YOUR LIFE A-Z: RIGOROUS

ATTENTION TO DETAILS

RIGOROUS

RIGOROUS seems to be the right R word to follow Own, Pride, and Quality.  RIGOROUS is defined as meticulous, exacting, scrupulous, demanding, and painstaking as well as many more synonyms.  Are you ready to step up in your life and Develop a RIGOROUS exploration of your life? Choose one goal you want to get RIGOROUS about and start changing it.  Some changes take a clear focus and painstaking plan that you must execute RIGOROUSLY in order to produce the change you want.  Old habits are really hard to break and the messages that those habits send fill your unconscious relentlessly.  You might often experience success and then immediately sabotage yourself by over-sleeping, speeding, or losing something very important.  Next your negative self-talk takes over and beats you up and your fortitude diminishes.  But with RIGOROUS attention to detail, determination, and attending to the goals of your dreams and passion, you will be back on track.  Be RIGOROUS and go forward with leaps and jumps.  Being RIGOROUS requires strength, courage, and determination.  Being RIGOROUS is not for sissies.  Being RIGOROUS is for the serious and those that really are being honest with his/herself!  How bad do you really want if?  If you really don't want it, then please do yourself a favor and let it go, toss that goal to the abyss.  Only be RIGOROUS about things that really matter.  Do not set yourself up for disappointment or failure.  Be RIGOROUS in real matters of your heart. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z BUDGET

IT IS NEEDED FOR A BUDGET

BUDGET

Tax season is finished and it is time to do next year differently.  If you got money or are going to get money back, don’t rush out to spend it.  Do something that is meaningful with the money.  BUDGET your finances, BUDGET your time, BUDGET your eating and BUDGET your break time.  Some of you get federally mandated breaks at work.  What are you doing with those twenty minutes?  Twenty Minute Coach says twenty minutes is a valuable measure of time that allows you to make significant changes and progress in your daily life.  What if you went for a twenty minute walk, meditated or read something inspirational during your federally mandated break time?  For others, breaks are important recovery times.  Mandate your own twenty- minute breaks throughout your day.  Pretend they are mandated so you do not have to feel guilty and do something to change out your day in those twenty-minute segments.  

Back to finances.  If you do not know how to BUDGET, Google helpful ways to BUDGET, maximize your financial situation, and follow a plan for thirty days.  Then tweak the BUDGET on day 31 and start over again.  On eating, if you want to change your eating habits and/or your weight, keep a food journal for one week. Calculate the calories and the types of food and Tweak it the second week and notice that small changes make you feel better.  BUDGET your time by Analyzing where you are spending it.  Speed up some tasks you dawdle at and carve out some time for something important, for instance Journaling.  Live life better with a BUDGET.

YOUR LIFE A-Z ANALYSE

ANALYSE

LOOK AND THINK ABOUT YOUR OPTIONSANALYSE

It is April already and you started the year off with the TWENTY MINUTE COACH, desiring change in your life.  It is time to ANALYSE what is working or not working.  To ANALYSE something is to study it carefully and break it down into smaller components to discover and fully understand why, how, and to what extent something is working.  Or perhaps it is to determine what is not working as well as it could be.  Here are some questions to help you break it down into micro-bits and ANALYSE where you are.  Our first word was Aware.  Go back to that word and write a page of what are you really Aware of in your life that needs your attention and care.  From there, ask yourself, how are you going to take the necessary steps to get to where you want to go and do a thorough ANALYSIS of what resources you are going to need to get there.  List your plan step by step.  Set dates as to when the steps will be executed and collect every bit of data you need to see what works and what does not work.  ANALYSE your results and continue from there.  If you are not getting what you need go to twentyminutecoach.com and purchase a package.  New 12 and 18 twenty minute session packages are available at www.twentyminutecoach.com and perhaps it is time to get some help with your target goals and explore in tiny detail, what needs to be Tweaked ANALYSE other areas of your life as well, especially your budget.  

YOUR LIFE A-Z XYSTER

THESE CACTUS APPEAR SOFT BUT CLEARLY RUB THE WRONG WAY

XYSTER

Yes, "X" words are few in the English language.  XYSTER is a surgical instrument used for scraping bones and making them smooth.  It reminds me of large file I once  used when I thought creating something from a block of soap stone was a good idea.  So, a bone that needs to be scraped and made smooth brings up that old adage, "I have a bone to pick with you."  Which means something is rubbing you the wrong way and annoying you. What is bothering you and rubbing you the wrong way?  What is under your skin causing you to be annoyed?  Today is a day to smooth out the rough places inside. Pick up the phone and call someone that you have been waiting to call you.  Send a card to someone that has hurt your feelings.  Reach out to that family member that has annoyed the hell out of you.  Smooth things out inside of yourself.  Make sure that your surgical instrument is clean and sanitised.  Don't reach out until you are ready. If you have expectations as to how the other person needs to respond to your olive branch of peace, thenyour XYSTER is not clean for surgery.  You need to prepare yourself to reach out for you not because you expect anything in return.  It is our expectations that cause us our suffering.  Bone scraping is painful and requires healing time as well as very precise actions to get the bone smooth enough not to bother or annoy you with future encounters.  

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 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

Your LifeA-Z DEVELOP

Well-Developed Nest Building on What The Wasp Started Just Keeps Growing. 

DEVELOP

Yes, develop the thoughts and ideas that you have been wondering about.  Build on what already exist and what is working in your life.  Nourish it, like fertilizer on a tree, so it can bloom fully and deeply bringing new life to old works.  You do not have to recreate the wheel.  Examine your life and ask yourself what do you like about what is working?  Then establish a plan to develop those positive things and accentuate them this year.  Create a three-step action plan outlined below to grow, mature, nourish, and enhance the parts of your life that already work well for you. In doing so, you will also enable them to work better.  

If you are not happy with anything in your life, you have fallen into a place of apathy.  In order to move out of apathy, make yourself list three things that are working in your life.  Did you pay your rent or mortgage?  What plan can you develop to make that a positive choice eliciting a positive feeling?  Force yourself to list one positive action you have taken toward change and develop it further.  And lastly, force yourself to write down a desire that you have been ignoring.  List it and develop it.  If you work this Twenty-Minute Coach Your Life A-Z you will discover positive changes blooming for you in a few months. 

Photo: Pam Smead