★★Doing First, Then Having

hey guys!

Came across a teaching recently that i wanted to offer up:  

The “doing” generally comes before the “having”.  

We choose to DO smart nutrition, and then in a few months we can HAVE a lean body. 

We choose to DO the workouts, and then later we HAVE a place on the team. 

We choose to DO wise investing, and then a few decades later, we HAVE a very solid nest egg.

Those are simplistic examples, but the takeaway I would offer, is that if the doing comes before the having, then the “Doing” Affirmations should largely come before the “Having” Affirmations. 

I believe this is Divine Right Order, but honestly, all are welcome to form their own opinion. :)

I would even go so far as to say that visualizing the DOING, is where we do our best work. Even — falling in love with the doing, and letting the having take care of itself. 

There is something here about being a good farmer, who waters the plants in his field, or faithfully weeds his land. A good farmer DOES the watering, and does the weeding, and is proud of himself for doing it.

If I had to throw a number out there, i would guess that an affirmations practice should be 90% “doing” affirmations, and only 10% “having” affirmations. Because the having is just a byproduct of the doing.

I don’t know if this is beautiful to anybody else but me, but wanted to share anyways! :)  

I wanted to add some more thoughts to this idea, because it is my favorite topic ever! :)

i tend to believe it’s true, that nobody really enjoys finishing last at something, but a lot of people will finish last in their first day on the cross country team, or will be the worst person in the room, during their first day lifting weights. 

In areas like sports, I keep a steady dialogue with myself, saying, “The smart person, is the person who never injures themselves in training”, and “The number one rule of being a good athlete, is to proactively protect your body from injury” (via crosstraining, via intelligent foamrolling, via strength training the stabilizer muscles, etc).

In other words, the unglamorous phases of an endeavor may stretch on for months, but we conceptualize this as part of the process — even the part in the process in which we emerge victorious.

These kinds of affirmations (“I realize that the smartest person in the room, is not the one who is running the fastest, but the one who is training the most strategically”) have found a HUGE place in my repertoire, and I believe they are a good fit for other people who have to work intelligently through periods of being the slowest person on the cross-coutry team, or the mediocre person in the weight room, etc.

The interesting thing to me, is that the DOING looks so different from the HAVING. Like, doing a slow walk-jog in month one of training for a 15k, looks so different from HAVING an easy stride and endurance to spare, on race day in 6 months. 

OK! That’s my latest brain-dump!  Feel free to add thoughts without censoring them. A brain dump can be very fulfilling! :)

˚ allowing all good 💗  

Posted on 26/04/2019. Last edited on 02/05/2019.

• ~{new day}
  

  In response to BrightAngel's post:I see where you're going with this.

  great example below btw!:The interesting thing to me, is that the DOING looks so different from the HAVING. Like, doing a slow walk-jog in month one of training for a 15k, looks so different from HAVING an easy stride and endurance to spare, on race day in 6 months.  powerful example! 

   

  Yesterday I had a very productive day... I attribute it to what I really desired, and further inspiration of the  actually 'doing' everything needed.

• • enjoy threads like this-added to exactly what I needed}

My thing has been accepting the areas I want in my life I desired improvement/or a new beginning point for some things

Acceptance is DONE. (:

Now I am allowing ANY  or simply more

necessary action to get the awesome focus I want and the results desired!

I like the quote by Rumi which basically states: If you can't run, crawl.

That is my idea of being honest with wherever I am, just do it from that point

and 

allow follow thru.

• ~

My goal is to regain momentum in the gym-body bldg. Minimally as I did 10-12 yrs ago.

My minds eye is using that experience to jump start the discipline I love

More thoughts/affirmations on working swiftly and adeptly through the first thousand hours of an endeavor:

It is often true that I look at any project that I am in the early stages of, and I calculate my “Training Age”.  My training age as a runner, is less than a year. I am still an infant. And so I try to think of the infancy stage — how everyone KNOWS that baby has to crawl before she can walk; how everyone PRAISES baby for taking some wobbly, sloppy steps; how no one ever says to baby, “Baby, I’m not sure you’re very good at this! What if youre not very talented?”

I like to say to myself, “Still crawling while in the infancy stage? Well, then you are RIGHT ON TRACK.”

I also like to say to myself, “Yes, baby, you TOO will do toddler things when you are in toddler stages. Just you wait! You’re going to have so much fun!”

We are taught as humans to start comparing ourselves to other humans. But rather than compare ourselves to other people who are our chronological age, it is good to compare ourselves to others when THEY were our training age. 

For example, my friend was raised by two runners. His first training run, was tagging along with his parents when he was about 5. He ran a little, then got tired, and walked. Kinda like my first training runs, only mine happened well into adulthood.  Everyone kinda goes through the same steps. 

One more thought, and this is about long-term athlete development. I was thinking about how there are many (bad) coaches who train their athletes with zero thought for the athete’s well-being in ten years. The coaches simply pay no mind to how things play out for the players, late in life.

But WE don’t have to imitate the severe mindset, or the pressure to perform, or really ANYTHING that a bad coach puts his players through. A promising pre-teen athlete should not be in intensive year-round training, for so many reasons, like mental and physical longevity. — And I believe that when we are still young in our “training age”, we should think and train for decades of mental and physical longevity.

i am RIGHT ON TRACK, for someone who just got going within the last year.

This is how it’s SUPPOSED to look, when you are an infant in your ‘training age’

i am following the exact same path as others have followed before me, who have gotten as fast and as strong as I also intend to beome.  

:)

One more analogy that has kept me company through many years now!:

I heard someone talking once, about how your humble beginnings in any endeavor, either ARE very recent, or FEEL very recent. 

And the person (I don’t remember who said this originally!) said to remember that those rough starts, or those awkward first attempts, are firmly in the past. They are in the rearview mirror.  You don’t have to keep your eye on them, but even if you DO keep your eye on those awkward beginnings, you will notice that they slide further and further into the distance.

As long as you stay on your path (and don’t kick the car into reverse), your humble beginnings, or your awkward first attempts, keep getting smaller and smaller in your rearview mirror, and ultimately they disappear. 

Your first attempts at using a sewing machine, will never need to be experienced again. You got through that stage. You don’t need to be afraid — time never reverses itself. Time only goes forward.

With running, a person’s first few months of training are invariably mediocre. The legs lack power. The lungs have been on vacation for three years. But for a runner who trains cautiously and remains uninjured, they don’t have to go from 12-minute miles, to 10-minute miles, and then start all over at the beginning. Once the beginning stages are done, those miles are in your legs and that speed is in your heart and lungs and bones. 

One thing i like about running, is that nobody has to “make the team”. It is not like being an accountant,  where some boss-man says, “We’re cutting back on staff” — if you wanna run, then you run. And nobody can kick you off the team.

So I just wanted to share that. Once you have done Month #2, of ANY endeavor, it’s in the books, and is retreating into the distance, as you sail on into Month #3, and so on. Year #1 is a distant memory, after you put in even more time. :)

I heard someone talking once, about how your humble beginnings in any endeavor, either ARE very recent, or FEEL very recent.

Many new thoughts for this morning!:

First: an approach of filling my energetic field with some thoughts and ideas that i like.

(I am coaching myself through this like, “What is just ONE little thing that you like?”)

So, OK, one of my favorite things about the gym, is that you get out what you put into it (and then some). Nobody gets a say in this! No one gets to put you in the penalty box. There’s no system of favortism, where someone else can take credit for the work you did. Every single training session that you do, goes into a bucket called “conditioning” and no effort is ever lost as runoff, or taken as taxes.  

The second thing i like:

In sports and in training, the person who is best at getting after their goal, day after day, month after month, is the one who comes out ahead. Genetic talent might be nice to have, but consistency is the great multiplier! :)

My third favorite thing:

Skill, once you develop it, is YOURS. Someone who learns the neuromuscular patterns of a good knee drive as a runner, doesn’t have to toil endlessly in order to keep it.  It’s just theirs. A balllet dancer who develops her flexibility or her turnout, does a bit of work to KEEP those gains, but for the most part, the work has already been done. 

Those are my three things for this morning. I am about seven weeks into this training block, and I can look back at my training logs, and see that things are taking shape and I am making progress.  :)

Feel free to jump onto this thread and add on!  There are lots of things to like about the doing, and then the having. . . There’s no way i can cover them all just by myself! ;)

I wanted to add one category of affirmations that has been useful to me lately!:

First, a preamble:  Somewhere in the Quotations thread, someone contributed the quote, “He who chases two rabbits, catches none.”

And I definitely adopted this mindset, for now anyways. 

I’ve heard it said a different way: “You can have ANYTHING you want, but not EVERYTHING you want.” 

A third version of the same idea is, “Choose what you want, and then pay for it.”

So, I’ve been getting my running legs back.  Putting some speed in my legs. Tuning up my engine as a runner. Getting the runner’s equivalents of fancy rims, or tinted windows, too.  (Even down to buying good running socks that wick moisture really well.)

So the category of affirmations that has been really useful to me these days is, 

If my running is going well, then my life is going well!

It takes the pressure off of a “destination” mentality, because instead of thinking, “I will be happy when I am running such and such a pace”, it gives me permission to say, instead, “I am RIGHT ON TRACK. So awesome!”

Also, I am being meticulous in taking work off my own plate. Whenever something lands in my to-do box (through the forces of, i dunno, guilt, or societal expectations), my job is to take it OUT of the to-do box. Because it’s not my priority!  My running is my priority.

In areas that are not “Running”, I think it can be helpful to celebrate mediocrity, accept a below-average performance, and even pride yourself on a sub-par performance. If you know that running is your top priority, then it’s really not a problem if the bed doesn’t get made today. I can skip a day. I’m not a maid, I’m a runner.  :)

It is fun to really only have one main job in life. Running is my main squeeze right now. Keeps it very tight and focused. 

˚ allowing all good 💗  

Posted on 30/09/2020.

In response to BrightAngel's post:

love this!

will return!!

˚ allowing all good 💗  

Posted on 08/10/2020.

When I choose how I want to be, feel, & do  then my life is going well!

Time, space, and energy has become expansive when I choose to take great care of myself.

♡ ˚Allowing Beautiful Thoughts  

Posted on 13/02/2022.

When I choose to be happy with my life, life becomes filled with joyful surprises.

When I choose to be amazed I become more amazing

When I choose to get more things accomplished the way I want, I am a detailed meticulous dream machine… I allow for a good life, and life will progressively be fine.