Do It With Gigantic Strides

NIGHT -- ONE HOUR LATER:

That was a power nap.

I am nicely refreshed, just a little groggy. Time to press on!

I want to end this day the right way, making gains, improving myself, honing my outlook, raising my sights. Is there a moon to howl at?

I hit that point in my falling to sleep -- and I remember it well for about 10 seconds -- that feeling of confused paralysis.

I remember reflecting on it that this was the place you need to cross on your way to a good sleep. And once you see it, you're there.

My dog is an accomplice to every power nap. She is so faithful behind the legs. She's like a nap coach, spurring me deeper to restfulness.

But that's over with now -- thank God I didn't sleep all night. Now it's time to think about exercising and finishing that book.

But first I have maybe four blog entries I need to write. I have random people who show up from around the world. Need to provide for them.

Like Mama Bird here. I've got the worm in my mind, my mind is chewing it, then I spit it out my fingers on this thing I call my keyboard.

Let me close off my theme for the day, "Gigantic Strides." I don't forget these as we press toward tomorrow. I love the concept of it.

Because, seriously, what should it be hard to accomplish things in life? It's not hard, it's just a matter of determination, making it so.

Every little thing we think is potential groundwork for what will follow. If we think negatively, then NO, we probably won't get it done.

If we think positively about ourselves and our abilities, then step out and DO IT, and do it with "Gigantic Strides," we can do it well.

For several reasons, one being because we're acting more on instinct. Combine instinct with personal confidence, there's no stopping you.

I've said what I wanted to say. It's done. Now I must press on, gigantic strides and all that, practicing what I preach. Good night to you.

Gigantic Strides Philosophy Includes Sleeping

EVENING:

It's been a day of gigantic strides. Whatever I've had to do I did it -- BOOM -- with determination! Very focused. Now it's time to relax.

I had a number of projects that were lined up like ducks in a shooting gallery. Plink, plink, plunk. They kept coming, they kept going down.

A lot of tiny stuff, some stuff I could've put off to another day. But I kept thinking "Gigantic Strides." What you gotta do, do it now .

I recommend the whole "mindful" approach to living. Adopt some kind of theme for the day, like "Gigantic Strides," and see how it helps.

Who knows about tonight? I feel tired, really. But I have a book I want to finish, maybe go exercise. "Gigantic strides" gets it done!

If I end up at the exercise place -- and "end up" isn't the right way to say it. If I PURPOSELY GO there, I'll stride through my routine.

Trouble is I just had a big meal. That on top of being tired gives me that drifting, dreamy, eye closing, lethargic swirling consciousness.

I might take a "Gigantic Stride" into the bedroom and take an early evening power nap. Set my mind on a half hour and not hit the snooze.

Sleeping is good for the person who takes Gigantic Strides, right? It's something you NEED to do, so do it with that Gigantic Stride spirit!

To sit here and rue it is not true to the Gigantic Strides philosophy. To need to do something, then to do it with determination is it.

Whatever the task is -- and sleeping does qualify, now that I've given it some thought -- line it up like one of the ducks: PLINK!

Gigantic Strides -- Faithful To The Process

AFTERNOON:

Have I still got the "gigantic strides" mentality I started the day with? Definitely, and I recommend it to everyone.

I have a lot of little tasks that seem like I'm frittering away my energies in the weeds, but I must be faithful in small things.

If I keep my confidence, none of these things is such a big deal. It all works out. Then I can stand back and say "Check, check, check!"

Life is a sequence of individual breaths.

There's no assurance of something big if the small is neglected.

Whatever life gives me, I'm completely into it.

Be confident at the beginning and stay confident all the way through.

The big depends on the tiny.

You can only take gigantic strides when you honor the whole process.

I'm very pithy today. It's my own pithy party.

Gigantic Strides -- No More Crawling

MORNING:

Big, huge, enormous, vast, world-conquering, gigantic strides! That's what I'm taking today. No more mincing, toe-tickling increments.

We have not because we ask not. Then we have because we take. We make a way where there is no way. Because there's always a way.

We can be bogged down like everyone else, with tentative, hesitant, reluctant, ultimately failing baby steps. Falling down by the couch.

~Ooo, I tried it and I fall down. Now I don't think I can get back up. Crawling is good enough for me. I'll just crawl all my life.~

Piffle. Don't do it. Don't do it even if everyone you know does it. You're going to get nowhere by crawling. You demand something more.

I've been down like everyone, maybe worse than many. It happens. But then -- you know how confidence is -- it comes time to hulk out.

It's like in professional wrestling. The guy is whacking away at you and you look like a rubber chicken, till finally you become rigid.

And that's all she wrote for the guy whacking. Next stop, Graveyard! Because it's going to be a quick succession of vicious moves...

Gigantic strides. It's a great concept. Don't do anything halfway. Don't do anything tentatively. If you're ready to live, live NOW!

If you have a goal to achieve, achieve it posthaste. While everyone else is shuffling by, get in there and strut by like you own it. You do.

It's really true most of the time. The person who owns it is the one who claims it. We're talking conceptually, but it does work out.

And who's going to own true success like the person who takes gigantic, mind-blowing enormous steps? Set your course, don't back down!

Making Gigantic Strides

Baby steps suck.

Baby steps are for babies, finally pulling themselves up with the couch, then turning around and falling flat on their butt. Fortunately their butt is already close to the ground and padded by a diaper and most places where there's a couch are also carpeted, so it's no big deal. "Me fall down and go boom."

But pretty soon they're back up and at long last they get it, so they're able to walk, then run, and they put away their crawling talents until many years later when they're married.

I'm no baby! I'm a big boy! And I don't crawl. And I don't take baby steps.

In my life I insist on everything being done with gigantic strides. Like the Apple Bonkers in Yellow Submarine. Like Uncle Sam on stilts at the Fourth of July parade. Like the "Keep On Truckin'" Robert Crumb cartoon guy. I have my biggest and best foot out in front of me, encroaching on the entire foreground, with a big round world receding behind me. The curvature of the earth is right there two steps back.

Gigantic strides. I love the sound of the words.

There's no time to lose. There's no time like the present. If you're going to get it done eventually, get it done now. Do it! Do it! Do it! Suck it up and do it! That's the philosophy to live by. Don't live with regrets that you didn't do it. Because you did it and you did it now, three seconds ago.

Everything you set your mind to you can at least take a stab at. And having taken a stab at it, keep on stabbing till it's bleeding at your feet. Quitting smoking? Done! Exercising more? Done! Losing weight? Done! Going back to school? Done! Having another kid? Skip it! Unless you get a prenate that he'll support you in your old age.

Like the Bible says, "There are giants in the land!" Yes, I'm one of them. This land has giants. And that's who takes gigantic strides. Giants.

Today I will get it done. I will take enormous leaps, steps bigger than my feet physically allow. I will leap tall buildings in a single bound. I will straddle continents, then bound from one mountaintop to another.

Are you with me? Is that going to be your way too? Let's leave the baby steps to the babies. We're big boys! We're big girls! Striding is our way! Big, huge, enormous, gigantic strides!