Tag Archives: exercise

It’s not what you think

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khrichardsonAbout this time each year I attempt to inspire you to make goals for the New Year. Written goals are 10 times more likely to be accomplished than goals that are not written. Typically, I encourage goals for spiritual growth, financial soundness, and physical betterment. I still believe each of these areas is important, but this year, I’m re-thinking my goal-setting and accomplishing strategy.

What if I keep my three main categories, but only have one maybe two goals in each. Quality not quantity of goals. Each day, week, month, live intentionally to end up with a higher accomplishment rate. I’m not going to lose 15 pounds the first week of the year. But I can over a few months. It’s going to take being intentional each day to lower my sugar intake. It’s going to take being intentional each week to make time to exercise.

In December, I gave up talk radio in order to clear the clutter from my brain and allow my heart to experience the Christmas season. It worked. Not in the way I expected it to, but I found my spirit calm and my heart excited to celebrate the birth of Christ. The other thing I gained from this was control. Instead of absentmindedly turning the channel to talk radio or news, I chose to listen to uplifting and inspirational music. I controlled the messaging going into my brain. It’s important to keep up with news and the affairs of the world, but do it on YOUR terms.

Our days can get busy and life can get messy, take control where you can, be intentional in your living and focus each day on what is most important.

Take Care,
KK

P.S. — Want to help me with one of my goals? Share one of my posts that you most enjoy on your social media sites. Invite your friends and colleagues to follow.

 

 

Those Who Have Ears…

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Recently, I launched my assault on the middle-age weight and shape challenge. My arsenal is a treadmill in the gym and my motivating music is a playlist that I developed just for the event. Actually, I have two lists.

One is made up of the hits of the 80’s – Abba, Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, and Paula Abdul – all the dance favorites from my high school and cruising days. The other list is full of praise music – Casting Crowns, Amy Grant, Carrie Underwood, Nicole Mullen; these favorites lift my spirit while getting me moving.

My first few campaigns on the treadmill I listened to my hits of the 80’s. I boogied my way a couple of miles down the road old lady cartoon 2maintaining personal restraint not to belt out that I am the Dancing Queen! Later in the week I was at the gym very early one morning and decided to listen to praise music instead. At the end of my 4,000 steps I came off the treadmill not dancing physically, but my spirit was lighter. The music and its message gave my demeanor a new energy and perspective on the day.

It made me wonder about the different types of music and how I felt after my workout and listening. Exercising is known to lift the spirit while getting your blood pumping. By listening to praise music, am I lifting my spirit and my soul while tightening all my drooping parts?

Your thoughts on music…

KK

Who’s the victim now?

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freedom  At some point in everyone’s life something bad happens.  The country music industry is proof of that.  How many songs are all about heart-ache and double crossing meanness?  Maybe you were shorted an opportunity as a child, as a young adult someone lies or breaks your heart, or as a professional someone discredits you to the point of losing your job.  Take a look at these three scenarios — what’s the commonality?  What could you control?  Finding yourself as a victim offers the opportunity for choices.

You have the choice to stay down in the situation and wallow, or you can take charge of your responsibility in the situation, how did it get as bad as it did?  What could you have done differently?  Answers to these questions allow the freedom to grow as a person, move forward and not remain stuck.

Even if it takes years to grow up and out of the situation, at some point in order to be free of the chains of victimization, you have to own the situation, learn from it and grow into a wiser person.

Hanging on to unfair situations in the past only burdens the future.  This process of overcoming injustices can be freedom3amazing and freeing.  Sometimes the hardest thing to do is work on bettering yourself and breaking free when others around you don’t live by the same life-long values.

Consider yourself challenged to do some soul-searching and decide today what stronghold or area of your life needs addressing.  Can you see yourself as successfully walking away from being a victim and being free from whatever restricts you from being the best you were created to be?  Is it an area that at the end of your days you will be thankful you addressed?

All the best,

KK

Have you done it yet?

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Welcome to the end of the first week of January.  Last week you started the month and the year with high-hopes and lofty resolutions.  Now that things are settling down to normal and the kids are headed back to school, it’s time to solidify those resolutions into goals that you can work toward accomplishing in the next 358 days.

With clear and realistic thinking, sit down and write your goals for 2013.  You’ve heard that the journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step; writing your goal down is the first step.  Your goal becomes real when you see it staring back at you from the page.  It becomes your destination and map for a new journey this year.  Then take the second step and write under the goal the first five action items to accomplishing your goal.

For example, one of my goals is to read at least 12 books this year and at least two of them need to be new authors and genres for me.  So under the goal I number lines one through twelve.  Now I just go to work filling in the blanks.  I know a book a month doesn’t seem like much, but realistically I have little time in my day to read, so I know it’s attainable given my work and family obligations.  Last year, I would have read more, but one of the books I chose was painfully slow.  But I finished it and am glad I stuck with it.

Can’t think of anything you would like to accomplish this year?  Ask yourself a couple of questions:  if I could do one thing to improve my situation, financially, physically, mentally or emotionally, what would it be?  What do you need to do to accomplish this?

If it helps and you want someone to hold you accountable, share your goals with a trusted friend and give them permission to ask you throughout the year about how you are doing toward your goal.  Having gone through this exercise every year for the past 20 plus years, setting goals has become a part of my psyche, I’m pretty good at holding myself accountable; ok except for exercise goals, these I stink at.

One thing is true, if you write nothing down; set no goals, you are likely to be the exact same physically, mentally or emotionally as you are right this minute.  Even if you don’t fully accomplish the goal you write down, any effort toward that goal is better than no effort at all.  In the end, you will celebrate all the steps of your journey even if you didn’t reach your destination.  That’s what 2014 will be about.

Let me know how it’s going,

KK

Saturday, January 21, 2012

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“We always over estimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we can do in five years.” – Source unknown

It’s Saturday, January 21st and most people who made New Year’s resolutions have given up.  It’s been too cold or life got busy again getting back to the routine of work and school. Resolutions or goals are like running a marathon.  Runners don’t bust off the line and burn all of their energy in the first mile; they plan their pace to accomplish the time they want across the finish line.

So, did you blast off on January 1st, 2nd, and 3rd?  Below are few suggestions for reloading those goals and re-committing.

First, be realistic.  Runners don’t just get up one morning and decide to win a race.  They start with training and really having a passion for racing.  Go back and review the resolution or goal you wrote down (you did write it down, or do I need to go back further on goal setting).  Did you set too many goals or make too many resolutions? Maybe choose only one or two to really commit to.  Do you have the ability and desire to accomplish the goal within the year?   If either is in question, keep reading as we further look at reloading.

Second, give yourself a new start date.  January 1st is a natural calendar start, but goals can be started anytime.  If the first quarter of the year is very busy for you in one area of your life, you may need to set a start date further out.   My goals are written by the end of the first week of January, but my start date isn’t until February 1st.  This allows me a month to plan for them, pray over them and really commit to working toward accomplishing them.

Third, break the goal down into bite size chunks.  Runners usually start out walking or running smaller races to train and get in shape.  What are the steps to accomplishing your goal?  Do you need to take a class?  Do you need to plan for some activity toward that goal each week?  Take the piece of paper you wrote the goal on (you did write it down, didn’t you) and under the goal write the steps to accomplishing it.  Then go through and give each step a deadline.  Are your deadlines doable with your other responsibilities?  Add these deadlines to the calendar you live by; if it’s electronic then set reminders for yourself.

Fourth, keep your goal fresh.  Set a date five or six months from your start to revisit the goal.  Do you still want to accomplish this?  How are you doing? Do you need to adjust your goal to better fit your time, ability and resources?

By writing your goals and making them work within your passion, lifestyle and resources, you are taking control.  When you take charge of your goals and resolutions, you will accomplish more than if you give up before the end of the first month; and even more will be accomplished if you write the goal down.  Every day is a new start, every week is a new beginning and every month is a fresh commitment.

See you at the finish line,

KK