6 Month Fitness Project

Reminders/Talismans

There are lots of ways to remind yourself that fitness is your objective, and/or to do some of the fitness creating activities you've chosen to be a part of your own fitness project for these six months.

You can create your own reminder silicone wrist band/bracelet at several web locations, including:

Wristbands Now

Band-Together

A search on Google for silicone wristbands will give you many more choices, not all of them with low minimum orders however.

At CafePress you can create your own reminder or search among the creations of others who offer their own designs on CafePress' many products.

Then there is Zazzle, similar to CafePress.

Ralph Strauch has created a series of wooden ornaments that can be used as reminder objects. You can see them, along with his other creations at his web site.

Amazon.com has a deck of fitness cards, with exercises on each one.

And, guest author Ann Teliczan has gift items on her own CafePress store site featuring her HybridArt images that can be chosen as a visual representation of your personal fitness aims and goals.

Any object can be used as a reminder or talisman for your project, or for parts of it. It's fun to look for things to use this way. You might go to a shopping mall or import store like World Market or Pier 1, or a Dollar Store, or card shop and look for designs or objects that could serve you as a reminder and inspiration.

Guest Post: How do I stay on course when the luster fades and the goal is still far away?

It's a few days in, and we're finding it hard to keep up with all our wonderful intentions. This is generally what happens with most people, so it's completely normal. What usually happens after that is we become discouraged and feel like failures, then give up. But since I'm a coach, I know better. For me, I'm going to see this as a fun experiment, and play with it, not making too many intentions and holding myself accountable without making myself wrong.

It's so easy to beat ourselves up when we don't follow through with every fitness goal we make for the day.  It's almost a reflex!  We start out by creating 3 or 4 goals for the day.  For a few days we're good as gold, so we start adding more daily goals.  Inevitably, life intrudes and we accomplish perhaps 2 or 3 of seven daily goals, forgetting that we have other personal, business, and family goals every day, too, and that's balancing a lot of spinning plates.  We get out the figurative bullwhip and start flailing at ourselves, criticizing, belittling, whittling away at our confidence, sense of self-control, and long-term focus. 

I still find my mind going there, but I no longer listen to it.  I understand that its function is to help me be better, achieve more of my potential, and protect me from perceived dangers, but that function can limit me unless I repattern the direction of thought to "Okay, these are the facts of today.  What's the next best step toward my long term goal right now?"   Sometimes the next best step is to make simpler, fewer goals for the next day.  Sometimes it's to take a big drink of water, or a walk, or make a commitment to do a more vigorous workout the next morning.  And it's always to remember what I *was* successful at that day.

Kerul Kassel

www.NewLeafSystems.com and www.StopProcrastinatingNow.com .  Helping individuals and groups with productivity, performance, effectiveness, and procrastination.  kerul@newleafsystems.com