by Kristi Willis
I am participating in my first full sprint triathlon in three years on Sunday and I have pre-race jitters. I felt them for the first time this morning when I was doing my last big workout before the race. As I was riding my bike around the neighborhood, the thought “you haven’t prepared enough” ran through my mind. Ugh!
When I did the Danskin triathlon in 2005, the race spokeswoman told us that this would happen while we were training and even during the race. She said monkeys would jump on our backs and try to weigh us down from being successful. And she was right. Smack dab in the middle of my quiet street, I had a monkey on the back of my bicycle.
I was able to silence it long enough to have a good workout, but then I heard it again while I was getting ready for work. And then it popped up again while I was driving into the office. Clearly, trying to ignore the monkey wasn’t going to make it go away.
I decided that the best way to silence the monkey was to look back over all the things I have done in the last six weeks to get ready. On my flight to Arizona today, I opened up Outlook and went through my calendar starting with the Danskin relay that I did in June.
Despite a busy travel schedule, vacation and taking care of my niece and nephew for several days, I have managed to exercise at least 5 days each week for at least an hour or more. I even swam a mile and a half the day I moved. I’ve trained on my hybrid and my road bike, practiced using my new bike clip pedals and have all my equipment lined up.
Sure, I could have worked out more. I could be in better shape, have eaten better, slept more, but I have done enough. I am ready. And after looking through the list of what I’ve been up to for the last six weeks, I feel pretty good about it. I’m not trying to win; I just want to finish injury free. And I will – without the monkey on my back!
Do you have a monkey on your back? What are you going to do to get rid of it?
Friday, July 25, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Hit A Target
By Diane Holz
Most companies have one year, three year, five year and ten year strategic plans. I used to call them the pie in the sky. In our personal lives, do we even have a strategic plan? I used to not bother with the pie in the sky in my personal life. Then, I learned about affirmations. It is a simple thing to do. Write a sentence that states positively or affirms your goals in life. One sentence that I started with was “I have a thousand dollars in my savings account.” When I reached that goal, I changed it to “I have two thousand dollars in my savings account,” and so on. That doesn’t mean that I never spent any of it. I did, over and over again! But somehow repeating that affirmation made it easier for me to put money in savings and harder for me to take it out.
Many of our goals are to stop doing a certain activity; stop spending money, stop gaining weight, stop procrastinating. But as we teach in the class, when you tell your brain a negative statement, it only hears the positive part. So if you keep telling yourself, “I will not spend beyond my limits” your brain recognizes that as a command to spend beyond your limits, and happily complies.
Start thinking about your own goals and write them down as affirmations. Remember, they should stretch you; they should feel uncomfortable. Be sure to include anything you can imagine-education, hope, love, achievement, invention, caring for others, security, you name it.
I still have one affirmation that I keep working on. “I am 125 pounds and my firm, tight body enjoys thirty minutes of exercise every day.” Miracles have happened, right?
Most companies have one year, three year, five year and ten year strategic plans. I used to call them the pie in the sky. In our personal lives, do we even have a strategic plan? I used to not bother with the pie in the sky in my personal life. Then, I learned about affirmations. It is a simple thing to do. Write a sentence that states positively or affirms your goals in life. One sentence that I started with was “I have a thousand dollars in my savings account.” When I reached that goal, I changed it to “I have two thousand dollars in my savings account,” and so on. That doesn’t mean that I never spent any of it. I did, over and over again! But somehow repeating that affirmation made it easier for me to put money in savings and harder for me to take it out.
Many of our goals are to stop doing a certain activity; stop spending money, stop gaining weight, stop procrastinating. But as we teach in the class, when you tell your brain a negative statement, it only hears the positive part. So if you keep telling yourself, “I will not spend beyond my limits” your brain recognizes that as a command to spend beyond your limits, and happily complies.
Start thinking about your own goals and write them down as affirmations. Remember, they should stretch you; they should feel uncomfortable. Be sure to include anything you can imagine-education, hope, love, achievement, invention, caring for others, security, you name it.
I still have one affirmation that I keep working on. “I am 125 pounds and my firm, tight body enjoys thirty minutes of exercise every day.” Miracles have happened, right?
Friday, July 18, 2008
I Have To Have a Goal
by Kristi Willis
When I started traveling for work, I let my exercise program fall to the wayside, so this year I decided that increasing my fitness level was a major goal. Like a good “edger,” I kicked off this goal by creating a project using our system and breaking it down into doable tasks.
I joined the gym, created an exercise plan and started tracking my progress. And, little by little I started to feel stronger. Then I got sick. The end of February rolled around and I caught the flu I had been avoiding for months and, sure enough, my exercise program fell to the side again.
When I recovered, I started working out again, but something was missing. I wasn’t motivated the way I was before. I needed something to work toward; something that would keep me from skipping a workout just because I was a little tired that day.
A few years ago, I completed the Danskin triathlon. Let me be clear that I’m not an uber-athlete. I’m quickly heading to middle age and, while I exercise, I’m only in moderate shape. I did the Danskin the first time with my sister so that we had a goal to work toward and the goal was to finish, which I did.
I decided it was time to revisit that success. I recruited a friend to do the Danskin Triathlon as a relay with me - I did two of the three legs - and voila, I was back on track. Each week when I looked at my exercise plan, I had certain benchmarks I had to reach because if I didn’t, it wasn’t going to be pretty on race day.
It’s amazing what having a due date and a pre-paid registration fee did to my motivation. Race day came and our team did well. I met my goal for the two legs of the race and I now was chomping at the bit to do a whole race by myself again.
After the race, several of my friends and I celebrated our success over enchiladas (we’d earned it after all). As we reviewed the race we just finished, we started talking about the next race. I asked if it was too soon to pick another race and one of my friends said, “Not for me. I have to have a goal. I need another date to work toward.”
As the words came out of her mouth, I realized I did as well. Without a specific benchmark to reach, it was too easy for me to push it off until tomorrow or not work as hard. So, race two is right around the corner and I have significantly increased my fitness level again and am ready to do all three legs of the race. If all goes well, race three will be at the end of August – a race that is a little longer and a little harder so I stretch myself a little more.
When I started traveling for work, I let my exercise program fall to the wayside, so this year I decided that increasing my fitness level was a major goal. Like a good “edger,” I kicked off this goal by creating a project using our system and breaking it down into doable tasks.
I joined the gym, created an exercise plan and started tracking my progress. And, little by little I started to feel stronger. Then I got sick. The end of February rolled around and I caught the flu I had been avoiding for months and, sure enough, my exercise program fell to the side again.
When I recovered, I started working out again, but something was missing. I wasn’t motivated the way I was before. I needed something to work toward; something that would keep me from skipping a workout just because I was a little tired that day.
A few years ago, I completed the Danskin triathlon. Let me be clear that I’m not an uber-athlete. I’m quickly heading to middle age and, while I exercise, I’m only in moderate shape. I did the Danskin the first time with my sister so that we had a goal to work toward and the goal was to finish, which I did.
I decided it was time to revisit that success. I recruited a friend to do the Danskin Triathlon as a relay with me - I did two of the three legs - and voila, I was back on track. Each week when I looked at my exercise plan, I had certain benchmarks I had to reach because if I didn’t, it wasn’t going to be pretty on race day.
It’s amazing what having a due date and a pre-paid registration fee did to my motivation. Race day came and our team did well. I met my goal for the two legs of the race and I now was chomping at the bit to do a whole race by myself again.
After the race, several of my friends and I celebrated our success over enchiladas (we’d earned it after all). As we reviewed the race we just finished, we started talking about the next race. I asked if it was too soon to pick another race and one of my friends said, “Not for me. I have to have a goal. I need another date to work toward.”
As the words came out of her mouth, I realized I did as well. Without a specific benchmark to reach, it was too easy for me to push it off until tomorrow or not work as hard. So, race two is right around the corner and I have significantly increased my fitness level again and am ready to do all three legs of the race. If all goes well, race three will be at the end of August – a race that is a little longer and a little harder so I stretch myself a little more.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Etch, Sketch, Stretch
by Kim Brewster
Spring cleaning often uncovers items we had long forgotten about or had been searching for. This year’s spring cleaning in my 13 year old daughter’s room uncovered an Etch-a-Sketch. You most likely have one or had one of these very popular drawing toys, released at the beginning of the baby boom years. It’s immediately recognizable with its square red edges, gray center and two white round knobs.
Instead of putting it in a box to be hidden from sight, I set it aside until the room cleaning process was complete. After all, I had set this spring cleaning task on my calendar and was determined to check it off as complete.
Now I could spend a few minutes sketching. The first few turns of the knobs let me know I was very out of practice. But just a few minutes of focus and concentration unlocked some latent spatial abilities and allowed me to actively get two hands and one brain to work in conjunction with each other.
With a little more practice, I was able to morph the lines I had created into curves allowing for more detail in my sketch. Etch-a-Sketch is actually addicting, so you may want to set aside some interrupted time to enjoy it.
The handiest tool the Etch-a-Sketch offers is the ability to erase mistakes quickly and easily by just turning it upside down with a few gentle side-to-side shakes. We’ve all experienced having a day turned upside down and the feeling of being bounced around. However, when you are right-side up again, it’s like starting anew with a blank slate, a clean screen.
A few minutes of Etch-a-Sketch time allows us the ability to “think outside the box” and experience being in the present moment. Use of this simple toy allows us to s-t-r-e-t-c-h in ways we may not have considered.
Why not add an Etch-a-Sketch to your tool box? It’s also a thoughtful gift no matter the age of the recipient.
Spring cleaning often uncovers items we had long forgotten about or had been searching for. This year’s spring cleaning in my 13 year old daughter’s room uncovered an Etch-a-Sketch. You most likely have one or had one of these very popular drawing toys, released at the beginning of the baby boom years. It’s immediately recognizable with its square red edges, gray center and two white round knobs.
Instead of putting it in a box to be hidden from sight, I set it aside until the room cleaning process was complete. After all, I had set this spring cleaning task on my calendar and was determined to check it off as complete.
Now I could spend a few minutes sketching. The first few turns of the knobs let me know I was very out of practice. But just a few minutes of focus and concentration unlocked some latent spatial abilities and allowed me to actively get two hands and one brain to work in conjunction with each other.
With a little more practice, I was able to morph the lines I had created into curves allowing for more detail in my sketch. Etch-a-Sketch is actually addicting, so you may want to set aside some interrupted time to enjoy it.
The handiest tool the Etch-a-Sketch offers is the ability to erase mistakes quickly and easily by just turning it upside down with a few gentle side-to-side shakes. We’ve all experienced having a day turned upside down and the feeling of being bounced around. However, when you are right-side up again, it’s like starting anew with a blank slate, a clean screen.
A few minutes of Etch-a-Sketch time allows us the ability to “think outside the box” and experience being in the present moment. Use of this simple toy allows us to s-t-r-e-t-c-h in ways we may not have considered.
Why not add an Etch-a-Sketch to your tool box? It’s also a thoughtful gift no matter the age of the recipient.
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