A few months ago, I was feeling extra motivated after I read something about the “habits of highly successful people.” I bet you can guess what some of them are. Even better, I bet you can guess what some of them are NOT. Sleep in….no. Procrastinate….no. Celebrate 5 days running of having at least one alcoholic beverage…unless you work for Samuel Adams, no. Basically, the article talked about these super-human CEO’s with 4% body fat and bodies that worked better than diesel engines and found out some common things that these people had in common. Get up early….yes. Read everyday…yes. Meditate, eat foods with less than 2 ingredients, exercise, disconnect, family, loved ones, unwind, no TV, animals, kids, yadda yadda yadda.
Anyway, after reading this and deciding that my life could use a little kick in the butt, I decided that I was going to get up an hour earlier than normal 3 days a week and either read, write, or exercise. I was realistic enough to know that I wasn’t going to be able to do this 7 days a week just yet, but who knows, maybe after a few good months I would learn to enjoy the pain of this routine and expand on some of these good habits.
Well, like my childhood dreams of becoming a professional baseball player, this never happened. I found plenty of “good” reasons NOT to start this good-intentions project.
“Well, I don’t want to wake my wife up, so I probably shouldn’t do it.”
“Well, I work better at night, so maybe I should do it at the end of the day.” Cut to, “what time is it? Well, nothing more important than a good night’s sleep, so I probably shouldn’t do it.”
“I’m more active than most people my age, and I like writing at my lunch breaks at work, that’s probably more realistic for my life. Once I become CEO of my $10 billion company, THEN I’ll make sure to incorporate those habits into my daily routine. So, for now, I probably shouldn’t do it.”
So, in my last post, I wrote about being on the verge of something I think will change my life. It is very early on, but my wife and I have decided to commit to creating a start up business and we are going to begin making some things happen. Now, more than ever, I need to start making some changes in my life to watch less TV, and dedicate myself to making this dream a reality.
I still don’t think I can get up 3 days a week an hour before my alarm usually goes off (my wife would kill me), but I do think I can do 10 minutes.
I read another article that says if you can get early and just focus on a task without stopping for 10 minutes, you will begin to make some significant (positive) changes in your life. 10 minutes before you shower, eat, take the dog out or brush your teeth, just focus on something and see what happens. The author said that you might find yourself focused for 20, 45, or even 60 minutes (which would be great for trying to build a start up from the ground up).
So my new (and realistic) goal will simply be “10 minutes.” I haven’t quite figured out what I want to do for 10 minutes, but I’d like to get into some kind of routine. Maybe 3 days a week I brainstorm blog, 3 days a week I brainstorm startup, and 1 day a week I just stretch (because for the amount of running I tend do do leading up to half-marathons, I really NEED to start stretching).
Anyway, I am always trying to make myself a little bit better in one way or another. I really want to develop some habits that the ultra-productive 1% of the world have, and I think this might be a good first step.