Okay, you might have noticed that I haven’t blogged in a while — a long while. Was I too busy? Something bad happened? No ideas for writing? Well, fortunately nothing bad (at least nothing too bad) has happened and I have a lot of ideas for writing. But truthfully, I’ve been really busy with a lot of other things going on my life and I’ve been rethinking a lot of things. I know, sounds heavy but don’t worry — it’s nothing too crazy.
The big change in my life is that I started seriously working out. You may wonder what that means as it can mean practically anything. To me, it means a structured weekly workout programs created with targeted goals in mind. In my case, I have some pretty particular goals for how I want to look and feel so I train seven days a week with a mix of cardio and weights. Today, I just completed day 52 and it feels great.
So what does health and exercise have to do with communication and personal development? Well, a few things. First of all, without your health you have nothing. While there are people that have become successes in business and politics with poor health, it’s the exception not the rule. You can’t motivate and inspire people when just walking to the stage makes you out of breath. You can’t be successful with your job or business if you lack the energy to put forth the effort needed to succeed. Yes you can get by with some extra cups of coffee and a sugar rush here and there, but it won’t sustain you for long. Eventually, it affects both your physical and mental health and it sets you up for failure. I’ll get more into detail on this in another post. Plus, there are a lot of correlations between exercise and personal development — I’ve been using analogies with exercise in my classes for years. Again, more to come.
As for the rethinking, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about a lot of different things since last summer. I’ve asked myself some tough questions, contemplated some radical changes and just spent some time brainstorming, reading and daydreaming. I have to say it’s been a fun process and I feel like I’ve grown from it. And no, I haven’t succumbed to any new age crazy thinking, I’ve just learned a few things and I’m excited to share them.
So from all of this, expect a few new things on this blog. First, I’ve added a category for health which will include all health-related posts. No, this blog isn’t going to get swamped about posts on how I eat or my workout routine, but I will be tagging posts that include information on health in the health category. If this turns you off because all you care about is public speaking or Toastmasters, you might to open your mind a bit here. You might not only learn some tips on how to be a better presenter or some stories to include in your talks, but you might just learn how to extend and enjoy your life.
The next thing is that you may notice a difference in the way I do posts. Historically my posts have been written like articles that you’d read in a newspaper or magazine (in terms of length and format). I’ll keep producing those types of posts but don’t be too surprised if you see some occasional personal posts from me as well as commentary. There’s so much out there to write about and sometimes, I feel it’s more beneficial to you the reader if I crank out a couple paragraphs on a focused topic rather than trying to find something else to add to it to make it a full length article. So keep a lookout, hook up to the RSS feed and as always, become a part of the Overnight Sensation community.
James Feudo owns the Boston Web Design Agency JVF Solutions and loves blogging about personal development and communication in his spare time.