When I grow up..

“When I grow up I want to be an astronaut.” I thought about many careers when I was a child.  I had a new one every year at some point. What did you want to be when you grew up? Are you that or is it still your aspiration? Maybe like me you found your path and it was different from what you thought of as a kid. For the record, an astronaut was not even on my radar as an option when I was growing up. I thought about becoming  an accountant, pharmacist, doctor and a stream of other professions.

Is it one of those days?

Are there some mornings that getting out of bed seems like the biggest challenge of the day? Or maybe you need to get started on a project and you can’t for the life of you seem to get that push to jump start the process? It reminds me of a nursery rhyme (yes, I listen to quite a bit of those with our daughter and I may find myself adding them to my repertoire of music if I don’t watch it)..Anyway, the nursery rhyme is about lazy Mary who’s name on some days could be replaced with Wendy. Lol! As always nursery rhymes and children’s songs are simple and repetitive. See here:

Six packs don’t happen

“Do you think you’ll wake up one morning with a six pack?” He yelled. And no, he wasn’t referring to a six pack of alcohol (ahem..or soda). It was a trainer at the gym shouting at us as he gruelingly demanded another 10 crunches. I was thinking that he was taking his job way too seriously. I was panting like a winded dog and every muscle in my body was trembling from the strain. “You’ve got to work for it! So come on, push yourself. You can do it! Five, four….”.

Celebrate little victories

Boy don’t I love the feeling of crossing out all the items on my to-do-list on any given day at work. That feeling of a day well spent is priceless. Last week I wrote on the issue of self-criticism. Self flagellation of sorts. Today I am thinking of the other side of the coin. Reward. When you achieve a goal, no matter how small, do you reward yourself? Even a simple pat on the back or a little jig counts.

I am reminded of the carrot and stick idiom. Back in the days of donkey driven carts the “driver” would hang a carrot just out of the reach of the donkey and would hold a stick threateningly behind. The donkey moved forward spurred on by the motivation of trying to reach the carrot (reward) while avoiding the stick (punishment). Without motivation change is almost impossible. If losing weight has no advantages then what’s the point? If getting that degree has no benefit then why bother staying up late studying?