Monthly Archives: September 2015

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What is the best exercise for you?

If I were to pick one exercise to stay fit it would be walking. Walking is an exercise that almost anyone can do.

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The major benefits of walking are:

1. It helps to maintain weight.Walking will burn calories. The number of calories you burn will depend on the pace and distance of your walk.

2. Reduces the risk of coronary heart disease. According to the American Heart Association walking improves your circulation and will aid in reducing heart disease.

3. Reduces the risk of non-insulin dependent type 2 diabetes. This is  also according to the American Heart Association.

4. It supports your joints and reduces the risk of osteoporosis.  A Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, study of post-menopausal women found that 30 minutes of walking each day reduced their risk of hip fractures by 40 percent.

5. It aids in digestion. According to a study  in 2008 by German researchers walking aided digestion.  Walking, they found, sped the rate at which food moved through the stomach.

6. It aids in your thinking. Walking allows you to clear your mind and think. You will get the benefit of natural endorphins being released in your body. This also improves your mood.

7. Improves your balance and coordination. This will naturally improve by adding walking on different paths and surfaces.

Walking is a great way to get started with an exercise program. If you are just starting to exercise the first thing to do is get a check up from your doctor.  This is a great thing to do annually.

There is very little equipment required to walk.  I would recommend a good pair of walking shoes to avoid foot injury. Good shoes will help you with rolling from your heel to your toe.

You can measure your distance with a pedometer or other device that measures your steps and distance. The iPhone as an example has the health app that will measure your distance.

Start out with a short walk around the block. Add distance to your walk every time you walk until you can get to at least the 30 minute mark.

Walking is great because you can do it anywhere. If you live around lakes, oceans or mountains you can plan walks to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors.

Be Great!

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How To Not Lose An Idea

7 Ways to Record Your Ideas

Have you ever had a great idea and later when you are trying to figure out what that great idea was you have forgot the idea? I think this has happened to everyone at some time or another.

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Here are 7 ways to record your ideas so you don’t forget them:

  1. Record your ideas in a journal. Set aside time to think every day. Pick a time of day that works best for you. Record your thoughts and ideas in the Idea Journal. You can record on a paper or electronic journal.
  2. Carry a small pad of paper and pen or pencil. A small notebook like a Moleskin or a spiral notebook is perfect for this. There is even an app for Moleskin so you can use your phone or tablet.
  3. Use the voice memos app on your iPhone or Android phone. Most cells phones have a voice recording app. A nice option if you use Dropbox and want to share your messages is to use DropVox. This is a recording tool that will drop your message right in to DropBox.
  4. Carry a small voice recorder. I have used a small voice recorder like the one in the picture above for years. I have it in my car so as I am driving I can just hit the record button to capture thoughts, ideas and to dos.
  5. Call yourself and leave a voice mail. This is a trick I learned a long time ago. If you have an idea while you are away from your office  call yourself on your cell or office phone and leave a message.
  6. Use notes on your phone. Most cell phones have some sort of messaging app or notes app that you can record notes.
  7.  Text or email yourself. Many cell phones have voice texting.  Most vehicles have the capabilty to do voice texting as well when they are in sync with your phone. An email provides you with a written record.

Be Great!

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How to Put Discipline in Your Life

We all want to do so many things in our lives, but we are limited by time. How we schedule our day and discipline ourselves has a big impact on whether we accomplish what we set out to do each day.

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Self discipline is hard and is something you can train yourself to get better at. Much of it is sticking to your plan and not letting others or your own self talk convince you to not get done what you want to get accomplished.

6 Areas to Commit Time and Create More Discipline

  • Faith – Commit time to prayer and go to church. Set aside time each day to pray. How many minutes/hours would you like to pray each day?  I have found early mornings and night time work best for me. Figure out your best prayer time. Don’t skip church because you want to sleep in or have other things to do on Sunday. Plan on which mass or service you attend each week.
  • Fitness – Commit time to workout. How many times per week do you want to workout? How long do you want your workouts to be? What kind of workouts do you want to do? Start with an easy workout just a few minutes per day and work your way up to longer and harder workouts.
  • Friends – Commit to spending time with friends. How often do you want to spend time with friends? Who do you want to spend time with? Set a goal of how many times per week or month you want to spend with your friends.
  • Finances – Commit time to working on your finances. The easiest thing to do is set your monthly bills on autopay. Set up your investments with monthly deductions. Most employers offer a 401k plan. This is an easy way to set aside monies for retirement and comes out of your pay pretax. Review your investment statements monthly.  Set up a quarterly and  an annual review with a financial planner.
  • Family – Commit time to your spouse and children. Plan to spend time with your family each day. Have family dinners.  Have date time or date moments with your spouse. Take time to talk to your kids and play with them.
  • Fun – Commit time to doing something fun. Get vacation and fun time planned and put in your calendar. Where would you like to go on vacation? What weekend trips would you like to go on? What fun things have you not done in a while that you would like to do?

After answering these questions for each category pull out your calendar. Block time in your calendar for each of these 6 areas. Tell your spouse or a friend what you have scheduled and what your goals are. You will have a greater chance of hitting them if you have accountability to someone other than yourself.

Be Great! 

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How to Read More Books Every Year

I love to read and to learn. I generally read between 24 – 40 books per year. I skim or reads chapters of another 50+ books per year.

I usually read books based on recommendations. The recommendation may come from a friend, business associate, priest, blog or business magazine. I have found I don’t want to waste time reading something that may not be good.

 

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Reading for learning. When I read to learn I choose nonfiction books. They are usually business related or based on a certain topic to learn about. Here is how to read a nonfiction book.

  • Read the cover flap and about author. This gives a good synopsis of the book and you learn about what other books the author has written.
  • Skip the endorsements.
  • Review the table of contents to see what topics interest you.
  • Read the 1st and last chapter first. You can learn about most of the book in these two chapters.
  • Go back and read the chapters on the topics you want to learn or interest you.
  • You do not have to read the whole book. Read only what you want to read.

Reading for Entertainment.

Fiction books are great for entertainment and to escape. Pick a genre that interests you and find authors that are good in that genre. If don’t like the book stop reading it and pick a different book. There are so many books available that there is no need to finish a book you don’t enjoy just to say you finished it.

There are fiction books that have great research and historical information. You can learn as you read.

Listening to Books.

Some people don’t like to read books. I highly recommend Audible.com for those of you who do not like to read books.  It is also a great way to get more books read in a year. You can listen while you are traveling or while working out.

Paper books versus ebooks

  • It is easy to get to different parts of the book
  • You can mark the book up and write in the margins
  • There is just something about having the book with turnable pages in your hands

Ebooks versus paper books

  • You never loose your place in an ebook. The book automatically syncs on your device
  • You can use multiple devices to read a book like a Ipad, Iphone or Android device. The book syncs across your devices
  • With ebooks you save space. When traveling you can take multiple ebooks to read without the space a paper copy takes.
  • If you have books on Audible.com and on Kindle Reader you can use Whispersync. This is a really cool function. If you are listening to a book it will automatically sync with the book you are reading on your Kindle app and vice versa.

Create a reading program.

  • Set a goal to read 1 chapter or set a time frame to read per day. An example would be to read 15 minutes per day.
  • Create a book list of books on subjects you would like to learn
  • Read several books at a time to have variety in what you can choose to read. I tend to read 4 -5 books at a time so I have choices on what I feel like reading.

Be Great!