Sunday, November 2, 2008

Sick on Sunday



Sick on Sunday - I refuse to let it move into Monday. Woke up with sore throat, ear ache, stuffed head. I figured I better get Ki out early for some exercise or it wouldn't happen, so we headed to Powell Butte for about a 50 minute hike. We finally took the Mt. Hood trail and discovered it is beautiful but rather short (the billions of fallen yellow leaves on the trail was just breathtaking). It hooked up to the Cedar Grove trail to lengthen it a bit but still not much distance. I think I know this park well enough now that I will try out the directions in my trail running book again and see if I can do the loop twice for a 7 mile run.
I felt better being out in the open air but still cruddy, too. Glad to get out of there before the rain started falling.
It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not. - James Gordon, M.D.


Pokey was a dog that lived in a house with an invisible fence...he finally learned his boundaries, due to the pain of the fence. What he didn't realize was that if he could just endure the temporary pain..he could have the world to roam! - Dr. Tom Barrett What are your invisible boundaries? You have to be uncomfortable for awhile to get the body you want.

Everything counts. Every minute of exercise you put in. Every time you resist the urge to mow down the chocolate or chips or pastries. It counts. Nothing is neutral. It all counts. Every decision you make is moving you toward your goal or away from it. Great transformations are made one decision at a time. The decision you make today, right now, will create your future and the beginning of a new past. It all counts. You have the power to make a better decision, the right decision. Make your next decision and every one thereafter knowing it counts, it matters, and move yourself, inch yourself, just one bit closer to your goal. It is the way of leaders and champions. They know everything counts. - David Greenwalt


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Julie! That David Greenwalt quote is one of my favs.

A Prelude To... said...

Hi Gina :o)
Bill Phillips wrote something along those lines a long time ago ~

Are you succeeding or are you settling?
I’ll say it again because it is so important…
Are you succeeding…or…are you settling?
This is a vitally important question for YOU to answer. And to do so, you need to step back and take a brutally honest look at you. When I say “brutally honest”, I mean it!!
When I ask if you’re succeeding, I mean are you achieving what you really want with your body and your health? Remember “success” basically means that you are moving forward, and are on a path of attaining what you desire from your life.
Now, “settling” on the other hand, means you’re not moving forward; you’ve basically come to a rest and are therefore moving downward, sinking, descending, sliding. Contrary to popular belief, settling is NOT stationary. You’re either moving forward or moving back, nothing in the universe stands still.
If you’re succeeding, it’s likely you feel energized, excited, optimistic, proud, strong, creative, and healthy. It’s likely that you’re honoring self-promises daily as well as setting inspiring goals.
On the other hand, settling often brings low energy, frustration, anxiety, feeling a little helpless and a little hopeless, and overall “blah”. People who’ve settled rarely follow through on their goals and often break self-promises.
Here…it might help if you do a little “body test”. Lift up your shirt (yes, right now!) and pinch your belly. (I’ll wait until you actually do this to continue…)
Ready?
Good.
(Thank you for participating!)
Are you happy with your belly bodyfat and your level of leanness? Do you notice a nice improvement over where you were last month? If so, that may very well be a sign you are experiencing success. However, if you’re not happy with what you see (the state of being “not happy” is a sign of settling), well, then you are quite likely not experiencing success.
When you answer The Question, it’s imperative that you come up with YOUR HONEST ANSWER. You see, if you’re not aware of what “state” you’re in, you don’t really know where you stand. And if you don’t know where you stand, you don’t know where to step. You’re unclear. And when you’re unclear, you’ll be unsure about where to direct your attention.
On the other hand, when you know where you stand, you are clear, you will know what you want and you will understand how to move forward. You’ll be able to direct your attention. And where attention goes, energy flows. And ENERGY is your driving force to move forward, make changes, improve, overcome setbacks and stay on the path of success.
All right, enough explanation. Pull your shirt back down and go ahead and pick up a pen and piece of paper and write out your answer to The Question, Are you succeeding or are you settling?
If your answer is “SUCCESS!” like it is for many people who are participating in this Great American Transformation, congratulations and keep up the good work! Also, remember, even though you might be experiencing success today, that doesn’t automatically mean you’ll enjoy success tomorrow. We must build on our successes in order to keep the momentum going.
Now, if your answer is “settling” I hope you’ll listen carefully to the rest of what I have to say. I think it may help you, a lot.
As I see it, settling is always a choice. An unconscious choice.
What do I mean by that? I mean settling is basically an “accident”. It’s not something you do on purpose. I’ve never talked to anyone who ended up 30 pounds overweight on purpose. I’ve never met anyone who defined success as getting hooked on cigarettes or drinking a six-pack and falling into a trance in front of the TV at night with a bag of chips. These things happen when we live unconsciously. Carelessly. More often than not, when we settle we do it without even knowing we’re doing it!
Why do we settle? It’s often because we allow fear, doubt and apprehension to “tell us” what we can and can’t do. Sometimes we settle because initially it’s “comfortable”. We settle when we listen to others who are settling. We settle when we fail to realize that we do not have to settle!
Please…if you don’t listen to anything else I say, ever again, remember that who you are now and where you’ll be in the future is largely determined by how consciously and consistently you answer The Question, “Am I succeeding or am I settling?”
Never believe you have to settle! And always believe you will succeed!
Now, you can’t just answer The Question one time and then go back to your “normal routine”. That’s one of the ways settling happens. You have to answer The Question and not just once every 12 weeks, or the one time you sign up for the Great American Transformation. Your breakthrough begins when you realize that you have to ask and answer The Question consciously, carefully and clearly up to a hundred times each day!
For example, when you wake up in the morning, the moment you gain consciousness, your internal dialogue begins. You begin asking and answering a stream of seemingly simple but actually a very powerful pattern of questions such as: What will I eat for breakfast? When? How much? Where?
You’ll ask and answer all those questions consciously or unconsciously. If you do it unconsciously, your mind may give your “default answer”, which is, “What I did yesterday. I’ll do what I did yesterday”. But if what you did yesterday, and the day before, and the day before has produced circumstances in the present that you’re not happy with, then you can’t do what you did yesterday and experience success today. It doesn’t work that way!
To change, simply begin to question every answer. For example, when you answer the question, “what will I eat for breakfast?” test your answer by questioning it ~ by saying to yourself, “if I do that, am I succeeding or am I settling?”
Here’s another example…you wake up in the morning and you planned, the night before, to do an upper body workout. Because you planned it, you answered the question in advance (that’s what goals and plans do…the pre-answer questions), but still, by nature, we tend to look for wiggle room wherever we can get it. So you might ask, “Should I really work out this morning or can I put it off until tonight?” And your answer might be, “I’m tired…I’ll do it later…” Well, when you question your answer by asking if it moves you forward in the direction of success or if it sets you up for settling, that is the moment where you can harness the power to change!
Here’s how to get started: On five separate pieces of paper, write down The Question, “Am I succeeding or am I settling?” Write it on a 3”x5” card for example, and keep it in your wallet. Pull it out and read it, ask and answer The Question throughout the day. Write it on a sticky note and put it on your bathroom mirror. Read it when you get up and again before you go to bed. Tape The Question on your refrigerator door.
Underneath The Question, go ahead and write “Bill wants to know!” because I do want to know! If success is important to you like it is for me, then you and I are on the same wavelength. Our circumstances may be different, but our desire is the same. We are both looking for essentially the same thing; information, inspiration, examples, challenges, new opportunities to grow, improve, evolve and succeed!
Right?
Here’s some more news…I’ve discovered that for people who refuse to realize that they’ve settled, the questions I answer online, in the books I write, in the videos I produce…well, they’re meaningless. They have no effect. None. Why? Because I don’t provide any information on how to settle. Never have. Never will.
Anyway, going back to what I said at the beginning of this message, until you are aware of how YOU are asking and answering The Question, then the tried and true transformation techniques which for the basis of my Body-for-LIFE Program may not give you the benefits that they have provided so many other.
I want you to succeed in a big way! I know it will make you feel as great as I feel! I also know that achieving our group transformation goal depends on your success.

Kelly Olexa said...

GIRL YOU ARE AWESOME!! You inspire me!!
;-)
K

Visionquester said...

Great blog.. great quotes!! I am going to come back here later and spend some time learning from you... That picture of the fall trees was straight from my "Vision" of what I want... throw in a black top winding driveway and a log cabin at the end.. and well we're in business!

~C.

Can't wait to read this!!

Anna Smith, MSA, NASM CPT said...

Jules-
Just reading this is burning my eyeballs! The fire is BACK!

Good to see you going for those dreams.

And here's to getting off the fence !

A

A Prelude To... said...

Hi ANNA!!!! Update your blog :o)