The Importance of Doing Something

You’ve heard me talk about setting goals. You’ve heard me talk about planning and the importance of sticking to that plan. What does all of this hinge upon? All of your goals and plans hinge upon one thing. Everything we hope to gain hinges upon the most important thing we have within us. The most valuable and important thing we have is our ability to do. That’s right, the most important thing we have is our ability to do. You can plan all day, think about something for weeks and relentlessly prepare, but there is one step that separates us from success: Doing it-Doing something.

If you don’t do it, you don’t reach your goal. If you don’t set a goal, you can’t reach a goal. If you don’t take action toward that same goal, you guessed it, not going to reach it. So what is the moral of the story? The moral of the story is to do it. Go out and do it. Do something. Try something, anything, just take action and you will be better off than you were beforehand.

There are a few sentences that I regularly hear from clients:
“I don’t know what to do or where to start.” And “I don’t know how to achieve that.”
I can help them weigh their options and find the best plan. I can encourage them to get started. The biggest step in the process is not taken by me though. It is taken you. When you decide to do it, you become the driver. I can help you navigate, but the wheel is in your hands.

“A goal without action is just a wish.” This is one of my favorite quotes. I use it in my life and I try to help others understand it too. If you live with this in mind, it is easy to take action. It is easy to do when you can think of the alternative and know that it will not help you reach your goal. Think about it: Where am I now? What happens if I don’t do anything? Nothing happens and you stay where you are. The scary part about this when talking about health is that we don’t stay anywhere. If we don’t maintain a certain lifestyle, our health actually declines and things get worse.

So why isn’t this situation more urgent? Why don’t we just do something to bring ourselves closer to what we want? Why don’t we seek ideal health and happiness? I think it’s because it is hard to do. Doing is more difficult than not doing. It is easier for us to think about something and see it as a long shot or even promise to do it in the future. The challenging part is to do something about it.

You don’t have to do it all at once. This is the biggest hurdle. We see a series of issues that have accumulated over a period of years. We think to ourselves, “I want to change now”, and we realize that there are many changes to make in order to improve our current situation. What we don’t realize is that we don’t have to do everything now. If you take one step today, even if you can take another step in a week or a month and you will be further along than you are today.

If you want to make a change: Do it. Do something. Start. Take action. Take a step. You know where you will get if you don’t do it: Nowhere. Wouldn’t it actually be easier to take a small step and see what happens? What’s the worst than can happen? It can’t be worse than not trying.

Harmony

When we hear a beautiful song or see another perfectly executed art-form, it is easy to see what harmony does for us. We truly appreciate it. Harmony is what we strive for in business, family and really all other areas of life. With all of our training, preparation, reviews, quality control and even conversations, we are working toward what we really want…harmony.

So, as we strive for harmony in each of these areas, we still miss out on the real harmony. While we work tirelessly to create harmony in each area of our lives, we miss the big picture. The harmony between ALL of these areas is what we are really after. The harmony in life as a whole, not just in each part of our lives is what will actually bring us to the point we need to be.

It is not enough to achieve harmony in one area of life, but not another. We need to achieve it in all areas. Once we do that, we will be happy, healthy and living the lives we want to be living.

Follow-up to my weekly routine

As I said before, I didn’t share this with you to show how healthy I am to convince you to do my routine. You have to put together YOUR routine. In fact, I didn’t go into much detail on my specific routine for that very reason. If you are doing mine, or I am doing yours for that matter, it’s not going to be as effective. The key points that I wanted to get across with this are:

1. Plan: figure out what you want to do, create a plan and stick with it. If the plan is not working, change it.

2. Take it one day at a time: no one can accomplish a week in a day, so why do we think that we can ruin a week with a just one day? If Monday isn’t want you wanted it to be, you will always have Tuesday to change the direction of your week.

I hope this makes sense and is helpful to see. Although I have been in this routine for a while, I still reevaluate the goals and specifics so that I know I am truly accomplishing what I want to accomplish. I think that is the most important part, which is why I wanted to share the mindset and my thought process as I go through a week. If you don’t think about what you are doing, it is difficult to stay on track.

Send me your mindset, strategy and other routine factors. I'd love to hear what keeps you going!

Health Head-scratcher #1

Over the years, I have noticed some funny situations around fitness and nutrition. We as people, have some habits that are deeply ingrained. These habits can cause a comical situation when put into the context of our routine.

Have you ever seen the busy parking lot scene at a large health club? It is a lot like the mall or grocery store. Most of the spots are taken and there are many cars circling. As people leave, others will line up behind them to get into the closer spot before someone else gets it. This isn’t funny by itself. It makes perfect sense to try and park as close to the door as possible. What makes it funny is the fact that you are going into a building to exercise. If there ever were a time when parking further away would make sense, it would be now. You are at the gym to work out, wouldn’t a brisk walk help you use your time more efficiently?

Seen any head-scratchers of your own? Tell us about them!

Weekly Game Plan

Everyone has goals. Everyone has things that make it challenging to reach those goals. As you go through your routine, you may have certain techniques to help you succeed. If you have succeeded in the past, you have done something that you can remember and keep going back to. I have decided to lay out my techniques. I wanted to share this with you, not because I am “Mr. Health” or because I think that you should do what I do. The key point to any goal is to have a plan. You will see the rest of my message when you look at the game plan that gets me through my routine, to and beyond my goals.

Below is my 7-day plan:

Monday
Focus: It is the start of the week, so get off to a good start to set the tone for the rest of the week
Goal: Go to the gym in the morning (lifting/circuits/cardio), summer: sand volleyball in evenings too
Mindset: This is the first appointment on my calendar. It is for me, with me and will help me wake up (my coffee!) for the day. Yes, it is Monday, but the rest of the days in the week are not going to be here until Monday is done. The week does not compound on itself unless we let ourselves try to take it all on at once. One appointment and one task at a time. First appointment of the week: me and the gym

Tuesday
Focus: Keep the momentum going from the start of the week. If I have I have a successful Tuesday, now my work-week is 40% accomplished and I’m clearly on the right track.
Goal: Go running with my dogs in the morning
Mindset: Again, this is the first appointment on my calendar. Actually it is the first appointment on my Foxhound’s calendar too. Nellie has two things on her calendar: morning run and eating). You’ve heard the advantages of a workout buddy. I have two of them, Nellie and Rex.
Mindset: One day is a start, two days is the beginning of a trend. I know that once Tuesday is locked in, the week is going in the right direction. Now I’m 40% of the way to my work-week goal

Wednesday
Focus: It is hump day. I am now on that notorious hump that we all want to get over. Today the battle is to get up and go.
Goal: Go to the gym in the morning (lifting/circuits/cardio)
Mindset: the first two days of the week took a lot out of me, so now it is time to release some of the tension. Much of Monday and Tuesday were spend meeting other people’s needs, so now the best way for me to start the day is to focus on me. Again, the first appointment is the best way for me to do that. It is the only time of day that is mine and stays mine.

Thursday
Focus: I’m on the downward slope of the mountain and I know what got me here. It is usually a little easier to get up because I know there are only two days left in the week. Plus, Nellie somehow knows that it is a running day again and she is ready to go.
Goal: Go running with my dogs in the morning
Mindset: the distance varies quite a bit on this day because the week has often taken it’s toll on me my Thursday morning. The conversation that I have with myself is how long or how fast I go, not if I go or not. By keeping the focus on what I need to push myself without going overboard, rather than “do I want to go or not” my run remains imbedded in my routine and stays on my calendar.

Friday
Focus: Finish the week strong. I started off on the right foot, kept it going all week, now why wouldn’t I finish that way?
Goal: Go to gym in the morning (group class and/or lifting/circuits/cardio)
Mindset: You may have noticed the class as an option for Friday mornings. This helps me keep my physical routine going, while giving my brain a rest. As the week goes on, a great deal of my energy is expended thinking, solving problems as well as working from sun up to sundown. On Friday mornings it is a nice reward for me to have someone telling me what to do. All I have to do is follow instructions and keep moving and I know that my Friday will be off to the energetic start that I need.

Saturday
Focus: What a great week! I accomplished my workout goals and can reflect on them as well as the rest of the goals that I had set for the week.
Goal: Do something healthy and rewarding for myself (run, bike, just relax, connect with family and friends, etc.)
Mindset: because I did something every day during the week and my goal is to do the same next week, I want to leave myself some le-way so that I don’t burn out. Today, I will do something that is good for me, but I don’t know what time or what activity. Sometimes it’s inactivity that I need on Saturdays. I earned it.

Sunday
Focus: I really enjoyed Saturday and I want to not only wrap up the weekend with a good feeling, but I want to start next week off on the right track as well.
Goal: prep for week, do something healthy and rewarding for myself (same options)
Winter- hockey in evening as well
Mindset: Keep focused on how good I feel when I do what my body and mind needs me to do. The physical exertion keeps me energized and strong enough to handle the next task, while the mental focus and relaxation helps me appreciate both aspects and keeps me balanced.

Monday
Back at it…let’s make it an even better week than the last!

Awareness

What did you eat yesterday? How far did you walk? These questions seem simple, but many of us don’t know the answer without really thinking about it. Why is this the norm for us? Well, we have a lot to do on a day to day basis and it is often a challenge to keep these things in the front of our minds. Work, errands and other tasks have become more important to us then what we do to maintain our health. Our minds and bodies have become afterthoughts and it is normal to go days, months, even years without consciously focusing on the way we treat ourselves.

Normal doesn’t mean good. In this case, normal doesn’t even mean ok. This is actually a real problem for us both as individuals and as a society. In this case, normal needs to change. We need to put our health higher on the list of priorities. You’ve heard me talk about this before and you will definitely hear me talk about it again. I think this is the more important thing we can do for ourselves and our families.

Awareness is the key. All we have to do is pay attention. You can try the next trend, new craze or take an old-school approach. You can seek professional help or go it alone, but the key component is increasing your awareness. Every day we do things out of habit that impact our lives significantly. One minute of eating can add enough calories to your day to cause weight gain.

One minute of planning can also prevent this from happening. That’s right, it goes both ways. By being aware of what you want to do, you are able to start making decisions. These decisions will likely be healthy decisions because they are in line with your goals. If you don’t have goals, you will have a tough time deciding what to do. So, set a goal and notice how your choices start to match the path you need to be on to reach that goal.

And that is what awareness can do for you. Just thinking about your health, you can positively impact it. You are in control. If you are driving a car your awareness as a driver keeps your hands on the wheel to make sure you stay on the road. Take the wheel in your life, pay attention and you will be on the road to good health.

A Good Way to Look at Stress Management

Dealing with stress can be a challenge. I recently heard someone describe stress in an interesting way. The description below is good advice, so I wanted to share it with you. A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience raised a glass of water and asked:

'How heavy is this glass of water?' Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it.

If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.

If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.

If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.

In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.', and that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on.

As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.' So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow.

Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can.' So, put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.

This is a refreshing look at stress, and more importantly, at the management of stress. We often think that what we are doing is “life or death”. At the time it may feel like it. Someone may even tell us that what we are doing is “life or death”. This scenario reminded me that no matter what you are doing, you can manage. You can take a break, a deep breath, or just a minute to regroup. In fact, we are learning that if we don’t, things can compound and become even more serious.

Health Care Reform Needs to Start with Your Own Health

Health care is becoming a very popular topic. It is on the top of the list at the national conventions as we near the presidential election. Congress, state and local government officials are in discussion. It is on the minds of millions of Americans as we see costs continue to rise. We’ve heard countless ideas and options for reforming the system. We’ve heard about a universal plan that would automatically provide health care for every citizen. We’ve heard of employers being required to provide health insurance to workers and family members.

No matter what you feel is the best plan, we all agree that something needs to be done. We may not have the new plan calculated and ready to roll out, but we all know that reform is coming. But what will reform do for us? That is a great question.

The answer, if we continue life the way we have been living it for the past 20 years, is nothing. That’s right, health care reform will do nothing for us if we continue our current lifestyle. As a nation, we have used more and more medical services, become more dependent on drugs and we’ve become more and more out of touch with our health care.

What compounds these issues (or causes them, depending on your position) is the fact that we are so out of touch with our own health. We don’t take the responsibility to do what we know will help us. We don’t take responsibility for the condition that we are in. In fact, we don’t want to take responsibility for the money we spend to fix these conditions that we have brought upon ourselves. We want to pay for the easy method and take medication to “solve” our problems, but want someone to change the system so it doesn’t cost so much.

Well, they are working on it. They are trying to reform the system so we can all have what we are “entitled” to have. We all deserve health coverage. We all deserve the best care possible. I completely agree with those statements. What I don’t agree with is the fact that we have an entire system devoted to saving people from themselves. The whole system is designed to provide care for illness and injury. What we have done to ourselves has overloaded the system and turned it into something else.

We call it health care. It should be called sick care. We are getting sick because we refuse to take care of ourselves and the system says “ok, here is your surgery, here is your prescription and here is your new title for you to identify yourself by so you don’t feel self-conscious or responsible for your actions”. We ignore the fact that these cures are more expensive (and much more dangerous) that simply preventing conditions in the first place. We’ve all heard the phrase: “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. It’s true. That is the most frustrating part of it all. Diabetes, Obesity, Depression and even many cancer cases are preventable. We chose the behaviors that brought these conditions on.

To conclude my thoughts on sick…or health care, I will ask you this: How will you reform your health? The government can work day and night to fix the system. We can argue over what we are entitled to or not. The bottom line is, if we don’t take care of ourselves, the system will never be able to save us. In fact, the system itself will always appear to be broken until we fix ourselves.

At Byrd Wellness Concepts, we help people change those behaviors. I don’t point a finger and scold you for your current state. I work with you to find the future state that you desire. What goals do you have to reach to start living the life you want to be living? That is what we work on, together. It is all about your goals, your health and your happiness.