Author: Sloan

Reassign Time

/ Sloan / 1 Comment

What are you going to do today to make yourself better? 

I stole the weekend. I moved my clients around, I adjusted my schedule, I threw down some money and ultimately actually gave my weekend away–to myself. I spent Saturday and Sunday at a writer’s retreat. I made the decision, followed the necessary steps to make it happen, cleared my schedule and spent an incredible weekend surrounded by smart, talented and interesting women.

There is always room for improvement within ourselves. There will always be a desire to do more and be more and learn more. The question is HOW do we do this? And how do we do this with out feeling guilty. It’s an internal choice we have to make, most of deep down we can spare a few minutes here an there, right?

I want you to decide to take back 15 minutes a day. No, no, no. Not all at once, spread it out.

5 minutes at a time. At home, you may have kids buzzing around, a spouse that isn’t helping to pack lunches or clean the kitchen, you may feel like 5 minutes just won’t happen. Make it happen. Spend five more minutes in the shower and meditate, take your coffee for a walk around the block. Instead of instantly opening emails, open a word document or grab a notebook. 5 minutes.

You can apply this at work too. Spend a few minutes stretching at your desk. This is will do wonders for your neck, back and stress levels–I promise. Once you start finding a few minutes here and there, you can start expanding that time. Figure out what you want to do with these new found moments. 

Here’s a secret: you’re not actually stealing them, you’re reassigning them to yourself. And if you start to feel guilty about this, don’t. Because you are bettering yourself. You are committing to yourself. You are making yourself in every single aspect of your life: home, parent, partner, employee. A happier you means everyone gets to reap the benefits.

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Give this a try and let me know how it goes! Or email me and ask for some tips for your particular situation–I want to help!

 

 

The Inside is What Counts

/ Sloan / 2 Comments

A couple days a week my alarm goes off at 4:02 am. Honestly, it usually scares the shit out of me and all I want to do is throw my phone against the wall and curl back up and fall back asleep. But 4/5 times I don’t. I have a conversation with myself that goes something like this:

Go back to sleep, now. Really. Do it. 

No, no, no. 

Do it. That extra 35 minutes will make a huge difference in your day!

But will it really? I don’t think it will.  Get your booty up!

SLEEEEEEEEP. 

Nope, you’ll be so mad at yourself. Get your ass up, brush those teeth and go. 

And then generally, I get up. A little mad at that voice still, but I go. I go to work 40 minutes early and I get my work out in. (I usually snap about it @sloanderr) with a pic of myself, not so happy and whatever time it is, usually 4:43am.

 

I am a huge proponent of finding your own intrinsic motivation. What does that mean? It means being able do something because you’re motivated by how it will make you feel, not by some sort of external reward dangling in front of you. Another, non fitness, example–for me, this blog. I’m both intrinsically AND extrinsically motivated.

Intrinsic: I do it because I love writing, I love teaching and I the feeling of accomplishment I get when I finish a post. It’s really uplifting and I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

Extrinsic: I love seeing the ‘views’ number go up. I love comments, I love getting ‘likes’ and responses. Engagement is huge (hint hint…)

Trust me: if I was ONLY extrinsically motivated for writing, I would fall short most times I post. My followers are growing, but it’s happening very very very slowly and that can be frustrating in this day and age–we all want immediate gratification, right? But I enjoy the process and hope that eventually others will enjoy my site as much as I enjoy the process of it.

Let’s bring this all together–if you can hone in and develop your intrinsic motivation, it will make not hitting the snooze button a lot easier. Try to start listening to that little, tiny, quiet voice that is egging you on to get up and get moving. That voice that mentions maybe you don’t need that second cookie. Maybe it’s a voice suggesting you need help. Try to listen and see if there is any internal reward by listening. I trust that when you start doing this, that voice will get louder and clearer. I can help you find that voice, if you let me.

When you start to listen, start to pay attention to how you feel inside. Fitness and healthy habits really start by acknowledging the internal feels, and then you start to see the external results. Eventually, all of this stuff becomes habit–

…unless it’s 4am…I’m not sure if you ever get used to that.

 

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early-morning-workout

Self Care Saturday

/ Sloan / 1 Comment

Today I got up at 6:58am. Well, honestly, I hit snooze and was out of bed and putting the kettle on for coffee at about 7:16am. By the time my french press was ready to be plunged I had started making breakfast and was settling on the couch to finish my book before I had to head out at 8:05am to meet my client at the YMCA for our 9am session. I treasure the mornings I’m able to sip coffee with a book–I’ll purposely get up an hour early to be able to do this.

We trained, high fived, and I sent him on his wobbly legs to go on with the rest of his morning. I ran home (literally, ran) and wrapped up my morning with 6 miles under my belt and a shower in my future. I took a long shower, shaved, took my time, put on a face mask, made a smoothie and a bit more coffee. I painted my nails while listening to TED talks and sipping my smoothie.

You guys, then I took a nap, it’s a rare kind of day that I take a nap. I talked on the phone with a friend for over an hour, I read a little bit of my new book and now I’m sitting down to write, eat popcorn and watch a dumb movie. These are the kinds of days that I usually dream of. But then when given the opportunity to have them I sit around feeling like I ‘should‘ be doing something else. I ‘should’ be being productive.

But.

Who says that self care isn’t productive? Who says taking a Saturday Cat Nap isn’t what our bodies need sometimes? Obviously, we can’t live our whole lives like this, we would get nothing done! But having a day to stop, slow down and relax into what you’re craving is sometimes more important than going out and doing things that are “instagram worthy”.

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For realz 

Are you able to slow down and have a Self Care Saturday? Have you always been this way?… This is new for me, any tips!?