Mr. Flat Sleeper with No Pillows

That's who I thought I wanted to be... Sleeping on my back with no pillows. How did that turn out?

Transcript

Hey, hope you're having a great day. 

It's amazing to me how many of these become a little bit of a self confession time. 

Are you too hard on yourself? 

I know I am and I think many of us have a similar type personality. 

For instance, I'll tell a little story on myself. 

It's always me I'm throwing under the bus.

I've got this tendency 

to be way too hard on myself.

I'm always experimenting with things to see how they work for my body. 

I'm very healthy. 

I'm 70 years old. 

I'm fit. 

I'm happy with where I'm at. 

I love my life 

but I'm always looking to be better 

because I know there's more things I can improve.

The other day, Peggy was telling me about a podcast she listened to, 

a lady she follows regularly that we both have a lot of faith in. 

And they were talking about how they sleep flat, 

they don't use any pillows at all. 

So after I heard the logic, I said, sure, I'll give that a try. 

And I decided this is who I was going to become.

I was going to become Mr. Flat Sleeper with no pillows. 

So I go to bed that night 

and I am laying there 

and I'm miserable. 

I'll tell you why I'm miserable 

because I had this thing when I was a kid. 

I had a lot of fear 

and I slept on my tummy, 

I think, to protect. 

I talk about sometimes in class how a lot of us walk around with our chest caved in because we're protective.

We're protective of our heart. 

Man, I was afraid of the boogeyman and monsters under the bed and all kinds of fun things like that. 

I'm not going to get into that. 

But I really wanted to be this person who could sleep flat. 

Well, I couldn't. 

And I tossed and turned all night. 

And the next day,

I accept who I am.

But the next day, 

all day long, 

I had this little nagging, 

doggone it, 

you're just not what you should be. 

Here, you're this fitness guy, 

you're this guy who's always preaching to everybody about how to be, 

and you can't do a simple thing like this. 

Didn't wipe out my day, 

but a little less than optimal. 

And I have other issues, 

like I'm cutting back on coffee right now.

I want to test it. 

I want to see if maybe I'm drinking too much caffeine. 

Those of you that know me, 

I'm good for six to ten cups a day. 

Well, on Saturday, I cut that back to three, I believe it was. 

And I quit at like noon 

in the evening I noticed how much better I felt. 

Well,

on Sunday I got up and I ended up having five or six cups of coffee.

And then I also had one after dinner for dessert. 

So I, I did that and man, 

I just really hated

That that's what I had done 

that I hadn't given it at least a week. 

Well, today I'm back. 

But my point is, 

are you that hard on yourself? 

Do you decide you're going to do something 

and then if you don't do it, 

you beat yourself up...

and that's a descending spiral 

that I guarantee you there's no recovery from.

We all have to learn... 

myself included...

to give yourself a little space. 

Yeah, you find something you want to do... 

I still want to cut back on coffee. 

I want to see if I could quit at noon every day 

will I actually feel better

and be able to sleep better? 

But there's no way to do that unless I go a week testing it.

So I'm asking you to do the same for yourself. 

You decide you want to do something, 

do it. 

But if you blow it a couple of times, 

don't beat yourself up. 

Just say, okay, okay, it's, it's harder than I thought. 

And then, 

but I still want to do it. 

So give yourself permission to ease into whatever it is you want to do.

Now, tomorrow I'm going to talk a little bit about 

maybe you need to step back and take a look. 

Do you really want to do that? 

It's an interesting thought and I will be sharing that with you tomorrow. 

So look for tomorrow's podcast. 

But for today, 

let's stop beating ourself up. 

Okay? 

Let's make ourselves better.

I mean, don't stop that, 

but stop beating yourself up. 

Yeah. 

And with that move, well, stay healthy, be happy. 

I do believe finding a purpose and living with passion helps too.

Talk to you tomorrow.