Flexing the Mental Muscle

For the last three months I have participated in the Fitocracy Arnold 1% challenge.  The jist of it is you do 15 Arnold workouts and you get a badge each month. Do three months and you get a the  a special badge.  The strange things that keep me motivated. But I really wanted those badges even when I didn’t want to do the challenge workouts.

My running togs for today.  It is hard to ignore them there.

Exercise is not always fun like we wish it was.  Bad days happen, lack of motivation happens but what can keep you going is your brain.  The mental muscles can play an important role in keeping you in going when you no longer want to.  Let’s go back to my challenge.  Month number three hit and I was over it. I wanted it out of my way so I can work on more important things in life like doing a chin up.  But I kept up at it and that was all mental.  I knew the routine exercises, doing them was not an issue, wanting to do them was the issue.

Exercising and staying consistent with it means you need to flex that mental muscle and develop discipline. No one jumps out of bed everyday ready to go all the time even when you love doing something.  But what you can do is change the mental part of the equation in my case getting some badges from Fitocracy was a major motivation to keep going on something I was bored with.  What motivates you?

Toss it! Do you hang onto stuff you don't want or like?

I have a confession to make: I hang on to stuff.  I’d would like to view myself as the person with the clean slate zen room, but I’m not.  I tend towards a more Victorian aesthetic which means I have stuff.  Some of it is worth keep and being a reader you tend to collect books and magazines. Eventually you have to cull them.  Old clothes get worn at home for loungies or for gardening.

The shirt!  I have had this since high school and that was a long while ago.

It seems like it takes less momentum to keep stuff than to get rid of it.  Getting rid of it means you have to sort through the pile of stuff, instead of just moving and shoving it in a closet. I had this  blue t-shirt and I have had it for forever.  I never really liked it, the but was off and it choked me.  So last year determined to use up that blue t-shirt, I cut the neck out of it. Which made it only slightly more comfy. I pulled it out to wear this summer, wore it for half a day and thought that’s it. I am done! I am not wearing this uncomfortable shirt again and tossed it into the bin. It is gone and I am very happy to never wear it again.   Sometimes you just have to let something go even if it is potentially useful.

A few of my declutter strategies:

1. For clothes:  Does it fit an do I love it? For books: Do I want to re-read? If I answer no, its donate or toss it depending on condition.

2. Do a little at a time.  I start to freak out if I sort too many clothes at one time and it all ends up back where it started.

3. When buying something I ask myself if I need it and do I love it.  Sometimes love trumps need.

4. If you don’t bring it home you avoid the whole having to get rid of altogether.