I will make a written pledge of at least seven actions that I will take this week that will help the Earth’s environment. I will sign it and do one (or more) action each day.
This is one of the weekly activities for a Year of Personal Development.
The benefits of meditation are amazing!
Learn how to meditate
Learn More:
Your Mission:
I will listen to a guided meditation and practice for 10 minutes every afternoon for one week.
“Wake up, Neo…”
The terms meditation and mindfulness are sometimes used synonymously, but mindfulness is about being aware of the present moment. Learn more at A Mindful Moment.
Experience the benefits of meditation for yourself!
Videos:
Meditation Studies:
Books:
Meditation Apps & Online Resources:
Relaxation: Take a Break app from Meditation Oasis with a 7 minute work break or 13 minute stress relief guided meditation. For insomnia, try the Can’t Sleep video (2:17) from Jason Stephenson. Try 4 -7 -8 breathing and listen to the Delta Sleep System by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson or piano music by Kevin Kern.
Mindfulness: The Virtual Hope Box app at health.mil includes a 4 minute Beach Guided Meditation, or try the Walk Along a Beach video (24:41) from Jason Stephenson.
Compassion: A Loving-Kindness meditation from UCLA (9:00) is available online. A longer online version (17:49) from mindful.org.
Learn more at the Positive Shift Happens Toolkit and the Meditate Pinterest board. This is one of the weekly activities for a Year of Personal Development.
Spiritual – Activity: Examine Beliefs
“An unexamined life is not worth living” -Socrates
Beliefs may be either spiritual or mental. Either way, the key question is: What are your guiding principles? They are connected to the values that you hold to be important.
Examples: Many religions provide guiding principles. For examples of more guiding principles see Desiderata, Ben Franklin’s Governing Values, Rotary’s Four Way Test, and Don Miguel Ruiz’s Four Agreements.
Tools to Examine Spiritual Beliefs:
What’s Your Spiritual Type? at Beliefnet.com, and the Big Religion Chart at Religionfacts.com.
See also Examine Your Mental Beliefs, Part Four of Discover U in Ten Steps.
This is one of the weekly activities for a Year of Personal Development. Studies show that those with a spiritual practice or religious beliefs tend to be happier than those who don’t. Spirituality is one of the building blocks of positive shift.
Benefits of Gratitude
Keep a gratitude journal
This is one of the weekly activities for a Year of Personal Growth. A gratitude journal is a powerful tool to increase awareness of the blessings in our lives. Simply write down a few things you are grateful for each day. Studies consistently show that people who keep a gratitude journal are 25 percent happier than those who don’t!
Try the Gratitude Spinner Wheel for 32 things to be grateful for.
1. family
2. friends
3. ideas to share
4. a kind word
5. sunshine
6. flowers
7. art
8. scented candles
9. hot coffee
10. a tasty meal
11. ice cream
12. beautiful music
13. raindrops on the roof
14. naps
15. soft blankets
16. a good nights sleep
17. a new day
18. a warm bubble bath
19. a good movie
20. a funny cartoon
21. sharing a laugh
22. learning
23. creativity
24. finding the perfect gift
25. birds chirping
26. going for a swim
27. a crackling fire
28. going for a walk
29. an entertaining book
30. dancing for joy
31. a pet to cuddle with
32. a flowing stream
Tools to use:
1. A weekly printable Gratitude Journal (pdf)
2. Thnx4.org is an online gratitude journal. Many apps are available for smartphones and tablets. Gratitude Garden is available for both Android and ios. Android Gratitude app to try: Attitudes of Gratitude.
Your Mission:
Try it for a week, and you will likely continue the practice of gratitude.
I will practice gratitude by writing down a few things I am grateful for, every day this week in a gratitude journal. I will thank someone I am grateful for, either verbally, or with an email or thank you card at least once.
Learn more:
Simple things to be grateful for:
Try a complaint free challenge! Watch Nature. Beauty. Gratitude.
Gifts of Appreciation combine gratitude with Random Acts of Kindness. These small gifts (often candy or other small treat) with a punny tag on them can be left as surprises for anyone.
Check out the other weekly activities for a Year of Personal Growth!
Physical – Activity: Increase Energy Levels
Energy is one of the resources we need to accomplish goals. Some great ways to increase energy levels are covered in some of the activities in A Year of Personal Growth (category feed here). To MASTER energy:
Tony Schwartz, author of “The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working” and co-author of “The Power of Full Engagement,” argues that it is better to manage energy than time. Time is finite, while energy can be expanded. An article at verbaltovisual summarizes this. Find the TED talk and more books and videos at Learn about Productivity. Explore more ways to increase energy levels at MichaelHyatt.com and Effective ways to regain energy at Greatist.com.
Discover your peak time for thinking and creative work so you can use it well. A way to do this is to Chart Energy Levels with a Time Log for a week to pinpoint times when energy may be high or low. Pause to notice energy levels, use your prime time to tackle demanding tasks, and when energy is low, take a break and uplift yourself with activities that energize you.
This is one of the weekly activities for a Year of Personal Development.
You may also want to use the Life Area Energy Gauge to get an overview of energy levels in 12 areas of life. Time and energy are limited resources. Some tasks require healthy amounts of both! See: Why We Procrastinate
Physical – Activity: Practice Deep Breathing
Deep breathing has been show to be beneficial in many ways. When we practice deep breathing, we can lower blood pressure, improve heart rate and sleep, lower stress, and feel calmer and improve ability to handle emotions.
Benefits of Deep Breathing:
Learn How
via GIPHY or Breathe Bubble from Calm at Youtube
If you have a smartphone or tablet, try the Breath2Relax app from health.mil. It includes a demonstration, stress rating, and cycles for deep breathing.
Try the Breath Awareness Meditation at Meditation Oasis or 6 Breathing Exercises to Relax in 10 minutes or less at Greatist.com.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Pexels.com
Practice Deep Breathing using the diaphragm. Count to five while inhaling through the nose, then count to five while exhaling through pursed lips. If possible, place a hand between navel and ribcage to feel the abdomen rise with the diaphragm. It can be helpful to imagine a flower that you sniff as you inhale and blow the petals as you exhale.
To remind yourself to breathe deeply throughout the day, you can use an hourly timer like the Blip Blip app for Android. Or make a golf stroke counter with 10 beads, and move a bead each time you focus on taking 10 deep breaths. They can be hooked onto key chains or belt loops, or used as a bracelet.
Your Mission:
I will take 10 deep breaths at least 10 times a day this week, when the hour changes. I will use a timer to remind me, and keep track with a golf stroke bead counter every day for one week.
Amazon affiliate links to books below provide a small commission that helps to support the Daily PlanIt.
Books and TED talks:
MORE TOOLS:
This is one of the weekly activities for a Year of Personal Development and a coping skill.
Physical – Activity: Make healthy food choices and track diet
Learn how to follow a healthy diet. Research some of the top diet plans at healthline.com and today.com. Read about the Blue Zones Diet and the MIND Diet.
Dive into learning with the book “Prediabetes: a complete guide” by Jill Weisenberger.
Invest in a good cookbook with healthy recipes.
Explore the grocery store with a Hy-vee nutritionist tour. Learn to read food labels, and shop the perimeter, where fresh meat, produce, and dairy are often arranged. Eat more fruits & veggies.
Track your food intake with an app like Lose It!, Myfitnesspal or a form. It’s been clinically proven that keeping track of what you eat is the #1 most effective method for controlling and reducing your daily caloric intake. Those who keep a diet diary lose twice as much weight.
FORMS: a printable food and fitness journal from WebMD
Mine: Foldable Food Diary (pdf) with 6 forms per page, close to 3 x5 size
Learn more about healthy nutrition and make healthy food choices.
I use the resources in my eBook “Simply Dinner: the Game Plan” to organize my recipes and plan meals. Check out Simply Dinner: the Game Plan! It has a blank recipe card template with four 3×5 cards on one page. Not to mention enough recipes designed for a low-carbohydrate diet for a month of menus. There are no fancy ingredients here, and please note they are not vegetarian.
see also Food is a Four Letter Word, Organizing Recipes, and a customizable shopping list at Learning About a Low Carb Diet.
The goal for this week:
“I will make healthy food choices by planning a healthy menu for the week on Sunday morning for this week. I will track the nutrition of the food I eat this week with a food diary.”
This is one of the weekly activities for a Year of Personal Development.
Not all projects are problems, but all problems are projects. The trouble with problems is they look like projects, and then sit there on your list thumbing their noses at you while you can’t figure out why they aren’t getting done. The fact is, you’ll do just about anything to avoid doing them or thinking about them. Because you’re stuck. There is something preventing you from moving forward.
At some point you realize that there is a problem with the project. And you have to take a closer look at exactly where you are hung up and why. It may take some brainstorming to come up with alternate creative solutions to get around the problem. Stop avoiding a problem and take time to focus and look for solutions. Remember, problem solving is decision making.
We must expect to encounter obstacles along the path to our goals. When this happens, it’s time to think of ways to solve the problem, to pivot and recalculate the route to our destination. Sometimes the first step is to become aware that there is a problem and gain clarity.
Look for SUCCESSful solutions:
• Solve issues
• Useful
• Complete
• Commit to measures
• Engage interest
• Smart
• Simple
• Follow a vision
• Use skills
• Leverage strengths
Additional Reading
see more Skills Employers are Looking For
Physical – Activity: Choose & Schedule Regular Exercise
Benefits
It is well-known that exercise provides many benefits, both physical and mental.
Find simple ways to add exercise into your life.
1. Choose an exercise. Pick one you can enjoy and that will provide the effect you want. You may want to change routines for variety.
2. Decide on a time and place.
3. Identify obstacles: Do you need a dvd, workout clothes or equipment?
4. Decide how you will track your progress. Will you mark a calendar each time you exercise? Will you use a chart? Or an app like Myfitnesspal on your smartphone or tablet?
Daily PlanIt Exercise Chart: Foldable Exercise Chart (pdf) with 6 forms per page, close to 3 x 5 size) and Monthly chart for daily goals (pdf)
More Forms: Printable food diaries at Make healthy food choices and track diet
Your Mission:
I will choose an exercise and a regular time and place to do it. I will obtain whatever I need to make this happen and exercise at least three times this week.
Example:
I will alternate aerobic exercise with weight lifting every evening at 6:30pm for 30 minutes.
TOOLS:
This is one of the weekly activities for a Year of Personal Development.
The Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule says that 80% of the output or results will come from 20% of the input or action. (see more at Measuring Productivity)
When this is applied to a typical day, you can expect that 80% of your time will be spent on maintenance, routine work duties, and repeating tasks. This leaves only 20% available for more important things like action steps toward goals, high Return on Investment tasks, ideas, and true relaxation. (Quadrant II of the time management matrix at Priorities) That is why it is critical to use that 20% of time that remains effectively.
Too often, the remaining 20% of the day looks like this:
Ineffective use of free time
80% of it is spent on time wasters: trivia, escape activities, mindless tv viewing. This is what ineffective time use looks like.
The goal of productivity is to use the amount of free time that is available to us to achieve the results we desire. That means using the remaining 20% of the day more like this:
Effective use of free time
80% of it is spent on the important things, and only 20% on time wasters. Remember to Make Today Count!
See also: Pareto Principle (or 80/20 Rule) at Asian Efficiency and How to 80/20 Your Life from Mark Manson.
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