Category: self improvement

Caring for the Inner You

It is time for me to get my inner-Mike on. No one else will or can do it for me. If I don’t take care of my inner-Mike, no one else is going to. And if my inner-Mike goes unintended, I know that I will be running amok.

I need to start sleeping at regular hours. Eating sensible meals in a timely fashion would help a lot. Finding the time and the desire to exercise correctly and taking the time to take care of the things around me would be tremendous. After all, that which we ignore or don’t use correctly will eventually go away. I hope that’s not my inner-Mike.

The one thing I have learned is nothing happens by ignoring it. If you want something, you need to make time for it. Schedule it, so other things don’t get in the way. And you need to ensure that you are following the schedule you set up. Not doing the things you’re supposed to do is often pretty easy. Facing the consequences of not doing what you’re supposed to be doing is usually pretty hard.

Do you ever have problems scheduling what you should be doing for yourself and end up with the inner-you going without the things you really need? Please tell me about it.

Is it Me or Not

Ever have one of those days?  The kind where everyone else is just wrong, and they are all conspiring to get on your nerves.  You are to the point that you feel you just need to get up and leave the room.  Well, maybe, you should.

You need to get out of the room and find a mirror.  Take an honest look at yourself.  And you need to figure out the answers to some questions.  The important thing here is only doing this if you can be honest with yourself.

First, when everyone seems to be bothering you, is it on a particular point, or is everything coming at you not sitting well today?  If everything is off, you have some more mirror time. The odds of everyone trying to bother you with different work, problems, or expectations are rare.

Is there anything that has happened to you lately that would cause you to be on edge?  Has something from the past come back to the forefront.  Is the rest of your life in balance right now?

I am not picking on you.  You do need, though, to understand if there is a problem, is it based on what others are sending, or what you are receiving.  If it is them, you can speak to them and nicely figure out what the concerns are and how to fix them.  If it turns out you are on edge, then maybe you need a time out.

We do not stand in the corner with grown-up time outs.  You should get out and walk for 20 minutes.  Find a vista, and enjoy it a little while.  Or, do something else that releases the mind and the tension and allows you an opportunity to reset yourself a little closer to normal.

You should never look at this type of exercise as ‘who is to blame.’  It is more of how ‘we’ get back to normal.  As long as someone is on edge, normal cannot freely exist.  When we take the edge off, normal can return.

Thank you for being with me today.  I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

And in Your Corner…

Who do you have in your corner?  Do you have a friend who will have your back?  Mom or dad?  Other family relatives? Maybe you have some people who stick up for you, and perhaps those backers are hard to find. Yet there is someone who you really need in your corner.  You.

It is surprising how many of us find it hard to back ourselves.  We make excuses for why we cannot possibly attain what we want in life.  Sometimes we even end up sabotaging our own work before we can obtain our desired goal.  We are not always our own worst enemy, yet often we could be a close second.

There are people in the world who like what we are doing and are supportive, even if they do not say so.  There are people in this world who may hate what we are doing, and although they might say so, they may not.  And some people do not care one way or the other.  These folks are called the silent majority.  You need to be in favor of what your passions are, or you need to find better desires.

Just as anything starts from a spark, whether it is the campfire or a worldwide movement, your ideas and dreams are the same.  You are the spark that needs to light your dreams and turn them into reality.  The neat thing is that you can attain just about anything that you set your sights on.  All you have to do is work at it and not give up.

If you give up on your dreams, finding that they became too hard to follow, those may not have been your true passions.  Passions may often be hard work, yet to the person who owns them, it never really feels like hard work, it only feels like the next item to do on your way to your goal.  Take your own inventory of where you are and where you are going.  If it is right, you will know it.

Thank you for being with me today.  I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Snow

We were blessed yesterday and the day before with a beautiful treasure of flaky frozen water that covered the earth and, for a while, it hid all of our junk underneath it. It is amazing how much better things look when you do not have to see your problems every time you look out the window. The junky back yard in the unkept front yard looks beautiful with a white carpet of snow laid over them.

We find it easy for us, also, to hide all of our unkept junk behind a covering smile, and a little makeup.  We always seek something new and different that can Hide our real worries and feelings from others.  We really want to hide them from ourselves. 

Our neighbors know the bump in the snow is an overturned tub with a hole in it. And those who know us probably know those things which we are desperately trying to coverup within ourselves.  You do not need to be made of glass to live in a fishbowl.  Those who see you often are smart enough to put the pieces of the puzzle together. 

If you cannot hide something, and cannot keep others from guessing, maybe it is good to go ahead and admit it.  Even if it is just to yourself to start with. Accepting anything is the first step to finding a better way to work and handle whatever it is.

Once you see your fear and face it, you will be able to figure out what to do next. And then the step after that.  You do not have to face this alone, no matter what the situation is, you can always find knowledgeable professionals that can help you if you ask.

Just one old Master Sargeant’s thought.  Be kind to yourself.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you tomorrow.

What Have You Done for #21 Lately?

We do a lot of things for many people.  The higher we grow, the more we do.  If we do our job well, we often find ourselves with more and more people attaching their projects to our time and less time for us to have to ourselves. It is all right to do well for others as long as you take care of #21. I have to ask you today, are you taking care of #21?

Granted, #21 is not at the front of the pack. Usually doesn’t get all the limelight deserved. And can often get lost in the stampede to get things done. Yet, the team would not be a whole one without this valuable player.

When you’re checking your roster of contributors and lineup of required actions, be sure to look out for the little guy. Ensure that even #21 is given a calculated blend of playing time, training time, and time for recuperation. The balance is essential because without the correct balance you will not get your best performance.

Thank you for being here with me and allowing me a little play on words. This blog contains a puzzle, and in solving it, please tell me a little bit more about #21 in the comments section. I’m not sure where everybody is reading this from. I do know where #21 lives.  #21 lives within our hearts.

I hope to be with you again soon, in the meantime don’t forget to take care of #21.

What Belongs and What Does Not

We are collectors. As we go through life, our hunter and gather her genes live strong within us. And as we settled down into a regular life with the domicile we stay in for more extended periods of time, we start to feel crowded out by all those things we’ve hunted and gathered.

When this crowding starts to happen, we must convert to givers and re-taskers. If we keep absolutely everything we’ve ever gained in life, the house starts belonging to the stuff, and we find ourselves crowded into a corner. And that is a shame because getting your house in your domestic life back is actually easy to do.

Don’t feel alone or ashamed about having to take back your house from everything you’ve collected. I had to do that myself about a year ago. Gather everything that belongs in a particular room into that room. Yes, this will cause a bit of a mess and stacking to start with.

Once you have everything that belongs in the room, in the room, pick up one thing. It can be anything it doesn’t matter just pick up something. Ask yourself a question or two. Do I need this? Do I want this? Why could I not live without this? If you convince yourself to keep it, you have to find a place for it. Nothing that belongs in the room can go to any other room just for the sake of cleaning the room. If you want the item need it, you have to find a proper place. The things you either do not want, do not need or do not have a place to keep, need to be given away or disposed of. The first few are the hardest. Once you get through the first few, you will find it is easier than you think.

Many people like to hold yard sales. I donate to places like Goodwill or DAV because it allows the item to be reused, recycled, and the money it earns helps those who could use a hand. The joke I have with my local Goodwill is that I drop the goods off at the back door and then drive around to the front and go inside to see what I want to buy back.

I like to keep things which other people have given me. When I look at them or use them, it reminds me of the person. I still can’t keep everything, yet the things I keep mean something.

Have a great day, and I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Let’s Build Bridges

I want to thank everyone here with us again today. I especially want to take a moment at this time to thank everyone who has commented, liked and shared our blog posts in the last few weeks. I thank you very much. I appreciate you being here with us.

I have some good news this morning. I think this is good news. With the help from some friends at Mirasee© (an excellent site for teaching course builders and online business, https://mirasee.com ), we have some great things coming together. I will have a course coming out on Thinkific© (a fantastic online course platform, http://thinkific.com/ ) in the next week or so, about Life Stage Transition and how to succeed at discovering and mapping your life goals and the milestones to get there.

The new course meshes nicely with the life coaching services I offer, focusing on Life Stage Transition and Motivation. I also have a course giving some ideas of how technology will shape employment in the future. And a course on how to be Always Hirable.

If you wish to know more about these exciting activities and how to join the fun, please reply in the comments section and send me a way to contact you.  Or send me an email to mikeb@reveille.rocks.

Thank you for your support and for being there as we go forward.

Mike

 

 

 

 

Learn Something New

Ever watch kids grow? They learn something new every day. They are excited about it. When they first learn they feel that there’s something that they have learned, which no one else may know about. And they go out to tell everyone.

As they grow, the young learners find out that although what they learned was new to them, it was already well-known by many others. They start to doubt the remarkable vision of the vast world before them. And, as they grow older, they slow in their learning of new things.

The slowing of their learning is not because of a lack of wondrous new things to learn. It is because they are inundated by so much. Also, because they don’t want to look awkward or uninformed by trying to master new skills.

The difference between the third-grader and a mature adult is the ego. In children that ego is not yet developed. In mature adults, the ego is formed, and the ego is also very fragile. Because of the delicate ego, adults are less inclined to try things they know little about.

As I have grown, I have grown out of the belief I know everything about everything. The higher I have gone in education, the more I realize there is an entire universe out there, and then some, of things I know nothing about. And that is okay, because I am curious and interested, and I don’t mind looking the fool if it means I can ask questions and learn new things.

I encourage everyone to reach out and be curious. Learn something new. Do not worry about how others perceive you. Just have fun and feel good about yourself.

If you see me being foolish, that is all right.  Just figure it is because I am learning something new.

Making Luck

Ever wish you had more luck? Ever hope that things would go your way? Ever dream you could just find that edge? The truth is, you can. It is just that the actions to get there are more straightforward and more accessible than you think.

I worked with a great Boy Scout troop in California once. We would go on about three camporees a year where the troops would participate in a set of games to show their camping skills. It was always a lot of fun.

About two weeks before the Camporee, our troop would have a campout of its own. Everyone would train on the skills that would be tested during the jamboree. This was an excellent sharing of knowledge and helped the scouts to know and understand what they were doing. Because of this, our scouts would almost always place well in the competition. I don’t believe it is because they were smarter, or better than any of the other kids. I believe it was merely the fact that they had explored those skills and the best practices to actually make the skills work.

This is a fantastic set of actions I think we can all learn from. If we want something in life, we should explore it. Understanding and knowledge can always go far. I remember once a veteran telling me about a time he was on a field exercise. He was a very young soldier newly enlisted in just through technical school, and he was driving a deuce and a half on the exercise.

During a stop, he was little bored, and he was reading the information plate on the inside edge of the door to the driver’s cab. He closed the door, and within a couple of minutes a general came by and talked to him. Because he had just read the plate from the door, he could tell the General that he was driving a fantastic truck that could do haul up to so many pounds, the type of drivetrain, and even that the tires were self-inflating. The general was very impressed and shook the soldier’s hand before walking on.

I am not sure I would go out of my way to look for luck. There are many positive experiences all around us. Rather than grasping at the intangibles that seem to continually evade us, be curious. Explore things that you want to be known for and share that knowledge freely. For that is when the intangibles will come.

Rules That Actually Help

Good morning.

Last week after writing to you about the need to take care of ourselves in about my Meniere’s, believe it or not, I got sick that very same afternoon. In it did it presented is Meniere’s severe vertigo and all.

After getting back home, I spent the rest the weekend rest and recuperation. Along with the Meniere’s, I was also fighting high blood pressure.  I started reading articles about what successful people do and what leaders do with their morning routine.

I even started doing those things myself. By Friday I felt better. My blood pressure was lower, and the dizziness was gone. What did I do? I made some rules.

Rule one: bedtime is bedtime, not a time to read, and not the time to watch all the shows I cannot view during the day. Not the time to write or plan. I will do all that in the morning.

Rule two: I get up an hour later than I used to in the morning. Instead of five, I get up at six. I always get up at the same time every day.

Rule three: I immediately make my bed. I remember my mom always makes her bed when she gets up in the morning, and she is a person who gets things done. It gives each of us the first accomplishment of the day. And it sets the boundary between sleep and a new day.

Rule four: I take time to be grateful. I am thankful for all that I have been given, and all I have been allowed to accomplish.

Rule five: I take time to plan. I review what I have to do today and what I want to do today. I plan out both ongoing and significant accomplishments to be done, and the todos, which when done makes life better.

Rule Six:  Showering and grooming help to make everyone feel better and can both soothe the and energize for the day ahead.

Rule seven: I enjoy a good breakfast with both carb and protein, and not overdoing it, fuels the body. And, proper hydration keeps everything afloat.

I am not saying that my rules are right for everyone. I just know that since I started following them, I have felt better and grown stronger.

 

Have a great day

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