Everything relates to everything. Watching Netflix Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and reading her book Spark Joy: An illustrated guide to the Japanese art of tidying (Kondo & Hirano, 2016) she states through her followers successes that when you begin to clean up one area it has a domino effect for other areas until your entire world is clean and organized. For me this dream has had a similar effect in my world. It seems that having the dream first enabled me to fix my finances. While I had a plan in place it enabled me to strengthen my plan and stick to it, keeping the dream/goal in the forefront of my vision. Sharing my dream through blogging and face to face on New Year’s Eve sparked conversation around fitness and health goals as well. If we are going to travel, we want to be fit, feel good and be able to get around with ease. This means we need to focus on our eating and workout habits.
Once again this is not a new area of focus for me. I have struggled with eating, weight and exercise since I entered this world. This is my current diet/fitness plan, not a new plan but one I believe will work. Myfitnesspal.com, works the same way, this is a free app where you can log in your food, exercise, it links with your fitbit. So I probably will use both. It is fancier than my template and gives caloric totals, so yeah probably should use. Once again sparked by the simplicity of the dream, sharing and continued check ins set up, I am refocused and believe this will work. When creating my template awhile ago I happened upon the book God’s diet: A short and simple way to eat naturally, lose weight and live a healthier life (Gualt-McNemee, 1999). It is simple yet incorporates a lifetime of learning and is the origination of so much thought around diet and exercise. This is the link with the template with my diet/fitness plancreated after reading,If you click on God’s Diet and scroll down there are excerpts of the book that helped me, otherwise I got it at the library.
This is the first week revisiting this plan. Having a financial plan enabled me to grocery shop prior to the beginning of work, stock my kitchen with healthy eats with an organization plan for my house. Tidying up helps with my well being, focus and attitude. When needing a respite from writing, dissertation, having other areas to tackle gives clarity to dreams and writing. Calms my spirit and illuminates my thoughts.
Today is Saturday. I woke up, walked doggos (result of dream benefiting doggos walk them minimum of 2x a day. Ol’ man Max loves it as he limps around the block, Cam well we love it, burns some of his endless puppy energy. Fitbit loves it…steps). Returning home I went to the RALLY app and guess what I have earned $195 of the $200 that I get for visiting the gym 12x per month. I thought maybe there are other apps that will pay me to work out, keep me motivated to exercise and go to the gym. I found two new apps.
The first one is Achievement, it pays for steps, links to other apps and gives points for logging food, exercise and more. I also found an app called Cash for Steps it seems like it will take awhile to earn any money but is kind of fun to see steps turn into cash. As a reading specialist, dog mom and gym member this seems like a fun fit. I linked the review, there are pros and cons, worth a go. I found another one I am trying it pays for shopping. I have tried this in the past, found it tedious but well worth a shot. It is called ibotta Will let you know moving forward if these are worth their salt. Rally app through my insurance is. It pays out $200 a fiscal year for exercise and healthy habits. The pay out is through online rewards. The sweepstakes are disappointing, but hopeful. I haven’t won one but maybe someday.
So fun, change is occurring in all areas. Thanks to having a living breathing dream, sharing it with others, establishing accountability focusing the completion success of each goal.
Why is it working now? Maybe it is the completion of other goals, sons raised, masters completed, Phd nearing completion, less focus on those and getting my —- together in other areas. One may argue that it is the dream, age and wisdom gleaned from all other ventures that make this season feasible. Whatever it is, enjoying the season. Fun awaits, growth occurring.
Everything relates to everything. Simple wisdom.
Fern
References
Gault-McNemee, D. (1999). God’s diet: A short and simple way to eat naturally, lose weight, and live a
healthier life. Three Rivers Press.
Kondō, M., & Hirano, C. (2016). Spark joy: An illustrated guide to the Japanese art of tidying. Vermilion.
literacyfern.com 