Communication

"People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results." - Albert Einstein

I was thinking communication recently. My youngest son turns 3 months today and we are beginning to understand his way of communicating with us. We have determined different cries mean different things. One cry means "I'm bored!" while another cry means "I'm in need of changing!". It took a little bit to understand what he wanted through this rudimentary form of communication but now that we understant him - we see instant results once we alay whatever the need is.

Communicating with yourself is important. Learning what makes you hungry, what hunger is for you, even what triggers you have for overeating or non-exercising are all important things to know in order to lose weight.

I kind of think we've been lulled into some sort of Pavlovian sense of having to eat meals at certain times of the day - even when we might not be hungry. Try this some time - fast for an entire day, drinking just water for a 24 hour period. Whenever you get a hunger pang - drink some water and wait to see if it goes away. If after 15 minutes or so it doesn't, take another glass of water. You will soon get to understand what a "false hunger" and "real hunger" pang feels like so you can better understand your body's need.

You may not need to eat until 9am or 10am or can go until 2pm to eat lunch. Once you understand your body, you will begin to see better results because you will be eating only when truly hungry and not when you're "supposed to"...

"The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed - it is a process of elimination." - Elbert Hubbard


MattyV
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com

Mistakes...

Won a speech contest today. Based the speech on the topic of making mistakes. I've made plenty and expect to make many more over my lifetime. I learned a few things about mistakes:

1 - Everybody makes them (don't kid yourself)

2 - You need to learn from them (see examples below)

3 - Don't dwell on them (probably THE most important thing to remember)

The Apple LISA was a commercial flop. What did Apple learn? Enter the Apple Macintosh & Apple's OS X software (both have roots in the LISA computer)

The Ford Edsel was also a commercial flop. What did Ford learn? Enter 2 of the most popular Ford lines, the Mustang & the Taurus

Wilson Greatbatch developed the implantable pacemaker (including it's corrosion-resistant battery) years after he put in the wrong part into an external heart monitor.


I love speaking. I can't explain it. It was envigorating being up there and sharing the speech I had prepared. I need to develop this talent...


MattyV
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com

Courage

"Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

This past weekend I was watching some episodes of a television show and happened upon a little nugget that was hidden in amongst one of them.

In an exchange with two characters, one was telling the other that they had more courage than the other. They had the courage to be themselves. They had the courage getting out of bed knowing that they had to be themselves.

Of course the entire exchange was meant to be comedic in its intent, but there is a lot of truth in that exchange. Most of us are scared of being who we truly are. Afraid of what others think of us, conforming to what we think they find "acceptible".

Do you have the courage to be who you are? Or are you conforming to what the "world" wants?


"Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared." - Edward Vernon Rickenbacker


MattyV
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com

Fear...

"Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them." - Brendan Francis

Fear can motivate. Fear can immobilize. We need to have a healthy respect for fear ONLY when it deserves such. I have been and still am afraid of many things - failure, abandonment, etc. but these fears do not deserve the respect that I give them. We need to grow past our fears in order to move towards where we want to be. One person was quoted that in order to succeed we need to double our failure rate. Those are interesting and yet true words. How can we achieve success if we do not fail?

Figure out what you are afraid of and see which ones deserve the respect and which ones are "paper-thin" that can be broken through to access the next level in your life.

"There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them." - Andre Gide


MattyV
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com