Category: Fortitude

Fitness, Fortitude, Personal Development

Brush Your Teeth To Fitness

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Discipline bridge

Here are a few ideas to help you achieve your fitness goals, whether you are triathlon training (like me), trying to get to your target weight, couch to 5k, or making it through an entire Beachbody DVD program like PiYo (my favorite).

1. Write down your plan.
Make your workouts part of your daily schedule/ routine – just like brushing your teeth, work meetings, appointments, etc. Consistently completing your scheduled workout appointment will build the habit – and improve your results.

2. Have a purpose to your workout.
This is especially true of endurance athletes who often log unnecessary or “junk miles” because they believe the volume of work will make them better. Not necessarily true. Regardless of your fitness goals, make sure your workout is aligned with them. Focus on your form and the quality of your workout. Learn to do it right before adding weight or intensity to your workout.

3. Try Habit Stacking. One clever way to sneak in your exercise is to associate it with something else already in your routine. I’ve made it a habit to hit my pull up bar after brushing me teeth in the morning. It only takes a minute. Brush teeth. Do pull ups. Boom! done!

4. Don’t ever give up.
Sometimes circumstances will block your workout schedule. Life happens. Healthy living is a journey intended to last a lifetime. Miss a day? Don’t do a double the next day, just move on to the next one. Short on time? Sneak in a partial workout, or modify it to get some activity in. Some is better than none. Building the habit is key and consistency grows over time. Eventually, exercise will be such a natural part of your life that you hardly have to think about it. Daily workout? Yep, that’s just like brushing your teeth…

Fortitude

#1 Obstacle to Achieving Your Goal – YOU

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Lombardi commitment1

Today I encourage your to take a hard look at personal commitment to your goals. On a scale of 1 to 10 how committed are you to achieving ‘X’?

If you answered of 7 or less, it’s time to re-evaluate your goal (‘X’). Realize that whatever ‘X’ is most likely isn’t going to get done with a C- commitment level.
You are either committed to something or you’re not. A 70% commitment is like no commitment at all. Think about your goal and the real reasons you want it. WHY do you want to achieve ‘X’? Connect with this question on an emotional level. Act like… a 2 yr old when you answer WHY, and ask it again and again until you get to the REAL reason you want to achieve ‘X’.

Example: “I want to lose 30 lbs. Why? So I can look better for my class reunion. Why? Because I don’t want people to see that I ‘let myself go’. Why? Because I’m embarrassed/ ashamed about the way I look and feel. Why? Because my mom/ dad was overweight and the diabetes and heart disease from it eventually killed her/ him. I have seen first hand what unhealthy living can do to a person. I want to live a long, healthy life and be around for my grandkids.”

See how “lose 30 lbs” became “being around for my grandkids”? That’s the kind of process that gets you from 70% commitment to 100% fully committed to your goal. Your goal doesn’t have to be weight loss or health related at all. It might be to get out of debt, to change careers, or whatever it is that’s important to you. ‪#‎allin‬ ‪#‎go4it‬‪#‎onlythingstoppingyouisyou‬

Fortitude

Fairness is a Matter of Perspective

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bitter or better1

Bitter or Better? A natural reaction to life’s negative circumstances is to say that it’s not fair. Bad things happen to good people…to us. We wonder why. We look for people to blame. We might even get mad at God.

Part of Sunday’s message at church was about the fairness of God. As a Jesus follower, I believe that God is ALWAYS good, and that His plans are WAY better than mine, even if I don’t see it in the midst of difficulty. He is not fair, nor does he have to be… – he’s God. In fact, He is infinitely more patient, gracious, and merciful than anyone.

Truthfully, it’s not fair that God had to sacrifice his only son Jesus on the cross in order to make provision for sinners like you and me to have eternity in heaven with God, but he did. All we have to do is believe it. That’s not fair, but it’s the kind of unfairness I’m grateful for. Fairness is a matter of perspective. Do we ever complain when unfairness is to our advantage?

Whether you believe in Jesus like I do or not, you still have a choice to make about life’s circumstances. The truth is that you alone CHOOSE whether the hard times make you a bitter person or a better one. ‪#‎truth‬ ‪#‎bebetternotbitter‬ ‪#‎lifeisnotfair‬ ‪#‎dealwithit‬

Fortitude

Interview Yourself

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describe yourself1

On your personal journey to becoming your best self, one important activity to consider is the dreaded self assessment. This exercise takes the idea of “apply within” to a whole new level. Fret ye not; it’s not as bad as it sounds. Start by asking a simple question.

How would you describe yourself? Here’s an opportunity for a little personal reflection. Take a few minutes and WRITE DOWN your answers. If you are like me, the description is probably really nice, with some honest yucky stuff in it too. Now here’s the hard part. Ask someone close to you to describe you honestly. Be sure to tell them this is a ‘judgment free’ exercise and they are free to be honest and you promise not to be upset with the responses.

Remember, this exercise is designed to reveal the gaps between how you see yourself and how others see you and ultimately help you to be your best self. There are lots of ways to use the intel you gather, but lets keep it simple and positive.

1. For the descriptions provided by your friend, look carefully at the ones you did NOT identify yourself. Contemplate how you can further cultivate this descriptor, or mitigate it by some behavior change. Remember, this is how others see you. Whether you agree with their assessment or not, “perception is reality” and you’d prefer people to see you as you see you.

2. Celebrate the descriptors you matched with the ones provided by your friend. You know yourself pretty well. Even if some negative descriptors matched, at least you know what to work on.

3. Check in periodically with your friend and ask how you are doing with whatever trait you are interested in. This routine check up will go a long way to helping you be your best.

Need some help to get started? I found Tom Rath’s “Strengths Finder 2.0” to be especially helpful in learning who I am and what I’m good at. Another resource to try is 360Reach, which takes a fun twist on peer assessment with questions like, “What kind of cereal describes (you) and why?”

Fortitude

Cast a Vision for Your Future TODAY

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winners creed

You don’t have to be a ‘visionary’ to cast a vision for your future. I used to think that “having vision” or “being visionary” was a personality trait I didn’t possess. Then I realized that EVERYONE is visionary to a degree. It just depends on how much focused effort you put into it. You might say you don’t have time or energy to put focused effort into vision casting, but I believe one key differentiator between winners and losers is the ability to cast a vision for your future. I challenge you to think about a few simple questions to get started.

Where do you want to be (relationships, financially, health, etc.) in 1 month, 1 year, 5 years from now? Think about what you want life to look like for you. Take notes.

Then think carefully about this: Is what you are doing now going to get you there? If so, then keep up the good work! If not, then why not? A better question is: What do you need to do to get there?

This is serious stuff. We get one life to live and time is flying. Our culture would have us so busy, tired, and spinning out of control that it feels like we are just trying to hang on.

Truth is, we have more control over our life and choices than we think. It’s just a matter of slowing down enough to make conscious decisions about our day, our week, our life – so we can live this short life more on our terms.

I dare you to set aside some time in your calendar to write down the answers to these questions. I dare you to make a change to better yourself, to follow your dream, to do something that scares you. If you want to talk about it, I’d be honored to be your sounding board. ‪#‎yourmove‬ ‪#‎idareyou‬ ‪#‎dreambig‬ ‪#‎followyourdreams‬ ‪#‎win‬