Month: October 2017

Time is an illusion. All the research says as much. Yet, we only have so much of it. We are born. We live. We die. Some of us will be remembered for centuries to come. Some of us are forgotten all too quickly. If time is an illusion but we have a finite amount of it, how do we make the most of it? It’s all in how you treat it.

“I don’t have time to exercise.” “I don’t have time to read.” “I don’t have time to meet with you.” I don’t have time. Your first step should be to remove this phrase from your vocabulary. Yes, you do have time. You choose to use it for some other purpose. Instead, own your choices. “I don’t exercise.” “I don’t read.” “I don’t want to / I will not meet with you.” No. This first step forces you to own your no’s, and this is perfectly acceptable. It’s your life. Live it the way you want to live it.

How do you want to live your life? Does it remotely resemble how you are currently living it? Get out a pen and paper, or a dry erase board and marker, or open a note app on your phone. Now, go through your day in your mind. What time do you wake up? What do you do first thing in the morning? What’s next? What’s after that? Don’t forget to include a time frame. Continue to think about your day up until you go to bed. Is that how you want to live your life?

Live your life the way you want to live it. Do you want to exercise? Then do it. Do you want to read more? Then do it. Do you want to become a great painter? Then do it. Now that you have faced your reality, you can now mold it to your desires. Keeping in mind there are items in your life you have little to no control over when they happen or if they happen, create your ideal day. If you have to be at work in the morning on set days, and you also prefer to workout in the mornings, that means you wake up earlier in the morning to get it done. After creating your ideal day, live it. Your ideal day will change from time to time, but now you can better embrace your new desires.

I am a morning person, no matter when it is I actually get up. Today, I got out of bed at 7 am (It’s a Sunday). Granted, my little Rosalina needed to be taken out for her morning restroom business and needed breakfast. During my Jr and Sr years in college, I woke up most days around 5:30 am and planned my day in 15 minute blocks. Now as an official adult, I am working on reincorporating that back in my life.

My alarm is set for 6 am everyday of the week. Some days, like today, I hit snooze … a lot. In the spirit of transparency, I sat that alarm to occur as such just over a week ago. Starting tomorrow, my alarm will be going off at 5:30 am M-F. Why? Because sometimes I am scheduled to work starting at 7:30 am and I want more time to myself in the morning to do the things I want to do. My husband is a different story. He prefers the nights so he doesn’t go to bed until 12:00 or 1:00 in the morning.

I am still in the process of shaping my mornings. Things I enjoy doing include reading articles about current events – political, economics, tech, pretty much anything other than entertainment – enjoying my coffee at a slow pace, watching the sunrise, exercising, and watching my morning talk shows. Today I watched an inspirational video on Forbes that gave me the desire to write this. It’s 8:30 and I feel like I have conquered the day already.

You do have time. Now live your life.

–Chanel

My thoughts this fine Saturday morning. Beware, this post will have little to no flow to it and is a collection of random thoughts I want to share. ENJOY!

Thought One: I am learning Spanish now using Duolingo (free plug). I haven’t been using it everyday like I should, but regardless I am learning many words. My Spanish speaking friends are impressed with progress. I have 1507 XP in Spanish on the app. Eventually, I would like to take a formal class, become fluent, have employers pay me more for being bilingual.

Thought Two: I have taken up oil painting. Beware, I will be sharing photos of my art work. My studies right now are feathers or inspired by feathers. Why feathers? I don’t know. Maybe I thought they were easy? Whelp, they are certainly less difficult than say people, but …

Thought Three: I am having difficulty with my diet and exercise routine. My carbohydrate intake is much to high. My activity time is much too low. Yesterday, I managed to convince myself to do a few arm curls using the 5 lb weight and a few crunches. Though I was maintaining my weight loss for a few months, in the last month I have gain about 3 lbs back. It is not like I lost a ton of weight so this 3 lbs upsets me, but not enough to kick my butt into gear. **Humph** Let’s see if I can increase my efforts soon.

Thought Four: My entire life has been a struggle with self-accountability. Frequently, I have great ideas. Wonderful, large, grandiose ideas. Frequently, those ideas are never or hardly acted upon. To change this, I have started a self-accountability notebook.

My self-accountability notebook is simply a to-do list. Each page is a week’s to-do list. Walk an average of 1.25 miles a day. Complete chapter 16 of tax training. Pay the bills. Paint. Study Spanish. If I complete the task, it gets marked off with a purple market — my favorite color. When the week ends, any uncompleted items are marked off with a red marker and added to the next week.

Last week I was supposed to be finish with my basic tax training of my spring time job. I am a little more than half way complete this morning. I am hoping to complete it today, but I have several chapters still to go.

Thought Five: For the week starting October 15th, one of my goals is to be up everyday by 7 am. E.V.E.R.Y. D.A.Y. This week I have been doing pretty good about getting a head start on that. It helps that I need to take my dog out about 6 am and can get coffee after. Also, helps when I need to be at work by 7:30 am a couple days of the week. However, there were a few days that I could have slept in and did not. I am so proud of myself.

Thought Six: My coffee is gone. Should I get more coffee? I will have to think about it.

Thought Seven: Perhaps I should make diary like entries more often. I make them occasionally when I have thoughts I want to share, haven’t shared in quite a while, and don’t want to put forth the effort to make a more formal post about said thoughts. Everyday is much too frequent. Perhaps weekly? Hmmm… More things to think about.

 

HAVE A GREAT SATURDAY!