MY GOLDEN 5

So I finally finished The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin. This was a fun read for me. I am naturally drawn to psychology, new ideas, and self improvement, so this book was right up my alley. I had people ask me when I was reading it if I was looking for happiness. I have been wonderfully blessed with the happiness gene. In the worst of times, I have always been able to see my way through and turn it into a positive learning experience. Where others would crack and fall apart, I've always been able to pep talk myself out of a bad situation and strategize ways to turn things around. I am by nature happy. I am also by nature a happiness seeker. I love new ways of thinking, new ideas, and learning about myself and others. This book had some fun ideas.

You may ask, why is this in a fitness blog? Well, that's easy! Being fit and healthy is not all about food and exercise. As a matter of fact, I would even go as far to say, if you don't look at improving your relationship with self, than the obvious components if being healthy will always be a struggle to maintain. Believe it or not, being healthy and fit does become second nature when you get this component in check. This is where your attitude and relationship with food changes.

I have created 5 golden rules for myself on areas I need to improve upon. These were areas of my life that give me the most trouble. You will notice that while I am naturally happy, I am also naturally high stress. A funny little personality glitch. Gotta love yin and yang. The thing about personalities is, you are who you are, but you can improve on how you handle certain traits that cause you the most issue.

Here are my issues at hand that I want to work on now.

My 5 Golden Rules


1. Loved ones Always come before loved things.

I seem to be very ADD these days. It takes every ounce of concentration to involve myself in a project. I have a developed a really bad behavior pattern over the years of getting visibly frustrated or exasperated when interrupted while planning or choreographing a class, blogging, emailing, or reading important info. This is certainly not because I love my jobs or hobbies more than my family, but I'm pretty sure it feels that way as I huff and moan when someone interrupts me. I don't ever want my family to question if what I am doing is more important to me than they are, so this is my number one rule.




2. Stress has as much power as you give it.

I hate those moments when things don't go (or aren't going) as planned, or as I had hoped they would. So much of my stress is caused by high expectations of myself or others that are not met. I have gotten much more flexible in my old age, but I still feel the need to chill a bit and let go of the idea that everything has to be perfect or under my control. Why is taking the pressure off of yourself the hardest thing to do?

3. Eat the biggest frog first.

Procrastination was never in my nature, but for some reason, it seems to be now. Maybe all of the added responsibilities and expectations I have put on myself has made me a bit passive aggressive with what I get done in a day. As a result, I seem to be constantly playing catch up. I guess the first step is to figure out what is important to keep and what can I simplify. Then I can give myself a swift kick in the butt to getter done!

4. Relax! Chasing your tail is a waist of time....You don't have one!

Notice a theme? This seems to nicely pair with rules 2 and 3. Putting too high of expectations on myself typically has me chasing my own tail. Letting go of these expectations is the hardest thing for me to do. I want to give everything I do 100%... 100% of the time and then get frustrated when I see areas slipping. (I wonder if the "new math" has a solution for this!) At the end of the day what I desire isn't a perfect fitness class, but a fun one with laughter and lots of sweat. Not a perfect house, but one with lots of love and laughter, that is welcoming to friends. Not a perfect body, but one that is strong and healthy and does not come with a tail to chase.



5. Live in this moment, it's the only one you have.

Now that I am done reading The Happiness Project by: Gretchen Rubin, my plan is to pick up, The Power of Now by: Eckhart Tolle. I have the book and read half of it 2 years ago and put it down because the more I read, the more unattainable it all seemed. I think I am now in a place to pick it up again and re-read it, knowing that perfection does not have to be the goal. Living in the moment seems like such a peaceful, balanced way to be. Unlike always chasing my tail to catch up from what I've missed, or get ahead of where I am now.


So those are my 5 for now. I probably could have condensed 2-5 into one, but this has always been my issue, so I broke it up into several parts.

I challenge you to create your own list. The more you concentrate on learning about yourself the richer your relationships with others can be. You may also find a deeper relationship with self that allows to naturally draw towards the healthier things in life.

What is Your Golden 5 for Self Improvement?