I found The Boost on itunes a few months back when I was hurtin’ and looking for ‘a leg up’ as I was calling it back then. I could tell immediately that MTM was for me. Scott’s style is totally me. I downloaded all of the free itunes ones and listened to them repeatedly for months, usually several times a day to reprogram myself with the positive message. I have always been a positive person and into personal development but after a few big setbacks in life I had fallen into a real slump like I had not experienced before. I knew I was ready to get out of it but lacked the ‘leg up’ to help me get started.

Within a few weeks I started getting up earlier in the morning to run or go to the gym as that was the only time I could be assured to get it fit into my day. I got up and out before I could talk myself out of it. Well in 3 months I had gone from 216 to 199 and beat my goal of 200 by my birthday in May. A friend of mine is a marathon runner and has always encouraged me to run. I completed an 8K run just before my birthday as well as achieving the weight goal.

I could not believe I actually set a goal and persevered and achieved it. I have made a complete turn around in my life, my behavior and my attitude. Having that daily encouragement and reminder to keep at it is the best. I started keeping a journal of my progress, be it big or baby steps and that has been a huge help as well. I write every day or other day and that is my constant review of my homework. The free itunes podcast are Monday ones and you know the question he asks on Mondays. LOL You really drilled that home Scott, thanks. Taking daily or regular accountability is paramount in my success.

I made the commitment to myself a few weeks ago and bought the premium membership. The difference in myself in the past 6 and even 3 months is remarkable. I still listen to each podcast at least twice to reinforce the message. I still have much I want to achieve but now know that I absolutely can.

I am amazed at the enthusiasm and participation by the members on here. What a great source of energy and positivity to draw upon. Also really cool to see the large number of Canadians here. I notice a lot of Canadian members referred to in the shows.

Glad to be here and to have found my leg up, The Boost and MTM.

Daryl

Welcome, Daryl! Congratulations on your success thus far, you have done wonderful things!

I’d love to know what those other goals you eluded to are, if you’re up for sharing.

Bree

Welcome, Daryl!

Welcome to the community!

Great story… it is amazing to me too, that when we put goals in front of us, and keep working at it, they DO happen.

I keep reminding myself the overall goal.... a lifetime goal.... to be healthy for the ones we love, and to be ‘functionally fit’ enough to do anything you want to do in your life!

Are you thnking of a marathon? 

Curious, what was your 8K time?

Have you joined the 100 days of exercise?  great place to share your story.... a lot of people get the opportunity to listen and benefit from your journey.

Welome!

Hi Bree,

Thanks for the comment. Aside from the Weight loss target and the 8K my other goals consisted mostly of a lot of little things that I did not really attach a time limit too. Firstly committing to get up 2 hours earlier every day to work out or run was pretty big and had a huge ‘trickle down’ effect. I quickly came to really look forward to that ‘me time’, it seems to be a peak time of day for me. I am actually up right now at 6 am on my day off. In addition to, or alternating with exercising in the morning I also used the time to write a blog of my progress and just tend to other business of managing my life. One weekend I sat down and created a ‘to do’ list of all the little tasks I was behind in that were cluttering my life, physically and mentally. I had over 50 items at first and added more as they came up. A lot were menial things but they were causing a lot of drag in my life. I managed to complete most of it (maybe 2/3) in a week or 2 where before I would have struggled to just get my laundry done or one of them in a weekend. (I had a lot of energy for it in the first 2 weeks and committed the entire weekends to The List) Bit by bit as I completed them I got rid of the negative ‘clutter energy’ they represented, learned a little discipline and simplified my life. I strongly believe in the principal that you need to clear the clutter, literally and figuratively, from your life in order to move forward.

One big example was to complete setting up my balcony for the summer. I had trouble deciding what and how to do it and making purchases of furniture etc. (Decision making has always been a bit of an issue for me.) It has been used as a dumping ground/storage for a few years and was a daily eyesore and reminder of the state of my life. I stuck to it and now it is cleaned, furnished, decorated and planted and I enjoy it every day. My neighbors have all commented on it and it is now a daily reminder or what I can accomplish if I make an effort; a testament to the process of making consistent little improvements over time. I had my list to keep referring to when I needed focus on what my objectives were. As I mentioned, I even wrote down the littlest task so when I was really low energy I could refer to The List and at least do one small improvement. I began to notice that instead of having a bunch of things I needed to do that just seemed to overwhelm me, I had a bunch of things done that I was either enjoying or were no longer nagging at me. Now I am working on applying those techniques to my career and most other areas of my life as there is a lot I need to change. I’ve got a lot to do but I’ve got my balcony there as a daily reminder of what will happen if I do the very basic thing. Stand up, take a step, repeat.

By the way, I intentionally chose my balcony as a beginning project as it was a big enough project to strive for yet still manageable, the completion of which, would have some impact on me and was a good way to practice some of these basic principals of goal setting etc. (And summer was coming, seemed like a good place to start.) Overall it took a few months an some tasks (decisions) took considerably more time and effort that they should have.) But now I am more prepared for my next projects.

Hi Tom.

My 8k (5 Miles) time was 44:24. I am not really thinking about a marathon at this time. Just want to run to help me get to and maintain a balanced level of physical (and mental) fitness.

I was thinking about looking into the 100 days last weekend. After achieving my goal in May I kind of slowed down a lot on my exercising and have maintained 200 pounds. I was using my morning time for other things recently. I am back on track now and this past Monday I have set my new goal of getting to 190 by the end of August and have been to the gym every morning this week and am confident I will achieve my goal. I am trying Scott’s suggestion of the ‘long slow burn’ for cardio and some moderate weight lifting.

Thanks for the support. (by the way, ‘cardio’ is not in the spell checker on here, that’s pretty funny) LOL Have a great day!

I love the list! Saw you on the 100 days challenge, way to go!

Bree

LOL - yah I get caught on ‘cardio’ every time too, but who wants to type out ‘cardiovascular’ every time.

I really like the way you are thinking about getting the mental clutter taken care of.  I have a lot of that.  I think I will take a lesson from you and tackel my “list”

Hi Daryl!

Welcome!!!  How’s the weather in Vancouver?  I miss the northwest!  Ohh, wait.  That’s the southwest for you!
It sounds like you are on the path to success!...keep it up.

Daryl,
I love your list and that you included all the little things too.  I made a list a year or so ago of all the things I wanted to get done around the house but I have done very few of them, mostly because they all seem too much of an effort.  I am going to make a new list and put on all the little things( like nailing on that piece of molding that only needs 2 nails and would only take 2 minutes but that I haven’t done for the last 4 months).  That way I can cross some stuff off the list pretty easily and feel a sense of accomplishment and gain some momentum.

Thank you!

Right on Eileen!  You’ve got it.  For me, this was kind of a Sideways “Doing your Homework” that Scott mentions occasionally (LOL).  Kidding, you know he talks about it all the time.  Well anyway I just started writing every little thing I could think of.  From home maintenance to buying something I really needed but kept putting off, to joining MTM, calling someone etc etc.  You obviously get it.  I highly recommend it. I used MS Word and used the highlighter feature to ‘cross off’ things I’d done but kept them on the list so I could see what I had accomplished.  Once I got 3/4 or so if it done I started a fresh page.  I have kind of put The List (I always capitalize it) aside for a few weeks as I have been focussing on fitness, but with all this talk it’s started I know I need to revisit it and keep a balance.

One other thing I did was to do my best to do the thing I had been putting of the most as a priority. Some still took a while but I eventually got a lot of those nagging things done that haunted me for a long time.  It was amazing how much less effort they took than I thought and how freed up I felt once I got them done. They carry a lot of negative energy.
Good luck. Let me know how you get on.

Daryl,
I am going to work on writing the list tonight while I watch the baseball game.  I may even try to knock off one item on the list tonight - that pesky molding.

Thanks for the encouragement.  I will let you know how it goes.

EDIT: Later that night
I got my initial list done!  I’m sure I will think of more things to add in the next few days.  But I did get two things crossed off the list.  One, is a trick I learned from my sister.  The first item on my list was ‘Make a list’. 
And I got that pesky piece of molding nailed in.

Also, good news.  The Red Sox are ahead 8 - 2

Great to hear Eileen. 
Now every time you look at that molding I bet you feel good and a little bit of a sense of accomplishment.  Instead of that nagging little voice.  I have a hallway mirror that was like that.  It was a reminder every time I went in or out of the apartment of my unaccomplished tasks.  Now it is properly hung on the wall and I can check out how good I look when I come back from the gym each day. 

Thanks Daryl, I knocked another pesky item off today. 

Do you mind if I start a new thread under Personal Development Put to the Test called ‘The List’ and if I quote you?

Of course not.  That would be great.  I was wondering if this was the right forum to continue this discussion.  I am new to this.  I will be the first to subscribe to it.  (Not sure exactly what that will do.  Send me e-mails notifications when someone posts?)

I’d love to keep a dialog going on this topic.  I am really turning my life around this year after a few years in the dumps and, now that I have made huge headway on The List for getting errands caught up, I need to tackle Apartment Decorating and Getting a New Job.  Having the goal is great but I need it broken down into individial tasks.

I have created the thread.

http://www.motivationtomove.com/forums/viewthread/2536/

If you go to it and click at the top to Subscribe to the thread you will get e-mails when someone posts to it.