Morning Person Blog

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail

2007-04-28T02:20:00.000-07:00

It has been almost four months since I added to this blog and I am mortified by my failings.

I think the worst feeling is that I lost faith in the morning person ideal.

I can reflect on my productivity over that period and say it was not the best.

Anyway, I hope I can put more into planning and developing this blog from now on.

FAIL TO PLAN, PLAN TO FAIL!

Day 1 - 6:47AM

2007-01-05T14:58:00.000-08:00

Cool! A great recovery, and now I am back waking up before 7AM!~

Snowed a little last night, so it was nice to be able to wake up despite the cold.

Slept in again...

2007-01-03T19:44:00.000-08:00

OK, slept in again. Now how do I stay motivated to do this?

Well, today I am going to look at "Unlimited Power", by Anthony Robbins, to try and find an answer.

It just so happens that I open the book to p. 111, which is the first page of Chapter VII: The Syntax of Success.

It starts with an interesting quote from the Bible:

"Let all things be done decently and in order" - 1 Corinthians 14:40

OK, I like order, even if I do sometimes live in chaos.

The central theme of the book "Unlimited Power" is the idea that one can achieve success by modelling successful people. As an addition to this theory, Robbins suggests that there is a "syntax of action", which means that there is a way in which we order our actions, and that ordering can make a big difference in whether we produce successful results or not.

Applied in the sphere of what I call the "psychology of success", what Robbins is saying is that the brain perceives things differently depending on the order in which they are presented. It is like progamming a computer, Robbins says, you have to get the order right.

The analogy between the brain, which operates based on a "psychology of success", and a computer is not necessarily a good one. The issue of the subconscious is most critical in success, according to my concept of a "psychology of success". So we need to pay attention to the programming of the subconscious.

Robbins uses the term "strategy" for factors including internal representations, "necessary submodalities", and the required syntax. These factors work together to product a particular result.

We need to know what keys to hit in order to achieve a certain mental state in our "mental biocomputer", according to Robbins. We all have the same neurology, asserts Robbins. This is hardly true, so I am starting to become sceptical...

You basically need to find people who already have financial success or fulfilling relationships, and you just need to discover their strategy and apply it to produce similar results at the same time as saving tremendous amounts of time and effort.

Syntax is the part about getting the order of this strategy right. If you work out the right combination you can open your vault and if you find the combination of other you can open their vaults too. (Not that we are going to rob anyone...)

The "senses" are the building blocks of our syntax - these can be internal and external. Syntax is a matter of how we put together the blocks of external experience and internal representations.

As A Man Thinketh - James Allen

2007-01-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

While IR laws are a matter of balance, would an employer dismiss a hard-working employee?

"Here is a man who is wretchedly poor. He is extremely anxious thathis surroundings and home comforts should be improved, yet all thetime he shirks his work, and considers he is justified in trying todeceive his employer on the ground of the insufficiency of hiswages. Such a man does not understand the simplest rudiments ofthose principles which are the basis of true prosperity, and is notonly totally unfitted to rise out of his wretchedness, but isactually attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness bydwelling in, and acting out, indolent, deceptive, and unmanlythoughts." (James Allen, As a Man Thinketh)

Isn't the matter more one of ensuring that there is proper payment for overtime?

"Here is an employer of labour who adopts crooked measures to avoidpaying the regulation wage, and, in the hope of making largerprofits, reduces the wages of his workpeople. Such a man isaltogether unfitted for prosperity, and when he finds himselfbankrupt, both as regards reputation and riches, he blamescircumstances, not knowing that he is the sole author of hiscondition." (James Allen, As a Man Thinketh)

Ultimately, there are limits to what law can achieve in IR - motivation and honesty are moral values that have their own just reward:

"I have introduced these three cases merely as illustrative of thetruth that man is the causer (though nearly always is unconsciously)of his circumstances, and that, whilst aiming at a good end, he iscontinually frustrating its accomplishment by encouraging thoughtsand desires which cannot possibly harmonize with that end. Suchcases could be multiplied and varied almost indefinitely, but thisis not necessary, as the reader can, if he so resolves, trace theaction of the laws of thought in his own mind and life, and untilthis is done, mere external facts cannot serve as a ground ofreasoning." (James Allen, As a Man Thinketh)

Day 3 - 6:00AM

2007-01-02T14:11:00.000-08:00

Awoken by a phone call today.

I guess the positive is that I could wake up at 6AM even in winter, although I wish I could have "slept in" until 7AM.

Now I am reading "As a Man Thinketh", which is available on Gutenberg.

Success Library - 10 Books to Read Over and Over Again

2007-01-01T16:02:00.000-08:00

1. The Richest Man in Babylon
2. Don't Eat the Marshmallow... Yet!
3. Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude
4. Think and Grow Rich
5. Making Money Made Simple
6. Unlimited Power
7. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
8. People Skills
9. Emotional Intelligence
10. Men Are From Mars; Women Are From Venus

Day 2 - 7:00AM

2007-01-01T14:34:00.000-08:00

Sprung out of bed this morning!

Saying for the day from Napoleon Hill's Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude:

"What the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve."

And the difference between positive mental attitude (PMA) and negative mental attitude in the workplace:

"Just look about you. Notice those people who enjoy their work and those who don't. What's the difference between them? Happy, satisfied persons control their mental attitude. They take a positive view of their situation. They look for the good, and when something isn't so good, they look first to themselves to see if they can improve it. They try to learn more about their work so that they can become more proficient and make their work more satisfying to themselves and their employer.

"But those who are unhappy clutch to their NMA tightly. Indeed, it is almost as if they want to be unhappy. They look for everything about which they can complain: the hours are too long; lunch hours are too short; the boss is too crabby; the company doesn't give enough holidays or the right kind of bonuses. Or maybe they even complain about irrelevant things, such as: Susie wears the same dress every day; John the bookkeeper doesn't write legibly, and so on, and so on. Anything - just so they can be unhappy. And they succeed very well, too. They are decidedly unhappy people - on the job and generally elsewhere too. NMA possesses them entirely."
(Napoleon Hill & W. Clement Stone, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, pp. 156-157)

Up at 7:15AM!

2006-12-30T14:29:00.000-08:00

Last day of the year!

Last chance to tidy up all the loose ends, and then PARTY!!

If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again!

2006-12-29T21:48:00.000-08:00

Ok, today I woke up at 11AM.

Tomorrow is New Years Eve. Hmm...

Well, I will try again tomorrow, and then if that doesn't work out, I must wake up early anyway on Tuesday morning to have breakfast with my Professor at the Marriott.

Fighting!!

Neuro-Linguistic Programming

2006-12-28T14:32:00.000-08:00

"I've been obsessed by that question for my entire life. As I grew up, I saw people who had great riches of all types- great jobs, wonderful relationships, and well-developed physiques. I had to know what caused their lives to be so different from mine and that of my friends. The difference all comes down to the way in which we communicate with ourselves and the actions we take. What do we do when we try everything we can and things still turn out wrong? People who succeed do not have fewer problems than people who fail. The only people without problems are those in cemetries. It is not what happens to us that separates failure from successes. It is how we perceive it and what we do about what "happens" that makes the difference."

(Anthony Robbins, Unlimited Power, p. 37)

Does neuro-linguistic progamming, otherwise known as NLP, work?

Day 3 - 7:15AM

2006-12-28T14:23:00.000-08:00

It is minus 12 degrees C outside. Just too cold to wake up. Yet somehow I am up.

Minus 12... Time to go back to Australia... quickly.

Ah.. the Whitsundays, nice!

Don't Eat the Marshmallow... Yet!

2006-12-27T14:53:00.000-08:00

Ok, the blurb of this book by Jaochim de Posada talks about a Stanford University experiment on children who were left in a room, each with a marshmallow, and given the choice of eating it then or fifteen minutes later, when they were promised an extra marshmallow as a reward for waiting. The result of the "landmark study" was that the children who held out for the reward had become more successful adults than the children who had gobbled their marshmallows immediately.

Joachim then goes on (with co-author Ellen Singer) to make a 100-page book centering on a rich businessman Jonathan and his chauffeur Arthur and his marshmellows.

The amazing thing about this book was that it was ridiculously expensive (24000 Won, $US 24) yet I bought it anyway because it was hardcover and because the parable in it reminded me fondly of those in The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Classon. Although Classon's book is by far better for being more precise in its guidance and practical yet simple in terms of financial advice, the strong point of Posada's book is that it focuses on the role of the subconscious in success and failure and the repression mechanism (although not explicitly). Thus, it endears itself to those interested in the psychology of success and not just those who think it is just a matter of "getting things done".

The best part of the parable for me was the way Arthur accumulated loads of marshmellows. In fact, I started to do the same thing with Hershey's Nuggets and it is likely to get way expensive.

Still, I guess in 30 days time I can look forward to a blown credit card and an apartment full of Hershey's Nuggets!

If they want a bigger ad, they can pay me for it! (hehe)

Day 2 - 7:00AM

2006-12-27T14:19:00.000-08:00

Ah, to wake up to an alarm clock radio blaring at me how President Roh has already solved the real estate bubble in Korea.

Meanwhile, in the real world, I have managed to hit my target on Day 2!

Ok, I feel a bit like Simba the Lion King today, although I wish I had slept more.

Off to Park Seung-Chol today for a head indulgence (I mean hair styling).

How to Become an Early Riser

2006-12-26T15:28:00.000-08:00

Here is one view on how to be an early riser. Click link below:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-early-riser/

Basically, Steve is saying that you should wake up at a set time and go to sleep when you are tired.

I would offer two modifications to this advice, based on my experience:

1) You have to do something involving physical exertion during the day to achieve regular tiredness before midnight;

2) Waking up at the same time every day is correct in theory, but it does not work in winter, when you should wake up at a set time which you adjust each month to around 30mins - 1hour before sunrise. (Sunrise times for your city are easy to find on the internet)

Day 1 - 7:20am

2006-12-26T14:24:00.000-08:00

I have four alarms going, and somehow that seems to work.

Well, I didn't quite feel like Simba, King of the Jungle...

Anyway, this little gazelle is up and about!

The Lion and the Gazelle

2006-12-26T05:30:00.000-08:00

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.

It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning a lion wakes up.

It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

The moral:It doesn’t matter if you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better be running.

- African Proverb

Benefits of Waking Up Early

2006-12-26T05:04:00.000-08:00

I admit it. I was on a 100 day program to become a morning person and only lasted 83 days. Just 17 days to perserve... what was wrong with me?

Alas, it was a case of the sun rising later methinks, so I have decided to give being a morning person another go. This time I am going to allow myself to wake up at least 30 minutes before sunrise during the winter, which means waking up at 7AM every day. During summer and autumn I usually woke up at 5AM!

Anyway, every day I am going to put some new inspiration on this blog to keep me going to achieve the 100 days. And I will continue rewarding myself every week. This time, however, I might try the "marshmallow-resistor" style reward, which would double every week. Since 100 days is a tad over 14 weeks, that is a lot of doubling, so I will have to check out the economics. Maybe if I start with 100 Won for Week 1, then 200 Won for Week 2, etc.

It would then go:

Week 3 - 400 Won
Week 4 - 800 Won
Week 5 - 1600 Won
Week 6 - 3200 Won
Week 7 - 6400 Won
Week 8 - 12800 Won
Week 9 - 25600 Won
Week 10 - 51200 Won
Week 11 - 102400 Won
Week 12 - 204800 Won
Week 13 - 409600 Won
Week 14 - 819200 Won
Week 15 - 1638400 Won = about $1630

What to do with the money? Hmm. Worth thinking about.

Anyway the interesting article for today is attached, and it is about becoming friends with your alarm clock, if that is possible! So click on the link below:

http://credohealth.blogspot.com/2006/04/volume-3-number-22-becoming-friends.html

Back to Morning Person

2006-12-26T04:58:00.000-08:00

This blog is designed for the discussion of what it means to be a "morning person", as well as the benefits of such a lifestyle. I look forward to your many contributions and personal experiences.

Thank you