Uplift!

Feb 30 Day Trial Progress

February 26, 2009 / Uplift!

Trial: Spend at least 30 minutes exercising every single day.

2/22:
From now on, my 30 day trial updates will be posted in the Twitter block on the right-hand sidebar.

2/21:
I walked 2.8 miles today on my weekly trip to my house. No arm exercises today.

Walking: 2.8 miles (~1 hour 15 min.)

2/20:
Today I walked half a mile to the post office and 1.2 miles to get dinner at KFC. No arm exercises.

Walking: 1.7 miles (~1 hour)

2/19:
I walked about 2.5 miles this afternoon, and another 2 miles or so this evening. No arm exercises today.

Walked: 4.5 miles (~2h)

I’ve also decided to stop spamming my journal with all these posts, and instead update a single post each day. So, with that in mind…

2/18:
Today I got in my 30 minutes with a trip to the supermarket. No arm exercises today.

Walking: 1 mile

2/17:
Today was my birthday, but no rest for the weary — a trip to the supermarket and arm exercises!

Walking: 1 mile (30 min.)
Chest Dip Initial Pose: 15 sec.
Downward Facing Dog: 15 sec.
Plank: 15 sec.

2/16:
Walked 1.4 miles today, for well more than 30 minutes, but at a slower pace than usual. No Fast Circuit or arm exercises.

2/15:
I went to the supermarket today to get in my 30 minutes. I also looked into some yoga poses and thought about ways to increase my arm strength to where I can do the Fast Circuit arm strength exercises more reliably. I decided to try doing some less strenuous arm strength exercises to get my arms used to simply supporting my body weight before making them do more. I performed two yoga poses for 15 seconds each (Downward Facing Dog and Plank) and held the initial pose from Chest Dips (supporting myself on my arms between two chairs) for 15 seconds as well. My arms were vibrating and trembling and shaking the whole time. This seems to be a more reasonable place to start than a goal of 15 chest dips. So, then, here is my entry for today:

Walked: 1 mile (30 min.)
Chest Dip Initial Pose: 15 sec.
Downward Facing Dog: 15 sec.
Plank: 15 sec.

2/14:
Today I got well more than my target 30 minutes, thanks to a trip back to my house and a quick walk to the post office. I’ve decided to start mapping things out on Google Maps to see the distance I walked, as that’s a lot more informative than “to the post office” or the like. For my reference, here are some one-way distances:

Post office: 0.2 miles
Supermarket: 0.5 miles
El Camino (from where I’m staying): 0.6 miles
El Camino (from my house): 0.8 miles

So, today I walked a total of 3.2 miles between my two trips.

2/13:
I took a walk to the supermarket for my 30 minutes. It was a little rainy, but I don’t mind that too much. It’s been a long time since I’ve done the Fast Circuit routine, and I’m starting to feel a little bad about that. I don’t mind the exercises, but I find it difficult to motivate myself to get through the stretching that I do first. If I could just start with the real exercises, it wouldn’t be so bad. I’ll consider ways to overcome my resistance, and I’d appreciate any ideas you might have on how to do that.

2/12:
2/12: Took a longer walk today, to a friend’s house and the supermarket. This was quite a bit more than 30 minutes. 🙂

No Fast Circuit.

In other news, please pardon the changes around here — I’m customizing the layout of this site right now, and there will continue to be bugs and oddities until I’m finished. Thanks for your patience!

2/11:
Walked to the supermarket today, making my 30 minute goal.

2/10:
I only made 15 minutes today, a quick trip to the post office.

2/9:
As expected, I got in the walking today, though it was not when and where I expected. It was later in the day, a trip to the supermarket. Also as expected, Fast Circuit is off the menu — I’m exhausted! Eleven hours at the hospital will really sap your energy. I expect to return to the Fast Circuit tomorrow, though.

2/8:
On day 8, I got my 30 minutes of walking in the form of two quick round trips to the post office. Weekends seem to be harder than weekdays, probably because of people being at home more. Tomorrow I’ll be spending a good chunk of my day waiting at the hospital — there should be plenty of time to walk, but the Fast Circuit exercises are unlikely to happen. 30 day trials are tough!

2/7:
On day 7 I didn’t complete my exercise goal. It was a busy day with a lot going on.

2/6:
Today I walked to the supermarket and did the Fast Circuit routine I wrote about yesterday:

3 Chest Dips: 3
10 Squat and Heel Raises: 10
13 Bend and Raises: 13
11 sec. Arm Hauler: 11 sec.
5/side Hip Twist: 5/side

Actually, I did the Squat and Heel Raises twice, because I realized after the first set that I’d done them wrong, so I repeated them correctly.

Other than that, not much to say. Tomorrow I will maintain the trial at least with the walking, but I am considering taking the day off from the Fast Circuit. I will, of course, update here and report what I did either way. If I decide to do the Fast Circuit anyway, I will likely repeat today’s workout exactly. Till next time…

2/5:
I almost didn’t do this today, but at the last minute decided I didn’t want to break the chain, so to speak. So I did it. Not much walking today, tho’ I did do a bit of wheelchair-pushing at the hospital. Tonight, I did the same five Fast Circuit exercises as yesterday, but more repetitions. Here are my numbers, with the longterm goal, then tonight’s goal in parentheses (i.e. how many needed to beat yesterday), then how many I actually did after the colon.

20 Chest Dips (3): 3
30 Squat and Heel Raises (6): 10
25 Bend and Raises (12): 12
30 sec. Arm Hauler (11 sec.): 11 sec.
10/side Hip Twist (6/side): 6/side

Tomorrow I’m going to set out to do about the same number of repetitions as I did today, with a couple of slight adjustments. I want to work on my form and get to where I can hit these numbers with less strain. There’s no point in adding reps of an exercise that you can’t do properly in the first place. My medium-term target is 50% of the long-term target, so I will reduce the Hip Twists back to 5 and increase the Bend and Raises to 13 (12.5 rounds up, after all, not down). So the goal for tomorrow is:

3 Chest Dips (on the way to 10)
10 Squat and Heel Raises (on the way to 15)
13 Bend and Raises
11 sec. Arm Hauler (on the way to 15 sec.)
5/side Hip Twist

After doing these tomorrow for form, I’ll see if I can adjust the reps upward the following day, and when I hit the medium-term 50% goal, I’ll probably plateau there for a little while to try to actually get good at doing that workout before increasing further. Or perhaps that would be a good time to add another exercise and work on getting it to 50%? We’ll see what happens when the time comes.

2/4:
Today I walked to the supermarket and back for about 30 minutes worth of walking. Then in the late evening I finally got around to trying out some of the Fast Circuit exercises.

I tried the following exercises, with the goal before the exercise name and my actual count after:

20 Chest Dips: 2 (low arm strength + high body weight = ow)
30 Squat and Heel Raises: 5 (I lose my balance doing this.)
25 Bend and Raises: 11 (This seems pretty easy compared to the others — maybe I’m doing it wrong?)
30 sec. Arm Hauler: 10 sec. (An endurance exercise rather than a bodyweight exercise.)
10/side Hip Twist: 5/side (My best performance, 50% of the goal.)

I passed on these exercises for various reasons:

Jumping Jacks (In a second-floor condo at midnight? Let’s piss off the neighbors! Also I’m too self-conscious to do them outside where someone might see. I should probably work on that too.)
Dive Bomber (Looks intense — not sure I’m up to this one yet.)
Triceps Push-Up (Actually, I tried this one, but I couldn’t do even one, and it felt bad for my abs.)
Half-Squat (Similar to the Squat and Heel Raise, and I’d already lost my balance enough times for one night.)
Atomic Sit-Up (This would be MURDER on my abs and would contravene doctor’s orders.)

I’ll try to add those in later, after I’m comfortable with some of the others. For now, I’m happy with the ones that I was able to do, and I want to concentrate on getting them up to speed. Hopefully that will help me get in a little better shape overall so that the ones I wasn’t able to do tonight will be a bit easier.

The goal for tomorrow, aside from walking, is to do these same five Fast Circuit exercises and at least match my performance today on each one. Till next time…

2/3:
I walked a ridiculous amount today, due in part to mistakenly heading the wrong direction when I left the house. I probably clocked a coupla hours on foot today, between my trip to the post office, walking from there to my house, walking back to the bus, walking to the supermarket…

The bad news is that I didn’t find time to work in anything from the Fast Circuit, and I probably won’t before bed — that will have to wait till tomorrow.

I’m enjoying getting out of the house a bit. As my circumstances presently require my presence here most of the time, I need to make sure to find reasons to get out and about a little bit when I can. It’s important to keep cabin fever from setting in — a topic I will explore a little more another time.

2/2:
Today I walked to the post office and to Togo’s and 7-Eleven for lunch. This was a quick trip, and didn’t get me over the 30 minute goal, so I also walked to my doctor’s appointment, which was about a 30 minute walk each way. So I wound up with nearly three times my goal. 🙂

I asked the doctor about calisthenics, and he said it should be fine, but that situps are generally not the best idea for people who have had abdominal surgery (which I have), so I should look into some less intensive alternatives. So tomorrow I will review the exercises in the Fast Circuit workout and see which ones seem like the best fit for me, and add in at least one of them.

Two down, twenty eight to go…

2/1:
Today I started my first 30-day trial with a walk to the supermarket to do some shopping. Just about 30 minutes of walking. I also did laundry, which involves going up and down the stairs a few times — good exercise there! I got my 30 minutes in, and read a little bit more about the Fast Circuit workout I want to try.

Tomorrow I’ll walk to the post office and then to get lunch, and maybe round it out by walking to the doctor’s office for my appointment. That will get me far beyond my 30-minute goal. Off to a good start!

When Is Boredom Not Boredom?

February 23, 2009 / Uplift!

Recently, both Scott H. Young and Cal Newport wrote articles about boredom. But I remain unconvinced that boredom is the real problem here.

But of COURSE it is, people are bored all the time, right? Not necessarily. You see, people are bad at semantics, often mistaking one thing for another. I once read somewhere that the thirst reflex in humans is so weak, that we often mistake it for hunger. We just don’t recognize it for what it is. What if the same thing happens with our emotions? Perhaps we’re having a feeling that we can’t quite place. We know it’s there, though, and we have to call it something, so we mistakenly identify it as boredom.

Think about this. Often, when feeling “bored”, we don’t have a lot of interest in any activities suggested to cure the boredom. They’re perfectly good, fun, and interesting things to do, but in our “bored” state, they don’t seem to be the cure for what ails us. Why don’t you read a book? Play a video game? Watch TV? The truth is, if we were merely bored, these activities would pick us up again — or at least bring us back to the state of “partial boredom” that Scott H. Young described in one of the articles I linked above. We know they won’t, and there’s a reason for that. It’s because we’re not just bored.

Really, what we are is unfulfilled. We’re not just looking for an activity to occupy our time and our minds, or we would settle easily on whatever reasonably entertaining activity presented itself. We don’t reject the possibilities because they won’t cure boredom. We reject them because they won’t give us the feeling we’re really after, a feeling of fulfillment.

I used to have this problem all the time. I didn’t recognize it, mind you, but that’s what was happening. And since I didn’t recognize it, I simply thought I was bored. These days, I’m rarely bored, except for times when I am obligated to do a boring task. If I’m just at a loose end, I can usually figure out something to do that will occupy me satisfactorily. The key to curing boredom is to figure out what matters to you and pursue it. Work on things that you care about, that make you feel good as you do them, not just when they are completed. If you have personal projects that drive you, you’ll find a much greater level of fulfillment, and the “boredom” in your life will diminish proportionately.

February 30 Day Trial

February 23, 2009 / Uplift!

On the advice of several of my favorite bloggers, I’m going to do a 30-day trial. My first trial will be to spend at least 30 minutes exercising every single day. At a minimum, this will be walking, but I plan to include some other activities as well. I’d like to try a calisthenic workout — I found one that looks pretty good at Men’s Fitness — though I expect I’ll need to cut down the reps significantly based on my current physical condition. In any case, I’ll need to run it by my doctor first to make sure it’s safe given my surgery wound, and if he says no, I’ll stick to lighter forms of exercise such as walking.

As part of the trial, I will be updating here daily to track my progress. I’m looking forward to reporting positive results! I already have some things in mind for future 30-day trials — an hour a day of reading and improvements to my diet would go a long way, so one of those is likely to be on the agenda for March.

As always, questions and comments are welcome — you know what to do!

Time For a Blog Reboot

February 23, 2009 / Uplift!

*brushes the dust off of the page*

Hello again.

A lot has changed for me in the time since my last post.

I stopped posting when I found that I simply didn’t have enough hours in the week for everything I wanted to pack in.  Job, relationship, blogging, gaming with friends, non-work-related programming projects…  it was just too much.  So I dropped the blogging and the non-work programming, and what was left fit into the time allotted.

But it still didn’t feel right.  The crux of the problem was the job.  It was the single largest demand on my time, and simultaneously the one that brought me the least satisfaction and joy.  It brought me a paycheck and paid for my basic needs, but I didn’t really enjoy the work itself, and I very much resented the phenomenal drain on my time and energy.

Then, last July, I hit a very rough patch.  In the space of six weeks, I was broken up with, hospitalized, operated on, hit by a bus, and fired.

Yeah.

It was two and a half months from my hospitalization to the time I was well enough to return to work, and upon my recovery, my former employer welcomed me back immediately.  Apparently they fired me during my disability simply so they would not have to pay for my benefits in the mean time.  I worked for a couple of months, and then in December had a follow-up surgery, from which I am still recovering.

When my disability expired last week, I contacted my employer to inform them I would not be returning.  I’m cutting loose and doing my own thing for a while.  So here’s what’s on the agenda:

  1. Savings.  I have savings enough to see me through about ten months if nothing unexpected and expensive happens.  So realistically, let’s call it six months.  In this time I’ll be practicing my writing, programming, and web design skills and working on my own projects.  There are a lot of them!  Working on this blog will be part of this phase, so expect to see more content soon!  There will also likely be some volunteer projects in these fields.
  2. Freelancing.  I will be looking for short-term paid projects, primarily in programming and web design, but I’d love to try freelance writing as well.  That would be a nice bonus.  Any income from this phase would, I’m guessing, not be enough to live off of, but every penny counts — it would certainly extend the lifespan of my savings.
  3. Full-on self-employment.  Ultimately, the goal is to create a business that will support me indefinitely without the need for a job.  Presently I’m thinking of either selling my own software (most likely games), or creating a retail website with a friend of mine to sell games and comics online.

Beyond that, I have no idea.  I think it would be silly to try to plan anything beyond that point, as my life will look so different after these three phases that I can’t imagine I’d have the same priorities I have today, nor can I imagine what options will have opened to me that I simply cannot see right now.

As I work this plan, I will be posting here more often, but the focus of the blog may shift a bit.  I want to try some new things and see where they take me, so get ready for more content, some changes, and possibly more variety.

That’s what’s in store for the next few months — and if you’re looking for a freelance programmer, web designer, or writer, drop me a line!

8 Tips For Regaining Focus

February 23, 2009 / Uplift!

I am working on the next couple of posts in my How To Fix Your Life series, which began with Painting Reality: Examining Your Current Life. I rather unexpectedly took last Monday off, but I have no intention of making a habit of it. I will update here once a week, even if I need to write a filler post to do it. Tonight I find that I am having trouble clearing my head and focusing my mind on the task at hand, so I thought I’d take some time to refocus a bit, and write a post about exactly that. Here are eight things I’m doing this evening in an attempt to get all my brain cells firing in the same direction.

  1. Tea. I’ve brewed myself a cup of decaffeinated tea, which I am drinking slowly and with relish (enjoyment, that is, not a pickled sauce). Decaffeinated is a key word there — with my mind already fragmented, the last thing I need is to ingest a stimulant.
  2. The Outdoors. I’m sitting in the spacious outdoors this evening, writing on my laptop under the clear evening sky, rather than in my cramped bedroom in the shadows cast by my torchiere lamp and surrounded by the trappings of daily mundane existence.
  3. Simplicity. I just closed almost all of my applications, and minimized the rest, leaving only my writing to focus on. No web browser windows, no games, no MP3s, nothing but my writing and a hidden instant messenger window — and it would be wise to close even that.
  4. Mindfulness. I am concentrating on my breathing, shutting out other sounds and thoughts to focus on just that and my writing.
  5. One Thing. I am doing one thing at a time. If another thought intrudes that I want to capture, I take just enough time to jot it down on my to do list before returning to this post. By doing so, I am able to let go of it, let it leave my mind, so that I can focus on writing again.
  6. Comfort. I am doing whatever I can to keep myself physically comfortable, so that I am not distracted by things like the temperature or a touch of heartburn. For instance, it has gotten quite cold since I began writing this, but I’m not ready to go inside quite yet — so I’ve put on warmer clothes and returned to focus on writing.
  7. Peace of Mind. Sometimes we *have* to multi-task to some degree. For instance, the laundry is running as I write this. It’s not occupying my attention, but I will need to tend to it once an hour. By choosing a spot outside where I can hear the washer and dryer, I don’t have to worry about whether I’ll forget about it when it stops. I’m letting my ears keep track of that open loop instead of my thoughts. I have peace of mind about that because I won’t lose track of that — even though the One Thing that I’m doing isn’t laundry.
  8. Do One Thing — Something Else! If all else fails, do something else for a while. If your brain insists on not focusing on the thing you want it to, give it a break for a while, but do something similar that won’t cause too much of a context switch. For instance, I am still writing a blog post, just not the one I was having trouble focusing on. I’m still thinking about Uplift!, personal development, blogging, and so forth, but I’m letting my brain take the path of least resistance until I hit my stride and am ready to return to the heavy lifting — which is now!

This list is by no means complete, it’s just what I’ve come up with this evening to reacquire focus and get my thoughts in order. What do you do when you’re trying to concentrate on something but you’re tired, distractible, or otherwise just can’t seem to get your mind to settle down and stay on task?

My Personal Inventory

February 23, 2009 / Uplift!

I thought it might be helpful if I provided an example of a personal inventory — both for you (so that you can see what I’m talking about) and for me (since it’s been a while since I’ve done this). So here’s one for me. It’s been about six months since the last time I really sat down to do this, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out. My life is very different today than it was six months ago.

So, without further ado, my personal inventory!

Health

This category is the most challenging of the three for me, and I’ve had a couple of health-related setbacks since the last time I took stock. Overall, I consider my health to be decent — I don’t get sick more often than average, rarely need to visit the doctor, and generally find that I don’t struggle with health issues. That said, there are a few issues that I am dissatisfied with or at risk for.

Here they are, in decreasing order of priority:

  1. In the past six months, I’ve discovered that I have a health condition related to a fiber deficiency in my diet, and have increased my fiber intake as a consequence. Pro-actively monitoring my diet in previous years could have averted this condition, and it’s important that I continue watching what I eat permanently in order to avoid exacerbating it.
  2. I wear glasses to correct my vision, which is quite poor uncorrected. My glasses are three years old, and it is well past time for new ones. They are currently on order, and I will switch to the new pair as soon as they arrive. I have worn glasses for all of my adult life and teenage years, and I would like to get rid of them.
  3. I carry around a lot more weight than I need to, and given the family history of diabetes, it is likely to develop into something more serious if not kept in check. This, coupled with my high cholesterol, means that I should be pro-active about improving my diet and exercise habits.
  4. I have a history of depression.
  5. I just don’t seem to have the time to improve my health, nor much enthusiasm for doing so.

Things aren’t as bleak as all that, though. I’m not one to focus solely on the negative (anymore), so here are the positive aspects of my health:

  1. As noted above, I have already improved my diet considerably. I eat a lot more vegetables than I used to, and I eat smaller portions. Although I still eat junk food, I am a lot more moderate about it. For instance, a trip to Jack in the Box used to consist of a large Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger meal with soda and a large milkshake. These days I’ll get a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger, a small fries, and a small milkshake — or if I’m being really good, a Chicken Fajita Pita, side salad, and a small milkshake. My philosophy is that a diet that denies you everything you want is a diet that won’t last very long. It’s a lot easier to eat LESS of the things I like than to replace them with things I don’t enjoy as much.
  2. I walk a mile every morning. My commute makes this easy — I take the train, and I live a mile from the train station. Although I wasn’t keen on the distance from the train station when I moved here, I find now that I’m glad of it. I know someone who’s struggling to find time to walk a mile before work each day, whereas I do so automatically without thinking about it!
  3. My depression has been in remission for two and a half years, and I haven’t had any trouble keeping it that way — despite some negative events in my life since then (such as a breakup and the development of my dietary health issues).

Overall, health is the area of my life that needs the most improvement, because it is also the one for which I have the least enthusiasm. My primary motivation in health is to avoid negative consequences, whereas in the other areas of my life I have pro-active motivations and goals. Perhaps I should examine my outlook on it and try to find a way to be more interested in and pro-active about my health.

Wealth

Wealth is one of my favorite topics — I love talking money! I’m also pretty happy with where my finances are right now, although things could always be better!

I have a decent job in Silicon Valley, I have positive cash flow, and my assets outweigh my liabilities, although not by much (yet). I am on my way to being able to retire, the only question is… when?

I used to believe that the best option was to accumulate a million dollars, invest it at 5% (or more, but 5% seems conservative enough to count on), and live off the interest. The downside to that plan is that it takes a very, very long time to acquire $1M by working for a living. At the pace I’m currently going, it seems likely that I’ll be old and/or sick by the time I am in a position to fully retire. I don’t want to wind up with a retirement I can’t enjoy.

Additionally, I’m unhappy with the time investment required by my work. In theory, I work an eight hour day, but in reality, from the time my alarm goes off at 6 AM till the time I get home over twelve hours later at 6:15 PM, I’m doing things that are necessitated by my employment. The overhead of holding my job is 50%. I consider this excessive, it detracts from my happiness, and I want to find ways to reduce the amount of time I invest in earning income.

So now I’m considering the benefits of passive income, and learning to believe that retirement or semi-retirement is possible much sooner that way than it is with strict accumulation. Why should I spend vast quantities of my time working for someone else until the bank account is full? Why wait 40 years to begin enjoying the fruits of my labors if I can independently create multiple streams of income that will support me now? I am learning a lot about decoupling my income from my time.

It’s a transition, though, and one that I’m right in the middle of. I’m not fully decided what I want to do. There are other things I could do to speed up the accumulation, such as moving to a programming job. Right now I’m at a financial crossroads, looking around, trying to decide what to do.

I have some personal projects I’m working on in hopes that they can contribute to my early retirement from traditional employment, not the least of which is this blog. My biggest challenge right now is making the time to work on them.

Relationships

Relationships are important to me in a way they didn’t used to be. My sojourn to Portland, OR took me away from my friends and family here in Silicon Valley for two and a half years, and it was largely that social distance that brought me back. Right now I am in pretty good shape with my relationships, though there is one major thing I would change:

Time.

I don’t have the time I wish I had to see all my friends. There are people I haven’t seen since I moved back to Silicon Valley six months ago, and others I see occasionally or even frequently and wish I had more time for.

That said, I am glad to have reconnected with the friends that I have, and to be dating a wonderful woman who makes me very happy. In many ways, my relationships are the best they’ve ever been in my life, and with the exception of wanting time for even more of the same, I can’t think of anything I’m dissatisfied with.

Conclusion

There’s a common theme here: time. Overall, my life is pretty good — the best it’s ever been, even. The pervasive problem that keeps cropping up everywhere is that there just aren’t enough hours in the day — or days in the week — for everything I want to get done. And what time I have is largely consumed by employment. This issue seems to be the greatest challenge standing between me and the life that I want to live.

I hope that this personal example has given you some insight into the sorts of things you can write about in your personal inventory, what the value of doing so might be, and how to go about doing it. As always, please share any feedback you may have in the comments!

Leo at Zen Habits Posts Money Hacks…

February 23, 2009 / Uplift!

Leo over at the Zen Habits blog posted 20 money hacks today, ways to help keep your finances in order.  While I don’t agree with every tip in the post, I think this is a fantastic resource and if you follow Leo’s advice, you’ll see a major improvement in your finances.  Some of his tips are the very actions I took to get myself out of $12,000 worth of credit card debt and get myself started on the path to financial independence.

Here are  some things I would add:

  1. Get online banking and use it!  Check your balances at least once a week to make sure things are on track. Also, using online banking will allow you to…
  2. Pay your bills automatically online.  Many banks offer free online bill pay to their customers.  If you set this up to happen automatically, you’ll never be late with a bill again.  And you’ll never have to worry about not having the money, so long as you…
  3. Use multiple bank accounts to earmark funds.  I keep one checking account for my living expenses (food and entertainment, mostly) and another one for my rent and bills and so forth.  As soon as I get paid, I set aside enough money for living expenses for the pay period in one account, enough for bills (half my monthly total for bills since I get paid twice a month) in the other account, and all the rest goes to savings.  This is the equivalent of Leo’s envelopes idea, but for people who…
  4. Don’t use cash.  Okay, I disagree with Leo on this one.  I do almost all my spending via debit card.  By keeping tabs on my account online, I can keep track of whether I’m overspending or underspending(!), and I very rarely have to go to the trouble of using an ATM.  I find it easier to waste money when I have cash in hand than when it’s on a card deducting from my bank balance.  It’s more painful for it to reduce the bank balance because then you’ll notice your spending when you…
  5. Track your net worth.  I agree with Leo that keeping a Google Docs spreadsheet for your finances makes a lot of sense — but I think it’s more valuable to use this for long-term tracking of your progress than short-term tracking of your spending.  Total up all your money (and other financial assets if you have them), then total up all your debt.  Subtract your debt from your assets, and you have your net worth.  You want to watch the trend in this over time — month over month, are you getting richer or poorer?  I check this every payday.  This lets you measure your progress toward your financial goals, which is much more motivating IMO than seeing your spending all the time.

On the whole, as Leo says, you should do what works for you.  I’ve written this just to present another possibility — this is what works for me.

Painting Reality: Examining Your Current Life

February 23, 2009 / Uplift!

So I have undertaken this quest to uplift myself, and invited you to follow along with me and take any inspiration or ideas that you can from my experiences. Let’s begin by examining the process I’m using for self-uplift. The first step is to take stock of your life and figure out where you are right now. Then you figure out where you want to be — what you want for your life, what kind of a future you want to have. With those two points in mind, you can begin to figure out what actions you need to take to move in the direction of that future. Once you know what your first actions are, it’s time to act on them! You may find, as I did, that once you’ve started acting, your progress changes how you think about your goals — or even changes your goals altogether! If that’s the case, the process starts over again (though likely in abbreviated form — after all, you’ve already done most of the planning, so whatever comes next will likely be smaller adjustments). In the next few posts, I’ll be giving an overview of how to go about doing this.

We’ll start with the personal inventory — figuring out what your life is like now and how you feel about that, what you like and what you don’t. Don’t worry too much about your goals yet — that comes later. It’s even okay if you don’t have any goals (or don’t know what they are). For a long time, I struggled with a lack of goals, a sense of directionlessness that made it difficult to achieve anything because I didn’t know what I was working toward or why. It’s okay for now if that’s where you are. What’s important right now is simply to look objectively at the circumstances of your life and evaluate them from a perspective of figuring out what you’re happy with and what could use improvement.

This personal inventory can be as simple or complex as you want, but in keeping with the model of happiness I described in my first post, I suggest examining at least three aspects of your life:

  • Health
  • Wealth
  • Relationships

Consider what you like about your life in each category, as well as what you don’t like. I highly recommend that you write these things down, because often I find that my conscious thoughts only scratch the surface of what’s really going on in my mind, and putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard releases a lot of pent-up thoughts that I didn’t realize were lurking under the surface.

If things are bad, don’t let this depress you. Keep in mind that taking an honest look at where you stand now is a crucial first step to fixing the things that you don’t like about your life and figuring out how to get to where you want to be. A map to the Promised Land will do you no good if you don’t know where you are on that map right now. The purpose of this exercise is simply to get your bearings, to understand your life as it is today so that later on, once you’ve determined the destination, you have a way of figuring out how far away that destination is and in which direction. If there are some things that you are unhappy about, acknowledge that, own it, and remind yourself that what you’re doing right now is taking the first step on the road to changing those things.

Conversely, if there are things that you are satisfied with, happy about, that bring you joy, be sure to write those down too! Appreciating the positive can be just as good a motivation as a desire to change the negative, so don’t ignore either side of the equation. Look for the good in each situation, even if the good is simply that it isn’t worse than it is! It’s important to identify and acknowledge the things that are good about your life — both because these things will help see you through any rough spots along the way, and because if you’re going to go through a process of change, you should know what you DON’T want to change, too!

With your personal inventory done, you’ll have a more-or-less accurate picture of what your life looks like now. Do something to reward yourself for having done some hard, honest, self-examination, and take a break to decompress before moving on to the next step. You don’t want to get burnt out before you start seeing results from this process!

In my next post, I’ll examine the next step in the process: figuring out what kind of a life you really want!

Meanwhile, talk back! If you have any questions or comments, please share them in a comment below. I’d especially like to hear anything you have to say about your results if you performed this exercise. Tell me what you think!

Welcome to Uplift!

February 23, 2009 / Uplift!

Welcome to the Uplift! personal development blog. My focus here is on how to improve your life and enjoy greater freedom and happiness through self-improvement and lifestyle design. My name is David Safar, and I make no claim to be a guru or an expert on this subject. On the contrary, I am still near the beginning of my path, and this blog is as much a chronicle of my journey as it is a source of information and advice for those who wish to follow a similar path.

I am a 27-year-old Silicon Valley native currently working in software and seeking a greater enjoyment of life than I am currently experiencing. My life has improved tremendously in the past three years, and I am doing everything I know how to do to keep it on its current trajectory. It is because of this intention to keep improving that I decided to create a blog. Uplift! is both the result of my upward momentum and a means by which I intend to reinforce it. I chose the name Uplift! because of the word’s many positive connotations. It encapsulates many ideas that are to be central to this blog — improvement, enlightenment, joy, self-reliance, helping others, and so on. Uplift! is an active imperative verb. It is not “be uplifted”, which would imply passive acceptance of uplifting stimuli. Uplift! means making an active choice to work to uplift yourself, uplift your loved ones, uplift humanity. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, Uplift!

Topics

It has been said that most of the problems people have in their lives are in the areas of health, wealth, and relationships. I believe that this is a useful model of reality — not perfect, but good — so my posts will usually focus on one or more of these three areas. I will also be discussing the idea of lifestyle design. I have only recently been introduced to this concept by Timothy Ferriss’s book The 4 Hour Workweek, and it has great appeal to me, so I will be exploring it in greater depth. My background is in technology (most specifically in web software testing), and that will no doubt influence my thinking and my voice as I explore these topics.

Let’s take a look at some of the more specific topics we’ll be covering:

  • Wealth: This is currently the area I’ve been the most successful with in my own life. I’ve personally recovered from being over $12,000 in debt to being in the black again and on the upswing. I am now looking into ways to free myself from the obligations of full-time employment and put my wealth on auto-pilot so that I can devote my time to something more meaningful than mere survival. I believe that it is possible to earn a living without sacrificing most of your time to make someone else rich. With dedication and creativity, I believe you can break free from the traditional model of employment and generate enough passive income to lead a comfortable lifestyle and still have enough free time to enjoy that lifestyle. It is true that time is money, but the exchange rate is not fixed. There are ways of making money that don’t require a massive investment of labor or sacrifice. What matters is how you use your time, not how much.
  • Relationships: This area of my life is undergoing a slow transformation right now as I learn and assimilate new ideas about what is possible for the relationships in my life and how to achieve success. There are many important kinds of relationships, but I tend to focus on romantic relationships because my own opportunities for growth are the most abundant in that area. I believe that it is possible to form rich and rewarding and joyful relationships with the people in my life, and to attract into my life more of the kind of people I enjoy being around. I believe that attractiveness and charisma are learned skills that anyone can develop by studying social dynamics and making an effort to use the concepts learned by interacting with people more.
  • Health: This is the area that could use the most attention in my life. Of health, wealth, and relationships, health is the topic of least interest to me, though no less crucial to happiness and success. One of my challenges right now is to change my thinking about health and to find a way to be interested in addressing it proactively rather than reactively. This area of life includes diet and exercise, hygiene, habits such as tobacco, alcohol, and drug use, and other various factors that affect your physical and mental wellbeing.
  • Lifestyle Design: As mentioned above, this is an idea I discovered in Timothy Ferriss’s book The 4 Hour Workweek. The basic premise is that your lifestyle is something you create, and as such, you have a great deal of control over it. Accepting a lifestyle which doesn’t suit you is the same as choosing to perpetuate it. By deciding what kind of lifestyle you want (i.e. dreaming big dreams) and choosing to make it happen, you can transform your life and leave behind the unsatisfying old lifestyle. Ferriss also explains how you can automate your work life to minimize the amount of time you must spend on it and allow you the freedom to realize those big dreams. Right now this is one of my primary goals in life. I want to work less so that I can enjoy life more. I’ve noticed a pattern in my life and the lives of those around me: time and money seem to be an either/or proposition. Either I have the time I need to enjoy life but I’m broke (e.g. when I’m unemployed) or I have the money I need to enjoy life, but I’m spending so much time earning it that I don’t have time to enjoy it. I’ve reached a phase of my life where I believe it is both possible and crucial for me to transform either/or into both/and.

Communication Is a Two-Way Street

As we take a look at how this path unfolds in our lives, I want to encourage you to comment when you feel you have something worthwhile to contribute. Uplift! is not intended as a one-way medium of communication from me to you, but rather as a dialogue between us. Comments are currently enabled; I will keep an eye on how this method of communication is working out and adjust as necessary.

Once again, welcome to Uplift! I look forward to hearing from you and learning more about the world of serious blogging.