Tag: David Reed Watson

I started out this blog by writing the title and then leaving the room. Gotta make coffee… oh, look… a spot on the floor… how is the compost doing? You get the point.

What is it about procrastination? The definition of Procrastination is; the avoidance of doing a task which needs to be accomplished. It is the practice of doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, or carrying out less urgent tasks instead of more urgent ones, thus putting off impending tasks to a later time. We, as a society, seem to get tasks done when someone is making us do it. We seem to lack the motivation to get it done ourselves. I mean, it’s proven that we will do it, it does get done… but why do we have to be pushed to get it done? When I was in the Marines it was drilled into my head, D.I.S.C.I.P.L.I.N.E., hyper-focusing on the task at hand. Of course, in the Marines I had somebody drilling this into me… today it’s just me doing it. When I quit my day J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) to do music full-time I had to acquire that old Marine discipline again… something that I haven’t trained myself to do for a very long time. I had gotten so used to being told what to do. I would work endless hours at the Ad Agency to get the task done, but found that on my own I could easily get distracted.

Living here in Las Vegas makes it even harder. This is the first place in my life that I’ve lived that something is ALWAYS going on. Every day, every night. It never ends. And I’m the type of person (Leo) that wants to be out doing everything all the time. When I lived in Marina del Rey I had a routine. Get up, exercise, go to work, come home, meditate, record… I know what you are probably thinking,”Poor David! You have such a full life. I’m so sorry!” Don’t get me wrong, I am blessed. Beyond blessed. I’m just saying that with so much going on it’s hard to keep a routine going. And I believe we all need a routine to keep that balance in our lives. We need to get the task at hand done first, then we can play. And sometimes that just plain sucks!

So how do we do both? How do we maintain a routine AND have a full life AND get the proper amount of rest?

Exercise: I’ve found that I have unlimited amounts of energy if I get up and exercise before I even have time to think. For years I would get up before sunrise, get on my bicycle and ride 20 miles. I did this every morning. Eventually it became a game. I would try to work up a sweat before I saw the sun peeking over the ocean. Don’t make excuses saying that you’ve got too much to do. Believe me, it will get done and it will get done more efficiently when you exercise first. Don’t blow it off. Start small. Walk for 10 minutes a day. Get into the routine of putting on your running shoes, or cycling shoes, even if it’s for a few minutes, at least you’ve done it. Eventually you’ll be doing it longer and the routine will set in. I have a friend who runs every morning. I’m talking a touring musician. Someone who flies to another state to do a gig, going to bed at 2am sometimes. It doesn’t matter, he has made it a mandatory routine. So if he can do you, so can you. No excuses. If you can, get a work out partner. Somebody that will call you up and keep you accountable, and vise-versa.

Eating: I would eat a light breakfast, go to work, have a snack at work to keep up my energy, all in all just grazing all day long. Not eating more than a fist full of food. Most nutritionists will tell you that eating 5 or more times a day is much healthier than eating 3 big meals a day. Think of your body as a locomotive, and food, coal. With a train you are always feeding that fire to keep the train running fast and strong. When you eat 3 big meals a day you’re body goes into overtime trying to digest the food. That’s why we get sleepy after a meal.

Meditation: Meditation is not just sitting in the lotus position and saying ‘Om’. Yes, that is one form, but there are many forms of meditation. Meditation is just focusing on one task. I use my cycling as a form of meditation. For me I concentrate on my breathing while I’m riding. Maintaining a rhythm. This is a good way to look at meditation… When you clear your mind you are allowing a flow of energy, source, God, whatever you want to label it, into your body. When that energy flows through you it hits each of the Chakra’s to create an even balance. A harmony if you will. When your head is all cluttered, energy has a hard time flowing. Think of it as a Dam. When you put up a dam it blocks the water from flowing down the river.

Community: We are always getting together with friends, either here at the house, or out to dinner. Conversation is very important in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Being with people who you can actually talk to. Be vulnerable with. It makes you feel good and you actually get more accomplished when you share it with others. I’m not saying blabbing it all over Facebook. This isn’t to brag on what you are doing… it’s just being real with people who you are comfortable being real with. You’ll find that you can bounce ideas off of friends and they can do the same. Sometimes you have that ‘ah ha’ moment that will motivate you to try something different that you never thought of yourself.

Journaling: Before you go to bed at night take a pen and paper and write three pages. Three pages of anything, it doesn’t matter. It’s more the routine of just free-form writing to get your juices flowing.

Make a list. Start your list with Exercise, and then the tasks that you need to get done, and by when. Go through the list one by one, only checking them off when they are done. Do your best not to bounce around the list. And most importantly, reward yourself when the tasks are done. Allow yourself to go to that concert, or dinner and drinks, when the tasks are done. I’ve found it easier to accomplish if I’ve got a pay off.

If you have a hard time with this, share it will your partner or friend and have them do the same. It will help keep you accountable.

And last but not least… don’t beat yourself up if you are having a hard time doing it. It’s human nature. I was told years ago that even Tiger Woods had a golf coach. You can do the same, it helps having someone who will hold you accountable. I do life coaching and have been coached myself. It works. Contact me and we can set up a plan for you that works.

Namaste,
David

P.S.
You can also read my blog every month in Sin City Presents Magazine.
https://www.joomag.com/mag/0120469001463355793?page=32

How many of you out there think about things that have gone wrong in the past? Money issues, relationship issues, stuff like that? Did you know that we are the only creatures that don’t focus on what is happening right now? If you yell at your dog for peeing on the carpet, does that dog feel ashamed for what it did? I’m sure it does, for the moment, but then an hour later your dog is wagging its tail and looking at you to throw the damn ball. Babies are the same way… until they are trained to do otherwise.

So what is it about humans that make us this way? Why do we hyper-focus on things we can’t change? If we’ve made a mistake in the past, why do we beat ourselves up all the time? Do we repeat this pattern? If not, then why go into beat up mode? Even if you do repeat the pattern, learn from the mistake and move forward!

Think about War for a moment. Why are wars fought? Are they fought because of something that is happening right now? Not really. Most of the root causes for any war are because of something that happened in the past. The reason the Christians hate the Muslims is not because of anything that is happening right now. It’s all because of a seed that was planted long ago and the longer it goes on, the harder it is to forget. Ireland is also a great example of this. If people didn’t look into the past they wouldn’t have any reason to fight. War isn’t the only example. Like I stated above… we have a war going on inside of ourselves. We beat ourselves up every day for something we can’t do a damn thing about anymore.

I think society has trained us to believe that if we keep feeling guilty about something than nobody else will throw it in our faces. We remember everything. Hey, I grew up in a small town and went from Kindergarten to my Senior year in High School with most of the same people. Want to talk about people that will remind you of all of your past mistakes? I think what it comes down to is fear. So what is fear anyway? The acronym for fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. Meaning… it’s not really there. We just make it show up there. It’s like a reminder that we could mess up if we don’t mind ourselves. Eckhart Tolle wrote a great book called, The Power of NOW. When we concentrate on the NOW we no longer look into our past and see everything that we’ve ‘messed up’. Living in the NOW takes your surroundings right in this moment. Try it right now… focus on just the present. How do you feel right now? I mean, right now, not a couple of minutes ago, or this morning… I mean right this second. I’ll bet you feel just fine. There aren’t any conversations going on in your head reminding you of things in the past, nor of what you have to do for the future.

There is another powerful book that crosses with living in the now… It’s called The Law of Attraction.  Jerry and Esther Hicks started the Law of Attraction movement years ago, then a woman by the name of Rhonda Byrne made it more mainstream when she came out with the movie, The Secret. If you haven’t seen it I encourage you to watch it. It’s Free pretty much anywhere now a days. The Law of Attraction is the name given to the maxim “like attracts like” which in New Thought philosophy is used to sum up the idea that by focusing on positive or negative thoughts a person brings positive or negative experiences into their life. You can also try this out for yourself. It’s actually very practical. I’ve found in my life that whatever I focus on becomes my reality. Make a game out of it. Focus on finding a penny within the next few days. Wake up and say, Today I will find a penny. I guarantee you that if you focus on finding a penny, you will, in fact, find a penny. When that works, up the ante. Keep playing this game with yourself until it is no longer a ‘coincidence’. I personally don’t believe in coincidences. Everything happens for a reason.

If you would like to learn more about either The Power of NOW or the Law of Attraction feel free to reach out to me and we can go into further details on how it can change your life. Book a Reiki session or a coaching session with me. I can help you overcome some of these areas that have been debilitating you for so long. It’s your life. Live it NOW!

Peace,
David

P.S.
You can also read my blog every month in Sin City Presents Magazine.

This morning I woke up, grabbed some coffee and started working on my website and ran across this blog that I had written back in November of 2015. It’s an important time in my life right now where I think that it is worth reposting. And as the Universe works, it slapped me in the face with this and told me to follow my own advice. You see, I needed this reminder this morning because for the last week or two I’ve been stressed out. Stressed out because of the lack of money coming in, instead of looking at what I have right now in my life.

I have a beautiful Fiance who is completely supportive of me, my Reiki Practice is growing and I’m getting new clients every day, I have the Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute going strong and the new Stone Temple Pilots Tribute taking off like wildfire. And if that isn’t enough I’ve got a killer Metal Band with an ever growing fanbase. So, again… I’m being redundant… this was a very important reminder to myself and hopefully it is for you as well.
David

(Reposted from November 2015)

When I started studying the Law of Attraction one of the first things I learned was to look at everything in my life as a blessing. This was back in early 2000’s. I had to totally reconfigure my brain. Seriously. I mean, I’ve always been a positive guy, but there was much more too it. I was externally positive. I was kind to the people around me or anybody that I would meet, but inside I was constantly beating myself up for not doing this, or not doing that. My life sucks, etc. Well guess what? My life did suck. It did because I didn’t believe any different. Once I started changing my internal dialog, that is when my life started changing all around. On the outside I was still the same person. Nobody really saw a major difference in me, but I was much happier and had a much broader outlook on life.

So what did I do?

Like I mentioned… I had to change my internal dialog. I had to take baby steps at first. If it rained outside I wouldn’t say, “Oh no. It’s going to be muggy today.” I’d change it around and say, “Wow! Rain. This is awesome!” Sometimes I felt like I was completely bullshitting myself, but I would still continue being positive for everything that happened. Everything! You’ve got to fake it until you make it. Once you start getting into the routine of ‘faking it’ eventually it will start happening automatically. I would start the first thing in the morning before I got out of bed. My dialog to myself was, “Today is going to be an amazing day. What can I create today?” I found myself jumping out of bed, welcoming the new day and all it had to offer. When you start doing this you will be surprised at how many opportunities you have come to you. Positive, like-minded souls will start popping up everywhere. They were always there but when you have your blinders on you just don’t see them. You can’t be a vibrational match to something if you’re on a different vibration yourself. Think of it like a radio. If the station you want to listen to is 94.3 and you are on 92.8… you just aren’t going to be able to hear it. Seems silly, but this is how it works.

We are all vibrations. And whatever frequency we resonate at, that is what we will attract. Like attracts like. It’s just the way it is whether you believe in all the metaphysical mumbo jumbo or not. It’s still our reality.

Do you find yourself in a certain crowd that you don’t want to be a part of? Want to make them disappear? Change your vibration. One of two things will happen. A:) They won’t want to hang around you anymore or B:) You’ll start noticing patterns similar to who you are that you don’t like. It doesn’t mean that these people are bad. It just means that they are on a different vibration than you and they are living their life the way that they believe it to be. And…. This does not mean that you get to preach to them. I can’t stand people who preach. To me they are people who need to have more people on their side to confirm what they are doing. You don’t need any more validation that your own internal dialog. But this is a whole different topic. I don’t want to stray too far away from the subject.

So what can you do for support?

Like any professional, be it a Major League Baseball player or a Singer… you have a coach. No matter what level you are on you need to have somebody there to challenge you. I don’t recommend your partner, I would find somebody you are not in relationship with. Why? Because a good coach will challenge you. A good coach will piss you off at times because they are getting you to think outside of the box. I remember my first coach. I loathed the idea of talking to this person every day. It was exhausting because at the beginning of the day they would say, “So David. What are you going to create today?” It drove me mad. Not just because they would say that but because they would ask me for specific things that I created the day before. And I had to prove it! I had to be accountable for all of my actions. But that coach never took anything personally because they knew it had nothing to do with them.

I got my chance to coach people and some of those people still stay in touch with me today. It’s a very humbling position to be in. Again, it’s not about you… the Ego stays out of it. You are there to guide another person, to get them to think outside of their box. Some boxes are different sizes.

Remember that everybody is on their own journey and your journey is not theirs.

So… every day I want you to count your blessings. I want you to wake up and count all the positive things in your life. You will be surprised at how many positive things you can add up. If you want help… if you need a coach I can do this or I can get you somebody that you are comfortable with.

Namaste,
David