Health, Time, Money, Feelings (the personal marathon for living well)

Do you believe most problems boil down to issues concerning health, time, or money?

Are they interconnected in ways we’ve not thought?

You have a better life with good fitness habits, because you won’t suffer increasing immobility or pain.

You have a better life with good time management, because you use your time on things that matter.

You have a better life with good money skills, because you afford your Lifestyle plus savings for your future.

THEORY What if the mental strategy you use to manage your time is the same strategy you could use to manage your money and fitness?

If this is true, why are we in shape, but our money is inadequate or, on time, but our health is declining, or fine money managers but fifty pounds overweight?

Is it because we aren’t aware of our strategy?

I believe you can improve in all areas when you carve out space and time to think about what you are doing right and turn it into a playbook. It is reverse engineering. You break it down into small pieces.

It’s high-level intelligence at work.

It’s imagination, visualization, and intuition.

It boils down to owning a personal plan.

How To Engineer What You Want

You can learn something valuable from observing a robot. Successful people do this. I mean, they do the task. They set aside feelings for later. Do you know a feeling will never stop you from doing the task when you are running your personal plan?

Suppose you are good at money skills and overweight and often late. Think about your money skills secrets. I’d venture to say it’s because you create a mental picture of your deeply desired lifestyle and embrace the quality of self-discipline.

If your money skills knowledge was lacking, you studied and practiced until you found the playbook that worked for you. You created your personal playbook.

How can you apply this to the issue of often being late? You can investigate your inner self and discover the payoff for being late. If there’s no payoff, you will stop. Is the payoff the attention you get when all eyes turn to you as you walk into a meeting? Is the payoff control because they can’t start without you? Is the payoff rebellion against someone’s requirement of you?

Once you label the payoff you can seek healthier ways to satisfy it. (Coaching can help.) Only then can you create a new behavior—being on time. You reverse engineer the schedule and put Travel or preparation time into the calendar. Add five minutes each morning to visualize yourself being on time for each appointment. You now have a personal plan.

Now the next one. Weight. There are a hundred reasons that diets don’t work. And two million Diet programs for sale. They don’t work because they are not a plan you have created for yourself—a personal plan.

Facing up to existing food habits is hard. But it can be the most intriguing investigation. What are your reasons for unhealthy food practices?

I’ll share some of mine:

·     Sugar habit

 As a kid, I used to read books constantly and always had a roll of candy to munch on at the same time. Eating candy and reading is soothing.

·     Stuffing habit

I discovered a psychotherapy term in some research that said stuffing is a way of dealing with emotions. It was true for me. I was hiding my feelings, especially the sad or frustrated ones.

·     Inactivity habit

Books have always been a great escape into adventures and lives I wanted to live. Reading is not a physically active sport.

If you look into yourself for your reasons for being overweight, you will find them. What’s the payoff you get for staying overweight? It may be time for a personal retreat to figure it out.

Now you can create a personal health plan starting with a picture and description of the self you want to be. No, I’m not talking about visualizing things like ‘eyes wider apart’ or ‘shorter feet.’ I’m talking about an overall condition of health-ness, fitness, flexibility, resilience, and healthy weight range. You create a personal plan, exactly like you did with your money plan, and your time management plan. It’s the same process.

I suggested putting aside feelings and just doing the task. The feelings are still there. You say, “But I’m only human. Not a robot.” What do you do with the feelings around Money, Time, and Health?

Surprise, surprise. You create a personal plan for allowing feelings. The process goes like this:

·     for a week

·     jot a note when you notice a feeling

·     anger, happiness, frustration, annoyance, stuck-ness, cheerfulness, love

·     decide what you’ll do when it happens.

Phase 1: Action planning for each feeling. One of mine is what to do when I feel frustration. I walk somewhere for ten minutes and allow myself to feel it, then let go. When I feel love, I say it. Now make your list.

Second Phase: Research the circumstances of your feeling. What kicked it off? Then see if you can eliminate the triggers of negative emotions.

You might be thinking when you create these plans of action and do them, then you’ll be a perfect person. Nope, sorry. We’ll never get there. We IMPROVE. I think it’s a good definition of personal Growth.

It’s the biggest challenge and adventure of living. It took me a long time to figure this out. I could’ve used a coach to get here faster. Just sayin.’

Originally Published on https://www.claimingfreedom.com

SharonAnn Hamilton Travel Lifestyle Guide

I've always loved to read. Stories invited me into adventures but left me hungry for action. Why couldn't I experience adventures for myself? At first I thought lack of MONEY was the problem. Then career came and I thought TIME was the problem. So I set out on a journey to prove that I could live my own adventures regardless of money or time. Now I teach others how.