Progress Archives - Page 46 of 63

Lazy Or Lacking Purpose?

Posted on November 22, 2021

It can be easy to say we are lazy or observe others and come to that conclusion. We become unwilling to work or use our energy when we don’t have a clear goal or outcome in mind.

You might feel lazy when you have competing deadlines. It can be easier to curl up on the sofa and hope they disappear. Or go for walks, lunch with friends or to the pub – whatever distraction we prefer. It can feel all too hard. So, we just avoid the whole thing.

Although this can be one way to deal with things, we should edge toward greater discipline. Do one thing to move the situation forward. Make that phone call, write a few lines or add some context for someone. Just the idea of getting started can propel you to keep going. Then, once you are 10 minutes in, it can be hard to stop because you are so engaged in the process and can see the outcome.

Are you lazy or lacking purpose? I would suggest we all have a lazy tendency if we allow it. However, if we set an exciting goal to pursue, we will find that purpose propelling us to greater heights. When you are driven by enthusiasm for you objective, you need less discipline. You can simply be obsessed.

Action Health & Fitness Progress Reframe your thoughts Time

It’s Hard To Change

Posted on November 21, 2021

Habits and patterns of behaviour can be incredibly difficult to change. Our environment has adapted to make the habits easier. In addition, our desire for familiarity adds to the challenge of changing. Finally, our self-image will stop us if the new habit is not in aligment with how we see ourselves.

Three things to make it easier to change are as follows:

Adjust your environment to make the new habit easier and the old habit harder. For example, have all your clothes ready by your bed to go exercise when you wake up. Also, put your alarm on the other side of the room so you have to get out of bed to shut it off (and therefore not hit snooze and roll over). Put the volume high too so you need to go shut it off or turn it down.
Be patient and know that it will take days, weeks and months to get familiar and comfortable with this new routine. The greater familiarity and better environment will make it all seem easier.
Remind yourself daily, 10 times per day or more, that you are this new type of person. You could say, ‘I am an early morning person.’ You could add, ‘I am a fit and healthy person.’ By saying the ‘I am’ statements many times per day, while also doing steps 1 & 2, you will reinforce this new personality you are becoming. This will improve the chances of your mind and body accepting this new way of being and thriving with it.

Yes, it’s hard to change, but you can make it easier on yourself and increase your probability of success. Start today!

Gratitude Health & Fitness Observe Progress Reframe your thoughts Think About It

Why Choose Anger?

Posted on November 20, 2021

You can choose your focus. Sure, different thoughts, good, bad and odd, come into your mind. However, you get to choose which ones you will focus on or hold onto.

You don’t have to swing at every pitch. You can let a few thoughts go by. Generate good thoughts. Let poor thoughts pass on by.

If you’re not doing this, ask yourself why. Do you enjoy the intensity of feeling? Are you keen to solve everyone else’s problems? All 8 billion people need you to help them?

There might be injustices in the world but your anger won’t reverse them. If you want to calmly write letters, lobby people with power to change things or put forward sensible arguments, then do it.

Try to stay away from the outrage, the anger, the poor thinking and the cherry-picked opinions and facts that keep you as a prisoner in that state of mind.

From what I can tell, the vast majority of issues come from a few people who have made poor decisions in life or else from misunderstandings or accidents. We would do better to reduce our involvement where accidents are more likely to occur. Also, take the time to understand a situation very well, from all sides, before being an outraged judge of it. Finally, volunteer to help kids and youth to improve their thinking and their decision making so they grow up to be good and useful members of society rather then destructive ones.

Redirect that powerful energy. Why choose anger? Especially when you can choose positive impact!

Action Progress Time

Keep Pressing Forward

Posted on November 18, 2021

No matter what you do, keep pressing forward. It may seem too difficult or even useless. But keep moving things in the direction you need. Write out and plan every step and then execute on that plan. You will be successful if you do this. You may even become unstoppable.

Action Observe Progress Reframe your thoughts

Do One Less Thing

Posted on November 7, 2021

It doesn’t feel very high achiever, does it? Or, does it? That one more thing often means you are running late with greater stress. Or it keeps you up too late at night. That one more thing can really hamper your day.

Sure you can achieve one more thing, but was it an essential thing? Was everything essential today? Try to eliminate one thing from your day today. Make some breathing space. You could relax for that spare 10-15 minutes. Or get places on time. Or early!

You could go to bed a bit sooner and get a better night’s sleep. This all sounds good, healthy and sensible. So maybe go do it then. Don’t overthink it. Just remove those things from your day you won’t remember in 30 years.

Make more room for loved ones and the essentials of your life.

Do one less thing.

Action Gratitude Progress Think About It

What Would You Give Up To Save The Planet?

Posted on November 4, 2021

You can blame big oil companies if it makes you feel better. However, their products (oil, gas, plastics, etc) exist to quench people’s demand. They are not discovering, extracting, refining, shipping and storing oil and gas in the hopes that one day they will find a use for it and be able to sell it.

So governments and corporates can set the stage for change but it really comes down to the consumers of the world to make changes (forced or willingly) before we will see significant or meaningful change in environmental or climate impact.

With the world population expected to grow to just under 10 billion by 2050 there will be some additional strains on the environment. If countries haven’t been able to reach their Paris Accords targets previously, adding an additional 2 billion people in 30 years, a 25% increase, is unlikely to make the challenge easier.

So to reduce environmental impact, consumers will need to switch to new, clean energy sources in 2022. They / we will have reduce more, reuse more and recycle more if the world population has any chance of making a noticeable impact. To that end, what would you be willing to do? Give up on that new electric toothbrush and buy a bamboo one? Drive less? Stop air travel? Buy fewer clothes and plastic items? Only buy food from your country or local area? Reduce meat and dairy consumption to once per month?

I think most people find it incredibly difficult, or undesirable, to significantly shift their personal consumption habits whether it is to benefit climate change or not.

What would you give up to save the planet?

Action Progress Reframe your thoughts

Do Some Prep

Posted on October 30, 2021

Yes, you can wing it. That is an option. But you may not get the results you want. To improve your chances of getting results you’d be happy with, remember to do some prep.

Learn a little about the topic, event or activity. You can search the web for an article, workshop, podcast or video tutorial. Learn about it. Train yourself to improve your understanding or skill.

Prepare well ahead of time and make the most of your abilities while you have them. Injuries, illness or lack of time or energy can make it more difficult to progress as you grow up or age.

Do some prep. A little effort ahead of time could change your life’s trajectory.

Health & Fitness Observe Progress Think About It Time

When Does The Covid Pandemic End?

Posted on October 26, 2021

It might be 2026 or as soon as spring 2022. It could be any other time too. I hear one of my favourite phrases in my head, “It depends”.

Who will declare the pandemic is over? What criteria will be used? What will happen after? Has anyone thought this through? I am sure lot’s of people have considered the idea of this pandemic finishing. It will be interesting to see how that plays though.

Will some countries like New Zealand and Australia maintain a Moat status with frequent lockdowns for another 5 or 10 years? Denmark seems to have opened up internally, though there are still some border restrictions, which could end by November. The UK is fairly open and almost back to 2019 activity and freedom of movement.

So it depends on what the ruling parties want to see in each country, state, province, territory etc. Some leaders are aiming for zero new cases, some want zero hospitalizations or deaths. Other leaders are being more pragmatic and are ok with many cases as long as hospitalizations and deaths stay relatively low. Another view is the number of vaccinated people.

However, even if there was a 100% vaccination rate, people would still catch it and pass it on. The vaccine reduces symptoms and can aid in reduction of the spread but it does not stop the spread or eliminate Covid. So people will need to get their head around that. Perhaps comparing it to the seasonal flu and how we dealt with that would be possible for some. If not, prepare for masks, social distancing, semi-annual booster jabs, frequent testing, occasional lockdowns and stressful travel for the next 3,650 days.

When does the Covid pandemic end? It depends.

Action Gratitude Progress Reframe your thoughts Think About It

It’s Hard To Fail

Posted on October 24, 2021

Choose your hard. It’s hard to start, continue, finish and fail. But if you don’t do the first three, you may have to settle for the last one.

Now we should get into the definition of fail, of course. It means different things to different people. Traditionally it means you did not succeed with your desired goal. Though it can be defined quite broadly. If you haven’t stopped trying then you may not have failed yet.

However, if there is a time limit, then if you’ve past the time allocated, you could say you failed. This is most accurate in a timed activity, project, match or game.

It’s not fun to think you failed at something. But you have only failed in the attempts up to now. Perhaps you will succeed on the next attempt!

Until then, it’s hard to fail. But it can be the only way to finally succeed.

Action Progress Think About It Time

It’s Hard To Finish

Posted on October 23, 2021

Completing the task can be a challenge. Sometimes we get started and stay consistent. But completing the task, so it is all done, as we wanted, can get sidetracked.

We might get delayed, sidetracked, see goalposts move, never quite reach the goal or many other reasons. Being emotionally involved in the process or never feeling quite ready can be other issues to overcome.

You must begin with the end in mind. Have a vision of the completed project. Prepare a celebration. Have a timeline that you follow. Have some contingency and prepare for things to not go exactly to plan. You may need to be a little flexible.

It’s hard to finish but that’s where the glory, relief and calm is.