Preparing for 2013 part 1

 

I’ve decided to go back to creating habits for myself. Knowing that habits will make or break me, last night I wrote down the habits I want to create in my life. Turns out all of them have to do with health and fitness.

Is this a sign?

Oh, wait. There was one habit I did write down that had nothing to do with that category and that was writing! To write a minimum 2 crappy pages a day. Setting the bar low so I can feel good about myself. Stepping stones. Stepping stones.

I planned out my next 6 months of habits. Only one habit a month. Trying to do too many habits at once will make me end up with zero habits in the end. Again, another learning by failing.

I was thinking what habits do I want to have when I’m back home to the states in March. Biking in Amsterdam is already a healthy habit I picked up rather quickly when I moved here so how could I translate that when I head home? From my inspiration on the Nature Quest, I decided that I could take a walk every day no matter where I end up living. Some places back home are more dangerous than others but there’s usually always a side of the road to walk on.

So my first habit I will cultivate is walking for a 1/2 hour everyday. This I will do every day in December and we’ll see what happens from there. The intention is for me to keep this habit going through all the other months so that I continually bring on habits into my every day life. Again, we’ll see how this turns out. Practice, practice, practice.

As for the rest of the months, here they are. These could change and I may even start to do some of them every once in a while to get in the groove but once their month comes around I’m committed.

January: 20 push ups a day

February: Write a minimum 2 crappy pages a day

March: Meditate for 5 mins morning and night

April: 1 hour of me time a day (not sure how this one will go because it’s so vague)

May: Run 1 mile everyday

June: Turn off the internet at 9pm every night

These could all very well change but it’s always good to start with a plan and then change course along the way.

My First

Today I  facilitated my first workshop with the Knowmadic Learning Lab. I gave a workshop inspired by my lululemon training which included living in possibility, finding your values, creating a vision, and discussing goals and habits.

Since all of the Knowmads are in Berlin for a Mission U week long event, I thought throwing my own workshop would be perfect for my own learning. And boy was I right.

After giving the workshop today I already felt completely accomplished. If I stopped right then from doing anything new for the week I would already be winning but of course I’ve got some more adventures to go on this week.

Giving a workshop was something completely new to me but I think for my first time I did alright. My biggest areas of opportunity are making the workshop more interactive and less theory/monologue, giving everyone post its to write down all their disagreeing thoughts/opposing views so they have the background conversation out of their head, focus on the group again, and can always go back to their memos when the time to share comes, and then lastly ending with a strong exercise that get’s people excited to go out and go after their dreams.

I had no idea how much time the workshop would last so I estimated it would be until 3. We ended up going til 3:25 with the consensus of the group (#thing I’ve learned) and I also skipped a few exercises to focus on the theory. In hindsight I know I would do the exercises instead as well as plan for the workshop to be longer. I know the students in the workshop missed out on the goal setting part…next time, next time.

I’m currently figuring out how to take the conversation we had more active. Having a conversation with a group is interactive but there has to be better ways than just sitting in a group and talking. Will be contemplating on that this week.

I also find it extremely hard to debate on why writing down goals can be so powerful to people who don’t believe in writing goals. They seem to have such a strong opinion about NOT writing down goals. This to me is strange and hard to swallow.

I grew up writing goals so it’s second nature to me. But there are people who just think of thoughts for themselves to experience and call them goals. Maybe those are goals in their opinion but not in mine. Maybe it’s also because I’m an extremely visual person so I need to see that goal on paper and in my face constantly. As a reminder of where I want to head and direction I want to take.

People have beliefs for a reason. Just like I truly believe in writing down goals, there are others who believe it’s not worth it. I have to remember to not take it personally. I believe so passionately about creating goals and that they really lead to creating a remarkable life. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a successful person be interviewed saying they never set goals for themselves. It’s what we do 😉

I am glad for the debate because I did learn so much from it. Who wants everyone to believe you are right. It’s nice but can also be extremely boring. So thank you to all the KLL’s for participating and I hope they all got at least one thing out of today.

I already deem the workshop a success because one guy said today helped him confirm what he wants to do after he graduates. #WINNING