Mind the Beginner

Have you ever tried to deliberately mess something up? It’s hard to make it look convincing isn’t it? It’s impossible to create an genuine mess when you know how not to mess up.

But looking at “how to mess up” isn’t what we are after, we’re always looking for ways not to mess things up obviously. The internet is overloaded with “how-to’s” to take your hand and guide you through all the steps and help you not to mess up. It’s all very nice obviously, but it doesn’t focus on what it is that makes you fail.

Why you fail

Did you ever stop and think about why you fail at something? Why it’s not the best you can do? If something is the best you can do but it’s not good enough, is it still a failure? That’s up to you, but  would it be the same kind of failure if you didn’t give it all you have to give and so failed. Knowing full well that if you gave everything you’d succeed.

If you’re just not good enough, you’ll just have to get better. And that’s not what this blogpost is about. This blogpost is about failing where you could (should?) have succeeded just because you didn’t give it your best.

A few questions for the conscience

Look back at your resent failures, yes it’s painful but it’s for the greater good here. Did you fail because of not being good enough or because you were slacking. With those failures you were slacking on, can you recall working on the project? I’m going to make a few guesses here:

• You weren’t focused
• or worse.. you were multitasking *shudders*
• and you weren’t spending enough time on the project

I know, I know, it’s almost as if I was there with you and have seen what you were doing. There are two problems here, the time spent and the focus.

Spending enough time

Taking just 20 minutes to work on a task is certainly a good idea, but by itself it will do nothing for you. You’ll have to do more than just sit there and watch a timer as it counts down. Watching it will actually slow it down! Spending enough time has a lot to do with knowing what you actually want or need to do. As soon as you have a clear images of the goal, make an estimation on how long it will take. The first pit-fall presents itself: your estimation is off, maybe even by as much as 90%. Either you over exaggerate the time it takes (no wonder you’re reluctant to do it) or you thought it was far easier than it actually was  (no wonder you got in trouble at the deadline).

Focus

If you have read the four hour workweek you know the Pareto principle: 80% of the work gets done in 20% of the time. Great! So now you can cut down your estimation by 80%. Wrong again! The 80-20 principle when applied to work implies that the 20% of the time you spend on work you actually do the best you can. You focus on the task, no distractions whatsoever. No checking facebook, twitter or steeping a pot of tea. Petting your cat or answering the phone, although nice breaks aren’t to productive as well.

Giving it your best: combining focus and time

In the time you actually work on something, do just that and nothing else. You might find it hard to keep that focus but with some training in meditation it’s actually not that hard. Steeping some tea or brewing a cup of coffee will have to wait until you take a short break. For whatever length of time you are working, cut out all distractions and know exactly what it is you are working at. You can do it!

Fail to fail

If you spend enough time and focus on whatever it is you are doing, you-can-not-fail. It is now impossible for you to mess up. And if you do fail, you either, didn’t focus enough, didn’t spend enough time or spent your time focused on the wrong thing.

Now you know how not to fail, what are you waiting for?

This blogpost is a follow-up on my last blogpost on which Alan Perlman from over at the 9 to 5 alternative commented:

Many people–myself included–understand that there’s a third pillar, but may not know how to attack it. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this.
Like, once you recognize the third pillar, once you know you need to act in the present and to change certain things, how do you do it? What’s optimal? – Alan

A quick refresh: There are three pillars in personal development, three choices you have right now:

1. Flee the present
   
2. Passively accept the present
   
3. Act in the present

Now we have those clear again  (if you want to read more: the three pillars of personal development) lets dive right in.

Optimal ways to act right now

The very first thing that comes to mind is something Carl (R Nelson, over at Drop of Change) tought me a long time ago. He called it the 3-2-1 Method and it’s actually as effective as it is simple:

When confronted with an issue which will only take a moment to resolve yet which you are reluctant to do get in your head for a few seconds.

Count down.

3…

2..

1.

Then do it. Say it. Write it down. Type it. Send it.

This is by far the simplest tactic around and works wonders. Coupled with a tactic taken from “getting things done” which is to do something immediately if it takes two minutes or less will get you through all those little things throughout the day that need to be done.

In that we have another clue how to tackle acting in the present.

Take the smallest possible steps

A topic I’ve written about a lot, like presenting you with 8 steps to reclaiming responsibility. I’m a huge fan of keeping things simple, always looking for ways to make a step even smaller. So small in fact that you can take those steps within two minutes. And you immediately do those things that take two minutes or less.

The problem with being reluctant to act is have steps that are to big to take. If I ask you to write a book in a year, would you?

Or would you postpone the task because writing a book is just to much.

Now what if I asked you to write a short story of say, 1000 words. That’s not to hard now is it? Write a short story every day and let each story continue where the last one ended and you have a book in a year.

Small steps, they might be boring. You’re just writing a short story, not a book. You’re just writing a few lines of code, not a complete program and you’re not making an online income, you’re just making a single sell. Totally boring but take enough steps… Do I have to spell it out? Every single step is getting you closer. You know that feeling when you tick something off your to-do list? Maybe a quick picture will help you recall that feeling:

Do you remember the feeling?

Feels good doesn’t it, checking a box, finishing a task. Some people even write down extra tasks on their to-do-list just so they can experience the feeling of checking the box. With huge steps, you get to check a box once in a while. That is, if you ever finish it. With small steps, you get a lot of boxes to check and chances are you will.

So what is optimal?

Once you recognize that you have to act in the now:

• Identify the act to be done now
• Cut that act up in the smallest possible steps
• Stop procrastinating and do those small steps. (It takes you just a few minutes after all!)
• If you have a hard time getting over procrastination, apply the 3-2-1 Method

And if you doubt this approach, remember that My way is the Best Way

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What is personal development all about? Did you ever wonder what it is that has people all fired up and wanting to change their lives? The brief answer to that would be “You have control over your own life, you just have to take it”.

But taking control means taking action in one for or the other. This blogpost gives you the three options you have this very moment. The -only- three things you can do.

Keep in mind that you are living in the present, it might be stating the obvious but it’s a key factor in taking control. You can not change the past nor can you change the future. You are living right now, right here. You read the first few lines of this blogpost in the past, and now too, this line has become past. Can you unread? Can you skip ahead a few seconds and know what you are about to read without ever having to actually read it? Of course not.

It’s stating the obvious but it I can’t stress it enough: This very moment is the only moment there will ever be that you have any direct influence on. Yes you can influence the future, but the only way to do that is to take action in this moment. If you;re not going to take action now, then when?

The first pillar

I’ve asked you to look around in a lot of previous blogposts and I’m going to ask you again. Where are you right now, not only physically but also mentally, professionally. Who are you right now?

After you have looked at yourself and your surroundings ask yourself if you are happy with this very moment. Do you like where you are? Or would you rather escape into some fantasy world about the future or daydream about how great the past was (”One day I will …” or “When I was your age I …” ). Postponing action to some future when things will be “better”.

As I said, you have exactly three things you can do in this moment. The first one is what I just hinted at: You can escape the present moment into either the past or future, perhaps even some alternative reality you have fabricated in your mind. The present is not a place where you want to be so you flee it.

Almost everyone flees the present, through daydreaming and fantasy or reminiscing about the past. Perhaps even the near past “I wish I was back in bed, it was to early this morning” or looking forward to the near future “I’m looking forward to having this blogpost online and reading your comments”.

There are more destructive ways of fleeing the present, in the form of addictions in all their disguises. Numbing the senses with alcohol or drugs, or even with medication like anti-depressants because the present is just to depressing and you don’t want to deal with it. Roughly 10% of US citizens is using anti-depressants and any given time. A further 8% of US citizens abuses alcohol. So that’s at least 8-18% of the population fleeing reality. I can’t find numbers on drug abuse but all included I can imagine one person in every five uses these extreme measures to flee reality.

Your first pillar: Flee the present

If you run away from the only moment you can influence, you can’t develop. Clearly not the best tactic if you want to change your life or develop your person.

The second pillar

Look around again, is there anything there you want to change? No? Wonderful! You completely accept the current position you are in. You’re content with life as it is at this moment and you don’t want to change anything.

You’re one of the lucky few who are content with the present. You have no urge to flee it or do anything to change it. Either that or you can’t bring yourself to take action and to stop whatever it is you are doing right now and do something else.

On rare occasions it’s true that you are completely content and wouldn’t want to change the moment. It’s far more likely though that you don’t have the guts to do something because the present is safe. You’re current situation -though not desirable- is a safe place to stay. You’re keeping the status quo because you’re unsure about what would happen if you took action. It might all blow up in your face, things could go terribly wrong and you would loose whatever safety you have right now.

Your second pillar: Passively accept the present

If you’re content, you don’t have to change anything. You don’t have to develop. All is well and you like the status quo. Enjoy it while you can because you never know how long it will last. Rest uneasy, nothing is permanent.

The third pillar

The third option should come as no surprise. The first to pillars don’t have much to offer when it comes to personal development. It’s all coming down to this last option you have.

Look around once more, are you content with the present moment? Are you getting everything out of life that you want? Are you living the dream life? No! There is more to be done, things that could be better or different. You don’t flee the present but you’re not happy with how things are going right now.

Your third pillar: Act in the present

This one pillar is at the core of the entire personal development movement. Being unhappy with how things are going and wanting to change your life. The other two pillars are constantly trying to lure you away though. They are the easier options, there is no work involved, you just have to sit there and do nothing. And that is exactly what you are doing most of the time, just sitting there letting life pass you by, second by second. Those seconds will never come back, that moment is gone forever and the current moment isn’t the same.

Yes it’s frightening once you realise it. Your entire life is this moment, and it’s only in this moment that you can act. If not now, when?

You’ll have to face it, one day you will die and there is nothing you can do about it. What’s more, there is nothing you can take with you. Sure, you might request that your body be interred with some personal things but you’re not exactly going to use those things now are you. It’s more or less symbolic and comforting.You get a nice headstone with your name on it so people can remember who lies there.

-

Every second death comes closer -tick tick tick- don’t think to much about that or you’ll become terrified of it sooner or later. Look at a clock for a few seconds and you’ll soon see what I mean. Those seconds you just spent can never be reclaimed. You just wasted precious seconds staring at a clock while there are so many things you can do and perhaps even should be doing rather then staring at a clock. On the other hand it does give you a harsh reminder.

But as you’re a regular reader of lifestyle design blogs or other personal development inspired writings you already know this. “Make every second count” and “Tempus fugit” seems to be the collective motto these days. It’s like having your personal devil with a red-hot poker running after you making sure you keep running.

Contrasts in Life

That devil will catch you in the end. You’ll either stumble or just drop dead on the spot and he’s got you. The game of life is to stay ahead for as long as possible. Some people work very hard at that and are true workaholics. Others will just sit somewhere, quietly waiting for death to come claim them. A huge contrast if there ever was one.

We all know people who just seem to crawl through life, let it pass by day by day with each day looking like the previous. Spending days watching tv, sleeping late and doing nothing remarkable. Spending life in anonymity and they might just even complain about the world around them and how life is so unfair. Blaming themselves will never occur to them naturally. The only thing they regret is that they didn’t get to live the life they imagined when they were young.

Likewise we all know people who seem to be working every waking hour. There are a lot of bloggers online that fit this description but not all hard workers are as well known. Sometimes you won’t even see someone working hard but he still seems to get things done at a huge pace. You’ll probably fit in somewhere closer to the hard working group right? Or did you spend the last hour on such useful things as twitter, facebook, youtube or deep in your RSS feed reader?

False Productivity

You call that productivity? I sure hope not. File it under research or marketing but it won’t matter. Spending hours on end with those things won’t get you very far. It’s the tv of the new generation.

Something needs to change, but the change has to come from within. Nobody changes because others want to, they only change when they see that what they are doing isn’t what is in their greater interests. Watching tv is just about as useful as watching a clock tick. it’s not adding towards reaching goals, living the life you want to be living. Tv isn’t the only “clock” in this way but again, you already know this.

What you leave Behind

Let’s have another look at death, you can’t take anything with you. All you can do is make people remember you and it’s often said that you won’t really die unless people forget about you. An underlying goal in life once you realize this – and a very powerful motivation- is to make it damn hard for people to forget about you. What am I saying, make it impossible for people to forget you and what you did in life.

Sitting in front of that tv all day will make people remember you for a while, you might even be remembered by your grandchildren. But after that generation you’re probably forgotten. If you make an impression on the world however, people will definitely find it hard to forget about you. History and literature are full of these people, and for the last century television and radio have added to this group. Last but not least we have the corporate world and the online world. Both have names that will be remembered for decades or even centuries.Because these people made an impression, they had an impact.

Make the Impact

I wanted to present you with a highly controversial example of a person who made an impact, but thought better of it and will not present that name here. If you’re curious you can contact me over twitter. Instead let’s have a look at a simpler example: Terry Pratchett. A fantasy writer who’s books have been read by millions. He found something he was rather good at and stuck with it. Spending countless hours writing and promoting his books. To keep things closer to home, think about people like Darren Rowse, Clay Collins, Seth Godin, Jun Loayza. You either have heard of them or will hear about them soon enough because it’s their hidden goal to make it impossible for you to forget about them.

Your hidden goal from this moment onward is “Make it impossible for people to forget me”. In everything you do, ask yourself if this will make that impact. You don’t have all the time in the world and you know it!

What is the difference between failure and success? Or more accurately, what is the difference between learning and not learning? A very simple fact of life: You have to make mistakes in order to learn. But that isn’t where things start.

The first step in learning is actually getting of your behind and getting to it. In some cases you’ll have to get on your behind actually (like when you want to learn how to program a computer, desk-flying is the way to go.) but nevertheless, you need to act. Something I’ve been learning the hard way the last few days. For a quick background on that: I’m studying for a few exams and so I’m spending almost all my waking hours on it. Not to pass the exams (it’s important) but to learn more. To end each day knowing things I didn’t know when I woke up. (much more important)

Twenty minutes

By far the best way I know of to learn something is to completely focus on it for twenty minutes at a time. Set a timer and make write down what it is you want to have done in those twenty minutes. Start the timer and immerse yourself in what it is you want to learn. The timer goes off and you grab a quick cup of tea, perhaps some fresh air and after a short break (five minutes) you immerse yourself again for 20 minutes. Spend the first few minutes reviewing what you did in the previous block and then continue with the new things.

Studying this way  you can learn anything you want. Yes it takes some time but that’s common knowledge by now, getting something for nothing is exceedingly rare. You’ll just have to come to terms with it: if you want something you’ll have to work for it.

Twenty minutes, isn’t that a very long time to focus on something? Once you get going, the twenty minutes fly by and the timer will startle you. Seriously, time flies when you’re having fun. And if you’re a bit like me, learning something new is fun and you’re always looking to learn more. Every day brings new opportunity to learn stuff and to go to bed just a bit wiser than when you got up this morning.

Cutting down time

Now we go back to success and failure. What is the difference? It’s time spent on trying to be successful. Nothing more then that! The more time you spend learning how to be successful the more you will learn how to be a failure. In time you’ll learn every single pitfall that is stopping you and you can easily navigate around them. Success!

You’re already and expert with life but I’m sure you want to be an expert in other things too. But here’s another hard truth for you: you only have so many “10,000 hours” in a lifetime to spend. Now if we apply the 80/20 principle that Tim Ferris made popular to that you can become  really really good at something in 2,000 hours. But we can cut that down even further. Learning the basics of something takes far less than that.

If you want only the barebone basics of programming in c++ for instance. That can be done in 160 hours or less. (That’s what my University expects at least, the course Programming 101 is “worth” 6 ECTS, and one ECTS is equivalent to 28 hours of investment). Like a lot of courses students somehow manage to complete the tasks and pass the exams while not investing nearly as much time as expected. Another cut in our hours to leave us with the final number: 100 hours for something as complex as computer programming. That’s 300 blocks of 20 minutes to learn the basics.

Basics

Becoming an expert isn’t all that hard, find a direction and head off into it. Keep going into that direction and you’ll soon be the expert. Teach others how to do the same and become rich. Doing it for them will be even more profitable. Conquering the basics in any field often is more than enough. Do you need to be able to dream html/css/xml to build a website? Of course not, look at this blog for instance. I have no experience with css or xml (yet) and very little html. But I’m running a blog, a successful one at that as well.

You can get a tune out of a guitar on just one string, or if you want something a bit more fancy, learn a power chord and you can slide that all over the neck. Add a distortion and you’ve got rock! 100 Hours of learning to play a guitar and you can join a rockband. That’s all it takes, and you’ll get better while in the band of course.

Ruling the world

Does every guitarist on stage have 10,000 hours spent? If they have now they sure didn’t when they started out in a band. Likewise a computer programmer is capable of producing good basic code within 100 hours. Ruling the world isn’t being an expert, it’s investing twenty minutes at a time learning something so every single day you go to bed wiser, better and smarter than when you got up that morning. Day in day out: keep learning and going to bed wiser and you will rule the world, twenty minutes at a time.

Will you regret reading this blogpost? Did you do something to make today count? Are you innovating, inspiring others or bettering yourself right now? Are you waiting for just the right moment? Who or what are you waiting for?

Where you are today is the accumulation of all your choices in the past

What is your excuse!

If you’re doing the same thing today that you did yesterday or last week you’re probably not making an effort to get where you want to be. Take the first step today or at least admit that you’re slacking.

How often is it that you hear people giving you excuses for things that they need to be doing. We humans are just plain lazy, working for something seems like a strange idea. You’d rather things just pop into place without any effort right? We all hope for that to happen but unless you’re totally ignorant you know that it’s not going to happen by itself. Depending on who you quote things left to themselves either stay exactly the same or go from bad to worse.

Let’s compare:

• You want things to pop into place by themselves but,
• left to themselves things stay the same or go from bad to worse.

Why is it then that you don’t do something about it? You’re still reading this blogpost right? Do you really think that reading this post will make things pop into place? You know better.

Blaming yourself

Looking back at my life there are a lot of instances that I should have stopped making excuses and looking for ways to slack. There are so many things in my past I wish I did differently and I’ve got myself to blame for all those missed opportunities. But do you know the problem with blaming yourself? you stay stuck in the past and thoughts about would have, should have and could have. I could have been a great guitarist if only…, I could have been a great martial artists if only…, I could be in far less debt if only… Just a few of the many things that are lodged in my mind.

I’ll be damned

But you know what? It’s not about what you could, should or would have done. It’s what you do this moment that counts, yesterday is in the past and tomorrow is in the future (how obvious what that one). Today is the present, it’s a gift that you had better accept and be happy with.

Where you are today is the accumulation of all your choices in the past. That is the essential sentence here because today will be yesterday tomorrow and so you can add todays choices to your past and slowly but surely form your path. You can’t change the past but you can put a lot of good things in it. And so if you don’t want to condemn yourself to feelings of regret in the future about all the things you didn’t do today go do them! Don’t give yourself any excuses or you will regret them when the time comes to reflect on what you did. Don’t give yourself any excuses you can beat yourself with.

I know it’s quite obvious. But why don’t you implement this and take action today? Admit it, you’re doing right now what you will regret tomorrow.

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards – Soren Kierkegaard

In my previous post the Truth had a central role. In this blogpost again the Truth is an important thing. The Truth after all is what is right now, this very instant. And as soon as you think about it you’re thinking about the past. You can’t even pin the word “now” to actual now before it becomes past. Trivial though it seems this means that you can’t capture the moment. All you can do is accept it and live in it without trying to fight it.

So many people out there are constantly looking towards the future or the past to identify the perfect moment to do something. Mostly that moment was in the past and if you’re lucky you might find a moment in the future that’s perfect for what you want. The problem with that moment in the past of course is that you can’t relive that moment although you might understand the lessons and take that with you into the future. The problem with the future is that it’s distracting from the now.

Living forward is all there is. One moment after the next, following each other at instant speed. Trying to understand is dealing with the past, trying to look into the future is distracting from what is happening. We continuously hunt down the precious moments in our lives, but we’re always late or early.

Living without dealing with past or future robs us of all meaning it seems. I recall a fellow student of Cheng Hsin a few years ago who described trying to be perfectly in the now, the more he tried the less he was actually doing because almost all tasks were either dealing with something from the past or preparing for the future. Eventually he decided to give up in being perfectly now because it was boring and unproductive. He took things so far that he wouldn’t even brew a cup of coffee because brewing was preparing for the future event of drinking the coffee. This lasted for only a few hours before the decision to give in and act “normal” again. Possibly it’s the caffeine addiction that pushed him over the edge.

Preparing for now is impossible, preparing for the past senseless, preparing for the future a shot in the dark. That shot in the dark is your best guess out of the three options and is a very good idea indeed. Study the past and understand, prepare for the future and brew that cup of coffee, just don’t forget about this moment.   …to late… it already passed.

A bit more reading on the subject:

-Time-place dissonance and the quick fix

-The prison of the mental world

A lot of blogs I follow seem to be doing an end-of-the-year review. I myself have been thinking about this a while now and see no reason not to do one. When this year started I didn’t own a blog, I wasn’t active on social media and had never earned a single dollar through online sales (not counting ebay, but that’s not business).

Three small things but I started in all three and combined they made a huge difference. It began with reading the four hour workweek. As I have the habit of writing down the date on which I bought a book inside it’s cover I an tell you that I bought it on October 28th 2008. I read it the following days and reread sections over the following months. The first thoughts about lifestyle design were born and I started reading blogs. A few months later I decided to start blogging over at mindthebeginner.wordpress.com (March 13th 2008). You might recall the adres, it’s where I build this blog to it’s first 100 subscribers. I was doubtful about starting a blog for a long time, thinking I had nothing to write that people would actually want to read. I was wrong and Taking part in probloggers 31 days to building a better blog challenge helped me get into the ways of blogging.

Blogging is not the only thing I started as said, I also got into Project Mojave thanks to my friend Carl. Although I didn’t stay there it did open my eyes to the possibilities of inernet and that things really aren’t that hard if only you believe in yourself and your own capabilities. With so many people online there are bound to be people who want hear what you have to say.

Right now I’m still not completely happy with my blog though. The look isn’t to good and reader interaction isn’t what I’d like it to be. So there we have a goal for the next year. But there are many more goals for the new year. 2010 Will be a themed year for me: freedom. Freedom in many ways, and of course something this vague needs measurable goals so let me give you an outline of what I’m going to do this year:

The Goals

Most significant of all I’m setting the goal of a monthly income of at least $500 a month through online ventures to be reached by the end of 2010. Combined with this the total spendings for 2010 will not be more than the total income. I could try and do that on a monthly basis but I pay my tuition in one go and that will most certainly be more than my monthly income. Freedom of finance.

My second area of goal setting is this blog. I want to reach the 300 subscribers mark by the end of the year and give you at least 100 blogposts over the next year, spread evenly. (So no overload of blogposts in December just to reach this goal.). Also I want to redo the layout and provide you with a better blogreading experience. I might just start using “headway” but I’m still on the fence about that one. A blog to write about freedom, minimalism and zen-inspired life.

In the computer area I have three goals. First off, touch-typing in qwerty. I type a lot of course. Not only in blogging but I’m almost always behind my computer and touch-typing will improve my speed greatly. My education is training me among other things to be a programmer and it’s silly to have to keep watching the keys and be slow just because I use six fingers and cant’ find the [, \ , ; and ] without looking. Secondly I’m going to set up my desktop to be a Linux-only computer. Not because I’m anti-windows (actually I think Win 7 is very good) but because I want to challenge myself and I can see only advantages of knowing how to work with more than one OS. Lastly I want a laptop, so I can properly blog and work/study wherever I am. Something highly portable but capable, like a thinkpad T500. Of course this will run on Linux. The sidenote here is that I’m not going to pay for this laptop with anything else but the income I plan to make through online ventures. Freedom to work/study/play where I want.

In the category of brain-development and useless skills I have another nice set of goals. I want to be able to solve a Rubik’s cube in 60 seconds or less. (Of which I will be posting a video on this blog as soon as I reach that goal.) I know it’s completely useless but It’s something I’ve wanted to be able to do for a long time now and it keeps bugging me.
I want to be able to juggle three balls, yes it’s completely useless, or so you might think. But its a great way of training the brain and developing hand-eye coordination. Together with the cube it’s something from my childhood I never learned and watched others do. Who said every goal needs to be useful.
Speedreading, you’ve probably heard of it, is something I’ve also wanted to be able to do. Although I can reach roughly 600 wpm (words per minute) right now I want to raise this to over 1000 wpm both in Dutch and English. Thicker books will not hold me captive for countless hours anymore. Information is freedom and more information is more freedom.

The minimalism goals are next. A long long time ago I blogged about the 100 items challenge and I must confess that I’m still not there. Why would I want to do this? I want less clutter, more space and a serene living space. I will have to get rid of dozens of books, and all those things that represent cash value but are a total pain to get sold for a descent price. It’s to cluttered right now and have more things ties you down and limits freedom.

Last but certainly not least we have body and mind developments. Five points here, but three are things I’m already doing and need to keep up. (Okay, it’s more of a want but feels like a need)
I want to keep meditating daily for 20 minutes using the methods of zazen. Combined with this it’s always a good idea to take up physical activities so I’m going to run, continuously for an hour somewhere between two and three times a week. I’ve been running for a while now but it’s hardly consistent. The last physical thing I want to keep doing is continue training t’ai chi. Following a weekly class every Thursday evening and I will stay at that for as long as I can, which is probably until I finish university.
As mentioned there are five points, so two are new ones. The first is a huge things if you know anything about personal development and productivity. And of course…. it’s something I’m not doing right now so here it is: I want to become an early riser. Getting up at 6.30 Monday through Friday consistently. Seeing as I live about 15 minutes by bike from Uni and we never start before 8.45 am that leaves me with enough time to write blogposts and perhaps even go for morning runs and/or meditate in the morning as well. We’ll have to see how that goes.
The last goal on this extensive list is something I’m absolutely not sure about if I will be able to do but I want to take up Aikido. Again this is a weekly course but the timing is horrid. Mid-day somewhere and that might interfere with my roster. I just hope it’s possible.

There you have it, my 2010 shortlist:

“Freedom”

• Financial

*Monthly “internet income” of $500
*Live below means

• Blogging

*300 subscribers to this blog
*100+ blogposts in 2010
*New layout

• Computer-related

*Touch typing in qwerty
*Having Linux as only OS
*A laptop (Payed for with internet income)

• Brain development

*Solve Rubik’s cube in 60 seconds or less (and post a video of it here)
*Juggling with three balls
*Speedreading 1000 words a minute in Dutch and English

• Minimalistic living

*Complete the 100 items challenge

• Body development

*Continue meditating daily for 20 minutes (zazen)
*Continue training in T’ai Chi
*Run more consistently (2-3 times a week, one hour at a time)
*Become an early riser (6.30 am Mon – Fri)
*Take up Aikido if possible

An almost insane list to complete and I forgot one essential thing: Do all this AND get proper grades! In the new layout this list will get it’s own dedicated page so you can keep track of the developments. I’ll also be making a so called bucket list (Things to do before you kick the ..) and that too will get it’s own dedicated page. I’m sure this list will develop a bit over the year, but nothing will come off, if anything, things will be added.

With that being said all that is left is to say Thank You! for making 2009 an awesome year where I learned loads of things and finally found my path in life. I couldn’t have done it without you. Enjoy these last days and I hope to see you in 2010

Greets,

Christiaan

Failure is a part of every day life for without it we wouldn’t be learning at all. Failure is level zero so to speak, it’s where we start from, we have nothing, no achievements, no successes. From this starting point we embark on a journey to get where we want to be. Without exception this is “better”, “successful”, “loved” or perhaps “being worthy in the eyes of others”. (Nobody goes forth in life trying to be miserable after all, we all have our golden dreams.)In the eyes of others is a very important statement here for we usually want things not for ourselves but so we can show others that we really are somebody. If bragging about ourselves to others would not get us higher up some social ladder would we still do it just or ourselves?

The single biggest hurdle to get over is to accept that we are utter failures in life when we start out. We can’t even take care of ourselves now can we? Diaper changes, meals served to us and all kind of other things. We don’t have control over anything, not even our own body (yet). The more we learn, the more we gain control over our own actions. The more control we have to more responsibility this brings along with it. But you -as avid reader of this blog and other blogs on personal development and lifestyle design- already know this don’t you? They say knowledge is power and most certainly knowing that, with more control comes more responsibility equals more power. You’re in control of your own actions every single day. Again this is old news if you’ve been reading about personal development.

Acceptance

Accepting the current failure is the big hurdle, getting over it can be done by realizing that you have the control to change things. You’re not a victim of your own life or a victim of circumstance. With enough knowledge (power) you can change just about anything. It might not make you a millionair rock star, but you can have a very comfortable life if only you take control and not let life slip through your fingers. Life isn’t that bad actually once you get properly acquainted with the way the game is played

But still, I haven’t written anything you didn’t know already now did I? For you see, that’s the problem with all these development blogs. We keep beating about the bush on that one issue that seems so hard to grasp: You are responsible and so it’s up to you to make the change.

Same old stuff, different day

We bloggers can write all we want and you can read every single blog out there on the subject. Fact is that reading is not the same as actually taking responsibility. I could write all I want about the major changes in my life, how I made the changes and how I’m on my path to where I want to be. Many bloggers do the same and their posts are always a great hit with the readers. Reading about how we live our lives and how we do things might give you some ideas, but reading alone will not change your life. Taking (blog-inspired) action is where the control is. Even if you do manage to take control failure will always be a part of the game of life, it’s here to stay.

I know I really enjoy reading about others traveling, about Leo planning to move to San Francisco, Alan’s latest adventures, Carl’s new blog, Sean’s escape from the 9-5 and all those other cool people out there. But the fact remains I’m not traveling, moving or having adventures. I’m just a blogger and a dreamer. I’m not where I want to be so in that respect I’m a failure. But at least I know it and want to change things. I’m not a victim, I’m responsible for my own life and so it’s up to me to make the change… I got myself into this mess, now I’m getting myself out!

Nothing new to report here, you know all this stuff

…so turn off the screen, get off your behind and start acting responsible. And you know what? It’s not about being worthy in the eyes of others. It’s about being who you want to be, regardless of others. I have nothing new to offer you, nothing that deep inside you don’t already know.

Are you with me? Let’s see what’s next. A new adventure is never far away, that’s life for you.

It won’t have gone unnoticed by now that my posting frequency has dropped dramatically. There is a high correlation between this phenomenon and the hours I’m spending on my homework. Take this weekend for example, I’ve been working roughly eight hours spread over the last two days trying to solve SQL queries. Problogger warns against this type of post but I’m still going to put it up: I’m sorry for the lack of posts and I must confess I don’t see things lighten up in the next weeks.

So here’s the new plan:

You will get at least one (1) proper post from mere on this blog every week! I’m temporarily backing down a bit. After all, the real world still is just that bit more important than the online world. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s just that I’m working on a sure fire way to have a good income through the 9-5 way. It’s everything we lifestyle designers are against but blogging about it, or blogging in general will never support my life. I have to find better ways, and more importantly, safer ways.

I’ll be more than happy to spend weeks without working, knowing that I can get a very good paying job quickly than linger in the online world kicking against that evil wage slave world while I can’t seem to sustain myself. I’m hoping to set up some sort of side income through the online world, but I don’t (realistically) expect it to ever make me enough money to fuel all my dreams. But that’s okay, I know there are a lot of lifestyle designers out there that make it and earn more than they can spend while traveling all over the world. I’m just not one of them (yet). It’s all because I chose a different path, a traditional one and one that I want to finish before I try all sorts of crazy/insane/brilliant ways of generating a side income.

Seeing as most passive side incomes are generated through internet and I do have a soft spot for this type of income (who doesn’t) it’s not more than natural I will try this in the future. At the same time I’m currently learning all sorts of new computer skills (new to me at least) through university and I expect to be able to do some simple programming within a year from now. That alone will generate an income. Blogging will chip in a bit when I move over to my own domain.

But as things stand, this blog is put on a slow simmer with an occasional proper blogpost. After all I’m still a quality seeker and I’d hate to flood you with all kinds of bad blogposts just so you have something to read.

Actually it’s a trait I’ve been seeing develop on more blogs in this area of the sphere. Less frequent posts but the ones that do come out are good stuff. So my dear reader, that’s what you can expect on this blog the oncoming weeks/months. Less posts but “still kicking ass with a zen twist”