Exercise | BulgingButtons

It sounds like a good idea, right? Identify your goal and hop to it. Go out there and grab hold of your dreams! That’s the American Way, isn’t it? Is it? I’m not sure.

I’m not sure of a lot of things. Like, for instance, what exactly my “goal” is at this particular point in my life.

I have goals, certainly. I have many of them, some large, some miniscule. So I suppose my question is how do I prioritize them? How do I decide WHICH goal is the “go out there and get it!” goal? Or are there multiples of those? In which case, the new question becomes, how on earth do I go out and conquer all that stuff????

Well, I’m a firm believer in divide and conquer, so there’s that. But then we go back to the prioritizing issue. What to tackle first?

When paying down debt there are two main schools of thought. The first states that you should allocate the majority of your efforts to eliminating the debt with the highest interest rate first, then tackle the next highest and so on. The second one suggests that you go after the smallest debt first, then the next smallest amount and so on, leaving the largest debt for last.

Both methods have their pros and cons, and both methods, if applied faithfully, will get you out of debt eventually. So what’s the right answer? I don’t know, but fortunately getting out of debt is one goal that I achieved several years ago, so I don’t have to worry about it. (By the way, I used the small amount first method, it helped me feel successful and empowered by the process).

Maybe I can use the same method with my goals. Maybe I should start with “baby steps” as Flylady says. Or, as my father used to put it, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” For now I will keep stepping to get my daily fitbit steps, I will keep working at revising my novel, I will keep sharing my writing with you all and my writing partners, and I will keep working to tackle the clutter that’s been invading my home bit by bit. I will also keep being the best teacher, mother, daughter, and partner I can be. That’s not too many goals, is it? Wish me luck, and if you have any advice, I’d love to hear it.

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I’ve happily joined the ranks of the constantly plugged-in. I received (by my request) a Fitbit Flex 2 as a holiday gift, and I think it’s pretty nifty. simple.b-cssdisabled-png.h0107224485745d7a099c9463a0a3e71a.pack.png

Longtime readers may recall that the only exercise I’ve really found enjoyable over the years is exercise in the pool, so I was delighted when I learned that these little gadgets were safe for use in water. It’s been too cold for that now, but walking on terra firma has taken on a new bit of fun with the little blinking lights around my wrist.

Some features I like:

It buzzes me at ten minutes before the hour if I haven’t taken at least 250 steps. I need to get up and MOVE, and the vibration reminds me to do it.
It buzzes me if my phone rings or I get a text. I’m a teacher and don’t spend all day looking at my phone, so this is handy.
When I hit my goal number of steps for the day (which I set, thank you very much) it does this little flashing dance party on my wrist. I dig it.

I’m not ready for any big challenges yet, or anything like that, but so far so good. Like they say, one step at a time.