If you’re exercising regularly, here’s a post that will make you feel great! If you’re not physically active, here’s more motivation:
A longitudinal study conducted by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical City at Dallas and the Cooper Institute found that increased fitness in your 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s improves quality of life during the final 5 years of life!
Specifically, midlife fitness significantly decreases the occurrence of chronic disease during the last five years of life.
So, taking care of yourself in your earlier years not only contributes to your current physical, emotional, and mental well being, but also improves the chances of healthy aging. If you want to read more about the study, click here.
If you’re in need of motivation to improve your physical activity level, you may want to review Get Moving, Part 1, Get Moving, Part 2, and Get Moving, Part 3.
For a 7 minute high intensity interval training routine, and some information on the science behind it, check out this post by Gretchen Reynolds: The Scientific 7-Minute Workout.
Still having difficulty getting motivated? How about 2 minutes of stretching your arms, back, and shoulders, 1 minute of jumping jacks, and 2 minutes of lower body stretching? Or, read this post from The Happiness Project on developing an exercise routine!
Now get moving! Want to share what works for you?
Yesterday, I asked you to Reexamine Your Commitments and focused mostly on abandoning commitments that are not important to you. Today, I want you to make a commitment to yourself! Which of your priorities in life needs a boost, even if it’s just for today?
This Daily Shoring tip is similar to Add a Healthy Habit; the distinction is that I want you to select your commitment based on your life priorities. And, I want you to realistically plan when you’re going to honor this commitment. So often, people have the best intentions–for example, “I’ll exercise in the morning!” but the intentions are just not practical–you realize that adding in exercise in the morning means you’ll be getting up at 5:00 am and you’ll get only 5 hours sleep–not likely to happen! So you may have to re-prioritize other commitments to honor this commitment, and that requires a bit of thought and planning.
So, make one commitment to yourself for today (or tomorrow) and figure out how you need to prioritize to honor this commitment. Keep the commitment simple if you’re not up for a challenge–it’s important that you keep your commitment to yourself.
If you’re up for a challenge, make a commitment to yourself for the next week or month, and adjust your other commitments accordingly.
Want to share your ideas with other readers? Feel free to leave a comment!
Today, I want you to think about your commitments–to yourself, your family, friends, community, and at work. Do your commitments accurately reflect your priorities?
If you’re overcommitted, committed in ways that are not meaningful to you, or your commitments don’t align with your priorities, consider making some changes.
If you’re feeling motivated, make a list of all your commitments–family commitments, committees you serve on, any volunteer work, commitments to yourself, etc. Include daily, weekly, monthly, and even once-a year-commitments. (Ideally, list each commitment on an index card.)
Then, make a list of your priorities in life, ranking them in order of importance (again, use an index card). For example, your priorities might look like this:
- Family
- My Health
- Work
- Community
And so on. . . You may want to add more detail to your priorities–for example, under “My Health” you might add “Exercise,” “Daily Meditation,” and “Healthy Eating.”
Then, categorize your commitments according to your priorities. This is where the index cards come in handy–lay out your Priority index cards, in order of importance, then sort your Commitment index cards accordingly. For example, if one of your commitments is that you go for a daily walk, that would be categorized with “My Health.” If you volunteer, that likely falls under “Community.”
This extra work allows you to see more clearly whether your commitments and priorities are aligned and balanced. If you need to make changes, pick one or two commitments that will be easy to drop and earmark one larger commitment that might take some time to ease out of.
This Daily Shoring tip is great to do as a couple or family. It’s helpful to give and get feedback and define your priorities together. This also sets the stage for moral support when you need to say “no” to a request for your time!
Want to build better habits, improve your self esteem, and be a better person? I have the solution!
Okay, maybe it’s not a quick and easy solution, but it is a process that will make you more aware of your choices and encourage you to align your choices with your values and aspirations.
The process is relatively simple:
This evening, I want you to write down three things:
1. What did you do today that you’re proud of?
2. What did you do today that you’re not proud of?
3. What is something concrete you can do to try to avoid repeating the thing(s) you’re not proud of?
The items you record don’t have to be spectacular (although if you accomplished something spectacularly good or did something spectacularly bad, by all means, write it down!).
Here’s an example:
- Proud: Exercised 45 minutes
- Not proud: Poor eating–had fast food for lunch, no fresh fruits or vegetables
- How to correct: I will take 20 minutes tomorrow morning to stop at the grocery store and pick up healthy snacks. I will make a good choice at lunch–a salad or grilled fish.
Okay, this may sound boring, but that is often the point–our lives are made up of the choices we make day-in, day-out.
These choices are often mundane, but it’s the additive effect of these choices that moves us toward the positive or negative, and prepares us to make good decisions when weightier issues are at hand.
By keeping a daily accounting, you’re mindful of how you’re choosing to live your life, and you will likely find that your mental compass and self discipline improve.
Finally, notice that the “how to correct” item is concrete.
One of the most common mistakes in self improvement efforts is making vague, idealistic, all-encompassing proclamations which are doomed to fail, i.e., “I will start eating healthier tomorrow!” You should be specific and concrete, but not overly ambitious–one step at a time.
Also, no need to beat yourself up over the little things–coming up with a concrete plan to address the problem is the goal.
If you’re up for a challenge, consider making Daily Accounting a part of your daily routine, maybe your Bedtime Ritual?
How are your choices and behaviors impacted by knowing you’ll have to account for your choices at the end of the day?
We talked about the fight or flight response and diaphragmatic breathing in Improve Your Stress Response, and the relaxation response, guided relaxation, progressive muscle relaxation, and yoga in Learn to Relax. What’s left? Meditation!
Click here for great article from the Mayo Clinic on the physical and mental benefits of meditation. There are several varieties of meditation, so if you’re new to meditation or not sure it’s for you, guided meditation (which often overlaps with guided relaxation & guided imagery) may be the best place to start. Still not sure if you want to try meditation? Click here to read “If You’re Too Busy to Meditate, Read This” on Harvard Business Review’s blog.
Click here for several guided meditation podcasts from UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center, or if you want to download these (free!) from iTunes, click here (or just search for “Mindful Meditations UCLA” from iTunes on your iPhone). On iTunes, UCLA offers a 3 minute “Body & Soul” meditation that’s great if you’re pressed for time; I also recommend the 12 minute “Body Scan for Sleep,” available on either the website or iTunes.
Are you making time for a “daily reset” with focused relaxation?
