Today’s thoughts–

1. What’s in your head?

This afternoon I finished reading The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma. Written as a fable, the book is chock-full of advice for a better life, but the biggest tidbit of wisdom that’s stuck with me since I read it is “You can’t afford the luxury of one negative thought.” This is because, as my former life coach used to say, negative thoughts are like ants–if you let one in, it will bring all its friends along with it. As a solution to negative thoughts, the book suggested Opposition Thinking or finding a positive thought to replace a negative one. For example–

Negative thought: I’m broke and will never have enough money.

Positive thought: Things can only get better from here.

2. It’s about momentum

The dance studio I used to own was named Momentum Dance Concepts. And whereas I owned MomentumDanceConcepts.com, the website address that everyone knew about and used was ItsAboutMomentum.com. Although I didn’t realize it when I chose the address, it ended up being the perfect “dance slogan,” a pithy piece of advice I could use over and over again. For example, regarding spins, it’s about momentum–if you can “get going,” it’s easy to “keep going.” Anyway, the book I finished today offered the same advice and said that if you can perform small actions, like with respect to your diet or exercise program, consistently, you’ll build the confidence and inner strength required for performing larger actions.

3. A little bit at a time

My typical approach to self-improvement, especially when it comes to diet and exercise, is to “blow it up.” All or nothing. However, lately I’ve been thinking that every time I try this method, I inevitably burn out. Well, now that my birthday celebrations are officially over, I’ve been thinking that I’d like to eat a little better, exercise a little more. My stomach has continued to be upset for over a month now, and I figure eating better and burning off some stress can’t hurt and might help. We’ll see how it goes, but my new mantra is–Today I will do SOMETHING that looks like exercise (go for a walk, do push-ups, do yoga). Today I will make AT LEAST ONE better decision regarding what I put in my body.

In practice, this mantra manifested itself today as walking three laps around a local park, doing nine pull-ups (nine more than I’ve done all year), and NOT drinking any beer.

4. Starry, starry night

I said my birthday celebrations were officially over. Last night I went out to eat with my friends Justin, Ashley, and Joseph (then Ashley, Joseph, and I went to watch Justin play soccer), and that was the last “group activity” for sure. However, I’d intended to drive out to a super-dark spot and look at stars ON my birthday but was too tired to do so after finishing the blog at three that morning. Anyway, I’m hoping to go tonight. It’s just now ten in the evening, so that should give me plenty of time to be fascinated by the heavens and still get plenty of rest (see Number 5).

5. Now I lay me down to sleep

This afternoon I started a book called Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker, PhD. So far the book has discussed why some people are “early birds” and some people are “night owls,” the two main kinds of sleep (REM or Rapid Eye Movement and NREM or Non-REM), the effects of caffeine on sleep (and the fact that spiders can’t build a web for shit when they’ve had caffeine), the negative things that can happen when you DON’T sleep enough, and the positive things that can happen when you do.

It’s fascinating.

The sleep book sparked my interest when I saw it in a bookstore a few days ago because my doctor recently indicated that I may not be getting enough REM sleep if I’m not being consistent about WHEN I go to bed and WHEN I wake up. “Just set benchmark times and try to stick to them,” she said. Anyway, I’m only sixty pages in, but I’m already convinced–I need LESS caffeine, MORE sleep, and BETTER quality sleep. So I’m starting tonight, if only by finishing this now and going to bed SOONER than normal.

As the saying goes, “Progress, not perfection.”