Why bother with this you ask…well you will improve your internal and external life beyond your wildest dreams by transcending the negative habit called COMPLAINING!  Imagine the ripple affect it will have on every aspect of your life and the life of others.  As I am now nearly six months into the world of work, I have decided to take full responsibility for what I am creating.  When my vibe is high, this is not hard to do.  Here is a reprint of an article from Steve Pavlina on the topic.  I was looking for information on Steve’s upcoming workshops and was not even particularly looking for this article, yet it came on a perfect day.  A day in which my behavior reflected a perfect storm.   There is no problem as we are here to become more conscious.  If you somehow found your way to this article, then perhaps it was opportune timing for you as well!

 How to Stop Complaining 

August 20th, 2007 by Steve Pavlina

Perhaps the most important step in quitting the habit of complaining is to disconnect the undesirable behavior from your identity.  A common mistake chronic complainers make is to self-identify with the negative thoughts running through their minds.  Such a person might admit, “I know I’m responsible for my thoughts, but I don’t know how to stop myself from thinking negatively so often.”  That seems like a step in the right direction, and to a certain degree it is, but it’s also a trap.  It’s good to take responsibility for your thoughts, but you don’t want to identify with those thoughts to the point you end up blaming yourself and feeling even worse.

A better statement might be, “I recognize these negative thoughts going through my mind.  But those thoughts are not me.  As I raise my awareness, I can replace those thoughts with positive alternatives.”  You have the power to recondition your thoughts, but the trick is to keep your consciousness out of the quagmire of blame.  Realize that while these thoughts are flowing through your mind, they are not you.  You are the conscious conduit through which they flow.

Mental conditioning

Although your thoughts are not you, if you repeat the same thoughts over and over again, they will condition your mind to a large extent.  It’s almost accurate to say that we become our dominant thoughts, but I think that’s taking it a bit too far.

Consider how the foods you eat condition your body.  You aren’t really going to become the next meal you eat, but that meal is going to influence your physiology, and if you keep eating the same meals over and over, they’ll have a major impact on your body over time.  Your body will crave and expect those same foods.  However, your body remains separate and distinct from the foods you eat, and you’re still free to change what you eat, which will gradually recondition your physiology in accordance with the new inputs.

This is why negative thinking is so addictive.  If you keep holding negative thoughts, you condition your mind to expect and even crave those continued inputs.  Your neurons will even learn to predict the reoccurrence of negative stimuli.  You’ll practically become a negativity magnet.

The trap of negative thinking

This is a tough situation to escape because it’s self-perpetuating, as anyone stuck in negative thinking knows all too well.  Your negative experiences feed your negative expectations, which then attract new negative experiences.

In truth most people who enter this pattern never escape it in their entire lives.  It’s just that difficult to escape.  Even as they rail against their own negativity, they unknowingly perpetuate it by continuing to identify with it.  If you beat yourself up for being too negative, you’re simply reinforcing the pattern, not breaking out of it.

I think most people who are stuck in this trap will remain stuck until they experience an elevation in their consciousness.  They have to recognize that they’re trapped and that continuing to fight their own negativity while still identifying with it is a battle that can never be won.  Think about it.  If beating yourself up for being too whiny was going to work, wouldn’t it have worked a long time ago?  Are you any closer to a solution for all the effort you’ve invested in this plan of attack?

Consequently, the solution I like best is to stop fighting and surrender.  Instead of resisting the negativity head-on, acknowledge and accept its presence.  This will actually have the effect of raising your consciousness.

Overcoming negativity

You can actually learn to embrace the negative thoughts running through your head and thereby transcend them.  Allow them to be, but don’t identify with them because those thoughts are not you.  Begin to interact with them like an observer.

It’s been said that the mind is like a hyperactive monkey.  The more you fight with the monkey, the more hyper it becomes.  So instead just relax and observe the monkey until it wears itself out.

Recognize also that this is the very reason you’re here, living out your current life as a human being.  Your reason for being here is to develop your consciousness.  If you’re mired in negativity, your job is to develop your consciousness to the point where you can learn to stay focused on what you want, to create positively instead of destructively.  It may take you more than a lifetime to accomplish that, and that’s OK.  Your life is always reflecting back to you the contents of your consciousness.  If you don’t like what you’re experiencing, that’s because your skill at conscious creation remains underdeveloped.  That’s not a problem though because you’re here to develop it.  You’re experiencing exactly what you’re supposed to be experiencing so you can learn.

Conscious creation

If you need a few more lifetimes to work through your negativity, you’re free to take your time.  Conscious creation is a big responsibility, and maybe you don’t feel ready for it yet.  So until then you’re going to perpetuate the pattern of negative thinking to keep yourself away from that realization.  You must admit that the idea of being the primary creator of everything in your current reality is a bit daunting.  What are you going to make of your life?  What if you screw up?  What if you make a big mess of everything?  What if you try your best and fail?  Those self-doubts will keep you in a pattern of negativity as a way of avoiding that responsibility.

Unfortunately, this escapism has consequences.  The only way true creators can deny responsibility for their creations is to buy into the illusion that they aren’t really creating any of it.  This means you have to turn your own creative energy against yourself.  You’re like a god using his powers to become powerless.  You use your strength to make yourself weak.

The reason you may be stuck in a negative thought pattern right now is that at some point, you chose it.  You figured the alternative of accepting full responsibility for everything in your reality would be worse.  It’s too much to handle.  So you turned your own thoughts against yourself to avoid that awesome responsibility.  And you’ll continue to remain in a negative manifestation pattern until you’re ready to start accepting some of that responsibility back onto your plate.

Negativity needn’t be a permanent condition.  You still have the freedom to choose otherwise.  In practice this realization normally happens in layers of unfolding awareness.  You begin to accept and embrace more and more responsibility for your life.

Assuming total responsibility

You see… the real solution to complaining is responsibility.  You must say to the universe (and mean it), “I want to accept more responsibility for everything in my experience.”

Here are some examples of what I mean by accepting responsibility:

• If I’m unhappy, it’s because I’m creating it.
• If there’s a problem in the world that bothers me, I’m responsible for fixing it.
• If someone is in need, I’m responsible for helping them.
• If I want something, it’s up to me to achieve it.
• If I want certain people in my life, I must attract and invite them to be with me.
• If I don’t like my present circumstances, I must end them.

On the flip side, it may also help to take responsibility for all the good in your life.  The good stuff didn’t just happen to you.  You created it.  Well done.

Pat yourself on the back for what you like, but don’t feel you must pretend to enjoy what you clearly don’t like.  But do accept responsibility for all of it… to the extent you’re ready to do so.

Complaining is the denial of responsibility.  And blame is just another way of excusing yourself from being responsible.  But this denial still wields its own creative power.

Conscious creation is indeed an awesome responsibility.  But in my opinion it’s the best part of being human.  There’s just no substitute for creating a life of joy, even if it requires taking responsibility for all the unwanted junk you’ve manifested up to this point.

When you catch yourself complaining, stop and ask yourself if you want to continue to deny responsibility for your reality or to allow a bit more responsibility back onto your plate.  Maybe you’re ready to assume more responsibility, and maybe you aren’t, but do your best to make that decision consciously.  Do you want sympathy for creating what you don’t want, or do you want congratulations for creating what you do want?

For years I have noticed that I am a very different person in the morning than I am during the day and different again in the evening. In the morning, I am fresh and alert and I get things done in bursts about 10x quicker than I do during the day or evening. A big part of this is my ability and willingness to make rapid decisions in the morning. However, the morning is not the best time for me to write a reflective piece, like the one I am writing now in the evening.

Several months ago, I made a conscious decision to leverage these differences by giving each self a voice. Once morning-self, daytime-self and evening-self got going, there was no stopping them! They began to problem-solve, decide on core competencies, offer each other support and really develop and define their roles. So am I, Sonya, nuts with three personalities running my life? Heck no, I as a whole am just about the most normal well-adjusted person I know. So why create this internal dialogue? Giving different parts of yourself their own voice allows you to take on each role more fully and get creative and excited about being part of a team. It can provide you with many of the positives that are involved with team building including a feeling of being supported by others and the satisfaction of contributing to a team effort that is greater than your individual role on the team.   It is an added benefit that my team members know each other really well though through this separation of roles I have learned a lot about my parts and myself as a whole.

As I, evening-Sonya am writing this article, I feel happy that morning and daytime Sonya will experience satisfaction that a project was completed that we all contributed to. It is likely that morning-Sonya will be the final proof-reader and take all the steps to post the article and that takes some of the burden off of me in the evening because I like to create and not worry about finalizing anything. Once I finish this article, I will feel good that my role is done for the day. If I fail to do my part, then I am letting morning-Sonya down and possibly piling my work onto her.

We (morning, daytime and evening Sonya) would like to share with you what we have established as our roles and how it works so that you too may consider the value of conversing with your selves.

Defining Roles

Morning Sonya is in charge of the time from wake up to 8am. She is the most willing to take quick action and make decisions. Thus she is the leader and the buck stops with her. She is the CEO of all that is Sonya. If something must get done she is responsible. That said, she has less time to work with than daytime and evening Sonya, so she has an understanding with these two that their roles are super important if Sonya is to succeed and that it does not work to dump all projects on morning Sonya. Morning Sonya is very dependent on evening-Sonya to get a good night sleep at a reasonable hour for example. Morning Sonya enjoys more time and better quality time when all three Sonya’s adhere to the 13 habits of becoming an early riser.

Daytime Sonya has the most time to work with, starting at 8am and going until 5pm and also has the most complex set of duties to accomplish. She is the breadwinner. She is the one that is primarily responsible for going to work and she has many other chores to do as well, especially on the weekend.  She is the work horse of the three but relies on the others for encouragement, support and assistance with big projects.  She is most affected by external circumstances such as happenings in the workplace.  So in many ways she feels that she has the most difficult job.

Evening Sonya begins her day at 5pm and goes until sleep time, which usually falls somewhere between 10pm and midnight. She has many social and enrichment obligations and is also in charge of writing projects, planning, reflective exercises such as journaling and the big one: making darn sure she goes to sleep relaxed and happy.  Sonya-tomorrow really likes that one!  Evening Sonya is not expected to take on duties that are not conducive to relaxation and may get her thinking or worrying.  She can chip in as she likes, but she is not expected to deal with the finances for example.   She is not the one to finish projects but is an important advisor to the group as she is often calmer and more reflective than the other two.  She is the planner and the organizer–looking ahead at the week, checking the weather and the calendar for appointments.  Sonya’s world also works better when evening Sonya prepares healthy food for the next day.

Transitions and Sharing are Key

Although each self has their own core competencies, needs, and tasks, there is a lot of cross-over and sharing of duties and experiences.  It helps to know which self is primary for a task or experience because this type of clarity renders decision making so much easier.  If one self tries to delegate too much to another self, it usually backfires.

The Sonya’s have developed a habit of increasing communication around a transition time.  They often have a “hand-off” conversation.  For example, a little before 8am, morning Sonya may have a planning session with daytime Sonya to keep the day rolling well and offer moral support for any challenges she is expected to face.  There are some tasks that usually occur around the time of transition.  For example, a mid day hypnosis nap may occur a little before or after 5pm and often times is a great way to transition from daytime to evening Sonya.  Exercise is a task that any of the three may do.  It is great when morning Sonya completes this important task because then it is done for the day, however there are also great benefits of having evening Sonya do a workout because it promotes restful sleep.  Daytime Sonya likes to get out for a lot of walks, as does evening Sonya.

Sometimes they argue.  They have learned to talk to each other really nicely though.  It is very powerful for morning Sonya to express to daytime and evening Sonya how their previous day food and sleep choices really screwed up the morning and how that will spill back over into their current day as well.  It is much easier to perceive the consequences of your actions and how they affect another if you truly perceive the affect yourself.  It makes you more conscious.  This also works with showing gratitude and appreciation for helpful actions of another self.

Alternative Roles

Certainly morning/daytime/evening selves is not the only way to achieve separate identities with unique voices.  I and many others practice different types of separation such as:

• future/past selves (Sonya +/- 10 years)
• different roles (employee, financial manager, director of physical fitness)
• different states of mind (fearful self, calm self)

What I (we) have found unique about the time of day identities is that it is reinforced on a daily basis and thus the roles are allowed to flourish over time.  It is also unique in that at given time of day, I identify primarily with one role.  If you would like to try something similar for yourself I (we)have just a few hints based on my (our) experiences:

• Start slow and let the distinction become clear gradually over time.  I started with the concept of noticing the differences in myself in the morning, daytime and evening, but it took a while to define the natural breaks in time of 8am, and 5pm.

• Have the goal to work towards distinct definitions of each role.  Eventually you clearly want to know which self to identify with at any given time.  So for example the time of day that the transition occurs is very helpful.  Defining roles that are analogous to what you are already familiar with on a team setting or in the workplace is also very helpful.  In my case, morning Sonya is the CEO/executive branch, daytime Sonya is the general work staff, and evening Sonya is the advisor and ambassador.

• Be flexible and expect roles to be fluid and develop and change over time. I am constantly making refinements in who does what and I know that certain roles will depend on external factors.  For example, evening Sonya has more opportunity to share in outdoor experiences such as yard work and hiking in the summertime when it is light out longer than she does in the winter.  A large urgent project such as getting taxes done may require extra effort from all team members.

• Journal regularly and switch it up based on which self is dominant. I often journal and give each identity a voice during a single journaling session, however I am always conscious of which self is dominant based on time of day and that tends to be the perspective from which I journal.

• Have fun and don’t take it too seriously. Make this endeavor your own and don’t follow my advice too carefully.  Chances are good that some of what I say will not work for you and you have a lot to add to this model that is more reflective of your lifestyle and your personality.  Build your own team.

*Morning, Evening and Daytime Sonya all contributed to this article.  All three wanted a voice in it.  Evening Sonya provided the bulk of the content.  Encouraged that the article was 80 percent done, morning Sonya was happy to provide added content and structure.  Credit goes to Daytime Sonya for finalizing the content, adding a picture, editing and posting.  Just like team members like to help other team members that help themselves, your different parts are more enthused about contributing to a project that has buy-in from each self.

I am in the sixth week of adjusting to my new full time job and I realize that some of my habits are slipping regarding how I spend my free time.  In the world of self-development, I developed really good and productive habits.  I only forgot these temporarily and realize that I just needed a little nudge as a reminder to not lose what I worked so hard to achieve.  Thus Steve Pavlina’s piece below was contained in his newsletter that was sitting in my in box this morning as my reminder.  I do not agree with everything in it, but I do agree with the gist of it.  If you are feeling frustrated about the way you spend your time because you are not leading the easy free-flowing life you deserve, then let this be your reminder too.  Steve made most of the content he ever produced copyright free, so I am happy to share this with you!

Are You Wasting Your Precious Life?

Let me share with you a simple perspective shift that can help you clarify your priorities in life.

You may spend time on a variety of different activities in the course of a day. Some of these will only take up small slices of time, like 15 or 30 minutes. However, over the course of a year or longer, these small slices can really add up.

Here’s a little table showing how many 8-hour days you’ll devote to certain activities over the course of 1, 5, and 50 years based on how much time you devote to them in an average day. Eight hours is a typical workday for many people, so this will give you an idea of how much “work” you’re investing in these tasks over time.

For example, if you average 30 minutes per day processing email, you’ll spend the equivalent of 23 8-hour days processing email this year. That’s equivalent to 4.6 weeks if you worked 40 hours per week. This means that you’re investing more than one full working month out of each year, just processing email. And over the course of 50 years, you’ll spend the equivalent of 4.6 working years doing nothing but processing email (assuming 50 work weeks per year at 40 hours per week).

And how easy is it to spend 30 minutes or more per day on email?

If this jolts you a bit, then it’s time to reassess how you’re investing your time. Do you really want to spend the equivalent of several years out of your life processing email? Checking Facebook? Watching TV? Would you deliberately dedicate 5-10 years of your life to any of those activities?

Having a long time perspective can sharpen your daily decisions. Wasting 15 minutes here and there may not seem like a big deal, but if you get into the habit of doing this every day, it means you’ll waste the equivalent of 2.3 years of your life over the next 50 years. Do you really think it’s wise to discard all that time as worthless?

Investing Your Time

If you consider how much time you’re really investing in certain activities over the long run, you may question whether certain activities are worth such huge chunks of your life.

For each activity you regularly engage in, figure out what your long-term investment is over the next 50 years… or whatever you perceive to be your remaining lifespan. Then imagine how it would feel to make that investment all at once as opposed to doling it out over time.

Would you sacrifice a decade of your life to passively consume all your favorite TV shows? Can you imagine what it would be like to watch TV 40 hours per week for 10 years straight? Do you feel that’s a wise investment? Would you want to invest even 1-2 years in such a pursuit?

How about sleeping in late each day, when you could function just as well if you got out of bed an hour earlier? That’s the same thing as taking a year off once every 5 years just to lie in bed as if it were your full-time job. Does that seem like a good way to live?

Consider a certain friend or relative that you talk to for 30 minutes a week. Over the next 10 years, you’ll have invested about 33 8-hour days in these conversations. Which of your relationships are worth that kind of investment? Which aren’t? And who’s maintaining those relationships?

Cut the Fluff

When you see how small daily time expenditures add up to years out of your life, you may want to cut some of the most obvious fluff that clearly isn’t worth a big investment.

What are the greatest sources of fluff in your life? What can you cut right now?

Which TV shows can you drop? Which websites clearly aren’t worthy of you? Which relationships have got to go?

What’s Worthy of You?

Once you gain some clarity about which activities are obviously a waste of your life, ask yourself, What activities are truly worthy of my precious time?

If you imagine dividing your life into 5-year chunks, which activities are worthy of a whole chunk?

Would you like to spend 5 years using Facebook for 8 hours per day? Is that a worthy investment? Would you get good value from that?

Some activities I couldn’t stomach doing for 5 years straight would be: processing email, watching TV, reading the news, handling junk mail, working at a regular job, or doing accounting.

Some activities I can imagine myself doing for 5 years straight would be: traveling around the world, learning and self-education, creating and sharing original content (writing, speaking, etc.), conducting experiments, having deep conversations with people who fascinate me, cooking (if I was steadily improving at it), learning new languages (maybe), becoming an expert on a subject that interested me greatly, studying martial arts, building a business, or working on projects that inspire me.

I could even see myself potentially enjoying the experience of playing poker for 5 years straight, assuming I got really good at it and was able to travel and compete in tournaments. This wouldn’t be at the top of my list, but it’s a lot more appealing than spending 5 years answering email.

What do your lists look like?

Upgrading the Unworthy

You’ll find that some activities aren’t worthy of the time you’ve been devoting to them, but with a little tweaking, you may be able to change them into worthier activities.

Suppose you realize that you’re on track to devote a full 10 years of your life to playing video games. Maybe you like playing games, but you don’t feel this activity is worth a decade of your life, so something needs to change. But the idea of dropping games completely doesn’t feel good.

Fortunately you don’t have to completely abandon an experience that you value. You can upgrade it to something that still feels good to you.

Perhaps 10 years of playing video games is too much to accept, but maybe you’d feel good about devoting 1 year of your life to a similar pursuit. Instead of playing console or computer games, what if you switched to strategy board games? Imagine a fun year spent playing unique and challenging strategy games with your very best friends. You could learn a new game every week, so you’d get to play about 50 new games that year. If the games challenge you mentally and fire up your competitive spirit, this may be a worthwhile pursuit. And it would be a social experience too.

In practical terms, this would mean having one 3.5-hour gaming session about once a month for the next 50 years. And if you’re willing to devote 2 years of your life to this pursuit instead of just 1, you could double that. If you really enjoy the games AND you’re playing these games with people you like, then this kind of investment might feel good to you — potentially a lot better than spending a decade of your life playing video games by yourself.

Creating Your Life

You’re in charge of creating your life. If you don’t like where your time is going, it’s up to you to change that. Other people can’t dictate how you spend your time unless you willingly yield your power to them or they’re physically forcing you.

Start by saying no to that which is clearly a waste of your life. Then upgrade or replace those low-value activities with choices that are worthy of you. Cancel your cable TV, and use the time savings to read the books you’ve always yearned to read. Quit that time-wasting social networking site, and spend a month out of every year traveling instead. Get up an hour earlier, and invest that time in a worthwhile hobby. Dump the corporate slave job, and spend those years doing work you find purposeful and fulfilling.

Don’t let this be written on your tombstone:

Here lies John, who passed away
While answering his email one day.
No friend, no child, no loving mate
Could keep poor John from working late.
With each new mail, he worked like hell
To click “reply” instead of “del.”
A prompt response he’d always give
But somehow he forgot to live.

Fill your days with activities that are truly worthy of you. Don’t be an unconscious drone. Create a real life for yourself.

Source: Excerpt from Steve Pavlina’s newsletter, Personal Development Insights #32

Focus is what you naturally achieve when you release the need to control all the pieces.  I have been receiving many questions lately.  Why?  Well, I am a Canadian born American of Egyptian descent.  I am also a state of Wisconsin employee.   I symbolize many things to many people right now.   I receive questions about whatever it is that people project onto me.  Obama is certainly concerned about recent events in Egypt and in Madison, Wisconsin.

What are my opinions?  I am in a spiritually high place right now and I have released my fear and anger associated with these events.  Over the last couple of weeks, I got sucked into my own personal drama and that of others around me.  But today that has cleared up.  It is not hard when you cease to be needy, grabby and fearful.  Focus is what you naturally achieve when you release the need to control all the pieces.

Everything is fine.  Thank You

I posted my most recent article, Five Ways to Recover from a Setback, just over a month ago! I am here to tell you that I have not abandoned my blog nor have I abandoned my mission! I received a wake up call from a friend who sent me this sites current Alexa rating. Yes, if you don’t post, then people don’t come! So where have I been and what does it mean?

Well…sometimes you just need to regroup. That is exactly what I did and if you need to make any big changes in your life, you can too.   As I announced in my article about reasons to appreciate your job, I decided to rejoin the world of work. As you may be able to appreciate, job hunting can be a consuming process and so is starting a new job. Today marks the beginning of the third week of my new job! So in addition to the holidays, I have been busy! My process of regrouping means that I need to take the time to calibrate my life routine around my new circumstances.

Overall, I am pleased with how I have made the adjustment in many categories. One of my theories was that by adding more structure into my day I would become more efficient by cutting out time wasters and figure out how to bundle tasks together and do the most important things. It is like a game to me and I am having fun with it. As a result however, I temporarily was unavailable to write blog entries and have gotten a little behind on my personal correspondences. Instead, I have used my free time to look inward and do a lot of journaling. This has allowed me the space to think about what changes I want to make to my two websites.

I assure you that I have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes. For example, I am currently working on an article comparing my experience on the Master Cleanse with my experience completing a Dr. Natura colon cleanse. I will get that posted within the week! I also updated my raw food website with information on how your personality type affects your approach to preparing foods. I even provide suggestions for how each personality type can stretch themselves. If you are trying to make any type of dietary habit changes, understanding your personality type and what that says about your food preferences and your potential strengths and weaknesses can be very helpful.

I am also excited that my friend Darlene Navarre interviewed me last week for a radio segment that will be aired next Monday. I will be sure to send out an announcement when that interview is available. Darlene is committed to helping people eat fresh foods regardless of dietary affiliation. I wholeheartedly agree with her philosophy that good healthy and vibrant live foods are for everyone.

Bottom line.  I am here to stay and I am working on some exciting projects that I will announce when the time is right!

Recently I have been in contact with many people who are experiencing setbacks as well as some people who are bouncing back from a setback.  Setbacks are a part of life.  If you are experiencing one you may feel alone or that there is no way to overcome and deal with what you are facing.  That is simply not true.

Here are five strategies that could help you get back up if you are experiencing a setback:

(1) Directly address a central problem and fix it. Yes this is as simple as it sounds, but does not apply to everyone’s situation.  I mention it though because it is central to some people’s circumstances.   You know that you are in this situation if despite all your efforts to be positive, you still have that one thing that keeps getting in your way.  If you are experiencing happiness and fulfillment in your life it is despite the huge elephant that is sitting on your feet, not because having the elephant there is making you stronger and building character.  We all experience small irritations in life, but this is not what I am talking about.   Indeed it is best to deal with your outlook in life (I will get to that in a moment) in order to be less bothered by trivialities.  What I am talking about here is the job you need to change or the relationship you need to end or credit card debt you need to eliminate.  Yes, you can still live a happy life, even with the elephant in the room, but why not fix the problem directly?  Even being in motion and taking steps to fix the problem will be empowering.

(2) Take advantage of what you already know. One of the great things about experiencing a setback or falling down is that you have the knowledge of how it feels to be standing up in the first place!  In many cases, what you already know will help you get back to where you were if not surpass it!  Think of cases where great athletes such as Dan Millman severely injure themselves.  They are able to bounce back because of the years of knowledge and the discipline they developed before experiencing the setback.  One common setback that people experience is gaining weight after they successfully lose it.  This is particularily relevant around the holidays!  The fact is that if you lost the weight before, you have that experience to draw upon to lose it again.  Once upon a time, yo yo dieting was frowned upon because it was believed that by cycling through weight loss and weight gain, you create more fat cells to fill up!  While this may be true, more recent findings suggest that several attempts to lose and keep off weight are a good predictor of success.  This is because every time you lose weight you gain valuable knowledge and experience!

If your setback was recent, it may be easier for you to take steps to recover because both consciously and unconsciously you are accustomed your state of being before you experienced the setback.  Imagine you are the type of person who maintained a habit of balancing your checkbook for many years and then you had a major event in your life disrupt this habit and you let things go.  The sooner you get back on track to start balancing your checkbook again, the easier it will be for you get back on track.  Again, your physiology will work with you to return to your normal state.  If you have experienced a major disruption in your life such as a divorce or death in the family, focus on reclaiming control over the small life management habits that will provide you with a sense of normalcy.

(3) Focus on process goals rather than outcome goals. Generally speaking you have more control over what you choose to do rather than generating certain tangible results.  When your life feels like chaos, achieving something tangible that you have full control of will feel good and will also increase your chances of achieving the outcomes you want.  In the short term, you have more control over how often you exercise and what you eat than you do reaching a certain weight.  If you are in financial crisis, you have more control over what you spend this week and not as much control over the exact date you will get all your credit cards paid off.  It is important to have outcome goals as well but focusing on the process goals will help get you in motion.  It can also be very empowering to set smaller outcome goals that are fully in your control such as cleaning a room in your house or submitting a job application by a certain time.

(4) Transcend the problem.  Shoot for the moon! Shooting for more than what would be the generally accepted goal can be a very effective way to make the original goal seem easier.  There are two reasons this method is so effective.  First, it takes the focus off the original goal.  Second it puts the focus on a goal that may be more exciting than the original goal.  This worked very well for me when I decided to get healthy and lose weight.  At the time, I was getting really excited about the concept of eating a high raw food diet.  For several months, I did not worry about my weight.  I just focused on including more raw foods in my diet and learning new ways to prepare food.  This took the focus off of losing weight and put it on something much more exciting for me which was to integrate a totally new way of eating into my life.  Becoming a raw foodie in many ways was a more challenging goal but it did not feel that way because my excitement gave me the momentum it took to succeed.  Losing weight became a side effect of adopting a healthier way of eating!   This is why many people who want to lose weight choose to focus on bigger goals such as training for a marathon.

(5) Seek continuous inspiration! How you think from day to day; from hour to hour, from minute to minute; and from second to second creates the string of thoughts that shape your life.  Don’t be alone with your negative thoughts!  Replace them with positive ones.  One effective way to do that is to seek inspiration from yourself and others.  We all have had hard times in our lives.  If you are experiencing a setback now, write down examples of other times in your life where you recovered from a setback and be your own source of inspiration.

Seek inspiration from others!  The more you expose yourself to positive messages and inspiration the less time you have to think negatively.  I love to listen to books on tape when I am driving, when I am doing house work, or when I am relaxing before going to sleep.  There are endless titles available that are full of positive and inspiring messages.  I would recommend Happy for No Reason by Marci Shimoff for example.  I also stay inspired by engaging in a nearly daily routine of doing a 30 minute hypnosis session on a variety of topics such as build your self-esteem, thinking positively and creating inner peace & calm.  We are bombarded with so many negative and manipulative messages each and every day–why not dedicate 30 minutes a day to expose ourselves to messages that we consciously choose?

Nearly 5 months ago I wrote an article entitled “13 Reasons to Appreciate Why You Quit Your Job”  It was a perspective piece that spoke to people who recently left their job to pursue the world of self-employment and it hit a chord with many.  A funny thing happened…call it irony or call it a message from the universe, but my article ranked number one in the search engines for the phrase “Reasons to Appreciate Your Job” and as of this writing, it is in third place!

Here is the introduction to the previous article:

“This article was written while I was in nature and the content flowed into me.  It is a perspective piece that directly speaks to people who left their jobs months ago to pursue the world of self-employment.  There are messages within the content that are widely applicable to people in all career situations.  Enjoy!”

Now with five more months of self-employment under my belt and more data to share with you, I  feel compelled to share reasons to appreciate traditional employment!  Although on first glance this may seem like a contradiction or a retraction of what I wrote 5 months ago it is not.  It is just providing a perspective from a different vantage point.  Because I have received a multitude of off-line and online inquiries from people who are considering taking the plunge and quitting their jobs to join the world of the self-employed, this article directly speaks to this group but like the last one, there are messages that are widely applicable to people in all career situations.

The format of this article will be to offer an alternate vantage point to each of the reasons to appreciate why you quit your job.  The content from the original article is in italics.

(1) You are not getting any younger.

“Whether you are 22 or 42, you are not getting any younger.  The longer you would have stayed in an unfulfilling job, the more the habit would have solidified and the more detoxification  you would have had to look forward to.  Furthermore this type of lack of action would have spilled over into other parts of your life.”

Indeed, you are not getting any younger, so the time to start living the life you truly want whether it is in the area of career or something else is NOW.  However, that does not necessarily mean that “NOW” means you need to leave your current job or all jobs in order to interrupt the habit of accepting whatever status quo that you find unfulfilling.  There are an infinite number of possibilities that do not require you to accept the same set of circumstances nor quit employment altogether.

(2) You can now appreciate your new freedoms.

“Do you have to ask the boss for permission to take a vacation?  If you are inspired to write in nature is that option available to you?  When you first quit your job, your personal freedoms may have seemed new and exciting , but now you may have come to take them for granted.  Don’t!”

Sure it is great to do what you want when you want, but have you considered that having a lack of structure can also be stressful?  Not all employment situations are equal.  Everything is negotiable even if it seems like it is not.   What is difficult to negotiate with one employer may be very easy with another.  Indeed when you are your only employer you have new freedoms, but you also have new responsibilities.  For example, if I spend 8 hours resolving a technical problem as a self-employed person, I am not making any money.  If the same thing happens in my place of employment, I will still get paid for that time and will have many resources to tap into to get the problem fixed.

(3) You invited new connections into your life.

“Just about everyone who I have spoken with who took the plunge revealed that once they took this important step, people from the free world were more drawn to them.  For myself, I noticed that my connection deepened with people that were already in my life who were in alignment with my new path.  These people simply were not as interested in me while I was a cubicle slave.”

It is only natural for people to be drawn to others with shared circumstances and values, however there are multiple shades of gray!  My entire life has been a personal journey as a conduit between different groups of people and cultures.  This has been true for me in so many ways that I even included the “word” conduit in my life purpose statement.  I now realize that I am comfortable living between the worlds of traditional employment and self-employment and that there is an abundance of space for connection with all sorts of people where I am now!  I would caution people who transitioned from living or accepting one type of lifestyle to the opposite to refrain from trading in one type of group-think for another.  You are free to choose what you believe and mold your life accordingly!

(4) There was never gonna be the “perfect time”.

“In hindsight, it is really easy to see actions that you could have taken to better prepare yourself to take the plunge.  But that would have been true even if you had taken those imagined steps!  It is the nature of us to not be satisfied with what we have achieved.  This can be a great motivator to keep us working harder to better ourselves as we look forward, but we should not use our new found wisdom to beat ourselves over the head!   Instead, I have chosen to focus on the important steps I took that helped me prepare and I used my knowledge of both the good, bad, and ugly to help others who are considering quitting their jobs.”

Indeed if it truly is your goal to be completely self-employed, figuring out the perfect time may elude you if you are not willing to cut the chords.  However there is a huge gulf between believing ideologically that it is better to be self-employed and creating and following an action plan, complete with measurable benchmarks that would help you calculate, not a “perfect” but an “optimal” time to complete your transition.  I recommend that you read Assess, Decide, Do: Naturally Productivity by Dragos Roua to gain a better understanding and consciously address decisions within the context of how you manage your life.

(5) You broke out of the environment that was reinforcing the status quo.

“Sometimes people who quit their jobs look back at where they were through the lenses of financial fears and a scarcity mentality.  From that perspective, the regular paycheck and benefits are granted inflated importance. Through these disempowering lenses it is easy to make false conclusions based on distorting all the factors.  The fact that you wanted to break away from the frustrating and ever repeating patterns that you could not change is crowded out by rationalizations that you could have made it work.  You believe you could have started your business on the side while keeping your job.  Do you know that is exactly how abusive relationships work?  In fact the number one reason that couples stay together when they should split is due to finances!”

If you are in a situation that is in fact wearing you down for any reason such as you feel you are not being treated with respect, or you are not finding your work challenging enough, then it is important that you take strong action to change the situation so that you do not adopt a mindset of learn-helplessness nor do you get so fed up one day that you make a rash decision.

The concepts from the best book I ever read on romantic relationships also apply to other types of relationships, including employment ones.  So although this may sound odd, one of the best career tips I can give you is to read How to Mend Your Broken Heart: Overcome Emotional Pain at the End of a Relationship, by Paul McKenna, Ph.D. and Hugh Willbourn, Ph.D.  In the arena of romance, if you experience one bad relationship that does not mean all partners that you could potentially get involved with will be wrong for you.  In the arena of employment, if you are incompatible with your current traditional job, that does not mean there a no good matches out there for you!

(6) You chose to take the direct path to what you want.

“Removing from your life what you don’t want allows you to take the most direct path to what you do want.  Pretty simple huh?  If you are in Wisconsin and you really want to be in Tennessee, it makes sense to lay out a course that gets you to Tennessee doesn’t it?   Your plan includes an action step for you to leave Wisconsin because you cannot be in Wisconsin and Tennessee at the same time!  Even if your path is not perfect–for example you somehow include California on your path from Wisconsin to Tennessee, it is still a more direct path to leave Wisconsin head way west to California and then track back east and go south to Tennessee.  It may seem like an illogical detour but at least you realized that you needed to leave Wisconsin to get to Tennessee!

I used to delude myself into believing that I could continue to learn and grow in my job and that I could thus still be moving along the path that got me closer to what I wanted.  I rationalized that I could continue to contribute in my job and work on some of my weak areas so I would have the ability to hit the ground running when I did quit my job.  Once again, this was an illusion.  There would have always been something else to work on before it was time to quit the job.  Why not mold your personal development around the life you truly want?”

This is all great if you did your homework and accurately assessed what you wanted to remove from your life and had the ability to extract it without hemorrhaging some other part of your life!  If you crash and burn trying to get out of Wisconsin, it will also take you longer to get to Tennessee!  Also you may not have done your homework to discover exactly what Tennessee is like!  What if your image of Tennessee does not match up to reality?  Perhaps at first, if you are really unhappy with where your are in Wisconsin, you may improve your situation greatly by moving from your current city to one nearby.  Also, you want to make sure that the roadmap for what you want truly comes from within, and has not been unduly influenced by others who may hold certain biases such as being anti-job.

(7)  You gave yourself the gift of self-respect.

“Chances are when you made the decision to quit your job, you were aware of the consequences of doing so.  You may not have anticipated every little detail of what you are now experiencing, but you probably realized that there would be challenges.  So when you hit a rough patch or catch yourself thinking negatively, afford yourself the courtesy of respecting your original decision.   You went through a lot to get to where you are and you deserve your respect for it.”

Very true.  We can only make the best decision for ourselves at the time with the information that we have.  Chances are good that we will not make the optimal decision because studies have shown that humans are more driven to act by emotion than by logic.  If you took action and you are not happy with the result, consider that feedback that you can use to assess your next steps.  According to Dragos Roua, we tend to view what we perceive as a mistake as a disruption to our life or even as a crisis.   If you apply his life management system (he provides you with a framework and helpful concepts but it is up to you to make it your own), you will cycle such feedback back to the Assess realm and with practice, you will get better at making decisions that produce the results that you want.

(8) Life is fluid: you still have options!

“We should not be so afraid to make decisions and take risks because doing so often means we are playing the odds correctly.   Furthermore, we are not locked into anything.  If it has been a while since you quit your job, chances are good that your current path and vision do not match up to the path and vision you had when you first quit your job.   That is okay!  That is expected!  There probably have been good and bad surprises along the way.  You still have progressed along the path of finding out who you are and you are free to make adjustments.  After all you did leave Wisconsin. You may need to take action to adjust to your current set of circumstances.  For example if your financial resources are getting tight, you may need to take a side job.  But that is not the same as remaining in the status quo.  You have still left Wisconsin and you might not get to Tennessee as fast, but you are still on the path.  You may have also found that some aspect of the business you chose for yourself is not completely right.  You are free to change your path!  Once you leave Wisconsin, it is easier to change your destination if you learn new information that makes you want to adjust your course.  You may find that there is a particular part of Tennessee that appeals to you more or you may decide to head to Texas.  Either way you knew that Wisconsin was not for you!”

Indeed if Wisconsin (or your job) is not for you than you need to make changes!   Do you know what all your options are?   If you are frustrated with your current job have you spoken to your employer about what tasks you enjoy do and what tasks are frustrating for you?   Do you have a clear idea of not only what you want to leave but what situation you want to go to?

(9) There were bad times.

“There were bad times at your previous career whether or not you currently remember them.  Sure you may in concept remember that you had bad times but do you allow yourself to really REMEMBER them?  Chances are like 100 percent that you not only had a dream that was pulling you away from your old job, but that there were many things that you did not like that were pushing you out the door!  Was it your working environment?  Were there certain people you did not get along with?  Did you often do work that you hated?  Were there recurring issues that kept you drained because you did not have the authority to resolve them?”

Hey–there were good times too! I think that the most common thinking flaw here is distinguishing between your experience with your current or most recent job and all jobs.  Can you really be entirely sure that you would have the same bad experiences in another job?   Recently I spoke to two people who told me about their surreal experiences being treated differently when they changed jobs.  The grass can truly be greener in different pastures.  Changing pastures may in fact be easier to do than changing planets!  Did you know that as a human being, your physiology works against any steps you take to implement big changes?  Our bodies and our subconscious selves work to return us to the status quo.  A stepped approach to change has been proven to be more effective whether you are trying to lose weight are install a new habit.  In order to succeed in doing something very different than what you are doing right now, chances are good that you will need to install a whole series of new habits as well as gain a lot of knowledge about your desired lifestyle before you will be successful.  Learning curves require the passage of time to absorb the requisite lessons and abilities. Processing time and habit development are key.  Immersive learning has its place too.  Holding a job allows you to pace yourself and if you negotiate properly, you can have an employment situation which allows you the opportunity to take time off to immerse yourself in other endeavors.  In fact, the job may offer you many worthwhile immersion experiences.

(10) You have since accomplished important work!

“What is it that you have accomplished on your new path since you took the plunge?  Don’t say “nothing” because I know that is not true!  It is extremely common for people who are first entering the world of self-employment to fail to accomplish exactly what it is they envisioned for themselves.  A few months in, they may have fewer clients than they anticipated or less content on their website or simply not have yet developed a work flow that is as comfortable or productive as they would have wanted.  Nevertheless, chances are very good that you produced value for you customer that you would not have been able to offer in your previous career.  Chances are also very good that the type of value that you produced is more in alignment with who you really are.  Who have you helped in your new path?  What have you produced?”

Not everyone who quits their job to pursue the world of self-employment feels good about what they have contributed in their new role.  As I said previously, chances are good that most people who took this step have made a positive contribution whether or not they are fully aware of it.  This is one area that I feel fully aligned to my life purpose.  Although upon reflection I feel that I would have been better off not quitting the world of work altogether, I am very happy with the direction I have established for myself working with people and writing about health, wellness and self-development.  Even as I am seeking an employment opportunity that converges with my life purpose, I am glad that I have firmly established my identity and what I believe in outside of the world of traditional employment.  Once I get a traditional job, this will allow be to balance my life outside of work with the more structured life of being employed.   When I was employed before, I believed that my two identities were in conflict.  This was a self-imposed and limiting perspective.   In fact, employment offers some types of business problems and opportunities to contribute that I enjoy working on that are not available to me as an exclusively self-employed person.  I feel intuitively that I am now ready to re-enter the workforce with a different perspective that will only add to momentum of the value I produce in both realms.

(11) You served as a good role model to others.

“This became very clear to me even before I physically left my job.   Once my coworkers learned of my impending departure, I received several visits from people wanting to know how I got to the point of having the courage to leave my job.  Reactions ranged from horror to admiration to inspiration.  Regardless of the nature of the reaction, there was a reaction and thus a seed was planted.  Recently a friend let me know that she quit her job and that I had inspired her to do so.  Chances are good that your display of courage has helped others see the possibilities for themselves regardless of whether or not they have acted on it at this point.”

Any action you take to be true to yourself will inspire others to do the same.  It is the spirit of pursuing your dreams and advocating for what you want that is important, not a specific action!

(12) “Jack be Nimble…”

“Now that you have quit your job, you are a more nimble person.  You are not one to be stuck in a set of circumstances that are not right for you.  Chances are good that you have cleared other things off your plate that should not be there since you removed the job.  Did you leave a bad relationship?  Did you give up responsibility for an organization that you were no longer aligned with?  Did you get rid of toxic friends?  The truth is that you are more nimble and flexible now.  You have the ability to act fast and disconnect from what you do not want and connect to what you want.  Really think about this point–there is an aspect of it that may not be obvious to you until you dig a little deeper.  Being out on your own has presented you with many situations in which you make decisions fast and you learn the consequences and adjust quickly.  The lifecycle of implementing a change is far shorter than it was under the world of work.  Consider the relative permanence of technology and personnel choices in the workplace and compare that to how you currently relate to the tools of your trade and to business partners.  You have more control and you make changes more rapidly.  You are nimble!”

You can also be nimble by having multiple streams of income and diversity of work structures and business problems that converge to address your life purpose.  That said, I do think taking bold action, even where you don’t get the results you hoped for can in fact make you more nimble.  For me, I don’t believe I would be as attached to the idea of remaining in any particular traditional employment or self-employment situation.  I am more discerning now and seek to be in situations that are right for me and get out of ones that are wrong for me.  This has been a wonderful growth experience that has spilled over into many other areas of my life.  The beauty of it is that I also feel I have more power to influence my current situation to be right for me.  You can read my article on showing true leadership by respecting other people’s choices to understand how this works.  Briefly, the more sure you are about yourself and the more consistent you are about taking action based on your values, the more people will treat to the way you want to be treated.

(13) Your future self is grateful!

“I know this is true for me!  I stay in close contact with my past and future selves because I find that these perspectives  add depth and meaning to my current situation.  Chances are good that a couple years from now when you reflect upon the action you took you are not going to regret your decision!  There is hard data out there that shows that even for people who really faced tremendous challenges with being their own boss, few regretted giving up the old way.  So don’t forget that your future self is available anytime to lend you support if you are doubting the decision that your past self made.  Make it a point to create harmony amongst all your selves and this journey will flow much easier and with more joy!”

It is helpful to remember that any point in time is temporary.  The meaning of your current situation is up to you to define.  You are 100 percent responsible for how you choose to view your past choices, your current circumstances, and your future possibilities.  I continue to find it helpful to view my current self through the lenses of my future selves and to feel gratitude for what it is that I have accomplished.  So indeed my future self is grateful.  Feeling gratitude is a choice you have in every moment of your existence.

Reasons to Appreciate your Job:  Common Themes

If you are considering quitting your job, I hope that you tuned into some of the common themes that the counterpoints above addressed:

I have more to say on the topic and in future posts I will share my personal experiences. I wrote this article to begin the dialogue with my readers about traditional and self-employment.  I would also like to share that since I informed family and friends that I am in the market for traditional employment I have received a lot of support and encouragement.  I have also received some unsolicited advice and dogma about how traditional employment is the best route to go.  Some of it a bit overbearing.  I would like to make it clear that I no more buy into “jobs are good” than I buy into “jobs are bad”.  If I did, I would have missed the whole point of what this experience has taught me.  One of my friends on Facebook said it very well when he declared (I am paraphrasing) that traditional employment is a legitimate source of income but not the only legitimate way to earn money (thanks Eugene!)

I am excited to present you with Podcast #1 on developing good habits to help you become an early riser!  You can expect more podcasts from me in the future as I increase my audio presence.  I also will be exploring the possibility of making videos too!    

This podcast is just under 30 minutes long and is packed full of information on developing habits that support waking up early in the morning and really more than that, support a healthy sleeping and life system.  For your reference I list the 13 habits below along with resources that I discuss in the podcast and below that I offer you some articles I recommend on becoming an early riser.

(1) Give yourself a reason to get excited about getting up in the morning.

Your efforts to get out of bed in the morning will be more effective if you have that thought pop up in your head when you first get up that gets the ball rolling.

(2) Decide ahead of time how you will handle various wake up scenarios.

If your goal is to wake up at 5:00 and you wake up at 4:10 what do you do?

(3) Make a daily routine of taking a 30 minute nap.

Knowing that you not need to wait until night to get restorative rest makes it easier to get up and get going early in the morning!   I enjoy doing a Glenn Harrold CD each during my nap. He has numerous titles; here are just a few that I enjoy:

Heal Your Body

Creating Inner Peace & Calm

Unleash your True Potential

(4) Know your preference for routine.

Take the Myers Briggs personality type indicator and learn about how your personality type responds to routine and the need for spontaneity.  If you want to know more about the Myers Briggs personality type indicator then read this article on my website and use Google to find a free online personality test.

(5) Deal with habits that are not conducive to getting a good night sleep.

You may need to deal with any serious impediments to your sleep routine before attempting to adopt and early riser lifestyle.  If you have an issue with anxiety or obsessive thinking, then check out my article on how to eliminate rumination.

(6) Allow for the right amount of flexibility for you.

You will not make perfect decisions all the time and life happens!

(7) Reduce the amount of sleep that you need.

The type of diet you eat long term and on a day to day basis affects how much sleep you need on average and how much sleep you need on a daily basis.

(8) Find your cheer leaders.

Seek social support for adopting your early riser routine.  Take a look at Steve Pavlina’s forums have a thread on becoming part of the 4 to 6am club.

(9) Give yourself some wind down time before you sleep at night.

Most people would benefit from taking it down a notch or two a few hours before sleeping.

(10) Set your own goals.  This is not a competition.

Decide for yourself what it means to be an early riser and what time to get up in the morning.  If you are several hours away from waking up at your goal time, take a step approach towards your goal and be patient with yourself.

(11) Make a habit of deferring your concerns.

Do not try to solve your problems at night before going to sleep or ruminate about them in the morning when you want to get up and get going with your day.

(12) Dwell on the benefits you get from being an early riser.

Use visualization as a tool to imagine yourself experiencing the benefits of living your life as an early riser.

(13) Approach your day with an abundance mentality.

Recognize that there is plenty of time in the day, even on days that you wake up late!

Here is additional recommended reading.  Enjoy!

How to Become and Early Riser by Steve Pavlina

How to Become and Early Riser – Part II by Steve Pavlina

Why Becoming an Early Riser will Change Your Life by Dragos Roua

I am excited to announced that I have completed my 54-page ebook entitled: “How to get the most out of your Master Cleanse Experience”.  It took me longer than expected but I value quality over speed.  I could easily charge a hefty price for this gem, but I wanted to provide something of tangible value to my readers for free, so here it is!  I present the material in a visually pleasing and easy to follow manner and provide callouts of key concepts, pictures and a chart that shows you what to consume on each day of a 10-day cleanse.

All you need to do to receive this ebook is to sign up for my newsletter.  I wrote the very guide to the Master Cleanse that I wish I had before I embarked upon my first cleanse experience.  That said, I am grateful that I had wonderful resources available to me when I first did a 10-day Master Cleanse and I share these recommended resources with you in the ebook.

My presentation of the material is unique in that I took care to provide you with the framework in which to do the Master Cleanse and I provide you detailed tips in key areas, far more detailed than I have seen in any other resource on how to do the Master Cleanse properly.   I highlight some of the unique features of the ebook below.

Master Cleanse Framework and Complimentary Activities

In my view the Master Cleanse is an integral part of a larger holistic purpose to achieve health and self-actualization.  The process you experience while on a cleanse very much compliments other self-betterment activities. This is why I felt it was important to provide you with concrete examples of how to integrate the Master Cleanse into holistic living and spiritual practices.  The Master Cleanse can be a great time to explore activities such as:

• Setting powerful health and life goals
• Working through emotional and relationship issues
• Working with your dreams and spiritual practices
• Working on self-discovery through journaling

The Devil is in the Details

Another value-added component that I provide you is that I answer some of the key details before you even ask the question!  I purposefully reinforced important concepts by repeating information in different sections of the ebook.  By the time you finish reading this ebook, you will be less likely to make the most common of blunders which will increase your chances of success tremendously.  Here are some of the cool features I offer you:

• Illustrative pictures. You can see the actual supplies look like!  Take a peek at what I have in my kitchen.
• Detailed description of common and uncommon challenges that people face on the  Master Cleanse. This will give you the confidence to continue with the Master Cleanse since you will know what to expect but will also give you the insight into when to discontinue the cleanse should certain problems arise.  So many people cut their cleanse experience short only because they encounter a situation that they did not see coming.
• Repetition of key concepts.  Some concepts are so important that they are worth repeating.  I describe key information such as what ingredients to use and what you can expect to experience on the Master Cleanse in multiple sections of the ebook so that you can see how the information relates to activities such as planning ahead, maximizing your experience, and common errors.
• Detailed resource guide. This includes Master Cleanse resources as well as resources for journaling, working with you dreams and my most recommended hypnosis CDs.
• Strong on strategic planning. I am a very logical an analytical person with a great deal of project management experience.  I have poured my talent in this area into the content of this ebook to give you the tools to making planning ahead effective and fun.  I strongly suggest that you adopt the mindset of planning for a 10-day Master Cleanse much like you would approach planning a vacation.
• Attention to detail. I provide measurements and product recommendations that are not USA-centric for example.  I recognize that some of my readers will have an easier time obtaining needed supplies than others and that not everyone uses tablespoons and teaspoons!  Certain ingredients such as the organic maple syrup or the senna tea are not readily available in all parts of the world so I help you work through these issues ahead of time so that you will not be unprepared when you are ready to start!
• A point by point description of recommended deviations the standard methodology. For example, I offer my own perspective on when to start and end the salt water flush component of the Master Cleanse and I offer my insights on how to transition off the cleanse more effectively.  I also explain why I feel differently than some of the experts on the Master Cleanse regarding how long to do the cleanse and whether or not there is value in doing shorter cleanses.

Unpopular statement alert! For some people, following my guidance will mean not undertaking the Master Cleanse at this time.  That is perfectly okay!  Respect where you are now on the path to better health and all will be well.  People who take 100 percent responsibility for their health and make deliberate and well-research decisions are the ones that thrive!  I am happy to provide you with my guidance and support, but you are 100 percent responsible for what you decide to do and the results you get, I am not!

A Final Note

I include a special discount for my coaching services in the ebook because I want to offer my readers every opportunity to succeed with doing the Master Cleanse or taking other important steps to improving their well-being.  This offer is only good if purchased by the end of this month although the discounted sessions have no expiration date.

I was drawn to read Assess Decide and Do: Natural Productivity by Dragos Roua because I have a lot at stake here.  My own prediction and that of trusted friends is that it is my habits and ability to focus that will make or break me as a newly self-employed person.  My friends observed that I am a very creative and resourceful person that produces excellent work, but that I am easily distracted.  Considering my own assessment and the observations of others if I add focus and follow through into the game then I am golden!  Now that I have read Assess Decide and Do I am replacing the word “follow through” with “flow”.  Dragos presents a powerful life management system and not just a work flow management tool.  Dragos provides a whole new way of thinking about focus than what we commonly think.  Focus is not some sort of forced discipline of willing yourself to stay on task, but rather it works in conjunction with flow to allow you to move easily between three realms of creating what you want while being fully present in your immediate activity.

I am optimistic that as I practice this life management system I will improve my outcomes and create more miracles.  Throughout this ebook Dragos chooses his words  to remind us of the miracle of creation and of living.   He provides an empowering world view as well as a customizable object oriented paradigm and finally the direct application that you can download to your iPhone or iPad.  I do not have an iPhone yet I learned from reviewing the detailed pictures of how to put this life management system into action.  You can benefit from this ebook even if you do not get the application that goes with it but I must say that getting an iPhone is more on my radar now that I recognize an added dimension of what I could accomplish with one!

The Birth of a Life Management System
Assess Decide and Do: Natural Productivity came about when Dragos observed what he naturally did from day to day to operate his life while on a trip to Thailand. He categorized his actions into three realms: Assess, Decide, and Do and as the model developed he realized he had a life management system.  “Life management” according to Dragos “is a neutral name for a large collection of habits, strategies, rules, religions, philosophies and patterns on which we are relying every day in living our lives.”  You have a life management system whether you are aware of it or not.  How you manage your life can be improved.

ADD: A Coincidence?
Is the acronym for Assess Decide and Do linked to Attention Deficit Disorder or is it a coincidence? Well, Dragos and I agree that there is no such thing as a coincidence!  Dragos did not intentionally make this link but after being asked about it he had to consider the possible link.  He reports and demonstrates feeling relaxed and in the flow while at the same time becoming insanely productive both professionally and personally.  That sounds like the opposite of Attention Deficit Disorder to me!

Overview: The Assess, Decide and Do Realms
The content of this life management system is presented on three levels.  The first section provides the theoretical framework. The second section provides practical applications to life situations.  The third section provides the nitty gritty of daily tracking via your iPad or iPhone.  You can access information on this download here: http://www.dragosroua.com/iadd-for-iphone-ipad/

The Assess realm is the reflective state in which you evaluate internal and external data. It is a function of your current situation and your experience. It is where you analyze your options.  In this realm, you need to give yourself the space to be fully present without the pressure to make a decision.  This insight really resonates with me because I can look back on so many times in my life where I felt pressure to make a decision and I felt the pressure of the decision before I fully allowed myself to think things through.  For example now as a rule, I never buy products from anyone who say they will give me a discount if I buy on the spot.  Now I can verbalize why this policy is a good practice.  You cannot be in decide mode while you are assessing all relevant information for making a sound buying decision!

First you need to go through the full assessment process before you kick it over to Decide.  You need to make sense of all the information and listen to your internal feedback.  Become the attached observer.  Dragos sees daydreaming as a fundamental part of the assess process.  This makes sense to me since we are more driven by our emotions than our logic. Tapping into our memories and listening to ourselves through the art of meditation are also part of the assessment process.  You only move to the Decide realm once you can no longer add to the Assess realm without it looking the same to you, and at that point you need to move swiftly into the Decide realm.

This is easy to illustrate by looking at a simple task such as evaluating your grocery list–if you have nothing to add to it, then you are ready to go grocery shopping.  By the way, the iPad/iPhone application called iAdd is impressively comprehensive in not only mirroring his life management model outlined in the first two sections of his ebook, but also in providing detailed tracking tools, including a well thought out grocery shopping list!  As a raw foodie, I pay a premium for high quality food and always appreciate of tools that I can apply and recommend to my followers to make the buying process flow better.

Dragos provides guidelines specific applications so that you have some idea of whether you are spending too much time or not enough time in the Assess realm.  He points out that comfort is the enemy of evolution.  There is such a thing as learning too much and you need to decide on something.  On the other end of the spectrum–”I did not know” is a sign that you should have been more careful and spent more time in Assess mode.  This is true whether you jumped into a romantic relationship or quit your job without assessing all the consequences.

The Decide realm is where you make a binary choice of whether to do or not to do what it is you have been evaluating in the Assess realm.  You can move back to the assessment realm as needed.  In general, Dragos does not delay a decision more than 24 hours for something currently on the horizon.  He warns not to stay too long in this stage or you may fall victim to “someday” syndrome.  The time horizon is different if you have a big life decision such as moving to a different country, however.  In such a case you may stay in Decide mode for a few months.  It is what you decide that creates your reality!  Most of the time people do this automatically instead of by assessing first.

An item is on your “To Do” list within the Do realm once it passes through Assess and Decide.  This is the area that most productivity experts focus on.  It is a mistake to put all the focus here because the Do realm is a consequence of what happened in Assess and Decide.  Scheduling and prioritizing are important components of the Do realm.  Productivity obsession is one of the biggest traps within the Do realm.  According to Dragos, our traditional way of viewing task management is very disempowering.  Traditional systems place too much focus on killing off tasks and doing things efficiently.  Productivity does not exist for the sake of crossing tasks off your list, but rather it exists to allow you to have a real life while doing things efficiently!  Ahh–what a breath of fresh air!  That said finishing a task that you decided to do is a very important part of the Do process.  If you start it–finish it!  This really resonates with me as I have wasted so much time revisiting projects.  By doing what you Assess and Decide is how you change your reality.  That is how you create miracles!  Once you create a miracle, why kill it off?  I will never think about the term “deadline” the same way after reading this ebook.  A project is not dead once you have completed it!  It continues as a lifeline in the spiral of all it is that you create.  Once you complete a project, you can move it into the Assess realm to evaluate and see what is next.

Focus and Flow: Applying Attention and Moving between the Realms
Focus is the measure of your atomic presence in each of the realms.  If your focus is not entirely with the immediate activity then it weakens your current reality.  Multitasking is a myth.  This idea resonates with me.  After all, have you ever watch children play? They have such timeless fun!  It is not uncommon for adults to have a discussion of how time seems to pass faster and faster as you get older.  Why is that?  I think it is because we lose our natural focus.  When I was a kid, I was TOTALLY immersed in what I was doing.  When I recreate this natural state of being as an adult, then I notice that I experience a great sense of joy and time slows down!  An example of this is a recent trip I took to the zoo.  I went alone and really made it a point to observe and learn.  Along with being fully present in the moment, I began the assess process for evaluating doing an article on why to go to your local zoo and am excited to have made the decision to do a blog entry when I next visit the zoo.  To me that is natural and organic living that will contribute to others, but it sprung from my surrendering to live in the present moment and be nowhere else but the zoo that afternoon.  I believe that I developed the habit of multitasking to deal with the perception of time scarcity.  Do you ever see children multitasking?

Flow is the elegant manner in which you move naturally from one realm or task to another.  You rarely move through a single sequence of Assess Decide or Do.  Flow is how you move between these states. It is the master glue for keeping the pieces together.  This is where you experience your joy, happiness and exhilaration.  You are living naturally.  Again think back to the children analogy.  When do children decide to move from one activity to another?  They do so when they are finished with what they are doing.  When they decide to do something and they get stuck they let you know they need more information, even if it is through a display of complete frustration!  As we get older, we are conditioned to drop what we are doing to follow the rules and pay attention to something that is on the forefront of someone else’s mind, not our own.  Time for dinner! Do your homework!  That said, Dragos points out that interruptions are not necessarily bad.  Most of the time we can process something that comes up such as a request or an idea, even if it is to kick it into the Assess realm.  When I was at the zoo, I did not let the idea of doing a blog post on my next zoo visit detract from my current experience.  We are not forced to drop what we are doing like we may have had happen in our youth.  When you have a sense of flow it is harder to be derailed than when you are clinging onto our techniques to stay on task that if violated, knock your whole house down.  I love this quote from Dragos and when I posted it on Facebook, it struck a cord with many: “I know it sounds esoteric and a little bit pretentious, but if you really take a step back, you’ll understand that every productivity technique is in fact a replacement for our lost trust in our capacity of creating what we want.”

Replacing the Productivity Monster with Natural Productivity
I must admit, that I once was obsessed with becoming a productivity monster but that I realize that efficiency in itself is highly overrated.  Within the framework of Assess, Decide and Do, if you flow through the first two realms in a balanced manner than your efficiency within the Do realm will be greatly supported by your excitement for what you are doing.  I currently use a simple productivity strategy, but feel like it is a game, something I am excited about, something I use to challenge myself as opposed to something to harshly overlay upon what I have decided to do!  I suspect that as I evolve along the path to increasing the flow of my life I may very well outgrow the need for such games.  That said productivity tools that allow of to accomplish things as would a robot can have a subservient place in a life management model.   Dragos had a fantastically productive year despite having family issues i.e. handling the details of the separation from his wife and attending the needs of his children.  Really when you think about it, the overarching habit of living a naturally productive life is what lead to his creating value and allowed him to deal with his personal life with more momentum.

It seems that productivity as defined by creating what it is we want happens best when we transcend the need to mechanize everything and enter the process of flow in which we become skilled at re-deciding based on naturally discerning when we need to go back for more information.

Your Mistakes are Part of Evolving up the Spiral of Creating what you want
What you perceive as a mistake is just a result of something  you did.  We tend to perceive a mistake as a disruptive process.  It really is feedback that we can loop back through the Assess realm to create what we want.  Once you have the feeling that you made a mistake, it is best to stay in the Assess realm instead of trying to do something.  It takes discipline to keep you there but if you go into survival mode you may run into the exact situation that you were in before.  You will repeat the patterns that create more of what you do not want.  Accept the situation you are in. It is not a crisis; it is a result.

After much evaluation I felt that the timing of quitting my job was a “mistake”.  Applying  the this life management model I can now see that when I did my initial evaluation of making this decision I completely neglected some types of information while I dwelled too long on other types of information that were not changing when I revisited them.  I know now that I will feed the information through the Assess realm differently this time because I am applying the model consciously.  Some people with my set of circumstances may be tempted to again not put the time into the Assess realm and get a job instead of making a change in how they evaluate the situation.

Dragos made a further distinction that is helping me process certain feelings I have about the decision I acted on 7 months ago.  When you experience what feels like a “crisis” or an unintended result, you either made a mistake or you made a decision that was not wrong, but that you are experiencing growing pains.  So far in my Assess realm, I am distinguishing that my overall decision to quit my job was not wrong and that I am experiencing growth pains and that my decision to quit when I did was likely a mistake.  The result of both decisions are being fed back into the Assess realm where among other things I am evaluating creating an ebook on successfully quitting your job.  I have learned so much about the process and from my current position I am able to write such an ebook while it is still fresh. I will be able to relate to others who are considering making such a change and also help people who are experiencing a similar feedback into the Assessment realm.  Most of the ebook will focus on the Assessment realm and this brilliantly better ebook on life management will be one of the featured recommended resources.