Sunday, December 30, 2007

Morning Glory and thoughts on Commitments in Life.




I just got back from an awesome 45 minute jog for the first time in the cold with my new gear, tights and all, while listening to the Tony Robbin's "Daily Magic" CD, where it entails starting off with "breath walking" which is supposed to walking to a count of "four-four".

Walking to a count of "four-four" means you take four quick breaths through the nose and exhaling through your teeth making a "shhh" sound in four quick bursts. Each time you inhale, tap your index-finger to your thumb, second time would be tapping the thumb to the middle finger, third time for your ring fingers, then fourth would be your pinky finger to your thumb, and you would do it for each time you exhale and repeat. What this is supposed to do is that it brings you up to a state of mental alertness that engages all of your senses, so that you feel centered.

During this process, you're cultivating a storm of positive emotions and energy, being gratitude and visualization. There's nothing quite like it when you're filled with these emotions. It helps you put things in perspective of what your grateful for, your goals and the purpose behind it, and perhaps re-aligning yourself with the purpose of your life or whatever it may be.

Finally, he encourages us to use incantations that you repeat to yourself in order to feel your inner strength from within you. One simple incantation or affirmation that is used widely is, "Every day in every way, I'm feeling stronger and stronger". You can insert any word you want that is aligned with how you want to live your life. I insert, "more and more energized" in order to engrain the thought of me having an unlimited energy reservoir that will keep me going throughout the day.

It's kind of funny how I didn't really commit myself to running until I bought all the winter gear. And I hate wasting money.. so it's a win-win-win-win situation for me. I'll have the energy I need to take make the most out of my day, strengthen and expand my cardiovascular system, make the most out of the money I spent, and it will be one step towards completing a marathon, which happens to be a 1 year goal of mine.

With respect to commitment, I had a chat over coffee with a close friend of mine where we were talking about our motivations and goals. What my friend G had said was that unless you have a DEADLINE, you won't have anything "pushing" or "pulling" you to move towards your goal.

Here's a quote that I keep in the back of my head when it comes to goal setting:

"WHAT’S TALKED ABOUT IS A DREAM, WHAT’S ENVISIONED IS EXCITING, WHAT’S PLANNED BECOMES POSSIBLE, WHAT’S SCHEDULED IS REAL”

So when you actually book an appointment to see a trainer or schedule a block of time in your agenda to go running in the morning, you're committed to it. This is with the pre-requisite that you WANT to move towards that goal and commit yourself fully to it, so that there's no turning back and you're now forced to push yourself to achieving that goal.

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