Tag Archives: inspiration

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Keep On Going!

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Determination-gives-you I guess you could say that the title of today’s post is a variation of “Never give up” but I look at it (and experienced it) a bit differently. To me “Never Give Up” has to do with long term goals and processes. My simple statement of “Keep on going” is meant to be a short term mantra or way of living. In ultrarunning we call it “Relentless Forward Motion” – for me that simply meant one foot in front of the other.

Yesterday’s run made me come up with this “keep on going” philosophy again (I’m sure we have all heard this many times in our lives). I went out for an early morning run before work. My shins were not feeling great so I was discouraged again (they get better with AIRROSTI and then I abuse them again and they hurt). But I was out there early and decided just to go a “bit further”. First I told myself I would go about a mile and a half. But by the time I got there I was feeling better so I said “ok, we’ll go to 2 miles”. Then it was 2.5 miles and finally I said “you have just enough time to make it to 3 miles before you have to turn around to make it home to get ready for work. So I persisted. And you know what? It was the very best run I’ve had in months – I felt free and happy and unencumbered. In fact, I have been enjoying running just for running’s sake lately that I am reconsidering going to New York in November. We’ll see.

But I digress. What’s important is that if I had aborted that run yesterday a.m. I would NOT have been able to experience the euphoria I felt. Maybe that’s the “runner’s high” that I never really experience. Maybe it was just the feeling of freedom and the night. All I know is that I learned simply to “keep on going” and see what happens.

Try it – when things don’t seem great, just keep going and see what happens. You may be pleasantly surprised like I was.

This is short today because, you guessed it – I’m out the door on another run!

Terrie

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PN (Post Nyad) Day 2 – What Did You Do Differently Yesterday?

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joshbillings130930_m-resizedThis could be “PN” or “PD” (post Nyad or post Diana) – it doesn’t really matter. I just want to continue reminding you that your dreams are yours. As one reader commented though, they don’t all have to be physical. Diana Nyad’s achievement was not so much about endurance swimming as it was about the human spirit and she knows that and has tried to get that message across to all of us with her “three messages” and “Find a Way”.

So look at your day and do something different to get you going in a different direction. “That’s easy” you say – well, it’s not so easy. We are creatures of habit and that’s a safety measure built into our survival mechanism. We have to make a conscious effort to change things up. So pick one small thing to change and then do it. From my own experience I recommend you have alternative “changes” – all of which are small. Why? Because one might not pan out and if you have other options to pick from then you are more likely to actually do something instead of staying in the same rut and then spending the rest of the day or night chastising yourself for not doing it. We create more energy and “action” by criticizing ourselves for failure instead of looking at the situation and “Finding a Way”.

I’ll give you an example from yesterday for me. I decided to change up what I did when I came home. I planned on coming home and going for a run before my coaching call instead of just going to the grocery store to get One Stands Holding Change, Others Crusheddinner, coming home, eating it while reading, doing the call etc.

But as I was driving home, the same old pattern took hold and although I debated with myself with all sorts of “excuses” (it’s too hot, I’ll do it later etc), I ended up going to the grocery store first. So I “failed”, right? Not at all. First, I had thought about the habit/pattern and decided to make a change – that was definitely a different action/reaction than before. I was not operating as an automaton.

Then I “debated” which action I was going to take and why. Sure, most of the “whys” were excuses, not reasons …but – the key here is that I was thinking about it. Then I chose to NOT beat up on myself for not doing that ONE thing I had planned. I immediately looked for a different “change” to make (it would have been better had I come up with that option/alternative in the morning so I had some to fall back on but I didn’t and I learned from it).

So what did I do? I went and got dinner. But instead of eating it reading and watching TV, I ate it while sitting at my computer (instead of the recliner) going through and cleaning out my email. Was this the best course of action. Probably not – people will say I wasn’t “present” for my meal because I was multi-tasking and others will say it was still a waste of time. I disagree. All I know is that I felt good because I had done something different and had consciously thought about it. It was such a tiny little thing that would not be noticed by others. But my subconscious being sure noticed it and in this case it felt good – most likely there was no bad reaction from within because it was such a tiny change. You can’t make major changes right away. You have to work your way up to things.

Today’s action – take a look at your daily life  and routine and see what one tiny thing you can change that has to do with your dream. If you aren’t sure, yet, what your dream is, then just change something. See how it feels. Then keep going. Decide in the a.m. what you’re going to change. Then write in your gratitude journal (also can be called your success journal) about what happened. See how you feel and go from there.

Let us know what happened.

ONWARD – Find A Way!

Terrie

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Diana Nyad – Post Achievement – Ok, Folks What Are You Doing Today?

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Find.A.Way1-resized Don’t let this happen to you – we get all excited about someone’s achievement and talk about how they have “inspired” us to take action etc etc etc.

But the next day, what happens? You think about it (or not) and probably go right back to your old way of living.

Today is the day to make a change. To make a decision. Today (if you didn’t do it yesterday) you write a commitment to yourself about what you vow to do to follow a dream. Even if you don’t think you have a dream, take today to dig deep and write down all the things you’d like to do and have wanted to do since you were a little kid.  DO SOMETHING and DECIDE SOMETHING! Don’t wait for another great human interest story to get you all fired up – for a few hours or days. Do this now. Then use my Define and Conquer 2013 program to help you “Find a Way” (Diana Nyad 2 September 2013).

You cannot just sit on your butt and expect that your dream will be brought to you because you wished so hard. You have to do the work. But if you decide to follow it and you aim high and continually refocus and regroup, you WILL achieve your dream.follow dreams

There will be naysayers out there that will say Diana Nyad had it easy this year because the weather was good and there were no sharks and no jellyfish. Easy? Try enduring all she’s endured for the last 3 years with a near death experience last year, the disappointment and discouragement and the picking herself back up and looking at all possibilities and all avenues to find a way to combat those threats. I believe that Mother Nature said “ok, I know you’ve prepared and persevered so we will not throw much more in your way.” But ladies and gentlemen – she still had to do the swim. She still had to swim in the ocean for 110 miles, 53 hours never touching anything solid, not being able to rest her body and not sleep at all. And she’s 64. So don’t anyone say she had it easy.

You really can find a way. I will be on you about this all week until I feel you have either decided to do something or have really gone back into your habit hole (not rabbit but habit).

Let us know what you have decided to do!

Terrie