In this article, I am going to teach you how to make your Gmail inbox the central hub of your Internet experience. Plus give you some more time saving automation tips including:

• Setting goals with Google
• Get Google to send you a to-do list every day like clockwork
• Filter your email like a pro (and labelling)
• How to sign up for services and avoid email spam
• Using easy-to-create scripts that work at any computer to save you tonnes of time
• Centralizing your notes in a place where they’re easy to recall (free!)
• Minimize Facebook/Twitter time and still get what you want in a way that suits you
• Moving your documents digitally into “the cloud”
• Execute simple emails to update Twitter/Facebook
• Upload videos and save notes from anywhere with email access (including your phone)

Setting Goals

Before this month I set goals on paper using the system I raved about in a previous article. I feel paper is equipment heavy and not flexible enough. Google can change appointments without looking messy. In my paper calendar, I’d write a goal, then change my mind and not have enough space to write a new one.

I was using a paper system because I felt I couldn’t handle working online because of distractions so I knew I had to face this challenge. You won’t see “Google Goals” being released any time but you can combine Google’s existing products to take care of all of your needs in a way that is free, flexible and bends to suit you.

For some, moving from paper to digital can make things more complicated but it doesn’t have to be the case. This system involves a bit of work upfront but after a week you will be plain sailing.

The first thing is to decide what goal to set yourself and identify a habit to get you there. If you want to start your own business writing online, you could install the habit of writing 1000 words per day. Now let Google do all the organizing for you.

If you don’t have a Google account yet, sign up for free here and get used to Google Calendar and Google Mail. If you prefer another email service then you can sign up for a Google account, and set Gmail to automatically forward your mail to your main account. You can set it up so all of your email addresses receives and sends email from this account.

Open Google Calendar and create a new calendar called “Routines”. On tomorrows date enter write 50 words. Then the day after than enter write 100 words and so on for the next 20 days increasing by 50 words per day. When you get to day 20 you will be at 1000 words and for the 10 days after that you will be solidifying the habit you’ve created. Enter into the calendar 1000 words per day on these last 10 days. Many days you will find yourself writing over your minimum but as long as you hit the minimum everything will be fine.

Now here’s the brilliant part. Go to the “My Calendars” on the left and click the arrow next to the calendar your habits are on and then click “Notifications”. Check the email box next to “Daily Agenda” near the bottom and click “Save”. From now on, every day you will get a reminder in your email inbox at 5am of what is in your Habits calendar for the day. You can change your calendar appointments any time before that email is sent and it will get updated.

If you want to be reminded that an event is coming up, you can set a reminder. Create a new event or click an old one to edit it and on the right under options, you can add an email reminder to appear at a time before the event determined by you.

If you want to set a new routine in your life I recommend you start on the first of the month. Go to Google Calendar and create an appointment on the first of the next month in your Routines calendar. If you want to get up at 5am, write that in the calendar and select when if it needs to be done at a specific time.

Now click “repeat”, scroll to “daily”. Check “until” and then click the last day of the calendar month. Return to your calendar and it should have a new appointment repeated daily for the next month. Now sync that calendar to Gmail like we did above, and it will remind you every day. Try not to focus on any other major goals during this time to maximise your focus and chance of success.

Gmail is so flexible that you can sync just one calendar or all of them. Here’s my current calendar setup:

To Do List (Blue) – Tasks that I’ve decided are priority for today.
Routines (Red) – Habits I’ve developed and am in the process of developing. eg. Raw food diet, daily exercise, wake at 5am. I create a single event, set it to repeat daily for the next month and if it goes well, the rest of the year.
What else is happening today (Turquoise) – Things that aren’t important enough to get on the To Do List but that I may do when it’s finished.

I mention the colours because in the email I can tell by colour what is most important.

All that’s in my morning inbox is my schedule for the day. The rest is sorted into folders to be processed after my tasks are complete. It might take a while to get to this point of just one email, but there’s no rush. Spam needs to be deleted and emails need to be filed correctly over time as they come in.

You can sometimes leave emails that are marked too. If you see something in ‘Paypal’, you might know it is a receipt for a payment and doesn’t need processing. Here’s what my email inbox looks like most mornings.

(Click to enlarge. It will open in a new window)

We sometimes get email from people who haven’t contacted us before and that’s not sortable, is it? If you want to give your email to someone who you meet on a night out but don’t want it messing up your clean inbox there is a work around. You’d usually write something like JohnSmith@gmail.com. Iif you change it to JohnSmith+3@gmail.com then the email will still get to your inbox. Anything you put after the ‘+’ sign and before the @ will be OK. Then go to Filters in Gmail, set a filter for all email with the words “Johnsmith+3@gmail.com” to go to a label called Socializing.

Sometimes you sign up for sites for access but don’t want any emails from them. They might send spam or pass on your data to someone else who does. Use this technique again to sign up with an email address like “JohnSmith+nottoday@gmail.com” and set a filter for all mail to that address to be deleted.



About Habits

Habits can get you anything you want in life. Success is repeated action in the right direction. It will feel all so natural after just 30 days. It’s June 1st today, and this would be a perfect opportunity as it has exactly 30 days. If you stick to this simple effective technique and let the system work for you, I promise you will find success.

Then, install a habit next month of improving your writing in a little way by 1% each day. A month from now your writing will be 34% better. Little daily changes are big overall changes. You won’t need extreme willpower because there is no time where you really have to push your comfort zone. You start small and build. Brick by brick.

I’ve used this to get paid writing posts. I set the goal of applying for 3 every day and got 4 within 2 weeks. I figured if I applied for 150 positions in a month, someone has to hire me! This system is magical in that failure is not possible. If you change your daily habits you can achieve anything.

I also used this to eat a 100% Raw Food Diet. I never thought I could at the start but now it felt like the most natural thing in the world. That’s the power of 30 days. It taught me a lot about the nature of mind. It tells you something is absolutely impossible and 30 days later you are living that impossible reality. That’s the power of a limiting belief.



Gmail Task List

Gmail has a simple yet great task tool in the left column of Gmail which can be opened to a full screen. When I get the to do list email each morning, I immediately put the list on the task list with the hardest task at the top of the list. This way, I’m always rewarded with an easier task.



Google Labs

Google Labs has great little features to help you in Gmail. Go to Gmail > Settings (top right) > Labs and browse. I use the “Send and Archive” button which allows you to send and archive an email in one click when it’s been sent and also use the “Undo Send” which allows you to undo sending a message up to 20 seconds afterwards. This is a real lifesaver! Other options include the hilarious “Mail Goggles” which makes you solve simple maths problems before you can send an email to make you think twice.



Gmail Shortcuts

Google has installed shortcuts for many of their programs which save you tonnes of time if you use their products daily. You can print off or just browse here:

• Gmail
• Google Docs
• Google Calendar
• Google Reader
• Google Search Shortcuts
• Youtube/Google Video – uses the same as Google Search Shortcuts. Great for finding specific videos

For Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Reader you can view the shortcuts by pressing “?” and then pressing “Esc” to remove it. Gmail Labs also has a feature to allow you to create your own shortcuts.



AutoHotKeys Scripts

Whilst we’re on the subject of shortcuts, let me introduce you to free program AutoHotKeys ( (about / download / quick start tutorial / forums). It’s a free tool which allows you to create keyboard shortcuts to simplify common tasks. It has many uses to save time. Don’t be put off by the way, I’ve never programmed a line of code in my life and found it simple to use.

I use it to do things like:

• pen regularly visited websites
• access my music
• shut down my computer in one second

I’ve set it up so the useless key between ‘Alt Gr ‘and ‘Ctrl’ is set up to minimize all windows and maximize once pressed again. It removes the need for clutter on my desktop as I can just link to them all.

The best thing is that you can download a .exe file of the script you have created and email it to yourself in Gmail (or upload to Google Docs storage) and run it from any Windows machine with email access. The Google Docs storage is 1GB total and 250MB maximum for a single file. It can be found here and is a great replacement for your USB stick.

If you get confused about what the shortcuts are, I’d recommend creating a desktop background with them on so you see them regularly. Also, use each one with a letter that makes sense. You might want to use “Windows Key and D” to open Google Docs. I’ve added the basics of my AutoHotKeys script here which you can use as a basis or add to your own script.



What about Google having all my data?

I don’t feel scared that Google or Facebook will abuse my data to a level that will bother me. The whole uproad about Facebook recently only affected me because I wanted to lower the amount that I used Facebook anyways rather than that I cared about my data. But I realise others are a lot more private than me. If anything absolutely major did come up I’m sure I would find out and there are many alternatives. You could go from

Google’s Picasa –> Flickr
Google Docs –> Zoho
Facebook Video –> Youtube/Vimeo – I’d actually start with Youtube for uploading videos for business OR personal video. Facebook video is terrible.
Facebook Status Updates —> Twitter only

I just like how clean and efficient Google is and expect to use them for a long time.



How to stop wasting time on Twitter/Facebook

There’s a couple of free tools that I use that are fantastic for this. The first one is TweetByMail (free). Staying with the theme of controlling everything from Gmail, it allows me to send emails to update my Twitter. I’ve used Facebook’s SelectiveTwitter application to automatically send my Tweets to Facebook whenever I end them with the hashtag #fb. This way I don’t have to visit the site where we will procrastinate.

The next one is my personal favourite and is called NutShellMail (free)

(Click to enlarge. It will open in a new window)

You can set up NutShellMail to land in your inbox before you wake just like the task list. It gives you a highly customizable email which tells you all about what’s gone on in the last 24 hours on your social networking pages. It works with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace. It helps you to get rid of those annoying messages when someone comments on your wall or likes your status. You might think you will miss out on big social events but people will get hold of you another way.

You can stop Twitter sending you annoying update every time someone follows me through Twitter notification settings.

Since running this site, I like to update my followers on Twitter/Facebook but don’t want to have to log in 3-4 times to send them. This is where SocialOomph (free) comes in. It lets you send updates to Twitter at precise times. I tend to schedule 3 in the morning to publish at something like 9am, midday and 7pm, People still get updates from me and I don’t even have to be there.

Another great feature of SocialOomph if you’re running a business account is that it can send a message to new followers automatically to forward them to your site or tell them about yourself.



Google Docs

I use Google Docs to digitize nearly all text documents. I only have music stored on one computer. Google has mountains of space for my needs on Docs and odds are they have enough for you too. I store things like PDFs and scanned documents in my Skydrive account (free) because it has more space.

The filling system they have is great. You can add a bookmark-like star to important items, put items into folders and use the inbuilt search feature to find old or related articles. I store things like my goals list, ideas for posts and the posts themselves before they’re published. It automatically saves your post as you’re writing it and I’ve never had a situation where I was writing something and I lost it completely because my Internet cut off.

If you’re a fan of GTD (Getting Things Done) or similar systems, you can integrate Google Docs. If you have an “@My Boss” list for things you have to ask your boss about for example, you can create a document called @Boss and bring it up on your smart-phone via Google’s free docs application and update or read it there and then.

Docs also integrates with the book reading system that I recently blogged about.The basic principle is that you take notes on your books, upload these to Google Docs and only keep a few really high quality high books but you can read more here.



Uploading via Email

Sites that you can upload to via email include:

• Facebook Photo/Video
• Flickr Photos
• A WordPress blog where you store notes. You can store notes here whenever you get one via email which is great for those great ideas you get on the move (more on that later).
• Youtube Videos

If you add the email address to your Gmail contacts then you just start typing something like “Facebook upload” and it will come up. You don’t have to memorize the address. To add a contact, click “Contact” on the left in Gmail and above “My Contacts” click the “+” sign next to the little man and enter details.



Automating Reminders

For some things, you want to be reminded when they become available like videos of your latest shows etc – FeedMyInbox (free) is fantastic for this. You simply find the RSS Feed URL of the site you want the updates for and FeedMyInbox will automatically send you a link when the feed is updated. I use this for watching Family Guy (RSS feed link).

If you watch lots of videos on-line, the best quality ones tend to be Megavideo. They have a 72 minutes daily limit but this can be worked around. Make sure you’re using Firefox browser and download the Illimitux Add-on and follow on screen instructions.



Collecting Notes

I used to track my calorie intake on blogspot sites daily so I could see how far I’ve come and make improvements along the way. Now I send my emails to a site where I tag them in the email and they are automatically organised into tagged sections for recall later.

I email what I’ve eaten and the total calorie amount daily to my WordPress site and write [tags calories] at the bottom and if the tag hasn’t been created yet, it is created new on the site. All I have to do to get all the calorie posts is go to the site, click the tag and they’re all listed in chronological order.

This could be used with workouts or simply to collect interesting links online. The only tough thing is remembering the tags to use but if you make them simple you’ll be fine. I picked a minimal theme called Sandbox. It’ s easy to navigate and has the tags displayed under each post. Make sure when you are registering your blog to enable the option to not allow Search Engines access to your website if there is confidential information on there. To create your own WordPress site, click here (free).



A Great Side Benefit

I love looking on Google Calendar over the past few months and being able to see how far I have come in terms of personal development. The times when I couldn’t get up at a regular time and slept all day keep me humble but also confident that I can do anything if I put my mind to it. It’s like a vision board for you except it’s looking back rather than forwards for motivation.



The Final Goal

You’ll get to a point where your email is extremely efficient. You set goals online, you have all of your documents/pictures/videos in “the cloud” (stored online) and your Twitter/Faceboo is minimized to what you want. Your email in-box is your processing centre for everything on-line and is constantly updated with everything you want, want to add and you’re free to change at any time.

I recommend blocking out a few spare hours to upload everything from your calendar to Google Calendar and then throwing away your old one so you are not tempted to go back to it. Upload the documents you currently have on your computer to Google Docs. If it makes you feel comfortable then back them up to your desktop using Google Gears too.

It works for me, now – this is all that’s important. In the future I may have a lot more possessions but for now I will minimize what I own. If it doesn’t work for you, don’t let people tell you that you have to get rid of things because you’re plugging into a certain mindset or whatever. Some people are comfortable with more possessions. I still think that most people can get rid of 20% of their possessions and be happier for it though.



Why Are You Minimizing?

I am minimizing possessions for detachment from things and to get rid of distractions. If all I had in my bedroom was a laptop and a table, I’d be forced into productivity and there would be no distractions to take my mind away. It’s for the feeling that I am free. That I am not held to judgement by the things I own. By owning little but being genuine I will attract people of a similar level. It speaks to peoples spirits, not their minds. In one swoop, I will get rid of lots of possible negative future friends in my life.

I differ from the main view on one major point. Many minimalists just concentrate on getting rid of their external junk. This can lead you to detachment but real change has to come from the inside. You have to consciously face and dis-empower your attachments. The inner detachment will lead to the outer one but the outer one not necessarily to the inner one. Once I feel I get back to a level where I feel unattached to objects, I may slowly add things back into my life. Only time will tell.

I’ve become a lot more conscious recently and after dropping so many inner attachments the outer objects feel dead and non essential to me now and having things like this in your environment feels wrong.



My Inspiration

My main inspiration is nature. Nature is the ultimate minimalist. It takes a human mind to create complexity. Everything gets used in nature. A gorilla eats a banana, throws it on the ground and its soaked back into the Earth to be re-used as nutrients for trees or maybe to make the ground more fertile for seeds. No waste, no non-essentials. Nature will take over our possessions one day when they break down or we die so would you rather mke the choice conscious instead of accepting the default?



How I Did It

The first thing is to make a list of your temporary possessions. Things like toiletries, washing machines, cutlery don’t count unless they’ve been hanging around for months unused. Now make a list of everything that you have in your possession. If you have hundreds of things already, you should get rid of some of them before this as compiling a list that large would take forever.

Now, get rid of are the most obvious things. Clothes that are too big, too small, have stains on them or are simply not you anymore. After that things like money boxes and little presents and cuddly toys that you have had for years doing nothing are the best to go. Only get rid of a maximum of 10% of your things here.

After this first batch, I’d say take pictures of everything you own. Now you can slowly go through each thing getting rid of things that you will not need that are on your “maybe” list. You could set a 30-day trial of getting rid of 2 or 3 items per day for a month. If you are not looking at becoming a traveller in the next few weeks, what’s the rush?

Setting a limit of 1 or 2 items each day if you have 200 items now could whittle them down to 140 within a month and you’d feel comfortable about it. If you get rid of things too quickly you’ll be too far out of your comfort zone. By all means go on a purge. But or those things you feel an emotional attachment towards it is better to rid yourself of slowly. They were accumulated slowly after all.

Money is the ultimate value. With lots of money, you an afford to own very little but have access to it things whenever you want them. You can pick up a t-shirt for £5 for example.

With emotionally attached items you may want to consider just taking a picture of them (or scanning then if they’re letters/birthday cards) so you can keep the memory but ditch the physical thing.

Find friends willing to swap with your unwanted possessions with thing they have that you really want. This is especially useful for luxury items that you want rid of. I plan to get rid of my bicycle and bench watch and expect to get some good deals for these in exchange for really useful items.

About this time you may want to start telling people about your new minimalist view. This will shock a lot of people and some of them will think it is selfish that you turn away birthday gifts etc. It reminds me of some advice: “When talking to a fool, make sure the other person isn’t doing the same thing”. When they bring up resistance, don’t get drawn in, rise above.

If they insist on a gift say you will only take certain things. Make your own list but a sample may include:

• Money
• Donations to a charity in my name
• Extremely Useful Things

Questions To Ask When Minimizing

• Should I save for next season (winter/summer)? - Yes, but only keep minimum clothes. If you’re expecting to grow or get smaller over the next few months then get rid of what you can and save the bare essentials that fit your physical body and style.
• Ask myself, is there a free alternative to what I’m doing that is just as effective? - I realise that I don’t really need the weights that I have at the moment (dumbbells/barbells/JML Bar) because they are so light that I could get just as effective a workout using my body weight and tabata intervals (pushups/pullups/situps/elevated push-ups). It would also mean I could workout anywhere.
• If I had to, how could I get by without this item? – This is a very powerful question. Ask your mind the right question and wait. It usually finds a really creative answer. I asked this about clothes and got the answer that I could figure out how often I clean them so I always have fresh ones but do not own too many items. I will test this for a month soon.
• Ask myself. could I just get rid of this because its used so irregularly that I’d be better off just buying/borrowing one when I need one? – Examples include – a football pump, a full suit that never gets used.

Minimalism is a Journey

Minimalism is the internal and external minimization of unnecessary things. It’s like happiness in a way that it’s not a destination that you reach, it’s a journey and a state of mind that you hold in the present. You won’t wake up one day a minimalist when yesterday you were not. You consciously decide to bring it into your life and things will come and go. Underneath, you stay unattached, simple and minimal. That’s the basis of it.



Treasured Memories

There is attachment in life and then there is the beautiful feeling you get whenever you remember someone or something. Having one or two little possessions that remind you of great people who’ve passed away or brilliant times in your life is not a bad thing and I’d go as far as to recommend it. It brings your spirit up when you think of them and is a positive influence.



The List

Here’s the list of the 86 things that I currently own.

Books x 20

Casual Shirts (12)
11 x short sleeved
1 x long sleeved

Smart Shirts x 1

Pants/Shorts (10)
Jeans x 4
Running Shorts x 2
Smart Black Pants x 1
Running Pants x 1
Pyjama Pants x 1
Long Johns x 1

Other Clothes (2)

2 x full suit

Exercise Equipment (6)

1 x set of small dumbbells
1 x set of big dumbbells/barbells
2 x football
1 x BMX bike
1 x JML pushup bar

Computer/Electronics (5)

Laptop x 1
SD Card x 1
USB Stick x 1
1 x ipod shuffle
Mobile/Charger x 1

Shoes (5)

Steel Toe Cap Boots x 1
Snow Boots x 1
Brown Smart Loafers x 1
1 x flip flops
1 x plimsolls

Jackets/Jumpers (5)

2 x jumper
2 x hoody
1 x winter jacket

Misc. (20)

1 x set of bike keys
1 x drawstring bag
1 x stanley knife
1 x cycle oil
1 x broken pair of glasses
1 x england flag
1 x lever arch file
1 x ear plugs
1 x wallet
1 x bench watch
1 x bench money box
1 x diary
1 x stack of paper
1 x set of keys for relatives house
1 x nhs donor card
1 x current account card
1 x pen
1 x money box
1 x plastic wallet with essential documents
1 x library card

I would still estimate that I don’t need or regularly use 50% of this stuff so lots of this will be going over the next month. I aim to get some more clothes, replace old ones, reduce exercise equipment and get out in nature to exercise and experience the elements.

I will be keeping an updated list of my posessions called “Everything I own” over here. I’ll update it regularly when I get rid of things or add a new thing and keep the old list so that we can track the minimalist progress.



Will Minimalism Work For You?

Like it or not we all live in a society that is largely consumption based. We eat too much food, consume too much information and you sometimes feel like you’re drowning in a sea of “things”. Minimalism will work for you if you feel lost in stuff, if you lack concentration in your life and if you are an experimenter who likes to try things out for themselves.

It’s like I always say though. My system works for ME. Don’t feel that you have to use the whole system, just pick and choose what resonates with you and what doesn’t. If it works for you then great, if not then I apologize for wasting your time .

When you’re finished eating, taking the food straight to the outdoor bin gets it off your plate (couldn’t resist) and it’s gone. A great idea is to get rid of your bin from your kitchen which forces you into the habit. You will always have a really clean looking house for when people come around and there will be no lingering smells or overflowing bins.

If I’m going downstairs, I take my paper bin every time, and just nip outside to empty it. It takes literally 10 seconds and keeps my house fresh and neat. This habit works well with a Raw Food Diet which I adopted and blogged about recently.You don’t have to spend forever cleaning dishes because fruit and veg doesn’t stick to the plates like meat. You eat, put the foods in the outdoor bins, rinse your plate and you’re done.

You also start to condition a mental habit which is “I’ll get things done now so they don’t grow into something huge I can’t handle”. This skill will naturally transfer to other areas of your life like your finances, health and relationships. Action will become your first response.



2. Enjoying Washing The Dishes

I genuinely enjoy washing the dishes. I love the warmth and the little rainbows inside the bubbles and the calm centred moment it offers me. Experience the vibrant colours of life. Stroke your face with a hot towel, feel the sharpness of the wind on your skin or the sun on your neck, watch a Dad teaching his son to ride a bike on the local park.

There is beauty in these things. They get you out of thought and in to experiencing this moment. The media industry imprints a view of life upon us to only be really happy in the big moments – weddings, job raises, the birth of a child etc. If this is true then are we due to experience at best average happiness for 99% of our life?

99% of life is small moments and to not appreciate them is a dis-service to yourself and everyone else. An unhappy you is useless to everyone. What sounds, sights and smells can you appreciate right now around you if you chose to? Enjoy your little slice of perfection.



3. Spice Up Dull Tasks

Every day I have to eat 100g of Brazil Nuts as part of my diet, it gets boring quickly. I do things like go for a walk and eat them or spread them throughout the day or eat them with Watermelon or an Orange. If your mind is focused on another task when you perform something boring then the task will get done but you won’t have to suffer through it.

You could listen to music whilst cleaning, return phone calls whilst riding your bike or make plans for tomorrow in your head when you’re sat in a boring meeting. There’s opportunities everywhere once you start looking around and you are only limited by your creativity.



4. Consciously Slow

The “super fast” side of personal development is mostly bogus. People who tell you productivity is about speed usually aren’t productive themselves. They tend to do lots of things but none of the right things and so the slower turtle wins the race. Do you agree with me here? Look at them in their eyes – are they deeply satisfied running about their lives? Do they have the complete lifestyle that you want or do you have a more suitable role model in mind?

I’m enjoying the ride and don’t plan on arriving early. I want to soak up all the experience life has to offer. Change happens in an instant but it takes time to manifest in the physical world so you might as well get comfortable and enjoy the journey. A great way is through slower movement.

Whenever your body is moving fast so is your mind. Consciously slowing down your body will immediately affect your mind and simplify your thoughts creating the space to get out of your thoughts and into experiencing this moment. Not to mention how sexy slow moving people look .



5. Read One Book At A Time

Do you have lots of books strewn around with folded corners and bookmarked pages left half read? Until recently, have about 5 or 6 on the go at any one time. You don’t get much out of books like that. So I developed a system for it. I created a complimentary flowchart diagram to simplify it for you too. It’s based around taking notes on books, digitizing the notes and only keeping in the long term a core selection of under 10 books.

Reading one book at a time increases your consciousness about what you’re reading. You have to finish the book before moving onto the next one so this will force you to pick better quality books so you don’t have to suffer through terrible ones.



6. Plastic Fantastic

Have you ever wondered if you could just never use cash and get by? I do 99% of the time. Places like bars have a minimum price of £2.50 ($5) to use plastic but just buy your friends drink and get them to give the to buy you the next one. We are creative enough to get around this. No coins feels great. My pockets now just hold my cash card, my house key and one pen. Simples!



7. One Pen

I use one pen, and it has my name on it. People know its mine and it’s always with me. Doing this will make sure that you never have that feeling on the phone or when you pat all your pockets looking for those darn elusive pens! Plus, it looks great when you’re always prepared with a pen.



8. Paperize Your Productivity

When it comes to staying organized I stick with good ol’ pen and paper. It’s so easy to get drawn in on-line to the latest shiniest new application and we start to forget the original purpose is to be productive. With pen and paper its easy. There’s no adverts to distract you, you just write your goals and they stay there. If in doubt, write it out.



9. Stop Talking So Much

We have two ears and one mouth. Is God having a little joke with us here? Some say he’s showing us to listen twice as much as we talk. Talking uses a lot of energy. Do you ever find that people who talk a lot are trying so hard to connect with the other person but the other person just wants someone to listen! It doesn’t work. By doubling your listening in conversations, you will connect much deeper, appear profound and save yourself lots of energy.



10. Pay off Lots At Once On Smaller Bills

If you have a small monthly bill then consider opening a new account and depositing 6 months worth of payments and setting up a direct debit. You decide what a small amount is. This unloads the hassle from your mind and allows you to concentrate on other areas of your life safe in the knowledge that this one is sorted for the medium term. Simply remind yourself to restart payments by writing a reminder in your diary a couple of weeks in advance.



11. Always See An Opportunity to grow

Develop a certainty that every event and person in life is there to make me grow. If someone is annoying you, you can grow from it. It’s an opportunity to develop your humility, patience, unconditional love and even humour. It could be the push that you need to find a new group of friends or an opportunity to show your partner your moral strength. There is always an opportunity for growth.

Can doing yard work for an elderly relative be framed as a chance to catch up and get some exercise? Could you frame working at a dull job for a while as disciplining yourself to be persistent for when you finally quit and work for yourself? Can’t your annoying boss be a lesson is laughing at yourself and humility?



12. Benefit From Social Networking Without Wasting Time

I use a site called “SocialOomph“ (The free option) and Twitters Official Facebook Application (Always Free). Combined, they can save you lots of time with social networking. The Facebook/Twitter Application lets you update Facebook via Twitter. I set it up so every Tweet appears immediately on my Facebook, reaching all of my online friends in one swoop. The coolest bit about this is that SocialOomph allows you to schedule Tweets.

You set a Tweet now, and it appears at a time of your choosing. In the morning I might write 3 statuses that are published at 9am, 2pm and 9pm. You can update your friends on how your day has been without ever having to visit the tempting Facebook interface and let it post for you. I give myself a timed 30 minutes in the morning on Facebook and that’s it for the day. It’s so efficient and I heartily recommend it. It spares you energy and lots of time to pour into other areas of your life that excite you more.

Reading about role models can make you uncomfortable sometimes because they might be doing so much better than you in an area of your life that it makes you feel like you’ve failed. Try your best not to dwell on these thoughts though and let them be your inspiration rather than feeling shame or inadequacy.

I like picking role models in my life and surround myself with them. Why do you think people put up posters of Muhammad Ali or Martin Luther King? Their subconscious sees it and it becomes part of their personality. If you read enough about them and have their thoughts circulating around your head that you will become like them. As Buddha said, we are an accumulation of all we have thought. It’s impossible to have thoughts in your head over the long term and not be affected by them.

A few of my role models are :

• Eckhart Tolle - My main spiritual mentor. This is the man that truly sparked my understanding of “the self/ego” and realizing that on a level beyond physical things. I am already perfect. Before this all personal development felt selfish but now I have a clearer understanding of what my true nature is I don’t feel this anywhere near as often. His first book is easily the most influential of my life, bar none. It allowed me to feel a deep unshakable peace unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced and a knowing that all was good in the world. He inspires me to stay present and watch the craziness of the human mind.
• Lao Tzu - Although he’s dead, I feel his book the Tao Te Ching contains eternal wisdom and is one of the deepest spiritual book around today. Eckhart Tolle has been carrying around a copy of it with him for decades. He also speaks to my creativity. He uses a minimalist kind of poetry to connect with you.
• Dean Karnazes (Runner) – This man is all about persistence. He ran 100 miles in under 24 hours non stop, ran a 200 mile race on his own and his book “Ultra Marathon Man” is incredible.
• Steve Pavlina – Before reading of Steve Pavlina, I was a typically convinced Atheist (don’t worry there isn’t a Christian rant coming up!). I read some of his posts and found that he was really logical with his thinking in some areas which connected with me deeply but he also wrote on spirituality! This was a shock to my system because to me you couldn’t combine the too. I found my spiritual side through him and he is the biggest influence in my life in terms of cutting edge personal development. He’s where all my passion for personal development comes from. I thought his blog was good but his book is just on another level and helped me achieve so much in 2010 already.

You’ll often find that your role models combined will reflect a mixture of your current personality and where you’re heading.Your role models will change over time. People can only teach you so much and there is such a variety out there that you should never stop looking to learn more.

Who would you say are your top role models in your life at the moment? What does this say about where you are and where you are heading? Do you feel a deep connection with them or are you just answering the questions?!?!

Role Models Are Within Us

I once heard that reading a book is like sitting down with the greatest minds in history. I wanted to take it a little further and actually sit with them but I’m not into digging up graves. Let me explain.

I know that all other people are a projection of my mind and take that as a given. If you don’t agree with me here, show me where “other people” exists. Lao Tzu doesn’t exist anywhere in external reality. He’s dead but I still think about him so where is he alive? I have a mental concept of him from all I’ve read and thought about. All I have ever had of Eckhart Tolle is a mental concept as I’ve never met the guy. Unless you’re directly interacting with something right now you can never be 100% sure if it exists, can you?

Asking For Guidance

The next step here is in your mind to ask for guidance from them. Sit down with them in a room in your mind and ask them questions and listen for the answers. Be prepared with a blank document as this can be seriously realistic and I sometimes find myself typing 600 miles an hour from the answers that I’m receiving.

Really interact with them though. Try and experience them with as much depth as you can. Use your vision, smell, feeling etc and deepen the feeling that you’re actually there. I find it useful to make their characters seem realistic and life like. The have bodies, regular clothing, habitual tendencies and I say goodbye at the end etc.

You will create the experience of sitting with someone you truly admire and to your mind this was real. It’s like if someone tells you that you are going to die your mind will react with an immediate state of fear. If it’s one of your friends calling you playing about then there was no actual danger but you still experienced the fear. Your mind believes what it’s told.

What I love most about this technique is that I know that the answers are within me. They’re not in some external place that I have to travel to or strive for. I have all the answers and it’s just a process of finding them and using the right techniques.

Problem Solving

This is really useful when facing a problem in your life where the answer is not clear and you could do with multiple perspectives from outside of your own repetitive thoughts. You can go to all of your role models and ask each of them for their view and then go through your notes. I was amazed the first time I did this and honestly thought it was a stupid idea but the experience is eye opening. When I got up, I felt like I’d been chatting along with people who I admired and it made me feel fantastic!

Strengthen Your Connection

Maybe the person you have as your role model has a biography or autobiography and you could read that. This really helps you get into the same state of being as them. Listening to Tony Robbins motivational tapes every day will get you into a state very similar to his and the same with Eckhart Tolle for spiritual depth. You are the combination of the top 5 people you associate with. If you can’t physically meet them then this technique works wonders.

If you have no role models at the moment then that’s fine. Pick something that you’d like to become amazing at and then go and read about someone who is already where you want to be and by developing your mental concept of them you can ask them questions.

It’s really just a technique for accessing a higher self you but works really well. To be honest, it works just as well to create a totally fictitious character who has all the characteristics that you want and talk to this person. Now you can connect and recieve guidance from all these amazing people without ever moving a muscle.

Every human being is the author of his own health or disease. – Buddha

Taking Control

The first realization to develop good health is that you are in control. You can’t blame anyone else and doing so only weakens you. I know I’m probably not talking to most of you but this is for the few that need to hear this.

Grabbing the steering wheel is the first thing that needs to happen before you can drive your health forwards. So many people are in denial about this that I thought I’d better point it out first.

It’s hard to admit sometimes but you are doing all these things to yourself. Nobody lifts that hand to eat that burger except you. Only you have the power to change. Now when you’ve claimed your power, here are 9 excellent habits that I’d recommend to you.


1. Stop Eating At 80% Full – Your bodys signals aren’t available to your mind straight away, This is why when you eat to the point of being full, your body feels absolutely stuffed for long after you’ve finished, it was full long before then.

If you stop eating at 80% full then your body will be nourished but not stuffed and your energy wont be drained by an overly active digestive system. Digestion takes so much of your energy away. Just look at how people fall asleep after eating a Sunday Roast.


2. Eat For Nutrition First, Then Pleasure – This is a mindset which all healthy humans make at some point. You realize that health is more important than satisfying your tastebuds. Some people put importance on things like how food is prepared, the cost in disregard to the quality etc.

Eating for nutrition is simple. Just eat what your body needs. I’m not one for over complicating things and so I just eat what I know my body thrives on and makes me feel amazing and take a …


3. Daily Multi-Vitamin – When I first started a Raw Vegan Diet I had a lack of some vitamins because I started it without knowing what I was doing. I didn’t like eating some of the foods that had essential vitamins in. I now take a single multivitamin tablet each day to make up for it and make sure I covered all bases which leads me to my next point …


4. Continual Change/Improvement – You have to be prepared to pick out what you think may apply to you, what doesn’t and experiment with it including everything in this article. Most Raw Vegans don’t eat a supplement but its the right path for me right now.

Most 21 year olds don’t get up at 5am and exercise every day but that feels totally normal to me. Making small changes to your diet each day can lead to massive results a few months from now. Exercising a little self control over time allows you to conquer bigger and bigger challenges.


5. Eating The Diet That Nature Intended – Follow your intuition when it comes to deciding which foods to eat. I like to think that it will lead us all to a Raw Vegan Diet but that might not be the next step for you.

You can find more about my experiences with this diet here. I’m not trying to push it upon you. It’s just that the path for most people tends to be -

Meat/Dairy Eater > No Dairy Products > No Meat > No Processed Food > Raw Vegan (Nuts, Seeds, Fruit, Vegetables – All Uncooked) > Fruitarian (Just fruits – uncooked)


6. Heavy, Light, Veg - This idea came to me when I started a new job and needed to fit my diet around its awkward times. This is what I’d eat on an average day.

Morning – After my morning workout I’d need to get lots of calories. I would eat a fruit and nut breakfast. It would include foods like bananas, mangoes and especially avocados. This gave me energy to burn throughout the day.

Dinner – I would eat lots of fruit. I’d get a large lunch box and fill it with all the fruits that I enjoyed and more for variety. The idea is that the fruit will give you an energy boost at lunchtime just when you need it so that you can get through the rest of the day.

Tea – I’d buy a bag of fresh green leaf salad on the way home and mix it in a big bowl with cucumber, cherry tomatoes, maybe some grapes and definitely some red peppers! The idea is to eat a light meal at the end of the day so your digestive system is not working throughout the night, preventing you from getting good sleep.


7. No Eating For 2 Hours Before Sleep – Did you know that the digestive system is the most energy consuming process in the body? Eating in the 2 hours before sleep made me feel groggy because my digestive system took away all my energy so I stopped and instantly felt more refreshed in the mornings.


8. Regular Waking Time – I’d definitely recommend experimenting but here’s what worked for me. I get up at 5am every day and go to sleep whenever I feel tired. The idea is that you sleep when tired but always have a regular waking time.

It doesn’t have to be 5am. It’s one of the best things I’ve done for my health. The combination of good eating habits and good sleep does amazing things for your body.

Getting up at a regular time helps you stick to a set meal plan and opens so many other doors for you in your health. Getting up early gives you mental clarity, a sense of self control and allows you to exercise or do something you are passionate about before your normal routine starts.


9. Fasting – I didn’t know that they sold Raw Chocolate where I shop and after buying some one day, after eating no chocolate for over a week it was heavenly. Words can’t describe. It was like I hadn’t drank water for a week and the first drop was hitting my dry tongue.

I savoured it like it was the last piece of chocolate I’d ever eat. An occasional fast like this gives you a new level of appreciation for food. They say you never miss the water until its gone and you’ll appreciate it on a whole new level once its back.

You’re are an author writing the book of your health whether you like it or not. Some of the book has been written and some is still to come. It’s a work in progress and you just have to ask yourself – What am I going to write for the next few chapters?

I wanted access to the information from my books but didn’t want them in my home as they take up space and re-reading books for information is inefficient. So, I created my own system . It’s minimalistic, flexible and fills my needs.

This system will suit you if:

• You want more physical space
• You enjoy minimizing your possessions
• You have books lying about unfinished
• You never want to re-read a book again
• You want to digitize as much of your paper as you can
• You want an organized system for new books that you buy
• You feel that sorting your books into a system would give you mental clarity
• You want to extract the best lessons from a book and convert them into real life lessons

THE FIRST PURGE

The first step is to put all the books you have now into the system. When they’re in the system we can learn how to deal with new books.


Collect Your Books

Next, put aside a few hours to process all of your books. Maybe a day at the weekend or an evening. Collect them all together and get them in front of you on the floor.


Elimination

Get rid of all the books that you don’t want to read even if you’ve already started them. Also get rid of books that you have read and don’t want to come back to in the future. Don’t feel obliged to finish a book that bores the life out of you. You can give them away. Give to needy friends, sell on-line or give them to your local library and loan them out if you need them back.


Select Your Keepers

Are there some books that you just know that you’ll want to keep with you even after you’ve read them and taken notes on them?. Be strict here. Would notes do really and it’s just an emotional attachment?

I recommend setting a permanent limit on the number of books you can keep. You don’t have to max out that limit now. It’s like an overdraft, it’s just for emergencies. I chose a limit of five, but only have four in the list now. This is your “Keepers List”.

The “Keepers List” books are there for you to dip into whenever you want. These are the only books that will stay with you for the long term. You can change them but it may require sacrificing another book.


Separation

On paper or preferably a computer create three lists:

1. The ‘Keepers List’
2. Books you want to take notes on immediately without a re-read to decide if they’re good enough (called the “Notes List“)
3. Books to read/re-read before deciding whether they’re worth taking notes on – called the (“Reading List“)

Learn To Speed Read

Before you start processing the books I would seriously recommend learning to speed read so that you can scan a book before deciding whether it should progress to the “Notes List”.  A book I own and would recommend is The Speed Reading Book by Tony Buzan. Speed Reading is a set of simple techniques for reading at significantly faster speeds than normal. Imagine reading every book in a quarter of the usual time. I’d say you’d easily half your reading time compared to reading the book in a normal way, very easily.

The Three Stages

Stage 1 – What To Read Next?  (Reading Stage)

Is there a topic/book that you want to dive into right now that really gets you pumped? Or even one that you would love to collate notes on to get a view of the bigger picture? Or just simply to get them out of the way and off your mind? If so, put these books at the top of your “Reading List“. Pick one and start speed reading it straight away. If it’s good enough it will go to the ‘Notes List’ Stage. If not, you can get rid of it.

Minimize the books that you bring into your life during this purging period. Don’t buy and ask others not to give you any. If they do, then they simply go to the bottom of the ‘Reading List’ so that you can process the ones that you already have.


Stage 2 -Take Notes (Notes Stage)

If you decided that the book was good enough to take notes on, it progresses to this stage. Go back through it this time at a slower rate, taking notes as you go along in a way that will make it easy for you to quickly relearn in the future.

Go through the books that we decided before were in your ‘Notes List’ before progressing with books on the ‘Reading List’.

Go out there and apply what you learn and this is what I call your ‘Studying Book’. Study it you until you’ve achieved a level you’re happy with. Taking notes on personal development books is only good as a backup, their needs to be action. There’s no rush to get through the list. This is why I recommend being so picky with your reading books.


Stage 3 – Is it A Keeper? (Keepers Stage)

At this stage you can decide whether the book qualifies to be added to your ‘Keeper List’. Most wont but maybe one book per year will change on it. Most books can just have the lessons drawn out of them. If it’s not good enough to be a Keeper then learn from it, take notes and get rid of it.

Here’s a simplified flowchart diagram of the  system and three stages.

(click to maximise. It will open in a new window and can be printed with my permission.)


Digitizing

If you’re digitizing your notes then I recommend you use Google Docs. It has every feature you could want plus more. It has highlighting, folders, remote access, can be accessed off-line and from anywhere with an internet connection and is totally free.  The best feature is that it has a search function to separate notes into genres so they’re easier to find. Applying this system over years could give you a lot of notes after all.


Topic Notes

You’ll get to a point where you have made notes on several books in one area. You will start seeing patterns and want to keep note of them. I recommend keeping an editable document that combines ALL of the notes on this topic condensed further than the original ones. You will learn more and more as you go along and eventually have everything that you have learned on a topic on one page. You can add to this with information you read on-line, hear about from other people or learn through personal experience.


Once All Is Done

It’ll feel great once you’ve got this up and running. You’ll have something that lets you know exactly what will happen with books once they come into your life and you’ll have access to the information without the bulk. They will be processed efficiently and you will have peace of mind knowing that all the information is being dealt with.


Notes

1. I’d recommend getting several books on one area and taking notes on them all.
2. Go To Philosophers Notes for a wide range of notes on Personal Development (Text and Audio) to save you time. If you have a personal development book already then you could go to the site and use some of the notes there. I’d always recommend buying a book rather than just reading notes about it because you might pick up a gem that someone else missed. They might be detailed enough for you or at least a great starting point. Another idea is to do an internet search for Book Title Notes eg. The Power Of Now Notes.
3. You can use this system for exam revision but with taking more detailed notes. The section on topic notes applied especially here.
4. The system is suited at factual books but could as easily apply to lessons that you’ve learned from fiction books too. If you read a Harry Potter book (crap example!!!) and it fired off some creative ideas then you’re still learning something and should jot it down and then implement it.
5. I have no fears about digitizing my notes. I’ve been doing it for years and I’ve never had a problem. If you are nervous that you will lose the notes then you can always back them up to an external harddrive. Documents hardly take up any space at all.
6. Getting all the notes on a specific area in front of you allows you to get a great zoomed out view of the greater underlying principles at hand. You can’t get experiences like this from just reading them one after another as you’re too focused on the shallower concepts.
7. Work the system to your own needs. You don’t need to do everything I’ve set out here. Be creative and do what suits you, that’s how I developed this system.
8. You could do this with audio programs and documentaries. I’ve listened to so many audio programs over the years and sometimes they’re great to re-listen to just for motivation but why not extract the information and move them on?
9. If time goes by and you don’t want to read a book any more just get rid of it. Life’s too short.
10. It might be a bit messy at first as you go through books on unrelated areas but in the future you can buy several books on one area and condense the notes for future use and it will allow you to get deeper into a topic than jumping between different areas.
11. (For those of you interested, my Keepers at the moment are

• Personal Development for Smart People - Steve Pavlina
• Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu
• The Power Of Now - Eckhart Tolle
• Stillness Speaks - Eckhart Tolle

£45 – A weekly shop. Includes 20+ bananas

On April 1st 2010, the day after my 21st birthday, I turned around my diet and become a 100% Raw Vegan and after only slipping up twice since then I feel like I’ve got to tell someone about this.

For those of you unfamiliar with a Raw Vegan diet, it includes eating just the following, uncooked;

• Nuts
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Pure Fruit/Veg Juices
• 100% Pure Honey
• Anything else that has been created by the combination of Earth, Air and Sun and not tampered with.

I got the idea from Steve Pavlina and thought I’d try it for myself. All I knew at the start was the above. I hadn’t read any advice about what to eat, how much and when. I just went for it and this is what I found.

Drinking Water

I started drinking little water or juices because I get so much liquid on the diet indirectly through the fruits that are all full of water. Bananas are 75% water, mangoes 82%, avocadoes 74%. I used to eat so much cooked, dry food that I had to make it up by drinking lots of liquids. With giving up alcohol earlier this year it is a strange sensation to go from drinking so much liquid to so little in just a few months. I drink water the most now whilst exercising for a long period of time aka football.

Social Challenges

I once gave in and ate cooked food at a family get together because I didn’t feel comfortable telling everyone that I was on this diet. Even though it was light food (coleslaw, breaddsticks) it affected me so much that I decided the pain of my body was not worth doing it again. Once you go raw it’s really difficult to go back without huge pain and this should be considered before going raw.

This led me to totally cutting out ANY cooked food whatsoever. Whenever I get tempted I remind myself of the 2 times I gave in and the terrible feelings I got and then compared that to the mental alertness I get under this diet. It’s a no brainer by then. It’s all about focus. You focus on the wonderful tastes of fruit and you’ll be fine.

It’s hard socially being a Raw Foodist and this is something I’m still dealing with. At the moment I would say find people who are health conscious or at a minimum people who won’t judge you negatively. It’s hard enough adopting your body to a totally new way of eating without having people sniping at you at any chance they get.

People will see you eating a different diet and their curiosity may lead them to ask you why you eat this way. Some will react positively and be genuinely curious but some will react negatively and put you down, which means they are uncomfortable with it.

This isn’t your fault, it’s just the level they’re at. Imagine a man with women all over him in a club full of loser guys, it’s the same thing. Success makes people who aren’t successful uncomfortable.

Adapting to a 9 to 5 routine

For some stupid reason I decided to undergo a work trial at the JobCentre and ended up quitting after 2 weeks as I hated it. The point is, I was eating a Raw Diet at the time and had to adapt the diet to suit the working hours and boost my energy levels throughout the day.

What I’d usually do is have a basic three-meal plan. I would work the standard 9am – 5pm and had 45 minutes for lunch from 1:15-2pm.

In the morning, I workout and immediately need some energy and to put some more fat back onto my body I’d eat a high-calorie fruit breakfast with nuts. This included mangoes, avocados, bananas and pineapples because they are calorie dense. These calories slowly burn throughout the day.

For dinner, I’d pack a large plastic container with all the fruits that I might enjoy for dinner. I never knew what I’d like so packed a variety. I’d then pack a Spork and a small knife. This meal will give you an energy boost and mental clarity to get you through the remainder of the day.

For tea, I’d pick up a fresh bag of salad on the way home and mix in some red peppers, cucumber, grapes etc for one super salad about the size of a basketball. Some like to finish their day on a heavy meal but I find it leads to poor sleep.

Throughout the day, I’d nibble on food at my desk like nuts and grapes which are perfectly sized. I experimented with making part of my dinner into a smoothie that I could drink whilst at my desk, saving time but found them too filling.

The Cost

Yes, it does cost more than a processed food diet but the ultimate gain of eating a Raw Food Diet is vibrant health which is priceless. It’s all relative. You can get food prices which are updated daily (for Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, Ocado – All UK) at MySuperMarket. I buy a weekly shop and go a few times throughout the week to get new things which I like fresh on the day.

If you could afford this and are still indecisive, how much is your health truly worth to you? I bet you pay insurance of some kind. Health insurance MIGHT pay out ONE day in the future. A Raw food diet pays out from day one. If you are thinking that this might be for you but are not 100% sure if you could stick with it then I’d say kick it off with a 7-day-trial, see how it goes and then consider adding another week etc.

Weight Loss & Pictures

I weighed about 136 pounds before I started this diet and had been that weight consistently for years. My scales are broke at the moment but I’ve had no noticeable strength loss since I started this diet, it’s gone up. For those trying to gain muscle and stay cut, I direct you to this picture of Tim Van Orden who eats a Raw Food Diet.

And this one which shows how fit you can be at 57 on a Raw Food Diet. Arnold Schwarzenegger vs Storm the Raw Vegan. I think there is a lack of people out there as great examples of this mainly because the Raw Food Diet is still mainly underground. Simply having a smaller population of people as examples doesn’t make something wrong though.

I have been logging my workouts throughout the Raw transition. Here are a picture of me a week before going raw and a week after going raw.

There isn’t much difference really. I’ve been able to lift more with the same (or smaller) sized body so I take this as a good sign

This is the ultimate weight loss diet because you can eat as much as you want and still lose weight. I’ve heard of people increasing their calories on this diet and STILL losing weight. This is great for people who have a strong psychological tendency to comfort eat or over-eat. You can continue doing that, lose the weight and then challenge the psychological side of it later.

At the start, I found myself looking at the amount of food I had in front of me and thinking “I can’t eat that much”. It’s because you’re used to eating dense food that has no water in it. Let’s say you ate a watermelon-sized steak. This would bloat you but the same sized salad wouldn’t even fill you. I got over this by simply starting to eat it and realising that I was still hungry and continuing.

The Detox

Your body goes through a huge detox process whilst on this diet. It’s the strongest at the start but I presume it will last many years. I can’t comment on the long term effects yet but know I’m still in the detox period. I’ve eaten processed food for 21 years and it’s been 2 weeks since I started. I think to myself, what would the level of health be after eating like this for 6 months? a year? 5 years?

Skin

My skin is so beautiful and smooth at the moment. The back of my hands and my torso feel as if they are finally breathing and the skin on them is baby smooth.

Counting Calories

I am not bothered about calories at the moment or how much I weigh. I can tell how strong I am by my lifts and my mental clarity tells me if I’m eating the right foods. If you wish to keep track of calorie amounts you can use Calorie King. You can even put in the exact amount in grams that the food weighs to get an accurate reading.

Because I am so light and have a low body fat if I miss out on a meal it is a major shock to my system and my energy suffers because of it. This is something I’m going to have to look into in the future.

Nuts/Seeds/Chocolate

I started eating lots of nuts and raw chocolate at the start but have noticed that they slow me down and engage my digestive system too strongly so I’m going to slowly phase those out.

Why You Shouldn’t Give In – An Example

Sometimes it is difficult to see how far you’ve come. You know you’re doing well NOW but you can’t remember how it felt before. Well one day I was in Sainsburys and the universe thought it would teach me this lesson on this.

I was in the healthy section and saw a pack of 4 chocolate brownies and after determining they were free of egg I ate two of them. They were quite tasty … a little too processed to taste natural though… I noticed there in big capitals “EGG” on the ingredients. OOPS!

For some stupid reason and I can’t tell you why now I decided I’d better eat the other two just so that they’re all gone. Rationalization is a crazy thing . Everything was fine for a few hours …

Then I started experiencing mental fogginess, lack of energy and kept on farting all the time! The next morning I was on the toilet for an hour and was sweating profusely and was too weak to stand. It taught me a valuable lesson though.

Sainsburys Range

Sainsburys does have a decent range of organic products by the way. If you go, ask for the “free-from” section. Be wary though, a lot of the food is free from some things but still contains lots of processed crap.

You can get Innocent Smoothies from your local Supermarkets too that are blends of 100% squeezed fruit juices and have great taste combinations like Kiwi, Apple & Lime. I was really into them but stopped drinking them as they were too filling and preferred eating the actual fruits.

Mental Clarity

When I started meditating earlier in the year I ate a cooked food diet. Now I’ve stopped meditating for the time being as this diet gives the same level of flow, ease and mental clarity that I got from my daily 30-minute meditation. Combining both together in the future will produce great results. You experience moments of ecstasy and mental euphoria on a daily basis and that’s no exaggeration.

Compassion For Animals

I have found that this will increase as you eat the diet. I tried the diet mostly for reasons like improved energy, personal growth but the compassion for animals will only come later. I often open the fridge to see a chicken carcass in there and I have such a huge compassion whenever I see it now compared to just 2 weeks ago. You will stop seeing cooked food and animal products as “food” and it just becomes “edible”.

Self Control

It’s definitely been a huge challenge for my self control. I basically gave up meat, stopped drinking 90% of the liquids I previous dranked, gave up cooked food, tea, biscuits, crisps and coffee all at once and replaced them with something else. I feel so strong in the fact that I’ve stuck at this that it bears any other benefits hands down.

I think its too tough to tackle this from a position of a normal meat eaters diet without smaller transitions (giving up coffee, then meat, then cooked food etc) if you haven’t already successfully installed habits in your life before. In 2010, I’d already started to meditate, get up at 5am and exercise every day. I knew I could handle this. If you don’t then I’d recommend you take smaller steps to guarantee the success. Who would turn down a guaranteed success?

Isn’t It Boring Eating The Same Foods Repeatedly?

When you’ve stuck at it for a week you get some amazing tastes. Your tastebuds are numbed by all the processed foods you’ve eaten and you come to realize how amazing a juicy watermelon can taste or how smooth an avocado feels on your tongue. It’s like you have a new set of tastebuds as they gradually come back to life.

If you feel like the foods are boring though there are always ways to spruce them up. There were times when I saw a huge salad and thought “That looks so boring”. Salads can be added to with honey, lemon juice, lime juice, fruits like strawberries etc. Experiment and find out what works well for you.

In a week I might eat the following foods – Nuts, Apples, Oranges, Clementines, Bananas, Pineapple, Passion Fruit, Plums, Romaine Lettuce, Chard, Spinach, Red Pepper, Cucumber, Carrots, Mangoes, Strawberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, Sprouts (only once!), Kiwi Fruits, Melons, Watermelons, Lemons, Limes.

I know there are more but that list shows the variety that you can get. I love bananas and feel I could eat them non stop. I read a story about a guy who eat 40-50 of them a day, and that’s nearly all they eats except celery and tomatoes. This guy also runs over 100 miles each week and owns his own software business. Truly inspiring. It’s not for me though … yet .

My only productivity tool this year is My Pocket-Sized Diary. It offers a cruel 3 squared inches of writing space per day. I picked it up in December at my local WHSmiths store.

New productivity tools are often excuses for not finishing something on your to do list. A new tool gives you a quick lift while you check out its features but leave you unfulfilled when you have unfinished tasks at the end of the day.

Haven’t you ever felt you’re just doing things just to avoid completing what you know you should? Don’t get me wrong, there is some great productivity pr0n out there but for overhauling your life you’ll get it done by going simple from the start and building slowly.

Why So Small?

I picked a small diary on purpose. The bigger ones tempt me to fill the days with unimportant tasks and information. The writing area is so tiny that I just have space for the most important tasks and the other ones don’t get recorded and tend to solve themselves.

I Can Carry It And Tick Off Each Task – It’s like a PDA except it cost me $5. It doesn’t need charging, there’s no monthly subscription and I can sleep well at night knowing I’m going to achieve my goals.

It’s Pocket-Sized – If I’m with friends arranging something I’ll take it in my pocket with a pen to write down details. If I get an invite for a night out and I don’t know if I want to go yet, it goes in the “Notes” section in the back.

People Can Relate – People can relate to someone who pulls out a diary in public. It’s nice, simple and anyone could have one. Being around people who use intelligent words that you don’t understand or pull out a shiny new phone makes you feel inferior.

A year from now you could have totally changed your life around with this simple system. Telling friends that you started off with just a $5 diary will be a great Zero-To-Hero story.

Simplicity and Selectiveness : A Productivity System

I used to buy into the idea that a system that captures everything was the pinnacle of productivity but for 99% of people it’s over the top. Define the important, capture it, do it and let the rest slide. Be selective and let your pocket-sized diary be your calm, centred productivity heaven. The essential tasks get recorded there and you are fulfilled when you are done.

You will never be fulfilled if you have an endless to do list. I’ve tried it, but you’re welcome to find out by yourself. Fulfilment is found in accomplishing worthy goals and rewarding progress along the way.

Decline Invitations - If you don’t set guidelines on your time, others will. Decline invitations to do things you secretly don’t want to. Nobody can do this for you. If people get angry, it’s their issue to deal with. Be polite, and move on.

How To Set Goals

My aim for 2010 is to start a new habit each month which I will continue with after that month. I have a great section in the front for this and I hear that Jerry Seinfeld followed a similar system.

I have a couple of lines underneath to write what I want to accomplish that month and each day I circle the day if I’ve done it. For January for example I wrote “Up 9am daily, 200 hits to blog”. Simple and actionable.

It keeps you motivated to see you’ve gone 8 days in a row. It feels incredible to have a one page analysis of all your tasks from this year and see how far you’ve come. It’d be a nice gift to your kids one day.

I go by the idea that habits form goals. What you do daily, you become good at. By setting goals across different areas in this year I am going to totally transform myself in 12 months.

So far, this system has allowed me to…

• Wake at 9am daily
• Give up Alcohol
• Write for 1 hour daily
• Meditate for 30 minutes daily (highly recommended)
• Visualize daily
• Write 30 blog comments each day

And in the next few months I will adopt the habits of …

• Daily Exercise
• Going Vegan
• Earn a full-time income on-line
• Waking at 5am
• Ruthlessly minimizing computer time
• Moving into my own place
• Giving up TV for a month
• Socializing 3 times per week
• Setting an automated plan to pay debt

Once you’ve been doing it for a month you’ll start to see the magic. You will know for yourself that you can do anything if you keep it simple. It’s just a matter of time.

I set myself monthly goals in the same section. The goal for February is “250 daily hits on my blog or 100 daily visitors“. If I set a goal at the start of the month. On the 14th of the month I decide whether or not I’m on target to achieve it. If not, I double the workload, if I’m on course, there is no need to.

You can try the same productivity systems and fail again or you can use this system, build slowly, and have success guaranteed.

People will tell you to give them $29.95 for an “insider secret” but real secret is that there isn’t one. This brainless system IS changing my life this year. How do you feel about joining me?

I’ve struggled the last few years with purpose in my life. In school I was above average intelligence and nicknamed “The Professor” at age 10. Teachers told me I was a lazy genius. I’d rather spend time throwing radiator-fried grapes at my friends. School life was D-U-L-L.

I had great teachers though because I went to a Grammar School which is a big deal in the UK. These schools teach the top 2% of students in the country. I got detentions regularly in high school but did pretty well with no revision getting mostly B’s and a few C’s.

After picking subjects I had a general interest in, I got accepted into college at 16. I skipped classes constantly and my only goal was trying to be the best table football player. I didn’t want to be in College for the classes but it was better than getting an entry level job. It was starting to bug me now, What was I going to do with the rest of my life? This couldn’t go on forever.

2 years later, and I’d scraped into University by the skin of my teeth. I moved out into my own place and just got drunk every day. It was the popular thing to do and I just bleeted along with the other sheep, scared to listen to my intuition. As the cliché goes “I majored in Alcohol” and once got put in hospital after returning to my house and puking up blood in my flat, not fun.

There was no purpose internal or external in my life and I was drifting aimlessly from one thing to the next. Why was I even here? What was the point in this? I didn’t enjoy my course and my debt increased each day that I stayed here. I had vague goals but didn’t have the self control to even go into University each day.

It’s feeling like therapy writing about this. I’ve put it out of my mind for so long. I had a “University Box” which I cleared out a month ago which has all my old papers that I just didn’t want to face as the memories were so bad.

Down beaten, depressed and in debt I moved into a relatives house and after a few odd jobs here and there I saw an advert in my local paper for a company which is well known in the UK for delivering catalogues door to door.

I phoned up and arranged an interview. Fast forwards to the day and I’ve handed over £75 for a kit of 50 catalogues. The idea being that I post them through doors and when people buy something on an order form I get 50% of that money.

I stuck it out for about 6 weeks, telling myself that it was just I needed to stay at it. After a while my “mentor” called me and told me that there was a huge company meet up in Birmingham at the NEC arena that was free and I WAS INVITED!

It was a place they use for concerts and was huge. We shuffled into out seats with the other 5000 people there. During the show they gave cars to people who had earned so much for the company and the speakers had the audience in uproar shouting in ecstasy and appreciation.

I could feel the energy around me that everyone except me seemed to be plugged into except me. It felt scary and animal-like. I decided on the way home I would leave this as soon as I got home. This definitely was not my purpose. There was still enough strength life left inside me to keep searching. I just hadn’t found it yet.

The Internet Era

After a few short jobs it wasn’t long before I started looking online for work. I got into selling digital products on the net. I earned quite a bit of money, writing about 50 articles per day. I was the guy who had money but hated life. The type of guy we all laugh at and hate to think we might become. I feel sorry for people who do this because I know what it’s like. It’s not fulfilling at all and numbs you as a human.

All my previous failures were nothing compared to this. Whenever I was awake, I was working. I say awake sparingly as I became a robot. I started treating my family like crap and withdrawn into myself. This suffering was deeper because I put in so much effort and hated life even more than when I started.

This radically changed my outlook on life and I started reading up on self-development and spirituality whenever I could and putting it into use. In September 2009, I started this site. I knew immediately I had found my passion. In January 2010 I quit selling products on-line and concentrated all my effort on this blog. And this is where I am now.

So, What Does This Teach Me About Purpose?

When I was younger I couldn’t get my head around what people meant when they said “The tough times will make you stronger” but it’s becoming so clear now. When you have experienced the worst possible scenario you know you can handle them and so can then shoot for your dreams with nothing to lose.

Purpose Takes Time – Your purpose won’t just come to you overnight like on the TV. This business is going well for me but I’ve started 2 businesses before this one and went to University twice. Do what you love and you’ll find your way.

Perseverance Is Key – You might fail with 3 businesses in a row but with perseverance you dust yourself off and stand up for the 4th time. If you run a business do you get angry if your sales dip? Just keep changing your approach and concentrating on providing value and obstacles fall to the side.

Set Your Goals Long Term – If I had of thought long term in the last 3 to 4 years instead of not believing I could do it, I would have been much happier and earning tonnes more money than I do now. Be the tortoise and roll your eyes at the hares.

Never Give Up Your Dream – An easy goal gives you no motivation so you will probably not achieve it. Who cares about earning $10/month in additional income? By setting huge unrealistic goals you get pumped, your creativity and physical energy will go through the roof and these will power you through the tough times.

Success Is On The Far Side Of Failure – Things WILL get tough but I would not change any of the things that happened to me. They make me the man I am now. I have been taught meaning, perseverance, courage and service amongst other priceless things.

Follow Your Passion And The Money Will Follow – By doing what you love the money will come because you will be providing genuine value. Every penny you earn from your passions feels like it’s worth a million times more than a penny from something you hate to do.

The most important lesson I’ve learnt overall is that ultimately there are 2 ways for positive change to happen in your life.

Number #1 is that you will suffer daily until things are so terrible that you can barely get up and look at yourself in the mirror in the morning and you are forced into change. This is the way I learned the last few years and it’s the hard way. Its point is to show us that there is an easier path which is …

Number #2 which is that we choose to change before the problem comes to us. This is what Stephen Covey calls being proactive, not reactive. This happens to people after they have suffered so much after experiencing the first one. We learn to use our human power and we will never have to suffer that much again.

Have You Suffered Enough?

Following Path #1 will lead to years of suffering, but maybe you’re not ready to take control yet and that’s fine.

For those of you out there who feel strong enough, start making proactive choice before life catches up with you.

Many people are actually controlled by their emotions. Just consider that for a second. If you are controlled by your emotions, are you ever fully in control? Can you say to a family member that relies on you “I’ll be there for you in hard times” and one day you don’t know how to control emotions within you, then you might not fulfil that promise? If you feel angry and you physically or verbally lash out, you were not in control at that point if you regret it immediately. If you were in control you would not have took that action. What then was in control? You were letting your emotions run through you and your autopilot habits took over. This is acting out of conditioning which is the old level of consciousness that humans are leaving. The new one is free from emotional bondage.

Emotional control paradoxically comes from first letting yourself become vulnerable to your emotions and accepting them. So many people deny their emotions and resist them. Resistance always causes an object to become stronger. Once you accept and make yourself vulnerable to an emotion it is allowed to flow through the wall of resistance that you have created and learning how to control emotions is found in this surrender. This sounds abstract, and it is, but you just have to experience this rather than listen to it explained. When an emotion comes to you just sit and be with it. Don’t judge it, just recognise it and it’s released from your system along with its past.

There is a you observing the emotions and the emotions themselves. When you do not deeply realise this simple truth then when an emotion arises, you become it. You get a raise at work, you become happy, you become the raise. As that happiness goes you try and get it back because it felt so blissful, as the raise goes, you have attached yourself to the raise and the emotional feelings that accompanied it. This is why you feel so under attack when things go wrong. You have duped yourself into thinking you are dying.

How to Control Emotions: The System

The that this works always follows a similar pattern which is:

• Recognition/Awakening
• Acceptance
• Meaning
• Observation
• Release

RAMOR! Sounds like an evil Aries noodle monster or something. (Ramen Noodles. Aries is a Ram … Ah screw it … my humour is wasted on you guys!).

Let’s go into them a little further shall we?

• Recognition/Awakening – This is where you realise that you have been under and have been controlled by your emotions. This the most critical step. If you stay unconscious to the emotions ruling and running your life then the other 3 steps are impossible. You will all of a sudden realise “This isn’t me, I’m getting emotionally controlled here”.

• Acceptance – The first step that seems logical is to get angry that you are experiencing negative emotions. Darkness cannot bring light to darkness! Watch your mind trying to get angry and just accept this. Accept that this emotion is here right now and is in your system. It is unconsciousness trying to come out of you which is a good thing.

• Meaning – Emotions arise within you to bring your attention to important things like reminding you to be compassionate. Note what the emotion is telling you to do and ask how would your higher self deal with this? Resolve to take action in the next 24 hours. The emotion is now ready to be released.

• Observation – Now you have recognised and accepted the emotion is there, observe it, partially. When you’re done or if it is not important then just observe how the emotion makes you feel physically and what it does to you mentally. Notice the subtle links between the two. Make it your aim to be as alert as possible as if a burglar has entered your home and you are trying to sense him with all sense. Just feel your body as a field, what area is claiming your attention. Give it your non judging attention.

If you do not do this the emotion will stay clogged in your system and leave behind a residue of sorts which will clog up your being. Also, acceptance is important in this step as you must just keep observing the emotion is out of your system and peace is returned, it can be a tough process but keep reminding yourself to accept what is. This step of observation also brings in the critical noticing that you are not your emotions, body or mind but are in fact observing them. This step will take the longest.

• Release – When you keep accepting the emotion has served its purpose and is heading out of your inner energy system. You will know it had gone when you no longer feel its pulls and you feel a calm inside of you. This is the final step.

Asking how long this will take is like asking how long a piece of string is. It depends on experience, what emotion it is, the person in question etc. All I know is you will get better and more efficient at this process the more you do it.

Practical Techniques

If you feel a strong urge to do something that you know your better self would not do catch yourself doing it. Just keep watching the bodily sensations, the thoughts that accompany it etc and take no action. Eventually things will die down and you will be able to choose the better course with your clear, still and focused mind. It becomes easier with practice.

Emotions arise within you as a physical reaction to your mind. You can tell by someones body what emotions and what state of mind they are in. This also can work in reverse. If you want to feel extremely confident, then change your body posture to standing up tall, looking at the ceiling and smiling. It is impossible to feel terrible when you do this I tell you. This is more of a short term thing to give you an instant boost than a long term fix where real control is gained but it can work if you are about to ask someone out or make a speech for example.

Sit and see what arises. Do not go too deep though as going into your emotions of the past is never ending. This is just to show you how the technique works. Watch your mind and when a thought arises and you get taken by that thought into its little world when you come back to presence from it, see what it has done to your body and mind. Feel that you were not there and it is a scary feeling, kind of as if you were sleeping.

When you start doing this you will start to notice just how unawakened you have been in your life before you learned how to control emotions. When thoughts and emotions are consuming you and you suddenly wake up into observation it starts to feel like you literally have woken up from a dream, the sensation is incredible. The whole of reality changes that moment.

You can literally do this at any time. It only takes one second to look inside and become aware of your emotional state. In a queue, in your silent moments make it a habit to look inside and ask “How do I feel now?”.