Hi and welcome to one of the most positive places you will ever find on the web. My name is Scott Frahlich and I have undertaken the task of writing this blog in order to share with you some really cool ideas about how to stay ahead of the game in this crazy world of ours. I’m going to say right up front that I don’t have all of the answers, and for that reason I’ll ask my readers to share their ideas about what they do to keep themselves energized and motivated in 2012. I’ll discuss a whole range of topics here including nutrition and diet, exercise, organizational skills, and tools that are all useful in keeping us feeling positive and facing each day with vigor and enthusiasm.
I’m going to begin this evening by discussing mental energy because that’s where all of this begins. We can’t do anything positive for ourselves unless we can consistently keep ourselves in good spirits. Unfortunately, there are lots of obstacles to being positive for many of us and I have come to the conclusion that those obstacles aren’t going to go away any time soon. That simply means that we have to find a way around them. One of the toughest lessons I had to learn in my life was that one can’t ignore the obstacles because they have the potential to chew you up and spit you out if you’re not careful. I have found that if we face our problems rather than ignoring them, no matter what they are, things seem to go a lot better in a shorter span of time.
What holds you back from living your dreams? Are you stuck in a rut? Do you ever feel like your life is never going to get better than it is right now? Perhaps you work a job that doesn’t really challenge you, or maybe you’ve been unemployed for a while. Some of you are probably packing a few more pounds than you’d like to and wonder if you’ll ever have the energy to develop a regular exercise regimen to regain your health. Or, maybe you’re in a relationship that just doesn’t feel right anymore and you’re looking for a way to improve it. We all have our stressors, but many of us have no idea how to relieve them in healthy ways. It’s no wonder a lot of us eat with little or no concern for our health, or smoke, or use alcohol to excess as often as we do.
I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to live your life that way, but I’ll be the first to tell you in the same sentence that change does not come easy. A lot of us fear change, and some of us even fear success. By the time we become adults, we have become fairly set in our ways and often think it’s just too darn hard to make changes. I’ve been an exerciser most of my adult life and it’s sometimes really difficult to get out there and run or make it to the gym to lift. If it was easy, the roads would be overcrowded with bikers and runners and the gyms would have lines for every machine and free weight in them.
The trick is to look past the pain. I have told the following story in the psychology courses I have taught over the years and it does a great job of illustrating this point. Back in 1972, a researcher named Walter Mischel conducted a study at Stanford University in which he gave one marshmallow each to a group of four year-old children and promised them a second one if they could wait twenty minutes before eating the first one. Predictably, some of the kids just couldn’t wait to taste the sweet treat and promptly consumed it. Others, however, sat patiently and waited for the full twenty minutes and then received the second marshmallow as a reward for doing so.
Now, to me, it’s pretty remarkable that even one four year-old child was able to delay his or her gratification in order to receive a greater reward, but what is even more noteworthy about this experiment is that when they went back and studied those kids when they were adolescents, those that were able to delay their gratification by waiting for the second marshmallow were more well-adjusted, more dependable, and scored higher on entrance exams for college.
To me, that experiment illustrates that, while it is often difficult to be patient and wait for the results of hard work and extra effort, the payoff can be big as long as we are patient enough to work for it. It seems that it pays to be able to visualize the outcome and concentrate not on the present discomfort, but rather concentrate on what is coming further on down the road if we remain positive and focused.
I invite you to think about your own need for instant gratification and whether or not you are stuck in habits that you know are not good for you. Here’s a final illustration: over the last year, I have been educating myself on the benefits of eating less animal protein and more fruits and vegetables. No, I am not a devoted vegetarian, but I have cut back drastically on the amount of beef, pork, and chicken I consume because I just don’t think it’s good for all of us to be eating animals all the time. I’ll talk more about this in a later blog post but the point I want to make here is that if you would have told me two years ago that I could ever be satisfied with a sandwich with no meat or fish in it, I would have told you that you were loco. Then, one day, I found myself in a Subway restaurant and decided I’d try one of their “Veggie Delight” subs. I’m here to tell you that, with some cheese and a little chipotle sauce, that sandwich rocked and now it’s the only thing I eat when I visit that particular restaurant.
I guess that’s a good place to end this first post. I have lots more to do tonight but I am going to choose to look beyond the tasks and look forward to the completed work. Thanks for reading and please come back!
Scott
