As I swish my smart phone’s screen to catch the time or glance at a digital clock – lately it shows up constantly as 11:11 – then later on that same day I swish again – and low and behold – 1:11 sequence again. As this has been occurring repetitively almost every day for the past couple of months – I knew it was a sign that I must pay close attention to.

I still have the typewriter that I so vividly remember constantly seeing my grandfather use at his kitchen table so many times growing up; as he was always so feverishly pounding away at the keys like a woodpecker on a mission; so deeply embedded into what he was writing. I marveled at his ambition and tenacity to magically create his thoughts into the reality of the written word. What an awesome adventure he must have had writing his Italian poetry that when read aloud; sounded like music to my ears. I was in awe.

The wonder of seeing his son; my father – in his makeshift office in his home – always so feverishly pounding away at the keys of his computer also like a woodpecker on a mission – night after night; day after day with the imagination of a little boy in the world of science fiction. Creating novels, short stories and poetry that would knock your socks off while asking yourself the question “where did all this talent come from”? It was magical to say the least.

I wish I was a fly on the wall to witness myself pecking away at my keyboard releasing my own thoughts and imagination into my written word in poetry and short stories that will take a reader into my personal paradise.

Since the tragedy of my father’s untimely death; I have felt a tugging on my apron string to accomplish something awesome to commemorate the writing history of my family; as it has come down the generations. Through many creative writing classes that dad and I took together in his later years; we both were introduced to the milestone of each others capabilities and talents that could take on the world – believing it was right at the end of our fingertips.

I’ve recently landed myself into the world of writing self help; health and human interest stories. With the awesome opportunities that have been popping up in my life – I feel like I’m just a stones throw away from shining my grandfather’s heritage he bestowed upon me through himself and my father. For I feel that my angels are shouting it loud and clear every time I see 1:11 or 11:11 to take it to the streets!

My goal would be to help others at the same time as my business would advertise reference books, recommended diet programs; health & wellness books; tv shows; exercise plans, etc… all wrapped around my stories as my blog already suggests. I could promote whatever I’ve written about within my blog pages. And even link it to a Facebook page that I’m already familiar with since I managed a private group for over a year on all types of health oriented articles. I just need some guidance into this new world I’m embarking upon.

The Healthy Approach Facebook Group

My entire life has been about helping others and this is where it will magically come into play. Along with the help of others paying it forward – I can make this happen and have my angels smiling down on me and saying – “job well done”. I want so desperately to pay it forward myself; that all I need is that ‘shove’ to set me off on my way. What a way to go; enjoy what you do; help others; and make money all at the same time! That’s my mission in life!

I’ve been waiting for some reprieve since the tragic events of my father’s death 3 years ago…which seems like a lifetime ago….and I’m praying the time is now! It will all be dedicated to my father! It’s all for you dad!

Valerie

As this new year approaches – I ask myself if a resolution of any kind is in order for me? Naturally I can think of a dozen or more things that I would like to either start or change up. But why is it so imperative that we accomplish this on the first of the calendar year or the first day of the week? I mean shouldn’t we be able to do this at any time when we put our mind to it? Or is there something to say about ‘when’ specifically?

Being as though I personally have been waiting for a perfect time to start a new exercise and healthy eating routine – that I’ve been very successful with in the past; I decided to do some research on “why” we need a “perfect” time to make changes in our lives anyway?

Forget about New’s Year’s Day. If you’re thinking about starting a diet or a fitness program or quitting smoking, you only need to wait for …. Monday. 

Maligned Mondays are actually days that tap into the “fresh start effect,” when we feel like “a new person,” ready to take on a change in habits, according to a recently released report.  And for some reason this holds true for me all the time…I always want to start new things on Mondays.

“On certain days, called temporal landmarks, you just have a different view of yourself,” says Jason Riis, visiting professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of the recently released report. “You become more forward looking.”

People think, “I am going to be a new person and … I am no longer going to be a part of the path of failure,” says Hengchen Dai, a co-author of the paper and doctoral student at Penn. “It’s changing the perception of the self.”

But even if you want to make a change, it is not easy to make systematic changes in your behavior. We have habits that get in the way of achieving our goals. We also have constructed an environment that supports our behavior and have surrounded ourselves with people who help us.

You first have to focus on positive goals rather than negative ones. A positive goal is an action you want to perform; a negative goal is something you want to stop doing. Your habits are memories of actions you perform in a particular situation. You can’t learn not to do something, so if you focus yourself only on stopping behaviors, you will never develop new habits.

More people also need to make realistic plans for what they want to change about themselves. If you want to start going to the gym more often, it is not enough to say that you want to go to the gym three times a week. Where is that going to fit on your calendar? You need to pick specific days and add that to your agenda. Unless you get specific, you will have a hard time identifying all of the obstacles that will get in your way. Put the gym on your calendar Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. That is specific enough to give you a fighting chance of succeeding.

People need to make changes to their environment as well. We tend to do things that are easy. A big key to behavior change is to make desirable behaviors easy and undesirable behaviors hard. During the past 50 years, the successful public health campaign to get people to stop smoking has succeeded in part because it is now virtually impossible to smoke in public buildings. As a result, people in the workplace or in restaurants or bars can’t just pick up a cigarette and light it. They have to walk outside. The undesirable behavior has been made hard to do.

Finally, after New Year’s Day, you need to be kind to yourself. Real behavior change is hard. There are days when you will succeed and others when you will fail. On the days you fail, treat that as an opportunity to learn about what to do in the future rather than as a reason to give up. People really can succeed with their New Year’s resolutions. They just have to plan ahead.

The motto that I bring from this research is to pick ‘whatever day’ or ‘whatever time of year’ that resonates with you and your life; give yourself a perfect opportunity to start a resolution; project or change and just go for it.

Keep this in mind – Polls have found that by springtime, 68% of Americans who made a New Year’s resolution have broken it. After one year, only 15% claim success.

Don’t be so hard on yourself and give yourself permission to fail…remembering to learn from any failures. Don’t despair. The secret to self-improvement is persistence, not perfection. Change is failing and learning from it. When you fall; get back up; dust yourself off and keep on keeping on!

….I’ll leave you with a couple of quotes from the very successful Thomas Edison –

Good luck!

Valerie