I figured out that saying “dig” in my head while working out is a great inspirational thing.  It is short, simple, and conveys so much in such a simple 3 letter word.  Dig for more energy, dig deeper into your reserves, dig in and push yourself further than you have before.  So now, while running or doing another set of boring reps on the weight machine, my new mantra is “dig”.

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Keep Perspective

This one is the hardest for me.  I feel an obligation to get angry at stupid drivers or feel that it is my responsibility to police other driver’s bad moves.  All that this leads to is the potential for road rage – both for yourself, or being on the receiving end of someone else raging.  Instead, remind yourself that it isn’t your job to correct other people’s stupidity.  Keep your perspective on two things:

1. Traffic is fleeting and fluid and it doesn’t really matter exactly where you are in the traffic flow
2. It doesn’t matter how right you are if you end up dead or injured

Instead of focusing on a stupid stranger and getting emotionally involved with them, think about your family or your own personal hopes and dreams for the future.  Stay emotionally involved with the people and things that matter to you and it will be much easier to ignore that moron.

Create Good Habits

Figure out things that minimize stress during the actual drive and do them consistently.  For example, instead of trying to pick which lane is going the fastest and changing lanes back and forth, I like to get way over to the left lane and just stay there for most of my drive.  This way I don’t have anything to do except watch the car in front of me and wait for my exit.  This also applies to the reverse by finding ways of avoiding stressful driving situations.  For instance, if there is a section of your commute where you need to change several lanes of traffic quickly and it is usually a hard, stressful merge, either change your habits – like changing lanes sooner – or find an alternative route to avoid the stressful section.  You can’t always cut out all the stress, so do your best to quickly merge or get into a better position and then get back to focusing on relaxing.

Keep Your Mind Occupied

You need to pay enough attention to drive safely, of course, but sometimes the best thing to do is turn up the radio or tune in to a favorite morning DJ.  Keeping your mind focused on something else makes the problems of the road seem distant and less important.  If you are laughing or enjoying yourself it will be harder to get upset over yet another long commute.

NET – No Extra Time

This is an even more useful alternative for using your time.  I picked this phrase up somewhere from a motivational speaker and it has really stuck with me.  I plan on giving this its own post in the future, so I’ll just touch on it here.  The concept is to accomplish tasks during time that would otherwise be wasted.  You are not using any extra time – you need to be in your car for that commute anyway so you might as well make use of the time.  Accomplishing tasks can be anything from listening to audio books, planning out your day, catching up on phone calls (with a good headset of course!), or even taking public transportation so you can pull out your laptop or a book.  Anything you can accomplish during this time will cost you no extra time.

Avoid The Commute

This is not always possible, but avoiding the drive – or at least the rush-hour drive – completely is the best possible solution.  If you have flexible hours then you can try to schedule your day to avoid rush hour driving by coming in early and leaving early, or coming in late and leaving late.  If your job allows, talk to your boss about telecommuting.  I have made arrangements that during projects which don’t require in-person meetings I work from home anywhere from 1-4 days a week.  This has really helped out and saves time, gas costs, and the headache of driving completely.

I hope these tips get you thinking about ways to improve your commute which will make life just a little bit better.  So remember to focus on who and what is important to you in life instead of the morons you meet for a few seconds or minutes during your drive, get into good driving habits and avoid bad ones, and make the most of your time in the car.

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1. Make Sure To Unplug

By this I mean unplug from your job and really make it a vacation.  Turn off your laptop (or at least close your email program) and don’t check your email.  On my iPhone I have it set up to get mail from our work Exchange server and this is easily turned off.  Choose Settings * Mail, Contacts, Calenders and then select your work mail.  From there you can turn off Mail – turn off the Calendars setting too to avoid getting unnecessary meeting reminders.

Also, make sure that your coworkers know you are on vacation.  Just because you are in town does not mean you need to be available.  If it comes up that you will be staying in town, make sure they know you won’t be available.  You can mention that you’ll be taking some day trips (the more vague the better) and may not have access to email and may not have cell coverage.  Then you need to follow through and not check your email and let any calls go through to voicemail.

2. Plan

Even though you won’t have travel arrangements to plan, still plan ahead and schedule things.  Have a definitive start and stop to the vacation.  Plan out your activities for the days and if you are taking day trips then make sure to figure out driving routes and good places to stop along the way.

3. Treat It Like Vacation

You really need to work to remind yourself that you are on vacation.  Take your camera and video camera everywhere and take pictures just like you would on vacation.  Even buying postcards and mailing them to your friends “back home” can be a fun family activity.

4. Act Like A Tourist

Treat your town as if you were a tourist.  If you were going to a new city, you probably would check the official and unofficial tourism websites for activities.  Do that for your own town and you will be surprised with the number of fun activities you have never thought to do.  There are lots of examples of touristy things that you just never do when you live in a town.  For example, I live in Austin, the capitol of Texas – and I still haven’t visited the Capitol building.  Make sure you hit some of the touristy hot spots of your town that you just haven’t done.

5. Change Your Routine

This one is so important and challenging.  Since you will be in familiar surroundings staying at home, the urge will be strong to keep up your usual routines.  Work really hard to break the routines up.  Sleep late, or get up early.  Do something different every day for breakfast – go out for donuts or cook up omelets at home, but just do something different.  This can be part of your planning as well if you have something different planned for each day then you just need to stick to your plan instead of falling into your usual habits.

This goes for the rest of your plans too – don’t just head out to your usual family haunts for things to do.  Go across town and check out new places.  This even applies to simple things like going to the park.  Instead of going to the local park down the street, look up parks across town and explore.  Kids love exploring new parks and just finding them can be an adventure as well.

6. Call In Professionals

Do not let this time at home be used up doing chores and work around the house.  Hire someone to come in and clean your house either before, after, or during (if it won’t interrupt too much) your vacation.  Resist the urge to do the cleaning yourself and use some of the money you are saving by not traveling.  On the other hand, if you have other larger projects around the house that you really want to do, don’t do them during your vacation at all – either yourself or someone you hire.  Trying to coordinate with a contractor or landscaper can really mess up your time and stress you out.  This would be a great opportunity to use your upcoming staycation as motivation to get it taken care of on a weekend before your vacation.

7. Relax

One of the big benefits of a staycation is avoiding the headaches and hassles of planning, paying for, and executing the travel and hotel arrangements.  Use this to your advantage and try hard to keep your stress down.

Also, one good activity to plan is heading out to a spa for a day of pampering.  This works better without kids, but check around and you should be able to find a location that has kids activities to entertain them while you get to relax and rejuvenate.  Short of a spa, you could even take advantage of your gym’s steam room, hot tub, or sauna for a bit of relaxation and pampering.

Keep your goals and your budget in mind.  Don’t be afraid to spend some money, but don’t overdo things.  When you head back into the office after your successful staycation well rested and relaxed with vacation pictures to show off, it will all be worth it.

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We all have those long-forgotten To Do lists, those tasks we are “eventually” going to do. Take today and Just Do It for something.

Just Do It (Today)

I have found that the more you put things off, the less likely they are to happen. Stop making excuses and do something today that you have been wanting to do. If you get in the habit of doing things right away you can change your way of thinking and become a person of action.

Just Do It (Be Active)

The general idea behind this is to be active instead of passive or inert. Stop watching the world do things around you, stop being a passive watcher and be a doer.

Just Do It (Something, Anything)

Stop making excuses, stop feeling tired, stop placing blame. There is nothing stopping you from doing what you want. Find your it and just do it. Start small or start big, just pick something. Make sure you see it all the way through and finish it. In that sense, starting small can be a good idea because you can build on your accomplishments. Sometimes, however, you need to totally shake things up and find something big to do.

So my Logan Challenge for you today is to find something and Just Do It. Comment here and let me know what you did and how you feel.

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Eating Better

I always keep the adage of “you are what you eat” in mind.  What ever you put into your body becomes your body.  I will cover topics like eating organic, eating healthy, eating less, and eating higher quality foods.  I’ll also offer tips for food and meals.

Treating Your Body Better

After eating better, exercise is one of the most important things you can do.  I’ll cover weight loss, exercise, cleansing your body, alternative healing methods like acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, and herbal therapy.

Treating Others Better

When we strip away all the junk of daily living, we are left with basic human interactions.  I’ll cover topics like getting back to basics and getting more from your relationships.

Treating Animals Better

I have been a vegetarian for 17 years now, and will cover topics of vegetarianism, animal rights, and being aware of how animals are treated.

Treating The World Better

Our world is being abused every day.  We can each do our own small part to help out with the things we chose to buy, the companies we choose to patronize, and working hard to minimize our carbon- and trash- footprints on the earth.

Living Simply and Simply Living

In our day of rush-rush and consumerism, I’ll help to remind you that we all can benefit from simplifying and reducing stress.  I’ll cover tips for getting back to the basics, as well as financial advice.

Inspiration For Living Better

Hopefully all of this will result in small ways to inspire you to live better.  Some times it might be a complete paradigm shift while others might be just a small tip to help get you through the day.  I’m not perfect myself, so I plan on working through some of these myself.  I hope you decide to join me on this journey.

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