Tag Archives: Just do it

If Not Now… Then When?

If not now… then when?

what?

What should we spend our time on? If we don’t answer that question actively, we’ll go the way of our bodily inclinations. We might end up eating something or watch a meaningless TV program. If we don’t illuminate Now via the torchlight of our ‘Life Purpose’ we might just squander the power of the current moment…

just do it

If we already know what’s important to us and we also know that we shouldn’t be resting our mind or body, then the next steps can be clear…

Taking one step fuels the next, there’s magic in movement and in action. Interestingly, a still mind can be useful in helping us be active in other aspects of life. Life is like that. Apparently contradictory, a never-ending maze that satisfies when engaged and an endless adventure-filled odyssey…

Daily Affirmation: Today I AM action personified! 

Recommendation: Do It! Let’s Get Off Our Buts by Peter McWilliams

Do It! Let's Get Off Our ButsKindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6

Why Is It So Hard?

Everybody wants to get enlightened but nobody wants to change.Andrew Cohen

seeking…

We’re seekers. We seek after peace, contentment, enlightenment, something deeper, ‘the way’, escape, we can call it what we will… We’re all seeking something that’s beyond where and what we are… Perhaps that’s by design?

To get beyond where we are, change is required. Change of mind, of attitude and of perception.

change is hard

There’s something called the ‘ego’, that comes in the way of our efforts to change. We think we don’t need to change. We think others need to change. We think we’re already making enough of the changes necessary. The ego convinces us that it’s better to be safe and certain than to take risky action. We comply and therefore we change not because we venture not. All this while, because we don’t change, we suffer, people around us suffer and the world loses on the potentiality of another eternal soul!

Daily Affirmation: Today I AM fearless!

Recommendation: Change Anything by Kerry Patterson

Change Anything: The New Science of Personal SuccessKindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6

How To Manifest What We Need…

Manifestation is an act of trust. It is the soul pouring itself out into its world, like a fisherman casting a net to gather in the fish he seeks; with each cast properly made, we will bring what we need to us, but first we must hurl ourselves into the depths without knowing just what lies beneath us.David Spangler

need

We’ve heard this before. What we want may not be what we need. The aim of all life is beyond what we see and experience today. The aim of life is spiritual and god-ward. What we need right now is often not known to us. It’s known to a deeper part of self. That center is ever available and can be accessed readily by simply asking. It is Law that when we ask, the Universe must respond.

manifesting

To manifest we must trust. Trust what? Trust that we’re children of the infinite with creative attributes similar to our parent. We must not second guess or mistrust life. We must feel safe in this playground where we find ourselves. We must play and not care about failure. We must day-dream, i.e. visualize what me most need. And then we must take itty bitty steps towards the goals that are most dear. Success then, is guaranteed. Success even when the goal itself isn’t realized the way we imagined it….

Daily Affirmation: Today I AM trusting life.

Recommendation: The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander

The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal LifeKindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6

BeZenDo Revisited!

Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.Keri Russell

the art & science of change!

We’ve covered a lot to ideas and techniques during this whole change series! The entire list is provided below…

There is a science we must follow as well as an art that ought to be considered whenever we want to change. I’ve attempted to share just that with you. Sometimes all we need to do is just decide to change!

Are you ready to make that change!?

1. How Do I Fix It?: Started with the question on how can one change permanently?


2. Be Zen Do!: The guiding principle…


3. What Needs To Change?: What must change?


4. How To Become More Aware: Becoming more aware…


5. Making Time For The Important Stuff!: Need to make time for all this change stuff!


6. What’s Our ‘Immunity To Change’?: How we live undiscovered assumptions


7. How To Lose Weight!: Using several ‘influencers’ to change…


8. How To Cement Change…: How meditation fits in…


9. How to Affirm Our Way To Change: Why affirmations are essential!


10. How And Why Visualization Works: Why Visualization is an indispensable tool!


11. How To Program Self…: Ways to further succeed in our change efforts!


12. Three Minds And A Habit: Why we must involve our complete being when attempting to change…

 

be~zen~do revisited

This guiding principle is an easy to remember mantra and here I’ve listed the essential elements that make up Be Zen Do!


Be –> Vision|Become aware of self and goals|Awareness


Be <—> Do Preparation|Understand what needs to change and how|Transformation


Do <—> Be Creation|Evaluate what was done and its impact|Action


 

Daily Affirmation: Today I AM my own master.

Recommendation: Living the Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes

Living the Science of MindKindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6

The Three Minds And A Habit!

God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it’s me. – Change Quotes 

the 3 minds

There’s the rational mind, the emotional mind and in this categorization the higher or spiritual mind. Unless all 3 are involved in our change efforts, change or success will be hard to reach.

  • Rational Mind: It must make logical sense for us to pursue a change goal. It could be better health that draws us towards an exercise goal and we then see how it can benefit us in the long run.
  • Emotional Mind: We must be passionate about the change we want to see in our lives. Without such emotional involvement the goal won’t mean much, but if we have meaning attached to our purpose then very little stands between us and our goals!
  • Higher Mind: We must have a higher purpose. Without a lofty goal that takes us beyond our routine life, change will be hard. If our change goal is tied to our ‘Life Purpose’ then movement towards such a goal will be swift!

Success is guaranteed when the 3 minds work in tandem towards a goal that unifies our entire personality, our logical mind, our emotions and our highest leanings!

the personal success rhythm

As we embark on a change journey we need a rhythm, a  personal success habit. The tips given in a previous change blog, Making Time For The Important Stuff can be used to to create such a daily success rhythm. Once we have that rhythm going, success will become just another habit. It’s an established fact that any habit takes about 4 weeks to become one. Let’s attempt to do daily that for which we want to create new neuron pathways! Can we make a pledge today to establish such a rhythm?

Daily Affirmation: Today I AM unified!

Recommendation: Excuses Begone!: How to Change…by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking HabitsKindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6

How To Lose Weight!

Keep a pit bull in the kitchen!Other weight-loss Funnies Here…

influences…

This series continues, the last blog on this was: What’s Our ‘Immunity To Change’?.

According to Kerry Patterson, who’s written other classics like Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, it’s six sources of influence that impact us even when don’t know it. And because we don’t know how they are impacting us on a constant basis, we’re unable to make changes that we desire. These sources of influence overrule sheer will-power all the time, which is why most of our New Year Resolutions languish soon enough!

Here they are, there are 3 ways we’re motivated and 3 areas in which we must learn the skills appropriately. I’ve listed some detail below to illustrate the example of wanting to exercise for better health and lose weight:

Influence Matrix Motivation Skill
Personal Do we have the right personal motivation to approach any change? How do we improve our motivation? If it’s exercise how do we motivate ourselves to want to exercise and actually enjoy it? Do we know what kind of exercise to undertake so as to get the biggest bang for our time? Interval Training for example is far more effective than just running or doing anything else. Unless we know what works we won’t be successful in our effort to want to keep exercising.
Social Who’s motivating or demotivating us? Is a friend or spouse holding us accountable for our exercise goals? Are they contributing or are they derailing our efforts? What specific skills can we use to take advantage of our social network?
Structural What happens if you have to pay $10 to a charity you hate for each exercise session that you miss? Or for each dessert we can’t say no to? What around us, for example the right or wrong kind of foods, is helping or hurting our motivation to exercise and therefore lose weight?

the steps

Once we understand and know how to leverage these ‘influences’ we can follow these steps to ‘Change Anything’:

  1. Identify Crucial Moments: Under what conditions and circumstances are we tempted most not to exercise and to eat foods that we shouldn’t? Understanding these is crucial to our success.
  2. Create Vital Behaviors: These are proven behaviors that work under trying circumstances. We must decide on these behaviors before temptation hits.
  3. Engage all 6 sources of Influence: As above, have a plan and follow it.
  4. Turn Bad Days Into Good Data: Each human is unique and any approach that we build is subject to improvement. When we fail in our efforts, let’s use that information to improve our plan and re-apply!

Daily Affirmation: Today I AM a change master!

Recommendation: Change Anything by Kerry Patterson

Change Anything: The New Science of Personal SuccessKindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6

Making Time For The Important Stuff!

If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.Bruce Lee

what next?

So far on this journey we’ve covered the following topics:

  1. How Do I Fix It?
  2. Be Zen Do!
  3. What Needs To Change?
  4. How To Become More Aware

Change is easy when we know how to attempt it. Will-power alone doesn’t cut it. We need a guiding philosophy such as be~zen~do and then we need to know what must change. Increasing self awareness is the essential tool to that end.

Next we face two issues:

  • How to make time to effect change in our lives? And…
  • How to actually effect change, i.e. have the motivation and the skills to do it?

making time

Change is difficult, we often have wonderful excuses, conscious and unconscious ones that thwart our attempts to change. Once we know how to make time we’ll figure out why it’s so hard to change in the first place!

Once we know what we’re going to change, we’ll need to make time in our daily busy life. How do we do that? The way to do that is by streamlining all our daily tasks. If we can be organized about the rest of our life, we’ll make enough time during the day to spend on more worthwhile activities such as step 4 above…

Here’s a basic system that can be applied to our ‘worldly’ tasks! Divide all your work into 3 major projects:

  • Have 3 projects. Must finish each project in less than 3-6 months. In this system you shouldn’t start a 4th project even if 1 or 2 are done; all 3 must be done before you pick the next 3.
  • Make steady progress on each project by breaking down the projects into a series of steps and working on them weekly and possibly daily.
  • Simplify each step into one or more tasks.
  • Select at least 3 HITs (High Impact Tasks) each morning. At least one or 2 of these HITs should be related to your 3 current projects.
  • Complete these 3 HITs early morning. Do not check email!
  • Now work on your routine tasks. Try to batch them into time slots by context.
  • Have a process to capture all incoming information and resulting tasks.
  • Must mono-task, no multi-tasking
  • Have a fixed time during the day for
    • Email
    • Internet
  • Do a weekly review, get back on track and plan your next week.

Daily Affirmation: Today I AM on track!

Recommendation: Getting Things Done by David Allen

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free ProductivityKindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6