Pep Talk Friday: The Snooze Button

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Life is dynamic. Life is linear. Life goes on and waits for no one. Once a moment is passed, you can’t go back to live it. 

Do you find yourself constantly hitting the snooze button in the mornings? Telling yourself that you can put something off until tomorrow, until next week, until next month? 

Let’s look at the definition of what Snooze is and then talk about why we should avoid the snooze button

Snooze – a short, light sleep, especially during the day. 

You are sleepy, you have a couple hours before the appointment so you take a snooze for 30 minutes, feel refreshed and go on about your day feeling like a million bucks. Nothing wrong with that! 

How about when you hit the snooze button in the morning? You hit it once, maybe three times, rush out of bed, feel bad that you didn’t wake up early like you had planned to make your breakfast, you go to work hungry and rushed, you are in a bad mood, you snap at your boss and they fire you. . .  Maybe that doesn’t happen, but you get the idea I hope! 

Here is another thought. . . if “day” is Life and “snooze” is taking a break from your day, then how many moments of your day are you missing? Add them all together and what could you have accomplished that would have brought you closer to your goal? 

3 Reasons Why You Should Avoid the Snooze Button 

1)    It is annoying – just get the full sleep and stop torturing yourself! 

2)    It sets a bad Tone 

3)    The answer for the question when you ask, "Does this bring me closer to my goals?" 

It really is a struggle. To just get up. To do what you had planned. To just do it. For some of us, it can be the hardest thing we have to do even though it would bring us closer to what we want most to 

Just. 

Get. 

Up.  

It makes no logical sense but it is just the way it is. Old habits die hard and we have to fight everyday to wake up, get up, and live up our day, each day.  

I skipped my workout yesterday morning convincing myself that I’d do it last night. It was Thanksgiving! I really believed that? No. I knew I wouldn’t. I made the choice by hitting my snooze button that morning. That is just the way it is. If you have to bargain or convince yourself out of doing something that will bring you closer to your goal, the decision is already made.  

No one else will fight for your life but you. So knock it off. Recognize when you are doing it and let that little burning flame in your heart grow. Let it win the fight because it will eventually consume you and you will win! Then instead of snoozing in the mornings, you will be jumping out of bed excited to live your day! 

I needed this! I thought maybe someone else did too. 

Do you have a daily battle with your snooze button? If you were disciplined on a daily basis what would you like to do each morning to start your day off right?

Share in the comments below or let me know on the Facebook page. LIKE The STRONG Life on Facebook!

Have a great weekend y’all!

~Melina

Bucket List Challenge: Living Life Before 30

They say change is good. And it is when you got it all figured out and all the pieces have finally fallen into place. Change, like constructing a new house, begins with a mess, a lack of vision of the final product when you look at it on the surface. But below that change is the blueprint. The plans that actually reveals that the mess is indeed organized because it is meant to create something beautiful.

I have reached a new stage in my life after my 29^th birthday last month that had me freaking out a little. All of a sudden I am aware that my youth isn’t going to last forever...

(you mean I wasn’t always just going to be in my twenties with plenty of time to figure out what to do with my life?)

Starting over in my life, AGAIN, financially, emotionally, physically is hard. But I am alive! God is not finished with me yet if I still woke up this morning and am here to type this post!

I’m a mess right now. I really am. But I am ready to make changes. I have a new challenge for myself to be STRONG again. This last year in my twenties will be my year and to do that I am going to do a fun challenge that I will document about on the blog each month as I get closer to my next birthday.

I have a Twenties Bucket List that I have to complete before I am 30!

Things on this list are to help me stay focused on me, to be positive and to challenge me to really live my life rather than going through the motions. Each month will be a new bucket list item I have to complete.

This month of November’s challenge was to start my blogging again. So here I am!

I’m a writer so I must write. And I thought it would be fun to use my favorite platform to tell my story as I go through this journey of my monthly bucket list items.

I haven't planned out every month yet but here is what I have planned so far:

• November – Return to blogging for real this time ...CHECK!
• December – Join a gym and commit to a workout program
• January - 
• February - 
• March - 
• April – Take the Health Coach Certification Exam
• May - 
• June -
• July – Paddleboard/Snorkel & Swim with Dolphins in Key West
• August - Get a Tattoo
• September – Run a 5k... or a 10k
• October – New Wardrobe for my Vegas trip to celebrate my 30^th and see Britney Spears' show.

I need your help with ideas for the other 5 months that I don't have anything for! What are some things that I should do before I turn 30? What are some things you have always wanted to do?

Give me some ideas in the comments below or LIKE The STRONG Life on Facebook and share your ideas for a Bucket List!

See you Friday!

~Melina

Feel the FEAR. . . the story of a comeback

http://www.facebook.com/thestronglifebymelina

If you were to look back at my archive of posts for this blog you will see a lot of different phases that I was in for my life for the last 3 years. I have been up and I have been down and back up again.  

Then this past year, I struggled with writing, blogging and journaling as I struggled with my spiritual journey.  

I fell back into faithless habits of wanting to take control and allowing various temptations to take over me by fooling myself into thinking that..well...that I had control.  

But I didn't. 

And life had a way of showing me that I really didn't have any control because I didn't give it to God anymore. For that I have paid the consequences... 

I am lost. I gained a lot of weight. I am in over my head in debt. I got selfish in my behaviors and I even ended my relationship. But the worst of it all was that I turned my back on God.  

Why would anyone know the formula to happiness, have it, and then throw it all away?  

Fear. 

FEAR OF NOT BEING GOOD ENOUGH

I would tell myself things like, "Who am I to be saying this, or giving this advice or offering this tip?" 

Ummm. That is so stupid! 

I'm not the only one in the place that I am at in life! By not doing it, how on Earth could I potentially reach out to someone who can also do it and contribute their little bit of light into the world? Call me selfish with a capital "S". . . 

FEAR OF SUCCESS

We all want to be successful. So why the heck would I not want to be successful?! I sabotage anything I do by not finishing what I started. I taught for a year, but I don't want to be compared to better teachers. . . I tried to be the perfect housewife when I was married and maybe even in my relationship with my boyfriend after but if I set a bar and didn't reach it, my partner would not love me. . . I became a trainer, but I didn't have a six pack like that other trainer did so why would anyone want to hire me? So I settled for fitness sales. . . but if I wasn't the top sales person, then I must suck. Forgetting the lives I impacted by just selling what I sold! 

See the trend? Many of us fall of into that trap.

I'd work for what I want, maybe see within my grasp a chance for what I really wanted and then sabotage it so that I couldn't reach that point of failure and start something else only to begin that cycle all over again.  

If I were to reach that goal that I have deemed my point of success then I'd open the doors for more criticism, for more chances to lose what I have. Instead of using my fears to fuel me to succeed, I used them to hold back. 

Wow this all sounds silly!

Which brings me to the next fear... 

FEAR OF JUDGEMENT

What are my peers, friends and family going to think of me? 

They might think, "Oh here we go again, she's done this before,"

"So typical, she'll start and stop this thing..yet again..." 

Is this really what people are thinking of me? Does it really matter? Am I really that self-centered to think that other people who have their own issues and problems in life really care if I go at it again to do something positive in my life? 

In actuality, it doesn't matter. 

To those that want to judge, they aren't the ones I'm doing this for. 

To those who aren't judging and support me, that fuels me. 

To those who are indifferent and might stand to benefit from even one sentence I might type. . . 

So here I am. Starting back at the blogging thing. Trying to inspire the world when I barely have my life together, but there is no point to waiting until I have the "perfect" life to share my story because it will never be perfect. It is all on how we handle life and how we grow from it. I am terrified of my fears. 

And today will be the hardest day for me in a long time as I start my new journey but I will FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY! 

Do any of these fears paralyze you?
What dreams have you been wanting to pursue? 
How have you been making yourself your biggest obstacle?

Feel free to share in the comments, share on the facebook page or answer those questions in a journal.

Follow my journey, learn little bits of inspiration and motivation as I learn them, and hopefully I might inspire you to share your journey with others with your God given platform!

LIKE The STRONG Life on Facebook and we can grow STRONG together!

~ Melina