YOUR LIFE A-Z:BREAKFAST

A HEALTHY CHOICE WHEN EATING OUT

BREAKFAST

The first rule of good physical self-care is to always eat BREAKFAST.  BREAKFAST starts our metabolism for the day and signals the body that it is time to get on with the process or living well.  BREAKFAST is considered by most health experts to be the most important meal of the day.  However, not all BREAKFAST meals are the same, so this is not a license to eat whatever you want. However, it is a license to eat something.  Good BREAKFAST choices are always less than 500 calories and often you can have a good breakfast less than 300 calories.  Portion control is important in all of our meals.  BREAKFAST needs to be balanced with protein choices.  Thus an egg omelet with fresh veggies, yogurt with nuts and berries, apple with peanut butter, whole grain carbs with any of the above can complete the meal for you.  Some of you enjoy variety, so be sure to think ahead and have several healthy choices on hand and pre-plan it the night before so that you get in the habit of making sure you eat before you leave the house or have a breakfast to go ready and waiting for you in the fridge.  Some professionals recommend that you eat protein with your BREAKFAST meal and that you eat within thirty minutes of being up.  If you are not a BREAKFAST eater, then make this meal a priority and keep it simple in order to get into the habit.  The simpler it is for you the more successful you will be. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z: AHEAD

I AM PREPARED FOR THE FUTURE, ARE YOU? 

AHEAD

What lays AHEAD no one knows.  But are you paying attention or have you drifted into boredom?   AHEAD can have multiple meanings but the TWENTY MINUTE Coach is using it as a motivational word.  Get AHEAD.  What will put you AHEAD of yourself?  When you do things before they are due it can make you feel good.  Getting AHEAD of our game gives us a sense of accomplishment and pride. There are many things that you can do get AHEAD of yourself.  For instance, you can get all of your Christmas presents purchased and wrapped over the next two weeks.  You can put an extra sum of money into savings to boost your savings account.  You can get AHEAD of traffic by leaving early.  You can get AHEAD of your filing by working on it for two hours today. Getting AHEAD in life requires forethought and action.  It is important to think AHEAD on most all of our daily tasks in order to stay organized and on task.  Being AHEAD not only gives you a sense of accomplishment but also open space in your calendar in order that you might be more spontaneous.  Think, if you get your chores accomplished early, then if a friend calls and says, “I have an extra ticket to the game do you want to go?”  You can go guilt free.  Also planning your dinner and lunch AHEAD helps you to stay on track with your health goals and cuts down on impulsive food choices.  Go AHEAD and make list of things you can get AHEAD of today.

YOUR LIFE A-Z:YARDSTICK

                          

YARDSTICK

A YARDSTICK is commonly a flat wooden stick measuring a yard (3 feet) and subdivided by 1/8  or sometimes 1/16 inches throughout its length for measurement.  Sometimes it is easy to get focused on the full yard and forget that every small effort of a 1/8 or 1/16 of an inch helps us achieve our goal.  Thus, when measuring your progress do not allow yourself to slip into an all or nothing mentality.  Don’t focus on your lack of success; focus on the 1/16  inch of success along the way.  Maybe you have not reached the full YARDSTICK of accomplishment but maybe you are 1 and ¾ of the way to the full 36 inches that a YARDSTICK measures.  When we focus on the positive it builds our morale and energy and it becomes easier to say I can do another sixteenth of an inch right now.  Tomorrow I can do a full inch.  Inch-by-inch I will reach my goal.  This is a good time to re-evaluate your success and the definition of your goal.  It is not enough to say I am going to eat healthier.  It is important to have a healthy daily eating plan and then it will be easier to measure the YARDSTICK of your success.  Once one Yard has been accomplished then the YARDSTICK gets moved and your start on the second YARDSTICK.  Interior designers depend on YARDSTICKS to help them furnish a room perfectly.  Think of yourself as the interior designer of your life and focus on the “look” you want to accomplish with the YARDSTICK of your life. 

YOUR LIFE TO A-Z: VICTORY

VICTORY IS BEING YOUR BEST SELF

VICTORY

VICTORY is defined as an act of defeating an opponent or defeating a competitor.  The Twenty Minute Coach has over 120 blogged words at this time.  If you go back and look at them you will happily discover that you have put into action many of the words by applying the suggested steps.  It is usually a good idea to review where you have been so that you can re-define where you go from here.  But more importantly, it is essential to celebrate your VICTORY.  These past few words have been very action orientated such as Rigorous, Task, Simplify and Unilateral.  All of them require applied action steps.  Examine your successes.  Be blatantly honest with yourself.  Do not focus on any of your so-called failures right now, only focus on your successes and improvements.  Remember you are not looking for all or nothing; you are looking for well-measured steps to your goal.  What VICTORIES can you list right now?  List at least three VICTORIES.  Then enhance it to five and then stretch the list to seven.  You have VICTORY.  You have just been programmed and socialized to focus on your imperfections and failures and often told that celebrating a VICTORY will make you vain.  That is not true.  Celebrating your VICTORY will pump you up and make you want more VICTORY in your life.  You will look for ways to compete with yourself and others to have the opportunity to celebrate VICTORY.  Have a VICTORY party for yourself.  Celebrate your VICTORIES weekly.  Enjoy. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z PRACTICE

TAKE A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

PRACTICE

Contrary to the popular saying "Practice makes perfect," practice does not make perfect. Perfection does not exist.  Regardless of how much a professional athlete or pianist practice, there is always a possibility of a bad game or not so perfect performance.  The difference is that practice, daily practice, improves your odds of having more good days than bad ones; and that results in having a happier life.  It is a guarantee that if you do not practice, you will have more bad days than good ones; and you will not achieve your goals as soon as you would like, and sometimes you will not achieve them at all. By practicing, you improve your odds, your skill, your acuity, and your ability.  Without practice you are not as able to adjust to life's curve balls.  When expected things happen, you may not have the agility to be flexible or resourceful.  As a result, you repeat old habits of coping that give you the same bad results you had in the past.  The old depression and victim mentality sets in.  When this starts there is only one thing to do and that is to get back up and return to practice.  Buddhist refer to prayer and meditation as practice.  They also refer to compassion as a practice.  If we reframe the striving for perfection to the practice of practicing we are more than likely to enjoy working toward our goals and achieving our dreams.

YOUR LIFE A -Z: SUCCESS

SUCCESS IS BEING YOUR BEST SELF

SUCCESS

How do you define personal or professional SUCCESS?  Your definition will outline whether or not you reach SUCCESS.  If you say, I know I am a SUCCESS as a parent because my kids behave, make great grades, and are all in college with happy relationships then your definition of SUCCESS is defined by how someone else is doing.  At any time something can go wrong with outside situations that will bring your SUCCESS crumpling down around you.  Is Peyton Manning a SUCCESS as a quarterback even though he failed to show up in the 2014, Super Bowl?  The game was not a SUCCESS, but still his career will go down in history as one of the most SUCCESSFUL quarterbacks of our time because of his record of SUCCESS.  How you feel about your choices on a regular basis is going to determine your measure of SUCCESS.   Were you there for your kids no matter what more times than not as they were growing up?  Did you go the extra mile in order to be involved in life?   SUCCESS is a series of steps in the right direction even when there is a storm, an obstacle, a painful event.SUCCESS is measured by the steps you took, not by your destination.  SUCCESS is an internal thermometer, not an outside measuring stick.  So ask yourself today about your steps and allow yourself to PRAISE your personal and professional SUCCESS.

YOUR LIFE A-Z HEALTHY

HEALTHY

It has been said that if we don’t have our health, we have nothing.  That is so true.  If you don’t take physical care of your body, your immune system, and your brain then it will not run optimally.  Think about what happens to your car if you don’t keep it tuned up?  What happens to your lawn if you don’t attend to it?  What happens to your nails and hair if you don’t keep them groomed? Well, the same thing happens to your intestines, heart, lungs, stomach, muscles and neurotransmitters if you don’t keep them tuned up.  

How do you do that? The first step is you have to develop interest in YOU.  Being healthy must become a priority and for anything to move up the list to the top priority (top 3) there must be an interest.  The whole healthy picture is too much at one time. So what part of being healthy interests you?  Is it eating better?  If so, start in small, doable bites to insure success.  Add more vegetables this month andeliminate one unhealthy food.  Maybe exercise interests you instead of dietary change. Start something small but consistently this month.  Add some exercise that you can be successful, such as walk ten or twenty minutes three times a week.  Then execute it.  Make it happen.  Without execution even on the days you don’t want to do it, you will end up failing.  Will power will follow something that you have an interested investment in.  Get interested in your health and begin executing a doable plan today.  

YOUR LIFE A-Z WORK

Everything takes Work!

WORK

Work your plan.  Work your desire.  Make whatever it is work.  The three steps of these three questions are a simple template designed to keep you moving and in action throughout your life.  When you "hear" yourself complaining or whining about your life, then do something about it.  No room for victims in this lifetime. 

Yes, you are right, life is hard sometimes.  But my question is, "So what?"  Life is hard and no one promised a rose garden.  By the way, rose gardens take a tremendous amount of work. Roses, beautiful ones, do not grow without daily attention to the right nutrients, water, light, and lots of pruning.  Roses need pruning all of the time and they have thrones. You need specialized pruning tools and I think leather gloves to attend appropriately to your rose garden.

Work is required.  Everything requires work. The breakfast you ate this morning required work; such as shopping for it, preparing it, and cleaning up the kitchen afterwards.  Nothing comes without work.  So work your plan step by step.  Once you complete step one, go back through those three questions and work step two.  Work it. What is it I need?  How do I acquire what I need and what is the action I take to make it happen?  Then do it. 

Nike means it when their T-shirts and logo say, "Just do it."  How do you think it is going to happen if you don't do it? The only Santa Claus that exist is the one you create. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z REACH

Reach For It!

REACH

Stop expecting things to be delivered to you. Reach for what you want.  Stretch across the table, the aisles, and the negativity.  If other people can have it so can you.  You are no better or worse than those around you.  Stop being jealous about what others have and reach for what you want.  If you are not reaching, then it clearly is not important to you.  Don't judge yourself for that.  Just let it go and reach for what is really important to you.  Going out for pizza is so much better than having it delivered.  Pizza in a box is soggy.  A pizza that you reach across the table for is so much better.  Life is better if it is not handed to you.  You will appreciate your successes more. You will realize that you put your sweat and maybe even tears in what it is that you want.  It means more to you.  

Reach for the stars.  The stars are so far away and it often seems like we can never get there.  But if we use our bodies to stretch upwards to the stars we become more agile, our leg muscles elongate as we sweep down and touch our toes.  We feel empowered by this simple exercise and we learn to reach as far as we can.  Reach for  the choices you want. Who cares if what you want is across the table rather than instead of right it front of you. Reach for what you want.  Stretch into your differences and be who you are.

Photo: Pam Smead

Your Life A-Z MONEY

MONEY

No better time than today to get your financial self in order for the New Year!  Do you have a budget?  If not, stop right now and make a quick list of your monthly expenses.  Include everything from mortgage to groceries and, yes, make sure you do not cheat.  Put those Starbuck coffees in your budget.  You will be shocked how much of your hard earned money goes into their pretty packaging. That is not a criticism!  I think we should treat ourselves, even daily, if we want good quality things that make us feel good and smile.  It is important though when it comes to money that we learn to honor it and trust it.  We need to know where our hard-earned money is going and only then can we make a choice about how we spend it.  Starbucks is a choice.  If you find yourself broke at the end of the month, then it is important to make different choices so that you feel good about how you are choosing to invest your money.  If you don't know where it is going, then you are operating from a place of deprivation and sabotaging your feel good feelings at the end of the month.  Don't be afraid of your money.  Develop a healthy relationship with it and make it work for you - not against you.   

Your Life A-Z EXPAND

The World is Yours.  Create Tracks to Where-Ever You Want to Go 

EXPAND

Yesterday, the word was Develop, something that is already working in your life to be more successful.  Today, expand on your development.  Expand means to express something more fully.  Allow yourself to do just that.  Express yourself, your thoughts, ideas, and successes more fully.   Be successful at what you love, at what gives you joy.  Expand your goals to enrich your life.  We are just beginning this year, expand into it, stretch yourself into being all that you want to be.  If you have been afraid of taking the next step, take it.  Remember, there is a three step plan for everything. 

Three step plans:

11.)  Write out what you want to accomplish.

22.)  List what you will need to do or have to accomplish it.

33.)  Begin with one step toward your desired accomplishment. 

Photo: Pam Smead