30 Day Trial - Quick Update

Just a quick update on my progress here, I've been keeping up with all 3 of my trials, I haven't missed 1 thing since the beginning. Yesterday I managed to jog for 2 minutes then walk for 1 minute for a full 25 minutes, it was harder than before but not as hard as I thought it would be. This morning when I got up I felt really tired, I still haven't had an early night yet, I hardly ever go to bed before 23:00 these days. It's now the weekend so I'm even less likely to get to be early. Even though I've been really tired in the mornings, I've been feeling ok during the day so it's not that much of a problem at the moment.

My next post will be about procrastination, I wanted to write the post days ago but I've been procrastinating over it (that isn't a joke).

30 Day Trials - Day 7

Today is the last day of the first week of my trial, and so far it's been pretty easy, although trying to fit everything in can sometimes be a challenge, especially when Hailey's at work all day or away. Today is also Haileys last day at work for 2 weeks, so it should now be even easier to stick to a schedule.

Last night I went to bed at 22:30 which still wasn't early enough, considering how tired I was, but I was up and about at 05:30, 15 minutes early. I put my alarm on 15 minutes earlier because I had a lot to do to this morning and I needed a bit more time. I wrote some posts for my blogs this morning and did some promotional work, then got ready to take Natalie to Nursery.

This morning is the morning after my fast and the first time I had eaten for about 20 hours, I started off with some grapes and then a bowl of cereal. I don't think I feel any benefits from the fast, but to be honest I didn't really expect there to be, I think you need more than 1 day for there to be any benefit. The next time I do a fast I think I will try it for 3 days, I'm not sure when this will be yet.

After work I practised my guitar for 20 minutes before going for a jog, the next time I go for a jog I'm going to try and increase the length of the jogging intervals to 1 minute 30 seconds.

So that's it the first week over and the best thing about it? The extra time I have to work on my blogs and do other projects that I wouldn't normally have time to do because I would be in bed asleep. Hopefully I will start to see the benefits of exercising more as the weeks go by, I've already lost 3 pounds this week and the jogging is getting a bit easier.

30 Day Trials - Day 6

I didn't go to bed until 1:30 again last night so when I woke up at 05:45, I was shattered, I still go up straight away but it was hard. For some reason I find it very hard to go to bed early even when I'm feeling tired, especially at the weekend. After getting up I went downstairs to do some more work on my blogs and do some reading, I started to feel better straight away.

Today is the day that I experimented with fasting (see my previous post), so there is nothing to report food wise, I just drank plenty of water all day. I spent my day looking after Natalie as Hailey was away on a trip again, so I didn't get much else done.

After Natalie had gone to bed I spent 30 minutes on the guitar and then did an hours workout using Hailey's DVD. All in all not much to report today, its all been fairly plain sailing so far, the fasting was pretty easy, so I think I will try a longer fast at some point, I will write another post when I decide to do it.

Tomorrow will probably be my last daily post on the 30 day trials as there is very little different to report each day. I will switch to a weekly summary after tomorrow with the odd update here and there if anything out of the ordinary happens, instead I will be concentrating on writing posts about other personal development topics.

Fasting

Last night I was having a read of Steve Pavlinas's Forum and I found a number of threads on fasting and its health benefits. There appears to be a number of ways to fast, but the 2 I mostly read about were water only and juice fasting. Water only fasting, is just that you only drink water during the fast and nothing else, where as juice fasting is only drinking water and juiced fruit and vegetables, no solids. Apparently fasting allows the body to rid itself of toxins and heal itself, the theory is that because the body doesn't have to use energy digesting food it can use that energy to heal instead. Fasting is supposed to leave you feeling energised, invigorated and clear headed, this is probably because your not taking in any additives or sugar etc that can affect your physiology.

I decided to give fasting a try, just for 1 day to see how it goes, I settled on a water only fast as I thought it would be easier on short notice than buying loads of fruit and veg and juicing it up. I started today, the last food I had was about 22:00 last night, so at the time of writing this it's been just over 24 hours without food. To be honest today's been pretty easy, I've only felt hungry a couple of times and not for very long. The hardest thing about the fast is breaking the habit of eating, a few times even though I wasn't hungry I wanted to eat anyway.

As I write this I'm starting to feel hungry, I think I'll go to bed in a minute and I'll have something to eat tomorrow morning.

30 Day Trials - Day 5

At the beginning of this 30 day trial I planned to write a post for every day of the trial, but as most days are going to be very similar it may not be of any interest to write a post about every day. Instead I'm going to continue the daily updates until the end of the first week and then I will switch to a weekly update plus I will post if anything significant happens. This way I will free up some blogging time to write about other personal development topics, future posts will feature motivation, productivity, how to achieve my goals and anything else that I can discover along the way.

Like I said yesterday I seem to be going to bed later and later, last night I didn't get to sleep until about 01:30 in the morning. I was still up at the usual time, getting up when the alarm goes off still hasn't been a problem, but I did feel very tired this morning. I need to go to bed a bit earlier, just over 4 hours sleep last night wasn't enough.

After getting out of bed I went downstairs and started doing some work on the computer, I spent a couple of hours writing blog posts and promoting my blogs to get more traffic. Natalie didn't wake up until 08:45, so I had 3 hours uninterupted to do things I wanted to do, this is the big benefit of getting up early, I would never be able to get done what I did yesterday if I didn't have those extra 3 hours.

The rest of the day was spent with Hailey and Natalie, having family time, we also went to see my Mum and Stepdad for a few hours in the afternoon. At 19:00 I spent 20 minutes on the guitar before going for my 25 minute jog/walk.

I spent the evening with Hailey in front of the tv with a couple of Vodka and Diet Cokes, we like to have a few drinks on a Saturday, since we had Natalie we don't get to go out as much as we used to, so we have a drink at home instead.

That's it for another day, all 3 30 day trial items successfully completed again today. On the whole it's been quite easy so far to keep it up, I'm starting to feel a bit tired from the early mornings, but going to bed a bit earlier shold sort that out. See you tomorrow.

Goals

Something I should have done from the beginning of this journey into personal development was to define my goals, what I want to achieve from this. But in the absence of a time machine I will just have to do it now instead. Below is a list of goals that I would like to achieve, they are in no particular order. The list isn't complete, over the next few weeks I will add to and refine the list, I will also explain some of them in more detail in future posts, this will include how I plan to achieve them. As you will see some have time constraints and some don't and they are mostly short to medium term goals, at the moment I'm not sure what my long term goals are, but I will add these as I think of them.

• Finish my 30 day trials without missing a single day
• Get my driving license by the end of 2008
• Learn to play at least one song on my guitar all the way through by the end of 2008
• Pay off all my debts by the end of 2009
• Create more streams of passive income to earn at least $250 a month by end of 2008
• Learn C++
• Be able to jog non stop for 25 minutes
• Get down to 12 stone 7 pounds by beginning of May in time for my wedding
• Work from home more
• Improve my productivity at home and at work so I can get more done in a shorter period of time
• Run and manage my own project at work by the end of 2008

That's all I can think of at the moment, but I'm sure this list will continue to expand.

Link Exchange

I would really like to get more readers to this blog so I'm looking to exchange links with other Personal Development blogs, if you write one and would like to exchange links with me just leave a comment with a your blogs address and I will add a link to my sidebar.

Thanks
Martin

30 Day Trials - Day 4

It seems every night I'm going to bed later and later even though I'm tired, last night I didn't go to bed until midnight. I still got up with my alarm, but going back to bed is becoming more and more appealing. I push these thoughts out of my head and just get up anyway, make some breakfast and go and do some work on the computer. I don't go for a jog because I went last night and I didn't fancy doing it again so soon, plus I will be cycling to and from work today, which is good exercise on its own.

I left for work on my bike at 07:15, it was absolutley puring down with rain, by the time I got to work I was soaked, even through my waterproofs. It was not a very nice way to start the day, I had to walk around in soggy trainers all morning, yuck! I only work a half day on Fridays so I was back on my bike for the ride home at 12:00, I got soaked again on the way home too.

The rest of my afternoon was spent with Hailey and Natalie at home, we're trying to potty train Natalie at the moments so there were lots of trips to the toilet to see if she'll have a wee. Then in the evening I spent half an hour practising guitar and then we watched TV while I read some more of Steve's articles looking for more ways in which I can make changes to my life. Those articles have given me some ideas for things I can try, I will write about these in seperate posts specific to the subject. Over the next couple of days I will continue with these daily logs but they will also be interspersed with other posts.

I though I'd do a quick summary of how I think the 30 day trials are going so far, well to be honest its been quite easy so far. Getting up early hasn't really been a problem, don't get me wrong I'm knackered when I wake up, but I just get up anyway. The good thing is that I get up first then think how nice it would be to go back to bed, rather than lieing in bed that little bit longer then thinking it. If I was to lie in bed just a couple of seconds longer I would probably not get up, but I don't give myself a chance to do this, as soon as my alarm goes off I turn it off and get straight up. The benefit of getting up early is that I have more time in the morning to either go for a jog before work or doing some of my own things like blogging and looking for new ideas in personal development.

Getting some exercise every day has also been fairly easy, I cycle to work most week days anyway and on the days that I haven't cycled I've either gone for a jog or done Hailey's workout dvd. When I can I'm also going to try to go for a jog on those days that I cycle to work. To be honest I'm not really feeling any benefit from the exercise, but I think that will come in time I just need to keep at it.

Finally, my guitar practise, at the beginning of the trial I said I wanted to do at least 15 minutes of practice every day and most days I've managed to do more than this. I've had my guitar for over 2 years now and even though I know quite a few chords and stuff I can't actually play much more than nursery rhymes on it, so I've set myself a goal to be able to play a proper song all the way through by the end of this year. I haven't chosen the song yet, but when I do I will write it in a post. For now though that's about it for day 4 see you tomorrow.

30 Day Trials - Day 3

I didn't get to bed until 23:00 last night as I was playing on the Playstation 2, but I was still up with the alarm, bang on 05:45. It was a bit harder this morning, I really wanted to go back to bed, but I just got up anyway and did some work on the computer. Hailey wasn't due back until 08:00 so I couldn't go for a jog again this morning, so I had breakfast and got ready for work. When Hailey got home from her trip she gave me a lift into work.

At work my energy levels were about normal, I wasn't too tired, the feeling of wanting to go back to bed had gone. So far getting up 05:45 every day hasn't made much difference to how I feel during the day. This maybe because I'm already used to getting up quite early anyway, but getting up at that time does give me a bit of extra time to either go for a jog or get some more work done. The real test of this will be at the weekend, while the rest of the family are lying in I'll be getting up early still. I'm hoping though that this experiment will allow me to get things done that I wouldn't normally have time for, like for example blogging. I'm actually writing this post at 06:00 on the morning of Day 4.

Hailey picked me up from work this evening and when I got home I spent some time with the family until about 19:00 when I went and had my 30 minute practise on the guitar. After that I got into my training clothes and went for a jog, already this was easier today than when I went on Day 1. Hopefully by next week I will be able to increase the length of time spent jogging to 1 minute 30 then walking for 1 minute.

Diet wise today was very similar to yesterday, nothing much to report their, as I've said in previous entries I'm just trying to eat less than normal. I don't weigh myself everyday, so I don't know if I've lost any weight yet, I will weigh myself on Tuesday.

Overall, so far all is going well, its still early days though, I just have to keep it up.

30 Day Trials - Day 2

I was in bed relatively early again last night, I was asleep by 22:15. Unfortunately I was out of bed a couple of times during the night to settle Natalie, as she's still not very well. I still got up as soon as my alarm went off 05:45, I did feel a bit tired though, the trouble with that time of the morning is that it's so dark it feels like the middle of the night.

I couldn't go for a run this morning because Hailey's still away, I couldn't leave Natalie in on her own, so instead I did some work on the computer. I didn't go to work today either, I spent the day looking after Natalie and doing some blog promotion work on the laptop, so I didn't get any exercise at all this morning.

Diet wise, I had porridge for breakfast again, a banana for a snack, a sandwich and a packet of crisps for lunch and a dinner of turkey burgers, chips and coleslaw. Nothing especially healthy there, but a lot less than I would normally eat in a day. I should eat more fruit and veg really, but there are very few vegetables that I like, that makes it difficult.

I did do some exercise in the end, just before dinner I had a go at doing Hailey's workout DVD, which was surprisingly difficult.

Finally after dinner and before writing this I spent 25 minutes on my guitar, so that's everything done that I wanted to do today, so I'll be off to bed soon, come back tomorrow for my next report.

30 Day Trials - Day 1

I was in bed by 22:30 last night, which is quite early for me, but my 20 month old little girl had a restless night the previous night so I was quite tired. Getting up at 05:45 as planned was quite easy, I got straight up when the alarm went off, I felt tired still but otherwise ok. As its a weekday getting up at this time isn't that much different from normal, I usually get up between 06:00 and 06:30 anyway so I can get to work early. I chose 05:45 as my time to get up as it gives me enough time to go for a 25 minute jog, have breakfast and get ready for work without having to rush. The reason why I've chosen to get up early every day as one of my trials is that by getting up early allows me to get more done in the day, especially at the weekend, where I can get things done before the rest of the family get up. Click here for a Steve Pavlina article on how to become an early riser and its's benefits.

As soon as I got up I got dressed in my jogging clothes and left the house for my first jog for awhile. As I'm so unfit I used the method that I found on Steve Pavlina's site in his article Build Fitness With Mild Interval Training, in brief this method involves alternating between jogging and walking, allowing you to jog for longer. Last time I tried jogging I managed to jog for less than 10 minutes before almost collapsing in a heap, this morning I jogged for a minute, then walked for a minute, then jogged for a minute and so on. This extended my total time to 25 minutes, although that still means I only actually jogged for just over 10 minutes, my heart rate was still elevated throughout the whole time. Hopefully over the next 30 days I can gradually increase the amount of time spent jogging, so next week I will start jogging for 1 minute 30 seconds and walking for a minute etc.

After my jog I had breakfast, I had a bowl of porridge and a glass of grapefruit juice. As well as the 30 day trials I am also on a bit of a diet, not a particular kind of diet just eating a bit less than usual. I'm currently 13 stone 10 pounds, I would like to get down to 12 stone 7 pounds before my wedding in May.

After breakfast I got ready for work, normally I cycle to work, but today my Fiancee is away on a trip so I had to take my daughter to Nursery, I don't drive so I took her on the bus. Even though I didn't cycle I still got some additional exercise as my work is a 20 minute walk away from the Nursery. At work I was feeling quite tired, but I usually do anyway so no change there. I had a banana for a snack and 2 rolls with chicken, sweetcorn and low fat mayonaise for lunch.

This evening I had a shop bought pizza for dinner, as you can see I'm not eating diet food, I'm just trying to eat less than I normally would. After dinner I spent half an hour practising on my guitar.

So, that's all 3 of the things that I planned to do today done, as it's the first day it would be pretty bad if I couldn't manage to do them. All in all its been a good day, lets see what tomorrow brings.

My Personal Development Starts Here

This is the first post of my new blog that will diary my progress as I try different methods of personal development and productivity. My primary source of inspiration and information to begin with are the website of Steve Pavlina and the book Getting Things Done by David Allen, I'm sure as I progress I will find other sources of information too.

I've started this blog because during My quest to make money on the internet I realised that in order to make money you need to have motivation, drive and if you have a full time job and a family, be well organised. For me motivation and drive only last a little while when I first start something and my organisation skills are non-existent, so I decided I would try and improve these and many other areas of my life through personal development. I've already had a stab some of the things I'm going to describe later just before Christmas but when Christmas came along it all went to pot, so this time I'm going to try again and keep a diary which I will publish here as posts, I'm hoping this will keep me on the right path.

What am I going to do then? Well, to begin with I'm going to start some 30 day trials, for a full explanation of what I mean by this see Steve Pavlina's article on the subject here, for my less eloquent explanation read on.

A 30 day trial is a similar to a software trial where you try before you buy, but instead of software you try to do something in your life that you would like to do but your not sure you can commit to do for ever. An example of this is exercising regularly, for some people including myself the thought of exercising everyday or almost every day for an extended period is not very appealing. But just 30 days of exercising daily doesn't seem quite so bad, you could commit to that, and if after 30 days you decide not continue you haven't lost anything, in fact you've gained 30 days of exercise. Ofcourse you may decide that it is for you after all and because you've already been doing if for 30 days it should be easier to continue, or you may still be unsure so you can try another 30 days or even 60 days.

Below are listed the trials that I am going to commit to over the next 30 days:

• Get up early every day, including weekends
• Exercise every day
• Practise on my guitar for at least 15 minutes every day

I will explain my reasons for these choices over the next couple of posts where I will also give details of my progress. Join me tomorrow for the first day of the trial.