Set a Priority - Break the Rut

Photo by Stephen McKay

Ever find yourself just going through the motions of life without any particular goal in mind? You go to work, cook dinner, watch TV, go to the occasional family gathering and party, and each year blends into the next without anything changing much.

Coming back to the US after being gone for over 4 years we were surprised to find how little some things have changed, notably the people around us. Our last 4 years were full of exciting goals we pursued and consequently arrived at, so it's sometimes unsettling to see how others get stuck in a rut and don't even seem to notice the time going by. It's mostly unsettling because from past experience I know how easy it is to get into a rut like that, and how difficult it is to escape once you do.

I'll make today's 5 minute task a simple one to get started on creating a life that is meaningful and fulfilling. All you have to do is set a priority. Choose an area in your life: family, health, work, relationships, etc; that you will view as your priority for a certain amount of time. It can be a priority for a day, for a week, a month, a year. 

Then think of what you would like to achieve in this area. Do you want to spend more time with your family? Are you hoping to lose some pounds? Do you want to start exercising more regularly? 
Having this priority set will already make you feel more goal oriented and inspired, and help you set the stage for true action.

I'm someone who'd much rather actively create my life and my circumstances than undergo them passively. It does take energy and effort however, and it is never easy to become pro-active once you're used to the comfort of letting life wash over you. Just keep in mind that you can and should be pro-active about doing nothing sometimes too! Watching TV on purpose because you happen to enjoy a certain show or because you really just want to vege out for a day is totally different from plopping down on the couch cause that's just what you usually do.

What are your thoughts? Are you stuck in a rut? Did you ever break out of one? Share below!

Jumping Back on the Wagon

Picture by Odense Bys Museer

Since last summer, I've been slacking off a bit when it came to productive and life-improving habits. Sure, we were still eating healthy and I'm still finishing all of my class preparations, but that's about it. I haven't really been focusing on the long-term goals and the house-hold and my blogs have suffered too.

This has been bothering me, and maybe some of you too.

My hubby and I have been waiting for paperwork to get out of China and finally see our US family again. This being in-between where we were and where we want to be has left us feeling like we don't really care so much about the present anymore.
But just sitting around waiting is a waste of time. Especially if it just goes on for months without any idea of when it might get better.

Well, I'm done with it. And for those of you who have started hibernating and letting go of some of the great habits you've built up: this is for you too.

Over the months from September 2010 to August 2011, I started some great habits. I built them up slowly, but by June 2011 we were getting up early, getting daily exercise, eating well, blogging daily, and feeling great about all of it. I loved that time, but when I got first trimester morning sickness, it became impossible to keep up with. 

Now I want it back, but it seems like so much to do at once.

So what do you do? Start with one thing. Build up the habits the way you did before. Today I started with one of the first habits that I picked up before, and the easiest one for me: making a daily plan. I take out my diary (which has been gathering dust on the messy desk in the never-used office) and wrote down a rough outline of what I plan to do each hour. I left some space open to fill in later, but that'll slowly get filled up too. 

It worked pretty well. My day was much more productive than they have been this week, and I felt a lot more energetic. 

When we give up on a habit, we often think that's it. We tried it and clearly it didn't work. But it doesn't have to be that way. An ex-smoker who falls off the wagon doesn't have to settle for smoking for the rest of their life. A busy mom who's gained weight doesn't have to forget about exercising forever.
We each have our times when it's difficult to do the things we know are good for us, and make us happy.

When the time is right, however, you will feel the urge to get back into gear and you can feel confident knowing you've already succeeded once before!  

Triple Inspiration In a Single Minute

Another Sunday in which I feel like updating ;-) I admit that the blog has been kind of slow, but I'm now finally starting to feel better (almost no more nausea) so trying to pick it up when I have some free time.

Today's quotes are as much to inspire myself as they are to inspire you, my dear readers. Feel free to add any great ones that you've come across lately to the list!

Get Productive!

"I am capable of what every other human is capable of."

(Maya Angelou)

Get Happy! 

“People tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will descend like fine weather if you’re fortunate. But happiness is the result of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly.”

(Elizabeth Gilbert)

Get Inspired!

"We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact 

that each moment of life is a miracle and a mystery."

(H.G. Wells)

3 Easy Tricks to Eat More Fruit

Picture by Michael Geipel

Vegetables are quite easy to incorporate into our diet since they're a part of our main meals, but unless you eat fruit as a desert or with breakfast, it can be difficult to give it a place in your diet. Fruit makes an ideal snack, however, as long as it's readily available when you feel like snacking.
Healthy eating is always a concern of mine, and with another life growing inside, it is now more so than ever. So I try to consume at least 3 pieces of fruit a day. Here's how I do it:

1. Pick fruit that's easy to eat on the go. It's tangerine and banana season here, but apples, grapes or berries are great too. Put a piece of fruit (or a bag of grapes) in your purse/briefcase so you have it with you when you're out of the house. You'll find yourself reaching for it when you're in the mood for something sweet because it's so close at hand.
   
2. Make a smoothie or shake to go with breakfast or as an in between snack. You can pack smoothies with quite a bit of different fruits, and you can add milk or yogurt for extra calcium, or orange juice for extra  vitamin C. Adding ice-cream is delicious, but kind of defeats the purpose. We've been loving our banana-yogurt-cocoa shakes lately!
   
3. Wash fruits right when you bring them into the house, and then display them wherever you spend the most time in the house. Having it already washed means you can just reach and take a bite. It also means you can let your fruit soak in salt water which is a great way to remove pesticides.
   Remember to wash your fruit even if it is organic because there are bugs and parasites in dirt too!

For me, fruit is a great way to satisfy that craving for something sweet without having to feel guilty about it. It also gives you fast sugars if you're feeling low on energy, so it's a great pick-me-up.
Fruits are full of wonderful nutrients, so every piece is a treat not only for your taste buds, but for your body too! Enjoy!

Show Your True You

I did it. I caved and bought myself a 3 month subscription to a VPN service so I can hop that dangerously wired fence called the Great Chinese Firewall.
So there goes all that time I saved not being able to watch youtube videos or check social networks. But at least it also allows me to access this blog without any problems whatsoever! So, totally worth the money!

Picture by Chiara Marra

Today I wanted to talk about something that stood out to me after I posted my last blog post, which was an episode of Triple Inspiration on Sunday. In this post I mentioned one of the books I am currently reading. It's an anthology of atheist quotes. After this post, I found that the next day, 1/3 of my RSS subscribers was gone. Don't worry, my list of loyal subscribers is short, so it wasn't a huge number, but I value all of my readers and was sad to see so many go.
I'm not sure if there was a connection, but somehow I would not be surprised. I've seen people cringe at that information before.
So I thought by myself, whether it would have been better not to say anything and just stay neutral. Just be a sort of generic person that everyone can relate to equally.
But that's not very 'me', and not really the kind of person I would want anyone else to be either. So today's post is an appeal to all of you to stay true to who you are as a person; and to let your own dreams and feelings be in charge of how you act.

There are few things more scary than showing who you truly are, and then being rejected for it. One of the appealing aspects of acting out a role is that you don't have to take any negative responses personally. They don't say anything about you as a person.

Today I want to tell you that even when you are being your true self, negative responses only say something about your relationship with the person who's responding to you. There's no knowing how people will react to you whether you're acting or not. When someone disagrees with you or thinks badly of you, it says as much about them as it does about you. One of the things I've learned in China is that my preconceived notions of politeness and good manners, and my judging of the lack thereof in my students, says much more about my culture than about theirs.

Life is too short to go around trying to be someone/something you're not. I stopped acting like I enjoyed big crowds and loud music because it made me miserable, and frankly, I haven't lost any friends over it. They may think I'm a 50 year old in 26 year old skin, but I like it that way. 

I have a lot of different kinds of friends. With some I agree on almost everything, with others on barely anything. Yet I value them for who they are, and for showing who they really are, even when they know I disagree and may think them foolish. I draw power and inspiration from these people.

What about you?

Worth Every Minute!

I've read so many great blog posts lately, that I find it difficult to choose one to share. But there was one that I just knew I had to share.
Perseverance hasn't always been the easiest for me, and I still need to be reminded of how important it is to just keep going at it from time to time. Chances are that if you try long enough, you'll eventually get the result you're looking for. You're increasing the odds with every attempt.

Today's article talks about just that. It gives you the reasons you need to keep working at your goals. For those of you who are working toward a goal that seems to be impossible to reach, this could be a great help!

So without further ado:

How to Succeed: Keep At It Until You Get Lucky by Donald Latumahina on Lifeoptimizer.com

Let me know if you enjoyed it as much as I did!

For more worthwhile reads, check out the other posts of Worth Every Minute.

Triple Inspiration: Autumn Edition

It's October, and today's quotes are in an autumn theme. It's an amazing season where we are forced to let go of the warmth of summer and prepare for the dark winter months to come. 

But it's also a season full of beauty and light. It draws our attention inward, into our own minds and souls. It's a great time to let nature inspire you.

More inspirational quotes can be found in the other Triple Inspiration posts.

Get Productive!

"Even after a bad harvest, there must be sowing."

(Seneca)

Get Happy!

Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.

(Elizabeth Lawrence)

Get Inspired!

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace, as I have seen in one autumnal face.

(John Donne)

Triple Inspiration in a Single Minute

How was your week? Mine has past quite relaxed with lots of extra rest. I hope you've been able to find enough time to rest as well. It's one of the most important things you can do for both your physical and mental well-being.

But I'm pretty sure you don't need any inspiration on how to sleep more. For those other things we tend to overlook: like how to stop procrastinating, how to be happy, and how to get inspired, here are three more quotes for you to take to the next week.

You can find the whole series of Triple Inspiration here.

Get Productive!

“How soon 'not now' becomes 'never'.”

(Martin Luther)

Get Happy!

"The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself"

(Benjamin Franklin) 

Get Inspired!

"I shut my eyes in order to see."

(Paul Gauguin)

Shiny Shoes Make All the Difference

Picture by Jay Springett

I have a friend who once told me that whenever she meets someone for the first time, she always looks at their shoes first. This is not some weird kind of shoe obsession. She says that she can tell whether the person is neat, organized and productive, from looking at how well they attend to their shoes.

Since then, I try to throw a quick glance at my feet before I leave the house, and keep some wipes nearby in case I need to clean them real quick. But really looking after your shoes doesn't have to take that long either. Especially with leather, frequency is more important than how careful you are about polishing your shoes.

Cleaning your shoes is a matter of minutes. First of all, brush them off with a dry brush. Then, if need be, wash with a damp cloth (only lightly, don't get them wet!). After that you can use some polish and rub it into the leather of the shoe. Let it sit for about three minutes to dry, then use a clean brush to get a nice shine.

About once a month should do the trick. Be sure to protect your clothes, furniture, pets, children, etc. Shoe polish is sticky stuff!

In the long run, taking care of leather shoes will make them last MUCH longer! I've had pairs of shoes last me over 5 years, and others waste away in less than 2 (depending on how hard my mom wagged her finger at us). So it's not only a good use of time, but a money saver too!

Do you polish your shoes? Do you notice when others do(n't)?

Triple Inspiration: School Edition

Ready for some more inspiring quotes? It's Sunday again, the last one of the summer holiday, so I've found some quotes related to school and education that you may find useful in the week to come.

Get Productive!

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child."

(George Santayana)

Get Happy!

"The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet."

(Aristotle)

Get Inspired!

"I've never let my school interfere with my education."

(Mark Twain)

Control Your Cravings: 3 Snack Options

Picture by Arnold Gatilao

Let's face it: Our body doesn't always let us know what's good for us. At different times during the day we may crave something sweet, salty or greasy. None of these options are particularly encouraging for someone who is trying to eat well and stay healthy.
What you need is a way to fool your body into thinking you're satisfying a junk-food need, while really feeding it something reasonably healthy.
I've figured out some tricks to limit the amounts of ice-cream and salted chips/crisps that I eat.

1. Craving something sweet: Try to eat a sweet kind of fruit, maybe one that's on the verge of too sweet, like grapes or a very ripe mango. Dried fruits are even sweeter and guaranteed to make you crave some water instead!
   
2. Craving something salty and crunchy: Toast some bread and top it with some peanut butter and a little bit of salt. You could also use gomashio, which is a Japanese sesame salt that goes really well with peanut butter in my opinion! One of my go-to snacks.
   
3. Really hungry: Eat something that contains fat and protein. Ideal snacks to combine both are eggs, nuts and beef jerky. These are a great way to help tie you over until the next big meal.

Any idea what to do about craving french fries? That seems to be the one that's eternally difficult to control in my case. Can't imagine what it would be like if I lived in Belgium where they are pretty much everywhere! I used to eat them at least once a week.

Worth Every Minute

I've been looking forward to Wednesday just to get a chance to share this article with you. I read it a couple of days ago, and couldn't wait to feature it on Worth Every Minute.

The article gives 8 examples of words that are used in a certain way, and how to look out for them. Each of these words carries a negative effect or a hidden suggestion with it.
Mostly they're about becoming more certain of what you say, such as when changing I wish to I will or I deserve. 

The 8 words the writer discusses are: try, wish, I am, if, should, I can't, desperate and luck.

Enjoy the article in your own time:

Watch Your Words: 8 Ways to Choose Your Words More Carefully
by Caz Makepeace on lifeoptimizer.org

To Do What You Wanna Do, Be Who You Wanna Be!

Picture by Sam Davis

Self-discipline and motivation has been a struggle for me since day one. I can remember my kindergarten teacher complaining about the fact that I couldn't finish tasks. In elementary school, I would finish 90% of a drawing in 20 minutes, and take forever over the last 10%.

And then my dad told us a story. I don't really remember much of it, but it was about this little guy, a toymaker, who could never finish all the toys he started making. His workshop was full of unfinished toys. This struck me, at the time and still now, as incredibly sad.
I realized that that was not the kind of person I wanted to be.

When you find it hard to do the kind of things you set out to do, or to follow the planning you have made for yourself, take a step back. Don't keep pushing yourself, because you risk starting to resent the task that you have set out to do, which brings you nowhere closer to finishing it.

Instead, take that step back and get some perspective. Imagine how the task fits in with the kind of person you want to be. 
Take 3 minutes to ask yourself the following questions:

1. What kind of person do I want to be?
2. How would that kind of person tackle this task?
3. How will finishing this task reflect on me as a person?

Realize that who you are is no more set in stone than the clouds in the sky. 'YOU' is a fluent concept. You are allowed to change and improve upon this concept, and more importantly, you can radically change it to become what you want it to be. 

True, some things we can't change, and some parts of our personality are less flexible than others, but I believe that who we really are as a person doesn't depend on those everlasting, unchangeable aspects (race, nationality, gender, sexuality) but on the choices we make every day.
I want to be the kind of person people can trust, and that I can trust. With every choice I make as that person, I come closer to becoming her.

Think Before You Talk

(source)

We live in a world where people are allowed to say pretty much anything they want to. Under the cloak of free speech, not only do we declare things that are untrue, but we insult and harass each other too. Words are, more than ever before, powerful weapons. And you don't need a license to open your mouth.

Of course, it's wonderful that we don't get prosecuted for what we say. And we need people to voice concerns and objections to our most common ideas as well. People have to feel free and safe to tell their truths, but to me, that's not a license to just say whatever first gets into your mind, without considering the consequences. 

When you're in the middle of an argument, or about to tell someone something that may be quite sensitive in nature, try to take a moment to consider how your words will affect the other person, and which effect you're hoping to get. 
Now, try to find the best way to say what you want to say. The best way is the way the way that will bring you closest to a win-win: You will convey the message and the other person will be receptive to it. The best way is also a way in which you don't jeopardize the relationship between you and the other person. Keeping a line of communication open should be your first priority in a conversation.

 Remember that you can always convey your message at another time, when it's more appropriate or less tricky. You won't be able to take back any words already spoken.

I've suggested to others, to try and count to 10 before saying something hurtful or delicate. It's the trick that I've used to a couple of years. I used to be incredibly rude (ask my parents) and just say anything that would come up in my mind, no matter how offensive it was.
I'd like to think I've learned a couple of lessons in those days.

Worth Every Minute

I like zenhabits.net. Sometimes it's a bit over the top, but I often find very valuable and worthwhile thoughts on there. Plenty of the things I do in my daily life, stem from zen habits in one way or another.

Today is Wednesday, so I want to share another article with you. This one is about making decisions. We make a ton of decisions in our daily life, and some of them can really pose problems. We can take an awful long time deciding on things that don't really matter in the end at all, like what to have for dinner. I've written about deciding before in the post Make a Decision!

What Leo Babauta does in this article, is give you some ideas to make decision making easier. He explains that we are obsessed with making the 'right' decision, but that often we can't because we don't have all the information it takes to make that right decision.
As a way to help us decides, he asks you to listen to your intuition and view every decision as a chance to gain more information, to learn something. I hope you get something out of this one too:

Effortless Decision-Making by Leo Babauta

Let me know what you think!

5-Minute Yoga Routine

Eagle Pose in the Summer Palace

Finding time to exercise can be difficult, and even if you have free time, who says you want to spend your free hour working out? But I know many of you have that nagging feeling somewhere that you should be working out, or want to get fit.

I've found that yoga really helped me get back on the horse when it comes to regular exercise. I actually enjoy my work-outs, even if they're only 5 minutes or so, and I have noticed my body getting more flexible.

I can do yoga anywhere if I have a solid surface underneath my feet. For many poses you need a yoga mat, but you can also design a routine that doesn't require a mat.

Whenever you feel stressed, jittery or lack energy, try the following 5-minute mat-less yoga routine to get your energy flowing again:

1. Mountain: Start by placing your feet flat on the floor, toes spread out for balance. Stand up straight and control your breath.
2. Upward Salute: Raise your arms, with the palms together. Stretch and look upward.
3. Chair: keep your arms raised, but sink through your legs like you're sitting down on a chair. Great to create nice, firm thighs!
4. Standing Tree: bend your left leg, putting your left foot on your right thigh. Balance on the right leg while lifting your arms. Do the same for the other side.
5. Warrior III: stretch one leg back, and stretch your arms forward, putting your body horizontal, balancing on one leg. Same for the other leg.
6. Eagle: twist one leg around the other, and one arm around the other. Balance and sink through your leg until you feel it tensing. Then do the other leg and arm.
7. Extended Triangle: set your legs apart. Stretch your arms horizontally to the side. On an exhale, lean your right hand to your right foot, making an angle. The stretch on your side is phenomenal! Do the same for the other side.
8. Revolved Triangle: same, but in this case you move your right hand to your left foot and vice versa.
9. Wide-legged Forward Bend: keep your legs at the triangle position, but now bend forward (try to keep your back straight) and touch the floor.
10. Sun Salutation: go from lunge, to plank, to upward dog, and back to downward dog. See this site for a step by step guide to sun salutation.

In this whole routine, only your hands and feet need touch the floor at any time. So you can even do it outside, and not worry about your clothes getting dirty.
Enjoy!

Triple Inspiration in a Single Minute

Hello dear readers, it's another Sunday.
Unbelievable how the weeks keep flying by, isn't it?

Last week's quotes are all used up by now, so I've got three fresh ones for you to keep in mind for the next seven days.

If you want to have a look at all the old posts in this series, you can click here.

Get Productive!

"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task."
(William James)

Get Happy!

“Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained.”

(Nathaniel Hawthorne)

Get Inspired!

"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible."
(Arthur C. Clarke)

Stop-Checking-Stats Challenge

This is for all you fellow bloggers and website owners out there. Something you have told yourself endless amounts of times, I'm sure, but something that keeps creeping up again and again. How do I know? That's pretty much how it works for me, and I'm nothing out of the ordinary.

Stats are the underestimated drug of the blogger. And yes, it's a drug. Stats are addicting, and bad for your health (mental health, mostly). They have yet to contribute to anyone's life. Okay, I'll give in a little. Stats have helped me on one account: I found out where most of my readers are based, so I can sometimes adapt my links to where most of you guys are at. But I could probably have guessed that anyways. 50% from Belgium ... where almost all my family and friends live.
So I'm going to quit. Cold Turkey. Who's with me?

I'm not a masochist, so I won't cut out ALL stat-checking forever. But I'm taking a big step: I am now allowed to check my stats once a week, on Sunday morning. 

How do you keep yourself from checking stats? If possible, block the pages you go to. If that's impossible (because even though you're a fervent blogger, you have no idea how to actually DO stuff on the internet (yes, that was a confession)), think of a punishment you can give yourself for every time you check stats when you weren't supposed to. I'm going to make myself wash dishes. Something I utterly despise. 
Alternatively, you can also reward yourself for not checking your stats all day. Like making your hubby do the dishes. Chocolate works too. DO NOT reward yourself by checking stats! 

So, are you in or out? Is this a problem for you or not at all? Am I completely neurotic for having a stat-checking issue? If so, be gentle in your comments! 

MWH Stats for all to see

Learn the Lingo Little by Little

(source)

A holiday is the perfect time to submerge yourself in a new language. Even if you're not traveling to a foreign country (though I strongly recommend it to anyone willing to broaden their mind), you might have some extra time at home where you can close the door to unwelcome (i.e. native language) interruptions and create a foreign language environment for yourself.
But what if you don't really want to spend the hours it takes to learn a new language? You'll be glad to know that it doesn't take as much effort to learn enough to get by. All it takes is a couple of minutes each day of dedicated practice, and the willingness to test out your skill in real life.

When learning a new language, people often start cramming in vocabulary and grammar, thinking that this will eventually lead to full mastery of the language. It will ... eventually ... as in decades from today. But why do you need to get to a near-native level? Unless you want to teach the language you're studying, it's okay to make mistakes. (Actually, I know plenty of foreign language teachers that still make mistakes, including me.)

What you should focus on in the beginning, is picking up those key phrases that will get you in good graces with the locals. Find out how to say 'hello', 'nice weather today' and how to ask where the bathroom is. Learn one of these phrases when you have time, and then repeat it whenever you have the opportunity.

The key to learning a language is not dedication or the perfect course, it's repetition. Repeat, repeat, repeat! Ask any 3-year old. 

I learned English through endless repetitions of the same phrases on TV, on the radio, in my made-up conversations with guys I had a crush on (who never spoke English, so why I was making up conversations in a language we would never use together could go a long way to explaining why I was single all the way through high school.)
The Chinese I can remember is stuff I use from time to time. I'm forced to repeat it, so I'm forced to remember. The lack of repetition means you forget. No matter how many years you studied and how much grammar you knew!

Are you currently learning any languages? Which ones would you want to learn?

Summer Projects

Picture by Pam Ramsey

If you are like most people (statistically speaking that's very likely), you probably have some hobbies that you loved at some point in your life, but don't really perform anymore. If you're anything like me, you could make a page-long list of former hobbies and interests that you discontinued a couple of months into them.

When I stop doing something I am (or was) really interested in, it's always with the fullest intention to go back to it someday. Someday I'll play harp again. Someday I'll pick up Spanish again (and French, German, Chinese and Italian for that matter). Someday I'll get into dancing again. Sounds familiar?
I think summer (or any season you happen to have an extended holiday) is a great time to relive some of your old passions.

Take 5 minutes to rummage through your attic. Get out those boxes, and dust them off. See if you can rekindle your previous passion, and if not, at least you can cross it off your list of unfulfilled intentions.
Summers carry a risk for me. I don't have to teach (or a lot less) so my days tend to get filled doing rather pointless stuff. An example? Yesterday I spent the entire day watching sitcom episodes, so in the end I had to write a Minutes Worth Hours post 30 minutes before it was due to be published. Not really the way I like to work. 

Finding something different to focus on, especially something that you are excited about but haven't done for a while, is a great way to stay energetic and feel like you're making full use of your time. It's finally the moment you can invest in doing what you love. 
If what you love is lying in the sun and reading a book, that's great! If you love watching the Tour de France, that's awesome! But make sure you choose how you spend your time, don't let it just slip by unnoticed, or in a couple of weeks, you'll wonder where the summer went.

What kind of things do you do on your free summer days? Do you take a lot of time to relax? Do you do stuff you can't do during the year? I always love to get some inspiration for a meaningful way to spend my free time!