Words I have seen other people pick include things like:

• Dedication
• Progress
• Clarity
• Focus
• Thrive
• Fearless

My word does not fit in this list at all. But I am sure it is the exactly perfect word for me right now.

A lot of things came together for me that just made this snap into place.

I love how sometimes I read or learn things that don’t seem to make much difference at the time and yet later sometimes those things make a big impact.

• I’ve seen some different things people have said about the new year and goals in various places.
• I saw a couple of people asking about what others’ words for the year were.
• I got an email that mentioned that one thing people screw up when planning for the New Year is not making plans for how they will respond in a month or two or six when they lose motivation and don’t feel like working on their goals anymore.
• Another email mentioned how showing up is the most important part of habit formation.
• Then I read this story about a marathon runner from 5am Joel. If you want the rest of what I’m writing to make sense, you seriously have read the story. Sort of a sappy type of story but for whatever reason something about the concept of it resonated with me.

After reading that story something clicked in my brain and I decided that crawl would be my word.

One reason I like this concept is because of some of the challenges I’ve been facing

One of my big challenges is parenting a four year-old. I love my son and parenting is a high priority for me. It also takes a massive amount of time and energy and I do sometimes wish I had more left over to make progress on personal and career goals.

And sometimes I just don’t have the energy for things even when I have the time for them. Maybe some of this is the general level of stress from the last few years with a particular world wide health issue that shall not be named today. Maybe it’s reading too many stressful news stories and worrying about things I can’t control.

Other times I feel like I just don’t have the togetherness. Like if I had the right plan and the right motivation I could make x, y and z happen but seriously all I want to do is curl up with a good book.

SO while maybe I’d like to make MASSIVE PROGRESS or BIG CHANGES, the reality is that it’s just not going to happen right now. In the mean time, I can make small steps, little changes and slow progress. And maybe if I focus on that the changes, steps and progress will add up more quickly than I might think. Which leads me to a belief…

CRAWLING is a powerful step.

Crawling can have negative connotations. But I’m a parent. I watched my son as a baby. I watched him learn to crawl. He crawled all over the house, the yard, and anywhere else he was turned loose.

At first he was slow and awkward, but it didn’t take that long before he could seriously HAUL ASS while crawling.

It’s deceptive too. Because It’s not just crawling. It’s learning how to navigate, strengthening muscles and building a sense of confidence and agency. Crawling is literally the foundation to learning how to walk and to run.

So maybe in a figurative sense I can learn and grow by aiming to make slow progress on things. I can build habits of showing up and accomplishing small chunks that feel doable. I can trick my brain into getting started on things and then maybe discover that once I’m started continuing is easier.

The idea is to build easy habits that are so easy I don’t quit doing them because I don’t have the energy. I want to build in small things that I can really stick to. I want to make it OK to do 2 minutes of something and make a little progress and actually tell myself that’s a positive step instead of thinking about all that is left.

So now that my theory about this is out of the way, let’s hit on some of the specific ways I plan to apply this.

Specific daily habits I’m thinking about based on the CRAWL mentality

I thought I’d share a few examples of how I will incorporate this. One of those is working on little habits that are designed to help me make a little progress towards my most important goals.

• Writing for this site for 5 minutes a day. Blogging is one of those things that has fallen by the wayside since B was born. While I can say I want to do it, I don’t actually do it. Like having not been doing it has created inverse momentum. “An object at rest…” and all that. But surely I can manage 5 minutes a day.
• Eating a vegetable with a meal. In my habit app, I made this as three separate habits so that I can get an easy win with each meal of the day. I know that eating healthy is super important but that can be elusive. This gives me easy, concrete goals. (And a bit of an extra push to counteract the struggle of knowing that B won’t eat most veggies so why bother? Um… because they’re good for ME.)
• Doing two minutes of strength exercises in the morning. I can do anything for 2 minutes.
• Cleaning off my desk each morning. My whole house might not get cleaner, but at least I can have a space that is cleaner.
• Remembering to enjoy story time. This is a parenting goal for me. Sometimes by the time the worst of the bedtime routine (i.e. the tooth-brushing battle) is over I just feel grumpy and harassed and can’t wait to be done. But that’s not the sort of parent I want to be. I want to enjoy reading stories to my kiddo and take time to appreciate that time. Reading books is really one of my favoritest things that I want to share with my son.

There are a few other habits I haven’t mentioned here and perhaps I’ll add more throughout the year as these ones become a little more ingrained. But CRAWL is my word for my year, so I want it to be more than a few habits. I want to bring it to mind on a frequent basis to figure out how I can make just a little progress towards the things I want.

I hope to use this as a mantra to remind myself to just make small amounts of progress, to keep going when I don’t feel like it and to appreciate my little accomplishments.

The post Crawl appeared first on Live Hoppy.

31 days. 4 states. 200+ miles.

In July I did the 30 day ride challenge hosted by Trailforks and Anthill Films. The challenge was simple: ride each day, including at least one full trail as mapped on Trailforks.

Tijeras, New Mexico trails

My month started off with lots of rides close to home. Luckily, I live close to some of the best mountain biking trails in New Mexico.

I tried to ride some different trails and extend my reach a bit, but there were also a lot of days when I just rode my favorite loop.

While I still can’t ride one difficult section of my fave trail, by the end of the month, I did get to where I could ride the entirety of the rest of the trail which felt like a huge accomplishment.

One thing I’ve noted before about New Mexico is that our roads and our waterways tend to be one and the same. This means it’s a really good thing it doesn’t rain that often.

Out in the desert, we just drive in the arroyos which are normally dry and our towns and cities generally lack good flood planning so when it rains, the streets just flood. Now, I have come to realize that this might also apply to bike trails.

Pagosa Springs, Colorado

I also made a trip to visit an old friend and some family. So I took my bike along and made some people babysit B for me each day so I could go ride. Priorities, right?

Farmington, New Mexico

Farmington is my other hometown. My mom lives there and I went to college there. But I didn’t mountain bike when I lived there, so the excellent mountain bike trails were something of a surprise. A pleasant one.

I was out to ride early on the two days I went on these trails and the sunrises were amazing. Also, sweeping views and bushes that smell like home. And crazy fun bike trails. Not the gnarly, rocky, hardcore trails I’m used to. Smooth, flowy, trails with little bitty hills that are just big enough to be a ton of fun but not a ton of work to pedal up.

One of the joys of this challenge was biking in places I wouldn’t have otherwise tried. Most of the time when I travel, I leave my bike at home, but I may rethink that.

Aztec, New Mexico

I also went for one ride outside of Aztec, New Mexico: The Alien Run. It was a blast. I’m totally riding it again next time I’m in the area.

After my trip, I returned home for a few days and then it was off on another adventure. This time for work, but with a bicycle stop thrown in on the journey.

Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas

My last ride of the 30 day challenge was at Palo Duro Canyon, which has more pictures than it’s fair share for only one ride.

I have a thing for State Parks with cabins because I wish I lived in an RV and traveled everywhere, but I don’t actually have an RV right now so I need alternative accommodations.

I’m all for tents under some circumstances, but July in Texas is not a circumstance where I’m all for living without an AC and a shower. Also, business trips and tents don’t really go that well together.

Anyway, on this trip, I was staying at the Lighthouse cabin on the rim of the canyon which made me feel a sort of obligation to make it out to my cabin’s namesake and the park icon: The Lighthouse Formation.

I was at the trailhead for this ride before the sun was up. But it was still by far the hottest ride of the month. By nine in the morning, I was totally miserable. Still, my ride through the canyon was worth it for the cool views and the neat rocks.

Tulsa, Oklahoma

So after doing the 30 day challenge, I figured I was only 1 day away from riding every day in July. So I went out for the 31st day in Tulsa.

I loved discovering the Turkey Mountain wilderness area because it is a great pocket of nature in the city. But I felt sad I hadn’t discovered it sooner since I’ve been traveling to Tulsa for work for the past 12 or so years.

The only downside was that it was just so humid. I am not at all used to the humidity and I suffered from it, feeling all wet and sweaty and gross and also missing the cooling effect that happens when sweat can actually evaporate.

Miscellaneous

First off, a few real selfies:

Fitting in a ride every day was tough. Sometimes I rode at sunrise, other times at sunset. A lot of my rides ended up being mid-day because afternoon thunderstorms ruled out the afternoons and left the trails too wet in the morning. Riding during the hottest part of the day was not my idea of ideal. But it happened and I’m so proud I rode every day.

This challenge was amazing. My strength and endurance improved. I lost weight. I saw some amazing places. I pushed through the days that it was tough. And I’m super pleased with myself.

The post 31 Days of Mountain Biking in Pictures appeared first on Live Hoppy.

Later, I checked out one of his books on Overdrive from my library’s ebook collection. His books talk about steps to take to make your brain healthier (many of them also include making your body healthier). I didn’t actually read all that much of it, but one thing he mentioned stuck with me.

Know YOUR numbers

One of those numbers to know is your BMI or body mass index. This is calculated using your weight and height. It’s then used to classify people as underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese. If you just Google ‘BMI’ an easy BMI calculator will come up.

I think he mentioned some other numbers as well, but they were based on lab tests that are harder to get without seeing a doctor. The one that stuck in my mind was BMI. (Knowing your numbers from lab tests and knowing that they mean is a good idea too.)

Being overweight is bad for your brain. Obese people actually have smaller brains. Yikes!

Knowing your BMI means you can’t lie to yourself about your weight. “Maybe I have an extra couple of pounds” becomes “Crap, I’m 30 pounds overweight.”

One argument you’ll hear from people if you mention BMI is that it’s not the most accurate measure of whether or not one is overweight. For example, muscle weighs more than fat and body builders can weigh more but still be healthy. Are you actually a body builder?  No. I didn’t think so. Then lets move on from the excuses.

Sure BMI might not be a perfect reflection of your health, but the weight ranges that are healthy for any given height are probably a good ballpark figure for most of us to aim for.

I’ll be the first to admit that when I calculated my BMI after reading this tip, I was not best pleased. I have a bit of ‘baby weight’ still hanging around.

The cool thing is that acknowledging a problem is the first step to fixing it.

I’m not totally onboard with all of the stuff Daniel Amen says, but I do think he makes some good points. I think knowing your numbers is an excellent tip that could be applied to anything from health to business to personal finance.

The post Know YOUR numbers appeared first on Live Hoppy.

I recently found these life calendars for sale.  I have to say that I just think they are the coolest thing ever.  They’re basically just a huge poster-sized grid of squares with numbers across the top for the week of the year and numbers down the side for the year of your life.  There is just enough space in each square to write a word or two. 

I bought one for B and one for me.  (Actually I bought a 3-pack to get free shipping so I still have an extra.)  I also put grommets in the top corners so that it would be easy to hang them. 

I think that this is the gift that I would pick to give at a baby shower from now on.  (Actually, I’ve never been invited to a baby shower other than my own, but if I was, this is at least one of the gifts I would pick.)  It’s so perfect to be able to just record a few words per week as baby gets bigger. 

I love the idea of writing in a word or two for B each week.  I’ve kept a baby book for him which has been really cool, but I know that I’m unlikely to stay up on documenting his whole childhood in the same detail.  A couple of words a week is perfect.

I figure I can make short notes on when his ‘firsts’ happen, the toys he likes, the words he’s saying, the cool things we do, trips we take, etc.  It’s a super quick thing to do each week, but over time will grow to be a cool record of his childhood and perhaps even his adulthood.

I flipped back through B’s baby book to help me fill in his calendar until present day.  This is one of those things that I wish I had sooner. 

I love my life calendar too, although it is not nearly as filled out as B’s (yet).  It makes me think about how I spend my time, the life ahead of me, and what I want to accomplish.  It makes me think back on my accomplishments and appreciate all of the things that I have done. 

It’s interesting to notice the dates that I actually remember by heart from my life.  It’s surprisingly hard to fill in things from my life.  What year was it that I graduated from high school?  When did I start my job?  Some day soon, I am going to sit down and spend some more time filling my calendar in a bit.  I guess I want something to show for my life. 

A few years ago, I went through and shredded all of my old journals.  Mostly, they weren’t full of all that much great stuff, but I do sort of wish now that I had saved them to help me fill in my life calendar first.  I’ll have to see how much of my past I can really piece together based on old pics, etc. 

I do want to use my life calendar as a tool to appreciate and remember my past, but mostly, I want to use it as motivation to live this week to the fullest so I have a cool word or two to put in the current box.   I want to fill B’s life calendar (really his life) with cool stuff too!

Check out the Wait But Why store if you’d like to get a life calendar for yourself or someone you know.  (Not an affiliate link, just something I think is cool.)

The post Life Calendars appeared first on Live Hoppy.

I pose this question because what we think of as our limitations have a big influence of what we actually do in a day and whether or not we feel guilty about not doing ‘enough’.  We get into trouble when we expect our limitations are different than they really are.  This can actually go both directions too.  We can expect we can do more than we can or we can expect that we’re only capable of less.  Both directions can get us into trouble.

When we expect that our limitations are higher than they really are it’s easy to beat ourselves up when we don’t live up to what we think we should be doing.  When we think our limitations are lower we sell ourselves short and don’t accomplish all that we could.

The thing that is really important to realize is that are limitations are always changing. 

It’s easy to think that because we had certain limitations yesterday that we have the same ones today.  This is not the case.

Sometimes we’re capable of more.  We grow.  We learn new things.  We become more confident.  Our boundaries expand.  Things that once scared us don’t anymore.  We become stronger.  We become smarter.  Things that we once weren’t capable of may actually now be within reach if only we stretch out our hands.

Sometimes we’re capable of less.  We become sick or get injured.  We get older and our bodies suffer from it.  We’re going through a time of stress and don’t have the energy we sometimes do.  We feel depressed or anxious.  We have other responsibilities taking up our resources.  We’re tired from a bad night’s sleep.  Things that may have been easy a few days or months ago may be beyond our reach.

Our limitations are different both day to day and year to year.  There’s good days and bad days.  We evolve as people over our life times.

The dangerous thing is that sometimes we don’t consciously recognize that our limitations have changed.  Then we’re expecting more or less of ourselves than is realistic.  These expectations cause trouble.

Examples of this are all over.  People that were once poor that continue to deprive themselves of material comforts even after they has amassed a ton of wealth.  People that continue to blame their childhood for their problems all through their adult lives.  People that won’t take scary steps to advance in their careers because they don’t have the confidence that they can grow into a new position.

I can think of examples in my life right now.  I feel frustrated that my physical limitations in pregnancy are different than they were  six months ago.  Instead I should be giving myself credit for doing what I can within my current set of limitations.  My brain simply hasn’t really adapted to the fact that my limitations are simply lower than they once were.

I also have experienced thinking my limitations are lower than they are in some areas.  During the first three to four months of my pregnancy I had awful morning sickness.  I was extremely nauseous most of the time.  I couldn’t keep up with a lot of my good habits and routines.  It felt like all I could do to get through the day.  When I started feeling better, my expectations for what I could do in a day didn’t automatically return to their prior levels.  It’s taken a little time to build back up the good habits and routines.

Are you expecting too much of yourself today when you should be cutting yourself a little slack?  Or are you expecting too little of yourself today when you could be doing so much more?

What are your limitations today? 

The post Limitations of the day appeared first on Live Hoppy.

The truth is that there are lots of times when I do let what I can’t do limit me further than it has to.  Sometimes this happens in small ways.  For example, if I have to leave to go somewhere in 15 minutes.  I’ll feel that I don’t have enough time to make a lot of progress on anything, so I’ll just find a way to waste that time.  It’s true that I can’t get two hours of work done in that time, but I could get 15 minutes of something productive done.

There are other times when I find that things in one area of my life aren’t going the way that I wish they were.  At times, I tend to dwell on the thing that isn’t working rather than refocusing my energy into something that I could be making go well.

There are so many ways I could apply this advice to my life.  Like with being pregnant: there are things I can’t do or that I’m not supposed to do.  For example, I’m not supposed to be out riding my bike on the trails I like because I like to ride places that there’s a pretty good risk that I could crash and hurt the baby.  But I could be out riding on easier trails and there are plenty of other forms of exercise I can do.  (To be fair to myself, I have still been somewhat active and the chaos of moving has impacted my exercise schedule too.)

There are a lot of other things I can think of that I won’t be able to do once I’m a mom.  Sometimes, I feel a little down about those things.  The problem is that thinking that way makes me more likely to let the things I can’t do become the focus and limit me from the things I can do.

I need to find a way to remember not to let what I can’t do change the things I can.

The post Don’t let what you can’t do change what you can do appeared first on Live Hoppy.

I thought since the month is about half over, it would be a good time to do a progress check on my Best Month Ever Challenge.  Taking the time to check in with goals and think about both what is going well and what isn’t is a really important aspect of actually achieving things.

The initial act of setting a goal is fun and invigorating.  The day to day act of following through with what needs done to meet the goal isn’t always as much fun.  Monitoring progress and reviewing how something is going is a great way to get re-energized about it.  So…

My goal

The premise of the Best Month Ever Challenge is to pick one area and dedicate 1/2 hour each day to improving it for a month.  My main goal for this challenge was to get all of the old tasks crossed off my to-do list for work.

The things that have gone well

1. My biggest win with this has been actually finishing several old tasks.  It feels amazing to be getting them crossed off the list.  Those little things weigh on my mind as things that need to be done.  Each time I finish another task, it feels really nice.
2. I have also completed a lot of other work tasks.  By that I mean new things rather than things that have been on the to-do list for an unreasonable amount of time.  My focus on completing old tasks has over-flowed into focusing on taking care of the current stuff too.
3. In addition to working on the old and new tasks, I have put some serious time into one of the big projects that I have going on right now.  It feels really good to be making more progress there.

The struggles

1. I’m not sure if I put in an extra 1/2 hour each day or not.  (There have certainly been a couple of weekend days when I know I didn’t.)  Some days, I have certainly put in more time towards completing old tasks and some days probably less.
2. It’s hard to balance all that I have to do.  It feels like time finishing old tasks takes away from time on new tasks and both take away from time on projects.
3. Keeping the initial motivation is a little hard some days.
4. I have fears\resistance to doing some tasks for various reasons.

Solutions to struggles

1. I need to realize that 1/2 hour each day is a great goal, but it’s not really the important thing here.  The important thing is that I am making progress on crossing things off the list.
2. Whenever I am working on something, there will ALWAYS be other things that need done.  I can’t spend time worrying about that and the important thing is that I am working on something.  I am going to pull a page from Stepehen Covey’s book (7 Habits of Highly Effective People) and start scheduling the days of my week by category.  Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for the urgent, smaller things- calls, emails, small tasks, and miscellaneous things.  Tuesdays and Thursdays I am going to dedicate to my big projects and things that need solid focus.  I’ll try this for two weeks and see how it goes.  I know I’ll still end up doing some calls on T-days since that is an important aspect of my job, but I’m going to keep it to a minimum.
3. Reviewing my progress already feels motivating.
4. When I actually get started on a task, the resistance pretty much just evaporates.  And once I finish the task, I feel good.  I have no idea why I imagine some tasks will be much more painful, unmanageable or awful than they really are.

A reminder of the prize

Note to self: think about how awesome it’s going to feel to have the OVERDUE task list be completely empty!!  Think about going into 2016 with a clean slate.  Imagine how much nicer things will feel without those nagging thoughts about little things that need done, and how you’ll be better able to focus on the BIG things.

Interestingly, I wrote a version of this review yesterday (I modified what I had written for posting).  The process of writing this stuff re-motivated me and I’ve made lots of good progress today.  It’s important to re-commit to things sometimes.

The post Update on Best Month Ever Challenge – Anti-Procrastination appeared first on Live Hoppy.

What is The Miracle Morning?

The Miracle Morning refers both to the book by Hal Elrod and a morning routine that he suggests to start off the day in the best way possible.  Now, if you’re anything like me, you might hear the word ‘morning’ and think this isn’t for you.  It will be worth your time to keep reading.  I never thought of myself as a morning person, but The Miracle Morning changed that for me.   If you’re already a morning person, you will find some ideas here to make your morning even better.

The Miracle Morning suggests waking-up 30-60 minutes earlier than normal and spending that time working on personal development.  There are six specific activities recommended although other things could be added in.  I’ve been practicing The Miracle Morning for the last two months and it has really sparked many positive changes in my life.  More on that below, but first, some cute pictures of Hoppy who has also been doing The Miracle Morning.

Hoppy does The Miracle Morning

(Click on a thumbnail to see the larger version of the picture.)

Getting started

Resources

The Miracle Morning book is the best place to get started with this.  It provides tips on waking up earlier, has details about each recommended activity and reasons behind doing these things.  There are also motivational parts about why doing all of this matters as well as parts on modifying the program to fit individual needs or situations.  You can download two chapters of the book for free on Hal Elrod’s Website.

The Miracle Morning on Amazon (Note:I participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.  I only link to the few products that I would recommend anyway.  I am very selective since I hate ads, thus the lack of any other form of ads on here.)

One thing that I found on his website that I really love is Hal’s Achieve Your Goals podcast.  I have listened to many of the episodes and they are amazing.  I think I love Hal’s podcast even more than I love his book!  Episode 25 is on the S.A.V.E.R.S components of the Miracle Morning and includes some great tips that aren’t in the book.  Also,  at  TMMbook.com  you can download a few things that are suggested in the book including a 30-day guide to getting started.

Tips On Waking Up Earlier

Probably one of the most important parts of The Miracle Morning for me were the tips on waking up earlier.  If it weren’t for these, I probably never would have gotten off the ground with this practice.

• Set your intentions before bed.  Imagine yourself waking up well-rested and excited for the day.  Don’t set yourself up to feel bad with thoughts like “I’m going to feel so tired tomorrow morning.  I only have 6 hours until my alarm goes off!”
• Place your alarm clock across the room.  This way, you have to get out of bed and can’t just hit snooze and fall back asleep.
• Brush your teeth.  The simple act of doing this helps to get you in motion.  Plus it’s simple enough you can do it while still half asleep.
• Drink a full glass of water.  This helps you to re-hydrate after not drinking anything for several hours while sleeping.
• Take a shower or get dressed.  This way, you’re ready for the day.  Dressing in workout clothes is recommended since exercise is part of the next part.

S.A.V.E.R.S.

S.A.V.E.R.S  is the acronym used for the six key activities that are recommended.  These include:

• Silence.  Spending time meditating, praying, reviewing things your grateful for or other similar activities.
• Affirmations.  Time spent practicing positive affirmations about how you want your life to be.
• Visualization.   Spending time picturing your day going smoothly, meeting your goals or similar things.
• Exercise.  Yep, we all know what this is.  Benefits of doing it in the morning include increased energy through-out the day.
• Reading.  Reading self-help books, motivational books, spiritual books or other books to help meet goals or further personal growth.
• Scribing (Writing).  Reflecting on accomplishments, listing things your grateful for, setting goals or writing down your thoughts.

My experience with The Miracle Morning

Here are some of my thoughts from along the way.

Day 1- Getting started

Recently, I started reading The Miracle Morning.  I thought I would give it a shot for 30 days.  I may modify things to fit my life a little after that, but I wanted to try it pretty much as outlined in the book to start with.  After all, I may find things that work that I never would have tried otherwise.  The whole point is to try something new rather than to keep doing things like I’ve always been.

When people post about these great new things that they are doing, I always wonder how long they are going to stick to them.  Is it really a permanent life-changing thing?  Or is it just a fad that they will soon abandon?  So, I want to commit to re-visiting this topic in a year and evaluate how it actually changed things for me.

I’m not a “morning person.”  I’ve never been a “morning person” or aspired to be one.  Until now.  I started reading “The Miracle Morning” by Hal Elrod yesterday.  I’m only about half way through the book, but I was motivated enough to start the routine this morning.

Waking up has always been a struggle for me.  I hit the snooze button a few times.  I drag myself out of bed.  For that matter, I’m self-employed and it’s only been the last few months that I’ve started setting my alarm and trying to start the day at a decent hour.  It was part of my continual effort at being the person I want to be.  Even though I have been adjusting to getting out of bed by 7 rather than 8 or 9, I can’t say I liked it.

Last night, I followed one of the pieces of advice from “The Miracle Morning” and left my phone across the room so that when my alarm went off I would have to get up to turn it off rather than hitting the snooze button and just falling back asleep.  Initially, upon waking this morning when my alarm went of at 6 am, I thought, “This is crazy.  I just want to go back to bed and re-set my alarm for another hour of sleep.”  I’m proud to say that I pushed through.  I made my bed.  (Another habit I have  been diligent about for a few years now.  Habits are SO important to life.)  Then I brushed my teeth, which happens to be the next piece of advice from “The Miracle Morning” about waking up and was already the next thing I always do after making the bed anyway.  The next piece of advice was to drink a full glass of water, so I did that too.

Then I went through all six activities.  So, how was it?  It was actually pretty great.  After over-coming the initial desire to go back to sleep, it felt really good to be up early.  I feel excited and motivated for the day.

Day 2- Up at 5 am!

I set my alarm an hour earlier for this morning, so I was up at 5 am.  First off, I feel a small amount of disbelief at this.  I have never gotten up at 5 am unless I had some incredibly compelling reason.  Then again, I do have an incredibly compelling reason for doing this: to make the most of this amazing life I’m blessed enough to be living.  I keep thinking about Hal talking about how when you hit the snooze button, you’re basically telling the universe and yourself that you’d rather lie there unconscious than get up and live your life.

Things went well this morning.  I spent a little quiet time doing some gentle stretching.  Then I spent a little time reviewing the last few days, writing down what I want to do today in my planner, and making a gratitude list.  After that, I changed into my workout clothes, and did an exercise video from YouTube.  From there, I was on into the shower and went on to make breakfast and even washed the dishes immediately afterward.

After all that, I really did feel amazing and ready for a great day!

Day 3- Thoughts on exercise

One thing I am really liking is working out as part of this routine.  It does take just a little discipline to make myself start that part, but once I’m going, it feels good.

Working out is one of those things that I have attempted to put into my life time and time again.  Sometimes, I do OK for a couple weeks or so, and then somehow I always seem to quit.  Writing that, it feels like a strong word: quit.  It’s not like I ever consciously decided that I  going to stop working out.  One way or another though, it has never made it as a lasting change in my life.  The reality is that I did always quit.

I really want to find a place in my day where working out will really stick.  I’ve never really tried putting it first thing in the morning and maybe doing so will help.  My health really is important to me, so it makes sense to make it something that I actually work to maintain and improve first thing every day.

On a side note, I’ve been thinking about what things in my life that are my priorities in theory verses what I actually spend my time on.  My health is definitely one of those things that is ‘a priority’, but that I really don’t prioritize.  I’m going to change that!

Day 6- Seeing changes

The Miracle Morning book starts out with these testimonials about the amazing changes people experienced from the program: losing 25 pounds, having more energy, being more motivated, accomplishing more at work, etc.  The sorts of things that make you just want to stop reading because you’re sure the whole thing must just be another scam with false promises.  So, are these things true?

Well, I don’t have 25 pounds to lose and at day 6 I wouldn’t expect much progress on the little I would like to shed.  Plus, I donated my scale to the thrift store, so we’ll never know if I lose weight doing this.  I do feel good after working out each morning and I care a lot more about feeling good than about any number anyway.

I do have more energy.  I expected to be dragging a bit waking up so early and getting a little less sleep.  I’ve tried to move my bedtime a little earlier, but it still doesn’t compensate for waking up two hours earlier.  I really don’t feel tired, and in fact have been less likely to take a nap later during the day than before starting this.  Perhaps I was actually getting too much sleep before.  While we hear a lot about the detrimental effects not getting enough sleep, a quick Google search on ‘too much sleep’ brings up a ton of results on how maybe that’s not good either.  Or maybe I’m feeling better because of working out in the mornings.  Either way, I’m happy to feel more energetic and awake throughout the day.

I do feel more motivated as well.  It’s probably a combination of the time spent visualizing what an amazing day I’m going to have and how good it feels knowing I am waking up early and doing these things to start my day off in the most amazing way possible.

I have also been more productive at work.  I start working earlier since I’m up and going earlier and feel like I accomplish a lot even before lunch time!  The extra energy and motivation discussed above help a lot too.

For just being on day 6, I really am impressed at the results of doing this.  To be clear, it’s not like some miracle pill that will just make your problems go away.  It takes dedication and commitment.  The person that lost 25 pounds doing this didn’t just snap their fingers and wake up thinner.  They got out of bed earlier than normal every day and made exercise part of their routine.  Waking up at 5 am is a little challenging, although the first 3 minutes out of bed are the worst for me.  Pushing myself to start working out before the sun is up is a little hard too.  The increased energy, motivation and excitement about my life and goals provides more than enough fuel to make me really want to keep doing this.  I am working hard at making the most of this Miracle Morning challenge and I am loving the results that I am seeing!

Day 9- Settling in

I have to admit that the last couple of days, I haven’t had quite the same level of excitement for this as at the beginning.  This is a common occurrence with things that we start:  the first few days are grand and amazing and then the excitement wears off.  This is where commitment comes in.  Trying this out and seeing how it works for me is worth it to me so I’ll keep it up.

Something else can happen when we start to settle in to changes that we’ve made and that is that we start taking for granted the improvements.  We become used to things being better and forget how they were worse before.  This  can make us forget what motivated us to make the changes to start with.  This can result in losing our motivation a little bit even though things have improved.  It helps to look back and intentionally reflect on the improvements.

I accept all of this as part of the process of settling into this new routine.  If I think about it a little, I am still seeing benefits.  I have exercised every day for the last nine days and I haven’t had a streak like that in quite some time.  This helps me to feel accomplished and positive about myself.  Honestly, if the only thing that changed for me with all of this was to start exercising daily, that would be more than enough.

Hal mentions in The Miracle Morning that the activities he recommends aren’t like anything new that he came up with.  They are the six activities that are most recommended for personal development.  None of these activities was a new concept for me.  It’s just a matter of carving out time in my life to make these things a priority and do them.  Exercise was always something I intended to be doing.  Now, I am just actually doing it.

Day 10- Routine

Today something revolutionary happened: I woke up at 4:45 and not because my alarm went off.  It was actually 15 minutes before my scheduled alarm time.  I don’t know if this was a fluke or if it will happen again, but it was the first time this has ever happened.

I have really settled nicely into my Miracle Morning routine.  I’ve tweaked it a little to fit my preferences and with the goal of being all ready for the day once my morning is complete.  I haven’t taken out any of the suggested things, only added some that I find beneficial.  My routine looks like this (more or less depending on the day):

• 5:00- Wake up, make bed, turn on lights around the house, brush my teeth, drink a glass of water, make a cup of coffee.
• 5:20- Gentle stretching, meditation
• 5:35- Write down goals for the day in my planner, affirmations, visualizations, and a gratitude list
• 6:05- Change into workout clothes, workout
• 6:45- Step out on the back porch for a moment and just breath in some fresh air
• 6:50- Shower, and get dressed
• 7:25- Cook breakfast, eat breakfast while reading something that will benefit me
• 8:00- Brush teeth, wash dishes while listening to music or podcasts, make another cup of coffee
• 8:20- Spend time writing, editing photos, etc. for this site
• 9:15- Work

The couple of things I’ve added to what the book suggests are all habits that I think are really important for me.  Making the bed and washing the dishes are just simple things that keep my space more tidy and doing them daily is the only way to go.  It’s also important to me to take time to cook a real meal- normally some combination of eggs and tons of vegetables to start my day off right nutritionally.

Another important thing is to shower early in the day and try to dress with at least a little bit of effort. I work at home, so I could really just wear my pajamas all day if I wanted to.  It sounds like a nice thing, but at the end of the day if I’m still in my pajamas, it doesn’t matter how much I’ve gotten done, I feel like a loser. Starting the day showered and dressed sounds simple, but is so important.

Day 12- Variations

The last part was on setting a routine.  I think routines and habits are super important, but variety is equally important.

Let’s take exercise as an example.  Making a routine out of exercising every morning is a great thing.  But if you do the same workout video every single morning, you will likely soon grow bored and and lost interest in this exercise routine.  This is why it’s important to make sure and include variety in these things.

It is possible to include different options for all of the habits that make up The Miracle Morning.

Silence- Change up the type of meditation that you’re doing.  Try searching online for different types of trying  a meditation app.  Or if the weather is good, try moving this portion outside and enjoying some fresh air.

Affirmations- Part of the power of affirmations comes with repeating the same positive statements over and over.  This doesn’t mean that you can’t add to your list or change them as your goals change.

Visualization- You can try visualizing success in different areas of your life.  Or have fun with it and draw pictures of how you see the future- even if they’re just stick figures.  One day, I used Google Photos to make a little collage of nine different pictures that shows what is important to me in my life.

Exercise- There are tons of different options for this.  You might try looking for a YouTube video with a new routine or buying a workout DVD at the store.  Or go outside and go for a walk, run or bike ride.

Reading- This is an easy place to mix things up since you can always pick a new book to read.  I love to read books on all sorts of different topics from entrepreneurship, to relationship skills, to stress-reduction, to habits and motivation, etc.  You could even read a book on a new hobby you want to pick up or a new skill you want to learn.

Writing- This is another easy place to include variety.  Writing topics could include anything from what you’re grateful for to what your goals are to what happened yesterday.  I like to make a gratitude list, write my to-do list and schedule in my planner and then spend some time writing for this site or journaling.

Day 13- Push through

I woke up this morning and I didn’t feel like doing this whole Miracle Morning routine at all.  I felt tired and my head hurt a little and I just didn’t want to do all the stuff.  I told myself that I was committed to it and that I wasn’t going to slack.  There may be days that I don’t feel like doing this sort of thing, but it is precisely those days when it is the most important to do it.

Committing to a new habit or routine doesn’t mean that we do it just when we feel like it.  It means that we do it no matter what.  Being the sort of person that pushes through when things get difficult rather than quitting is what makes somebody successful.

I had to keep reminding myself of these things all the way through my routine this morning.  First, I just wanted to go back to bed.  Then I wanted to just work on my website rather than doing my workout.  Then I didn’t want to go and have a shower and after that, I most definitely did not feel like washing the dishes.

Now I get the rewards.  I feel better, I am ready for the day and I have a nice clean kitchen.  It’s important to find things that make us feel motivated and incorporate variety to keep ourselves interested.  Life shouldn’t be just pushing ourselves through and hating it all the time.  But there will be times when we don’t feel motivated.  Sometimes, the answer is just to push through and do the thing we don’t want to. 

Day 16- Recognizing progress

I am more than half way done with my 30 day trial of this.  It’s always important to recognize our progress on our way towards meeting our goals.  Really, waking up at 5 am for 16 days in a row is an amazing accomplishment for me!  I don’t think I’ve ever gotten up at 5 am two days in a row before in my whole life.

A couple of days recently, I have gone out on walks for the exercise portion.  It’s really enjoyable to be outside while the sun is rising, breathing the fresh air, watching the sky brighten and seeing the few other people that are out walking or jogging.  When I see other people out then, I feel a certain sense of camaraderie and think, “We are the people really living life!”  I bring my headphones along and listen to some good songs and that perks me up as well.

Two months in

I am now about two months in to practicing The Miracle Morning.  I did struggle some with adjusting my sleep schedule for the first few weeks, but now I am used to it.  I still don’t like it when the alarm first goes off in the morning, but once I get going, I am glad I am up.

I’ll even admit that I fell off of the routine for about a week in there.  Life was a little chaotic, but the excuse doesn’t really matter.  The important part is that I corrected my path and got right back at it.  Waking up early and doing my new morning routine really does get the day off to a positive start.  I find that I am more productive at work.  I feel more positive about my life and about myself.

I found that really doing a good workout for 30-60 minutes and focusing on crushing it makes a big difference for me.  I know that I am  unlikely to workout later in the day so making it a priority to do a solid workout in the morning has really been helping me.  After two months of doing this, I am in better shape.  I also feel more like I am living in alignment with my most important goals because my health is very important to me.  That said, I haven’t always actually made exercise a priority.  It feels really good to start the day off with a workout.

I have also been listening to Hal’s podcast A LOT.  His positive message and tips on achieving goals has really impacted my life.  I’ve always been fairly competent at achieving goals, but his tips take it to the next level.  One of the most important shifts in how I think has been regarding looking at the value I create for others.  For example, at my job I am really thinking more in terms of providing value for my customers rather than making money for me.  This is probably one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned from Hal.

I also started writing a book after listening to his podcast on why everybody should write a book.  It was kind of interesting because when I was listening to the podcast, I really wasn’t thinking about writing a book, but it must have sunk into my subconscious because a few days later I decided to really go for it.

The bottom line is that I like the results I am seeing enough that I plan to continue doing The Miracle Morning pretty much indefinitely.  I am really glad that I gave it a shot and that I pushed through when it was kind of tough.

Further Reading

It’s interesting because now that I have become more aware of this idea of waking up early, I am finding that I see where tons of successful people tout their early morning routines.  I’ve heard it said that success leaves clues and all we have to do to become successful is to identify successful people, look at what they do and then do the same things.

Here was a good article I found on StevePavlina.com  (a great website that I coincidentally found because it was mentioned in The Miracle Morning).  At the bottom of the article there are more links to some of his related posts on early rising.

How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off

The post The Miracle Morning appeared first on Live Hoppy.

We all struggle from lack of motivation at times.  Whether you’re struggling with a lack of motivation right now or just looking for ways to be more motivated, you’ll find something useful here.  I tend to be a pretty passionate person and I always have something in life that I am passionate about.  Or almost always.  A couple days ago I became aware of this feeling I’d been having for a few days.  I didn’t want to get out of bed.  I didn’t want to do anything.  This may initially sound like depression, but it lacked the feelings of sadness, the pessimistic thinking and thoughts of whether or not life was worth living.  Pure and simple, I just had no motivation.

So, I Googled ‘How to get Motivated’.  Google knows everything!  Below are the techniques and concepts that I found that were the most helpful to me.  But first, Part 1 of my poem on motivation.  (Part 2 is at the bottom of this post.)

Motivation and Feelings

It’s important to note that motivation has to do with how we feel.  This isn’t about how to accomplish things.  This is about changing how we feel so that we want to accomplish things.  We accomplish more when we feel positive.  Personally, I love it when I feel motivated.  There is nothing like feeling passionate and fired up for some goal or project that I am working on.

Having reasons to want to do something aren’t enough.  We all have reasons to exercise: health, happiness, stress-relief, looking good, etc.  Those reasons aren’t enough to get us up off our bottoms and into the gym.

5 Ways to Motivate Yourself

1. Music

One of the quickest ways to change how we feel is to listen to music.  Listening to an upbeat song can bring about those positive feelings that make us feel motivated.  This worked like a charm for me when I was feeling unmotivated.  I plugged my phone into my speakers, out on my favorite playlist and felt more motivated washing the dishes than I’d felt all week.

2. Reading Blogs or Books

Reading a blog or book by somebody that has done what we want to is a great way to get motivated.  As I write this, I am preparing to move into my van and hit the road full-time.  When I realized I was feeling unmotivated, I wasn’t even excited about my upcoming travels.  Thirty minutes of poking around some travel blogs for some full-time RVers and I was again psyched about my plans.

3. Visualization

Spend time thinking about how great the results will be.  This may sound silly, but lately I’ve been walking around my house having imaginary conversations with people I’m going to meet on the road where I have a beaming smile and am telling them how much I love my life traveling around the country.

4. Pictures or Reminders

Pictures or saying posted around the house or office can be good reminders of what we want to work for.  I changed the background on my phone to be a picture of my RV parked by a lake from one of my previous trips.  Every time I see it, I feel excited about hitting the road.

5. Track Your Progress

This is a great way to stay motivated.  Obviously it doesn’t work so well if you haven’t started on something yet, but once you get going, nothing is more motivating than seeing your progress!  For some goals, before and after pictures are a great way to track progress.  For others, you can make a list of things that you have accomplished.

The post Ways to motivate yourself appeared first on Live Hoppy.