Required, Desired, Inspired!

This blog post is from my friend and business associate, Jennifer Harvey.  She has some wonderful insights about setting daily goals that I thought you might enjoy.  Jennifer also makes a plug for exercise and improving health.  If I can help you in those areas, please let me know.  Happy New Year!


My 2010 mantra – Required, Desired, Inspired!

I was on the elliptical the other day. It took all I had just to get on the darn thing. I just was not in the mood. I said to myself just get 15 minutes in. That’s all I require today – just 15 minutes. I can do that. About 10 minutes in I felt better and felt I could make it more than just the 5 minutes I had required of myself. So I reset my expectations to 18 minutes and increased my pace. Ah, I can make it past my required time to my new desired time I thought. At 17 minutes I was feeling inspired and felt I could push it up a notch and go to 20 minutes. I did it. I took that work out from required to inspired.

I have now started setting my day with a REQUIRED goal, a DESIRED goal and an INSPIRED goal. Now the idea hear is not to make INSPIRED too easy so if I am hitting INSPIRED too regularly it’s time to make that the new REQUIRED.

Obviously I would like to push to INSPIRED as often as possible but some days I just don’t feel inspired and ‘required’ is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Everyone has their own motivation techniques. This is a new one I developed and am trying out. Since I just thought it up while working out a few days ago I felt with the new year it would be a perfect way to implement this new plan.

I’m not really setting a New Year’s resolution. I’m already on a path of improving my health by exercising and making better food choices. All I want to do is stay on the path, take each day as it comes and make time to enjoy the journey.

Exercise makes me feel great mentally and physically. It improves my appearance and therefore, self esteem. It relieves stress and releases toxins from the body. I can enjoy the occasional bad food choices without guilt because I know I can burn it off through exercise. I believe exercise is the magic bullet, the key to long lasting health and happiness.

I will turn 40 in 2010 and my oldest son will graduate from high school and start college. It’s going to be a big year and I can’t wait.

Bring it on!

Jennifer can be reached at Get Up Get Moving