isn’t it true that if you say something in the negative, the brain only hears “spend anything”…

I really get concerned when I see advertisements like “don’t drink and drive”. All the brain remembers is “drink and drive”

And at school (I’m a teacher) I hear teachers say “don’t run” and all the student hears is “run” or “quit talking” and they hear “talking” which reinforces the disruptive behavior.

so instead of “Don’t spend anything”, I prefer something like “Save money” as a visual reminder. I really love the visual progress reminders where the graph paper can be colored in to show progress.

Stated in the positive is more powerful!

I don’t agree with the, “If you ask the universe for it, you will get it,” philosophy of “The Secret” but I do think the Visualization Board it describes is a wonderful tool. Take a bulletin board and festoon it with images and phrases that support your goals. Want to go to Paris? Tack on a picture of the Eiffel Tower. Need to lose weight? Post your goal weight in big, bright numbers. Unlike the author, I think whether or not these dreams come true depends on the actions of the dreamer and some inevitable influence from circumstances or fate. Anything we can do to keep ourselves on track and optimistic is powerful, however, and I’m never above borrowing from any source, even those I don’t fully agree with.

Being “low tech”, I tend to rely on the written word, but in three steps:

1) A weekly to do list, for important agenda, that I refer to daily

2) Post it notes on the computer for small, day to day chores

3) 8.5 X 11 paper with bold magic marker block letters to remind me of the small but urgent. These are posted at doorways I have to pass through.

Works for me, but as I said, I’m very low tech. But I think I’ll take the suggestion of using pictures, at least for motivational purposes. Nothing reminds you more of what you should be doing to accomplish your longer term goals than a good visualization.

For tracking goals, you may also want to check out http://www.GoalsOnTrack.com, a very nicely built web app designed for tracking goals and todo lists, and supports time tracking too. It’s clear, focused, easy to navigate, worth a try.

I don’t know which plan you are following, but even with the Couch to 5K, it doesn’t take more than a couple of months to meet that goal. And that is if you are starting from zero, and I think you mentioned you have been exercising for a while?

As for the rest, in my case reminders don’t always help; after a while it can be easy to just ignore that post-it or whatever.

This was one of my favorite posts in a long time. I liked the ideas, your personal examples, and how easily I will be able to apply this to my life. Thanks!

I will use a couple of the suggestions; I really like the gmail reminders.