Finally... 6 hours clocked

For the last one week, I wasn't able to achieve my 6 hours a day goal not even once. The highest was around 4 hours 14 minutes and odd. Today - things were going to be different. I am going to recount the entire day step by step because it was just PERFECT.

Here's how the day went... 

I had consciousness at 5:10 am in the morning and wanted to sleep on for a few more minutes because my legs were aching. So I chose to let myself loose and it was 5:50 am when I really had the energy to wake up (the drive was mainly because of my pre-determined goals and coaching - the accountability).

Mosquitoes were troublesome again. I made myself a glass of green tea and drank it. As soon as I drank it, I packed up my office items (including the items I had purchased yesterday - honey, bananas, green tea sachets, etc).

I got ready and got to office by 8 am after having some dosas (3.5 or 4) for breakfast. I think I ate a banana as well along with green tea (don't remember clearly).

So the coaching call with Satish began at around 8:15 am in the morning and it went on until 9:50 or 10 am in the morning I think. During the call we discussed stuff about past emotional trauma, new improvements, my motivations and  the next week's action points.

Things were clear - shoot for the stars, land in the clouds. That's what I told Satish. I am having a hard time going to bed at 10 PM. But aiming for that is actually helping me get to bed by at last before 11 PM and this is a good thing.

The key is to stop beating myself up when I don't go to bed on time.

As for work is concerned, aim for 8 hours to get to at least 6 hours and move on. And that's exactly what I did. The coaching call and the updates I did (for the new week) took about 2 hours and 6 minutes which was clocked by time doctor.

At about 10:10 am, I got myself into a tangent. I visited Satish's blog to read the post and eventually got myself distracted until 10:50 PM. That's when I pulled myself up, turned of the PC, made myself a glass of green tea and meditated. Following meditation, I visualized and took a walk.

I kept on thinking and created a vision for myself as to what I'd do 10 years from now i.e. for the rest of my life. I think one of the main things that have been blocking me is that I am not clear or confident about what it is exactly I will be doing 10 or 20 years down the line.

Well... it's somewhat become clear - own a powerful and highly successful advertising agency that specializes in all kinds of advertising campaigns (political, companies, etc).

That gave me a sense of confidence. Getting there is my ultimate destination. But to get there, I'd have to go out and write these articles now.

So immediately I came back into the room - it was around 12:00 and set a goal to write the 3 800 word articles for the client. At 12:25, I had written an article and I felt hungry. So I called home to check if lunch was ready.

It wasn't and so I told my mind, "the lunch is not ready anyway. so go ahead and write the next 2 articles" and I did. The flow was so good that I clocked 2561 words of content in 1 hour 10 minutes.

At 1:15, I left home for lunch. It was during this phase things got a bit... nasty. I had my lunch by 1:50 and began to play juggling. With my left leg (until yesterday), I could barely lift the ball at all.

Yesterday I developed consistency and was able to do at least 3 juggles. I kept on aiming to achieve 10 juggles yesterday and didn't succeed.

Today on the other hand - things were to be different. Within a couple of minutes, I nailed 10 consecutive juggles 3 times. Now... my mind wanted to practice with the right leg.

Since I had already developed enough control with the right leg, I wanted to try 50. I kept on trying to do 50 but ended around 28 - 35 mark many times. And time was running out and it was past 30 minutes. So I decided to stop and allow my subsconscious to on it and help me achieve the goal tomorrow.

I am confident I'll reach 50 tomorrow. But today - I didn't hit despite of determination and mental motivation because maybe the goal was too high (shoot for the stars, land in the clouds or I don't know).Finished it up at aroudn 2:30.

Soon after that - I wanted to take a nap. The mosquitoes were as crazy as hell and we had to spend a lot of time clearing those. And then I finally took a nap only at 3:15 pm. I woke up at 3:45 or 3:50  (one reason for this could be because of the AC - it gives peaceful sleep unlike the fan).

I drank a glass of green tea, freshned up and reached office. Once I reached office - my mind was wandering. I was thinking... how am I going to handle all of the oncoming expenses? This current client I have will earn me 10K whose work will be done in the next 2 days or so. That'll be enough for expenses in the first week.

But what about coaching? What about other expenses, credit card bill, rent for office, etc? Will I find another client and how am I going to get one? My confidence began to slip.

I reassured myself consciously that I need to focus on the current client work and I can then work on new clients. So I decided to have the current client's work finished by Thursday morning so I can work on negotiating new clients from Thursday to Saturday worth at least $600 (30K for the next 1 - 2 weeks)

Subconsciously - I hope I'll be successful. Consciously - I reaffirm it with confidence. Client will come naturally or I'll find the ones I need exactly at the amounts I want.

My main goal is to have the current client work finished by Thursday or even tomorrow if possible. So I began work, wrote an article, felt sleepy.

So I walked around for a bit and wrote another article, walked and another article and walked. After that, I got through 2 articles in straight continuity.

In total, I wrote 6400 words of content today and that is in exactly 4 hours and 1 minute (this includes proofreading as well). This is at my optimum levels of production. EXCEL:LENT.

Add the 4 hours 1 minute of work and 2 hours and 6 minutes of coaching - we have 6 hours and 6 minutes of work today.

Why does shooting for the stars, landing in the clouds method work for me? 

1. I am not smart at planning

With 8 hours of work goal in mind, I planned my time accoridng to that. But by 8 pm, I was only able to do about 6 hours of work because my timing isn't as of yet sharp and with precision.

I took 3 hours off during lunch break when only 1.5 hours was required. I also took a lot of time walking (because I felt sleepy, maybe low on confidence and stuff).

I could have saved about 45 minutes by eliminating the unnecessary walks (apart from the essential ones for the sleep) and the time I spent surfing the web in the morning.

So yes - this is where things have gone wrong.  Now - I seriously need to go home. Good night and have fun. It's 8:40 pm and if I want to be in bed by 10, I better start now.

Thank You,
Harry Ramsay

Success At Last...

So for most part of the day, things got really bad. Until 6 PM in the evening, nothing really felt in my control. And the main reason for this is the victimized thoughts I was thinking prior to falling asleep yesterday. I just let the fact that I didn't go to bed on time affect me yesterday as well. I shouldn't have. I was so depressed.

And when I woke up in the morning today at 7:30, it was a constant reaction state. I was reacting to the environment. I got ready by 10:15 (25 minutes went by trying to check tickets for my dad who's travelling to chennai to attend the last rites of his grandmother).

I decided to go to my office but that's when I heard news that my mom's another sister was scheduled to come in an hour or so. The house was a mess - servant maid hadn't come in 2 days and my mom wasnt able to handle my sick grandmother and everything.

So I decided to stay back and go to my office in the noon and helped with some cleaning and purchasing of groceries. I decided to work in 2 sessions between 1 to 4 and 5 - 8 Pm. Neither would happen thanks to lunch being prepared only at 1:15 and me having to drop my dad at the station at around 3 'o clock in the noon.

I came home at about 4 PM and decided to take a nap. I didn't have the discipline to wake up 20 minutes into the nap and only woke up at 5:20 Pm. I was a mess and I actually hit myself in anger. It was nuts - I just don't want to talk about it.

I got up, took a shower and decided to get some control over my life in every manner possible. I meditated for about 20 - 25 minutes focussing on my breath and chanting OM. By about 19:15  (scheduled to start at 19:00 but got delayed by my grandmother's requests), I began on my work. Did about 1 hr 25 minutes of work until 20:50 (1 hr 30 by 20:45 was my initial goal).

After that I had my dinner and have kept my focus since. I commit myself to be in bed by no later than 22:15 hrs. Not hope or wish or want or intend to. But am committed.

If I can do this, all of the past ghosts that I have (of my failures and stuff) will naturally destroy and I will be a NEW Man with a new life.

Thank you God for your blessings.

Feeling Sleepy While Working

I've been feeling drowsy and sleepy whenever I'm through with 20 - 30 minutes of writing on my client projects. It's been effectively stopping me from working productively and I can clearly notice it.

I am through with 30 minutes of work, I feel tired and my eyes feel sleepy and I just lie down on the desk for a few minutes. And after that, I lose my flow with writing and go into a tanget by either browsing the web or doing something else.

So I've been studying this behaviorial pattern for a while now and have found some solutions for this.

Why do I really feel sleepy while at work mainly writing? 


The first and most important thing that stops me and makes me feel sleepy is my eyesight. The glasses I have with me seem to be too powerful during certain occassions. At those times, I remove my glasses and work without these.

20 - 30 minutes into my content writing, I feel groggy and sleepy because I wasn't wearing glasses. Writing burns me of all the energy my brain has and plus when I don't wear glasses, the energy is heavily used at both places.

But when you look at my other kinds of work apart from writing such as updating my crm, writing codes or designing a web page, I don't feel sleepy at all even if I've just slept 3 or 4 hours the previous night.

These tasks are monotonous and do not require the use of my creative muscle. But on the other hand, writing requires it heavily.

I've noticed that I've been able to work for over an hour or so consistently when I'm wearing my glasses i.e. even writing at my top notch levels. 

Plus, the other reason is my sleep patterns are not regularized as of now and I'm trying to incorporate all kinds of new habits into the system.

The solution...

- Have my power tested and get lenses of a lower prescription (0.5 or 0.75 less) as my eyesight is likely to improve more and more with meditation, eye exercises and visualization and the new diet changes.

-Work in batches of 25 minutes, 5 minute walk, 25 minutes work, 5 minute walk and so on. Either do it in 25 - 5  or 50 - 10. Improve this number slowly overtime and begin working for 2 hours continuously.

Let me get these two implemented... This is the MOST important task that I need to take care of right now and then I can move on with my other things.


PS: Have been putting off getting my eyes tested for a really long time.

Welcome to my journey

So here we are... ready to begin my personal transformation challenge in 12 weeks. Over the next 12 weeks, I intend to build myself up as individual who is disciplined, organized, determined, persistent and capable of getting anything he wants.

But hold... we can't really measure these things can we? So my goals better be measurable.

Here are my measurable goals...

- Work 50 hours a week by the  1st of August 2013 i.e 10 hours a day Monday through Friday
- Wake up at 5 Am in the morning and return to bed at 10 Pm
- Engage in physical activity (football juggles) for 30 minutes daily and build my skill in that (Goal - 100 consecutive juggles on both left and right leg)

Why should I achieve these goals and how are they going to impact me in the future?

These goals are designed to help me build discipline and a HABIT that will serve me for a REALLY long time. Since I'm an entreprenuer, I have a wide range of never-ending tasks that I will have to keep doing. All of these tasks will definitely contribute to my bottomline.

But it's my responsibility to motivate and discipline myself to do these tasks. The problem is... I don't and haven't been doing so. I've lost out hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost opportunity.

Just like how Satish put it, Vinod Kambli failed to become the greatest cricketer in the world because he lacked half the discipline Sachin had.

You could easily add me to that category as well because of the opportunities I've failed to act upon.

And that's one of the main reasons I decided to hire a coach. With a coach in hand, I feel MORE confident than ever before. It was a decision that certainly took me out of my comfort zone because a guy like me would have never done that.

I'd have told and reassured myself that battles are best fought alone and kept that way. Actually it shouldn't be.

My coaching sessions with Satish are re-introducing some of the things I've realized over the last three years of my life. The difference - I'm having a conversation with another individual.

Six months ago, I realized what my coach always says - The way you're with one thing, the way you're with another. 

If you're disciplined in one area of your life, you will be disciplined in other areas of your life as well. So back then, I set a goal to wake up at 5 am in the morning and go to bed by 10 Pm in the evening.

Progress was slow and I kept at it for a week. But then I don't know what happened. The sleep clock was reset and I lost my progress and it was another failure that I kept on beating myself with and gave up.

Now I'm implementing the same basics with Satish. The only difference... I have someone to motivate me to keep me going.

Let me give you an example of today... I failed at working the six hours a day that I needed to do. Yes - it's certainly a failure but I'm not going to let it hold me back. It's the past.

I look forward to the future and am confident that I will surpass 6 hours of work tomorrow in 2 sessions (3 hours morning and 3 hours noon).

So back to the main story... How does achieving these above mentioned goals help me in other areas of my life?

1. With 50 hours of week by the 1st of August, I expect my income to shoot up to at least Rs. 75,000 each month without increasing my business costs with just my writing business. How is this going to benefit me?

- Business costs will be only around 5,000 - 7,500 per month

- House expenses will end up at a total of Rs. 28,000 a month (Kaveri water coming in, chit payments ending)

- My party sessions (let's just say that I let myself loose on the weekends and not drink 50rs booze like I used to). So let's say the expenses are around 4.5K each month along. We can replace booze with movies, theatre shows, trips as well.

So all of this amounts to a total of Rs. 40,000 each month. I will be left with Rs.35,000 each month in my account which I can use for the following:

- Save Rs. 15,000 each month to pay back existing debt (Muthoothu 58K & my uncle 30k)
- Save Rs. 10,000 each month in my father's savings account so I can recoup all the cash his dad gave him (total of 5 lakhs) and stop feeling guilty (Through RD)
- Save another Rs. 10,000 for myself and my future (business, personal expenses, education and so on).

If my income would be higher or I somehow find a way to reduce my expenses/burden, I'll probably be continuing with Satish for bigger and better things.

One thing - I feel very tempted to start saving to pay back the debt now. If I do, it'll affect the sessions I have with Satish - which is perhaps the most important thing this moment.  So I'm keeping the 10K a month separate.

When dicks and losers take 5 - 15 lakhs in personal loans putting their parent's hard-earned homes in pursue a degree and study, my Rs. 30,000 with Satish for my personal coaching is nothing.

It's probably one of the most valuable investments I've made over the last 3 - 6 months.

2. Income unlimited

Working 50 hours a week presents me an opportunity to earn unlimited income. My income is only limited by the decisions, risks and the work I do. The habit I build will keep me working laser-focussed on my business.

And therefore, my income will naturally increase as I begin to create value for more businesses, more customers, etc.

I expect my income to be at Rs.1 lakh - Rs.1,25 lakh each month by the end of this year (Assuming that I ingrain 50 hours a week habit by 1st of August)

3. Playing sports

Football form comes back and I will begin to feel like a true hero who rose back from the dead. It's true that I suck now. But playing football makes me happy and once I start practicing, the improved form will affect other areas of my life too and I will be the fittest I've ever been.

My goal is to get ready to play 90 minutes of hard core football without exhausting myself. This will be accomplished through a variety of physical activity - first of which is juggling. Just feeling the hang of the football on my foot :)

So I think that's it for today... I will talk with greater detail tomorrow