Project Into Your Future: Appreciate the Small Stuff
While there are no definite ways to peer into the future to date, you do have some control over the process. There are random events that will be beyond your control.
Unfortunately, some of them will be unpleasant. But, there’s a lot you can do to shape your future.
The point of the exercise is to try and determine if you appreciate the small things in your life.
A look into the crystal ball
Are you spending time with family or friends? Or are you working long hours and not interacting with anyone?
If you keep your focus on making money, you may look back on your time and wish you hadn’t. There’s much more to life than work.
At some point, the company could turn you loose. They may replace you with someone younger and less expensive.
You aren’t as important to them as you make yourself out to be. Everyone is replaceable.
People do need to work. You have to be able to provide for your family.
But, you need to have a balance between work and spending time with your family and friends. Work and money are things you can always manage to find.
Family and friends are irreplaceable as is the time you spend with them.
Opportunity knocks
Another reason to spend time with people is they can also present you with opportunities. For instance, you may not like your career, but you stick with it because the money is good and it’s steady work.
As you interact with other people, you may hear about opportunities for work that you’d much prefer. This kind of thing happens quite often.
If you spent the majority of your time at your job, you would never discover these opportunities.
Of course, you don’t want your friendships to be dependent on the opportunities they provide. Yet, friendships often lead to forming new ventures.
That’s a natural part of the process.
But don’t pick your job on the basis of forming close friendships. In time some co-workers can become good friends.
Just remember that these relationships are professional.
Complainers complain. It’s what they do. Are you dealing with such a person? If you are, consider the points in this GenuLines post and apply them to your situation.
Complainers Can Learn to Appreciate Small Things
Do you know a chronic complainer? Someone who never seems to be happy about anything.
They find everything wrong with what others do. If there’s a new idea, they’ll knock it down.
They’re also the type of person who will interrupt others to make their point. They’ll do that because they know best.
But at some point, people start to ignore them. And they’re high on the list if cutbacks should ever hit the company, too.
Complainers have forgotten how to appreciate the small things in life.
They don’t realize that it’s difficult to get a new job and it takes much more time than it used to.
They don’t appreciate that they have a job.
Sometimes, chronic complaining can be a result of complacency. Since no one is listening to what the person says, it’s just easier to complain.
No company or situation is perfect, and sometimes it’s best when problems are out in the open. But there is a time and place for complaints and a correct way to air them.
If you have to complain offer up several solutions to the problem. That’s a productive use of complaining energy.
Call it problem recognition with applicable solutions.
There’s a critical difference between you and a chronic complainer. You appreciate your job or your situation.
Help the complainer
If you want to help a chronic complainer, point out the problem using a subtle approach. Instead of telling the person they complain too much, show them how to be grateful for the little things in life.
Remind them that you feel appreciative of the fact you have a job, etc.
Relate a story- may be about how your last job search was difficult. It took you months, and it made you realize that jobs are not easy to find.
Also, talk about how you appreciate your home life and your family and what it means to you. That’s a subtle approach.
The person may start to understand there is much to appreciate in everyday life. You can show that complaining is ineffective and may lead to problems down the road.
Aim to get friends and colleagues to relate to the same gratitude for work and family.
The chronic complainer may start to see it pays to be appreciative.
We’re talking routine today. If yours is working for you, way to go!
If not, GenuLines is here to help you power up your routine
Your Routine: Good, Bad, or In Need of a Tuneup?
Routines are neither good nor bad. It all depends on the context by which you apply them.
If your routines are making you crazy, or have you in a rut, it may be time for you to break away from them, at least temporarily. Then again, if you don’t have some structure in your life, routines may be what you need.
If you’re feeling like you’re in a rut, consider going on a vacation. This can be a great way to reset the ordinary.
It can also lead to meeting new people or opening up opportunities. How many stories have you heard of people going on vacation and falling in love with the place they visited?
But keep in mind that making the new place your home can result in still more routine. Another way to shake things up is to join a club that you wouldn’t otherwise join.
For instance, if you never tried a certain type of craft, join a local club where you can learn all about that craft. Or, join a group that plays music together.
You may have to learn an instrument or try out with the group as the singer. No matter what the activity, try doing it in a different way.
If your life is a bit unstructured, and this isn’t working for you, try to introduce some routine into your days. This could be as simple as creating a to-do list.
And you might want to find someone who can hold you accountable to the routine. People form accountability partnerships for this purpose.
You can hold your partner accountable for reaching their outcomes.
Many people find having a mix of routine and spontaneity works best for them. Doing something spontaneous helps to break up the routine before the people get into a rut.
Getting back to those routines after taking a break will restore order in their lives. This isn’t necessarily the way everyone will work best, though it’s worth a try.
Make sure you give yourself some time before writing this off.
Only you can decide whether you need to incorporate a routine or if you have too much routine in your life.
Remember, you’re the only one who can determine if you need to do a mix of routine and spontaneous action.
Have you ever wrestled with self-doubt? That might seem like a silly question.
Most people doubt themselves at some point in their lives. Scroll down for some good words from GenuLines on dealing with self-doubt.
Self-Doubt And What You Can Do About It
Why do people engage in self-doubt? The reason is that it’s easier to doubt yourself than it is to believe that something is possible.
You may believe in your concept, but it’s something that hasn’t materialized yet. It’s unfamiliar territory for you.
Our protection mechanisms tell us to reach for something that’s familiar. We use this as a reason to quit.
The unknown also helps us to come up with excuses. It’s easy to say it won’t work because, and then insert whatever reason can set your mind at ease.
You can even find help from others in coming up with excuses. They have plenty of them for you to choose from.
If they didn’t, they would be succeeding at their goals.
A survival mechanism
Sometimes self-doubt can help us survive. For instance, someone tells you that you can jump off a cliff and survive.
Your self-doubt probably jumps in and tells you this is a bad idea. Self-doubt can sometimes keep you from making bad financial decisions.
This might be an opportunity that sounds too good to be true.
In most cases, self-doubt is not something that will advance your life. It will hold you back, and you need always to be aware of that.
Don’t take the easy way out. Do prepare yourself as much as possible for unfamiliar situations.
But, go forward with a strong belief that you can complete what you set out to do.
Try to structure your life so that you have more positive than negative energy. Flush out as much negative energy as possible.
Use affirmations, support groups, or whatever works for you.
Negative energy is what self-doubt is all about. Two forces are opposing each other.
If you have 100% negative energy that means you have 0% positive energy. Try to tip the scale toward as much positivity as possible and push away the negativity.
No shortage of negative energy
It’s unlikely that you can ever have 100% positive energy. But, you can work towards exposing yourself to positive energy.
You can stop listening to or reading the news, and you can reduce your exposure to negative people. Positive people do exist.
Overheard: “Every time I start a picture I feel the same fear, the same self-doubts, and I have only one source on which I can draw. Because it comes from within me”
These contain gems of information and can act as a resource for everyone else. The story is one aspect of reading about them.
But how they dealt with their situations is often a source of inspiration. When you become inspired, you increase your chances of effective problem-solving.
Inspiration doesn’t last forever, unfortunately. You need to reinforce the message.
If you can, try to set aside time to read one story of a successful person every month. This will help you feel inspired.
And it will give you ideas on how to use the stories to make your life better.
Some people’s stories are dated
But their techniques may be timeless. A perfect example of this is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People.
The stories themselves describe people and occupations of days long gone. But, his techniques are as valid today as they were back then.
You can read all about the stories of successful people and get inspired. But, if you don’t take action, it will be of little help to you.
At that point, you become nothing more than a dreamer. Having dreams is good, but you need to make sure you take action on those dreams.
Common ground
Reading the stories of successful people often shows that they’re just like the rest of us. There isn’t anything superhuman about them that led them to their successes.
You’ll find a common theme among those facing adversity. They had persistence and kept a positive attitude.
Those two attributes will take you far when facing any situation.
Finding successful
You can choose to read stories online or find material in your local library. You can also choose to find stories on the internet.
Be careful of the resources you find online. Anyone can publish whatever they like while sounding convincing and authoritative.
Check the resources. And keep a critical eye out for people who don’t present qualified information.
Get into the habit of reading about successful people. You’ll shift to a successful mindset yourself.
And you’ll have a memory bank of stories to draw inspiration.
It’s natural to want everything to be perfect. The trouble is there’s no time for it.
You’ll be disappointed to find that most people aren’t perfectionists.
You need to learn how to manage expectations.
It’s a delicate balance, and you have to know when you’ve done as much as you should. You can always do more, but you need to move on.
You snooze you lose
Another problem with perfectionism is that you may miss opportunities. Suppose you decide to hold off releasing a product because you want to put more features into it.
You delay the release of the product by several months. But you see that your competitors are finished releasing their versions.
The product you would have released was better than your competitors. Customers would have likely bought your products over your competitors.
Try explaining that one to management or shareholders!
Spreading the news
Good customer experiences with products get shared with friends and family. This sharing also occurs on social media channels, which in turn, can go viral.
It’s more challenging to build up a product that’s not yet released than it is to build up one that is.
When perfectionism is okay
There are cases that call for perfectionism. Medical techniques and technologies come to mind.
In most other fields, though, perfectionism will hold you back. It’s not necessary, and it only leads to frustration and delays.
Of course, you should never release products that have a sloppy design. Or are dangerous to the consumer.
That’s where this delicate balance comes into play. The product needs to meet safety guidelines.
Your reputation is at stake, and you don’t want customers bashing your product or your brand. In this case, it may be necessary to delay the release of products until they are safe, etc.
In self we trust
How is being a perfectionist a sign that you don’t trust yourself? You think that nothing is ever good enough and that you have to keep striving to be better.
When you trust yourself, you can reel in expectations to manageable levels.
Failed To Reach A Goal? Move On And Learn From It!
We tend to think of missing our goals as something shameful, undesirable. Failing to realize our intentions can cause negative feelings.
No matter how big or small the goal.
The way to overcome those feelings is by changing the way you understand failure. It’s part of the success process and it teaches valuable lessons if we know how to learn from it.
Ways to redefine failure and learn from it
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Learning from your mistakes is about more than just thinking about what went wrong.
The first step towards using failure as a tool for success is to stop seeing mistakes as shameful.
Think about it – a mistake is not only a natural part of embarking on a new project; it is also part of the human experience. Accept it as a necessary step towards achieving your goals.
In her article “Strategies for Learning from Failure”, Amy C. Edmondson classifies mistakes:
Preventable
These are the mistakes we often think of as bad. They result from a lack of focus or attention to the procedures needed to achieve the goal.
Complexity-related
These mistakes happen when the goal is the product of various factors. They include:
your own motivation
previous skills
your environment
support network
your resources
If any of these fail, you might be unable to reach the goal.
Intelligent mistakes
According to Adam Mendler, having the freedom to make mistakes increases creativity. And it boosts work performance.
Mendler looks at the pressures to avoid mistakes and the shame that comes with them. Minus those, he found that employees contribute more often.
And they’re able to express more original ideas.
For example, many inventors stumbled upon some of the great inventions. Think Post-It notes or penicillin.
There is a beginning step toward learning from the setback, whatever its source. Remove any negative feelings about it and re-frame it as a source of new knowledge.
What’s next?
Rethink your approach to your goal
Now that you’re looking at the mistake without judgment, think of how you got into the situation.
Guy Winch* suggests you analyze your motivation levels, focus, and mindset.
Did you feel less motivated to achieve your goal at some point? Did something else distract you from it?
If your dedication and focus decreased at any time, make note of it and try to find the cause. Identify the internal and external causes that affected your resolve.
This helps you prepare for them in the future.
At times you can discuss the failure with someone you trust. This might help you see the issues from a different perspective.
Rely on your support network to pinpoint what went wrong and how you could’ve prevented it.
Plan ahead
Identifying what caused the mistake is not enough to prevent it in the future. You need to take steps to prevent that mistake from happening again.
Say your goal was to write a novel in six months. You’ve identified a few reasons why you couldn’t achieve it.
They include lack of time, insufficient planning, or lack of motivation.
But what can you do to prevent those issues from getting in the way of your goal in the future? In our example, you could scale down the scope of the novel.
Spend more time planning the story. Or set a specific time to write undisturbed.
Bottom line?
Failure is not permanent.
“Accept” failure. Analyze its causes. And look at how you can by-pass those causes.
We’re into a stressful time of the year, and prioritizing tasks may not be top of mind for you right now. But it’s worth thinking about, especially if the stress is really starting to build.
Since wellness is a high priority around here, GenuLines offers a tip “yule” be glad you used!
The skill of prioritizing can be a key tool in your ability to manage stress. It allows you to look at a set of tasks and determine which are the most important.
You’ll put your focus on completing those first at the expense of those lower on the list.
It isn’t about working smarter, it’s about dedicating your time to the correct tasks.
When you have a list of things to do you think that you won’t have the energy (or the time) to get through them all. So, a lot of it will get left undone and you’ll be left feeling guilty about what you couldn’t get to.
But when you take the time to prioritize them you ditch the guilt. You’re more efficient.
It seems as though there’s an 80/20 rule in every aspect of life and prioritizing is no different. In this case, the rule states that 80% of your activities contribute under 20% of your value of work.
Focus on completing 20% of your tasks (the most important ones of course). This way you’ll achieve more.
This should make your working life run a bit more smoothly and allow you to spend more quality time with your family (or yourself!).
The Trick To Prioritization
Well, there actually isn’t a trick. It’s all about choosing what you should be doing and what you shouldn’t be doing.
High priority tasks should be taken care of first. No doubt you’ll have more energy to do them at the start of your day anyway.
To achieve this, though, you need to be able to see what tasks or projects are of greatest importance. These jobs will help you achieve long-term goals, or have a consequence for not completing.
You might be thinking that everything on your list is important – they’re all urgent. But in the big picture many of the activities you consider urgent are not.
Good prioritizing lets you finish the most urgent/important tasks early in the day. Then you can shift your focus to the non-priority tasks.
These are more than likely the jobs you find most rewarding. It’s human nature to put off tasks that aren’t enjoyable and instead indulge your enjoyable tasks.
You can put tasks in order of importance to keep yourself on track or categorize them. The choice is yours and you should choose whichever method would serve you best.
You can have a list of A tasks, B tasks, and C tasks. Of course, anything in the A category should be completed first and then you can move onto the B’s and then the Cs.
While you make your list question yourself about tasks you can delegate or remove.
Wrenches In The Mix
What about unplanned activities? They can throw a wrench into the works. These types of tasks crop up all the time and often throw your day out of whack.
You have to rely on your instinct in these situations. When you’re better at prioritizing, you’ll be more confident making judgment calls.
But consider your goals and determine how best to fit in unplanned activities.
How effectively you handle these situations will depend on how clear you are on your goals.
How Much Exercise Do You Need Every Day To Lose Weight?
Weight loss requires both a disciplined dietary approach and exercise. Other factors are important too. But, how much exercise do you need to do?
There’s no magic number of minutes, reps or hours needed to produce weight loss. Rather there are variables that you have to consider to reach the right numbers.
Here are some options to help you come up with an exercise time frame that works best for you.
Variable 1: Calories Consumed and Calorie Quality
The first principle of weight loss is that to lose weight you must reach a caloric deficit. This means burning more calories than you’re consuming.
So, to know the amount of exercise needed to lose weight, you need to know your daily caloric intake. Just as important are the sources of those calories.
For example, vegetables versus potato chips. If you function on a low-calorie diet you’ll need less exercise to lose weight.
You may be fine with a moderate 3-4 day a week training plan. If you eat large amounts of food you’ll need to up your exercise plan.
Variable 2: Exercise Type and Intensity
The second key variable is the type and intensity of exercise. 20 minutes on the elliptical has a far different energy output than 20 minutes of all-out sprinting.
This variable can also dovetail with our first variable. The greater the calorie consumption, the more energy for high-intensity exercise. Otherwise, you may not need to exercise for an especially long time or at a high intensity.
In general, aerobic-intensive exercise is different. It requires a longer time to see any sort of effective impact on weight loss.
Jogging, biking, the elliptical or other options eat up more time. This could consume hours over the course of a week before you see a meaningful impact.
Anaerobic activities will be more effective in a shorter amount of time. These include sprinting, resistance training or interval training methods.
But, their intensity level is much higher. So, you’ll need a certain level of fitness to get the full potential and results.
Variable 3: What is the Weight Loss Goal? How much time do we have to achieve it?
The third variable is arguably the most important. Think of your car ride or travel plans.
They’re determined by your destination. Your exercise plan and weight loss journey will be dictated by the goal we have set. If the goal is to lose 5 pounds in two months, that is a fairly modest and achievable goal for most.
If you’re a sedentary person you would only need to exercise 20-30 minutes a day for 3-4 days a week to achieve this goal.
Conversely, if your goal is to lose 30 pounds in two months, the equation is quite different. This would involve more hours every day at high intensity to achieve that same goal.
Putting it All Together: Finding the Right Number
We’ve examined the variables. Now we can consider how much exercise we need per day to lose weight.
Let’s say you have a low caloric intake, low-intensity aerobic exercise, and a modest goal.
You might be O.K. with 30-45 minutes of aerobic exercise a day. Not so if you love to eat, love to lift weights and also have an ambitious goal for weight loss.
You’re going to have to spend considerable time every day working out to reach those goals. Your best bet would be to assess your starting point as compared to your goal.
Look at how much time you have to reach that goal. Then make your plan to reach it.
This is a better bet than relying on a standard number or cookie-cutter approach.
Picture this. You come home from work stressed, exhausted, and hungry. You decide that tonight might be a great night to order in.
Do you find yourself doing this two or three times a week because your life is so busy? The scenario isn’t meant to shame, Most of us have been there.
Life doesn’t stop because your day has been crazy busy.
The kids still need to eat. The laundry still needs to get done. And you still have a night of balancing your checkbook ahead of you.
Let’s be honest, who would have time to even think about cooking with a schedule like that? This is where the importance of planning comes in.
When you’re able to plan your meals ahead of time you won’t need to hit that drive-thru window. You’ll already have your dinner ready, all you need to do is heat it. With everything already in place, you can focus on other things while your food is cooking.
Taking one or two hours a week to plan your meals might seem like a hassle. But this can save you hours in the future.
Doing something once a week is a lot easier than doing it several times a week. One trip to the grocery store and one afternoon in the kitchen. This can produce an entire week of meals for your family.
But planning your meals is only the beginning. You can also plan your trip to the grocery store.
What was once a headache can be a breeze when you have a categorized list in front of you. Make an Excel spreadsheet and list your grocery categories in bold, (frozen, produce, meats, etc.).
Then put each item under the appropriate category and print it out. Now you have an easy-to-use, focused list that will keep you on track.
And, your printout can be a template for your future grocery lists.