Me, Myself, and I - Motivation Day 2

Day Two
Day 2 was also a success. I was traveling most of the day due to travel delays (hence the post coming today instead of last night)

The goal was to allow myself to sit there, in solitude, and to allow the universe to reveal itself to me. Specifically, the challenge was to "not just do something". This means I was not supposed to allow myself to give in to pointless distractions - I didn't sit and read the news, I didn't start playing games on my phone, I didn't start watching mindless videos. I sat there, and let my mind go free.

Not only did I spend time on the plane, in solitary, allowing the universe to reveal itself, but I also spent some time in the morning, and also ended up in the bathroom at work at one point, sitting for longer than usual, allowing my mind to work. Further, when I had dinner at the Airport (St Louis Lambert Field), I was truly in my element.

Did I have some crazy revelations, and understand the universe in its fullest? Are you crazy? No one could come up with that in one day. I did come up with a new business idea, though, and I felt quite confident, and comfortable in my skin.

Dinner was a great experience - remember yesterday (well, 2 days ago) when I was living into my future self. Well at dinner, it was never better. I was sitting there, enjoying a Knob Creek with air (that means "neat", "up", "straight") and some Truffled chips, and my mind was clear, and it was working. Every input was processed much faster than usual, causing everything I saw start to make much more sense, and everything to connect in its own weird way. It did feel like I could see so much more, even though I was in my own head.

So now, what do you need to do to reach this point of clarity? You need to obviously meditate every day, and give yourself at least an hour of peaceful serenity with no distractions, and no worries, right? Hell no - if you can spare 5 minutes, you can get a benefit out of this. Many of the worlds most powerful people do take time, say an hour every other day, or every few days, to just sit there and think. When you take this time, you will see your mind start to take care of things that it wants to. Your problems will find solutions, and all you have to do is get out of the way, and stop drugging your brain with distractions!

Your challenge: Just try it, for 15 minutes today. Take 15 minutes, and turn off the TV, put your phone on silent, turn off the radio, get into a comfy chair. If you have family, tell them you need to be left alone for 15 minutes. Just see what happens. I bet you will get addicted to the immense understanding that only 15 minutes will give you.

On a side note: I remembered an old memory game last night, and on my drive home, I was able to memorize 70 words in a row, and recite them. I have never done more than 30 before, so this was a huge feat. The biggest benefit of this, however, was that I began to re-learn how to focus. I can still remember all 70 this morning, by the way. It's a very powerful game (and you can use it to almost instantly memorize a list of ten, which is a great party trick.

Day 3 Challenge:
Build a Track Record

This is a simple one, and a concept many of you are likely familiar with. It's simply establishing that you can do X, because you have done X.

The example in the book is of a gentleman who wanted to be better at finishing things. He was looking for affirmations that would make him better at finishing. The answer was not to use affirmations, but to build a track record of being a finisher. He bought a notebook, and wrote down everything he completed. By the end of the first page, he had a track record of being a finisher. He didn't just say "I'm a finisher, I'm a finisher, I'm a finisher" which your mind knows is a lie. He was able to look at his list, and say "look, I'm a finisher!"

Many of you know this concept as writing a list of things you've done. I remember filling out a to-do list, and adding some things I had already completed, then crossing them out. That has worked before, so I'm trying it again.

So here I go, I'll follow the same track as the gentleman in the story, and I'll go ahead and finish 2 things today which have been on my to-do list for a while. So here we go!

This 30-day challenge is to use one tip per day from the book "100 Way to Motivate Yourself" by Steve Chandler. The goal is to find great methods for self-motivation which can be used in the future.