Draw your future
January 17, 2020
It is like making a children’s book for your dreams. My goal this time was to drink 8 glasses of 8oz of water. I drew water. Then I drew a person. Then I drew a person filled with water. I felt stupid and to be blunt, I thought it was a stupid page. Yes, I was part of the team that created the page. I did it with my goal anyways. Then I thought about other goals that I want to accomplish in my life. I drew those out also. I drew up a fantasy life that included a well organized house, kids who naturally want to pick up after themselves, avoidance of hurtful, sad experiences, and a concrete driveway. It was fun, even if it was a bunch of sticks and sloppy interpretations of a house. Then, after I drew this, I watched the TED talk that is in the journal. Yes, I understand that I should have watched it prior to this. but I didn’t. My team created that page and it wasn’t until I was doing the journal for myself. The TED talk makes sense. Draw your current reality. Draw it in black or some equally depressing color. Then draw out your future. The future that you want and dream about. The future where you own a houseboat, it doesn’t depreciate in value and you travel the world in it. The future where you are literally the abundance of positive energy and love and joy. The future where you at the top. Now, fill the picture with vibrant, energetic, emotion producing color. Then write out the steps that you need to take to get to where you are headed. After I did this, I became emotionally connected and attached to the vision. My vision is not to change the world. I know that is some people’s and I admire and respect that vision. Mine is to simply change my world. To affect those that I love and know. To reach out past myself and open myself up to vulnerable situations. It was put on my heart to make sure that people around me know that I care about them. We all have the same amount of time per day. There are sacrifices we all make, whether to our family, friends, career, or other parts of life. We must know ourselves well enough to really flush out what is important to us and follow that dream. Drawing our future connects us to that possibility. It lets us know what we imagine our lives could look like. When you add the color to the future side and leave the current reality side colorless, it puts the focus on the future self. I believe it helps organize the brain in a way that says “hey, that looks good, let’s go there” and start formulating the ways to get there. I am not an artist, to the point where my child’s kindergarten classmates can outdraw me. But this exercise really helped me emotionally connect to the future self that I want to be. It helped kick up my willpower and execution level to the ‘get it done’ intensity. I hope that drawing your future did the same for you.
Until the next time,
Heather
30 Ideas for Your 30 Day Goals
January 13, 2020
Let’s get started! Here are 30 simple and quick goals for your Start Here Challenger journal. We know there are infinite possibilities to choose from so picked our favorites.
1. No fast food
2. Exercising
3. No social media
4. No smoking
5. No unnatural sugar
6. No caffeine
7. Drinking 8 glasses of water
8. Read 30 minutes
9. 10,000 steps
10. No soda
11. No unnecessary shopping
12. Writing
13. Getting more organized
14. No alcohol
15. No TV
16. Spending more time with family
17. Running
18. Showing gratitude
19. Journaling
20. Practicing a new language
21. Promoting my business
22. Yoga
23. Complimenting someone
24. Speak to someone new
25. Learn something new
26. Do 30 sit ups
27. Waking up 30 minutes earlier
28. Tell someone I love you
29. Bicycling
30. Meditation
Until next time,
Heather
Tackling the Obstacles
Let’s look at some of the top obstacles that people have while trying to accomplish their goals.
Lack of motivation/procrastination
Lack of community
Comfortable living/doesn’t hurt enough to change
Not sure how to start goal
The resources are not available
Time
Ability or lack of training
Fear and hidden fear
The point is, we all face obstacles to achieving our goals. In our 30 day Challenger, we have a page asking you to identify your personal obstacles. It was difficult for me to identify the obstacle at first and I now think it was a self preservation thing. I didn’t want to admit to myself that the obstacles in my life have always been me. No matter where you are in life, no matter how busy, stressed, peer pressured, untrained you are, your goal will only be accomplished if you plan ahead for these obstacles. Are you too busy? Take the time to look at each hour of your day and see if there is any fluff. Are you stressed? Take some time to do some meditation, even if it’s 5 minutes. Are you feeling peer pressure? Really evaluate whether these relationships are helping you towards your future. Are you untrained? Use the internet to find classes or programs to teach you or rent books from the library on the subject (my personal favorite, especially as my local library has digital and audio book online rental, no need to leave the house!).
Fear and hidden fear are sometimes harder to identify as an obstacle. And if it’s not identified as an obstacle then you are unable to create a plan to defeat it. Ask yourself these questions:
Do I feel like I am unworthy of accomplishing this goal?
Do I spend time thinking that other people can accomplish this because they are smarter, brighter, more resources, more friends?
Do I give up easily when the goal starts to become challenging?
If ‘yes’ is your answer to these, then fear is at work within you. Fear is a universal emotion. We have fear as a biological response to keep us alive. But we no longer live in the wild and fear doesn’t know what to do with itself. So, it shows up in emotional and social settings. For some, it shows up because of trauma experience. For others, it was an idea, typically from another person. This obstacle may be harder to overcome. The biggest way to overcome this obstacle? Changing your mindset into a positive outlook. This may sound and seem ridiculous and impossible. But changing your mindset to consistently thinking “I can accomplish this goal, this is hard, but I will accomplish it” will overcome both fear and hidden fear’s powers.
The other powerful tool for obstacles is planning. We all know our personal distractions. We also know how to overcome them. Writing down our obstacles and creating a plan how overcoming creates a shift in your thinking.
Another way to tackle an obstacle is to envision the outcome. When we are aiming towards our goals and we start to get in the rut, our minds may get stuck in that rut. We start thinking about the negatives of the situation. We allow these thoughts and images to take hold. Envision yourself at the end of the goal. What does it look like to have accomplished this? What does it feel like? What does it smell like? What does it sound like? What does it taste like? Using all five of your senses, visualize this future ideal self can propel you towards that. The mind is a powerful organ. But ultimately, we control it.
Until the next time,
Heather
Unique Tool to Quit Smoking
I have to admit, this goal is a hard one to discuss. For the record, I believe that likely anything you smoke contains items that are introduced into your lungs and brain. Cigarettes have chemicals and additives and are manufactured specifically to attract your brain and get you wanting more. I personally smoked cigarettes at a half a pack a day beginning about age 12 and truly stopping when I turned 35 (with the exception of again trying it once at 36 and luckily getting sick enough to not want it). As of writing this, I am only 3 years out from stopping. I did stop once finding out I was pregnant (all 3 times), but would pick it back up again after I was done breastfeeding. As hard as this is to admit, I did pump and dump my breast milk with my first after smoking with friends. It is hard to admit because I knew better, but did it anyways. That’s how powerful cigarettes are. If this is your goal, please use the 30 Day Challenger as a tool to assist and help you quit. But also reach out to the other methods available to you. Seek consultation from your doctor for nicotine replacements if you need them. Seek loved ones, family, friends, co-workers who can support this goal. If you live in a state that provides Quit lines, use them. You will feel some physical withdrawal symptoms, but the worst is your mental withdrawal. You might have to change several routines in your life. When I would smoke, I would think “hey, this is where I go when I want to smoke. How come I’m not smoking? I need to find a smoke. Who is around that I can bum a smoke? It is just one. I will really quit tomorrow. I mean, seriously I WILL QUIT. I can beat this, I’ve done it before. I just feel really stressed/hungry/tired/sad/mad/happy. I don’t have to smoke, I am choosing to. I have control over it.” Those were the main thoughts, but there were other ones that were similar. If you are using the 30 Day Challenger, know that I am personally shouting out your victory over this addiction. I want you to succeed with this. I know this goal means your literal life. You are not alone and you are loved.
Until next time,
Heather
Write Out Your Day
We all have the same amount of time throughout our day. Twenty-four hours. Regardless of whether you are an early morning riser (the Lion) or experience your creativity during the twilight hours (the Wolf) or somewhere in between we can learn about ourselves by marking down your day. Take the page in our Start Here Challenger journal and write out what you did each hour. The first time I did this, I set an alarm so that I would remember to take the time to write one or two words down in that space. This does not need to be a detailed minute to minute event.
After you do this, what does your time look like? At the end of the day are you feeling overly stressed? Are you spending chunks of time without purpose? Do you see any space for improvement? Do you see any blocked time for self-care and reflection? Do you have quality time marked in?
Look at your time and remember; where it goes is ENTIRELY up to you. It may be that you have an end goal of monetary value that requires intense hustle and grind now to benefit later. It maybe that you feel negatively stuck and are spending time inside your own mind wishing for out. It maybe that you feel satisfied with the end of your day. There are so many different scenarios but they all end with one simple fact. Those hours are your life and how you are choosing to spend them.
When I first did this experiment, I was disappointed to find that I spend a lot of time imagining the ‘what if’. What if I made the other choice? What if my choice is wrong? What if I am on the wrong path? Instead of looking at where I can improve in different areas, I would get stuck in what was missing. Since then, I have found the Enneagram. This is a personality tool that can help you identify your motives and help you to acknowledge them and move past them. With this and Brendon Burchard’s high performance journal prompts I have learned to plan my day. I started out general- i.e. the morning I want to get these things done, etc- and have since learned to plan my day. I keep flexibility in mind and have open times for catch up and changes as needed.
What did you find out with your day?
Until the next time,
Heather