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December 31, 2005
Resolutions-Can They Be Kept?
Funny, as I started this blog, I mistyped the title. I put in resoulutions. Actually getting to your soul is where new learning starts. Okay for those of you that don't like the term, call it core, heart, or psyche. My thesaurus allows me to use other terms correctly. Whatever you call a change in your lifestyle, you need to get beyond your head and your thinking, and into a safer place to start on something new.
I don't know about you, but I sometimes allow other people to live in my head-my mother, my PE teacher, a huge monitor that says NO. Like the ad on TV, no is the only word these folks know. "No, you can't do that. No, it's too dangerous. No, don't do it. You won't be any good at it." I need to quiet these folks or banish them completely before I can venture into the world of new learning.
So let's take my desire to exercise. Learning something new starts with a desire. I want to exercise. It doesn't matter why or for what purpose. I just want to do it. What do you want to do? Play the piano, surf, become a doctor? What's the desire? Ask yourself the question and find out.
For today, my desire is to exercise. Now immediately the Monitors show up. "Blah, blah, blah, can't, no, blah, blah." It helps that I wrote down yesterday where some of these monitor voices came from. It helps to realize they aren't here today. They don't know. They are not me. My swimming coach is probably in his 80s and my PE teacher is probably retired. Neither one of them will remember my name or face. Only I am remembering what they said to me. Let them go.
Just to make sure, I do some visualizations and affirmations. There was a study done a number of years ago around shooting baskets. The researchers had one group practice shooting freethrows, one group not practice at all, and a third group visualize shooting freethrows. After thirty days the practice group improved 24% and the visualizing group improved 23%! I believe in visualizing what I want to do. I also tell myself I can exercise and I am good at it.
While I'm psyching myself up for this new learning, I get ready. I do some research. I start with asking myself some questions. What do I like to do best? What would hold my attention longest? What do I want the results to be? When I answer my questions, I do some research to match what I want with what's available.
My time is limited so I know going to the gym every day isn't going to work. I'll quit the first week. I've actually already tried that. I quit the first week. My schedule is crazy so what I do needs to be flexible and portable. No lugging equipment around. I have an exercise bike in the garage. I like music, dance type movements, and something quick so I can get on to other things.
Knowing what will work and working on my thinking, I choose an exercise DVD that includes yoga with some reinforcement to get rid of negative Monitors, dance routines to music, and is broken into 5-10 minute segments.
Now what I want to learn fits into something I can handle in my schedule and includes activities I like to do. Keeping my resolution may not be 100% guaranteed, but it will be a lot easier than if I didn't look at these factors.
Now it's your turn. Take one of those resolutions of yours and make it into something you can actually achieve. Limit the negative influences, visualize your success, and choose what will work for you to accomplish your purpose.
By the way, if you miss your mark a time or two, it's okay to keep going anyway. The freethrowers didn't make it every time, but the kept playing anyway. Learning is not about being perfect. It's about making mistakes, learning from them and going on. So let's get on with it.
Happy New Year.
Posted by Dr Joni at December 31, 2005 08:27 AM