I have started this week far more optimistic than the last few. I got out for a long walk on Monday, and will do the same tonight. As time is rare for me just now, i have decided to combine exercise and education into one activity. I really dont know how far I will take this exercise regime. I am waiting to hear back from Ray about the kettlebells workshop, but looking into it it sounds something that would really work for me. I am also trying to be more active in my day to day life. So the walking is perfect for me at this stage. Not too demanding, quite enjoyable, and good for me. And along with that i have started a french course. Nothing too heavy, just a few podcasts at the moment, but combining the two made sense. We'll see how i go with it.
Work has been very stressful at the moment. No one knows how safe our jobs are, and the demands being put on us are tougher as each week progresses. Last week i was pulled in and told there was to be no overtime. This week i was told there would be no pay rises. But the expectations to still complete all tasks given to my department are still there. These added pressure along with the recent bad weather have made for a miserable place. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. The sun is shining again. The reduced hours means more time at home. Lets concentrate on the good things.
My NLP reading is going well. I am still just reading, not studying, and this is something that wont be completed in a couple of months but I will get there.

All Best Laid plans..........

on Monday I was adamant I was going to be up at the crack of dawn and out running, or walking at the very least if the pavements were to icy. Then last night I got a phone call telling me i had to be in at work at 6am. Oh well, that's another great plan out the window!!
On Sunday I attended Bob Spour's NLP workshop at AMAG and I have to say it really was excellent, and only made me more determined to carry it on. The workshop lasted three hours, which was never going to be enough time, but just enough to convince me of the worth of NLP. We carried out three exercises. The first was to look at people's eye movements when giving answers. The theory behind this is that when someone gives you an answer there subconscious moves the eyes depending on the answer that is given. For example, if i asked what car you drive, you might visualise your car then answer. While doing this your eyes will look down to your left. this is called visually remembered. If i asked you how your date with Naomi Campbell went and you told me in great detail how it went, you might start looking down and to your right, this is called Visually constructed. one means you are telling the truth, the other a lie. Now everyone is different in how they remember things. I tend to see things in my head, I am a visual person. Others might feel things instead. We also looked at remembering auditory but didn't get as far as constructing auditory. A worthwhile exercise though I must admit it wasn't 100% conclusive. My partner looked both down left and right when remembering things about her job and son, both i believe were truthfully told. But there was enough there to convince me I could work on it.
The second exercise we tried out was to help improve our confidence in a situation where we lacked confidence. Working with our partner we looked at a situation where we felt confident, and tried to highlight the five senses at the time of this. We looked at what we could see, hear, feel taste and smell. We then took a situation where we lacked confidence and looked are our senses when dealing with this. finally we looked at both situations together to see how we can transfer our state from a negative to a positive. Once again we didn't get to complete this exercise as we ran out of time, but I seen enough to convince me there is something there to work on.
Finally our last exercise, where we took someone we felt comfortable with, and someone we didn't like, and tried to change our subconscious thoughts on them. This exercise consisted of speaking positive thoughts of one person, while my partner tapped my knee. By the way i spoke about my wife!! then i spoke about someone i disliked, while my other knee was being tapped. Then back to the positive person, then the negative, and finally they tapped both Knees together. This gave a surprising feeling of having both images clear in my head, but the bad feelings definitely subsided. Then when we focused on the negative person the bad feelings i had for them had changed. Originally i had seen them in a corridor at work, but at the end of the exercise I still seen them but much further away. Fascinating. What was even more interesting was my partner(i wish i asked her name) had been very sceptical of NLP as she had a background in psychiatry and by the end she had to admit there was something to this. I went home and told Kim about it and she thought NLP could be something we can use for Aisha's selective mutism!!
After the course i spoke to Ray who runs the kettlebells classes at AMAG and have signed up for an introductory workshop. Ray seems a genuine guy and kettlebells sounds like a lot of fun. I also spoke to Pat who I have to thank for firstly not charging me for the NLP workshop but more importantly for showing faith in me to be able to change my life. He made an interesting point in that I don't have to do this myself, but his support meant so much more than the monetary gesture.
This blog has taken me all week to write as work has been so busy. It can be so unpredictable and I have to fact facts that a rigid structure to my life isn't possible at the moment. I need to be flexible with everything, fitness, NLP, family. Maybe that is the big lesson i have learnt this week.

A Hard Week

This week has been tough. The weather has been dreadful, and i have done a lot of hours at work this week. It is 9.04pm on a Friday night and I am typing this up at work waiting for some paperwork. Hopefully I will get out of here by 9pm.
This weekend I have the NLP workshop which i am looking forward to. The one thing I need to take away from it is how to focus discipline in my life. Like so many I have great ideas that never see the light of day and that is what I am desperate to change. Channeling that is the hard part, but I am determined to do it. Discipline is so hard to keep. I know I can do it, but I find it so easy to slip back into something comfortable, even when I dont feel comfortable doing it. Let me give you an example. I will use food as an example. I know how bad junk food is for you. I know eating it will make me feel bloated, uncomfortable and unhappy. Yet I still eat it. I slip into this uncomfortable comfort. I sometimes think I am a masochist who enjoys feeling this way. I clearly know the right choice but choose not to take it. Why is that so? I am assuming I am not the only one like this.

Focus

i think i know why so many people fail with there New Year Resolutions. Its the bleedin weather!! All you want to do is stay in bed, or eat comfort food. Its easy to get up when the sun is shining, eat a salad for lunch, go for long walks. In the depths of winter its a different story.
Today i have got my focus back. This last month i have been all over the place. But I have realised where i keep going wrong. Its the lack of discipline!! Too many times i decide to do one thing in my head, then decide at the last minute there is a better alternative. This is where NLP will help me. To keep my focus, to not be distracted, to make a decision and to stick to it.
I didn't bother with my fitness routine this morning. It has been all over the place and well has lacked discipline. I had no intentions of getting up this morning to go out, as i expected the snow to have arrived. Then this morning i watched the news and seen a guy out jogging in the snow. He could do it, why couldn't i? So tomorrow i will be out at 5.30am. even if the snow is 6" deep. and if it is too deep to jog, i will walk. Discipline that is the key.