Deliverable

Another version complete:

I really have to kick this thing into high gear. 53 days left before the 1.0 Preview version is due. Honestly, it’s a bit frustrating right now because it just seems like there are so many threads of this thing to figure out and put together, and it’s all on me.

I may plan some 2 or 3 day “dash’s”, where I commit to more time spent on the book… see how that goes.

For the next 30 days, I will ask myself the following question(s) right before bed, and first thing in the morning when I wake up:

How do I create a million dollars for myself doing the things I love to do? (see updated question below)

All of the habits I’ve been working on are definitely a good thing. I want to now focus on ways to maximize these new habits, and better utilize the time and energy I’ve been freeing up. If I’m going to change the world, then I’m going to need the resources to do it.

My thinking is that if I consistently ask this question then the answer will eventually be revealed to me. (Seek and ye shall find, and all that. ) I may tweak the question as I go along, or I might add new daily questions.

–update: 7/18/06–
I’ve set up a daily RSS feed to remind myself to also ask this question at least once during the day.

–update: 7/26/06–

Better Question:

How did I create a million dollars for myself doing the things I love to do?

It’s a subtle change, but an important one. This presupposes success on my part. It puts the imagination to work. It forces me to imagine myself as successful. It’s as though I’m sitting on my million dollars, and someone has just asked me “How did you do it?”.

“How did I earn a million dollars doing the things I love to do? Well, let me tell you…”

Sure, I may not know the answer to the question yet… But phrasing things in this way forces me to look at things in a more positive light. It gets the creativity flowing.

Me: “How did I earn a million dollars doing the things that I love to do? Well, let me think about that for a bit… One of the ways that I did it was by publishing my book.”

Wide eyed student: “How did you do that?”

And so on, and so on.

It may seem like semantics, but this feels like the right direction to go with this. We’ll see how it works out.

—

30 Day Challenge: Question(s)
Start date: Monday, 7/17/06
Check-in date: Tuesday, 8/15/06

Just a little note to “me, myself and I”. The next time you think to yourself “I’ll just run down and pick up a couple of slices of pizza for lunch…” stop, take a deep breath, and remember how crappy you feel afterwards. Greasy pizza sucks, and it especially sucks for lunch.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Tonight was my 30th day without television. This was another positive experience for me. My head is clearer. I have more time that I’m gradually learning to use more effectively. There were times when I missed it, but living without TV didn’t kill me. This is one that I definitely want to make a part of my life.

It’s 30 more days for me!

—–

30 Day Challenge: Television Replacement
Start date: Sunday, 7/16/06
Next check-in date: Monday, 8/14/06

Today was my 60th consecutive day of practicing at least one instrument a day. (My 30 Day Check-in is here.) I’ve focused more on the trombone the last 30 days, and I definitely feel that I’m playing better. I think that making music a consistent part of my day definitely makes for a more balanced and happy “me”.

As I continue this for the next 30 days, I think the focus is going to be on finding ways to get out and play more trombone. It’s been ages since I’ve hung out or sat in on a session. The trick, as always, is to balance my own playing and journey with all of the politics of the music scene. We’ll see how it goes, and check back in 30 days from now.

—
30 Day Challenge: Practice
Start date: Sunday, 7/16/06
Next check-in date: Monday, 8/14/06

Another day, another 30 Day Challenge check-in! The project challenge has worked well. I’ve focused almost entirely on “The Book”. On one level I feel like I should have been doing more each day, but then I have to remind myself that “50 minutes minimum a day” is 100 percent better than the “zero minutes a day” I was doing before.

I just did a quick calculation, and the amount of time I put in on the book over the past 30 days has been approximately 28 hours. I took two days off for “me time”. That 28 hours has allowed me to keep up with my release schedule. This is definitely progress.

I’m hoping to give myself more “9 to 5″ challenges in the coming weeks, which should up the number of hours I spend working on the book.

For now though, I plan to extend this project challenge another 30 days.

—
30 Day Challenge: Projects
Start date: Thursday, 7/13/06
Next check-in date: Friday, 8/11/06

Another 30 day check-in that I missed: This past Sunday Saturday marked 30 days of sleeping in my bed. All is well… I’ve made it thru the 30 days and want to continue this habit for another 30 days to solidify it.

—–
30 Day Challenge: Sleeping in My Bed
Start date: Sunday, 7/9/06
Next check-in date: Monday, 8/7/06

Wow, date’s just keep slipping by me left and right. Turns out that yesterday was the check-in for my fiber and multi-vitamin challenges. For the past 30 days, I’ve successfully eaten a bowl of fiber cereal, and taken a multi-vitamin each day. It’s been an entirely positive experience. I feel much better when I start the day off with food on my stomach, and the multi-vitamin can’t hurt.

I want to make this an unshakeable habit, so I’m going to continue it for another 30 days.

I’ll combine the two challenges to make it easier.

—–
30 Day Challenge: Fiber Cereal & Multi-vitamin
Start date: Wednesday, 7/12/06
Next check-in date: Thursday, 8/10/06

I had quite an interesting experience this evening. I’ve been traveling the past few days, and finding the time to stick with my 30 Day Challenges has been difficult. Today was a particularly busy day, and I hadn’t found the time to do either my practice or my project challenges. I was getting tired, it was after midnight, and I’d all but resigned myself to the post I’d have to make the next day about how I’d been unsuccessful, and would be starting the 30 days over again. I decided to take a look at Deliverable to see how far I’d gotten. Well, it turns out that I was only one day away from achieving my “projects” goal, and three days from achieving my “practice” goal. (Which in fact will be 60 days of consecutive practice…). I’d gotten so wrapped up in the doing of the 30 days, that they just slipped by.

Suddenly, quitting didn’t seem as palatable.

I sucked it up, figured out a way to practice that wouldn’t disturb the entire household (buzzing), and in the process discovered a pretty cool website that I think is going to be helpful down the road. I also came up with a new exercise for the book. All this came from pushing thru, after being on the verge of giving up.

I guess my advice to anyone out there who might read this would be to stay the course. There will be difficult times when you think you’ve hit a wall. Get creative, keep the end in mind and keep plowing through. Even if it’s not perfect, the consistency will pay off in the end.

Now, if only someone will remind to take my own good advice the next time something like this rolls around!

This is a pretty straightforward challenge. For the next 30 days I will replace the refined sugar in my diet with healthy alternatives. At a practical level, that means:

For the next 30 days I will replace the following foods with healthier alternatives:

• soda (both bottled and fountain)
• cupcakes
• ice cream
• candy
• any other sugary item that I can think of

The list above will evolve over time, as I come across sugary items foods that I’ve not considered. I hope to refine my concept of “refined sugar” as I become more concious of the foods that I put into my body.

To sum up: No soda. No sugary snacks for the next 30 days.

—–
30 Day Challenge guidelines can be found here.

30 Day Challenge: Refined Sugar
Start date: Wednesday, 7/12/06
Check-in date: Thursday, 8/10/06