Tag: progression

Baby Steps Still Move Us Forward

Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas

I am proud of myself for making it through this week. Since returning from Chicago, I have felt jet lagged because of the time change and have experienced some pain.

For those who don’t know, I live with a steel plate in my right thigh from being hit by a car when I was ten. Occasionally, it causes pain with the weather changes. No worries. It’s not as intense as it used to be. At least now I can predict when it will rain—little ole me, a superhero this whole time.

But as much as I wanted to stay in bed all yesterday, I got my butt up, put something on my stomach, and took my vitamins. I didn’t have it to do my walk so I finished reading a book.

Not only did I finish the book, but I wrote and drafted the review that I am scheduling for next week. (Ya’ll are gonna like this one!)

Next, I edited a video of a podcast I did weeks ago and posted a reel to one of my Instagram pages. I also drafted a post for my second page and drafted this blog post.

After responding to some emails and checking on some clients I closed my laptop, showered, and snuggled up with hubby for a movie.

Moral.

Just because you didn’t do everything on your to-do list or work yourself into an early grave does not mean you are not being productive. All those little things add up.

I fully intended on taking the day off. Instead, I just took baby steps.

Because baby steps still move us forward.

The Layers of You

Your strength is in your mind(1)

Every new level of your life will require a different version of you. Not a new version, just a different version. A version that was always there but that you were not ready or mature enough to see. A part that possibly, before now, you would not have understood.

Whenever you are going through something that seems unfair and difficult to cope with remember that another, perhaps much stronger, version of yourself is being unveiled and that process is not easy. It’s not easy because growth often requires pain or at the very least a certain level of discomfort. No one wanted to have pimples all over their face or have to deal with cramps, menstrual cycles (for women) or the emotional ups and downs of puberty but these changes were necessary as we transitioned from childhood to adulthood.

We are layers of an onion shedding one version of ourselves for another as we journey through life. I cannot now drink milk from a bottle. That version of me is gone. I cannot now sit on a rug in Kindergarten or at a desk in first grade and I cannot go back to High School. It is not even appropriate for me to go back to the past year, that version of me, these versions of me, are long gone. I must seek now an understanding of what this moment requires of me. This layer of me. This version of me.

These are the layers of you.

Yecheilyah (e-see-lee-yah) is an Author, Blogger, and Poet of nine published works including her soon-to-be released short inspirational guide “Keep Yourself Full.” Learn more by exploring Yecheilyah’s writing on this blog and her website at yecheilyahysrayl.com. Renaissance: The Nora White Story (Book One) is her latest novel and is available now on Amazon.com.

The Application of Knowing

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Knowing is not enough. We must apply.

 

 

 

For those of you who are among my friends list on my personal Facebook, you’ve seen this before because I’m a big advocate of doing. This means I am really cautious of people whose actions do not match their words. I am also a big advocate of noticing the small progressions that take place in our lives so it’s not just about “doing it big”, but just doing in general and learning to appreciate the small steps as well as the large. How can we continue to move forward if we cannot value the small changes?

I believe like the quote says, “you are not what you say you’ll do, but what you do”. It is for this reason that I can appreciate transparent people and why flattery gets you nowhere with me. The problem with the world is that people claim to have great intentions. We walk around and we measure our knowledge up against others. We walk around and we water the insatiable appetite to know. And while I’m an advocate of education, I also recognize that knowing is just not enough. Learning is not about acquiring information; it is about applying information acquired. The world calls it Authentic Learning, I call it common sense. Authentic Learning is basically a term that describes learning through applying knowledge in real-life contexts and situations. It’s not enough to know about something if you can’t apply it to the real world. Everyone speaks of love, for instance, but only those who actually implement love into their lives can really claim to have possessed it.

Knowing something then, is very different from acting on what you know. And this basic understanding is what can often keep us from moving forward or even starting to begin with. I don’t consider myself a successful blogger, but I do take lots of risks. Sometimes they fail miserably and sometimes they don’t. I do this because of my desire to apply what I know to my life. And I suppose this is the purpose of this post. I thought about using my quote for a number of things, but settled instead on a simple thought, no prompts attached. Whether we are learning to blog or learning to write, as you move about your day, or rather your week, concentrate not on information you know, but the application of knowing because this is what will get us where we want to be in every aspect of our lives. Whether we are growing in relationships, building online communities or cooking a meal, understand that knowing is irrelevant and even stagnant without action, and that faith without works is dead.

Update: 25 Minutes a Day – Reward Yourself

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Sooo….

Awhile ago I published a post about taking 25minutes out of your day to exercise. You can walk, run, swim, or move your leg back and forth. You can carry the baby around or substitute chores that require electronics (like the washing machine) by doing them by hand. I also mentioned that I will do more posts on updates and such. So here’s what I did today:

  • Sean T25: Alpha Cardio (includes, sprints, jumping jacks, etch.)
  • Breakfast (after workout): 1 Banana, Strawberry Parfait Smoothie, Water (I’m not a very big breakfast eater which I heard is bad but whatever lol).

What I want to do today is talk about rewarding yourself and using that as a catalyst to workout more. The hardest part of any workout, at least for me, is not starting, but starting back up again after you have already started. I took a two week hiatus and today was my first day back (it was supposed to be yesterday). Once you get it going it’s good but when you stop that’s the struggle. But while shopping for food I discovered a fun way to both discipline and reward yourself to help stay motivated. Get yourself a healthy treat and restrict yourself from eating it until AFTER you workout. If you cheat on yourself, POST ABOUT IT. Let the world know you messed up so you can get that encouragement from your peers for next time. We often look at mistakes as a bad thing and are told to keep our faults hidden, but the truth is that exposing the negative gives way to the positive. The struggles we have are hard to change because we have not admitted to the problem, we have not exposed the issue so it remains an issue. As the old folk say, “Tell the truth, shame the devil.” So my admittance is that I stopped working out for about two weeks, and my treat of choice was the parfait smoothie. As soon as I bought it (since I happen to love smoothies) I wanted to devour it! I kept going to the refrigerator to look at it and it was just calling my name. BUT, I told myself that I couldn’t drink it until AFTER I worked out. So as a punishment, since I didn’t workout yesterday I couldn’t drink it. Instead, I held out until today after my workout and it was sooo good! This was my treat for having stuck to what I said I would do and to admitting where I faulted.