Hello, my lovelies, and good morning!! 😊
Happy Friday! 😊🥳
Gonna start off with my palace-minded personal affirmation:
I am a loving, patient, grateful, understanding, honest, generous, disciplined, focused, forgiving, gentle, kind, humble, optimistic, serene, fearless, indomitable man.
Mouthful. 🙃
Wish there were a good acronym I could use for that, but there are so many… consonants—only three attributes beginning with vowels.
After over a year and a half of writing my journal in the evening before bed, it’s really weird writing it in the morning. It’s a complete shift. It’s like I have to do an unnatural shift in the morning back to yesterday, because my mind has already moved on and is looking forward to the coming day. So it feels like an awkward about face in the morning. It doesn’t… feel like it’s working very well. It makes more sense to write my journal in the morning. It’s better for my schedule in general, and it’s more sustainable long term as responsibilities will likely increase (possibility of children & family). I know life changes all the time, but wherever possible, I try to make the habits I create to be ones that can last a lifetime and not have to be restructured every handful of months/years. I find the likelihood of having a good habit slip away increases dramatically when it’s interrupted by “days off,” or when it needs to be restructured. That’s why I like the idea of a daily routine that’s the same every day–forever.
- I’m grateful I was able to make a lot of progress on tax stuff yesterday. I’m so close to turning in my stuff to my accountant for 2019. I’ve worked long and hard to try to get this figured out. I’m grateful I see light at the… middle of the tunnel. 🙃
- I’m grateful to have warm clothes. I think I mentioned that yesterday, but here I sit with pants on over my work shorts and a heavy sweatshirt over my work shirt. I’m relatively comfortable, though my toes are a tad chilly.
- I’m grateful to be growing. I’m seeing my massive proclivity for squirreling away on a gazillion things. It’s hard to keep to my routine because my brain is distracted by this, that, the other, and… oh yeah, that over there, too! So I go to write something, and the next thing I know, I’m off on 11 other things that are on my to-do list, but I’m not doing the one I’ve prioritized! But I’m growing. I see the focus starting to get better, bringing myself back… I think. Maybe it’s not any different. I don’t know, but I’m thinking about it and trying, and that’s what’s important.
- I’m grateful to have so many tools at my disposal to do what I want to do. I ordered a heart rate monitor this morning. My goal for my exercise, as with pretty much everything, is to be as efficient as possible. That means circuit training, such that I’m able to get my aerobic exercise during my strength training because I’m working hard enough and not resting too much. That way, my 30 minutes a day will be sufficient because I’ll be getting both the desired aerobic intensity level and duration and the healthy strength training at the same time, and the little heart monitor will help me gauge the intensity, such that I maintain what is good for me without overdoing it.
- I’m grateful for alarms on my phone. I took the time this morning after getting up to set alarms on my phone for the various dailies in my schedule.
- I’m grateful for easy access to products, easy shipping, and the blessing of having the income necessary to buy what is helpful for me. I live a life of luxury, honestly, compared to what’s average in the rest of the world.
- I’m grateful nutrition labels that help me make sure I’m getting healthy ranges of what I need. For example, I figured out this morning that first breakfast is about 800 calories and includes about 30 grams of protein (one cup grape nuts, 2/3 cup granola, 1 1/2 cups coconut milk [the kind in the milk carton, not the can], and a tablespoon of pea protein).
- I’m grateful for instant communication with people all over the world. That’s just amazing.
- I’m grateful for all the people who spend their lives making helpful resources for others available for free on web sites like YouTube and various other resources. What an amazing time to be alive!
- I’m grateful that electricity is so freaking cheap. I think about what life would be like without it, and how many amazing conveniences we have because of it, and I look at what it actually costs, and it’s like… wow–incredible.
So yesterday was a challenge. I was off all day. My brain wasn’t working. It was like I was in this thick fog, and just couldn’t think clearly at all. I couldn’t focus, couldn’t get much done, ended up wasting some time on YouTube in the evening watching things that were just… more entertaining than of substantive value.
Did Thanksgiving feast with my hill family. Good stuff. Other than that, I spent most of the day working on tax stuff, and that was that. I tried, but only a little, to work on my why palace, but I didn’t get much done at all. I tried to nap, but I woke up super duper groggy.
I did manage to wake myself up a bit after my nap by taking a cold shower. So that was good. Finally got that in after a few days or so of not.
Not much to say… not a very interesting report of the day yesterday, not really an interesting day, though I was more outgoing than I’m comfortable being at Thanksgiving dinner, and that was good. I acted in the face of fear, and I did get my video done, which is getting harder to do as time goes on because I don’t feel like I’m making the progress I want to make. I feel more like I’m languishing far behind because of my own lack of desire and mental discipline, but I’ll get there. I will.
Today’s Priorities (same as yesterday, finish 2019 taxes, turn them in, and get my why palace of the mind built, first edition)
Daily Accountability
- Bed last night at 8:30: About 9, I think.
- Up at 3:30: 😎
- 5x5s: 😎
- Exercise: Nope….
- Cold shower: 😎
- Meditation: Nope
- Breakfast: 😎
- NP Work: Nope
- Tax Work: 😎
- Lunch: 😎
- Work done by 6: Didn’t work at all!
- Dinner: 😎
- Only truly healthy foods: I don’t know… granola… so much sugar. I cut it with grape nuts, but still… so. much. sugar. 17 grams per 2/3 cup serving. That’s… nuts. If I had unlimited resources, I’d start a food company called No Sugar Added, and there would be, drumroll please… no sugar added–to anything!
- No Wasted Life: Some… I’ll fix that the rest of the day today.
- No Distracted Driving: Didn’t drive anywhere but up the hill yesterday.
- Faced a Fear: Yes, but no planned fears still.
- Tamed the tongue: Yes! Even with my 3-hour patience trying experience trying to create an account with the IRS!
- Bag of veggies: Uh… nope. Lots of rabbit food at Thanksgiving, but mostly fruit, not veggies.
Tomorrow’s report will be much better. I promise. I’m fighting hard to overcome my weaker points and to establish discipline and focus.
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 