I have decided that me plus the weekend does not, and never will, equal motivation. Today, I did nothing. I did not hit off the tee. I did not run on the treadmill. I did not even do some measly wrist rolls. And I do not have a single slightly decent excuse. I won't try to make excuses like I did yesterday. I failed, it's as simple as that. But, I have forgiven myself. I've decided that since the main part of my plan was the waking up early before school then my lack of practice this weekend isn't a true failure. I've decided that weekends are supposed to be a break and therefore, it's okay that maybe I didn't do my best these past couple days. Tomorrow, I will set my alarm and I will wake up at an ungodly hour. Hopefully I will get out of bed, go down to the garage, and practice softball. If this doesn't happen tomorrow, then I failed. But as of today and this weekend, it's not a failure. It's simply a break in my plan.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Day Two
Today, I woke up at a reasonable hour (around 10am I believe). And I thought, this evening I will do my softball! I drove my friend home who spent the night and picked up a sandwich from Goodcents. And I thought, this evening I will do my softball! I got home and gathered up my stuff for a church meeting in Lawrence. And I thought, this evening I will do my softball! I drove to my meeting and we accomplished a lot as we planned a huge event called Institute for this summer; I got home about 4pm. And I thought, this evening I will do my softball! I sat down on the couch and watched reruns of House with my laptop in front of me. And I thought, this evening I will do my softball! I ate dinner and watched KU beat K-State in a very close and nerve-wrecking game. And I thought, this evening I will do my softball! After the game, I got back on the computer to play games and chat with friends. And I thought, this evening I will do my softball! The evening has came and gone and my softball has not been done. The thought of going upstairs to change into workout clothes and then move the car off the driveway so I could back both cars out of the garage was just way too much. And anyways, refreshing my Facebook Live Feed every 30 seconds to read new status updates about the KU/K-State game was much more important, right?
In my defense, just minutes before writing this I decided that I didn't want to be a complete failure for today. I grabbed the device I had made and did wrist rolls to strengthen my wrists and therefore strengthen my swing. For those of you who don't know, wrist rolls are done with a weight hanging on a string from some sort of rod. Basically, you just hold the rod and twist it so the weight comes up, then you twist it the other way so the weight goes down. It is very tedious but I can feel my arms strengthening with each turn.
I have decided that tomorrow I will have a self-imposed punishment for my failure to hit off the tee today. Tomorrow, I will do my tee workout and on top of that I will do wrist rolls and run on the treadmill. I need to punish myself for my slip up or it will just happen day after day. And if I fail again tomorrow, well, I guess we'll see what I decide to do.
In my defense, just minutes before writing this I decided that I didn't want to be a complete failure for today. I grabbed the device I had made and did wrist rolls to strengthen my wrists and therefore strengthen my swing. For those of you who don't know, wrist rolls are done with a weight hanging on a string from some sort of rod. Basically, you just hold the rod and twist it so the weight comes up, then you twist it the other way so the weight goes down. It is very tedious but I can feel my arms strengthening with each turn.
I have decided that tomorrow I will have a self-imposed punishment for my failure to hit off the tee today. Tomorrow, I will do my tee workout and on top of that I will do wrist rolls and run on the treadmill. I need to punish myself for my slip up or it will just happen day after day. And if I fail again tomorrow, well, I guess we'll see what I decide to do.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Day One
I was unaware that I was supposed to start this experiment yesterday so today is my first day of my social experiment.
I was awoken by the blaring beeps of my alarm clock at 5:15 this morning. Grabbing my phone, I hit buttons until the noise stopped. My soft sheets and warm comforter cradled me like a baby. I drifted in and out of sleep for three more alarms until I finally forced myself out of bed at 5:45. Only 15 minutes behind schedule- I wasn't complaining. I threw on some clothes, pulled my hair back, and laced up my tennis shoes. Once outside in the cold garage I backed my car onto the driveway, followed by my mom's minivan. When I asked my mom if I could use the garage for this experiment, she agreed on the condition that I would take care of moving her car. With a now empty garage I gathered up the things I needed- a tee, a bucket of whiffle balls (so I wouldn't damage anything by hitting softballs around), my bat, and an "insider bat" (a training device my mom had bought me for Christmas).
6:00am and I was finally ready to begin. I hit three buckets of balls- one armers with each arm and a bucket of normal swings. I decided I didn't have time to use the insider bat. Each whiffle ball made loud bangs. One bang when I hit the ball of the tee, one bang when the ball hit the opposite wall, and two or three more bangs as the ball ricocheted off each wall. With each thud I cringed that my mom would wake up and not be too happy. I was afraid that she would tell me the experiment was off and I would have to chose something new. I guess the garage was fairly sound-proof because my mom stayed in a slumber.
I finished my practice at 6:15 and hungry from my workout I headed inside to enjoy a well earned bowl of rice crispies and a glass of strawberry milk. I was fully awake with enough time to get ready so I decided to dress up a tad. On my drive to school and in first block I noticed that I was much more alert than I have been for many many mornings.
Today improved my softball skills with my workout. Today made me healthier by eating breakfast. Today was less stressful because I had enough time to get dressed. Today was safer because I was alert driving to school. Today I was a better student because I was awake in my first block. Today was a success.
I was awoken by the blaring beeps of my alarm clock at 5:15 this morning. Grabbing my phone, I hit buttons until the noise stopped. My soft sheets and warm comforter cradled me like a baby. I drifted in and out of sleep for three more alarms until I finally forced myself out of bed at 5:45. Only 15 minutes behind schedule- I wasn't complaining. I threw on some clothes, pulled my hair back, and laced up my tennis shoes. Once outside in the cold garage I backed my car onto the driveway, followed by my mom's minivan. When I asked my mom if I could use the garage for this experiment, she agreed on the condition that I would take care of moving her car. With a now empty garage I gathered up the things I needed- a tee, a bucket of whiffle balls (so I wouldn't damage anything by hitting softballs around), my bat, and an "insider bat" (a training device my mom had bought me for Christmas).
6:00am and I was finally ready to begin. I hit three buckets of balls- one armers with each arm and a bucket of normal swings. I decided I didn't have time to use the insider bat. Each whiffle ball made loud bangs. One bang when I hit the ball of the tee, one bang when the ball hit the opposite wall, and two or three more bangs as the ball ricocheted off each wall. With each thud I cringed that my mom would wake up and not be too happy. I was afraid that she would tell me the experiment was off and I would have to chose something new. I guess the garage was fairly sound-proof because my mom stayed in a slumber.
I finished my practice at 6:15 and hungry from my workout I headed inside to enjoy a well earned bowl of rice crispies and a glass of strawberry milk. I was fully awake with enough time to get ready so I decided to dress up a tad. On my drive to school and in first block I noticed that I was much more alert than I have been for many many mornings.
Today improved my softball skills with my workout. Today made me healthier by eating breakfast. Today was less stressful because I had enough time to get dressed. Today was safer because I was alert driving to school. Today I was a better student because I was awake in my first block. Today was a success.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
My Mission
In the movie Julie and Julia a woman decides to cook her way through Julia Child's cookbook and blog about it. So here I am to do much the same thing. We brainstormed in class about what we wanted to do- habits we wanted to start or habits we wanted to break that would improve our lives. I came up with two main things that I wanted to change and I decided that they could be combined into one mission.
My first problem is my failure to wake up on school days. I don't wake up to my alarm or when I do I have no motivation to get up. This causes me to be extremely rushed in the morning when I finally get out of bed and it just starts my entire day off on a bad foot. I don't have a chance to fully wake up before my first block and it's really just not good all together.
My other problem is that I'm taking private hitting lessons to improve my softball and I never seem to find time to practice outside of lessons like I'm supposed to. It would be much more beneficial to my improvement if I practiced on my own.
My plan is as follows: On school mornings I will wake up around 5:30am and actually get out of bed. I will go down to the garage and hit softballs off the tee and do my various drills for about 20 minutes or so. This means that I will be out of bed and done practicing softball around 6-6:15am which will give me plenty of time to get ready for school without felling rushed. I might even have time to make breakfast a routine which would be good for me. On weekends I won't worry about waking up early but I will make an attempt to practice softball on Saturdays and Sundays.
So, I guess we will start off this "social experiment" next week and see how it goes. I think it will improve my softball ability, my stress level, my education, and my health if I can pull this off. I'm excited to get started!
My first problem is my failure to wake up on school days. I don't wake up to my alarm or when I do I have no motivation to get up. This causes me to be extremely rushed in the morning when I finally get out of bed and it just starts my entire day off on a bad foot. I don't have a chance to fully wake up before my first block and it's really just not good all together.
My other problem is that I'm taking private hitting lessons to improve my softball and I never seem to find time to practice outside of lessons like I'm supposed to. It would be much more beneficial to my improvement if I practiced on my own.
My plan is as follows: On school mornings I will wake up around 5:30am and actually get out of bed. I will go down to the garage and hit softballs off the tee and do my various drills for about 20 minutes or so. This means that I will be out of bed and done practicing softball around 6-6:15am which will give me plenty of time to get ready for school without felling rushed. I might even have time to make breakfast a routine which would be good for me. On weekends I won't worry about waking up early but I will make an attempt to practice softball on Saturdays and Sundays.
So, I guess we will start off this "social experiment" next week and see how it goes. I think it will improve my softball ability, my stress level, my education, and my health if I can pull this off. I'm excited to get started!
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