No Excuses!

Wow, what a busy couple of weeks.

So here’s a big realization I’ve made. I feel like I’m really good about doing things I “have” to do and following the rules even if I don’t “want” to, but I just noticed that there are some areas of my life where I was only doing things if I “felt like it”. Mastin Kipp on The Daily Love had a blog about this topic, and although I’ve seen his blogs on that topic before, it resonated more with me this time.

Specifically, I’d been trying to go for a jog in the mornings. For the past several months, however, I’ve been hitting snooze all the way up until I absolutely had to get up. Because I didn’t “feel” like getting up. And for some reason I accepted this phenomenon as a valid excuse.

Wrong!

I’m going to start doing things in that area of my life whether I “feel like it” or not. For example, I dragged myself out of bed this morning to go for a jog. I told myself I HAD to do it. I also told myself it would be EASY to do. In bed, I dread getting up, but I just told myself, “I have the workout clothes right next to the bed. All I have to do is throw them on and get myself outside. That’s it! It’s easy!” And I didn’t stop there! I also decided to not have ANY caffeine today. Towards the end of the day I felt a little lightheaded and I had a tiny headache. Withdrawal, I guess. I eventually gave in and had some headache medicine, which has a bit of caffeine in it, but that doesn’t really count, right? Still, no coffee and no energy drinks. Forget the caffeine – it’s just a HABIT to have coffee every morning. But I knew, even if I had withdrawal symptoms, this would be good for me. Lately I’d been wondering if I had no energy simply because I was crashing from caffeine, even if I was only having one cup of coffee with half a spoonful of sugar. Overall, I felt great today. I had the energy. When I got lightheaded I got irritable for a bit, but then I was fine again.

I’m thinking tomorrow will be easier as far as the symptoms? Maybe a little easier to get up, too?

I also feel like I hit my “second wind” as far as my positive and uplifting attitude. I was really getting warn out there. I need to recharge. But I feel like I got to a stressed out point and then just snapped into a calm. It was kind of freaky, actually. Not like a bad “snap” where I don’t care about anything anymore – a legitimate redirect into a peaceful state of being.

I’ve definitely been learning some other lessons, as well. Mostly about how to give advice, and what types of advice work in what situations. I generally try to be gentle but descriptive. I think I’m learning that, as long as it is truly from the heart and the other person knows it, you can be a little more blunt. At least with some people. And I realized that I’ve been holding back a lot of my analysis of people. I wasn’t trying to hold back or anything, I just felt like it would be rude to just up and declare what I think of someone and why they are the way they are. But actually, that’s probably some of the best advice I could give… and I finally gave it to one friend, because it came up in conversation, and I was thinking to myself, why didn’t I say any of this sooner!? He really appreciated it, and it seemed to really resonate with him, and he was able to take it even further. That’s awesome! So I really need to rethink what I think is “appropriate” advice to give, because I may have my priorities all screwed up as far as that.

I also had to deal with getting upset, but I quickly fixed it. I interpreted a situation in a negative manner and it pressed my buttons and I made a comment… not a mean or immature comment, just a true comment… well, let me give a LITTLE detail. I’m all about fairness. I hate double-standards and I hate hypocrisy. So when I see a situation like that, especially if it involves me feeling like I’m getting the double-standard, I get ticked off. So I just reiterated the standard that had been agreed upon that was apparently getting thrown out the window – except for with me. That’s how I interpreted it. But situations are not that black and white. I made peace with it. I can see why the circumstances are the way they are, and if circumstances changed, I believe the standard would be changed. It is okay and it isn’t a detriment to me. So that was progress for me.

It seems like disliking hypocrisy and fighting for fairness is a good thing, right? Haha. Everything in balance…… Can’t let it make you judgmental and negative! Sigh, such a difficult thing to learn.