A Boomer's Footprint

Category: Live Life Blog

  • 2013 progress review

    Two more weeks until we have completed a full year of setting goals, adopting new habits, creating more positive thinking, overcoming obstacles and especially making our dreams come true.

    This week, let’s review our progress.

    I know I did not succeed in achieving all of my goals, but there is one I am most proud of.

    My background is in finance and math. For me to commit to a writing program was a Hugh challenge.

    For months, I struggled with writing this blog every week. But I am proud to say, that of the 52 weeks, I wrote for 49 of them.
    That is a big WOW. I am happy. I feel like a more confident writer and gained so much personal knowledge as I read and studied about how to CHANGE. Because this is what it takes to achieve new goals and dreams.

    This week’s process works best with your journal. Go back through your notes. What did you try? What worked? What did not? What did you learn? What can you improve?

    What lessons will you keep working on? What goal did not give you the result you were looking for?

    Don’t worry if you do not give yourself high marks? Change is a life long journey. Even when we achieve our dreams, it is time to commit to new ones.

    Make this exercise count. It is the basis for future.

  • Temptations

    We are in the home stretch – ending another year – 2013.

    For many of us, these are difficult last few weeks in the year. The pressure of shopping, entertaining, house cleaning, traveling, visiting, not to mention the agony of getting every gift just right.

    Now is not the time to also give into temptations. The temptation of overindulging in food and drink, and the mistake of overspending our budget.

    Now is the time to step up and just say “NO” to excesses by sticking to achieving our goals, and staying committed to living our dreams.

    Let’s schedule extra time in our calendars to focus on our priorities – creating new habits, improving our physical and financial health, reorganizing our messes, repairing relationships – whatever our goals have been.

    Let’s keep progressing and end the year strong so we can begin anew in 2014 proud of our accomplishments and successes.

  • New habit review

    We began our new habit after the Oct 24th blog, over 40 days ago. How is the progress?

    If you stuck to your plan for at least half of those days you should congratulate your self. Now you may think, I am not giving you much credit but we must realize that change is hard. At least you should have learned whether this is a correct habit for you at this time of your life.

    So even if, for example, getting a new job was your goal but you just learned of a medical condition which requires a treatment plan, perhaps the stability of a routine, a sure paycheck and medical benefits became a more important priority for now.

    This tells us we are not always right the first time around when choosing a goal and also, things come up with may take precedence in life.

    But what can we learn from our 15 or so days of a practicing a new habit:

    -1- we discovered what time of day for our action works best in our schedules.

    -2- we discovered if we have the tools and skills needed to adopt a new habit.

    -3- we discovered if we earned any benefit from adopting this new habit.

    -4- we did take “some” action

    -5- we did not give up after missing some day of action

    -6- only we know if you gave accomplishing the goal our best effort and life got in the way.

    Going forward we must determine if we made the right choice for this new habit. If yes, continue with the plan with a few tweaks, if necessary. If no, choose a new goal and get started.

    You can review the Oct 24th blog post – 8 steps to create a new habit.

  • Delegating

    We are born with specific talents and passions. We also develop skills from our education, circumstances, and opportunities. These are the things we should develop and nurture.Every thing is not for everyone.

    Sometimes when we may find ourselves procrastinating about completing a task, it may be one does not use our talents or abilities.

    This may be an excellent time to consider delegating the task to leave more time for us to enjoy doing things which do best.

    Delegation is asking another to complete all of part of a task.

    At first, this may be easier said than done. We may worry about letting go.

    Some reasons why we may not be comfortable delegating are:

    -1- We are afraid of losing control. “Nobody can do this task as well as I can or the way I want it done.”

    -2- We must ask for help. We are used to doing everything ourselves. We may be afraid to be turned down.

    -3- Fear of being incompetent. We do better focusing on what we enjoy and do best, than struggling with tasks we are just not good at. We may think we are weak.

    -4- The cost. There are several ways to have help which does not include cash payments – such as trade, ask a family member, ask an employee.

    Next time we find ourselves stuck with completing a task, consider who you may ask to help us or do it for us.

  • Priorities

    Life is a busy, complicated assortment of commitments, to-do lists, chores, endless emails, facebook and maintaining relationships and expectations from ourselves, bosses, customers, clients, suppliers, friends and loved ones.

    No wonder we go to bed exhausted, sleep fitfully and wake up un-rested.

    We can become first responders to anything, which comes up in the moment. We stop what we are doing and give this new
    thing our full attention.

    As a personal opinion – this is why the new cell phones are so distracting. Does yours ping every time you get an incoming message? Do you stop whatever you are doing and react?

    Regardless of our present situation, we can make changes to create the lifestyle we desire and deserve. We are on a path to make a big change in our lives as we choose to fulfill a passion or solve a problem. So let’s do all we can to make it happen.

    An important technique we can use is to set our priorities each and every day. As we review our dreams and goals, we must choose the most important task and make it our first priority for the day. A priority that regardless of what else we accomplish at work and at home, we get this one item finished.

    We already have priorities in our life – some of them are our daily habits – our routines, others are chosen for us –work schedule, family commitments and schedules.

    Now we can also choose the priorities we need to achieve our goals.

    To get started:

    1. conscientiously set the priorities – enter it into your schedule
    2. keep them simple – take small, consistent steps
    3. live the priority – tackle the priority with joy and happiness.

    Remember, we are choosing this priority so find the pleasure in doing it.

  • Staying motivated

    Becoming very clear on our motivation when making a big change in our lives is an important step to achieve success.

    The are five key elements to staying motivated:

    (1) benefits – write out a long list of what you will achieve, or what you life will be like when you reach your goals. Be specific and detailed. This is a great time to use your vision board.

    (2) mistakes are okay – we are not perfect. Change take determination and courage. But don’t let one small miss derail your goals and dreams.
    Look at mistakes as lessons learned. Maybe we have to change a method or approach to achieving a goal. For instance, if you know you do not have extra time in your morning routine, don’t try to add even 10 minutes
    to this time period.

    (3) attitude – stay positive. You can achieve any and all of your dreams. The universe looks for ways to fulfill you dreams as long as we adopt the right thoughts and beliefs.

    (4) don’t give up – change can take a long time and can be challenging. Remember is at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

    (5) Reward yourself – This technique can really work. For each and every small step of progress, recognize your effort and treat yourself to a reward. Choose something meaningful – this does not include a big ice cream cone when you are trying to loose weight, instead save up for a healthy massage.

    Keep at it!

  • Committing to our new habit

    Why is it so easy to follow a bad habit and yet so difficult to create new good ones?

    I don’t mean our daily habits – such as wake up time, work day start, or walking the dog.

    I mean making the wrong choices – overeating, choosing the wrong food, drinking, watching too much TV, skipping the gym, etc.

    Our commitment and attitude are so important as we strive to improve a part of our lives.

    Reviewing our goal every day is essential. Remember the saying – out of sight, out of mind.

    This is very true in this instance. We must keep reminding ourselves of our goals.

    WHAT do we want to change.
    WHY do we want to make the change.
    WHEN will we achieve our goal.

    If you haven’t written down your goals and placed them in a prominent place, get it done.

    We must keep focused on our goals every day.

    One simple technique I use to create a new habit, I call “just this one time”

    Some say habits take 28 days to become ingrained. But I find. I hit the wall about 21 days and can easily give up.

    So I remind myself of the saying “just this one time”. It then is a time by time choice. I am not thinking about the next 28-30 days but just what choices I make today.

    This is especially true with my food choices. When available, I know I always order the french fries. Once I began saying “just this one time”, it was so much easier than thinking I can not eat fries again.

    Try this approach when you are too tempted to skip a workout, ignore a task, reach for that extra glass of wine or choose the wrong foods.

  • 8 steps to create a new habit

    8 Sure fire ways to create a new habit:

    Are you determined to make this change in your life? The funny thing is that the word DETERMINED is what it takes to be successful.

    You must commit from your heart that you want to succeed. Some changes may require you to form a new habit.

    Our days are run by our habits – the time we wake up in the morning, the order we put on our socks and shoes, our regular driving routes,how we organize our work desk.

    This practice works for us because we don’t have to think about how to perform these regular tasks. Reaching this stage of “just doing” is the goal when starting a new habit. At first, we may have to remind, encourage and even force ourselves to do something we “say we really, really want”. But eventually you will succeed!

    1. Know your WHY. This is your desire. It includes a list of benefits you will receive from adopting the new habit. The reason must be strong and clear. The deeper the emotion associated with the desire to change, the greater the motivation, greater the opportunity for success. It will be your inspiration and motivation. Read this statement everyday to remind yourself why you are making the commitment.

    2. WHAT is your goal? Write it down. It should be detailed, measurable and include a deadline. Goals should be stated in the present tense. The brain believes that present tense statement is already true. So your brain will look for ways to make it happen.

    3. Use of powers of affirmations, visualization and meditation to keep you focused on your goal. Read your goal statement everyday to remind yourself why you are making a commitment to change.

    4. Commit to 30 days. Habits take at least 30 days to stick. By stick I mean become rote. This is a process of retraining the brain to adopt a new activity or way to do a task.

    5. Make it regular. Do your new habit the same time everyday. Consistency is the critical to make a new habit. Write it in your schedule and stick to it.

    6. Start with something simple. If you have a big goal, break it down into smaller steps. While it may take longer to accomplish the big goal, your will experience success along the way and not be overwhelmed at so big a challenge.

    7. Plan ahead. If your goal requires props, have them ready to use before the scheduled time to do the task. Don’t waste time “Getting Ready”, then run out of time to do the activity.

    8. Accept a bump in the road. Be realistic about having an immediate success. Accept it if you miss a day. Do not use it as a reason to quit. For your first goal, choose something which you have a good chance of
    accomplishing. You want to have a success right away.

    Good Luck.

  • Setting goals

    Once we have decided on our big change, it is time to set the goals to make the change happen.

    One popular method to set goals is S.M.A.R.T.

    Specific – This part focuses on the five W questions:
    • What – what exactly do I want to accomplish?
    • Why – list the specific reasons benefits of accomplishing the goal
    • Who – who is involved in the process.
    • Where – identify the location
    • Which – identify requirements and constraints

    Measurable – How will you measure the your success of reaching your goal? Use this tool to stay on track and remember it is okay to adjust your goal as you evaluate your progress.

    Attainable – What are the actions are necessary to achieve your goal? As you set your goals you may need to develop new attitudes and skills to be able to achieve them. By breaking down bigger goals into smaller steps may enable us to make progress.

    Relevant – How will my goals help me to achieve my big change? Don’t become distracted by efforts that are not aligned with your desired result.

    Time-bound – Set one or more target dates for completion. This “by when” deadlines, dates and frequency.

    Write down your goal on a device, index card, calendar – keep somewhere it is always visible and you can refer to it daily. Taking a step everyday may ensure you best success.

  • Scusi, I missed the publish button last week.

    I wrote my post last Thursday as usual but somehow missed the post button. I am sorry – two times now since last November I missed a post date – not too bad.

    Perhaps it is a good thing because this week I wanted to go off my 52 week outline and review an important point. So I hope you read these two posts together.

    (By the way, I am following one of my dreams and am sitting in the town of Poppi – Tuscan region of Italy, enjoying a delicious glass of red wine and writing so I am nine hours ahead of my hometown of San Francisco right now.)

    I wanted to write a bit more from last week’s post about WHY we are committing to make a big change in our lives.

    If you have been following along since last November when I began this journey, you may remember my initial writings. I believe and support you in following your dreams.

    We deserve:
    To be happy
    To pursue our passions
    To enjoy life’s moments
    To be free
    To have all that we want from life
    To live with joy in our hearts
    To have abundance in our lives

    Yes, life has struggles and obstacle to overcome. We had them in the past, we have them now and we will have them in the future. But this should not prevent us from “going for our dreams.”

    Everything we dream about for our lives is available waiting for us make it happen.

    We simply need to trust the universe and remain open to all of the possibilities.

    ASK, BELIEVE, RECEIVE!