Category: personal development

Garbage In, Garbage Out

I touched on this a little before:
https://www.mattsoreco.com/mind-body-and-spirit/
https://www.mattsoreco.com/the-internet-and-mobile-are-destroying-our-brains/
https://www.mattsoreco.com/first-successful-30-day-challenge/

There have been ebbs and flows with my discipline. I still contend (I’m not justifying “failures”!!!) that although I didn’t achieve all of my 2012 resolutions or my more purposely-vague-2013 no-so-resolutions, the introspection involved refocused and reset my overall trajectory. And I’ve made some significant improvements. What do I have to show for it? Perhaps more clarity and a lot less stress. Next step: step out of my comfort zone and make more of the added bandwidth.

I don’t beat myself up over “failures,” mistakes, and slip-ups anymore. They are all learning experiences. I find the easier I am on myself, the more aware I am BEFORE I repeat the same mistake again.

One thing I kind of let slip… The garbage in / garbage out theory. Consume garbage, produce garbage. I’m talking about the intellectual type here, although a true analogy is you are what you eat.

During the last 2-3 weeks, I took out the scalpel and cut out most time wasters. Things that add no value to my life and only serve to occupy what seems to be merely idle time. That idle time, however, can make or break my overall mindset. The science behind it is out there.

Out:

  • Constant checking of Twitter for the 1/100,000,000 chance I find a golden nugget of good info. a.k.a. fear of missing out.
  • Same for Facebook. Once a day is enough.
  • Same for Google+
  • Funny videos on YouTube.
  • Aimless internet/YouTube searching.
  • Aimless TV channel surfing.
  • Unproductive daydreaming.

In:

  • Industry, in my case marketing, podcasts.
  • Creative podcasts and blogs.
  • Entrepreneurial podcasts and blogs.
  • Try new things.
  • Productive daydreaming.

See left sidebar for links to said resources.

Since refocusing on focus (Yogi Berra would be proud of that one) and filling my head with good stuff, I’ve been able to think more clearly at work, feel more on top of my game, articulate complex points better, etc. The difference is profound. Their are downstream consequences of junk food of the mind–for me.

I hope to continue to post more to the blog also.

First 10 Day Challenge Down, Another to Begin

My first 10 Day Challenge was “to eat/drink pristinely for 10 days.” I think I did well. “Pristine” can be left up to interpretation, but in honestly I didn’t mess up. Well other than taking 2 bites of cake at a birthday party. I SWEAR it was more not to be rude than for the love of the cake. Really. No REALLY! Other than that, there was no other cake, candy, chips, cookies, crackers, etc. Nothing fried. Nothing “bad.” It felt good and it wasn’t too hard. I had been slipping here and there previously. I hope those 10 days jump-start better habits.

My second 10 day challenge would be kind of embarrassing if I hadn’t seen so many others have trouble with and try to overcome the same (through resolutions or challenges, etc.). It’s… Get this… Drink more water!!!

I can’t believe I  need to be more mindful of this. On an average day, I don’t drink enough water. I don’t know what it is. I know proper hydration is beneficial for so many things. Overall health, weight loss, brain function, athletic performance, etc.

So, today is day 1 of drinking at least 60oz of water a day!

Cognitive Dissonance and Goals

I’m going to start posting some back of the napkin type posts. I want to try to capture some of my thoughts/ideas on paper, but also display them somehow.

What do you think of this one? Often pursuits can be fruitless without well defined goals. Also uncertainty, fear, doubt, confusion can often muddle vision.

IMG_20130104_153642

First 10 Day Challenge of 2013

As mentioned in my 2013 “Resolutions” post, one of my “resolutions” (getting sick of the quotes? Yeah me too.) is to do a series of x day challenges to chip away at some habits I want to build.

I had planned on some of these in advance. But I also went ahead and got Zen Habit’s 52 Changes E-Book. There are a lot of great ideas in there. And a lot of overlap of things I wanted to do–so I know I’m not the only crazy one out there! More to come on those soon…

Funny enough… I think the biggest challenge is not to take on too much at once. I feel impatient, but I know if I want habits to stick, I need to take them on one at at time. I need zen like discipline here.

My first 10 day challenge is to eat/drink pristinely for 10 days. I have gone on very good streaks before, and some of my healthy eating habits from 2012 and earlier stuck. But I need a good intense focus on this area to start the new year off right. It might be a quick early win I need for some momentum. It’ll also incorporate my cook twice a week goal.

My pristine eating consists of following basically the anti-inflammatory diet. I cover more details in my Healthy Living Checklist post. No cake, no cookies, no chips, no candy, no crap. Eat as whole/natural foods as possible. Low sugar, low simple carb. High water. Low caffeine.  No artificial sweetener. Low salt. High vegetables. Some fruit. And consume no more than my BMR says I should (calorie counting done thanks to MyFitnessPal).

Yesterday was day 1 and a success. It included my Turkey Chili recipe from the Dolce Diet Living Lean. Cooked once so far. Check. One day down. Check.

9 more days left to get this habit back on the rightful track!