{"id":1263,"date":"2013-03-13T22:17:47","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T05:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/daretogetpersonal.com\/blog\/?p=198"},"modified":"2013-05-15T15:32:58","modified_gmt":"2013-05-15T22:32:58","slug":"funny-yet-something-to-ponder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/funny-yet-something-to-ponder\/","title":{"rendered":"Funny, Yet Something to Ponder&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From 1999 thru 2004, I was in steady &#8220;work on me&#8221; mode. I&#8217;d been introduced to personal development and, even though I&#8217;d gone in at the beginning kicking and screaming, I eventually figured out which parts I enjoyed and &#8220;bought into&#8221;, which authors and speakers could explain the stuff to me in a language I could understand, and which areas I either wasn&#8217;t ready for or thought was for those &#8220;fluff-i-nutter&#8221; types.<\/p>\n<p>And, even though I became very successful both personally and financially as I moved towards a better &#8220;me&#8221;, I gradually stopped doing the things I knew were good for me and began gradually falling back into old habits. I&#8217;ve the same thing when I start eating better because I know it&#8217;s good for my health. When I stop paying attention to what I&#8217;m eating and start reaching for food out of boredom or old habits, I\u00a0start gradually working my way back to where I was before, one bite of chocolate at a time. Anyone else ever done that? LOL<\/p>\n<p><strong>Time for Change<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well, last month, I had a conversation with Craig Desorcy and I had a breakthrough during our conversation. We figured out together that I like being the &#8220;healthier, happier&#8221; person I&#8217;d become back then, much more than who I was BEFORE that time&#8230; from a financial standpoint as well as a personal one.<\/p>\n<p>And it&#8217;s not that I&#8217;m not &#8220;me&#8221; now. I was just a better version of me and I liked it.<\/p>\n<p>So why do people go back to old habits? Most of the time, it&#8217;s because being who we&#8217;ve always been is much easier. It takes a lot less work because we don&#8217;t have to slow down and think about it.<\/p>\n<p>The thing is, after I&#8217;d made improvements, it got to where I didn&#8217;t have to think much about it THEN either.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Building-Muscle_12427267_xs.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-203\" alt=\"Female working out\" src=\"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Building-Muscle_12427267_xs.jpg\" width=\"279\" height=\"186\" \/><\/a>But it&#8217;s kinda like building muscles at the gym. It takes a lot of time to sculpt your body and build the kind of muscle you want, but once you get there, it&#8217;s much easier to maintain with a lot less work. You don&#8217;t go back to being sumo-man if you pig out on a Friday night with your friends and miss the gym the next morning!<\/p>\n<p>The bad news is, that if you keep doing that occasionally and then occasionally becomes regularly, your body WILL go back to the shape it was before! And when you&#8217;ve finally had enough, and you figure out that you felt better back then and that you miss that toned body you&#8217;d created and worked so hard at, it&#8217;s going to take work to get yourself back to it.<\/p>\n<p>Well that&#8217;s where I am right now. Even though I used to know exactly what it took to be better (to the point that I was training hundreds of others to do the same), there&#8217;s a lot I&#8217;ve forgotten and have to re-learn. My mindset &#8220;muscles&#8221; have lost their tone so I&#8217;m back to the gym!<\/p>\n<p>How far do I have to go to get back to being that person? Not far. But to get where I&#8217;d been headed back then? I&#8217;ve got a LOT of learning to do! And I&#8217;m OK with that because I know I&#8217;m not alone.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, let&#8217;s do something. Whether you consider yourself an &#8220;enlightened&#8221; human being, you feel that you&#8217;re just fine the way you are, or you&#8217;re somewhere in between, here&#8217;s an excerpt that I remember really striking a chord with me when I was first learning about all this personal growth stuff. It&#8217;s from one of my all-time favorite books by an author\/speaker I really relate to (I&#8217;ll put the info at the bottom in case some of you have read this but forgotten).<\/p>\n<p><strong>How many of these can you answer yes to?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you can:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Start the day without caffeine<\/li>\n<li>Always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains<\/li>\n<li>Resist complaining and boring people with your troubles<\/li>\n<li>Eat the same food every day and be grateful for it<\/li>\n<li>Understand when loved ones are too busy to give you any time<\/li>\n<li>Overlook when loved ones take it out on you when, through no fault of yours, something goes wrong<\/li>\n<li>Take criticism and blame without resentment<\/li>\n<li>Treat a rich friend the same as a poor friend<\/li>\n<li>Face the world without lies and deceit<\/li>\n<li>Conquer tension without medical help<\/li>\n<li>Relax without liquor<\/li>\n<li>Sleep without the aid of drugs<\/li>\n<li>Honestly say that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, color, religion, gender preference or politics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Your turn:<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">How you doing with this so far? Have you been honest with yourself all the way thru? Are there ones that you read and thought, &#8220;Oh my gosh! If I could do that I&#8217;d be Ghandi or Mother Teresa!&#8221;&#8230; I had a few of those too, so no smacking yourself around wondering how you&#8217;re ever gonna reach those levels!<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But here&#8217;s the kicker&#8230;. the fun part&#8230; the &#8220;something to ponder&#8221;&#8230; AND, the rest of the excerpt&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>IF&#8230; you can say &#8220;yes&#8221;&#8230; to ALL of those well&#8230;\u00a0<strong><em>THEN, and only then&#8230;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Happy-Dog_3737806_xs.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-204\" alt=\"Jack Russell Terrier running\" src=\"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Happy-Dog_3737806_xs.jpg\" width=\"424\" height=\"283\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6em;\"><em>&#8230; you will have reached the same level of development as your dog . . .<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1118024516\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1118024516&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=attforlif-20\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-230 aligncenter\" alt=\"Larry Winget Shut Up Stop Whining and Get a Life\" src=\"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/shut-up-stop-whining-and-get-a-life.jpg\" width=\"210\" height=\"210\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Book excerpt: <strong>Larry Winget&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1118024516\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1118024516&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=attforlif-20\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Shut Up, Stop Whining and Get a Life!<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Larry has quite a few other books available that will kick you in the butt and get you moving forward too! Just make sure you&#8217;re ready to get completely honest with yourself. <strong>Warning: Not for the faint-hearted.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Subscribe to my list so you won&#8217;t miss out on any of my subscriber-only specials! And be sure to include your links in the comments below. I use\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/debij.com\/commentluv.php\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>CommentLuv<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to link to your blog so you can build automatic backlinks that Google will love!<\/em><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/forms.aweber.com\/form\/59\/472086059.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From 1999 thru 2004, I was in steady &#8220;work on me&#8221; mode. I&#8217;d been introduced to personal development and, even though I&#8217;d gone in at the beginning kicking and screaming, I eventually figured out which parts I enjoyed and &#8220;bought into&#8221;, which authors and speakers could explain the stuff to me in a language I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[174,178,126],"class_list":["post-1263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mindset-mental","tag-habits","tag-mindset","tag-personal-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1546,"href":"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263\/revisions\/1546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/debij.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}