Have a Good Wednesday and Do Something FUN!

The Magic Lamp: Goal Setting for People Who Hate Setting Goals

I've been reading this book and it is a good place to begin if you want a fresh start in setting goals for yourself. This writer is no nonsense and provides a terrific strategy for achieving your dreams. Check him out! One of the biggest difficulties people have in setting goals is knowing where to start. The process can be so frustrating, it can be tempting to give up altogether and simply continue doing what we've been doing. Since our current situation isn't actually working out, this is a good way to clear out the debris and start new. With a game plan, for a change. We can achieve our dreams as long as we do the basic work we need to ensure success.

Stunned into Inaction: Moral Choices for a New World

In general, when people are faced with choices, they will take the one that will be of most benefit to themselves. It doesn’t matter if it’s considered a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ choice-if it works, we do it.

In the good old days, your life and your choices were pretty much all ready set for you.  Whatever your parents did, you did. Women were expected to marry and have children and men were expected to work to keep their families fed, housed and clothed.  This is how the world worked for many thousands of years without much variation.

Since the advent of the Industrial Revolution, and again in our time, life is changing at an ever increasingly rapid pace. Take anyone from a regular background in the mid 1800’s and throw them into today’s life, and you would see the equivalent of the deer in the headlight phenomenon-absolute inability to process any of the information coming at him or her.

In many ways, we ourselves are not really that different from our visitor from the past. As a species, humans are very adaptable, but it seems that the pace of change has become such that most people have lost essential parts of themselves in the process of adapting. We have become less tolerant of others, less open to variety, less able to cope with our day to day needs while keeping the big picture in mind.

We can see perfect examples everyday in something as simple as driving habits.  Where I live we have round-a-bouts in several major intersections.  Very few people know how they work and there are countless accidents and near misses daily because everyone wants to be first. I’m not sure exactly when this “me first, screw everyone else” mindset became so widespread, but it has become ingrained in our daily lives and reinforced by media, politics, and even popular religion.  We can’t blame others for this either-all of us have had a part to play in the degradation of common manners and morals.  American society especially has seen a rapid decline in those ideals we once held in common.  There used to be a time when the majority of people looked out for those unable to care for themselves; when we were champions of the downtrodden; when life meant more than the stuff we could buy and the money in our bank accounts.  The Baby Boomers grew up and many realized that the peace and love of the sixties was not going to care for them in their old age, so they turned into the people they once scorned.  Most of the people in the succeeding generations have been raised the same way since.

So how does this figure into decision-making?  In a time of no clear choices, moral or otherwise, many people prefer to simply keep doing what they’ve been doing regardless of the effect on their physical or mental health.  They have developed an attitude of superiority over others that is heartbreaking in its lack of character, dangerous in terms of their health, and dangerous to others’ health as well.

In order to make good decisions everyone must have a solid personal code of conduct.  Regardless if it is religion-based or not, certain core ideas need to be reexamined today-minus all of the bullshit and drama inflicted on us by those that consider themselves morally superior to the rest of us.  What follows is my own collection of ideas-I’m not saying that this is “THE WAY” to live-they work for me, and I try to keep myself acting in positive ways generally.  These ideas are food for thought if nothing else.

1.    Above all else, try to keep from harming others, physically or emotionally.  This one is pretty self-explanatory. 

2.    Have an open mind.  What works for one person, doesn’t always work for everyone.

3.    Live correctly-by this I mean that you treat others with respect; you don’t lie, cheat or steal.  Ever. No Exceptions.

4.    Treat yourself with respect as well.  You are not a doormat for others to walk all over.  Be brave and stand up for yourself.

5.    No decision is ever irreversible. You are allowed to change your mind and your attitude.

6.    As a human, your journey to grow and learn is never over.  Keep learning new things, critically examine everything you see, read, or hear.  Research.  If it doesn’t fit reality don’t accept it.

7.    Finally-I am no better or no worse than ANYONE else.  I am who I am, as Popeye used to say.  Those that claim moral superiority over others usually have ulterior motives-especially if they are popular.  Be cautious about following others without examining their motivations; be especially cautious if they say that theirs is the only way to live/think/act. 

Well, this turned more ‘sermony’ than I started-but it’s Sunday, so I guess that’s okay.

Next up will be a return to decision-making!

Get in the Healthy Habit

In order to get and maintain healthy six pack abs, it is important to change habits that have had a lifetime to develop.  Whether it’s an addiction to sugar, cigarettes, or simply a case of massive laziness, you can change your less desirable habits to good ones if you follow some simple steps.  It is possible to change-just ask anyone who has lost a lot of weight and managed to maintain it long term.  You can ask someone who went from being a couch potato to running marathons, “What is the one thing you had to do to change?”

Most of them will answer that they had to develop a new set of habits surrounding their beliefs and actions regarding food, exercise, and themselves.

These can be some of the hardest habits to change. Most of us grew up with positive role models, but just the simple act of living can allow us to slip into bad habits.  Making a commitment to change your appearance, sometimes radically, can provoke many of the fears we all felt as children and teens.

  “Will I still be me?”  The question of who we are and how we fit into the world is one that requires life long change and adjustment-many of us reach a point where we think we are ‘finished’, and there we stay, whether it’s good for us or not.

Getting into the healthy habit of six pack abs is a mindset that can bring us great reward by improving our health, giving us improved strength and energy for daily tasks, and giving us an entire new positive mind set.

However, getting into the healthy habit of six pack abs can also reopen old fears and insecurities about our looks, our friends, and our families.  When you change something as radical as your appearance, you can open yourself up to much more attention from people-and not all of it is necessarily appreciated or wanted.  You will have jealous friends or family members who will try to cut you down every step of the way because of their own insecurities. The people closest to you can be your worst critics because they know the buttons to push to make you miserable.  That being said, when they honestly support you, you have excellent allies in your struggle to change.

It is important, before even deciding to change a habit, to set up a game plan and write down everything that could hold you back, as well as all of the resources you have, in helping you to achieve your goal.

There are three basic steps that will assist you in getting into the healthy habit of six pack abs.

1.    Decide one thing you want to change, and write a plan to change it.

This is where you need to keep it simple and specific.  Instead off writing ‘I want to lose weight’, write down ‘I want to lose ‘X’ pounds by ‘X’ date, and I will do it by eliminating ‘X’ from my diet’.

2.    Identify those things that trigger bad behavior and come up with replacement behaviors to do instead of that bad thing.  For example, if you want to eliminate eating at fast food restaurants from your diet, you need to identify what causes you to eat there (usually hunger) and you need to identify a replacement behavior (make sure you have good food with you).  This one simple step, if eating fast food is a daily thing, can eliminate a lot of bad stuff from your diet right there.  And if you replace eating fast food with eating healthy options, you will be a step closer to your goal of losing weight.

3.    Every time your trigger event occurs, do your replacement!  Do this straight for at least 25-30 days and you will find yourself with a new healthy habit for your six pack abs training.

When we first take a look at ourselves in order to change things, most of us can come up with an extremely long list of things that make us unhappy.  The old saying is true-we really can be our own worst enemy sometimes.  When picking out your goals, chose the one item that you want to change the most right now.  Set the rest of the list aside for a later time.  It is important to concentrate on this one thing only for this time.  If you try to do too much at once, it will turn into almost every New Year’s resolution any of us have ever made-you will make a mighty attempt to do it all and you will burn out in a couple weeks as you realise how incredibly hard changing only one habit can be.  Focus is key, small steps are essential, and repetition is paramount.  The new behavior is one you need to do every time a trigger occurs or it will not become a habit.

Remember too that the new habit can suddenly be challenged and sabotaged by our own brains months and sometimes years away from the change.  This change can be triggered by huge life events that drive us to seek comfort in the familiar and old routines of our past behaviors.  Anyone who has ever quit smoking or drinking will related immediately to this.  Sometimes all it takes is a smell and the cravings come back stronger than ever.  Once you change your bad habits you need to stay aware that it can all come back in a moment if the conditions are right.  Keep on your game and remember why you changed in the first place-it can give you the strength to keep moving forward.

I know that I’ve set my goal for the next month for my six pack abs program-what about you?