As I write this, today marked the first day of my Monday freedom. It was the first full day that I could truly devote to myself and my goals. Although I have found the process of mind mapping to be effective for prioritising my tasks, the past few weeks felt unnecessary busy, and I felt myself stressing for no apparent reason. Starting the week completely different was exactly what I needed. A new routine, new thought processes and an exciting chance to plan ahead.
It Almost Felt Wrong
You know the feeling when you sense that you should be somewhere else right now? It was a strange sense of freedom. One I’m not used to! But then I soon settled into a new routine. It all started with a walk by the river, allowing myself to think and plan the day ahead. I got a chance to do the often neglected step of confirming my goals, soaking up the sun and appreciating the day ahead.
My Mindset Check-up
I came to the realisation that I’ve been too hard on myself. I’ve let the stress and pressure to get things accomplished interfere with my progress. I’ve led myself into a position where I’ll put tasks on hold or procrastinated over them, after turning an activity that should be enjoyable into a stressful chore. It became obviously clear that my mindset needed a little realigning. It’s said that what we think about directly relates to the decisions that we make and the results that follow.
So after ‘stopping to smell the roses’ so to speak, I’m now excited about what I’ll get to achieve each Monday. Having days like this to get my mind focused back on track can only help reduce stress levels and change my outcomes for the better.
How do you keep focused and motivated? What works for you? Do you create time for yourself? As always your comments are welcome.
This week is my very last week of working under a full time contract. The idea of reducing my work hours from full time to part time has been in the back of my mind for some time. As you may already know – I’ve felt that I’ve not had enough time to work towards my true goals in the past. So I’ve finally decided to take a step forward and take action. Along the way I’ve encountered a few inner fears and concerns, but ultimately I can only see this step as a beneficial one.
When you feel like time is passing by very quickly, yet you don’t have the time to act upon any of your goals, the result is a frustration. You feel ‘stuck’. I started off this blog by making a commitment to myself – I’m going to act more, be more creative and work towards the things that are more important to me. Even having the time to THINK about what things are important to me, and to continually be able to reassess my goals – can only be beneficial.
So I’ve renegotiated my employment contract to cut back to part time hours. Although I’m only reducing 4.5 hours per week, the most important step for me is to be able to claim one day per week to myself.
Monday is My Day
When you have an entire day set aside, it’s far easier to get things done. I’m usually far more productive in the morning, so I’m looking forward to fast tracking my goals! Having Monday free will give me the opportunity to not only work towards my goal outlined on this blog, but I’ll also get to rediscover some creative pursuits. It is great feeling to be creative for the pure satisfaction of expressing creativity!
My Concerns:
Okay, so yes I have to admit I have been a bit fearful of the consequences of this decision. There are a few factors that have to be considered.
Career – If I work part time, how does this reflect on my commitment to my overall career? Does it mean that I appear as less committed? Although I do enjoy my job, I can’t imagine it being a long term career choice. I’ve come to the realisation that I need extra time to learn more skills as I’ve felt my ability to learn more in my current position is limited. The ability to further my skills is more important to me.
Money – Cutting back my wage means I have to be more budget conscious. I might need to hide my credit card and pay more emphasis on tracking my spending. Anyone got some tips on budgeting?
I’ve been waiting (and waiting) for an Australian equivalent of mint.com to be developed. Mint.com automatically links all your accounts together and makes budgeting a breeze. I didn’t think there was an alternative until I recently did a Google search and found ANZ MoneyManager. I have just signed up and although I’ve been able to add all my credit cards and my stock trading account, my main banking account doesn’t appear to be supported – doh! Otherwise I would be able to check out my net worth – live – at any point in time, scary!
Although in the short term I will have to be a little budget conscious, I believe the sacrifice will be worth it. That’s an extra 52 days per year that I get to devote to bettering my knowledge and working towards my goals.
After eating one too many Magnums to acquire free Gold Class upgrades, it was about time to appreciate another Gold Class experience. There is nothing better than enjoying a dessert wine & a hot chocolate in the cinema! I pressed the button to start my seat reclining in preparation for the commencement of “Julie & Julia”.
Julie Powell’s goal was to make her way through 524 recipes from Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” – all in 365 days. She didn’t know if anyone was reading her blog (apart from the one comment from her mother), but regardless, she set herself a goal.
I absolutely loved this movie, and I’m compelled to make comparisons rather than write a review. I really connected with Julie’s character (played by Amy Adams). I can really relate to where she was coming from. She needed to create more meaning outside of her job.
I know the feeling – without a creative outlet, you feel like you are wasting your time. You have that feeling of ‘time flying by’ but you have nothing to show for it. I also needed a creative outlet after coming home from the 9–5. Julie found her passion in cooking, and found tremendous inspiration from Julie Child. For me, my goal its to be financially independent so I can develop my true passions (can I go as far as saying developing my life’s purpose?).
Julie’s results were inspiring. Although she was faced with criticism, she didn’t let it crush her dreams (*spoiler alert* – her ultimate idol – Julia, did not approve of her journey). Julie not only developed a true passion for life, but found the strength to be herself. This is a clear demonstration of the amazing power of words – to inspire and influence others.
It’s almost laughable that before seeing this movie I had no prior knowledge of this story, however, apart from the obvious differences in the niche – I could find a few similarities. Unknowingly I’ve almost picked the same taglines – 365 days is my challenge as well! Her headline is “what could happen”. My headline is “will it happen”.
I really appreciated the contrast between the two people Julie & Julia, and the contrast between the two mediums – both the offline publishing world and the online blogging environment. In many ways, the struggles were the same. Regardless if it was trying to find a publisher or praying for blog comments and growing a list of followers, both characters saw their goals through to completion.
Seeing a movie like this has only made me more passionate about following through with my 365 day challenge – what can I do to knuckle down and produce the results that I desire?
My Next Challenge:
So far I’ve identified two opportunities that I will develop to a level that I’m satisfied with before tackling anything further:
Developing a niche blog site with article & video marketing (I can’t reveal anything just yet!)
So don’t hold your breath for a sequel called “Julie, Julia & Joel”. I’m not a cook, and I don’t intend on blogging about the cooking niche, but I do intend on finding the steps to reach my goal.
If you’re new to blogging, and you feel perhaps that you might be wasting your time, or you’ll never build up a list of followers – think again. Watch this movie – get inspired and set your own challenge in your niche. Who knows what might be around the corner?!
I’ve noticed lately that I’ve been struggling with my time management. After a busy day at work, I’m not coming home with a focused mind ready to achieve the tasks at hand. Part of the problem is due to the fact that I’ve had too many projects on the go at once – and I’m trying to do them all simultaneously.
I’ll start something; I’ll think of something else 20 seconds later, and then I’ll be jumping between different tasks without seeing anything through to completion. Because I’m tired after the busy day, my short term priorities change and I’ll work on non-crucial tasks (because I’ll end up doing what I feel like doing, not what I should be doing!).
I’ll then look back at the list of things that I wanted to achieve – and realise that I’ve done nothing that was on the list. The end result is a lot of disorganised, half finished projects. At least I’ve identified a problem, now its time to find a solution.
Setting Daily Goals
I think my solution is to start setting specific daily goals, and stick with them. So I’ve decided that I need to start planning, otherwise my progress will suffer. By implementing this guide, my goal is to have more focus, increase my productivity and be more accountable for my results.
Mind Mapping My Week
Starting on a Sunday I will be planning my week ahead. I’m going to begin with a mind map, creating a branch for every day of the week. I’m going to create a flexible outline that I can expand upon each week. The following activities will become the basis for my template.
My weekly MindMap blueprint - Setting the schedule for the week
Monday
I’m dedicating Monday to reading and research. The idea is start the week with inspiration to spark new ideas. This will mean reading books, listening to audio material and taking notes – but not acting upon anything.
Tuesday
After giving myself time to think over the new material that I have absorbed, Tuesday will be a content creation day. This might mean creating blog posts, writing reports and ebooks.
Wednesday
Wednesday will be used for interaction. This means I’ll post and promote any new material that I have created, and engage with my audience using social media. This might mean developing contacts through Twitter, posting on forums, and building upon various Web 2.0 sites.
Thursday
Thursdays are a very busy day for me and my time is limited at the end of the day. But for what time I get – I will devote it to both technical and creative applications. This might include technical development of new niche sites, keeping up to date with WordPress plug-ins and keeping track of any marketing campaigns.
Friday
Friday afternoons I usually don’t get much achieved – so I’m going to leave this open. This time can be used to sum up my progress so far, build my motivation for setting goals for the weekend.
Weekend
I usually use weekends as a time to unwind from a busy week, (and all motivation goes out the window!). But if I’ve previously identified some things that I would like to achieve, I’m going work on following through. Weekends are a great time to work on developing creative ideas and turning them into actions.
So that is my new weekly blueprint of what activities I’ll be aiming to work on each day. Although the idea is to also leave this schedule fairly flexible and changeable when necessary – it also means that if the temptation arises to jump between doing various tasks at once, I’ll know I’ll need to pull myself up to make sure I keep on track.
Although the creative process is something that can not be directly controlled, my aim is to be able to shape it. This has to be better than living in a constant state of creative chaos!
I’ll often come up with some of the best ideas at the most strangest of times. Capturing these ideas on paper has been my challenge. I often feel like I’ve got all these great concepts that need to map further, but by the time I get a chance to break it down on paper, the meaning gets lost in the process.
Little did I realise that the solution has been sitting on my bookshelf for some years, unread. It was a book by Tony Buzan called “Mind Maps At Work: How To Be the Best at Your Job and Still Have Time to Play”, which was a loan by my mother (Yes Mum, I’ll return it soon).
I decided to pick up the book and take a look, after hearing about the benefits of mind maps from numerous sources. It made a lot of sense. The reason why I’m encountering creative frustration is due to the process in which I’m expressing my ideas.
Buzan highlights the importance of using both the left and the right side of our brain. The left brain is described as our technical or analytical brain and the right brain is our creative brain. By creating a list, the concepts in my creative right brain gets diverted through my left brain before it lands on the page, meaning the original message is getting lost in the method of expression.
Mind mapping - start with a central idea and work your way out
Which is apparently where mind mapping fixes the problem. Mind mapping is a process of expressing ideas using a creative method. It’s all about branching out from one central idea using plenty of different colours and images. You’ll then proceed with an ever evolving branches firing out new ideas. It allows us to make new associations and links between different branches – which really is all about mimicking how the brain thinks.
Become Your Own Google
Buzan refers to mind mapping similar to being your own search engine. So think of it as sending out your own spider into the depths of you brain to index all your ideas by putting them on paper.
Forget Creating Lists
So basically – creating lists are outdated (unless of course its a simple shopping list). Creating a list is like indexing a single website. You can make a start, but you won’t even scratch the surface in comparison to what mind mapping can do.
Mind maps can be used in the workplace, in our daily planning and for our creative pursuits. However, I do have to admit that I don’t quite have the time or patience to be getting out the crayons and creating some wonderful looking illustrations. After reading about Tony Buzan’s mind maps, I discovered his mind mapping software.
I took a free 7 day trial and loved it. It’s simple to use, easy to alter or change and your canvas size is practically unlimited. You don’t have to be and artist and draw your own images.
After starting a few mind maps, my trial was up. So I spent $99 and bought iMindmap Elements. But to be honest – the cost was worth it. I can now have far more clarity with my projects knowing that I’m using more of my creative brain.
Time for another challenge! Every morning I must wake up 45 minutes earlier, in order to find my ideal morning ritual. I’ve never bothered with a ritual in the past, as I’ve always felt like I haven’t had enough time (after sleeping in). It’s about time for me to devote more moments to myself each morning to practise meditating, goal setting, exercising, reading and more.
I’ve been monitoring twitter using the search term “morning ritual”. Can you relate to any of the following?
Starting the day with coffee
Adding some baileys
Enjoying a doughnut
Singing
Listening to music
Dancing
Staring at the computer screen
Practicing yoga
Practicing affirmations & visualisations
Stretching and exercising
Finding inspiration from reading books & drawing cards of inspiration
I guess we all have our quirky rituals. The question is how many of them benefit you and set you up for a successful day ahead? I’m going to try and find the answer for myself. What can I do that is going to bring more meaning to my day and set me up for more purpose driven results?
If you haven’t yet checked out my 5am, 5 day morning person challenge, you’ll see that I found it both quite an inspiring and motivating experience. The problem is, since completing the challenge; I’ve fallen back into some old habits.
I’ll sleep in till I absolutely have to wake up, and I’ll plonk myself down in front of the computer. I’ve realised that I need to break away from this habit. This is why I’m testing myself over 30 days, to see if I can consistently get up 30 – 45 minutes earlier and test out some different morning rituals. Hopefully a few beneficial rituals will last beyond the 30 day challenge.
What is your morning ritual? Does it need some tweaking? Does it work for you? What should I try?
In today's show, I discover the power of YouTube - how to make the most of interacting with the YouTube community. I discuss methods to find more focus in daily life and how I've been letting go of some old fears. Are you confused about podcasting? After doing a bit of research, I'm revealing what methods are working for me so far! To launch the show, press the play button below:
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In this week’s podcast, I cover three main topics:
Videos & the YouTube community
Moving beyond fears and limiting beliefs to find inner focus
Podcasting, Twitter & social media
Videos & the YouTube community
I never really investigated how the YouTube community truly works until now. I mention how getting views on YouTube is not only about having good content, but it’s also about interacting with the community.
I’m in the process of developing my YouTube profile, it is certainly not something that will happen overnight. I can see the benefit of adding quality new videos on a regular basis while continuing to interact with members of your YouTube community. Gideon Shalwick mentioned that one of the most important things to do is to start making comments.
I initially thought the best way to get your video out there was to make sure that it gets distributed to as many video sharing sites all at once. The problem I’ve found is that you can easily lose track of the video sites, and you won’t have a chance to interact with the members of those individual sites. My challenge is to master YouTube before moving on to others!
Moving beyond fears and limiting beliefs to find inner focus
The idea of developing my own identity online was a bit daunting initially for me. I realised that it brought up some underlying fears from my past. They were:
Fear of being exposed
Fear of being criticized
I’m sure these same fears could be found in other people. One of the most terrifying things that I’ve now accomplished was the thought of appearing in front of a camera. Although I’ve been a cameraman, I‘ve never been confident in front of the camera. Looking back at the footage from home videos when I was young child, I’ve realised that I was always the camera person. If there were any clips of myself, I was first to move off screen. I didn’t want the limelight – and I’m sure it was related to the above two fears. So I told myself that this was something that I needed to breakthrough. It dawned on me that my results would suffer if I didn’t make a change. I moved from a state of feeling absolutely terrified to place of empowerment. I didn’t care what others thought, it was time to be myself!
Sometimes I wake up feeling absolutely lousy. Half the time I don’t even know why I’m feeling that way. In reference to building an online business and continuing on with the challenge – sometimes thoughts like “its too hard, its already been done – there’s no opportunity left” enter my mind. In order to combat these feelings, I’m learning how to be more accountable for my thoughts.
Lessons learnt from self empowerment guru’s like Anthony Robbins have been beneficial. It’s very true that we make associations to things, and without knowing it, we can often accidentally trigger that association. I’ve found music an excellent tool to change an association, and therefore be able to change my mood quite rapidly. So if your mind just gets stuck in a negative state, practice doing something completely different. Awareness is the key. Make a decision to focus on maximising your positive emotions and gain more focus.
I’ve been listening to Chuck Bartok’s talk show on iTunes recently, as he discusses famous personal development books such as:
It’s inspired me to want to take more time out for myself to read and reflect. I often get caught up with what I’m doing online that I don’t give myself the time to read – actual books!
In his discussions, Chuck brought up some really good points that struck a chord with me.
Constantly questing the outcome brings about doubt.
Once you’ve set a goal, stop focusing on what could go wrong – don’t over think.
The secret of achievement is within concentration. Stay focused.
When we don’t face our fears, we are faced with frustrations.
Fear is the easy way out.
The acronym of FEAR is: false expectations appearing real.
Fears only exist within ourselves; we can control both our fears and our results.
Podcasting & Twitter
I really didn’t have a clue how to start podcasting. I recorded a file, but didn’t know what to do with it – and wasn’t sure how it should be broadcasted. After uploading my first podcast to my server, I got a Tweet from Ray @podcasthelper. I subscribed to Ray’s podcasts about podcasting on iTunes and learnt HEAPS.
One of the most critical things I’ve learnt was that it’s important to not host your audio on your site (unless you setup a separate server for media hosting) because if your show suddenly becomes popular overnight, it’s going to chew up your allocated download bandwidth.
I decided to use an external video hosting provider – Blip.tv. Combine this with a Feedburner feed, and now I can easily change where my podcasts are stored at any time by updating the RSS feed that I provide Feedburner. For me that provides some peace of mind that I have the flexibility to change this when I like.
I then submitted my feed details to iTunes. I’ll create a screen capture video to highlight that process shortly. No doubt there are many directories that I can still list my podcast, but at least now I don’t feel as confused!
TweetDeck
I use TweekDeck as my Twitter client, but I wasn’t fully harnessing its features. Ray pointed out that one of the best features was to follow conversations based on keywords. I’ve started following what people are saying with ‘morning ritual’, and it’s giving me some ideas for my new challenge beginning next week – what morning ritual is most suitable for me? I’m a big fan of the ability to use columns in TweekDeck. How many user groups do you have? I have about 7 or 8, which is just enough for me to keep up with.
Using Twitter and social media, we can link with people who share common goals all around the world. I find the concept fascinating, and I keep wondering what the future of social media will look like in say 10 years time. I recently saw the YouTube video “Social Media Revolution” – and I have to say it was an eye opener. What do you think?
Goal Progress
My main focus at the moment has been establishing my modes of communication – getting the blog setup, setting up podcasting, and creating a YouTube profile. I’ve also been trialling some mind mapping software to create an outline of the year to come.
One of the important things I’m learning is how to schedule my time better. In the past I’ve noticed that I multitask too frequently. It hasn’t worked. I’m learning that I need to cut out the distractions and focus on one task at a time, to see it through to completion.
After I discovered that one of the best methods for getting Google’s attention is by gaining plenty of one way links, I decided to try out SENuke. SENuke promises to dominate the first three pages of Google by using Web 2.0 marketing techniques. Basically, SENuke is designed to be a time saver. You can automatically create an account to literally hundreds of different social media & Web 2.0 sites to submit your articles, videos, RSS feeds and links all in one hit.
The sales page did stand out and the testimonials looked promising. With a free 7 day trial and no catch – I thought, why not. I can always cancel and get a full refund before 30 days is up!
And cancel is exactly what I’ve just done. Now first of all, I need to let you know that I’m not trying to rubbish the software. Because I’m sure there are plenty who use it on a regular basis with great results. But then again, all software has to be relevant to your situation and it wasn’t relevant for me. I believe this software brings about a debate – is it better to build quality content rather than the mass spamming of links?
By using this software, I felt like I was becoming a spammer. The more I read, and the more I thought about it, I realised that I wanted to play fair with Google. I want others to link to me because I had interesting content, rather than creating my own fake one way links on random, untargeted websites.
Customer Service
I can’t fault – at all. There were clear instructions on the website how to unsubscribe from the monthly subscription, and as soon as I asked for a refund, I got a very prompt email returning my initial month subscription – with a ‘thankyou’ note for trying out the software.
Look and Feel
SENuke Switch Module
SENuke may be fully featured, but it certainly is not user friendly. In order to use the software, you need to visit their website to watch the video tutorials.
While the software contains many different features, the overall layout and occasional bugs in the system does give the impression that there has been very little emphasis placed on the overall functionality and design from the beginning. It looks like different features have been ‘tacked on’, as they think of them. The main options are accessed through the “switch module” menu item. I didn’t like this. To me I wanted to see a nice graphical layout of these options (including better names and explanations), and I think they could have developed a logical step by step progression through the options.
Reliability
I’ll often leave my laptop on for numerous hours at a time, and yes it does generate quite a bit of heat. However, at one stage I did notice my laptop’s fan making one hell of a noise. I wondered why. After checking the system resources, it appeared that SENuke was chewing up the majority of my CPU while idle. That couldn’t be good!
SENuke on numerous occasions either created an error or was really slow. I found the process of creating spinner articles a nightmare. For some reason, the cursor would often get stuck at one point, often requiring a restart of the software.
Account Creation
SENuke Web 2.0 account setup
If you want to sign up to a massive amount of Web 2.0 sites, you’ll appreciate the time you’ll save by using SENuke. All you have to do is tick the websites you want to sign up to, add in a few varieties of a username, pick a password and click start. SENuke also automatically connects to your pop3 email and verifies the confirmation emails all at once. Yes a great feature, how practical is it?
I could see the value in signing up for the social network and article directory accounts. However, I strongly disagree with the Web 2.0 profile module. The idea for this module is to signup an account and add your website link in your about me page. The issue is – these are all niche websites, and very few of them will be your niche.
Article Distribution
So once you have all your article sites activated, it’s time to create spinner articles. To prevent being penalised by Google, SENuke recommends that you create various ‘spins’ of your article so that each spin is 30% unique. This was painful. You basically need to re-write an article many times over by inputting alternative words, strings of works or entire sentences so that the system can automatically generate a unique combination. You then check the uniqueness button to see if you’ve reached the the 30%. What was supposed to be time saver became a long, tedious and boring activity.
As an example:
{Writing|Creating} spinner articles {took too long|was very time consuming|wasted a lot of time}. I felt like I was {destroying|ruining} the essence of an article by having to {develop|generate} alternative versions.
I’ve decided that my time would be far better spend developing new articles rather than rewriting old ones.
Video Marketing
To be honest – I saw no benefit in the module, (other than the ability to create spinner titles). With free distribution tools like Tubemogul, I didn’t even end up testing this service.
Results
After submitting a few articles and signing up to the social media and article submission sites, I did see an increase to the links back to my blog – yet no drastic increase in visitors. The links didn’t feel real, and I felt that I had taken the wrong approach.
The more I thought about it, the more I realised – because I’m never actually spending time on each website (to customise my profile and interact with the community), I really would only be using these sites to promote my links – which certainly isn’t the intention for these social communities. I didn’t want my name to be associated with being someone that just posts links for shameless self promotion!
That’s when I realised – it’s far better to spend your time interacting with an online community to create genuine discussions and build rapports. I’m sure the links and the traffic can only follow.
But the question is, should you try this software? We’ll I believe there’s only one example where it could be of benefit, and that is if you are creating a short term campaign that doesn’t have your name attached to it.
What are your experiences with the software? Do you agree with my viewpoint?
After celebrating Father’s Day recently, I decided to interview my very own father, Anthony Annesley for the second podcast in the My Creative Escape series. Anthony and his partner Cheryll are beginning their online journey by creating a blog site and developing eBooks in their niche of natural health. We discuss both online and offline businesses, and some tips for maximising our energy levels during the day. To listen to the show, press the audio button below:
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Anthony’s offline business in the alternative health care industry. We discussed how he had already exhausted the potential of expanding his business further in the offline world. There are only so many clients in the locality and so many hours in the day. He indicated that his face-to-face business meant that he was repeating the same information to many different people. He wanted to develop a way to bundle up his knowledge into one product that an audience can consume at their own rate.
We spoke about the differences between having a static website to advertise your offline business, and having products to instantly download and consume – meaning you don’t have to be there to make the sale. Anthony mentioned he has had to adapt the way his knowledge was presented, as the online audience wants and needs fast, simple and to the point answers.
Anthony spoke of his fears of being online. He felt overwhelmed and wanted to make sure he had everything correct before he started. We realised that this is a limiting belief. If we keep waiting until everything is just perfect, we’ll never get started!
I asked Anthony about his ultimate goal, and we spoke on generating passive incomes and what possibilities that can then generate.
We spoke about some general tips to help increase our energy levels and maximise each hour we have available in the day. Anthony highlighted the importance of finding the balance between the work rest and play factors. He mentioned the how crucial it is to take time out of our busy schedule, both morning and night to reflect and practise breathing exercises. We spoke about attitudes, and how too many people become fixated on the end result, rather than enjoying the journey.
From the 31st of August to 4th September, I set out to solve one of my biggest challenges. Can I be a morning person for five days straight? This week was all about testing my will power and changing my mindset in preparation for whats to come. I also really wanted to capture the sunrise on video, so I decided to take my HD handycam with me to capture my journey.
Part One: Day 1-3
Part Two: Day 4-5
Day 1: Teneriffe
Although I was up for my 5am alarm clock, I really didn’t feel awake. My body clock really took its toll. So I decided to start my week challenge with one of the easiest locations – so I thought. I decided to walk down by the river at Teneriffe. Initially it was horrible.
Brisbane had just experienced a week of much warmer temperatures – it had felt like summer again and it thought what a great way to start the week. However, it started to rain and there was plenty of cloud cover. This brilliant weather had just turned around and I felt like I was back into the middle of of winter again. I honestly was tempted to forget the entire experiment and head back to bed. No one would notice, I thought to myself…
But I had made a commitment to myself and spoke of this commitment on my blog. I’ve noticed as soon as you write a goal down, you are far more enthusiastic to follow through with it! Especially at the thought of failing my very first challenge for my blog site – that would have not set a good record for my year ahead.
So it did it, I braved the weather, (I had to hold the camera bag over the camera to avoid it from getting wet!) and in a short while, things started to improve.
Day 2: New Farm
I found it far easier to be waking up at 5am. Was I getting used to it? After braving the first day, it was time to branch out a little further and seek a location with a better view. So I jumped into the car and drove over to New Farm. Yet another cool morning, but no rain. I’ve previously travelled to this same spot, and filmed the sunset – with some spectacular results. I knew I wasn’t going to be dissapointed.
You’ll notice in my video – I was far happier, far more awake and inspired. It was the first moment that I knew that continuing on with the challenge was going to be worth the effort.
Day 3: Mount Coot-tha
Mount Coot-tha was the ultimte challenge, because not only did it require me to get up even earlier, I also needed to drive a fair bit further. So I awoke at 4.30am, had my glass of Berocca and headed up the mountain to view the dawn over the entire of Brisbane.
I cannot find the words to describe the the experience. I was in the moment, and I was given the opportunity to just be myself. So I sat on the concrete and witnessed the rise of the most magificant sun. I couldn’t think of a better place or time to meditate.
Day 4: Kangaroo Point Cliffs
After the overwhelming experience of Wednesday, I have to admit that by the time I got to Thursday, I was a little over it. I wondered if perhaps if the lack of wearing my Qlink device had anything to do with the fact that I really didn’t want to get up that morning. But I had made the commitment to myself to continue the challenge – so that’s exactly what I did.
I decided to travel to the Kangaroo Point Cliffs. Yet another beautiful city view, but the busy traffic stopped any attempts to meditate. After I recorded the daylight appearing over the city, I turn the camera around and managed to get another brilliant clip of the sun rising. The noise of the traffic didn’t bother me any further!
Day 5: Hamilton Portside
Friday was exhilarating. You know that feeling when you are so close to completing your goal that nothing can get in the way of stopping you? I felt that sensation – I was on the homeward stretch. Forty minutes later, my challenge was a success. Shame it was still too early for coffee at the local cafe!
An Afterthought
After my weekly challenge was a success, I couldn’t wait to sleep in. But after sleeping in until 11am on the Saturday, I was reminded of the benefits of being a morning person. Once you get beyond the inital drag of waking yourself up – things get much easier. The increase in energy levels, inspiration and creativity were all part of the benefits.
Although I didn’t mention it in my video – I think it’s worth pointing out the difference in my sleeping patterns during the week. Yes I did manage to waken at least 2 to 3 hours earlier than my usual routine, but I also did decide to hit the pillow slightly earlier than usual. So with the help of my Qlink device, a few extra cups of coffee and berocca’s – I survived with being awake at least and extra 5 hours that week.
If you set yourself a similar challenge – what would you do? What do you achieve by awakening earlier and how do you make the most of your day?
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