* Unsubscribe from all email subscriptions – I don’t need ‘em. If I want information I know where I can get it. Also using www.rescuetime.com I see that a far majority of my time is spent on email. I need to reduce this.

* Unfollow all the ‘robots’ on twitter. I’ve basically been accepting any follow requests, and somehow have ended up following a bunch of people I’m not sure how. Either way, I’m going to unfollow them, and ‘clean out’ my twitter list. Reduce it to only those people who I actually know, enjoy, or get influence by.

* Reduce my daily to-do list to two. Two items is all I need, and after some careful testing, this has proved very effect over the last few weeks. If I limit it to two: 1) I’m sure those things are very important and 2) I can focus on each of them fully without thinking, “I need to do two or three things at the same time if I ever want to finish this massive to-do list”


It’s an information detox and it’s critical in this era. During this huge information age, everything from local news to what people are doing at all times can be virtually shoved down my throat. No more. From now on when I see or feel an information encroachment, I’m cutting the rope. I choose to live simple, focus and effective.

I love this commercial. I think of it almost any time I say to myself, “I’m tired”, or “I just don’t feel right”. It’s usually around the time I need to go to the gym, but it happens other times too. “I don’t feel like changing the baby”, “I don’t feel like getting up”. It’s so easy to talk ourselves out of things, and to let our ‘feelings’ control our actions.

Listen to your internal values, set your goals, and then go after them. Any self talk that deters you from your goals, don’t listen to it.

This posts outline for staying motivated…

1. Just Do It.

Done.

One of the key factors to a peaceful, purposeful and happy life is diet. For me personally, I feel much more balance, control, and powerful when I’m eating right. For me it’s not only the health, but it’s also about setting goals (I want to eat right) and achieving them. It goes hand in hand with exercise and overall mental health. In fact, eating healthy has been shown to provide: longer life, happiness, vitality, great skin, weight loss, life satisfaction, and better relationships. It helps our attitude, our outlook, and our energy.

Since a healthy diet is such an important factor in our lives, it just makes sense to find ways of making it easier. If there are short cuts I want to know about them – they are usually worth their weight in gold. So, for the last month or so I’ve been tracking various ideas for eating healthy. Some are easy little hacks, and some are more general, but the idea is to make eating healthier easier. With marketers, commercials and media all telling us what to eat (and seldom do they have our health in mind) we need all the help we can get.

So here they are in no particular order:

1. Wait 10-15 minutes: After eating a small to medium-ly portioned meal, wait. Wait 15 minutes before deciding if your still hungry or not. Often our brain doesn’t feel full until 15 minutes after eating has passed. With this short stall, we can trick ourselves, and feel full with out actually eating more.

2. Eat smaller meals: Going hand in hand with waiting 15 minutes, is to eat smaller portions. In the US especially, we are used to Costco, Walmart, Chevy Trucks, and Super Sized. What’s funny is that 90% of the world doesn’t operate this way. It’s amazing how many calories (and dollars) can be saved by just reducing what we consume.

3. Count your calories: For at least for 60-90 days, or until it’s a habit, track how many calories you eat in a day. You may be surprised to find out you are normally eating 3,000 calories a day, when you should really only be eating 2,100. Plus when you count your calories you become much more aware of everything your eating.

4. Track/log what you eat: Along with tracking your calories (at least for 60-90 days until it’s a habit), track what you eat. You’ll want to know how many carbohydrates, proteins and fats your eating each day. Too much of one, and not enough of the other leads to unbalance, and isn’t healthy.

5. Replace carbohydrates with protein. So much of what we get at the store, and at restaurants is filled to the brim with carbohydrates. We need to actively look at ingredients and get more protein and less carbohydrates.

6. No eating before bedtime: Something I’ve noticed really helps my weight, and overall metabolism is not eating before I go to sleep. 1) I wake up hungry, this kicks my metabolism off to a good start and 2) eating right before bed turns the energy your body gets from the food directly into fat instead of burning it off.

7. No carbs 5-6 hours before bedtime. Your body doesn’t really need carbohydrates in the late afternoon and before bed time. Since you’ll be sleeping you don’t need the energy that comes from eating carbohydrates. Your body turns carbohydrates into fat instead of energy when all you do is sleep on them.

8. Drink water. 1) it’s good for you. 2) it curbs your appetite – many times instead of being hungry, I was actually thirsty. Drinking some water satisfied that appetite, and I no longer craved food.

9. Eat natural. When in doubt eat something natural. Not frozen, packaged, processed, or produced. Look for as little ingredients as possible.

10. Don’t use self-control: That’s right, I said “don’t”. The idea here is that if you don’t want to eat it, don’t buy it, or have it in the house at all. If it’s not even there, it’s not a temptation and you don’t have to use self control. Try to use will power as little as possible.

11. Brush your teeth early. I noticed that when I brush my teeth, I’m much less likely to eat something afterwards. I have this idea that I have already brushed my teeth, and I don’t want to brush them again. So, whenever I can, I’ll brush my teeth as early as possible, this takes care of any before bed temptations.

There it is. Have any more?

Note: I am by no means a professional nutritionist or anything like that. These are merely things that have helped me. Please consult a professional when making any changes to your diet.

We’ll, there’s a bit more to love than that. Here’s some examples:

* Laughing with good friends
* Helping others
* Teaching others
* Sharing yourself with others
* Spending time with others

Love goes much beyond the love between a man and woman, it’s a powerful piece of life and our relationships with others. Here’s an updated portion of scripture, applying some modern day equivalents to the importance of love.

If I’m a great speaker, and can motivate and influence thousands and thousands of people, but don’t have love, my words will fall empty. If I’m a PHD, and have studied countless and countless hours to succeed, and If I am so confident and sure of my self that I have no doubt I can accomplish anything I want to, but I don’t have love, I can’t do anything. If I start a successful business, and sell it for 10 million dollars, then give all the revenue to orphans and widows in africa, but I don’t have love, the money is worthless. – 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Sometimes in our busy life we forget the really important stuff. We get so caught up in seemingly good things like being successful, raising a good family, donating our time and money to good causes, and doing a good job at work that we can often forget the single most important thing: to love and be loved. It’s not about what we do, but who we are. Love is not just for that special someone, but in all areas of our life. Love your neighbor, your job, your friends, your family, your SO, etc.

Often the best things in life are free and available to everyone. You don’t need a fancy car, a nice house, or a high paying job, you just need one simple idea: Give yourself to others, enjoy them, watch the love grow and appreciate it’s effect. It’s stronger, more enjoyable, and more lasting than anything else we have.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.”
–Helen Keller

…

I am your constant companion.

I am your greatest helper
Or heaviest burden.
I will push you onward
Or drag you down to failure.
I am completely at your command.

Half of the things you do
You might as well turn over to me
I will do them – quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed
You must be firm with me.
Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons,
I will do it automatically.

I am the servant of great people,
and alas, of all failures as well.
Those who are great, I have made great.
Those who are failures,
I have made failures.

I am not a machine though I work with the precision of a machine
Plus the intelligence of a person.

You may run me for profit or run me for ruin – it makes no difference to me.

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet.

Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

Who am I?

I am Habit.