meeting just to realize that is the day you scheduled a few hours off, or you agree to a dinner party and then remember that you are always totally bagged on Friday nights after a long week of work, or you finally book that massage or night out and then notice the big red circle on your calendar that says “parent teacher night”? 

There will always be reasons not to exercise, take time for yourself, write your novel, go back to school, or update your resume. 

Today, I willed inspiration to come to me…I waited and waited and waited.  It was during a conversation with a young student who was also waiting for motivation to strike that I realized that we can get ourselves into big trouble when we wait until we feel like doing something.  During this waiting period our inner critics can kick up a lot of excuses and convince us to give up all together. 

So whenever you run into trouble scale back, make it manageable, work out for just 5 minutes, eat one apple, write 1 word, don’t bite one nail, open your school books. 

Employ a “micro movement” a realistic and fun plan for getting started on a big goal which comes from the wildly creative SARK and her book ”Make Your Creative Dreams Real: A plan for procrastinators, perfectionists, busy people, avoiders and people who would rather sleep all day”. 

 Writers write, athletes work out, helpers help, parents parent…even when we don’t feel like it.  Even your smallest efforts can make a difference. 

If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.- Mother Teresa

And I don’t mean SMRT ala The Simpsons.  Many people who set out to reach a goal are unsuccessful simply because they failed to run their goal through the following steps.  An example of a vague goal that is difficul tto reach is…I want to lose weight.  Let’s look at how to optimize your goal by making it specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timed.  

S - Specific “I will not bite or pick my nails for fingers for 21 days”

M - Measurable “I will eat at least 3 servings of fruit and veggies every day”

A - Attainable “I will move my body for 15 minutes or more every day”

R- Realistic “I will lose 1 inch from my waist”

T - Timed  “For the next 21 days I will not gossip” 

If you want some ideas about how you could make your goal smarter, send me an email and I’d be happy to help you.  Tune in tomorrow when we talk about how to make your goal more meaningful.

This post is dedicated to my friend Pam who was a gifted writer and who loved to tell the story about the family in her building who insisted that she KEEP QUIET as they “were preparing to prepare to make dinner”.  This still gets a laugh from me and is timely as I prepare to prepare to start this 21 day journey. 

So it’s time to think about a goal.  Is there something you want to change?  Most goals seem to fall into the categories of More Of or Less Of. 

More peace; more laughter; more fun; more exercise, more healthy food, more time spent with spouse, kids, friends, more money

Less stress, less weight, less gossiping, less work, less negativity, less junk food.

There is some evidence to suggest that your brain responds more effectively to the MORE OF type goals.  So if your goal is to lose 10 lbs, you might expand it to include: have MORE energy; eat MORE fruits and veggies, move MORE.  We’ll talk about how to make your goal a SMART goal on day 1 of the challenge. 

Maybe you don’t have a goal yet but you feel like something needs to change.  This is the Contemplation stage.  You are preparing yourself to make a change. 

One way that we strengthen our ability to change is to plan ahead.  Choose a start date that works for you.   You can play along with me or you can choose your own start date.  Many of you have told me that you have nutrition or fitness goals which is one reason I decided to wait until after Halloween, why make it harder than it has to be right?

Let’s aim to begin on Tuesday November 11th, Remembrance Day.  I chose a Tuesday as employers believe it is the most productive day of the week, I also wanted to finish the challenge before the frenzie of the holiday season begins.  My number 1 goals is to publish one post per day which you can find here.  I may also set a fitness goal but I’m still in the contemplation stage on that one!  I’ll let you know. 

ACTION:  Over the next few days note what challenges you will face during your 21 day challenge.  Send them to me and I’ll make sure to address those challenges in the posts.  You can add a comment or send a confidential email, robin@lifeinspired.ca

Have a great weekend, see you Tuesday.