Tag Archives: motivation

Truth as the Basis for Belief

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I have always thought beliefs should be based upon truth. It seems to make sense. I believe that my house exists because it appears to be true. I see it all the time, I can touch it, other people can see it too. It is definitely true that my house exists, therefore my belief in it is rational and sound.

I have spent a lot of time trying to find a truth on which to base my beliefs about other things, such as my belief that thoughts create or alter reality or that our spirit survives beyond the death of our bodies. I have thrown myself into a search for some ultimate truth about the meaning of life, the point of existence, something on which to base my beliefs. However, I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible for us to know the truth about such things. Either, such a truth is beyond our comprehension, or it simply doesn’t exist.

Over the last few years I have struggled to find meaning in my life. If there is no way of knowing what we are doing here, how are we supposed to know what we are supposed to be doing with our lives? How do we decide what is a better way to spend our time when there seems to be no definable way of knowing what we should be aiming for? When you accept that you can’t possibly understand the reason you are here, or that there may not even be a reason at all, everything starts to seem a little pointless. How do you find meaning once you’ve accepted that there isn’t any meaning out there?

I decided that if I can’t base my beliefs about the meaning of life on a truth that is impossible to define, I must base them on something else. It became clear to me that the only thing one can use as the basis for their belief system is the effect that those beliefs have on the way they feel and the way they live their lives.

I once believed that the only things that existed were concrete things that could be proven by science, and that when people die, that is the end of them. These beliefs were based on what I could see to be true. I wasn’t satisfied with this way of viewing the world though. It seemed cold and ultimately pointless. If we’re just filling in time before we die, we must be pretty insignificant and worthless. This didn’t exactly thrill me.

More recently, I have come to believe that there is more to the universe that meets the eye. There is some kind of invisible energy running through things, linking everything together. Things seem to happen for reasons. The way I think about things seems to affect the things themselves. With these beliefs, the world fascinates me. My life feels like an adventure that I’m convinced will continue beyond the death of my body. These beliefs clearly serve me better than my old ones.

My new beliefs are certainly not based upon a foundation of truths. Instead, they are based on the way they make me feel about myself and my life. It no longer matters to me that my beliefs can be proven, that they are actually true. I have accepted that the truth cannot be known, and chosen beliefs that make me feel good about life.

Rather than selecting beliefs based on what can be proven by science or confirmed by the senses and other people’s agreement, I choose beliefs that make me feel excited, fascinated and motivated. Instead of attempting to find proofs for my beliefs, I try to see positive changes in my life that my beliefs help me to bring about. If something I believe helps me to achieve something, that is much more valuable to me than a belief that is based on truth but that brings me down. If a belief isn’t working for me, I look for something that I would feel better about and try to integrate that into my belief system.

I have found that anchoring my beliefs on a foundation of positivity rather than truth has been very liberating and has led me in a completely new direction in life. I no longer feel the need to understand something incomprehensible in order to find a sense of meaning and fulfilment. I just go for what feels right to me, and the motivation, creativity and fulfilment I get is all the justification I need.

Winding down and making changes

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After a wonderful summer holiday full of fun activities with friends and family, things are settling back down into their usual states and we’re getting back into our normal routines. It feels like a suitable time to turn over a new leaf and make some positive changes.

The main things I want to focus on for now are diet and exercise. I have done very little exercise over the summer, partly because I’ve been so busy, and partly because of a lack of motivation. I got out of the habit of doing yoga every day, and I want to get back into that, as well as doing something more aerobic. I also want to stop eating so much preprepared food (spicy bean burgers, I’m talking about you) and replace it with fresh fruit and salad.

I have tried some healthy foods over the summer that I wouldn’t usually have eaten and I intend to keep them in my diet. I will prepare a salad for lunch instead of throwing crap in the oven, I will keep fruit in the house to snack on, and I will drink more water.

I will try and do 30 minutes of exercise each day, alternating between yoga and wii fit for now. I would like to start running but I don’t have suitable shoes yet, so that will come later. There are plenty of aerobic exercises on wii fit to get me started.

Using this time of getting settled into a routine again to build these new habits into my life, I should be able to improve my health and fitness, which will in turn improve my motivation and energy levels and give me a great foundation to make further positive changes in my life.

I am a completely different person to who I was a few years ago, and I can’t wait to see who I can become in another few years if I keep working on improving things in my life.

 

5 minute blitz

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Ever had one of those days where you feel that no matter how hard you try, there is always more to do, so what’s the point trying? Sometimes stuff just piles up and gets on top of us and we feel that we have no chance to catch up. When your to do list is so long that you can’t face looking at it and you don’t know where to start, it can seem easier to just ignore it all and come back later.

In these situations, we all know that in order to get back on track we have to get up and do it, but finding the motivation to actually get up gets tougher the longer we leave it. We might tell ourselves that we’ve had a bad day, we deserve a break, we can get round to it later, or we’ll do it tomorrow when we feel more motivated. These are all just excuses we use to justify not doing it now, because we don’t feel like we can achieve anything.

A great way to break through this pattern of negative thinking is to do a 5 minute blitz. Whatever mountain is facing you, be it a messy house, a seemingly endless inbox, a pile of homework or a backlog of laundry, just commit to doing 5 minutes work on it. It doesn’t feel so much like you’re facing a mountain when you know you’re only going to spend 5 minutes tackling it, does it?

5 minutes doesn’t sound like a long time, it’s an easy, manageable chunk. It also doesn’t seem like much can be done in 5 minutes. This is where you will surprise yourself. Just make the commitment to the 5 minute blitz, set a timer, and see how much you can get through. Start wherever you feel you can. Do the little bits round the  edges of the mountain if that’s what you can manage with for now. Do the biggest bits first if you can face them. It doesn’t matter, as long as you do 5 minutes.

When the timer pings, stop. Sit down, make a cup of tea, relax for a bit. Now look at how much you got done in those 5 minutes. Not bad, is it? You’ve made a start. You’ve taken a chunk out of the mountain. You’ve proved to yourself that you can actually get somewhere. Maybe you feel motivated to continue. Whether you’ve just cleared a bit of space in the clutter or made a sizeable dent in your mountain, you’ve shown yourself how easy it is to make at least a little progress.

If your particular mountain is to big to make a noticeable difference in only 5 minutes then try a serious of 5 minute blitzes spaced out between periods of relaxing. Give yourself 5 minutes break between blitzes, or longer if you feel like you need it. Set the timer for the rest periods as well as the blitzes. Once you get going, you’ll start to find the timer pinging at the end of the blitz frustrating, and you’ll feel that the rest periods are too long. You could have got that next bit done if you didn’t have to stop for a rest again. That’s your motivation back!

5 minutes is an arbitrary length of time that suited my mountain today. I find it works well for me. Your mountain may be better suited to longer or shorter blitzes, pick a duration that works for you. Some tasks are better suited to a fixed number of items rather than a length of time. The same principles apply though. Clear out 5 emails then take a break. Iron 2 things then take a break. Whatever works, whatever you can face. Even the smallest step is better than staring at the mountain wondering where to start and not actually starting.

Yoga

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I have done bits of yoga here and there for a few years now. I have a “game” for my DS that guides you through various yoga lessons and workouts, which enables me to learn yoga at my own pace in my own time. I’m not one for going to a regular class at a fixed time, especially as they only seem to run in the evenings. I have done the odd class and session here and there but haven’t seriously got into it until now.

I yesterday, I decided that I was going to do a 30 minute yoga session every morning and make a habit out of my yoga practice. I have done two daily sessions so far. I am already noticing a difference in how I feel. After doing yoga, I definitely feel more energised, and yet more relaxed at the same time. I feel calmer, happier, and more motivated.

At this stage it is too early to notice any physical changes in my body, but I’m certainly feeling the effects right after my session, particularly in my hips and shoulders. I’m hoping to increase my flexibility (which has always been poor, I’m not very bendy) and tone up my wobbly bits. I’m also hoping to feel more calm and relaxed in myself as I go along.

I’ve never enjoyed vigorous exercise, so yoga suits me quite well. I like that it is slow and gentle, but still gives me a good workout. I like that I can do it in my living room without any cumbersome equipment. I like the little calendar that tracks my workouts on the DS. I’m enjoying it more than I thought I would.

Namaste!

Sunshine :D

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It’s been a lovely few days of sunshine so far here in the UK. Cloudless blue skies, a light breeze, and nice and warm.

Everything is better when the sun is shining. I have more energy and motivation for getting on with things, I’m in a better mood than usual and I’m enjoying life more.

My seedlings have become mini plants and are almost ready to move outside into the sunshine. Some of my outdoor plants are flowering, a clematis that was here when we moved in, my apple tree and my blueberry bush. I’m especially excited about the blueberry bush as I planted it last spring but it didn’t really do anything until a few weeks ago. Hopefully we’ll have some yummy fruit this year.

I had a bit of spring clean over the weekend. We cleaned carpets, rearranged furniture and sorted some clutter. The downstairs is done, and we will be tackling the upstairs this weekend. I hope the sunshine stays around for the long weekends. It makes such a nice change.

New Year’s Resolutions

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This year, rather than setting out my usual vague list of goals for the year, I only have one resolution. Just one. And it’s going reasonably well a week into the year.

My resolution this year is simple, measurable, and most importantly, easily achievable in the short term as well as the long term. Good start, right?

My new year’s resolution is to actually do stuff that I put on my to do list.

People who know me well are used to me not getting on with stuff because I’m working on a new organising system, or I’m just making a list first, or I just don’t know where to start, or I’m planning on doing that after such and such a thing has happened at some vague, undefined time in the future. I say things like “yes it’s on my list” and “I’ll get round to it eventually”, and it never actually happens.

Well as of new year’s day, I have turned this around. I have a to do list, I have no reason to make excuses, and I have actually been doing things from my list. Wow!

So far this year, I have started to read the books I bought in the January sales last year. I have picked up a sewing project that has been languishing on a shelf for almost a year. I have a knitting project in progress on my needles. I have sorted the big pile of junk that used to reside on my coffee table and put it away. I’m even posting something on my blog!

My to do list has been transformed from a procrastination tool into the organisational tool that it was supposed to be. What’s more, each time I actually do something to check off the list, I feel more motivated to get something else done so I can check that off too. I’m moving towards all the goals I had intended to work on last year, but never actually got round to doing anything about, and I’m enjoying it.

I have a good feeling that this new year’s resolution is actually going to stick around and become a part of my life rather than a distant memory that is buried under a pile of lame excuses. Yey for me!