Long term thinking and Visualization

Well, it has been quite the week! I did finally get some exercise, but not before being called on my lazy butt-itude by Ron. Thanks, Ron. 

I cleaned the house on Saturday morning in preparation for the homecoming of my wonderful child, who has been gone for 2 years. I love that kid. He has truly grown into a man and I am overwhelmed at the intelligence and amazing maturity he is showing every day. He constantly amazes me and I am grateful to have him around. I will be sad to see him off to college when he has to go. In the meantime, I will hoarde every moment I can with him. Short term, I hate that I can't spend every minute with him, but long term, that would not be so good. We are, after all, in the business of raising adults. He is wonderful despite environmental screw ups, for we all damage our children in our own unique fashion. Hopefully, he knows how much he is loved. Said house-cleaning left me quite sore. Legs especially, arms from all the scrubbing and oh, my feet! I am so out of shape, it is probably criminal. Today, we went shopping and walked extensively around Best Buy and Costco, which I am totally counting. So, two out of three days down, and I just have to get on the treadmill tomorrow to make the movement goal for the weekend! Small steps to lead to toned body parts and greater physical stamina. 

Next on the list was planning the meals. That will be a difficult one this week due to the kid being here and Christmas, but I am going to take a shot at it tomorrow evening. I am fortunate to be off work until the day after Christmas, which is great, I think my brain needed a break. I had a blind spot again this morning. Stupid head and headaches. That's the second one this week. I need to go back to Mayo clinic and see Dr. Meyer, the Neurosurgeon who did my sister's bypass surgery. She has a quarter sized hole in the side of her skull because they used a scalp artery to feed into the middle cerebral artery in her brain so that she did not have any more strokes after the two she suffered. It worked, so far so good. He discussed doing this with me if a different type of brain scan was not showing good blood flow to my brain. Short term, it is a scary thought, but long term, it could prevent serious damage. I wonder if getting active again and eating right will reverse the narrowing. I don't know, and it would probably be a miracle if it did, but a girl can hope.

I was thinking of working a bit, but I don't think I will until after Christmas. I am on call Christmas Day and my wonderful colleagues have split the week up with me so that I can spend some quality time with the kid. I can't tell you how amazing it is to work in a place that has such an optimistic and team-work-inspiring atmosphere. I have spoken to so many people who struggle every day with politics and difficulties with colleagues. Mine are wonderful to work with. Maybe I am the difficult one? Oh, I hope not. Short term, I remember how difficult school was, I have struggled at times with staffing and with difficult challenges in my work, but I would not change a thing. I love the shape the clinic is taking. I love the teamwork and camaraderie that is building. We have worked hard and it is paying dividends.

So, short term struggles and long term successes. I guess it comes down to what Dori said in Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming." So much of taking care of my own health comes down to being able to see the long view. It will pay off. It is like sowing a field, though. It can't be done overnight. Slowly, day by day, I have to make the choices that lead me to the place I need to be in one year, in five years, in ten years. It is like a course correction in an airplane. One tiny little difference, ten minutes on the treadmill, not drinking fake sugar (headache trigger), eating more vegetables, make a huge difference when you add it up over ten years of days upon days. 

So, I am actively looking into the future to see what it looks like. Since I am not actually clairvoyant, I will create a vision for what I want it to be and then create the habits I want to get there. Will you come with me? What habits must you create to get to where you want to be in a month? A year? How about ten years? VISUALIZE what you will look like. Create a real experience. What will it look like, sound like, taste like. How real can you make it? See it? VISUALIZE twice a day. Professional athletes do it before a match, a contest, a race. There must be something to it.