Today, I didn’t want to, But did it anyway.

 One of the biggest discussions I have had with successful people and those that continue to stay disciplined, no matter what their profession, specialty or passion is, is what they do when they don’t feel like doing whatever it is they need to do or know they should do. The most common response and even in my own life is that they do whatever it is whether they want to do it or not. 

Success, in no matter what areas you want to succeed in life many times will involve doing things you don’t feel like or don’t want to do.  I’ll use myself as an example.  Today, I am at work, at the fire station, day 4 of 5 at work, working 120 hours before I go home in total.  Today, we had hose testing and training at the station and a ride-along (granted it was my son, but an extra person nonetheless).  It was a busy day.  I didn’t feel like working out, walking for an hour, lifting and moving my body.  So after lunch, I completed my reports and went to the treadmill and walked for an hour, and I didn’t want to.  I stepped on the treadmill, and took one step after another and soon, an hour had past.  I had walked the three miles I  try to get in every day and had watched a show while doing so.  Instead of settling down and resting for a bit, I walked.  Then, after further training, and running calls, when I was tired mentally, and physically from being day 4 at the station, i sat down for a second.  I forced myself to get up, head into the station gym and started lifting weights,  Low and behold, I went harder than just going through the motions and got a great lifting session in.  

My why- it guides me.  Even on days I don’t want to do it, I do it.  Even if it means just going through the motions, I do it.  Even if I am tired, exhausted, overwhelmed, under rested, I do it.  I may not go as hard, I may not go as fast, I may not go as long, but I do it.  I do it because I want to be healthy for my family.  I do it because I have a 3 year old grandkid that requires me to run around for her spurts of excitement. Lil do it because I want to be around for my family for a long time.  I do it because the why is bigger than me.  

One of the things I have learned is to allow myself some grace.  I used to be intense about everything, and now I am intentional.  Successful people are intentional in their actions, but they take action.  It doesn’t matter how large or how small as long as you are taking action towards your dream, goal, desires.  No matter what they are.  Watch the patterns of successful people.  Watch how they work when they are tired, when they are energetic, when they are stressed, overwhelmed, underappreciated.  They are crazy enough to believe in their dream, passion, desire, their PURPOSE that they continually work towards it, even when they don’t want to. 

YOU have the power within you to make what you want become a reality.  It simply takes action, many times even when you don’t want to do it.  

• Don’t want to get out of the warm bed, do it anyway.
•  Don’t want to workout today, do it anyway

• Don’t want to read that book today?  Do it anyway. 

•  Don’t want to study today? Do it anyway.
• Don’t want to make that phone call?  Do it anyway 
• Don’t want to deal with the challenges?  Do it anyway. 

Whatever it is in your life that will progress you towards the life you envision, Do it whether you want to do it or not.  You’ll thank yourself later.  

     

The perfection of Children- A good example for us!

Sorry for the delay in writing to all of you.  I have been heavily involved in working at the fire station as well as getting prepared for the month long visit from my children which I have recently started!  It has been an amazing beginning of the trip and I have found myself observing, watching and looking at my children in different light this trip as their roles in my life continually develop, change and grow.  

My kids are 12, 10 and 8- Nicole, Jared and Jacob respectively.  I have never seen more perfection in a soul or in actions as kids.  As I have watched over the last few days I have paid attention to mood, communication, stories, actions, excitement, drama, temper tantrums, blwoing up, hurt feelings, and all of the above.  And it ALL made sense to me.  Let me use their stories to help us identify what we can do as people to recognize our own challenges. 

You see, I have said this before, but we are born perfect as kids.  As I watched my kids here are the qualities I see: 

• Fearless
• open to communicate in the LOUDEST way possible
• Curious
• Inspired
• Determined
• Playful
• Engaged in life
• Emotional
• Not closed off
• Loving
• Open to affection
• Able to act without thought
• Unaware of danger
• not in tune with the bad stuff in the world
• Open to lessons
• Learns lessons easily

When we start to examine our own lives and how we have gotten to where we are, sometimes we have to look at what our actions and our lives we lead are like.  I would venture to say if we were half as fearless as we were when we were kids, we would accomplish so much more in life because we would not care about the outcome, nor would we care what others thought. You see, so often we work so hard on pleasing others, we forget what it truly is that we want or desire.  We sometimes forget what our dreams and goals are because we are so focussed outwardly on what other people think of us. 

You see, our dreams, our goals, our visions of what we want in our life, they are ours.  they don't belong to anyone else.  Kids get this.  They understand that it is everything to be able to communicate, it is everything to be able to just exist in the moment.  They don't worry about tomorrw.  They very rarely regret the past.  They simply exist for what it is in front of them at this moment, at this time.  It is with age, we gain "Wisdom" which sometimes can hinder our greatest achievements because we are worried about who will say something or what will people think if we do.

You see, we need to be more inquisitive, more trusting, more willing to put ourselves out there, more able to dream, more open to others, more communicative.  If we all did this as adults, could you imagine what this world would be like and how much we could accomplish as a human race?  The only limit we would have is how fast we could come up with resources for anything we wanted.  It is up to us on a daily basis to live the way we choose to live.  I am choosing to live in the moment.  What are you choosing?   Today is all we have..take lessons from those who know how to live in the moment the best, our children.