Hello. Thanks for stopping by. If you would like to learn more about personal and organizational change, I recommend subscribe to the RSS feed or bookmark this page and come back often. To dive right into to the best content here, check out the Best Of...

So I’m fighting I have a cold. Which I hate. I’m tired, my throat is sore and my eyeballs feel warm. I’m fairly sure I have a slight fever because it’s 72F in my office and I’m shivering. For my evening snack, I’ll be enjoying an Airborne cocktail.

But there is a positive lesson to be learned here.

Changing My View on Self-Care
Upon doing a little reflection last night, I realized that every time I have a mild illness, I treat myself better than when I’m healthy. For example, in a typical night I might try to: write a blog post, clean the house, get a hard workout in, and prepare meal from scratch all within the space of about four hours.

Clearly that wasn’t going to happen last night. I had to make a choice of fighting reality, or actually taking care of myself. I decided to take a few steps to recover faster. Here’s what I did:

• Walked hard on the treadmill with the goal of getting very warm, not exhausted.
• Ate a simple dinner of vegetables and protein – in my case a veggie burger.
• Took a hot shower, stretched out and went to bed early for about 9 hours of sleep.

What I realized is that I don’t have to wait for a cold or the flu to hit me before I take a night off. Just as I’ve given myself permission to take a weekend retreat occasionally, I need to learn to have a weeknight retreat every couple of weeks.

Ed. Note: This post is part of the Think Different Challenge, which was started by Peter at IWillChangeYourLife. I was delighted to be tagged by Tristan at the Synergy Institute. Be sure to check Tristan’s post for links back to posts written by other “tagees.” If you would like to participate in the Think Different Challenge here’s how.

The Think Different Challenge is all about finding something in your life you currently have negative thoughts or feelings towards (eg work or your mother-in-law), and deciding to look at it differently. It is about realizing that some things are just a part of life, so we may as well try to find the positives in them.

Who Can Participate?
This is an online writing project, so anyone who can publish text and active links on the internet can participate. Having your own website or blog is not a requirement, just write a post with links in your favorite social networking site.

The Rules
1. Write a new blog post in which you “think different”. Follow my suggestions above, or be a bit different and interpret the challenge the way you want .
2. State that the post is a part of the Think Different Challenge and include a link and/ or trackback to this post so that readers know the rules of the challenge. Feel free to use the above banner (inspired, of course, by Seth Godin).
3. Include a link and/ or trackback to the blogger who tagged you.
4. At the end of your post, go ahead and tag some fellow bloggers. Don’t forget to email them to let them know they have been tagged.
5. That’s it! Just sit back and enjoy reading peoples’ responses to the challenge.

Tag, You’re It
In keeping with the spirit of the Challenge, I’ve decided to tag several of my fellow bloggers. I’m currently participating in the Blog Mastermind program and I’m tagging other BMMers who write in similar niches.

Armannd at Project Armannd was the first person in my tag list to complete a post. The Benefits of Health Issues in Life describes how having a serious illness - maybe even a life-threatening one - can seriously motivate a person to focus and achieve more in his or her life.

Michelle Vandepas also had a cold and posted about it at Divine Purpose Unleashed. Her post, 7 Questions to Ask When You’re Sick challenges us to re-evaluate what an illness means and the signals that our body may be sending to us.

• Brooke at Plain Advice
• Brad Isaac at Achieve IT!
• Leigh at All for Women
• Adam at Life Goggles
• Sean at How to Manifest Your Dreams

Related posts:

1. ChangeLinks #3 - Have a Little Fun
2. What is Personal Development?
3. Gratitude: Make a List and Check It Twice
4. Four Steps to a Year End Check-Up
5. Do You Want to Work a Four Hour Workweek?

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.