February 13th, 2008 by Phil

The regular routine things, like sleeping, eating and walking are so common that we hardly spare our time in thinking about them. It’s a vast territory of mystery, which Shakespeare once termed, “night’s second self”. We sleep as it is needed. It’s an inevitable part of our life. But a simple general knowledge about sleeping can make this almost overlooked part a strongly enhancing factor of our life. Let us take a deeper look at some interesting sleeping facts.

Sleep more - feel good, makes sense right? We know that at least eight hours we should spend in sleeping. We are, Bernard Shaw said, “slave to nature for that”. But the recent neo-scientific theory demonstrates the lesser we sleep, the more energetic we feel. It may sound heretic, almost breaking the standard norm of understanding. But the bone of contention goes, a five-six hours of sleeping can make you healthier and more awake. In fact, you may be taken aback hearing the fact that the world’s busiest people, CEOs, entrepreneurs, scientists, whose minds are constantly running relentlessly, sleep only four hours and wake up fresh to face the challenges the day brings.

With the world changing fast and strongly dependent on electronics, you have really a lesser time to adapt to it, both physically and professionally. Thus, there may have been some change in biological need as well.

Is the change destructive? Are those people victim of insomnia? Or do they hide some secret mystery? The truth is the more you sleep, the lazier you become. Sleep more than necessary and it’s likely you will feel tired and sluggish. Oversleeping makes you feel exhausted, and consequentially lazy.  After a particular point of time, you are bound to feel bored or irritated.

So is it possible to sleep less and feel vibrant? The answer is ‘Yes’, it’s astonishing that people are performing well while sleeping less. Actually, the old calculation goes, you should sleep eight hours a day, but how true is this? This mathematics strips you off one third of your life. The quarter of the rest is gone in performing nature’s duties.

In fact, this order has been set according to the load of the work. Previously people had much time to perform their work. But this ultra-sophisticated world demands from you more time to ameliorate it better. Thus the order of sleep has lessened accordingly. Science is in no way opposed to that. It’s only a matter of adaptation.

Now, prepare the statistics. Eight hours of sleeping gives sixteen hours of work. Add two hours to your work by deducting it from sleeping, and then calculate it for the next ten years. The amount can fulfill any number of dreams you set. In fact, you waste one-third of your life by sleeping. Imagine how much progress you could make if you were able to dedicate two hours extra to your work. The working proverb is not, early to bed and early to rise anymore.

November 10th, 2007 by Phil

Want to learn how you can sharpen that brain of yours and keep it vibrant and effective? Then read on…

1. Learn what is the “It” in “Use It or Lose It”. A basic understanding will serve you well to appreciate your brain’s beauty as a living and constantly-developing dense forest with billions of neurons and synapses.

2. Take care of your nutrition. Did you know that the brain only weighs 2% of body mass but consumes over 20% of the oxygen and nutrients we intake? As a general rule, you don’t need expensive ultra-sophisticated nutritional supplements, just make sure you don’t stuff yourself with the “bad stuff”.

3. Remember that the brain is part of the body. Things that exercise your body can also help sharpen your brain: physical exercise enhances neurogenesis.

4. Practice positive, future-oriented thoughts until they become your default mindset and you look forward to every hansgrohe-downpour-air-royale-14in-shower.jpgnew day in a constructive way. Stress and anxiety, no matter whether induced by external events or by your own thoughts, actually kills neurons and prevent the creation of new ones. You can think of chronic stress as the opposite of exercise: it prevents the creation of new neurons.

Please go to www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2007/08/22/10-habits-of-highly-effective-brains/

November 10th, 2007 by Phil

I stumbled across this video the other day and I thought I’d share it with you. This hypnosis video titled ‘Instant Problem Solver’ works great at clearing the mind and helping you think with clarity. I’m not saying it will solve your problems instantly as it suggests, however it’s certainly relaxing and a great stress reliever.

October 20th, 2007 by Phil

Lately my other half has been complaining that I spend too much time working and that I’ve been neglecting her. So recently I’ve been trying to make more of an effort to spend time with her, when I’m not working. However, this has proved rather difficult since I spend most, if not all my time working.

So, to remedy this, I’ve been using my time at work more efficiently. Instead of spending time pottering about and sometimes in a daydream, I now focus on achieving the tasks quicker. If I get stuck on a task I move on to another and come back to it.

For this, I’ve given myself an extra half an hour to an hour free time to do what I want. We’ve also started playing a game I came up with. It’s a relationship building game which is also fun.

This is how it’s played: Get a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. Write your name on the top left and your partner’s name on the top right. Now here comes the fun part. For any good act or deed that your partner does for you e.g. giving you a massage, offering to do the dishes when it’s your turn, or ironing your clothes for you etc – you will award 1 point. We’ve decided that 1 point equates to £1.

Now, you don’t necessarily have to award a point if you do not think the act or deed is worth the point. It’s best not to give out the points frivolously as this will detract from the point of the game.

But what you’ll find is that you will both make more of an effort to do things for each other and pay more attention to one another. We’ve decided that the game ends a week before Christmas. The money that we’ve each accrued will be the value of each of our Christmas gifts. I’m aiming for a set of drums, although it looks as though I need to do a lot more to attain that!

So give it a try, it will help you put the fun back in your relationship and get you to appreciate each other more.

October 3rd, 2007 by Phil

I hope you enjoyed ‘The Secret’ video I posted a week ago. If you’re interested in how you can achieve your goals and desires, I recommend reading Ask and it is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks.

Some people may think that the Law of Attraction is just a bunch of mumbo jumbo and that it’s impossible to achieve a desire by merely focusing on it. However, this is how I interpret it: I focus on a desire, say for example a beautiful home overlooking a beach. If I was to merely focus on the desire and just ‘hope’ it comes someday…I wouldn’t be confident in the slightest it would manifest.

However a true desire, is like an itch, it is not a throw away comment such as ‘I want to be rich someday’. Someday; a goal without a timeframe is not a goal. A true desire is an itch you want to scratch; it niggles at the back of your mind everyday and motivates you to work towards it, to take action and to achieve your goal.

This is how I see the Law of Attraction working. It’s all about taking action! If you have a big goal – break it down into smaller goals. Let’s start small; I want a glass of orange juice – I go to the supermarket, buy a carton of orange juice, go home and pour myself a glass and drink.

The glass of orange juice isn’t going to just materialize on my table is it? I have to take action and take small steps and achieve the smaller goals to reach the greater goal or desire.

I often visualize my desires and play them over in my head, because it puts me in a positive frame of mind and motivates me, thus helping me to achieve my goals. I truly believe it opens doors and creates new paths and opportunities to attain my desires.

Try visualizing yourself living in abundance, living without insomnia or achieving your desires.

October 2nd, 2007 by Phil

Most of my friends like me have projects outside of work, whether it is hobby related, voluntary work or personal projects. It’s so easy to get distracted and motivated especially when the last thing you want to do is more work after your regular day job.

What I’ve learned is that motivation is a habit. The more you do something, the more it becomes a habit. It’s hard to get the wheels turning initially, however once they begin moving, you just need to keep on it.

The key for me is discipline. It’s easy to be focused initially, with all the excitement of starting a project, however most people lose steam or give up from lack of results.

I used to make excuses, like ‘I’m so busy’ and ‘I don’t have time’ but now after living and working in Japan as a teacher, I feel ashamed of those thoughts.

Students in Junior High School are incredibly dedicated and hardworking. For example, one of my students is a member of the Student Council and he goes to the swimming club 5 days a week after school. He then goes to cram classes after, often getting home around 8 o’clock!!

When he gets home he has to start his homework. Bedtime is around 12am! Most students get to school by 7.30am in the morning for club activities!

On the weekend he has karate lessons and private English lessons. The guy is unstoppable!!! On top of that he is highly enthusiastic and motivated in everything he does.

I get pretty exhausted after work and then more work, teaching private English lessons in the evening and then my personal projects such as writing. However when I compare myself to my students, I’ve got it easy! So you see, I never complain of having no time and being too busy anymore.

My tip is to be disciplined and devote time to your projects everyday. I’ve made it a habit to do more after work, not just sit around watching TV (as much as I love lounging about!).

What I’ve found is, as I do more and continue to do more, the more it becomes a habit and the more I achieve.

I like this motto from a famous baseball player in Japan called Hideki Matsui:

 “If I change my mind, my behavior will be changed.

If my behavior is changed, my habit will be changed.

If my habit is changed, my character will be changed.

If my character is changed, my destiny will be changed.”

September 17th, 2007 by Phil

I found this great video on YouTube by Brian Tracy I wanted to share with you. I’ve always been a great believer in writing lists and prioritizing the most important tasks of the day.

By using the 80/20 rule and focusing on completing at least 20% of the top most important things on your list, they will account for 80% of your results.

I know that most people write lists and like me in the past have been overwhelmed with the amount of projects on their lists. What I have found is that by focusing on just the top 20% I not only relieve pressure on myself to have to complete all tasks, I perform with more efficiency and ease.

Half the time you will find that within your 80% of tasks, you find trivial and unimportant projects that can be scrapped. Simply rewrite the list the next day. Rinse, wash and repeat, and watch your productivity shoot sky high.

Enjoy the video: