Personal Project, Willpower

The Willpower Instinct Project – Week 7

McGonigal, Kelly - The Willpower InstinctNot sure this brings much to my project, but I needed to keep with the schedule and hold myself accountable.

This week I definitely noticed a change in my habits, but honestly I’ve hit enough road blocks I’m wondering why I’m still doing this. Thankfully, I’m a completionist and will follow through the project. This entire week focused solely on connecting our current self with our future self and finding out if we are undercutting that future self.

We were to reflect on if or how we discount future rewards, whether we’re waiting for a future self to take charge and inversely whether we’re too farsighted for our own good. I find that depending on what I’m looking at there are complete opposite answers. When it comes to money and savings, I’ve made a lot of changes recently where I’ve taken charge and am sorting things out. I do occasionally have to remind myself that it’s okay to have fun and not save every penny to pay things off, so I am too farsighted for my own good.

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Personal Project, Willpower

The Willpower Instinct Project – Week 6

McGonigal, Kelly - The Willpower InstinctAfter last week, I definitely noticed progress on the ridiculous snacking and overeating. That doesn’t mean I was 100% done with it, had a eww what is wrong with me moment on Thursday when I was eating subconsciously and caught myself. Any sort of progress these days is great!

This week McGonigal asked us to really look at how guilt, promise of relief and external circumstances affect our willpower, more specifically: relief when stressed, what terrifies us (news stories for example), how do we respond to setbacks and how we use our feel-good feelings.

In the past my stress release came from reading and eating junk food. I’ve, thankfully, cut back on the junk food and reading remains a stress release, but as I’ve mentioned on my new blog, meditation has really helped a lot with de-stressing and mental clarity recently. I don’t generally get stressed from external factors like the news or media, but I do often get stressed out think about my future and I have spent a lot of time over the past few months trying to stay in the moment and not fret so much about the future.

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Workout Wednesday

Workout Wednesday – April 2014

2014 04-08 Fool's Dual T-Shirt and BibSo remember in May and June of last year when I started Workout Wednesday’s? Remember my passionate statements, in both posts, “I hate running”? Don’t believe me, go to the homepage and search “I hate running,” keep the quotation marks because it’s in there exactly and both of those posts will come up. What’s funny is this entire post is pretty much just about running!

While I wouldn’t put it at the top of my favorite things list, I’ve definitely gotten to the point where I find enjoyment in it. I really must, in April I even read a book about running (What I Talk About When I Talk About Running) and I somehow convinced myself to put both a 10k and a half-marathon on my 30 before 30 list. I’m also overly excited about being able to run outside again and take long walks where Caroline and I plan out our lives now the days are longer and the weather much more cooperative, so clearly there’s been some change of heart…

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30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #1 – Run A Sub 36:00 5k

2014 04-06 - Hello Sub-36min 5kTwo down, twenty-eight to go! I didn’t think I would be crossing the physical ones off quite this rapidly, but no complaints from me! No idea what will be next, but probably not one of the physical ones.

To be completely honest, this was one of those that I knew for a fact I would get to, but I honestly thought it would be later in the year. I’ve kept at it and coming in under 36:00 was a bit of a surprise. This 5k was a part of the Fool’s Dual in Gloucester, MA and it was a beautiful course. My friends Hayley and Caroline (from my first 5k in December) signed up to run the half-marathon so Nick, Caroline’s fiancé, and I signed up for the 5k. We then convinced Caitrin to run the half-marathon and Dan to run the 5k from our trivia team to join us!

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Personal Project, Willpower

The Willpower Instinct Project – Week 5

McGonigal, Kelly - The Willpower InstinctThis week it was back to observation and not doing. It’s funny every time I read one of these observation chapters I write out what I already know and generally see it happen throughout the week. I guess what I’m really looking for is that piece to push me over the edge to make me do what I need to do to overcome my laziness/distractions.

Again, as with Duhigg, McGonigal asked us to look at what it is that makes us do something (our reward) and to take note of how retailers set things up to take advantage of (or to create) distracted consumers. This has become incredibly apparent as my local grocery store has recently rebranded and is attempting to be more upmarket that it was previously, and this goes so far as to include, tastings, demonstrations and even live music. Honestly, I just think it’s obnoxious and thankfully shop early enough in the day most weekends that there’s nothing going on. I can easily see where this would cause many people to purchase unnecessary things, but I go in with a list and pretty much buy the same thing every week.

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