Its the first day of the rest of your life…

Sometimes a song gets stuck in your head… You want to go to sleep at night and its there, playing like a stuck record over and over again. My stuck record this week is Dear Mr President, by Pink. More spesifically the following lyrics:

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye?

Makes me glad i am not a president. It made me think what type of a struggle it is to make everyone in your life happy. More so, if you are president and you have to keep millions happy, surely there will be some people that will be unhappy with you. I even struggle to do it in my life, with a close circle of friends and acquaintances. I guess it comes down to finding a middle way and accepting that no matter what, you cannot always do what pleases the other person. You have to live your life in the best possible way and either people go with you, or they stay behind.

But, this is not really what this post is about. This past week, a big challenge has been put infront of me. And during the last few days, i really did some soul searching to see if i have what it takes to face this challenge. I play inline hockey and have been playing for the past 7 years. However, prior to this year, i had a 3 year hockey break, and during that time gained alot of weight and became unfit. Even though i have played this year, i am still overweight and still unfit. Now the challenge is this – Next year during July, the women world inline hockey champs takes place in Dusseldorf Germany. And they have decided that for the first time ever a Namibian Ladies team is going to be send to represent our country in the world champs. Now, for me to qualify i need to do the following over the next 4 months:

1: Loose 30kg of weight and 2: Become top fit by training 6 days out of the week. 3: STOP SMOKING and DRINKING BEER.

I cant wait to start training next week. I have read earlier this week on a very inspiring website that you have to set a date that you want to start with someone and build anticipation towards that.

The following -from the Zen Habits Website: www.zenhabits.net

The 4 Simple Steps to start exercise and keep the habit.
Keep it simple. Here are the 4 simple steps to start the exercise habit (and keep it going). I should note that you can use these 4 steps to start any habit.

1. Set one easy, specific, measurable goal. Don’t — DO NOT — set a difficult goal. Set one that is super, super easy. Five minutes of exercise a day. You can do that. Work your way to 10 minutes after a month. Then go to 15 after 2 months. You can see what I mean: make it easy to start with, so you can build your habit, then gradually increase. By specific, I mean what activity are you going to do, at what time of day, and where? Don’t just say “exercise” or “I’m going to walk”. You have to set a time and place. Make it an appointment you can’t miss. By measurable, I mean that you should be able to say, definitely, whether you hit or miss your goal today. Examples: run for 10 minutes. Walk 1/2 a mile. Do 3 sets of 5 pushups. Each of those has a number that you can shoot for.
2. Log it daily. This is the key habit. If you can log your workout, you will start to see your progress, and it will motivate you to keep going. And you have to make it a habit to log it right away. Don’t put it off, and say you’ll do it before you go to bed. As soon as you’re done working out, log it. No exceptions. And don’t make the log complicated — that will only make you resist doing the log. Just the date, time, and what you did.
3. Report to others. I think this is key. You can do it on your blog, on an online forum, with your spouse, or friends or family, or a workout partner, or a coach, or a group, or a class. However you set it up, make it part of the process that you have to report your daily workout to other people. It could be using an online log, or on a forum, or through email, or the phone, or just by telling your co-workers what you did this morning. But be sure that they know your goal, and that you are going to report to them, and be sure that they are expecting it every day.
4. Add motivation as needed. The first three steps might be enough for you to get the habit going. But if not, don’t just give up. If you miss two consecutive workouts, you need to look at why, and add a new motivation. Rewards, more public pressure, inspiration, whatever it takes. Read this article for more on this. You can add one additional motivator, and then see if it works. If you miss two more consecutive workouts at any time, add another motivator. And so on, until the exercise habit sticks.

So.. i have put out my last sigarette about an hour ago.. and strange that when something is not there.. how much more you want it… And this is my way to share my experience with others..

This blog is about my thoughts and feelings during the next 4 months to firstly achieve my goal of becoming part of the team.

I will keep you updated..