Taming Monkey Number Five: Solved

It’s time for my monthly monkey review. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please read the introductory post here. To make a long story short, I decided to ditch completely my new years resolutions and replace them with a year long challenge: taming a “monkey” each month. If you don’t know what a “monkey” is, well, basically, it’s an underdeveloped part of myself, something that I promised I will do but never really got to it. Get the whole scoop about “your inner monkeys” here.

iAdd Desktop Version

The fifth monkey, the one assigned to the month that just ended, was the desktop version of iAdd. I promised myself a year ago that I will do this and I went a long way towards it. At this moment, iAdd desktop has an interface, some pieces of functionality and a clear roadmap. I didn’t finish it, though. But, as the title of the post implies, I “solved” it.

As I advance in this challenge, I learn a lot, month by month. And I realized last month that sometimes, in order to tame a monkey, I don’t necessary have to finish it. Sometimes just making peace with it, accepting as it is and doing the best I can, will do the trick. That was the case with iAdd Desktop. I couldn’t finish it, but I’m ok with it. I guess I’ll finish it in a few weeks from now. Either way, it’s in my system. It’s out of the “one day I will do this” realm. And that means it’s not a monkey anymore.

Pretty simple, huh? Well, not so fast. The strange pipeline disorder I noticed last month continued this month. And it got even stronger. Meaning that strange drives seemed to appear in my life out of nowhere and took me on surprising paths. I take that my clogged pipes are starting to clean up. Big time.

And one of the things that I learned the most during this pipe cleaning, was about the promises I make to myself.

What To Promise To Yourself

In short, not much. The more I advance in this year long challenge, I realize that we do have a very complicated relationship with our own promises. And the less complicated we keep this relationship, the better our life gets.

That’s why I decided to step down from some of the ventures I embraced. Like the board of Venture Connect, for instance. Venture Connect is very high class networking event in which investors are meeting potential entrepreneurs. I was one of the first members in this board and massively contributed to the first two editions. It’s a nice place to be, no doubt about it, I get to hang out with successful entrepreneurs, with investors and I also get in touch with many startups. But fact is, I can do this anytime. I can hang out with fellow entrepreneurs whenever I feel like. If this is what I really want. I can also get in touch with promising startups whenever I want to.

To make a long story short, being on board of Venture Connect became a void promise. Something that I did just because it sounded good and looked like a nice pastime. But at some point this pastime hijacked my real focus and I felt sidetracked. And I had to make a choice. Many people from my circle of friends or close business partners were surprised by that move and thought I was upset about something from within Venture Connect. Nope, I wasn’t. It just wasn’t me anymore, it was just a nice image projection. Look fellows, I’m in so many boards. Famous, visible and popular boards. Ain’t me cool, or what?

Now, if at some point I will feel that my contribution to Venture Connect can really make a difference, I will most likely go back. But it simply wasn’t fair to stay there just because that made me look important, nice and famous. Whenever I hit a spot like “being famous”, “looking good” or “do it for the image”, I always put out the line of Rhet Buttler from the end of Gone With The Wind: “Frankly, darling, I don’t give a shit.” And I mean it.

The same goes with relationships. Too many times we project ourselves in some of our relationships and we keep our projections running long after the relationship is not representative anymore for us. But we’re comfortable and we feel somehow nice and validated. Fact is we’re not really validated. We just think we are. But we made this internal promise to stick with it because, years ago maybe, it looked like a good option. Things are changing, life is changing, we are changing. Every once in a while we have to reevaluate our promises and see for which of them we’re still holding true.

Full Thrust Ahead

That being said, I am incredibly happy to witness a real change in my lifestyle. And not only in what I do, but in the way I feel about what I do. What follows is just a short glimpse of the things I did during May. And, most important, of the things I thoroughly enjoyed during May.

Became A Regular Contributor To  Stepcase Lifehack

I think I applied to it a few months ago, Maybe 9 or 10. And, out of nowhere, I get this email that I’ve been accepted. 10 months after, basically. Now, for all of you Law Of Attraction fans, I know that smile. And I know what you’re thinking: “it came to you when you were prepared to receive it.”. As much as I agree with that, I will still add my own interpretation: “it came to me when I could finally see it, and my visual field wasn’t obfuscated by all those jumping monkeys”. Which is pretty much the same thing, rephrased. I know that. Anyway, go have a look at the articles already published: 7 Not So Obvious Ways To Maximize Your Productivity (which instantly got into the popular area at lifehacker) and The Number One Problem Facing A Digital Nomad (No Pun Intended).

Launched The WordPress Framework WPSumo

That’s by far one of the most important things I did so far this year. WPSumo is an incredible piece of work, and I mean this. My blog is based now on WPSumo, and what you see is just a quick customization. I won’t get into details here because that would mean to write more than 10.000 words on this topic alone. Instead, I will send you directly to WPSumo site.. And I will also let you know about something very, very special. It’s a promotion launch, where you can get an incredible deal. (For those of you who are reading this just a little bit later, apologies, the launch promotion was limited in time).

Got On Board Of WeGetThere

This is one of those startups I was talking about in the above paragraph. I love the idea, I knew the people behind, so I decided to get involved. We’re still in the very early stages with it, but I am confident. If you don’t want to go the WeGetThere home page, let me tell you that this is a revolutionary travel crowdfunding service. Got your interest? Good.

Got Two Speaking Gigs

Both in the online industry in Romania. At the first one, in Brasov, I was mentor for the teams involved in a local seed funding contest, and at the second one, in Sibiu, I was talking about how you can use technology to accelerate your business. It was in fact a speech about how to build reputation.

I guess I have to mention this here too, I also got a one day long gig for a teambuilding in Sinaia. I don’t sell these services directly (speaking, custom workshops) but I think I will start doing this. The last teambuilding in Sinaia was a very controlled and measurable experience. I’m talking about me and my skills, not about the attendees, which, by the way, seemed to had a lot of fun. So, prepare to see a “Work With Me” link on the navigation menu on this blog soon.

June Monkey

Now, that the May monkey is behind, it’s time to pick the June monkey. As a matter of fact, I already picked it (we’re on the 4th of June today, aren’t we?). It’s about running. I’m not competing for a marathon or something. I just want to incorporate more running into my life.

At various times in my life, running was a central piece of my daily activity. Even when I was a teenager, I remember I used to run miles and miles each day around the nearby lake in my home town. Didn’t followed any performance metrics or been driven by some ambition to win a competition. But running gave me a daily pace for my ideas, for my activities. It was like putting in order my stuff. I kinda miss this, to be honest.

I always had this longing for more running. Last time when I did this in an organized way, for many months, was when I was a student. I guess that’s 15 years ago. There were a few other unfinished projects related to running, during this time, but, as you may’ve already guessed, none of them really did it.

So, in order to have a little bit of a measurable goal, I intend to run for at least 15 days out of the 30 in June.

Already ran in one, 14 more to go.

Being A Digital Nomad. The Workshop

When people ask me “how can you do all that stuff that you do, like writing on your blog, writing iPhone apps, traveling and so on? When do you have time for this?” I usually answer “How can you NOT do EVERYTHING you want to do in this life?” And, depending on the other person type, this answer usually ignites a new sparkling and fulfilling conversation, or pretty much ends the relationship.

One of the things that are allowing me to “do” a lot of stuff is that I don’t have a fixed job. I didn’t say I don’t provide value I said I didn’t have a fixed job. That’s a very big, and important, difference. With all due respect to people who do have fixed jobs nowadays (especially since it’s so hard to find one) I find this type of creating value a little bit obsolete. I know, there are many areas in our social life that are depending on this model. I don’t think our current society can function without the “job” concept, anyway.

But I also think that if the society would rely only on this type of value creation, progress would be really difficult, if not impossible at all. Breaking up with the norm, testing new boundaries, experimenting new lifestyles, that’s what creates progress. And living a life off the grid, as I tried (and pretty much succeeded) to live in the last 3 years is very different from having a job. In the process, the status-quo is challenged, of course, but that’s life.

Before getting to the real topic of the article, let me tell you that I did have jobs before. I’m not one of those unemployed guys who are taking pride in dodging the system and just surviving without being “enrolled”. I find this quite stupid, to be honest. Not to mention the fact that I really want to enjoy many material aspects of this life, which usually requires significant amounts of money.

As I told you, I know what it takes to have a job, because I was managing my own company for 10 years, until I sold it. And managing your own company is one of the toughest jobs out there, believe me. I was making hundreds of thousands of dollars per year and I know how a million in the bank looks like. But at the same time, I was deeply frustrated and I was living a very sad and limited life.

Introducing Digital Nomading

So, after selling my company, almost 3 years ago now, I decided I won’t go back to that lifestyle anymore. I will do something different. Something that will involve creativity, freedom and flexibility. I didn’t know from the beginning that this will be called “digital nomading”. All I knew was that I want to build a blog and a business on top of it.

The rest was just work, but not the way I used to do it. I like to think that it was intelligent work. Anyway, almost 3 years after selling my company I know split my life between Romania and New Zealand, spend around 80-90 days per year abroad and don’t have any rigid schedule or fixed office. And yet, I manage to live a very relaxed and fulfilling life.

So, because everything must have a name, I named this lifestyle “being a digital nomad”. My first article on this topic was written a few months ago and it sill gets a few social media mentions each week. Which means it’s moderately popular. But it seems that not only the article was popular, it seems that this type of lifestyle is becoming increasingly interesting for other people too. By the way, I’m pretty sure “nomading” is not really a word, but I’m sure you know what I mean.

So, two months ago, a guy from my social network asked for a meeting with me. He was interested in opening an IT company in New Zealand. We met, spent a couple of hours talking about the matter and split up as friends. A few weeks ago, after a presentation I held on an Ignite event in Bucharest, one of the guys in the audience, who also happens to be seasoned business man, asked me the same.

Why not putting together a small workshop about what it takes to be a “digital nomad”, I asked him. And he agreed. In just a few days the workshop was ready. I had an incredible audience, around 30 persons. To my surprise, I didn’t know almost anyone of them. Which means the topic is really hot, it’s not just my imagination.

After the workshop, a few people came to me and asked to do a sequel. After a short conversation with the owner of the place, I agreed to do three more workshops, based on the same material. I will be back in a few days with more info about this.

Until then, feel free to download the 4 keynotes which made the last workshop. I know that some of the slides won’t mean much without the words, but maybe that would be an incentive to come to the next ones.

So, without further ado, here’s the archive: Being A Digital Nomad Workshop (458).

Enjoy!

How Goal Setting Works (For Me)

Goals are just milestones. Places where you stop for a while and enjoy the scenery. The trip is what gives you the ultimate thrill, and it will always be like this.

But, as interesting as the trip may be, goals have their own importance. They can either add more awesomeness to the mix or make the whole experience dull and boring. It’s one thing to stop on the side of the road, eating some dust watching how others are passing you by, but it’s a completely different thing to stop at a 5 star hotel, relax, and get your strength together for the next part of the trip. As I said, both are just milestones within a bigger trip, but their quality is different.

Let me share a personal story with you about some goals I set a few years ago. Although these are material goals, closely linked to money, I’m using these examples because they can be easily measured. The same approach works in many other areas, like personal evolution, lifestyle, or relationships.

The Early Years

A few years ago I was spending the majority of my time trying to build an online publishing company. I had a considerable degree of success, some would say, but it involved a considerable degree of personal involvement and time spent making things happening.

At that time, I could barely afford my own car. I was driving a very old Dacia model (a local brand, based on a Renault chassis). It was a wreck. I remember that at times the engine would heat up to the point where it would let out waves of white steam from the hood. Often I had to pull over and replace the water from the expansion recipient. Before going to a meeting, I would always making sure I was carrying around at least 4 liters of water on the back seat. It wasn’t unusual to stop 2-3 times a day to watch the white steam and to replace the water.

So, eventually I decided that it was time to get a new car. A beautiful one. Of course, I couldn’t afford it. I was barely affording the maintenance expenses for my wreck. But I wanted a new, beautiful, and shiny car really bad. So, after browsing a little on the internet I decided I want a Volvo XC90. It was 6 years ago and the model hadn’t even been launched yet, but since one of my niche websites was the biggest car portal in Romania, I was wired to everything that was new in the car industry. I already had a few wallpapers for the upcoming Volvo XC90. Beautiful, shiny pictures.

I set up my computer wallpaper to the most beautiful picture in the whole album. Each morning, it was the first image I saw when I opened my computer. Each evening, before shutting down my laptop, I saw the same image. I had made a very strong commitment. I think I had that wallpaper for more than one year. One day, I decided it would be no more than 3 years until I would have that car.

Time passed and in the process I changed my wallpaper. I also changed my car, but not to a Volvo XC90. I started gradually with a Skoda, then an Opel. At some point, after 3 years of countless hours spent in the office with clients, partners and employees, I realized that I could finally afford a much better car than my Opel Astra.

So I bought an Infiniti FX 35, a huge, powerful and luxurious car, more expensive than a Volvo XC90. That Volvo disappeared from my goal horizon, but the associated lifestyle didn’t. In fact, the goal of having a big, shiny and powerful car (which could act more like a statement of what I was doing at that time), become even stronger.

The whole process took about 6 years. From the moment I set up a certain goal, to the moment that goal became reality, there were around 2100 days. How did I feel the day I drove my new Infiniti home? Exactly the same. I wasn’t different. The car was, but I wasn’t. However, the car was a very clear sign that my intention to change my mindset towards a much more abundant one was working really well. The trip was unfolding in the right direction and this milestone was a very rewarding one.

The Current Situation

Now, this may be an interesting story, but it happened 6 years ago. How about now? What is an easy to measure goal that I have right now, and what exactly am I’m doing to make it happen?

If you read my last post, you already know, but I’ll say it again anyway: I want a jet. A Learjet, to be more precise. I know, I know, it sounds crazy. It may even be crazy. But that won’t stop me from wanting it.

Can I afford a jet right now? You’re kidding me, right? Of course I can’t! Compared to my “car goal” situation, I don’t even have a wreck to call my “first jet”. I have nothing in this area and the financial difference between how I’m doing right now and how I would need to do in order to afford a 17.9 million dollar jet is enormous.

But I’m reading about it. I started to look around for flying courses. I’m enjoying its pictures. I don’t have a wallpaper with it, but one of the tabs of my browser is always opened with that image. I’m “soaking” myself with a jet the same way I soaked with the image of a Volvo XC90.

I want it in 5 years from now. And I’m working towards it.

The Three Stages Of Goal Setting

Those of you familiar with my ebook already know that I’m using a life management framework called “Assess – Decide – Do”. Of course, 6 years ago I didn’t know that I was using that framework in particular. At least, not consciously. But, on a very deep and hard to grasp level, I have always done stuff following this pattern. Now, how can this be related to goal setting?

First Stage: Assess

This is the stage in which you’re pondering how your goal should fit into your life. It’s the stage in which you are wondering, day dreaming, brainstorming, and drifting away in dreams about your goal. This is the part where you are making room to fit your goal into your current lifestyle.

That’s the stage from which I am slowly getting out of now, with my jet goal. I impregnated its image into my daily activity. I made it familiar. I found ways to integrate it into my lifestyle.

6 years ago, wanting a better car had a close relationship with my lifestyle. I had the biggest car portal in Romania, and having a state of the art car was somehow part of my image as an owner.

Right now, I want a location independent lifestyle. Having a jet to support it looks like a good fit.

Second Stage: Decide

This is the stage in which you are signing the contract with your goal. And you do this by placing it into a space/time continuum.

Speaking of my car goal, the decide stage was when I clearly stated that I want the car in a time frame of 3 years, here, in Bucharest.

And speaking of the jet goal, this is the stage where I am right now. I have a clear time/space context in which I can see this goal happening. In this case: I’ll have it in 5 years from now, when I’ll be fully location independent.

Third Stage: Do

This is the most confusing stage for people, because they think they should focus on the goal. There’s a very subtle difference here. And I guess this is the most important difference in my goal setting approach versus other techniques. I’m not advocating a “fixed eye” on the goal. On the contrary. If you start moving towards your goal, you start making it happen, and you don’t have to focus entirely on it. Instead, you should focus on the chosen lifestyle.

That’s a fundamental difference and here’s why.

Focusing on the goal will be like focusing on the hotel. Instead, your focus should be on the trip itself. A goal is just a milestone. The trip is the great thing, not the goal. If you focus on the hotel, you’ll get stuck on the hotel. You may get a nice room, but your trip will be over.

So, in my “goal car” example, once I assessed it (having its wallpaper on my computer for a year) and once I placed it in a time/space context (3 years) the things I did where not directly even really related to this goal. I just continued to work on my business. I constantly improved my lifestyle. I grew up. I just went on with my trip and enjoyed myself.

And, at some point, the goal was already there, on the side of the road, waiting for me to enjoy it.

The Quantum Element

One more thing: you may have noticed that there was a little bit of a difference between what I wanted as a car, and what I got. I wanted a Volvo XC90 and I got an Infiniti FX 35. In this case, I outgoaled myself. I did better than I thought I was able to.

Most of the time this is the case. I set up a certain goal, start working towards it, and then I wake up one day realizing that I have much more than I initially wanted.

I call this the “quantum element”. If you do your job properly, if you stay on the trip, the milestones will be much more rewarding than you can imagine. It’s like reality is suddenly activating some invisible triggers telling you “ok, I know you wanted this, but I’m going to give you that instead, because, well, it’s much more fun”.

But be aware that sometimes this “quantum element” may be working “against” you. You may get a lower vibration. For instance, I am fully aware that I may not get a jet, but only a regular, 4 seater plane. That may happen.

We may not get exactly what we want. Sometimes we get more, sometimes we get less. I think it’s part of a bigger process, which is tightly connected with acceptance and observation. This “quantum element” adds a certain degree of randomness to our trip. Maybe for preventing us from get too wired up in our own little wishes. If we would always get what we want, life would be pretty boring and predictable, isn’t it?

But that’s another story.

Well, 5 years is a lot of time. Since I’m finished with the Assess and Decide part of my jet goal, I’ll just continue to do my work here, on this blog.

And that’s how goal settings works. At least for me.

Why Becoming An Early Riser Will Change Your Life

When I was a soldier I didn’t sleep for 5 nights and 6 days in a row. That was one of the most traumatic and, at the same time, transforming experiences I ever had. I’m not going to talk about the specific context of this event, you can go read a small recap of what happened in this article. Today, I’m going to talk about sleep, and how sleep is influencing our lives.

I remember that during those nights without sleep, my consciousness started to shift away at certain intervals, without my control. I don’t think that those were hallucinations, but somehow, I started to see things that doesn’t really existed. Those episodes may have been triggered by the extreme pressure too, but I think the loss of sleep had also a considerable impact.

After those 5 nights, I slept only one night and felt back in shape immediately. All the turmoil that generated that situation ended in a few weeks, and I thought I was back to normal for good. But I wasn’t. Somehow, my sleeping routine has been irreversibly modified. I started to have 24-48 hours periods without sleep at almost no energy cost. Didn’t feel any fatigue whatsoever, the only downside of those episodes being that my body started to heat more than usual. I was literally warmer after those 24-48 hours without sleep.

Sleep Patterns And Travel

20 years later, I started to travel a lot. Introducing jetlag, if you know what I mean. I visited 4 continents and started to do business on 2. During those trips, my sleep patterns were completely messed up. Let me tell you why and how.

During my first trip to New Zealand, I arrived in Auckland at 10 AM, after 25 hours spent in 3 airplanes. The total trip time was around 30 hours. Knowing that I am pretty good at those 24-48 hours without sleep, I didn’t pay any specific attention to my body signals, just went on without worrying too much.

After 2 hours of visiting Auckland (I was with some friends) I felt an incredible powerful sensation of cold. There were 25 Celsius degrees outside, so it must have been something from the inside. Almost already asleep I asked my friend to take me somewhere where I can take a nap. After 3-4 hours of sleep, I felt energized and warm again.

I don’t know the explanation for the warmness I experienced after the 24-48 hours sleepless episodes, not for the sudden cold I experienced during my first jetlag incident. All I know is that sleep plays in incredible role in our lives, and we should not take it for granted.

For A Sleep Discipline

So, 20 years after my first major sleep disruption experience and 1 year after my first serious jetlag experience, I finally came up with some conclusions regarding sleep and its importance in our life.

First of all, sleep is not something that just happens. It’s a very important part of our life. Just because we’re not conscious during sleep it doesn’t mean we cannot control its quality and effectiveness.

Second, sleep is responsible with a lot of stuff that happens within our bodies, and every deviation from the normal course can have totally unpredictable effects. See the warmness and coldness I experienced without any specific reasons.

And third. sleep is a powerful and effective tool for enhancing our conscious life. Whenever your sleep patterns are neat, your energy levels are high. So, not only we can control sleep in itself, but by controlling sleep, we can control the awake part as well.

And this is how I came up with what I call a sleep discipline. A way to control sleep and enhance my daily routines. I did many sleep experiences during my life, most of them not yet described on my blog. For instance, when I was a student, I completely reversed my life cycle for 3 weeks, sleeping during the day and writing during the night so I can finish a novel I was writing at that time.

But from all these experiments, all this pushing and learning, only one thing came up really strong. Waking up early seemed to be the most effective sleep routine of all.

Benefits Of Waking Up Early

Why? Let me give you some of the benefits of this.

1. Social Advantage

We’re social animals and a lot of our life is unfolding in groups. These groups have routines and rules. For instance, work starts at 9 AM, this is a widely accepted social routine (I know some work doesn’t start at 9 AM but for the vast majority of the population, this is the case). So, waking up early will give you an enormous advantage in front of your colleagues. You will have a few hours for yourself just before the whole group will start to move.

2. Diurnal / Nocturnal Pattern

If you’re waking up early, when there’s still dark outside, something subtle will happen. You will always witness the nocturnal / diurnal melting. I’m not talking only about witnessing the sunrise, which is in itself a very powerful experience, but about witnessing this transformation of darkness into light. Even if you don’t realize it consciously, being a constant witness of this transformation will give you much more confidence.

3. Broaden Day Vision

Every time you wake up early, you put some distance between your “normal” day and yourself. It’s like taking two steps back and observing what’s to unfold before you before the actual unfolding process starts. This gives what I call a broaden day vision. Which in time will become just a broaden vision of stuff, period. If you wake up just before your day starts, you’ll feel a little bit trapped, if not more. It’s like you don’t “have” time.

4. Implementing New Habits

The first part of the day is the most suitable for implementing new habits. During that part of the day you’re much more aware and available, because your normal routine didn’t kick in. Yet. So, if you can “enlarge” this period, by waking up earlier than what what’s usually the norm, you will give yourself more time for new stuff. The effect will be, in time, overwhelming. Those tiny habits implemented during those solitary mornings will pay off big time.

5. More Choices

I don’t know about you, but I really like to have more choices in life. Doesn’t matter the exact situation, I just don’t like to be put in front of a situation with only one answer. I want to have many choices. Waking up just before your work day will start will drastically limit your choices. The only reasonable choice would be to shower, eat and go to work. Well, waking up early will give you so many new possibilities to start your day.

***

Now, these are only the visible part of the iceberg, things that you can see and experience in the moment. But the most important, long lasting and powerful effect of waking up early is that you will grow an eye for the opportunities. You will learn how to wake up on something just before anybody else does. Being it a career opportunity, a new relationship opportunity or just something that nobody sees yet. You will be trained to spot that subtle movement which will lead to something extraordinary. Yes, you will.

How To Become An Advanced Early Riser

I’m going to finish this article in a slightly different way than I usually do. I won’t draw any conclusion and I won’t try to find an inspiring and motivating punch line. Nope. This time I will be very practical. Since you’ve been already convinced of all the benefits of becoming an early riser, it’s time for you to start doing it. Like right now.

I’m not going to teach you how to do it. Not this time. Because there is somebody else who will do a much better job at this than I could ever do. His name is Steven Aitchison and he’s one of my close blogging friends. He’s going to teach you how to do it because he just launched the best guide for waking up early I ever seen.

No, this is not a joke and I’m not pushing it. I call this type of situations “synchronicities”. He just launched the best guide for becoming an early riser available now. Being a close friend of Steven I had a chance to look at the product for a few days before the official launch. I even had the courage to make a few suggestions and Steven has been kindly enough to implement them. Go figure…

Now, I said we should get practical? Yeap, let’s do it! What you’ll find in this guide anyway? You’ll find 18 practical modules for implementing an advanced early rising routine (or AER, this is how Steven is calling it) and a few extra goodies. One of them is called “Ditch The Alarm Clock and Wake Up Naturally” which is in itself a step by step guide on how to tune in your body to a new sleeping routing, without an alarm clock.

It’s not an ebook and it’s not a course. It’s both of them in one package and more. It’s a guide and a guide means a much more close and attentive approach. It’s solid material. Steven has also packed a few guided meditation in this package, just to make me envious, I think. Did I said, this is one of the best guides? Oh, yes, I said it.

Now, for the good part: this whole package is only 25$. Like in twenty five dollars, not a cent more. Now here comes the one hundred points question: how much are you really ready to spend in order to win 3 hours of life everyday? I know this is an important question and you don’t have to answer to me right now. Instead, go visit Steve guide here: How To Become An Advanced Early Riser and thank me later.

For your information, this is an affiliate link, which means I am getting a commission for each sale. And I am happy to get one, to be honest, because… oh, darn, I think I’m going to say that for the fourth time in one paragraph: because this is the best guide for waking up early I ever seen. Now, I said it.

Pre-order Now Natural Productivity – 48 Hours Until Official Launch

Today I’m extremely happy to announce that my latest ebook, called “Assess – Decide – Do: Natural productivity” will be available on this very blog starting Friday, September 17, from 7 AM.. Which is exactly in 48 hours. This is one of my oldest projects and it’s the kind of stuff that grows organically, without too much noise, but with the unmissable feeling of a strong, solid foundation.

Now I have a confession to make. I suck at sales pages. I just do. You know the type of sales pages I’m talking about, a long sausage filled up with cheap incentives and literally breathing the underlying assumption that you, the one who’s supposed to buy that product, are an absolute idiot, responding like a Pavlovian dog to all kind of “verified” buying techniques. I just can’t write those types of sales pages.

What I can do though, is to give you all the information you need, so you can make your own decision. Here are some things you will learn from this ebook.

• What is a life management framework.
• What’s the difference between traditional productivity and natural productivity.
• How to transform a deadline into a liveline.
• How to incorporate procrastination on your own working routine, rather than fight it.
• How to identify the root of your life imbalances, using the 3 stages Assess, Decide and Do.
• How to eliminate the guilt of “not doing enough” while still doing more than you think you can do.
• How to create your own life management framework, based on what you will read. Because you are unique and you need an unique way of managing your life.

In the last part of the ebook, after you have incorporated the base concepts, you will have something to work with, literally in your hands, and that is a tutorial for my iPhone / iPad app inspired by Assess – Decide – Do, iAdd [iTunes link]. iAdd is a 100% compatible implementation of the framework (you will learn in the ebook how can you subclass the main framework and add your own techniques to it) and it was built applying the very concepts described in the ebook, in only 30 days, without any prior knowledge of Objective C.

The ebook contains more than 160 pages written and reviewed during the last year. Its main structure is also split into 3, going from top to the bottom, from abstract to concrete, from concept to implementation. It’s by far the most comprehensive and complete product I’ve built since I start blogging, 2 years ago. And I mean it.

As for the price, I hesitated a lot until I decided to set it at 27 USD. Ebooks in this range are usually selling at 47 USD and up, but I decided to lower the entry point. I do believe the concepts in this ebook are useful, I really do. And so I want to make it available to as many people as possible. Talking about the price, I do have something special for you.

The Special Offer

I’m not going to write a long sausage of cheap selling crap, but I do have a special offer for you. Yes, for you, the long time reader of this blog, the one who stayed behind the lines, never commenting, but always consuming the content, and sometimes sending me a short email like “thanks, Dragos, that helped”. I know you’re out there and this one is for you. You helped me get through this and I want to let you know that I’m listening and I want to give something back.

Until Friday, September 17th, 7 AM, Bucharest time, you can get the ebook at 20 USD, instead of the normal price of 27 USD. That’s 25% off. That’s the least I can do. So, just click on the link below and write down the following code in the shopping cart:

buy now with PayPal

promo code: WakeUpEarly

No spaces, no commas, just three words into one. Your package will be discounted. Please be aware that this discount will expire on Friday, at 7 AM Bucharest time. After that, the promo code won’t work anymore and you could only get the ebook at its normal price.

Wait, There’s More

For the first 30 buyers, I have prepared a promo code for the iAdd app, which will let you have it, basically, for free. A promo code in the AppStore is just like a 100% discount code: you get the app at no cost. So, you will have the full package: the ebook (at a discounted price) and the app to actually implement the entire workflow.

I would have very much loved to give you more promo codes, but there’s a limit of 50 made by apple, and the first 20 went off like crazy (in fact, I had to turn down a few requests, specifically to keep this batch for you). So, if you bought the ebook, come back here and leave a comment. Use the email address you used to buy the book so I can check out the sale. I will send you at the same email address the promo code. Please be aware that those promo codes are available for the US iTunes store only (that’s a limitation imposed by Apple).

Again, please understand that I cannot give more than 30 codes, but if you move rather quickly, you can make it to the first 30. Oh, here’s how quick can you move, you don’t even need to scroll up, just click here (I copied the link for your convenience )

buy now with PayPal

That’s it. The clock it ticking.

5 Tips For Incorporating Exercise Into Your Life

This is a guest post by Greg Blencoe, @gregblencoe

In his recent post “How To Invest In Yourself (And Why)”, Dragos discussed the importance of exercising regularly.  I couldn’t agree more.

I have been exercising in some form or another since I was five or six years old.  I played on countless sports teams growing up.  With the exception of a few breaks when I was only running, I have been weightlifting consistently since I was 15 years old.  And I ran the Chicago marathon back in 2002.

Exercise has made an extremely positive impact on my life.  I think a lot of my self-esteem and self-confidence is due to exercising.  Furthermore, when I exercise, I am much more relaxed and can think much more clearly throughout the day.  And I have met so many wonderful, uplifting people while doing activities involving exercising.

Here are five tips for incorporating exercise into your life:

1.  Find an activity involving exercising that you enjoy

The first step in making exercise a part of your life is to find an activity involving exercising that you enjoy.  This is extremely important.  If you don’t enjoy the activity, you are much more likely to stop doing it.  Fortunately, there are all kinds of different activities that involve exercise.

For example, you might enjoy yoga, tennis, swimming, aerobics, running, playing soccer, weightlifting, walking at your local mall, cycling, or hiking.  There are obviously many other possibilities.  The point is to find one or more that you enjoy, so you have fun while exercising.  This will make it a lot easier to exercise on a consistent basis.

2.  Exercise multiple times per week for 30-60 minutes each time

While there are some people (e.g. professional or Olympic athletes) that might exercise up to 4-5 hours or more every day with relatively few days off, you can achieve very significant benefits from exercising in much less time.  For the average person, I think exercising 2-4 times per week for 30-60 minutes each time is about right.  Of course, you should always consult with your doctor before starting any exercise routine.  And depending on your current level of fitness, you may need to start slowly and work your way up to this level.

3.  Exercise consistently

I believe that the key to exercise is consistency.

I have seen friends of mine get very motivated about exercising for brief periods of time due to certain things happening in their lives.  For example, a girlfriend breaking up with you or an upcoming high school reunion can definitely make a guy want to get fit!  I have seen these people go from not exercising at all to working out very hard for a few months (e.g. exercising 1-2 hours per day for 5 days per week) and achieve amazing results during that time.  However, every time, the person eventually burned out and found a reason to stop exercising.

I think a much better approach is to exercise consistently over a long period of time (preferably the rest of your life!).  In very general terms, I would define consistently as exercising 2-4 times per week for 30-60 minutes each time during at least 75% of the weeks during the year.  This would allow you to take up to about one week off per month.

4.  Find ways to enjoy exercising even more

In order to become even more motivated to exercise, I highly recommend looking for ways to make your activities involving exercise even more enjoyable.  Here are several ways you can do this.

One of the most common ways is to listen to music.  You will not only enjoy listening to your favorite songs, but you will likely be energized which should make you work out harder.  Furthermore, if walking is your primary activity involving exercise, you might also enjoy listening to audio books or podcasts during this time.

Another way to enjoy exercise even more is to mix up your routine.  For example, a person who swims a few times per week might choose to play basketball instead from time to time to break up the routine.  One way I do this is to work out at different gyms.  My gym membership gives me access to all of the different locations.  While I usually go to the location that is closest to me, I will often go to one of two other locations that are also relatively close.  This allows me to see some of my friends that usually work out at those gyms.

Moreover, while I run inside when it is cold or raining, I run outside a lot when it is sunny and warm.  There is a park right by the lake close to where I live that has a 4.5 mile (approximately 7.25 kilometers) loop where people can walk or run.  I run there a lot from April to October when the weather is nice.

5.  Live an overall healthy lifestyle

While exercising in itself is very important, it is really just one part of living an overall healthy lifestyle.  Here are several suggestions for healthy living which will improve the results that you get from exercising.

The first is to watch what you eat.  Let me say upfront that I believe that eating should be an enjoyable part of life.  I don’t think that watching what you eat should mean completely taking away this enjoyment by eating very little, not eating any food you enjoy, etc.  However, moderation is very important.  For example, perhaps one piece of chocolate will do instead of two or three.  And maybe eating a certain type of fruit would be just as enjoyable as an unhealthy snack.  These small choices involving eating that are made every day make a really big difference over time.

Another suggestion is to drink mostly water.  When I started doing this a few years ago, I lost 5-10 pounds in about a month.  And I was very fit at the time.  But it helped me to become even more toned.  For the first week or two, the lack of taste with the water was an issue.  However, I quickly got used to it.  Now I don’t have much desire to drink anything else.  And drinking water makes me feel extremely healthy.

Finally, I highly recommend doing your best to surround yourself with supportive, positive people.  These types of people will make your life so much better by giving you encouragement and celebrating your successes.

Final thought

If you are not currently exercising, I hope you will consider making it a part of your life.  I view exercise as one of the best ways to become Brilliantly Better.

Author Bio: Greg Blencoe is the author of the personal development blog Positive Waves Baby.

Start Your Day in 33 Different Ways

Mornings are underrated. I consider them fundamental for the whole diurnal experience. What you do in the very first moments of your morning will fundamentally and inexorably shape your entire day. Most of the time you spend your mornings by routinely performing some habits, on auto pilot. Hence, your days will routinely unfold towards you, the same way day after day, on auto pilot.

Consciously inserting your intentions in these very first moments will have a huge effect. Taking charge of those moments it’s like activating some subtle, unconscious triggers which will ultimately determine your whole daily experience, exactly the way you want. Mornings are fundamental. This is why I experimented a lot with my very first moments of the day.

Here are at least 33 ways in which you can transform your days by only spending 5 minutes every morning.

1. Write In Your Journal

I love the morning stillness and the unspoken promise of something ready to start. Mornings are fantastic for journaling. Whenever I do it, I feel like I already consumed several hours from that day and yet I’m only at the very beginning of it. Journaling acts like a mind emptier and out of nowhere I feel energized and ready to go. Not to mention that in the morning I have less inhibitors and my journaling is far more authentic.

2. Enjoy The Morning Silence

And do nothing. Just feel the silence and let it spread over your mind and body. I’m fascinated by all the little noises that are born from that morning silence: from my familiar house noises (wife and daughter waking up, steps, windows, doors) up to the neighborhood noises (car engines, low voices, small buzz). Everything starts in that silence and sometimes I think that if I focus enough on it I could actually predict, or even create all those little noises.

3. Be Grateful For Something 5 Minutes

Point your mind to something you’re really grateful for and stay there. Might be your family, your wealth, your health or just your present moment. Feel grateful for it. There’s nobody between you and that thing, there’s nobody watching or listening. You’re free to feel grateful and happy. And then start your day as usual. It’s only 5 minutes, yet the impact of such a day starter is overwhelming: whenever I’m doing it I feel like walking 2 centimeters above the road for the entire day.

4. Open Windows

Regardless of the current season. If it’s cold outside, even better. Open your bedroom windows, your living room windows, your kitchen windows. Let the fresh air inside, welcome the small buzz of the city waking up, silently watch the last forces of the night walking away. Let yourself be refreshed. The yesterday you is no longer there and the today you is slowly getting in shape. Those open windows will unconsciously allow you to receive change and novelty with much more ease during the day.

5. Throw Away A Useless Object

You’re going to spot it pretty easily if you put your mind to it. It often happens to me to stumble upon unneeded stuff in my house during the early morning. If it’s a chair staying in my way, maybe its place is not in my house. Maybe it’s a piece of paper or a wrecked device. I find joy and a subtle enthusiasm in throwing away things that are only cluttering my space, and doing it first thing in the morning makes it even more powerful.

6. Help Somebody

Write an answer to an old question, do part of a small chore, move an object out of somebody’s way. No need to be huge or visible. Just keep in mind the intention of being helpful immediately to somebody else. During the morning your mind is far more clear and you have access to more energy than usual. Hence, your helping activities will be much more effective if you decide to do them as the first thing after you wake up.

7. Meditate For 5 Minutes

Empty  your mind and isolate from your environment. Focus on your breathe. If there are thoughts coming in your way, acknowledge their presence and then kindly ask them to go away. Meditating in the morning is easier, there are fewer perturbing factors. Even after a good sleep, your mind is still trying to find answers, to solve problems, to fight or resist. Do yourself a simple, yet solid service and pack your morning time with an extra meditation on top.

8. Think How To Help Somebody During The Day

This is different from number 6 in terms of the actual time of the helping act. Now you’re planing how to help somebody during the day, you’re visualizing the context and try to find a specific time in your schedule for this helping act. Again, doesn’t have to be huge, a piece of advice, facilitating something or a small gift. The mere act of planing how to help somebody will change the course of your entire day.

9. Exercise

Like in getting physical. I’m not doing this every single day, but I’m doing it often enough. A part from your brain there’s a body, too. A collection of joints, muscles and bones. And in order to be balanced you have to take care of those too. The good news is that your body has a feedback mechanism for the good things you do to it: it’s called “endorphins”. Every time you start your day with a decent workout, you’ll be blessed with a decent rush of endorphins. Usually, it lasts until evening.

10. Spend 5 Minutes In The Garden

Alternatively, spend some times near your flowers. Or your terrace. Just be outside in the first minutes of the day, trying to breathe the fresh air and feel the vibe of the green life. Clear you mind and open your senses. Let your awaken body to synchronize with this frequency and don’t start the day until you completely immersed in this flow for at least 5 minutes. I seldom run into a fight or even got closer to some aggressive scene when I start my day like this.

11. Forgive Somebody

Let go. Forgive and forget. Morning are very good for that because you have so little inference from the outside world, only your own mind and personal history. Does it really matter that much? Feeling that grudge and anger towards somebody who hurt you? Yes, he hurt you, but it really matter that much? Forgiving somebody as the first thing in the morning makes me want to conquer the world the very next minutes. And it works really well with forgiving yourself too.

12. Think For 5 Minutes At Someone You Love

Again, that person may be your family, someone you loved at some point in your life or someone who just appeared. Keep that person in mind, imagine having a conversation or doing something together. Create an internal representation of a desired bond. Not only it will actually attract that person towards you (somehow) during the day, but what you think in those moments will add up to the relationship in a very mysterious way. It’s like what you think it’s already happening.

13. Read A Poem

Poetry, or any form of art, talks to your irrational mind. Usually, your morning is cluttered with rational thoughts and activities: get up and ready for the job, prepare the kids, get the morning tasks solved. Talking to your irrational mind will break this circuit, but it will do it creatively. For instance, my favorite morning poem is “If”, by Rudyard Kipling. Every time I read it, even if the day is packed with difficult tasks, somehow, I find the energy and right attitude to get over them. Totally irrational.

14. Make Coffee or Tea For Your Partner

I like this whole beverage ritual in the morning, I think it has something to do with deeply buried recollections of religious rituals we humans, as a species, performed during the history. There’s something sacramental about preparing the water, making fire, putting the right amount of tea or coffee. It’s like asking gods for benevolence. Only this time is not about gods, it’s about your partner. Paving your road through today with your partner blessing.

15. Write A Thank You Letter

You don’t have to send it, just write it. When I first experienced this I had a little bit of a shock. I realized I don’t know how to do it. And for whom. That was a sad shock. Not having somebody to say “thank you” in your life can bring in quite a sorrow. So, be sure to start at least one of your mornings with a “thank you” letter. Bring to the light people or events you are thankful for. If you say “thank you” to something first thing in the morning, you’re inviting those specific type of events into your life.

16. Take A Day Off From Your Job

And use the rest of the day for yourself. Even if you’re self employed, or especially if you’re self employed, take a day off. And start it clean, from the early morning. Those free days are somehow bigger when I decide to have them unexpectedly. If I start my morning with the clear decision to take the day off, something very strange will happen: my businesses will run smoother without me. My blog traffic will spike. It’s like too much work means getting in the way of your own success.

17. Do Some Crafting For 5 Minutes

If you’re a man, fix something, replace a light bulb or use your screwdriver to harden some piece of furniture. If you’re a woman, modify some clothes. (Later update: You can do it the other way around, if you really think this is a sexist approach – read the related comments below. And please, get over it it’s just a simple example, I never thought, nor do I will, that because you’re a woman or a man you should do ONLY a certain type of things. Are we cool now?) Just do something with your hands, without any preparation, in the morning silence. In a very surprising way, this morning crafting will unfold some new opportunities. You can find a solution to an old problem or you will solve something for somebody else. It’s like this morning crafting will actually make you craft the rest of your entire day.

18. Learn A New Word In A Foreign Language

Just one word. Every morning, for several weeks. I used to learn some hiragana and katakana only in the morning (and that proved really interesting during my first trip to Japan). It forces your brain to find parallel ways to solve problems and your body to stay focused on a small problem from the very beginning of the day. Again, in a very strange way, learning a new foreign word each morning makes me dream about foreign lands. Which is quite a way to start your day.

19. Imagine Your Morning in a New Country

How your morning will be in New Zealand? Or in Thailand? Or in Austria? If you’ve ever been there, try to remember the smells, the air, the noises. Waking up in a different country every morning might be a fantastic experience (I might do this one day, by the way). If you’ve never been there, just try to imagine your morning there. After spending 5 minutes in a distant country, getting back to your actual day will feel like coming home from a long trip. Which is, partially, true.

20. Go For A Short Walk

Like the first thing in the morning, before even having breakfast. Breathe the air, look at the neighborhood. Watch the morning light and hear the noises. Move around. When you got home, your day will be different. This short walk often acts like setting up the scene for something I want to happen. Walking around alone, before igniting the day, makes me feel like a director inspecting the stage. Everything looks cool, let’s make a great film today.

21. Write A Powerful Goal

Mornings are very good for writing goals. I especially like that time of the day for writing goals because I have very few interference from the outside world. Which makes me much more authentic. I value more the goals written in the morning because I am less influenced. I know for sure that during the morning I don’t have to prove anything to anyone, I’m just me and what I want. Some of my best health decisions are picked up during the morning.

22. Clean Your Desk

Again, this must be done before having breakfast, or before any other domestic task (and this also assumes you work from home, at some point). Put things in order, wipe the dust, prepare your working setup. And then start the day as usual. After having breakfast, interacting with your family or just finishing your morning routine, come back to your office. A shiny, fresh and neat vibration will welcome you. A short sign of appreciation from yourself.

23. Sing a Song

I do this all the time in the shower. And I highly recommend it. Despite what your neighbors may say (or even some of your early riser family members). Singing a song goes hand in hand with reading a poem. Doesn’t matter if you know how to sing. just go ahead and knock some “Let It Be” as loud as you can (“Let It Be” is my favorite shower song, by the way). If you hear me humming some tunes in my beard that’s a good sign I started with a loud song in the shower.

24. Read and Evaluate your Morning Phrase

Do you have a morning phrase? Craft one, it’s easy. Starting a day with a morning phrase it’s like a mental programming exercise for maximizing your potential. It may take even less than 5 minutes and it’s a powerful tool for energy channeling. The trick is to keep it for at least several weeks. But the advantage is that this exercise is very powerful. Wanna setup a millionaire mindset? Or just planning or quitting smoking? Put it in a morning phrase and use it.

25. Delete Some Email

Or some old, unneeded files. That’s the mirror in the virtual world of number 5. Remove the clutter. Get rid of old messages, logs or files. Be in the flow. They say you have to let go the current you in order to become who you really want. I used to be a packer. Making folders and packing and storing everything in my computer. Now I start my mornings every now and then with a refreshing session of file deletion. Making room for what the day may bring in.

26. Watch The Sunrise

Easiest of all and yet so underrated. There’s so much power and simplicity in watching the sunrise, connecting to the light and actually feeling how the Sun will start another day. And you’re there witnessing this cosmic process. Every time I watch the sunrise, being it at my home or in a foreign country, I have a subtle feeling of responsibility. This huge cosmic mechanism is turning around me as my playground: what am I going to do in it today?

27. Read Your Yesterday Journal

If you keep a journal, of course. Look at yesterday from the very first moment of your new day. What do you love about yesterday? What do you don’t like about it? Now you have the chance to change those things. Reading your journal first thing in the morning is a surprising experience. Seeing what you wrote without any noise and with a clear mind will reveal things that you didn’t noticed. Maybe because you didn’t like them?

28. Do A Short Yoga Session

You don’t have to be an expert yogi to start your day with a mild yoga session. I often find myself lighter and more flexible when starting the day with a short suite of Surya Namaskara, or Sun Salutation. It stretches your body and calm your mind. I once did this for more than 6 months, every single morning. It was perhaps the most calm and balanced period of my life. And besides calm and balance, what else do you need when you start your day?

29. Visualize 3 Moments From Yesterday

Keep your eyes closed and try to remember 3 moments from yesterday. It’s not reading about them in your journal, it’s trying to visualize them in your mind. First of all, the very selection of those 3 moments will tell you something about your current state. Are those moments embarrassing or happy? Second, keeping them live in your head will help you find a solution or a sequel to them. It will help you keep yesterday linked to today. Some people call this flow.

30. Visualize 3 Moments From Today

Can be practiced in tandem with the one above, or separately. Visualizing 3 moments from today means actually create those 3 moments. See yourself performing those actions, attending those meetings, saying those words or writing those sentences. It’s early in the morning and nobody is pressuring. You have the freedom to see yourself exactly as you want to be. In my experience, almost any of these “predicted” moments are actually happening during the day.

31. Take A Picture Of Yourself

I started this as a technical challenge a few years ago (trying to automate my Mac PhotoBooth) and proved to be enlightening. Not the actual process of taking a photo of myself each morning, but seeing those photos in a fast moving sequence months after. You can’t fool the camera in the morning. All your problems, joys, frustrations or thrills are so transparent in a photo taken in the first moment of the day. It’s like a message you send to your future self without even knowing the message.

32. Identify One Task To Be Canceled

It must be one. Out of your entire to do list for today there must be one task which can be canceled. Sometimes I wake up with the only thought of identifying my canceled task for the day. I usually chose this approach after a very intense and tiring yesterday. It give me a sense of freedom and flexibility. And most of the time the freed time will make room for something interesting, or at least surprising. It’s like opening your door to the unexpected.

33. Chose A Theme Of The Day

This works in tandem with your personal mission (if you don’t have a personal mission maybe it’s time to find one). Find one red stripe which will go through your entire day. Like making this day “the productivity day”. Or “the observation day”. Or “the money day”. This will be the dominant vibe of your entire day. By setting course in the very first moments of the morning you will maximize your chances to actually create your day on that exact theme.

***

Already picked one? Great, now go ahead and pick one way to end your day.

System Overload

How many times you’ve started something “without thinking”? How many times you just dived in, thinking that “things will arrange somehow”? How often you embarked on new projects just by passion or enthusiasm, without any type of assessment? I know I did it a lot of times. So often that I was on the verge of completely ditching my assessing and deciding capabilities. I was just doing stuff, imagining that I was carried by “the flow”.

Truth is I was not on the flow. I was completely out of sync. Trying to do so much, but with so little care for my real needs. Just going forward without assessing any of my moves. I remember that every time after a “full” period in my life, something extremely violent happened, usually to my detriment. Every time I was doing “so much” a restraining event came, quite often violently, and drastically restrained my options.

Took me a while to understand this dance of doing too much and then doing too little. But it finally came true: it was just a system overloading situation. The limiting events were in fact there to balance my exaggerated implication in too many projects at once. Some inner positive guardian was activating some switches, telling me: “I’m going to cut the power, Dragos, otherwise, you’re going to blow”.

Overloading Your Life

Whenever you engage in something new you’re overloading your system. Before you’re actually doing something you’ve already put to stress your system: you’re first assessing, and then decide what’s to be done and only after that you really start doing it. That’s the normal sequence. In practice, you’re mainly “doing”, or at least this is what you’re perceiving. Because you put your Assess and Decide stages on auto pilot. And that’s bad.

Even worse, if you’re doing more than it’s useful for you, if you’re taking on your plate more than you can realistically do, you’re going to get some crashes every now and then. It’s like a computer giving you the blue screen of death. Only it will be in the form of a psychological depression, physical illness, or some sort of addiction. Anything that will balance a little the stress you’re putting on your system.

Spontaneity

Just diving in, without too much “thinking”, it’s fantastic from a “spontaneity” perspective. It’s easier to get tricked by this viewpoint and find an excuse for not thinking your moves just for the sake of spontaneity. Although both words are starting with the letter “S” there is a big difference between spontaneity and stupidity. For me, spontaneity means “going with the flow”, stupidity means “going with their flow”.

In other words, spontaneity is a way of reacting to events by following your intuition (which is part of your assessment tools) and engaging in an action which resonates with your values, without giving it the benefit of rational doubt. Sometimes it’s great to go based on a hunch, on an intuition, without thinking too much.

But there’s a little bit of a subtle difference between not thinking and not assessing. You can assess without thinking, by using just your intuition. In this case, intuition is just another tool you use. Sometimes thinking will bring you the best results, sometimes intuition or other types of assessment. But the bottom line is if you’re really spontaneous you’re still assessing your actions, by using your intuition. If you’re just “going with the flow”,  without any type of assessment, mimicking intuition for the sake of being in somebody else’s flow, with all due respect, but you’re stupid.

Adaptation

So much for the spontaneity and stupidity, let’s get back to our overflow paradigm. Every time you’re putting something new on your plate, you’re overloading your system. That something could be anything: learning something new, changing career, entering a new relationship, whatever. Every new activity is a system overloader, it adds something to your current state. Usually, it adds something stressful.

Even if the change is beneficial to you, the stress will be there. In fact, every change is stressful, in the sense that it requires an adaptation period. You can’t really skip this. You may try to avoid it, you may try different escaping techniques, but it can’t be tricked.

Adaptation is a way of adjusting your internal vibration to match the vibrations of your external context. Unless you’re having a similar frequency, you’re not in sync. You can’t pretend you’re playing a sonata, while the Universe is playing a fugue. It just won’t match.

Adaptation is usually the biggest energy consumer in every change you’re involved. And if you’re constantly putting to much on your schedule, if you’re constantly trying to change your environment , your adaptation period will eventually run out of energy.  And a violent event will enter the scene in order to re-balance everything. You’re going to experiment another “system ”overloaded“ message.

Reboot Every Now And Then

Back when I had my online publishing business I was using Linux powered servers to host my sites. I was so proud when I looked at the log and see something like: “this system up and running for 234 days, 18 hours and 3 minutes”. To keep a server without a restart or reboot so long is usually a good sign. Uninterrupted functionality is critical for an online business.

Somehow, I started to mimic this behavior. Keeping an uninterrupted functionality flow for months, or even years was perceived like something good, the same way a server was doing. I was taking pride in it. I haven’t had a single holiday during my first 3 years of entrepreneurship and I even bragged about it. Unless I was not a computer. And every now and then I had to face some crash.

We’re an incredibly delicate and powerful energy manipulation machine. We’re so much better and infinitely complicated than a computer, which does a single job tremendously well: it stays up and serve sites. We’re doing so much more. We’re not supposed to stay up and serve clients uninterruptedly. This is why we invented computers in the first way, to do that for us.

We’re supposed to enjoy, to give, to receive, to love, to experience, to invent.

And we really can’t do that if we don’t reinvent ourselves every once in a while.

Make yourself a service and reboot your system every now and then.

The Morning Phrase

What’s the first thing you hear in the morning? What’s the first thing you read in the morning? What’s the first thing yo do in the morning? I ask because this very first thing will shape your whole day. If it’s something that plays on the radio, you’ll hear that tune all day long. If it’s something that you hear form your room mate (or your spouse, or your kid) it will circle in your mind all day long. If it’s something you’re doing with good results it will influence your entire day. With good results, of course.

I call this specific piece of action, this day igniter: “the morning phrase”. The morning phrase is something very important and I don’t mean only at a symbolical, metaphorical level. We’re functioning with two minds: one conscious and the other one subconscious. Like it or not, a huge part of your being is driven by your subconscious mind. And one of the first things your subconscious will receive daily will be this morning phrase. And guess what: your subconscious mind is a very obedient friend: it will do exactly what you tell to it.

This apparently insignificant thing is like a powerful switch for a better mood during the day. Once you activated it, chances that your daily behavior will change – without a significant conscious intervention from your part – are really big. In fact, you’re still experiencing those changes, only at a subconscious level. In today’s post I’ll try to take the morning phrase out from your subconscious mind and make it a little bit more manageable.

Why Having A Morning Phrase

To unleash your energy in a specific task.
To keep a positive attitude during the day.
To implement a specific habit.
To fixate something in a longer learning process.
To keep you motivated towards a specific goal.

And you can add your very own reasons here….

What A Morning Phrase Is Made Of

I started to experience my morning phrase more than 2 years ago. I had several morning phrases and I learned some important things about the effectiveness of a morning phrase. Here’s the detailed list.

True

First of all, the morning phrase must be true. If it’s something that you perceive as a lie, it will not work. Remember, you subconscious mind is not easy to challenge, it will eat whatever you feed it, so if you feed ti with lies, it will get back to you with lies.

A true morning phrase is something that is very close to your own personality, your environment, you general life context. If the morning phrase is something like: “It’s so hot today in Antarctica” I don’t think you’ll hook your subconscious up into something useful.

Simple

It must be simple and understandable. When you wake up, your brain is trying to adjust from sleeping patterns, specifically delta / theta frequencies, to the awake state, typically alpha frequencies. During this adjustment period, nothing too complicated will really get through, so it better be simple. As in not complicated.

Realistic

It must be something you are able to do it. Like during that specific day, not in a week, or month. Using your immediate resources, not something you may have in a month or two.

Empowering

That morning phrase must motivate you in some form. It may refer to things you are attracted to, or it may be formulated in some familiar and pleasant way. Whatever the form, the morning phrase will unleash something from you, so be careful at what you want to let out.

Easy To Remember

If you really want to make things smoother, chose an easy to remember phrase. Don’t go out rhyming, if you’re not comfortable with it, but chose something easy to memorize. That way you conscious mind will be attracted in the game too.

How To Create A Morning Phrase

The most effective moment for the morning phrase is at or shortly after the alarm clock. If you use an alarm clock, of course. If you can get up in the morning without an alarm clock, you would have to create a separate habit for the morning phrase. I already wrote an article about how to create a habit in 15 days, so feel free to read it if you want to create this new habit.

My alarm clock is in fact my iPhone, which makes things a little simpler. An alarm set up in the iPhone clock’s application can also have a short description. Which is in fact my morning phrase. So, I’m set.

But you may not be an iPhone person, so you must chose other insertion points. You can have it written on a post-it on your bathroom mirror, for instance, or clipped with a magnet on your fridge. You can have it on your wardrobe, or on your car’s dashboard. It’s really a matter of what you think it’s a good insertion point for this type of messages.

In fact, you will find the best insertion point once you start assessing the results. Depending on the specific content of that phrase, the results may be extremely diverse, but there are some common points you could be able to identify.

Better Sleeping

I noticed that after a few days of having this morning phrase, my sleeping patterns are starting to improve slightly. Might be associated with the fact that my stress level is lowered by using a morning phrase.

Better Mood During The Day

Regardless of the specific goal set in the morning phrase, you should be able to experience better moods during your day. Or at least a more energetic attitude. Or you are smiling more often.

Effectiveness

That should be the most important assessment. If you’re experiencing a higher level of effectiveness – independent of the specific task you’re doing – the morning phrase is working.

The “Night Before” Trick

Ok, this is a trick, because is not happening in the morning, but it makes it works better. Read that phrase just before you go to sleep. Again, having it written in my iPhone makes it easier for me to have it close just before getting asleep. I noticed that when I read my phrase before going to sleep, in the morning I have a familiar feeling. Anyway, it works better like this.

Do you have a morning phrase? If not, ever thought to start having one? Do you think it’s beneficial or placebo? Would love to hear your comments on that.

Waking Up Early

Waking up early is probably the most popular topic amongst the personal development blogs. Not to mention the fact that is almost the first thing you hear during a personal development seminar: I will teach you how to wake up early, my friend. It’s the “Hello World” of the personal development (“Hello World” is the first application you build when you learn a new programming language). I have to admit that I was quite busy with this too, back in my early personal development endeavors.

So, why is this so important after all? Why waking up early? In today’s post I’d like to focus on the reasons behind this popular topic as well as on some of my own techniques to accomplish this.

No Time Mindset

With all due respect, I think that waking up early comes from a “I have no free time” mindset. Waking up early is for people who have daily jobs but want to win extra time on the side. Waking up early is a signal you send to yourself with the content: “free some of my limited, allotted time, and do it early in the morning”.

That approach changes your time perception. It makes time a finite resource. We may perceive time as a finite resource, but that’s only a convention. You know, when you’re in love, a second can seem like minutes and an hour can last days. When you’re bored, a whole day may pass in a second. We manipulate time through our perceptions. If we perceive time as infinite it will be infinite, the same as it is when we’re in love.

The empty goal of waking up early changes our time perception into a limited resource.

So, waking up early as a goal comes from a scarcity mindset. The underlying reason is: “I am in serious trouble with my time, I don’t have enough, I have to win some otherwise I won’t be well”. Lack of something is a powerful motivator and this motivator works for many of us. Especially when you can have some quick and visible victories. If you can create a habit of waking up early in a week, you’ll have some quick victories on your side and that will make some boost in your self-respect. You get the feeling you are not missing that thing anymore.

But the main question is: “what are you going to do with all that free time?”. I know people who were really good at creating the habit of getting up early but they reverted back to a different routine after several weeks, because… well, because they had no idea what to do with that free time.

So, if we’re going to wake up early, we need a better reason for that. We need to know what are we going to do with that free time, otherwise it won’t work. Or at least, it didn’t work for me. Waking up early must be a consequence of something much bigger than a habit, it shouldn’t be just a goal on itself.

Assess Your Time

What are you doing with your time throughout the day? Have you ever had the curiosity to write it down, to journal your time usage? I bet you’ll have some big surprises. It might sound awkward to journal every 15 minutes what are you up to, but if you can do it for just one day long, it will be enlightening. You’ll be dazzled to find out that your daily time is huge, you’re just not using it properly.

But, suppose you’re using it properly, but need more. If you haven’t notice it so far, I am using my Assess, Decide, Do life management framework for this. If you haven’t read yet the ADD series, feel free to do it right now and then come back here to read this post. By using this ADD approach, we’re going to traverse each of the necessary realms (from assessment to doing) until we’re actually going to implement the habit.

So, for now we’ll be starting in our Assess realm. Suppose we really have to do more (out of pleasure, for instance: we started a nice project, we love it, and want to do more of what we like). We gathered all the information we need.

Here comes the decision realm. We can decide to free up some time throughout the day, by eliminating some other tasks, for instance, or we may chose to free up some time from our sleeping routine. Again, suppose we’re not going to free time from the early night (which will result in going to sleep later than usual) and we decide to free up from the morning routine.

As you may see, this approach is really different from other DIY tutorials or self-improvement programs. We take a step back and first we assess the need for that specific habit. And then, after we have all the information from the assessment realm, we make a decision. And again, note that the decision could be quite different from our initial intention: we may find out that we’ll be better going to sleep later than waking up early.

Now that we assessed the need, took the decision, all we have to do is implement the doing part.

Waking Up Early – How To

In my experience, there are two ways to achieve this: brute force and gradual adaptation.

Brute Force

Back in time 20 years, for a personal story. At that time I was doing my military service in a Romanian city called Timisoara. We were still under a communist regime and military service was pretty bad. But out of nothing, during December, some people in Timisoara started a Revolution which ultimately led to the fall of the communist regime. Years after, that was to be called the Romanian Revolution. I didn’t have any idea what was going on in the city, but the most important result for me, as a soldier, was that I was forced not to sleep for 5 nights and 6 days.

That’s what I call brute force. From that event on I was able to manipulate my sleeping patterns much more easily. The duration of that sleep deprivation was so huge that made 2 nights of sleep deprivation in a row actually manageable. Of course, I was under extremely stressful conditions. But the main result was that I knew I was able to do it. Ever since I find it really comfortable to have 24-36 hours in a row without sleep, every once in a while.

Word of caution: I do not recommend to try sleep deprivation like this, it was just an example on how bigger and faster moves can make regular moves achievable. It was also something that took place in very stressful conditions and also generated very stressful effects, apart from this new ability. Sleep deprivation can be extremely dangerous for your health, and it is something you should know before starting a waking up early routine.

Another example for brute force is running: if you manage to run one day 10 miles, you’ll find the next day quite comfortable to run 3 miles, although your regular habit is to run only 1 mile.

I was applying this technique in my guest posting habits also. I never had a guest post in my entire life, but that was until last month, when I decided it’s time to start doing this. And last month I implemented an experiment called “Massive Guest Posting” (feel free to read the post for more info) during which I wrote and published not one, not two, not three, but seven guest posts. To make things a little bit spicier, each post was part of a series, was published on a different blog in a different city on the globe, but at the exact same time.

Guess what, now I’m finding pretty comfortable to write 2 guest posts per month, and that without affecting my regular writing routine for the blogs I already own.

Gradual Adaptation

Gradual adaptation is a cumulative technique in which you are making and assessing small progress each day.

It’s the 5 minutes per morning rule: put your alarm clock 5 minutes earlier each morning. If you do this for a week, you’ll have 35  minutes of free time. It’s important to assess the effects each morning, in order to see how much you can push. I know people who are able to push 5 minutes per morning for two weeks continuously. That gives them an extra 10 minutes aside the expected extra hour. Other seem to do it better in installments: 5 minutes for a week, than one week at the same hour. And then another week with the alarm clock 5 minutes earlier each morning.

Gradual adaptation works. Period. I never met somebody who didn’t get results from that. This is why is so spread as opposed to the brute force technique. I successful used gradual adaptation when I learned a new language and I found it much more appropriate than brute force. For instance, when I was in Japan I tried the brute force approach in learning Kanji. The result was a lot of frustration. I was so confident that once there I will learn my way out in one or two days that I totally neglected to learn some Kanji before getting to Japan. Once there, I was completely puzzled and despite my efforts I had to rely only on English signs for my orientation.

Adequate

Waking up early works only if you have something to do with that hour. If you don’t, you’d be better sleeping more and hope you have some nice dreams. So, if you ever want to implement that habit, I highly suggest to give some meaning to that extra hour. Start a list of things that you have to do during that hour. And then do them.

ADD stages – Do

ADD comes from “Assess, Decide, Do” and it’s a life management framework, initially described in this introductory post. As opposed to the regular productivity approaches, a life management framework focuses on a higher level integration and rejects the task checking approach as the only metric for measuring productivity performance.

In ADD, each individual can have only 3 main stages or can act in 3 main realms: the Assess realm, the Decide realm and the Do realm. Those stages are cumulative, in the sense that an imbalance in an early stage, like the Assess stage, can create negative consequences in the following stages. A balanced, constant flow between those 3 stages is the main metric of a fulfilling life management.

If you came here directly you may want to check out first the Assess realm and Decide realm posts.

Today will talk about the Do realm.

Closing The Circle

The Do realm is where you are closing the circle you started to draw by assessing and then deciding something. It’s the final stage and the most physical one. Usually, what you’re doing is something touchable, real, as opposed to the Assess or Decide stages, which are mainly mental activities. The Do realm is like the visible part of an iceberg. You know an iceberg can show only a small part on the surface, and this is the Do realm, but the core of it is under the water, in the initial Assess and Decide stages.

The Do realm is also one of the most refined and talked about by productivity experts. Much of the writing and methodologies created in the productivity area is focusing only on the Do realm, including GTD. Productivity and effectiveness are mistakenly defined as a consequence of the Do realm, when in fact they are a consequence of an entire Assess – Decide – Do cycle.

If you did your job in the Assess and Decide stages, you’re not actually doing much in the Do realm. The only three activities are scheduling, prioritizing and finishing.

Scheduling

You have to create an understandable and manageable time frame for your activities and this is done by scheduling. You’re allocating energy and space. You’re putting some order around you. We all live in time and making the most of our time is one of the best thing we can do.

Scheduling means in fact to acknowledge that you will be available for that specific task at a specific time. If you’re not scheduling your activities, you’ll actually reject them from your timeline. You’ll send a message of non-availability. But if you’re scheduling, you’re sending to yourself a message of availability.

As any other activity, scheduling can be improved, refined and automated. There are tons of books on how to use your time, and the intent of this post is not to offer a scheduling tutorial. All I want to stress is that one fundamental activity in the Do realm is scheduling, or sending messages of availability.

Prioritizing

Reality is changing. Your universe is changing. What was important yesterday may not be so important today, or tomorrow. Prioritizing your doing means give room to what’s important now as opposed to what you thought it was important yesterday. Prioritizing comes after scheduling and it’s an important, often ignored part of the productivity process.

Prioritizing will conflict with scheduling and that’s something normal. Prioritizing means giving space and energy to what’s important now and reschedule what was left out. Many people get confused when they have to make changes based on the priority of the tasks but that’s an important part of the Do realm.

How do you know what’s important and what’s not? Well, that is something you will have to micro Assess-Decide-Do every time. As I already mentioned, ADD is an abstract framework and supports any implementation you want. For instance, there will be a different prioritizing strategy in an ADD implementation for programming, than to an ADD implementations for relationships.

Finishing

If you start doing something, finish it. Or cut it out, if you can’t do it anymore. As simple and dumb as it sounds, finishing is a very important part of the doing process. So important, that I felt the need to make it a separate process.

One of the most subtle yet powerful ways to procrastinate (like really procrastinate, loosing your time) is to remain stuck in a project or task for ever. There is this pressure not to finish the task, because… well, because you’ll have to do something else. And you don’t want. Or you are scared. Or bored. Or whatever.

I’ve been there so many times that I had to come up with a finishing strategy. I’ve been caught in so many situations where finishing seemed strange or inconvenient or not appropriate that I really had to reconsider all my attitude towards finishing. I’m sure you’ve been there: caught in a sticky relationship, in a never-ending project, in a just-above-the-fold job, and so on.

Finishing is the most important part of doing something. It frees your resources, it makes room for something new and it feeds the next Assess session. If you’re not finishing what you’re doing, you’ll never be able to assess what you’ve done so far. Your ADD cycle will be stuck.

Creating Miracles

Doing is where the miracle takes place. By doing what you assessed and decided, you’re changing your reality the way you want. Assessing is just a perspective and the decision is just an intention. If those are not backed up with constant activity and with real life actions, your Assess-Decide-Do cycle will be broken.

But if you’re staying enough time in this cycle, if you succeed in Assessing, Deciding and Doing on a regular basis, if you engage totally in each part and let yourself flow freely through those stages, if you really become aware of the whole process, as simple and yet as powerful as it is, you’re going to create miracles.

Starting with yourself.