THE PATH OF THE WARRIOR

I've been quiet recently - But I've not been idle.


I've been strength training 4x a week for the last five weeks. I'm learning how to build habits and become better than yesterday. This is what I've learned so far:

Things I've Learned So Far - I'm Calling this 

THE PATH OF THE WARRIOR

"psst Elyse, you are a warrior..."

1. FOCUS - BUILD ONE HABIT, ONE STEP AT A TIME

I like to think of myself as a bit of an overachiever, which means I usually set myself to many things to change at once. Anyone who's ever tried to change their life probably knows my pain of wanting to do everything at once. My first challenge I failed, because I set myself six HUGE goals : Bodyweight workout three times a week, 10 push-ups, plank for one minute, sort out personal branding, save £1000... What was I thinking? My brain can't focus on that many things at once!

So this time i kept it simple: Workout on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. And it's worked! I've done extra things on the side, for example I've made tonnes of progress in my personal projects and found ways of being a lot more productive at work. I started taking protein shakes and eating breakfast each day. But these things I did because I felt like I knew a better way, and I knew it was okay to fail. I've allowed myself to eat whatever i want- i have Chinese takeaway, pizza, pasta, bread, chocolate -You name it! And that's fine, because I know that the next challenge is going to be bring in a healthy lunch. I'm here to build long term habits, not change my life completely in 30 days. 

2. IF THE HABIT ISN'T EVERY DAY, HAVE SPECIFIC DAYS TO DO IT ON

I think another thing that helped, was that before when i missed a workout i used the excuse "It's okay, i'll start tomorrow/monday/wednesday/this weekend etc.". Now i'm like, okay if i miss my workout (haven't yet  my next workout day is... And i have to make that day. Much easier. And it also means that instead of just being really productive one week and doing all three workouts at the start of the week, and eventually putting them off at the end of the week - I've actually got into a routine of which days I workout. This also let me relax (HA! Relax, no i'm doing personal work!), or at least not feel bad on my rest days.. Because the rest days are part of the program. 

3. PROGRESS MAKES PERFECT  BETTER

Logging my progress has helped a lot too. I got discouraged with the bodyweight workout really quickly because I didn't feel it was helping. But now I have actual proof! Even on days I went to the gym and didn't get anything out of it - It's okay. I turned up. I made the effort. I kept the habit up. I have other days where I can be perfect, as long as today I'm better than yesterday. 

4. READY YOUR MIND

A new technique I've been employing the last week or two, is that I listen to this motivational speech on my way home from work (I'll link it if anyone's interested). It's a video that almost brings tears to my eyes because I have so much passion for my work, and travelling and I just want to be better. It's perfect because I power walk all the way home, sit down, blast out two hours work, shoot of to the gym, lift all the heavy things, come home and still have energy left to get a bit more done.  

5. MAKE A PLAN

If I make myself a day-by-day plan to work towards... I'm really good at sticking to it. I recently signed up to the Comicon 2015 animation competition, and for the last few weeks I've been struggling to make progress - which is especially frustrating for me, because I just sat and my computer trying to will things to happen. I made a plan from now to the competition's deadline, and have been powering through it each night. It's relieved so much pressure because I'm now "ahead" 3 days, and I know it'll get finished on time. I can't believe how productive I've been this week - It's truly amazing! And a lot of my negative thoughts have gone because I've been so successful with my goals. 

That's all I got for now! I'm hoping to expand this list as I learn better ways to achieve my goals. I realise a lot of this is obvious/already been said, but this is just a reminder to my future self . Oh and, if you didn't notice, i chose the warriors guild haha! I've always secretly wanted to be a warrior, but been told my whole life I'm built to be a scout. No more. I want to be strong. 

(Also i realise lara isn't quiet a warrior haha! But to me she's awesome kick ass female. My primary focus is still to get strong, but in the back of my head, I want to be a traveller, rock climber, arrow shooter, martial artist, survivor, long distance runner) 

How Be Happy In 2015

Often, when we go on a big adventure, it's good to have some friendly advice. This post is a letter to myself of things I have learned of the past year, to keep me feeling good about myself and the world around me. Sometimes when you look back on a year, it can be easier to focus on the negative things that occurred rather than your successes.

1. Don't Worry About The Small Stuff

We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to help people around us, and we can sometimes get frustrated about things in life that get in the way - It's raining, my computer is broken, my family won't stop arguing, the tap's leaking - It can be any number of incredibly annoying events, that end up stressing you to no end. A friend of mine always used to say "If you are worrying and you can resolve the problem, stop worrying and do it. If you're worrying and can't do anything, then why worry."

This is obviously easier said than done. Sometimes the more we focus on the negative aspects the more they turn into an unmanageable mountain. When I'm in this situation, I need to learn to let go of the little things, and think about the bigger picture. I live in a nice home, I'm doing a job I love, I graduated from university - overall I am where I want to be, and heading down a pretty awesome path. Don't worry, whatever you are dealing with know that in time, it will come to pass (unlike the creature in the Lord of the Ring!).

2. Enjoy the Journey

On my ongoing journey to forever cross things off my Bucket List and trying to level up my life and "Reach Level Two", it's hard not to focus completely on the end mission of achieving your goals. Unfortunately, however sweet accomplishing that goal is, it can make you impatient to see the end results - often missing out on things around you. Although I believe it's great to have goals, needing to reach them to the point of missing out of the present would be a waste. I don't know about you, but whenever I find myself finishing one goal, I'm always looking for the next challenge. So for a good while when my goals were getting larger and larger, I got exceedingly angry with myself for not doing more. Why am I watching TV instead of working, did I not care about my dream job enough? Why had I spent money on eating out when I promised myself I was saving to travel? I convinced myself that if I wasn't 100% dedicated to scratching off the next goal, sooner, more efficiently, then I was never going to get there.

You are already on the path, and the path leads somewhere awesome. But enjoy the steps while you're taking them.

3. Look After Yourself

Looking after myself this year is pretty important to me this year, not just regarding fitness and health, but also about being happy with who I am and how I look. Looking back into 2014, I found at times my self-esteem got dangerous low, despite the successes I had. I won't go into detail, but suffice it to say that I was very isolated for much of the year, and ended up feeling very depressed and powerless to help myself.

2015 is my year of empowerment! I was able to fight it through those feelings, and although they still haunt me from time to time, for now they are defeated. I'm not making a strict resolution to work out x amount of times a day, or eat x amounts of fruit and veg etc. However if I can take some small steps to forming habits that lead to a healthier, happier, calmer path, i will certainly be able to be much happier.

4. Have Less

This seems almost counter-intuitive, does it not? In the process of trying to progress, achieve, travel, love and explore, it seems necessary to do that through acquiring the tools to help us. After being an avid reader of 'Zen Habits', I have been increasing persuaded by the idea of 'less'. De-cluttering my life, to streamline it for the things I hold of the greatest value. I don't need the newest phone, or upgrade, and the more I seem to own the more stress, and time is spent organising, moving, and re-arranging it all! Travelling lighter will definitely help me find the space I need to breathe and be happy in the new year.

5. Fecking GO FOR IT

Stop feeling you're inadequate. Stop making excuses you'll do it later, Stop waiting for it to happen. It takes 10,000 hours to be an expert at something, if you're worried about your skills just start improving. If you're worried about money start saving. If you want to travel, go see the world! The time is now! Carpe Diem guys! This is the year. Let's make 2015. Great. :)

These are my 5 tips for being a happier me in 2015 - give me a shout fellow bloggers, I'd love to see what you're all writing about :D