Why 16 Threads Is Not "Work"

A few times recently I have written about my goal to quit work and devote my time to things I actually enjoy. I have talked about how I plan to sustain this lifestyle through several income streams, one of which is my software development business - 16 Threads. Some people have contacted me saying that if I spend my time running my own business then I have not quit work at all, and that I am probably working even harder to get the business running. But I don't consider running my own company to be a job. It's not "work" as most people know it because we see things differently at 16 Threads.

Our Business, Our Choices

The majority of the 16 Threads business is self-driven. We do some work for clients (if we are interested in a project then we will take it on) but otherwise we spend our time following our passion and creating software that we want to use.

Our aim is for everyone to enjoy the work they do at 16 Threads. If someone has an idea, a pet project, or a vision then they are encouraged to follow that. Or if a project comes in but no-one is interested in it then we will happily pass on it.

Sure, like any business money is important, but we feel that the money will take care of itself because when people love what they do they produce high quality products, making them easier to sell.

Fun in the Sun

We're all about fun at 16 Threads. We have fun at work, we have fun with our clients, and we have fun amongst ourselves. We want everyday to be fun because we believe that work doesn't have always have to be serious (or seriously depressing).

We never let fun get in the way of a project but we make sure not to take ourselves too seriously. After all, life is supposed to be enjoyable and that includes work.

Flexibility

We measure performance on output not time. Measuring time is important for tracking how to improve (we're even building some software to help us with this) but the performance on an individual is not linked to the number of hours they spend at the office.

Everyone gets their work done but they do it at times that are best suited to their own lives. If someone prefers working at night they can. Or if we finish a project early we might find ourselves road-tripping to the beach (or pub) instead of sitting in front of our computers all day.

As long as the work gets done (and meets our very high standards) then we're flexible about all the other details.

Having fun and spending time with my close friends, whilst working on projects I love, that fit around my personal life…I don't think that sounds like "work" at all. :)

Not Happy? Change Something!

Today's message is simple. If, at any time, you feel unhappy then that is a sign that you need to change something. The change does not have to be huge. It can be the smallest possible change you can imagine, but when you are unhappy any change is better than none. If there is anything in your life that causes unhappiness, and you actually want to be happy (you do don't you?), then you need to make a change. Flip how you think about it, remove it from your life, ignore it, whatever! Just make a change. Make any change.

Likewise if something in your life is working well and making you happy then there is nothing for you to do. Don't worry about it, don't fret that the happiness may not last or wonder how it can go wrong. Just enjoy it and keep doing what you are doing.

Where you are in your life right now is the result of all your past actions. Happy or unhappy, positive or negative, fun or boring - these are all states that you have created through your own actions. And if you don't like one you can change it!

I even included a pretty diagram to illustrate the point…

So are you actually happy? If not then it's time to start making changes. Image: www.frkncngz.com

Something Had To Give

My apologies for the lack of activity on this site for the past week or so. Believe me when I say I was very disappointed for this to happen - I felt that I was getting into a groove, traffic was building, and my writing was improving with every post. Sadly though, I realised that I had too much on my plate (self inflicted) and that I needed to take a break from a few things. It saddened me that this site was one of the things that had to fall by the way side for a few weeks but it was a decision made on purely economic reasons.

Put simply, I had taken on too many projects and I needed to prioritise them. I chose to do this based on the expected reward:effort ratio each project provided.

Expected Reward vs Effort

I have mentioned before that this site is not exactly a good business proposition in terms of the amount of time and effort it requires and the financial return it brings in. The main purpose of this site is to help people, not make money, but when I am planning on quitting my job in 2012, money is an important issue.

Recently my software development company, 16 Threads, has been gaining momentum which is great news. We've already secured a contract to produce an iPad application for a local government department and we've got several other clients interested in our services,  as well as some in-house products in the works.

The future of 16 Threads is looking very positive, which is great because it is an integral part of how I plan to make money when I quit in 2012. But of course this increased work means that I have less time for my hobbies, like writing articles here. You win some, you lose some.

In reality this site has brought in less than $10 for an estimated 300 hours of effort. That's under 4c per hour.

On the other hand my work for 16 Threads is going to yield me a reward thousands of times higher for a similar level of effort. No contest.

In an ideal world I would love for the majority of my time to be spent working in the self help and personal development industry but until that becomes viable in terms of providing an income for me I will persist with it as just a hobby.

The Future

I don't foresee any drastic things over the next few months (apart from my wedding) that will prevent me from writing articles here so you will continue to see me posting useful articles. I'm not going to go away, but I might just have to scale back my efforts until things settle down.

The good news is that once I establish a few money earning sources for 2012 and quit my job then I will have a massive influx of time and I plan to spend a significant portion of that here, writing articles and helping people.

So stay with me…I've got plenty left to write. :)

What Is The Theme Song To Your Life?

Ever found yourself listening to music but spending more time skipping through your playlist than actually listening? I'm sure most people do it and it's pretty obvious why - we're searching for music that matches our mood. Nothing sinister there but I was doing this recently when it got me thinking about how closely music is linked to our lives and how much it influences us. In particular I was interested in the correlation between music and our mood, attitude and general outlook on life. If we search for certain songs because of our mood then can those same songs create that specific mood in us at other times?

I believe so and there are plenty of examples of research that backs this up. I'm not going to list any here because there really is a lot of it and you just need to do some active research if you're interested. I don't want to prejudice you by only picking research that suits me. ;)

After doing all this research it reminded me about a question I was asked a few years ago:

What is the theme song to your life?

It's a great question and it got me thinking again…What is my life theme song and what does it say about me? And how does it influence me, my decisions, and my life as a whole?

My Life Theme Song(s)

What would I say is the theme song to my life? That's a very tough question to answer. I'm not sure if I have just one theme song.

At any given time I may have a particular song which would suit as the theme for my life in that specific moment but this changes from day to day, and even from minute to minute.

Having a single theme song for your entire life doesn't make sense because your life will take many twists and turns and no one song can cater for them all. But you can certainly have a theme song (or a theme playlist) that defines where you are in your life right now.

I find it hard to even limit that to a single song, or even a handful of songs. There are many songs I like, and listen to regularly, that could easily be a theme song for my current situation in life. It's hard to pick specific ones but I do notice some similarities. They generally have most, if not all, of the following qualities:

• Funky, "happy" beat
• Clever lyrics/witty wordplay
• Positive message
• Make me smile

So what do these shared characteristics say about me?

What My Song Choice Says About Me

If you said that, based on my music choice, I am a happy, clever, positive person who likes to smile then you would be right but you could also have determined that from reading the articles on this site so don't go patting yourself on your back just yet.

It's completely true - I listen to happy, clever, positive, smile-inducing music because that is the kind of person I am - but I think that is oversimplifying it. I think my music choice also says a lot more about me and my life. It shows where I am, attitude wise, and how I am orienting myself for the future.

My current position in life is a positive one. In fact the only negative in my life is that I still have to work a full time job when I totally disagree with the concept of working for the majority of our lives. But everything else in my life is great! I have a wonderful woman who is crazy enough to agree to marry me, fantastic friends, a nice house, my own software development business, and a loyal dog that loves me (even if he goes to toilet where ever he bloody wants to). All in all it is pretty positive.

My orientation to the future is also quite positive. I have much to look forward to and am already preparing myself for more positive changes in my life. I am excited by the prospect of quitting my job and becoming fully self reliant which removes the only negative in my life. But I am also looking forward to getting married (and having the honeymoon), traveling, building my business up, and a number of other exciting projects that I have in the works.

So it is obvious that my current position and my orientation toward the future are outlined by my music choice. I am building a life that is happy, clever, positive, and fun (i.e. makes me smile all the time). I am focused on this attitude so it makes sense that my music choices support this. I believe that if I were listening to negative songs then I would be less likely to achieve my goals and more likely to turn into a sad, depressed, bumbling mess of a person.

But that is not the path for me. I love being positive and I love my positive music. I also love that these aspects seem to feed off each other. When I am having a negative day I can listen to some positive music and suddenly I am perked up again, or when I am feeling positive I can hear the positives and find joy in songs I would not have otherwise noticed.

I listen to happy and positive music and I am a happy and positive person. Coincidence? I don't think so. So what sort of music do you listen to?

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Exercise Induced Headaches (EIH) Update

A while back now I posted an article about Exercise Induced Headaches (EIH). I have been suffering from them on and off for a few years now, mainly triggered by some form of over-exertion, and have never been able to find out exactly why they happen. It's a pain in the neck, literally. Since that EIH article I have been experimenting with myself and my headaches to try to get a handle on them and when I noticed that that article was one of my most popular (in terms of page views) I realised that there are many others in the same boat as me - suffering these headaches with no clear explanation as to why. I started to write an update to share my experiences but time ran away from me and the article never was published.

Until yesterday when one of my readers, Travis, reminded me that others are still struggling with EIH. So it is time to update my findings on Exercise Induced Headaches (EIH) in the hope that it can help others.

My Headaches Are Gone

Firstly, I have not suffered EIH since writing that article and taking a break from the gym. I am back working hard at the gym now, and have been for months, but I think I have learned a bit about my headaches and their causes. I feel that my workouts are better (and harder) now than they ever were (and I am leaner, fitter, and in better shape too) but I never have that feeling that I am straining so much that my head may explode. I'd say that's a good thing.

Before I share my tips for beating those nasty Exercise Induced Headaches let me just be clear again - I am not a doctor and this is not advice per se but just lessons I learned from my experiences. Use your discretion when applying to your own situation.

Lessons Learned For Beating EIH

In that first EIH article I hypothesized several theories for the causes behind my exercise headaches, one of which was about poor technique at the gym. I was on the right track there but not nearly in enough detail. Here are some of lessons I have learned over the past few months with my self-experimentation for EIH.

Focus on using the right muscles

When busting out weights at the gym I have learned that it is much better to focus on feeling that good, deep, burning pain in the right muscles rather than getting an extra rep/set out or upping the weights used. I was pushing myself to hit limits that my body could not match and instead of failing gracefully I was compensating with the rest of my body. I was using other muscles and incorrect technique to push myself to go just that little bit further and the result was an excess of tension in all the wrong places - back, neck, and shoulders.

Creating tension in those areas simply leads to headaches, and when all that blood is pumping through your body during exercises those headaches can feel like an explosion.

I'm not saying that pushing to failure is bad but what is important is how you define that failure.

Failure means failure to complete an exercise with perfect technique

Read that heading again. That is what failure means. Performing an exercise is all about getting the technique right and it does not matter if it is your 1st or 50th rep. Perfect technique should be maintained at all times. As soon as you cannot perform the exercise with that perfect technique then you have reached failure. There is no point swing your back and throwing your shoulders into the mix just to get an extra rep if the technique is poor.

A small number of perfect technique reps beats any number of mediocre technique reps any day of the week.

Breathing is important

Obviously breathing is important but I found that when I was pushing myself hard to find that extra rep I was often holding my breath. This is bad for many reasons, but it is the less-obvious ones that I want to focus on for the purpose of exercise induced headaches.

Holding your breath during exercise is heavily linked to tensing your neck. When we hold our breath normally nothing much changes in our body. But when we are under physical stress various parts of our body tense up in order to help out - mainly the abdominals and the neck. This is the way our body is designed to help us find that a short burst of extra strength when we really need it (i.e. life or death situations) but at the gym we misuse it - we lengthen the time these areas stay tensed when we hold our breath and the result is often dizziness, nausea, and headaches.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Workout time is for working out only

I was big on taking my iPod to the gym, hitting shuffle, tuning out everyone else as I pushed through my gym routine. Bad idea. Tuning out is exactly the wrong thing to do when working out as you need to be entirely focused on the task at hand. If you are not focused then it is more than likely that you will a) not use the correct muscle groups b) not use perfect technique and c) not remember to breath.

You need to see your workouts as a time for concentration. A time to be zen-like. Feel the energy of the barbell resonate with you....ok maybe not quite so airy fairy but seriously, cutting down on distractions helps. When you are working out you should devote yourself to the exercise you are performing at that time. Nothing else matters. No listening to music, no chatting during a set, and no perving at the oily man-mountain deadlifting 500kg in the corner. It's just about you and the exercise.

Be Headache Free

Take a moment to consider your own efforts at the gym, or in whatever arena you tend to suffer your headaches, and see if you can identify the causes. Hopefully you can find something useful out of my experiences and put those headaches away for ever. Good luck!

Image: Ambro

How to Build Self Confidence - Daily Comfort Challenges

Developing self confidence is the cornerstone of positive personal development but it can often be the most confusing aspect. How do you build self confidence when if you are traveling down the personal development path then you are obviously not 100% happy with yourself? I believe that most people who are actively seeking personal development are not necessarily trying to change themselves per se, but they are trying rediscover their natural personality state. They are trying to find the version of themselves that is the most congruent with what they feel inside. This is actually a very hard thing to achieve because there is so much bullshit and bluster generated in our society that confuses the issue and this is why learning to build your own self confidence is so important.

Which is why I was excited by the fact that my recent article on using affirmations to build self confidence struck a chord with some readers and has already generated some good comments. It is great to see other people who recognise the significance of being able to build a positive self image. With that in mind I thought I would continue this trend and talk about another trick I use to main my elevated self confidence: daily comfort challenges.

Daily Comfort Challenges

The concept of the daily comfort challenge is to set yourself a personal challenge every day that pushes you outside your comfort zone. It should force you to confront your simple social fears, which are often unfounded, and do things you would never normally consider. The confidence you generate from pushing yourself like this is amazing.

I used to have a massive fear of failure when it came to talking to women, which of course manifested itself throughout my life, and I ended up afraid to talk to most women. Not exactly an ideal state for a 23 year old heterosexual man to be in. So when I started setting myself these daily comfort challenges I began small - I just had to say "Hi" to one random woman every day.

It sounds simple, and to be honest it was, but it gave me exactly what I needed. It forced me to confront my stupid fear and realise that talking to strangers was not hard. Nor scary. It was actually a whole lot fun. I ended up meeting some great people, having some fantastic conversations, and building up my confidence.

Enough rambling from me. Here are my top three comfort challenges that you can use to build your self confidence...

Comfort Challenge One: Talk to 5 Complete Strangers

Try starting conversations with several complete strangers every day. This is a great way to build confidence and hone your communication skills and the beauty is that it doesn't matter what you say because you will probably never see them again in your life.

Tips for talking to strangers:

• Start with people who get paid to be friendly (e.g. waiters, charity beggars etc)
• Talk to people forced into close quarter (e.g. elevators, trains, checkout lines)
• Keep it simple - you don't need to discuss the meaning of life with them, just say "hi"

Try it and see what kind of conversations you can generate. You never know, you may meet some very interesting people.

Comfort Challenge Two: Perform a Street Stunt

The street stunt is anything that is completely out of the ordinary and will cause most people to think you are crazy. Don't worry, it's really them that are crazy. ;)

Performing a street stunt takes little effort but it throws all current societal expectations out the window. Here are some good examples you can start with but don't be afraid to create your own:

• Dressing strangely (undies on the outside is always good)
• Lying down in the middle of the footpath
• Walking on your hands (I wish I could do this one)

The key to a good street stunt is to never acknowledge that anything strange occurred. When you are finished just go about your business as if nothing happened. If people comment or ask you about it just fob them off with a silly excuse like "Oh that? My doctor says I need to walk on my hands every hour to take the pressure off my feet".

Comfort Challenge Three: Get a Phone Number

This is taking the talking to strangers challenge to another level, and is also great for anyone struggling to connect with people of the opposite sex.

The challenge is simple - just get a phone number from someone you don't know. You don't have to like them, or actually want to call them, but you must find a stranger and get past the initial small talk stage to finish with their phone number. The phone number doesn't even have to be real, just get some numbers.

I only have one tip for getting a phone number - ask for it. Most people aren't expecting you to ask for their number and if you've had a small conversation beforehand you might be pleasantly surprised at just how willing they are to give out their digits. Or at least get rid of you by giving you a fake number.

If you still want a suggestion try something like this - "Hey I saw walking by and thought you looked amazing and I just had to come say hi…I've got something important I've got to get to right now but I'd love to catch up for a chat sometime...What's the best number to call you on?" Smooth right?

Confidence is the goal, nothing else matters

For all of the above challenges the specific actions taken and actual results are not what matters. The goal is to build your self confidence. It doesn't matter if you strike out 20 times on getting a phone number because the experience you get from it (and the realisation that only your own opinion of yourself matters) is worth much more than a single phone number will ever be.

There is no limit to what you can try with these personal challenges, but be sure to keep it all legal. I don't want to get a sudden influx of "I decided to run naked down the street and I got arrested" hate messages. Unless photos are included.

Get creative and set yourself some personal challenges that are fun but push your boundaries at the same time. Take a look at your life and figure out where you lack the most confidence and challenge yourself to get outside your comfort zone. You will be amazed at the impact it will have on your self confidence.

Image: Michal Marco

How to Build Self Confidence - Affirmations

"How did you build self confidence?" This question was asked of me recently when I was recounting my journey from a shy, quiet, and socially awkward boy to an outgoing, fun-loving, and confident man. It occurred to me that while I had figured out how to nurture my own self-confidence, others are struggling with theirs every day. I don't like this at all.

Everyone deserves to be self-confident and happy with themselves. You live with your perception of yourself 24/7 and it pervades every aspect of your life. If you are unhappy with yourself then it will manifest across your life - jobs that you hate, relationships that are no good for you, and friends that aren't very good friends.

The perception you choose for yourself, good or bad, is how you showcase yourself to the world. If you choose to showcase yourself as a loser then that is how the world will see you. How can you expect the world to treat you better than how you treat yourself?

With that in mind I decided to share my tricks for building self-confidence and becoming the person that you've always wanted to be. The first technique I recommend for building self confidence is to use positive affirmations.

Affirmations

These are the stock weapon for most players in the self-help, personal development, and motivational industries, and they are so prevalent for a reason - they work.

Most people like to use affirmations as a tool to remind themselves of the good and positive things in their life. While this certainly is a big part of affirmations it fails to address the need to foster the traits that you might not currently possess but wish to in the future.

Affirmations are about both of these - reminding yourself of your existing positive traits but also encouraging personal growth towards developing new behaviours.

Some quick tips for writing your own affirmations

• Target all aspects of yourself - physical, personality, relationships, leadership etc.
• They must be uplifting - you must finish reading them with a big smile on your face.
• Be ultra-positive, even if you don't 100% believe it at the time.
• No negative words, even if they are double negatives (e.g. "I am beautiful" is much better than "I am not ugly")
• Repeat them to yourself in the mirror - tell yourself how great you are.
• Read them to yourself every single day (preferably twice a day)

Unsure where to begin? Just pretend that you are a crazy groupie (your number-one fan) who is so ridiculously in love with you that they think that everything you do is awesome. Then start writing all the good things down with that completely biased point of view. The positive should start to flow soon enough.

Example affirmations from my past

But I cannot expect you to actually do this if I don't lead the way can I? So I dug through my old notebooks to find some of the early affirmations I wrote. Here are some samples:

• I am a sexy, smart, and funny man.
• I give myself permission to be the person I want to be.
• I am cool, calm, and confident. I am always in control.
• I am so talented that I can do ANYTHING I want to.
• I deserve great relationships and fantastic friends.
• My life is great!

Got the picture? Interestingly I read through those affirmations of mine and I realise two things - firstly; they are all second nature to me now which is great, but the biggest thing I notice is how my life has taken some new directions based on them. For example, as I began to develop my self-confidence and believe my own affirmations I met Sophie, a fantastic and wonderful woman who I fell in love with. I have no doubt that our relationship would not have been so successful had I not turned my self esteem around with affirmations.

Affirmations work so why not give it a go? Maybe you'll meet someone special too. ;)

Are You Making Things Harder Than They Really Are?

You wake up to the incessant buzzing of your alarm clock which is set all too early for a Friday. Peeking outside you notice how beautiful the day is already looking - the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and there is not a cloud in sight. And you're miserable. You've got a million things to do at work (hence the early morning alarm) and they are all due today. You can feel the stress building inside you already and you're not even out of bed yet! It's going to be a tough day…

If this sounds all too familiar then I am willing to bet that you often feel like you have too much to do and not enough time to do it in, and I am also willing to bet that you are wrong. You have plenty of time but you are just making things harder than they really are.

Making Things Harder Than They Are

This is something us humans love to do. We love to make things harder than they actually are, for any number of pseudo-psychological reasons, and it can be a very difficulty habit to break out of.

It is hard to break because the symptoms are not always obvious.There are dozens of little actions that we do every day that purposefully make our lives more difficult and often they are so small, or so ingrained in us, that we don't even notice them.

Of course this means that we just assume things are hard and we have to deal with it, when the reality is much different. The reality is that things are generally simple and we choose to make them harder.

It is not always obvious that we are doing this. Like many things, being at the centre of the problem actually makes it harder to identify it.

When we are slap-bang in the middle of a stressful and difficult time our mind is focused on finding solutions to the problems, not on questioning why the problems exist. But that is exactly what I am encouraging you to do.

Why We Make Things Harder

Whenever you are faced with a difficult situation that is causing you stress, stop and ask yourself if you contributed to it. Did you somehow make this situation harder? If you want to play the victim and pretend that all this bad stuff just happens to you then stop reading now. You wont be willing to change anyway.

We all make things harder for ourselves at different times in our life, and some people more-so than others. But why do we do it at all? Why would we purposefully choose to make something harder than it needs to be?

Making Excuses

The most obvious reason is that it gives us an out. It provides us with an excuse for mistakes, or sub-par performances, and allows us to exaggerate any successes. We create a fictitious win-win situation where we feel excused if we do bad and feel praised when we do well. But this is bullshit.

When we make things harder we only make it harder within our own frame of reference meaning that, for most of the time, other people do not see the added difficulty we create. They see the problem in the original, simplified manner which means they wont be likely to accept the excuse or find you deserving of praise.

How many times have you had a task sit in your inbox, or on your to-do list, for weeks only for you to get stuck into it in the last few days before the deadline? You end up going a little crazy as you try to cram weeks of work into a few days and somehow you manage to get it all done and you feel like you've worked your butt off to do it. You may have too, but in the eyes of your boss, or your client, or whoever was waiting for that task, all you have done is finish the task in the allotted time. Nothing special there. But if you had missed that deadline they would have been very unhappy. You had weeks to do it and you still couldn't manage!

Making things difficult to have an excuse doesn't help anyone and is just plain wrong.

Thriving on Drama

The next biggest reason why we make things harder for ourselves is that we naturally thrive on the drama. When we are immersed into a stressful situation our body produces chemicals and hormones that amp us up to perform at abnormal levels.

This is known as our fight-or-flight mechanism and in previous centuries it was very useful. It was built into our bodies to enable us to be ready to take instant action whenever we were in mortal peril. But our modern lifestyle rarely has a need for this mechanism so we create excess stress in our life as a cheat. A cheat which is not doing anyone any favours.

The energy we generate in fight-or-flight mode is designed for very short bursts. It is literally used to escape danger by fighting it or fleeing from it. These are not long-term activities.

When we use this as our main source of energy just to "get things done" we force our body to run on this intense energy for periods much longer than it expects to. Our body is not designed to do this and the result is any number of negative consequences - physical and mental burn-out, tiredness, inability to focus afterwards, headaches, and so on.

Picture a time that you worked under an immense stress (legitimate or manufactured) for longer than a few days. Do you remember how you felt afterwards? Most people cannot keep it up for long before they crash, and the bad news is that the longer you over-use this fight-or-flight mechanism the bigger the crash will be.

Avoidance

Avoidance is the next most obvious reason we subconsciously make things harder than they need to be and this ties in closely to making excuses. If we make things so hard and complex that we are constantly busy then we can feel a little bit better that we didn't get those crappy tasks done.

It's the perfect excuse for not cutting the grass, not calling the phone company, and not joining that nudist colony.

In reality it is not an excuse at all. It's just poor time management.

The worst form of avoidance though is not the small and boring tasks but the big and important ones. Being "too busy" has become the excuse of choice for those not willing to take a chance and pursue their dreams. These people manufacture a life where they are constantly busy, working hard, and feeling stressed, so they have the perfect excuse for not achieving their dreams. This stems from a fear of failure and a fear of success and neither are valid things to fear.

Avoidance is never the right option.

Making Your Life Easier Instead

The key to changing this behaviour is to become more aware of your actions, your motives, and your choices. Start by analysing your actions to identify when you are subconsciously making your life harder than it needs to be. Once you recognise that you are doing it you can start to change it.

Making the change comes from attacking the root cause of the problem. Think about why you are creating more difficulty than is required. Are you making excuses or avoiding something? Do you just love the pressure of an impending deadline? Or is there some other hidden reason?

Once you figure out the reason behind your actions you can begin to implement changes - use a daily to-do list to stop you from procrastinating, halve all your deadlines so you don't have time to waste, or run away and join the circus.

The choice is yours but don't waste your life pretending to busy.

Image: Michal Marcol

Inertia, Momentum and Life

The world really is a wonderful place. Too bad most of us get stuck in boring, long-winded "careers" which don't provide much benefit other than to keep us from doing what we really want to. If this is something that resonates with you then it is quite possible that your life is suffering from a serious case of inertia and it is time to take action, find the life that you enjoy, and break out of that rut!

Inertia: Stuck in a Rut

Inertia is the basic physics principle that says an object will retain its state of motion or rest until a force is applied to alter that state. If something is stationary then it will remain that way until it is forced to move, and if something is moving it will continue moving until something forces it to stop.

This principle applies to non-physical objects too.

Our lives are subject to, and often ruled by, this principle of inertia. It is easy for us to get stuck in a rut, feeling unhappy with our current situation but also at a loss for how to change it. We become set to our routine, immersed in inertia, with nothing in sight that might force us to change direction.

This is a terrible way to live and it is not how our lives are supposed to be. Do you really think we are just supposed to keep running the same loop - work, eat, sleep, pay the bills, work, eat, sleep, watch TV - for the rest of our lives?

No! We are meant to be challenged regularly. We are meant to push ourselves to new limits - physically, mentally, and emotionally. We are meant to have new experiences, see new places, and learn new things.

To do this we need to utilise the positive flip-side of inertia to create change in our lives - the fact that once something is moving it becomes hard to stop it.

We need to learn how to apply enough force to shift our direction, to change our state, and start us on a new journey. We need to generate positive momentum.

Positive Momentum

Positive momentum is what we need to generate in order to build enough force to make dramatic changes in our life. The more stagnant your life has become, the more positive momentum will be needed to break free.

I prefix momentum with positive because we only want positive life changes and they only come from positive momentum. If you create negative momentum in your life then the resulting changes would be negative and you end up in a worse situation than you started with.

That highlights the awesome, but dangerous, power of momentum - once you start building it up it can be very hard to stop. Think of the snowflake that triggers the avalanche. It began small but it was enough to start moving a few other snowflakes around and soon enough a wall of snow is rolling down the mountain and nothing can stop it.

The same effect can be achieved in your life. If you make positive decisions and take positive action then the momentum will build and what started as small, barely noticeable changes will grow into large and significant life changes. You just need that one positive snowflake to start it.

Building positive momentum is not easy though, because at the start it can feel like you are facing an immovable wall of resistance. That is the inertia barrier and crossing it can be a daunting task. But it all starts with the first step.

Take The First Step

The first step in anything new is always the hardest. Especially so when that first step is the first of many trying to break out from the force of inertia.

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step" - Lao Tzu

The sheer weight of inertia pushing back can be too much for some people and they quickly lose their resolve and slip straight back into their rut thinking it is just too hard to make a change. It isn't!

The first step in any life-changing direction should be a time of pleasure. Take pride in the fact that you are making the change and recognise that you are just building up your positive momentum. Acknowledge that drastic changes do not happen overnight, but they will only happen because you take that first step.

Change Your Life

Life is a series of changes. Well, at least that is what it is supposed to be. Do not let yourself get caught up with negative inertia - stuck in a place that you really don't want to be.

Make a decision to take action. Only you have the power to create enough positive momentum in your life to make a change. Only you can force your life to take a new direction.

Start today - take a single step towards your dream and build your positive momentum.

Image: renjith krishnan

Listen To Your Body

It was a week before my trip to Europe for my brother's wedding and I was sitting in the doctor's room waiting for the verdict - I had noticed this strange intermittent burning pain in my abdomen for the past two weeks and I was beginning to get worried. But I was not prepared for what he said next: "There is nothing physiologically wrong with you. I think it's just stress."

I am a firm believer that many ailments and illnesses are manifestations of our stress and inner thought processes so the concept of stress being a cause for illness was not new. But was it possible for me? I hadn't been stressed for years!

Over the course of my life I have bounced between both ends of the spectrum of stress. I was a happy-go-lucky type kid who loved to be loud and have a good time. But I also put a lot pressure on myself. I expected great things of myself and often set absurd goals that I would then stress over.

This pattern continued for much of my life - a strange mix of being relaxed and confident in one situation and then stressed and over-the-top in the next - until I began my personal development journey in 2007. During this time I sorted a lot of my issues out and I became proud of who I was and what I could achieve. I stopped putting pressure on myself and just started enjoying life. I was happy.

So to be told by a doctor I was stressed was a big slap in the face.

A Lesson From Paleo: Pay Attention To Your Food

Looking back, I accepted the doctor's story of stress because it was easy. I was working in a very negative environment and I was organising my first overseas trip so it was easy to just say that I was stressed and maybe I was. But one thing that living a paleo lifestyle has helped me realise is that I need to listen to my own body and pay attention to what I am doing to it, both mentally and physically.

A perfect example occurred last Friday. Sophie and I decided to have a non-paleo dinner (that's right, I've managed to convince Sophie to go paleo too!) with some modern treats that we used to enjoy. We ate crumbed chicken breast with salad and finished with an after-dinner snack of some very smooth white chocolate. It was nice, if not a little sweet for my paleo-modified tastebuds. But then the headache came.

It happened two hours after dinner - a headache started slowly pounding behind my eyes and I immediately regretted the dinner had eaten. I do not get headaches very often but even so, in the past I would have shrugged it off as a just a random occurrence and continued on my merry way. Not anymore!

It wasn't a big leap to draw the conclusion that it was that sudden spike in carbs (mostly highly processed sugars) that had caused the headache but it was a big step forward for me.

My mind is now focused on everything I do to my body and is attuned to monitor the effects and adjust. This is something I have never done before and I like it.I never used to link my actions to what occurred in my body before, instead I generally accepted that things "just happened" in my body.

Migraines, eczema, stomach cramps, and asthma to name a few - I used to see these things as what I had to put up with, like these were failings of the body I was given for this life and there was nothing I could do about it. I was wrong.

Maybe some of the ailments in my life will always be there or perhaps I am predisposed to suffer things like asthma, or get a migraine once a year, or live with this poor excuse for red hair for the rest of my life. Maybe. But I now believe that I have a lot more control over these things than I ever used to.

Your Mental Diet Is Just As Important

It is not just the food we eat that can change our bodies, but our thoughts can too. Just like having a crap-laden meal of processed junk-food will leave your body feeling terrible so will a mental diet of negative thoughts, stress, and anxiety. These are negative energy sources and they are the equivalent of fast-food for our brain. They provide a short-term energy burst but have long-term negative side-effects.

Living a healthy and happy life requires a combination of eating well (I'm recommending paleo if you can't tell) and thinking well. The latter is often harder to achieve which is why I write so much about it.

Changing your thought pattern from negative to positive requires a lot of effort, self-awareness, and dedication but it can be done.

The good news is that once you start looking to make these positive changes then your will find that it snowballs from there. The first change is the hardest, but once you start you will find that momentum is on your side and things become easier. It's just a matter of taking those first few difficult steps.

For those looking to make any healthy change (diet, mental, or other) in in their life I recommend paying close attention to your actions, observing what you feed on (both physically and metaphorically), and listening to your body. Remember, it is never just doing something randomly - it is always responding to something you have already done.

Image: Suat Eman