What is the first thing you feel or think when you hear, "What if"?
Was it a negative or positive response? There is a reason why I am asking.
I don't know if you noticed (especially if have been reading this blog from the beginning) I haven't talked much about how my goals are going. That's because they haven't going well at all. Tried to workout more, but I fizzled out on that within three weeks. Tried quit smoking, but that last a couple of days. Tried not drinking pop, but that lasted a day or two.
A lot of my goals I want to conquer is tied into driving and geocaching Route 66. The goal is that when I give up the smokes and pop, that money is to go towards the trip. What if I don't quit? What if I don't quit soon enough? What then?
Side note: Decided to do the Route 66 trip in September of 2016.
Ever hear someone say, 'There are two types of people in the world. Cat people or Dog people'? Or something very similar to it? Well, there seems to be two types of people when it comes to What If situations.Some allow themselves to go into a dark spiral within their heads. 'What if this bad thing happens?' or 'What if that good thing doesn't happen?' This route usually leads from a negative What If to another negative What If which leads to a bummer of a scenario played out in one's head.
Some use 'What If' to their advantage. There is a story of Thomas Edison when he was working on perfecting the lightbulb. He went through hundreds of different types of metals when he was trying find out which one would work the best and longest. He never looked at a failed metal as a failure. He saw it as a success. What if this metal doesn't work? He saw it as successfully eliminating a metal from all the possibilities until he found one that worked.
It seems like its easier for people to take the darker road though. I think most people go through life with the mind set, 'Expect the worst and hope for the best'. That seems like such a sucky way to go through life. Don't have too high of hopes, you are only setting yourself up for an eventual disappointment. And disappointments hurt.
It's true, disappointments hurt. So should we avoid hoping for anything at all? Let fear lead our lives?
I don't know if you noticed, but stuff (to put it kindly) happens. Life is tough. Nobody gets out this life without some kind of scars from disappointments.
So here is my next brilliant idea. I tried quitting one habit (smoking or drinking pop) or start a positive habit (exercise more or eat better) over a four month period randomly each month. What if I do all four at once and take a giant leap of faith that I can do this? And why not? What do I have to lose? I have everything to gain.
One thing I know for sure is that I will have to pick a day when I am not working to start. I work 10 days in a row with a 4 day weekend off after that. I know, when it comes to smoking, I'll need at least 3 days to have the nicotine work itself out of my system. Quit smoking in the middle of my 10 day stretch of work does not seem prudent. So my next 4 day weekend off starts Thursday, January 28th, 2016.
So wish me luck. Say a prayer. Keep me in your thoughts.
Some of you are thinking, "All 4 goals at once!? Are you nuts?"
Maybe I am being a little nuts, but lately I seem to be in a good spot mentally. Lately, most of the time when I'm smoking a cigarette, I been looking at that cancer stick and been thinking/feeling, 'I can hardly wait to quit you. I am getting sick of this.'
I have been feeling the same way with the Mountain Dew. Been looking at a bottle and thinking, 'Bleh'. Getting sick of this habit too.
That's it for now, so here are some highlights since the last time I posted anything....
Fantasy Football...I am in four fantasy leagues. I am the commissioner of three of them. The league I am not the commissioner of, I won the Fantasy Bowl!!!! Yeah Me!!!
Got a camcorder for Christmas. So my next blog will be my first attempt of making a video blog. I took some time off of work for a mental vacation and I took one of those days and treated Minnesota Highway 61 like it was Route 66 to see how many geocaches I could find in a day. I learned quite a few things. One, my original expectations of geocaching Route 66 might turn out to be something totally different in reality. Hope you enjoy it.
Feel free to leave a comment in comment section below. I'd love to hear what you think.
Until next time my friends, Enjoy Life
Just keep trying. I think the "all at once" works. When you quit something, it empowers you. When I quit something, I felt some much better, which made exercising easier, which helps you think about what you're doing with your body inside and out. It's a great chain of events. I wish you luck, you can do it Rich!
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