Still on track

It is sort of late in the day but I just got back from the gym.  I waited too long to push myself out of the door but there was no way I could let myself mess up by day 4 of this 21 day habit process I am putting myself through.  Whatever trick it takes...I'll try it on myself and it seems to be working so far to get me to the gym. I have to admit on Friday (day two) at 10 minutes before I was ready to leave work I was thinking I didn't want to go and work-out and would skip it.  I then thought to myself  it would be ridiculous to only have one day accomplished.  Then I knew this morning (day four) I should have gotten my work-out done earlier but when I didn't do it I tried to rationalize how it would be okay to miss today.  How would it be okay?  So I got up and went.  Now I'm back from the gym and it was actually a good thing.  I mean this isn't a hard trick.  My rule is simple.  It's only a 30 minute work-out I am going for in this 21 day time frame.  Every day for 21 days - a 30 minute work-out and it doesn't have to be all running, although these four days it has been.  But I can change it up and cycle or something else if I could remember the names of the machines but I don't right now and I don't think it matters since I'm done for the day.
I think now I'll grab a glass of wine, do some ironing, while watching a cooking show.  My Sunday evenings are so predictable.  It was earlier in the day that almost went off track.
TT
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21 day habit gambit - Days 3 & 4 completed - 17 to go.

Finding inspiration

How many times have I stared at a blank page with no idea of what to put on it?  As many times as I have sat down to write something, and that is more than a few, there have been as many that I didn't think I would have a thought to write down.  (Maybe there really wasn't but let me keep on kidding myself here, okay)?  Somehow, it never stayed blank and empty.  (Maybe it should have but go with me here). 
I realized that these thoughts can come from anywhere and at any time.  They can be simple or complex.  They can come in a flash or take time to be thought out.  I wouldn't have believed if anyone had told me before learning to accept it myself that inspiration can happen when I didn't always think it was possible.  It would happen as long as I knew how to read what I was seeing as an inspiration.  That took time and practice and trial and error.  It took many times staring at a blank page thinking nothing was there.
I learned I must never put off or wait to do anything until I am inspired.  I found out that it is in the doing that brings the inspiration and the ability to recognize it in places and things I never would have suspected it would be.  It was there waiting for me to arrive and if I didn't move toward it I wouldn't see it.  Of course, I don't always know I am moving toward it sometimes which makes it all the trickier but so much more exciting when it happens.  It proves to me that you can't wait to be inspired but you will be as you keep going.  It's a simple matter of finding it.
TT
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21 day habit gambit - 2 days completed - 19 to go.

Uphill

With profound change comes new opportunity...
I came across this line and, of course, I had to try to figure out how it pertained to me.  I haven't had too many things changing lately.  Routines are running as regularly as they have ever been and I can't think of a profound change that has affected me directly.  I think the line stuck in my head because, just maybe, I feel like there might be some new opportunities if I pay attention.  But do I need to wait for a profound change?
I think I realized that I have never been much for waiting on things to happen, to see how it goes type of personality.  If I feel like something needs to be done I will most likely pick it up and do it.  It will usually be an uphill battle but for the most part I will struggle with myself through it to get to the top of the hill or somewhere on a high ledge so I can look down from where I came.  It also doesn't mean I won't stand back and let things play out.  It wouldn't be accurate to say I don't do that but most of the time I am paying attention to what is going on while I am standing back.  Maybe most of the profound changes that are happening are affecting the people around me which, in turn, has an affect on me. 
I must say it is certainly a pleasure when I get to see someone who has been dealt something in life which provokes profound changes only to have that experience move them to a new opportunity they may have left for a waiting to happen circumstance.  It gives them the opportunity to act on something they might have been wanting to do but were too stuck in a regular routine to think they could.  Most people don't think they can climb to high ledges much less the top of the hill.  And what if you try and can't make it?  What can it hurt?  The journey itself sometimes has value you could never gain if you didn't try.  And more than likely you will be higher up than you were before to see things in a different way than you ever could.  Isn't that what makes everything worthwhile? 
So, as I am standing back watching the changes around me, I am paying attention to the positive changes that are affecting the ones around me.  I guess I am not so worried about myself but I get the benefit of the joy that comes when others experience that high that comes when they take the opportunities they might not have acted on if there hadn't been a profound change.
TT

21 days

I dragged my rump to the gym this afternoon after work.  It was a necessary action that should have happened sooner.  I have had nothing that could pass as any good physical activity in approximately two weeks.  During that time I have come directly home from work and managed to snack myself through a buffet of junk foods before making dinner and then eating again.  I decided it had to stop and since the time in which this bad behavior seemed to occur was after work I made the decision that was the time frame I needed to concentrate on.  I had to do something after work to divert myself from this lazy grazing.  What could be better than using that time to get a work-out in?  I have done that before.  I can't exactly run outside at that time due to our 103 degree weather of late and I shouldn't have stopped completely anyway.  I made up my mind to get over myself and to stop finding reasons why I couldn't and find ways I could.  So I did.  And I will.
I have successfully filled that time one day today.  In order to make it a habit I need to make it happen another 20 days to complete the 21 days to make it a habit gambit.  So tomorrow again and then the next.  I will fill that black hole of snacking time with the necessary diversion I should have been using in that time slot for in the first place. 
Whew!  I might have caught this just in time.  20 more days...
TT

No pics

I won't be placing any pictures on my site here for a while.  I am lending my camera to Dante as he takes his longish weekend in Las Vegas.  I probably need to stop taking pictures for a while anyway and just spend some time cleaning up the pictures I already have.  I know that chore will take a little bit of time since I know I will feel the need to delete and pull and re-file pictures.  I know I have two folders in particular that I need to go through and see what I have.  I guess not much has changed from regular old snapshots to digital pictures on my laptop.  At some point or other I need to go through the box of snaps and figure out what to do with them whether that box is cardboard or electronic.  It always takes some time looking at each one and that, of course, will make me think of what was happening or going on at the time which slows the process but is part of what makes it worth doing.
I say there won't be any pictures on the site for a while since I won't have a camera.  I'm not sure that may be correct.  If I actually go through the pictures I have, well, there might be a few more there I might want to share.  I never know what I might find while I"m looking.
TT
The photo

Workspace

I'm looking around the room that is my workspace here at home.  There are very few things out of order.  A few papers I need to go through, a small pile of items that need to be put away but mostly it is pretty well organized.  I seemed to be keeping up with myself.  Or maybe I am almost getting ahead of myself.  What I mean is, all the items are in place to make for a very conducive place to work and as organized as I am I haven't been doing very much work.
I came across an article about things to do and things to avoid about a  home office work space.  It pointed out what I've heard many times before of not having your laptop and desk in your bedroom.  It seems you can't clear your head if you see work as you are waking up.  It also said things like being organized and keeping papers to a minimum and even if you have stacks of work that it was sometimes okay since you have to have those types of things in order to work.  Well, okay now, make up your mind.  I'm not sure if the article was just trying to make everyone feel good - the organized, stackless-people and the many papers stackful-people.  Could it be both or was the article just trying to cover everyone?  Anyway, my area is stackless and ready.
I don't have the excuse of having to take the time to get organized.  I'm pretty much already there.  Now if I could only stay home to work.
TT

In the kitchen

I have been in the kitchen again.  That isn't unusual and I got to play sous chef this past Sunday.  I didn't do anything elaborate but just helped out.   I made some home-made lemonade (really, I only squeezed the lemons).
   
 Then I made a salad. (Yes, there is lettuce underneath all those sliced avocados).

Then I made a cake with the fresh fruit on top (again - they keep asking for it).  I'm sure you've seen this before...or something similar.  I've done it many times.

It was great and even though I don't have pictures of everything else it was all very good.

But the bulk of my cooking time was spent earlier in the week.  I actually had orders to fill for my cookies.  These are the same cookies I  experimented with, came up with different flavor combinations and then given away.  The give-away part didn't enter into it this time.  Dante persuaded me to give a shot at selling them.  We sat down and he made me come up with at least six of my flavors.  I knew my original cookie had to be included - the Cinque Cioccolato (don't let the name scare you, it's my five chocolate cookie) and five more to make six different varieties.  Then it was packaging and pricing and labels and tins and ingredients and it was some work but we put it together.  He went out and got 16 orders in one try!  So I had to bake to fill the orders and I did! And he sold them all!  I couldn't have been happier.  These are the six varieties in the bakers dozen packaging we came up with.  Yes...we did all the photo's and artwork on the labels - we did all of it.  Well - only I did the baking.

I have been in the kitchen recently.  More work needs to be done if I was really going to go any further with this cookie venture but it's something that was given a fairly good trial run and worked.

I'm happy with the way it turned out.  But then I always feel good when something good comes out of the kitchen.  Doesn't everyone?

TT