Becoming Yourself

Developing a Better You

Month: July 2022

3 Fun Resources for Your Body, Mind, and Spirit

July 16, 2022 / / 0 Comments

I love M. Night Shyamalan movies.

There is a weightlifter in Lady in the Water that worked out only one side of his body.

I think he missed the lesson on balance.

We laugh, but how often do we do the same thing? It’s so easy to forget that we are body, mind, and spirit. To become the best version of ourselves, we need to nurture all three.

Here are three fun resources that I use:

BODY

Yoga with Adriene (YouTube)

I was clueless about yoga until a few years ago when injuries left me looking for a new workout routine. My daughter recommended Yoga with Adriene, so my wife and I decided to give her YouTube videos a try. It’s been wonderful. At a basic level, yoga is simply stretching and strengthening exercises you can do at home that have mind and spirit benefits too. Adriene is a charming and relaxed guide, especially helpful for beginners. Her channel has a number of “30 Day Yoga Journeys” that are a great place to start, and her lovable dog Benji always makes an appearance.

MIND

MasterClass (masterclass.com)

MasterClass is a streaming service with video-based lessons by the best experts in the world on basically everything. Want to learn how to cook? Take lessons from Gordon Ramsey. Interested in improving your backhand or your three point shot? Serena Williams and Steph Curry are there for you. Curious about photography, interior design, cosmology, business, comedy, acting, directing, public speaking, gardening, negotiating, etc? The finest teachers anywhere are waiting. As an aspiring author, I just finished Neil Gaiman’s series of 20+ video lessons. That alone was more than worth a subscription. Each class comes with a pdf class guide, and the production quality is stunning.

SPIRIT

Travelzoo (travelzoo.com)

One of the many things that COVID-forced restrictions have taught us is the importance of travel. Seeing new places, meeting new people, and having new experiences not only helps us grow, it nurtures our spirits. After the year we’ve had, most of us could use all the nurturing we can get. Travelzoo’s weekly Top 20 Travel Deals email (sign up on their website) provides an amazing variety of incredibly cheap travel around the world. A few years ago, I booked a Travelzoo package and spent eleven amazing days in China, seeing the sites with an English-speaking guide and staying in top hotels. Literally everything was included for a price cheaper than booking just the flights on my own. My wife and I spent eight days island hopping in Greece on another fantastic Travelzoo bargain. Fully refundable deals with travel dates into 2022 are available now at rock bottom prices.

So what part of you could use a little TLC? Your body, your mind, or your spirit? Try a little yoga. Scroll the list of Masterclasses. Sign up for the Travelzoo email. Set aside some time for yourself today, and you’ll take another step toward Becoming Yourself.

This post was originally published April 3, 2021.

The Power of Saying NO

July 2, 2022 / / 0 Comments

As a busy summer travel schedule combines with multiple deadlines for my upcoming debut book series (MONSTERIOUS, publishing May 2023), I find myself in need of this reminder—it’s okay to say NO. I wrote a post on this topic a year ago, and it became one of the most popular on my site. I’m sharing it again in case you need this message as much as I do on your journey toward Becoming Yourself.

I obviously touched a nerve.

Recently, I was looking for something to post on Instagram. The small piece of pink paper my wife taped to our bathroom mirror caught my eye.

I took a quick photo and posted it with the following caption:

“We have this copy of a letter from Charlotte’s Web author E. B. White taped to our mirror to remind us of two things: 1. It’s okay to say no to even “good” opportunities and 2. We don’t have to explain why.”

Over the next few days, it racked up 20 times more likes than one of my posts normally receives, along with passionate comments. I was floored.

So what was it about this letter that resonated so deeply with so many? I think the answers lie in the caption:

1. It’s okay to say no to even “good” opportunities.

What greater recognition of your status and accomplishments than to be asked by a sitting president to serve on a national board in your field? What greater opportunity or honor? And yet author E. B. White greeted that offer with a seemingly casual, “Nah, I’m good.” His example gives the rest of us a deep sense of permission to say no to opportunities of far less prestige. 

2. We don’t have to explain why.

“I must decline, for secret reasons.” How brilliant is that? Most of us live in a society where we feel immense pressure to make excuses or provide rationalizations for saying no to unsolicited requests for our time and energy. E. B. White’s response flips that notion on its head. He simply states, “No thanks, and I’m under no obligation to tell you why.” What an incredibly freeing example of unapologetically owning one’s own life and schedule.

I’m doing my best to incorporate the lessons of this simple letter into my own life. I know that my dream of becoming a published author isn’t going to happen unless I say a polite but firm “NO” to all kinds of “good” or “worthy” opportunities that other people put in front of me. The good really is the enemy of the best.

So how about you? Do you struggle to say no? Do you feel that constant pressure to explain yourself? Clarify what’s most important to you. Keep your eyes locked on your dreams. Be quick with a polite but firm “no” to “good” opportunities that get in the way of the best. If you do, you’ll have a richer, more satisfying life, and you’ll take another step toward Becoming Yourself.

Originally published June 19, 2021.

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