January Review
Every January millions of people make new years resolutions they stick to for a few weeks. I only made one - To act. I also set myself a January challenge to not drink alcohol, which I have now completed. As a side effect I have increased my overall productivity in many areas. Since the beginning of this year I have made the following positive changes to my life :-
- Not had one single cigarette
- Not had one drop of alcohol
- Consumed clean foods with only the odd treat
- Performed regular exercise
- Read 2 books
- Listened to 5 audio books
- Cancelled my satellite TV
- Lost 9lbs - Start weight 172lbs - End weight 163lbs
- Become a regular poster on my blog
I really feel like I have hit the ground running, my energy levels are through the roof, I feel determined to do absolutely anything.
The key to a major change in your life is to start small, work on the little tasks, get the results under your belt and continuously improve.
Thanks for stopping by, hope your getting something from the site. Check back tomorrow for my February challenge announcement.
Posted to Life, Productivity
Save the cheerleader, save the world
OK maybe not. Peter Petrelli from heroes needed to save the cheerleader to save the world. You however, can save the world just a little bit at a time.
Making a conscious decision to do your bit for the world and environment will help us all save the world together. It really is the little things that matter, like using reusable shopping bags, recycling where possible and turning off devices at the mains when not in use.
Doing a little often is enough to build momentum. Just like creating an interesting blog.
Posted to Blogging, Life
No distractions please
Darkroom is a place to do just normal writing without any distractions. It allows people to just write, no popups, no emails, no images, just simple writing.
Once you have your text inserted, you can then paste your text into wordpress for formatting.
A must have utility for any blogger.
Posted to Blogging, Productivity
Quick win v Long term success
Another great post from Seth Godin
“Many bloggers seem to be on a perpetual hunt for the front page of Digg. Sure, it brings you hordes of eyeballs, but then they turn around and leave. What’s the point of that, really?
I think that are plenty of tips you can follow to optimize your offering for this fickle mass group. But it’s still a crap shoot. Doesn’t it make more sense to incrementally earn the attention of a smaller, less glitzy but far more valuable group of people who actually engage with you? And the best part is, your odds of success are a lot better.”
This is exactly what type of blog I see this as, one where I have a small amount of loyal followers, that I can try and add value to their lives by sharing my successes, failures and findings in my own life. Self promotion is great for a quick hit in traffic, however word of mouth seems to get the type of people I think this site is aimed at.
Posted to Blogging
1 way - 100% guaranteed to change your life for the better
I have done it, Just like that. All it took was 10 minutes of my life and it will be the best decision I have ever made. I cancelled my satellite TV subscription. Yes, cancelled, not reduced but totally cancelled.
I decided enough was enough, I was never going to emulate the success of the likes of www.37signals.com, www.stevepavlina.com, www.iwillchangeyourlife.com, www.lifehacker.com etc. Sitting around every night watching pointless programs over and over again convincing myself that I will change it all tomorrow.
So there it is, I now have around 5 hours every evening to do whatever I want. One things for sure though, I won’t be sat in front of the box, I will be at the gym, working on this site, reading, learning, pushing myself, being curious.
Please leave comments or drop me a line if you have done something similar.
PS I also saved £50 a month that is going straight into my savings account 
Posted to Life, Productivity
Act now, think later!
Have you ever put something off, only to eventually complete it and wonder what all the fuss and procrastination was about? If you act before weighing up all the pros and cons (looking for reasons not to act) you will be surprised how much you can actually get done in a day.
Top tip: Write a tiny list of just 3 of the most important things you would like to achieve today. Keep it small at first and just do them, before long you will start making larger lists as you will develop the habit of list=action.
Posted to Productivity
Curiosity killed the cat?
One of the best blogs in the business is that of Seth Godin. His latest video post on curiosity is superb and really gets you asking questions of yourself and your purpose. Curiosity may have killed the cat, it also lead to some of the greatest advancements in human evolution.
Give it a watch, it’s only 5 minutes long, better than watching TV right? Link
Posted to Life
How to read more books
One of the things I have become much better at in the past few years is reading more books. Some of them for fun, some for work and some for personal development. The hardest part of self development is discipline and you here phrases often like “I wish I had time to exercise/read more”.
Well why not combine the two with the use of audiobooks? I was lucky enough to have been given the new iPod Nano for christmas and thought I would give audiobooks a try. Let me tell you they are great and I love them. Simply hop on the treadmill or bike and away you go, half an hour later you have read/listened to a good chunk of a book and managed to get your heart rate going at the same time.
I think they’re great, there are tonnes of them available too. Audible is probably the biggest supplier of them and you can find a huge range of books on most topics.
Posted to Life, Productivity
January Challenge Update
Since beginning my January challenge I have been recording my weight on a daily basis. My eating habits are still the same, fairly clean eating with the odd bit of indulgence. The results so far are pretty amazing really since I have only dropped alcohol.
01 Jan - 173lbs
02 Jan - 173lbs
03 Jan - 172.5lbs
04 Jan - 172lbs
05 Jan - 172lbs
06 Jan - 169.5lbs
07 Jan - 169lbs
08 Jan - 168lbs
09 Jan - 167lbs
10 Jan - 167lbs
11 Jan - 166.5lbs
12 Jan - 165.5lbs
WOW that’s 7.5 lbs in body weight gone it 12 days. Most of that will be water but a few lbs will be body fat.
I get weighed every morning at the same time right after a visit to the toilet. This keeps things consistent which is important otherwise you have no real idea of the progress your making. To demonstrate this fact I got re-weighed today after breakfast and I had gained 2lbs.
I will continue to keep track of my progress and will post another update on my January challenge at the end of the month. One thing I can say is I feel more energetic for it and more motivated. There really is nothing like progress for giving you more motivation you should really try it, it doesn’t need to be the first day of the month to start either.
Go on, give it a try, write down your goal and todays date with your current stats in a .txt file. Stop drinking, start running or whatever it is you want to do and take your measurements at the same time everyday. Only then will you really know how your body responds to things.
Posted to Life, Nutrition, Productivity
January Challenge
I am not a massive drinker, however I do like a beer now and then and the odd bottle of wine. As a new years resolution I have decided to set myself a January challenge and try and go the whole month without a single drop of alcohol of any kind.
For a (almost) 30 year old this is harder than it seems, however I do know people who have stopped drinking all together and they assure me it makes you feel like a different person. Combined with regular exercise it can transform your life.
So lets give it a go and see what happens. Not a drop for January, I am already 6 days in.
Posted to Life, Nutrition
