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Countdown To A New You!
As the New Year quickly approaches, one of the resolutions topping lists again this year will be to lose weight and get fit. So many folks will start out gung-ho, completely devoted to the fitness cause, yet fizzle out before spring approaches. What...
Feng Shui Monsters Under Your Bed
Good feng shui often requires making wise decisions based on your specific circumstances, rather than blinding following an ideal rule. The feng shui rule for storing things under your bed is "don't do it." But for those who live in small homes...
Living a Healthy Way of Life is No Mystery
ARA) – We’ve heard over and over again that a well balanced diet and good exercise program are the building blocks of good health. So why don’t more people strive to achieve both?
Life Time Fitness, a national Healthy Way of Life company, is...
New Year's Resolution: Walk Your Way Fit!
“It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker.”
~Henry David Thoreau
With the new year upon us, everyone I know is looking for a fun and easy way to get fit. Here's a solution I've developed that doesn’t involve costly...
"Pay The Piper"
Let's face it, most people enjoy cardiovascular exercise as much as a visit to the their oral surgeon - or - spending the weekend with their in-laws. Most people's idea of the perfect cardiovascular exercise program is walking from the bedroom to...
The Pathophysiology of Tetanus
Tetanus is an acute, often fatal disease caused by an exotoxin produced in a wound by Clostridium tetani. Clostridium tetani is a gram-positive, nonencapsulated, motile, obligatively anaerobic bacillus. It exists in vegetative and sporulated forms....
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Refinng the "Golden Hour"
In one of the classic personal finance books, "The Richest Man
In Babylon," we are told that the way to wealth is to "pay
yourself first." That a portion of all you earn is yours to
keep. Great words, and just as applicable to your life itself.
In other words, out of every sixteen-hours of wakefulness in a
day, one hour should be yours, and yours alone. Not your job,
not your husband or wife, not your kids or your parents. One
hour. Sixty minutes. Thirty-six hundred seconds. Yours.
The question you should ask yourself is: if you only had one
hour a day that belonged to you, what should you do with it?
What CAN you do with it? Television watching patterns suggest
that the average American watches over four hours a day--so we
can't claim the time isn't there.
Lifewriting™, the high-performance system for writers and
readers maintains that with only one hour a day you can
completely take your life back from the world, build to the
career you desire, reach inner peace, get in the best shape of
your life, and engage in continuing education--all at the same
time!
The first trick is to learn to calm your mind, to center
yourself so that you have a "clean stage" on which to perform.
Twenty minutes three times a week is a great start, and once you
are in the habit, you'll start finding other times during the
day for contemplation. Either focusing on your heartbeat, or
counting deep belly breaths to ten over and over again are great
stress-busters.
Next, you'll need energy to transform your dreams into reality.
Diet, rest and focus are important for energy, but one way you
can catapult your physical energy into new levels is proper
exercise. There are several forms of whole-body exercise that
are far more efficient than most fitness routines. We're talking
exercises that simultaneously work all muscles, produce high
levels of aerobic fitness, and actually produce a healthy
stretch--all in less than 20 minutes a day! Check out the
"clubbell" system at www.rmax.tv, the "kettlebell" techniques at
www.dragondoor.com, or the "Combat Conditioning" system sold at
www.mattfurey.com. These three are fabulous, real,
hyper-efficient means of producing fitness. Three twenty-minute
sessions a week will probably double your energy.
Now you get to be clever. While total concentration on your
exercise is best, this is not a perfect world, and we must make
compromises.
Listening to instructional CD's or audiobooks
during exercise time is a great choice. Possibly the best source
of such material is the wonderful Great Courses series available
at www.teachco.com. The Teaching Company finds the best college
professors in the world, and records their finest lectures on 30
and 45 minute tapes. The prices are reasonable (everything goes
on sale at least once a year) and the breadth of knowledge
staggering. The quality of the instructors is absolutely
top-notch.
Ten minutes every day clarifying your goals is also a good idea.
Now, depending on how you've juggled your time (ten minutes
goals, twenty minutes exercise or meditation) you should have
about thirty minutes left. You can use this for making plans to
move your career into a desired direction. Let's be specific,
and talk about my own career, writing. What can I do with this
time?
Well, after a half hour of planning, exercising, meditation, and
focus, you should be raring to go. In thirty minutes, you can
produce 300-1000 words of text, IF you don't worry about the
quality of the draft. This is absolutely key to producing the
volume that will lead to quality. Say, Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday, you produce new text. These are "flow" days, where you
simply make a picture in your head, or let your fingers tingle
(or however else you move into creative flow) and then type.
Then, on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, you edit. This is when
you tear your work apart, polish, plan and dig in. DO NOT
CONFUSE THESE TWO STATES. Editing and Flow are completely
different parts of the mind, sort of Left Brain/Right Brain.
Writer's block is merely the mixing of the two, "editing" when
you should be "flowing." Separate them deliberately, and you
unleash a creative avalanche.
Of course, if you aren't a writer, these ideas can easily be
modified. The most important points are:
1) One hour of every day belongs to you. Take it! 2) Clear your
mind. 3) Plan your day 4) Raise your physical energy. 5) Take
steps toward your dream goal.
If you will take these five steps, then you are on the path to
the life of your dreams--one hour at a time!
About the author:
NY Times bestselling author Steven Barnes has lectured on
creativity and human consciousness from UCLA to the Smithsonian
Institute. Learn more at www.lifewrite.com and
www.lifewriting.biz
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