Getting up early, some practical suggestions.

I have had a few emails relating to my article on ‘How to get up early’ asking for some practical suggestions. In that article I pointed out that the best way to get up early was to have something that you really wanted to get up early for. after all, if you are excited about your life getting up early is not usually a problem. If you dread the day ahead, on the other hand, it usually is.

So, what if we have an exciting life and we still have problems getting out of bed? Maybe you have a less than exciting life but you still need to find a way to spring out of bed in the morning. What can you do? Well the first thing that we might ask ourselves is what obstacles might we be putting in the way. Often it is not a case of what can we do, but rather what can we stop doing. Into this category fall the stimulants such as coffee and the suppressants such as alcohol. From personal experience I know that if I drink a lot of coffee during the day and even in the evening, I can go to bed and fall asleep without any problems. But I will wake up at about 3 a.m. and spend a couple of hours staring into the dark before I fall asleep again. Usually just before the time that I have set to get up. When I wake I am tired and lethargic. I don’t want to get up. My pattern has been broken. So what do I do? I drag myself out of bed at the last moment, throw a cup of coffee down my neck and rush out without eating properly, stressed and exhausted before the day has even begun. The same used to happen with alcohol. I may have fallen asleep easily but when the alcohol started to wear off it seemed to stimulate my body and I woke up. Often with a pounding heart and a pounding head.  I got up late, rushed through my shower, more coffee (and an aspirin), and back on the treadmill. Are you doing either or both of these and then asking yourself why you find it hard to get up in the morning? If so perhaps you need to make some changes.

Don’t have a bedtime.

So let’s say that neither of these is our problem. What then? Well one useful tip that I have found is that I don’t have a fixed time for going to bed. I go to bed when I am finding it hard to keep my eyes open or when my attention is wandering a lot. I don’t fix an ealiest time for getting up either. If I wake at five and I don’t fall back to sleep quickly I get up. Usually I am not sleeping because I have a lot that I want to do. Don’t worry about being tired later in the day. Usually, if anything, I have more energy because I have made such a good start and I am feeling so positive.

You really don’t need as much sleep as you may believe you do. What I do set is a latest time to get up. For me this is usually 7 a.m. This allows me plenty of time to have breakfast and a shower without rushing. Mostly though I get up earlier. If I don’t, I don’t beat myself up about it. I just get on with my day, confident that I am still getting up at a reasonable time.

Get out of there!

Another problem for some is that they wake up but just don’t get out of bed. This may seem like a difficult nut to crack but really it is just a matter of developing a good habit. If you use an alarm, don’t set it half an hour before and then use the snooze. It might seem like a good idea at the time but you are just reinforcing your bad habit. Set it no more that 5 minutes before you want to get up and once it sounds try not to think about it. Just put your feet on the floor and move. Once up leave the room!  For most people this is easier said than done.

Rehearse.

So what can you do to improve your chances of succees. Well one writer on the subject suggests rehearsing. The idea is that at some point during the day you darken the room, dress for bed and set you alarm for ten minutes from the current time. You get into bed and close your eyes. Then, as soon as the alarm sounds you leap out of bed. You repeat this several times one after another. Then you get back to your daily routine. If you can do this every day for a week or so, by the end of the week your mind should be programmed to respond in the desired way. When your alarm goes off in the morning you should find it easier to get up. If you start to backslide have another rehearsal day. I have tried this and it does work. The problem is that not everyone has time to rehearse during the day.

Out of reach?

Another trick is to put your alarm clock out of reach and set the most unpleasant sound you can. Not the radio or music. Instead use that horrible beep-beep-beep that makes you want to jump out of bed and switch it off. Once out of bed don’t go back. Of course the problem with this one is that it may not set you up for the day in the best of moods!

It’s a new day, it’s a new dawn

It also helps not use Persian blinds, shutters or curtains, if you have them. Instead get used to sleeping with the curtains or blinds open so that when the Sun rises in the morning the light streams through the window and wakes you up naturally. This is my favourite, but of course it works best in summer.

and I’m feeling good!

Whichever method you opt for remember what I said in my first article on the subject. The best way to get up early in the morning is to give yourself something to get up early for and once you are up take full advantage of the extra time that you have given yourself.

You Can If You Think You Can

If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you like to win, but you think you can’t,
It is almost certain you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out in the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will.
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man.
But soon or late the man who wins,
Is the man who thinks he can.

~ C. W. Longenecker ~

A Runners 3 month Training Plan, for Complete Beginners

Due to the success of the first article I did on ‘how to start running’ and the questions I received, I have decided to flesh out my ideas for you here in this post.

The person I am writing this for could be relatively young or quite old, you could be overweight, or just out of condition, it makes no difference. If you think there might be a problem with your health that could be made worse by running then go to your doctor first to see what he thinks.

Choosing your workout clothes.

The good thing about this approach is that is doesn’t require you to spend a week getting your kit together before you can start. In theory you could get up from the computer after reading this article and begin now! In fact I would recommend it.

If you have a pair of comfortable shoes that you can walk a mile in without feeling pain, that’s good enough. A pair of comfortable trousers and a loose shirt is all that you will probably need to wear. If it is cold in your part of the world by all means put on a coat. Later, as you start to do more demanding things you can start thinking about moving to a pair of trainers (better from the start if you have them) and maybe jogging bottoms and a T-shirt.

What you can realistically expect.

You can expect, if you follow the plan, that after 3 months you will be able to jog or run for half an hour without stopping. Seem impossible? It isn’t. You just have to tell your body what you expect of it and give it some time to come up with the goods. If you follow this advice it should oblige. You just need to overcome the inertia and get some momentum!

Your first week

The ‘secret’ as I explained in my first article is to start really slow. Decide where you are going to go. It should be a distance that will not take you more than ten minutes to walk. Start by doing just that, walking, then pick up the pace a little and walk briskly. If at this point you start to get out of breath then don’t do any more. Just continue to walk briskly until it starts to get uncomfortable then ease down again. When you have recovered pick up the pace again. Repeat the process for the duration of your walk. If after picking up the pace you are able to break into a very slow jog then do that. Jog for about 50 meters or until you start to get out of breath then go back to a brisk walk. When you have recovered jog again. When you get back home take a shower and put on some fresh clothes. This last part might seem a bit unnecessary but what we are trying to do here is build an association between a feeling of well-being and physical effort. Try it.

On your second day you might even feel a bit stiff. If you do you should still go out for your walk/jog but listen to your body. If the stiffness goes away carry on as before. If it doesn’t then satisfy yourself with what you can do and congratulate yourself on going out for a second day. Muscle stiffness is usually at it’s worst a couple of days after the exertion that caused it so just take it easy but still go out. It will pass, and once it has it will rarely return at the same level as it did the first time.

After the first couple of days you can start to increase the distance. You will do this even if you haven’t started to jog yet. Also,at this point you should only be taking a watch to make sure that you stay out for as long as you planned. Don’t start to compete against yourself at this point. It will be counter productive in the end. Your goal is to do half an hour of continuous running at whatever speed. How much distance you cover and how quickly you run is not really relevant. At the end of week one you may be doing as much as fifteen minutes of walking/jogging. Well done!

When I started this plan I got a bit carried away with the sports nutrition side of things and looked for products that would allow me to ‘endure’ my runs. I took glucose tablets and energy drinks etc. The result of taking the glucose in tablet form was that it made me feel sick and if I drank too much liquid I got the same result. I have also witnessed this effect in other beginners. If you really want to take something just sip a little water or a very weak electrolyte drink. Don’t eat for at least an hour and a half before your run. If you eat a really heavy meal you might have to wait up to four hours before you feel comfortable jogging. After a run (within an hour) it’s good to eat something like a banana, which contains nutrients that will restore and enhance muscle function as well as restoring energy levels.

Weeks 2 – 4

By now you should be thinking of keeping a log. It doesn’t have to be anything really detailed at the beginning. You could just note in your diary or notebook things like: How long you ran for, the weather, how you felt, your level of effort and any changes in your fitness level, weight etc. If you want to do a really professional job I would recommend taking a look at SportTracks (http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/SportTracks/). It’s free and allows you to record just about everything that you might want to, including the shoes you were wearing, and GPS tracks (in case you eventually buy a GPS training device). It is definitely worth recording your progress because you will quickly forget how far you have come. You will look back in years to come at those first weeks in awe of the progress that you have made.

Over this three week period you should work on building up the time that you stay out. There seems to be about a two week time lag for most people between the exercise and seeing the results. From two weeks onwards you may be tempted to increase you effort dramatically. Be careful not to overdo it. If you do and the next day you are tempted to miss a workout, because of stiffness or tiredness, you should instead go out for the same workout that you did on the first day. At the moment consistency is more important than anything else. Once you have recovered you can get back to your planned routine. Remember, if you have pains that go away when you go out for a run you can continue. If you have a pain that gets worse when you go out for a run you should rest (maybe by just walking).

By the end of the first month you should be getting close to half an hour but you will probably not be running the whole time (although you may surprise yourself). Concentrate on listening to your body. At some point you may decide to start your run with slow jogging instead of walking. If you do, beware! Once you start to do this the temptation will be to run/jog too quickly. You will get out of breath, the lactic acid will build up in your blood and then you will be playing catchup for the rest of the session. If you are running at the beginning of your session, start as slowly as you possibly can. Keep holding yourself back. After you have been jogging for a while you will find it easier. This brings us to the next point.

Second Wind

All runners know about this. When it first happens to you, and if you follow my advice it will happen quite soon, it seems like miracle. It’s like you suddenly have a second pair of lungs that have switched on. Personally it now happens to me after a couple of minutes and over a distance of a few strides. It’s fantastic. There has been a lot of rubbish written about this subject and I suspect that most of the writers have never experienced it or they wouldn’t write what they do. Some talk about the ability to carry on when you think your limits have been reached and compare it with the runners high which they say happens after the race. In my experience and in the experience of all of the serious runners I have asked, second wind can, and should, occur within the first few minutes and the ‘runners high’ occurs whilst you are running, not after. So what is it? When you start to exercise there is a lag between the beginning of the effort and the body’s reaction to it. Your heart will react straight away and your breathing will deepen and bcome more rapid but it takes a while for other systems to kick in that have the result of making the whole process of oxygen delivery more efficient. When they do you will feel it as ‘second wind’. Enjoy.

Month Two

By now you are seeing some real progress. You will have reached your target of half an hour and you will gradually be jogging/running more and more of it. If you are not already starting your runs at a slow jog give it a try. You will almost certainly be wearing trainers by now and at least jogging bottoms and a T-shirt. Your workouts will be making you sweat. If it’s hot take a little water with you and try to avoid running during the hottest part of the day. Try to run on grass rather than hard surfaces, as much as you can, to reduce your chances of injury. If you have a car you might plan a running trip for Sunday mornings. Take the car and drive out to a nice place in the country or if possible a forest. You will be amazed at how good it feels to run surrounded by nature. It’s like being a kid again. You should set yourself the goal of being out for the full half hour and jogging for at least half of it. If you don’t quite make it don’t worry. Improvement seems to be exponential. You still have a month.

Month Three

You are now a serious jogger. You have been exercising regularly for two months and it is becoming a habit, a part of your lifestyle. You have probably lost a few pounds, you feel a hundred times better about yourself and your body. You will be sleeping better and feeling more refreshed when you wake. Maybe you have spruced up your look, generally taking more care or your appearance, because you feel proud of the changes that you have made. You will have an expanded view of what’s possible for you. You should be experiencing second wind and maybe even ‘runners high’. If you haven’t felt these things yet, you soon will. For this month concentrate on filling in the gaps. If you are getting too out of breath to keep running but your legs feel okay then slow down and run for longer rather than faster. You will probably find that you reach your goal long before the end of the month.

Now What?

Now is the time to look for other people to run with. Take a look on the internet and find a group or club in your area. Give them a email or give them a call, or just turn up on club night. Most clubs have groups of all levels. Talk to anyone! Runners are a friendly bunch and you will soon find a group that will take you under their wing. This is really important because it will help make running part of your lifestyle. It will introduce you to more methods of training and be a source of advice. You will learn about nutrition and complementary exercise from your running mates. You will also be introduced to the world of racing and may even decide to enter one yourself. I went from the plan that you see above to running a marathon, after six months. You might want to try something less ambitious. Most races give a medallion just for completing the course and I can tell you, there is nothing like receiving that first medallion. Oh! I almost forgot. You will also make some great friends!

I Believe – A Blueprint for Success

I recently listened to the Audio Book, Millionaire Mindset (see list of posts). In that book it lays out a blueprint for success, a kind of mantra that we can use each day to help us focus on what is needed to acheive our goals, whether they be monetary, spiritual or physical. Here is a summary of that information. The principle idea is that each letter of the words ‘I BELIEVE’  represents a principle of success.

It’s all pretty concentrated stuff so if anyone wants to make a comment, contribute with their own experiences or request that I expand on any part of the material, please leave a comment.

I. B.E.L.I.E.V.E

I - I believe in myself -In my ability to change, to improve and to succeed.

B – Be passionate – do what you believe in and believe in what you do. Let others see how much it excites you.

E – Extend your comfort zone (Face your fears and limiting beliefs head-on. Sow a seed of opportunity every day. Do something everyday that makes you feel uncomfortable)

L – Luck and Lies don’t work – Create your own luck. The harder you work the luckier you become. Read, learn, ask questions, watch trends. Staying at home watching TV will not create opportunities. How honest are you with yourself about what you want and what you are prepared to do to get it. There is no room for lies when you are 100% committed. Luck is the crossroads where opportunity and preparation meet. Honesty integrity and trust.

I – Install goals. Hard wire your goals so that they are running 24/7. Set your own goals, don’t wait for somebody else to set them for you. Make them clearly defined with a clear plan of action. All goals need a ‘Why‘ a ‘What‘ and a ‘How‘. A vision that is broken down into actions that focus on the goal. When we have clear goals our subconscious gets to work to make them a reality. Writing your goals down and reading them at least once every day is how you program your subconscious mind. Write you goals down in no more than 10 words. Keep it with you to read. Set a deadline.

E – Enjoy hard work – Success is simple but not easy. You must enjoy hard work. You must have the self discipline to do the things that you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do them. Be immersed. Procrastination is the thief of time. Only leftovers come to those who wait.  “Work is more fun than fun” (Noel Coward).

V - Very Very PERSISTANT. Past failures are usually due to following a goal about which you are not passionate. In a war between imagination and will, imagination will win every time. So USE your imagination to create persistence. SEE yourself being successful. When faced with a ‘NO’ just look for a different way to get to YES.

Have a clearly designed goal

A clear plan

Immerse yourself in the achievement of your goal

Surround yourself with the talented people who share your passion and can help you achieve your goal.

E - Expect Failure - Failure is an integral part of success. Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. When failure occurs take action to bring it to a close and move on. Think about the lessons that you have learned and apply them to your continuing plan for success.

True Wealth

Below is the transcript of a talk by Napoleon Hill on the subject of what constitutes true riches. I don’t claim that the list you see below is definitive or that it could not be modified or improved, but the general principle holds true.

Beginning of Transcript

Everyone desires to be rich, but not everyone knows what constitutes enduring riches. And most people beleive that riches consist of only material things that money can buy. Now here is a list of the twelve things that constitute real riches:

Number one: A positive mental attitude. Observe that it heads the list.

And second: Sound physical health.

And third, Harmony in human relations.

And fourth: Freedom from fear.

and fifth: The hope of future achievement.

And sixth: The capacity for applied faith.

And seven: Willingness to share ones blessings with others.

Eight: To be engaged in a labour of love.

Nine: An open mind on all subjects towards all people.

Ten, Complete self discipline.

Eleven, Wisdom with which to understand people.

And twelve: financial security.

Observe if you will, with great benefit, that money comes at the end of the list of the twelve things that make men rich.

End of Transcript

At the beginning of this blog I spoke about the book ‘Think and Grow Rich’ and told how I thought that it was the original source of much of what we hear today in the field of personal growth. It contains the germ of such ideas as ‘manifesting’, ‘affirmations’, and even ‘dream flow’, to name a few. However it is a book of it’s time and when reading it one has to take into account how the world was at that time. In those days most peoples principle concern was to gain financial riches. The world was emerging from the great depression and it was hungry for positive change. The gulf between rich and poor was enormous and people wanted to know how to bridge it.

The interesting thing is that we now seem to be going through a similar experience, but in a compressed time period. Much of what Napoleon Hill says about the banking system and the greed and fear of the financial markets is being echoed today. The book seems to be finding a new relevance. Despite it’s age, in the end, it’s core messages still hold true. One of these is the principle that  financial security, number twelve in the list,  comes as a result of mastering the other eleven. The pursuit of riches at the expense of all else can never be successful in the long term and will never lead to true happiness but that doesn’t make it bad. We just have to keep it in it’s place. Number 12.

Stop Drinking, Start Living!

Of course we are not talking about drinking water here. We are talking about alcohol. If you are reading this then you are possibly thinking of doing the same as I did about 2 yrs ago, and giving up alcohol. Maybe you are an alcoholic or maybe you are just a social drinker who still remembers what it was like to be alcohol free and you want to get back to that. Perhaps that six-pack that you once had has disappeared below a layer of fat, also known as a ‘beer belly’ in my country, and you want to get it back.

The negative effects of alcohol are many but the degree to which each one effects us will be unique to the individual. So I would like you to take a moment now just to think about the negative effects in your life. Do you argue more when you drink? Are those arguments damaging your relationships? Do you become depressed or over excited and a little obnoxious? Are you spending money that you can ill afford, buying drinks in expensive nightclubs? Do you find it hard to get up in the morning (see my article on getting up early) because you have been drinking the night before. Is it effecting your sleep patterns? Are you putting on weight? Maybe all of these events are happening in your life, and more.

Have you made, at least, a mental list yet? This stage is very important. Please take a moment to do it if you haven’t already. The reason it is important, and the reason most people fail when they don’t do it, is that we also associate good things with drinking alcohol. We can become more sociable and talkative, at least at the beginning of the night. We lose some of our inhibitions. It can even enhance sex, (but then so can being in excellent physical condition) and that’s a VERY powerful motivator. Maybe we think back to when we first started drinking and how much fun we had with our pals and we hope to recapture that, unconsciously, every time we drink.

Now think back over the last few minutes. What little ‘films’ have you just seen playing in your head. Do some of the memories of those last sentences leave you with a smile on your face. Well THAT’S the problem. If you are finding it hard to stop drinking, somewhere in your past you linked the consumption of alcohol with positive, fun events. It’s a false connection. You need to sever it. How will you do it?

Well the first stage is to make sure that you make a list of those negative effects. Then you need to project a little into the future. You need to imagine what might be the ultimate result of your current course of action. Might you break up with your partner? Will you have a beer-belly for life? Calculate how much you spend in a year. What a waste! If your performance has dropped at work will that effect your career? If you keep arguing with your friends they are not going to stick around. Again, write a list of the possible long term results of your current course of action.

Now do the opposite. What if you stop drinking? Imagine yourself more in control of your life. What will you do with all that extra money. Buy better clothes, gifts for your partner, go on holiday once a year, buy yourself an iPhone? Imagine being able to get rid of that beer-belly. Getting your six-pack back again, now that would enhance your sex life! Imagine yourself working with more energy, advancing in your career, as a person who commands respect. Developing life-long friendships with like minded people who form a circle of support in your life.

Now compare the two. Honestly, which one do you want? Which one are you determined to make happen?

So how do we go about it in real-life. If you sit down to think about it you might find that over the years your whole life has become centred around alcohol. It will take real determination to give up because you won’t just be giving up alcohol you will be changing your whole life. But then, maybe it’s a long overdue change. You need to look at how you spend your time and who you spend it with. This can be the most difficult part of giving up. You can try going out to the bars and clubs with your friends and drinking coca-cola or some other soft drink, but if you do, your well meaning friends will probably try to persuade you to have just one. They may even become a little upset or aggressive when you say no. Perhaps they will scorn you and tell you that you will soon weaken. That they have tried and failed so what chance do you stand! Of course all of this may be well meaning. They don’t want to lose you as a friend and they are just fighting to keep you. Take it as a complement. In the end though you will have to look for other things to do. That might seem difficult but it’s worth it. If you stick at it, if you make those changes, you will come to realise how much you have been missing in your life.

So six months down the line, you have given up. Maybe after one or two abortive starts you have stopped drinking completely. Your life has transformed. Slowly at first and then with increasing speed. You now have a healthier life style, you have more money, you are in better shape and sex is great! So maybe now you could just take a glass of wine occasionally with food, or a beer on the terrace of that new trendy bar. After all, you have complete control now. That would be a BIG mistake. No matter how small the amount, drinking again will begin the whole process over. If you are tempted just think about how your life used to be and ask yourself do you really want to go back to all of that? Do you want to lose everything you have gained just for the sake of a glass of wine or a beer? The answer should be obvious. If you do weaken just resolve to make a fresh start and double your efforts.

If you need more help you will find lots of organisations and web pages with information. You can also contact me if you think I can help. In the end though what is needed is that you make a real decision to give up. That you balance the benefits against the losses and that you follow through. Once you have had a little success you will feel the benefits and it will get easier. The hardest aspect to master will be the social aspect. This is something that you need to give a lot of thought to. If you have a group of buddies that you normally go drinking with, why not organise a night out that is not centred around alcohol. Go bowling, go hiking at weekend. If you think about it there are lots of alternatives. If your friends refuse. If not drinking is not fun for them. Maybe you need to start looking to expand your circle. I am not suggesting that you just drop your friends, but try to make extra friends. Ones that don’t depend on drink for their entertainment.

Finally, if you want to make this life changing decision (and have no doubt, that’s what it is) part of a bigger package, you will also find that I have articles on how to start running and will soon be adding a Yoga article, diet articles and more. And like I said before, if you want to contact me, don’t hesitate.

How can I make money on the Internet?

I get asked this question quite regularly now so I have decided to do an article on it. Hopefully I can provide some ideas for you that will help you to get started. I am only going to concentrate on a few of the options here because it’s possible to write a whole book on the subject and I don’t have the time or the space at the moment. If this post is popular and leads to more questions then I will follow it up at a later date with more information. Like I said though, this should be enough to get even the complete beginner started.

So, is there some secret?  Is it really possible for you? What about the scams? Is this a scam? If it is possible, how can you do it effectively while avoiding the sharks? I hope to answer all of these questions and more.

Is this a scam? A good question, but how do you find the answer. The first thing is to ask yourself ‘Does this scheme require an investment from me?’ Well in this case the answer is no. I am not going to try to sell you anything. I am offering my knowledge for free because that is what this site is all about. Personally though, this is the first question that I always ask myself. That’s because I have made some rules for myself.

I will not take part in any schemes that are dishonest, or that ask for money from me or any of my readers directly from my Blog, and whatever I do must have a reasonable chance of giving me a good return. The result of setting these simple rules is that it starts to outline a strategy for me. You have to decide for yourself what your rules will be and what your strategy will be. If you are not sure then just play around for a while and it will soon become clear.

Getting Started

Once you start to look you will find that there are lots of ways to earn money, but, if you have the same rules as me, most of them will excluded. Some of the popular options are: Adsense – You have seen the adverts that appear at the side of most web pages these days. The ones that have the ‘Ads by Google’ text at the top and look like the image on the right. To be able to show these ads on your site you need to register an account with Google Adsense. It’s not difficult. Just create a Google account, go to ‘My Account’ and click on Adsense. They will guide you through the process. It can take a few weeks to authorise your bank account, etc. and they will want to know were you live (after all how will they send you the cheques if they don’t!). Once your account is set up you can start earning. When your earnings reach 100 dollars, or equivalent, they mark the funds for payment and send you a cheque or transfer the money to your bank account at the end of the next month. They will provide you with the code depending on the options you choose, and you put it onto you site or blog. It’s free, it’s easy, and it’s legit. What could be better.

If you don’t have a blog you can set one up with Blogspot, for example. Blogspot is also hosted by Google so they make it really easy for you to use Adsense. Free blogs such as WordPress.com don’t permit Adsense but can be a good start and have a lot of attractive templates. I use both because I want to get this information out to as many people as possible but I also want to earn enough to allow me to keep doing it. There are far to many choices of free blogs to list here but if you choose this option and you want to put adsense on it make sure that it is allowed before you start. To find out who offers free blogs just ‘Google’ it.

Of course all of this means that you need a certain amount of internet savy. I am assuming that you have it. If you don’t it’s not really difficult to learn the essentials really quickly. You can get set up and running if you can figure out Blogspot (really simple) and set-up a Google account. You will read lot’s of rubbish telling you that you need to know CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) or even html, as well as a lot more stuff, but it’s not true. Of course the more knowledge you have the more successful your efforts are likely to be and the more you can tailor your site, but you can get started with just these two relatively simple bits of kit. If you wanted to, an hour from now you too could be an Internet entrepreneur!

So let’s assume you decide to start a blog or that you already have one and that you want to monetize it. You have your Adsense account and you have placed your code. You sit back and wait for the money to role in…. It could be along wait. Before you can make any money people have to click on your ads. ‘That’s easy’, I hear you say. I will just tell all of my friends and they will all click like crazy on my ads and make me a fortune! Wrong! No you can’t and no they won’t. Adsense have a very good automated system in place that monitors its ads. If it sees suspicious activity it will suspend your account or at the very least take the money off you. That means, an impossibly high click rate, repetitive behaviour etc. They know their business, they know all of the tricks and they know how to protect their customers. They will do it without mercy. Second, your friends won’t click on your ads. Jealousy is a terrible thing and to most people the idea that you can get paid for ‘nothing’ is too much to bear. You have heard the expression ‘I wouldn’t lift a finger to help you!’ You will see that that old refrain has come of age. Anyway, it’s better that they don’t because if you have wonderful friends and they take your suggestion to heart they could really mess things up for you by being over enthusiastic. Tell them about your site but don’t talk too much about the ads. It’s better that they click on them in a natural way when they see something that genuinely interests them. Also we are encroaching on the rule about honesty here. After all some person has paid to have those adverts placed and will be charged so that you can be paid. Lets not bite the hand that feeds us.

So, there are two basic things that you need to do if you want to make some money while avoiding the wrath of Google. Build traffic to your site and put the ads on your site in such a manner that you overcome, as much as possible, ‘ad blindness’. Just try playing around to begin with. If you have a site and you want me to take a look at it I would be happy to help, time allowing.

Building Traffic

Building traffic to your site can take time and a lot of work. The first essential is decent content. After all, if people arrive at your site, see that it’s a load of rubbish and leave straight away, no amount of traffic will increase your Adsense revenue. They have to stay long enough to overcome their natural resistance to clicking on an ad. This will involve building a certain amount of trust and that means making them feel that your site is a safe place to be and that it has something worth staying for. Personally I loath pop-ups and any kind of intrusive advert that overlays the text on the page. It’s like rubbing someone’s nose in ‘it’ (I am sure you can figure out what the ‘it’ is). On the other hand you want your ads to be seen. For this you will have to experiment and again set yourself some rules. The temptation is to just plaster you pages with ads but that doesn’t work. Ads that look too much like ads can also be off-putting. On the other hand I personally like to see a bit of colour and even some movement on my pages. There are lots of options. Play with them as you are building your traffic. Adsense provides lots of tools and information/statistics for free. Use them.

Once you are up and running your site will automatically be ‘crawled’ by the search engines. Make sure that you use blog titles and that you take the time to ad ‘tags‘. Tags are just key words that label the content of your post for the search engines. The blog hosts will make it easy for you to add tags.

Write quality content

If you just rehash stuff that you have seen elsewhere or even copy stuff from other sites it will show. Treat your readers with some respect. Write about something that you are passionate about. You will be making your pages available to the whole of the civilised world. That’s a lot of people. Whatever you write about it will appeal to someone, as long as it is written well, is informative and useful or entertaining and comes from the heart. Focus on being true to yourself and providing the highest quality you are capable of. Revue often and make improvements whenever possible.

Post often

Ideally you want to give your readers a reason to come back to your site. It helps to build traffic in several ways., mainly repeat visits and referrals. People who visit often will tell their friends about you and they will tell their friends. You get the idea. I try to post every day but this may be too much for you. Try to post at least four times a week and make sure you don’t post rubbish just for the sake of posting. After all you don’t want to violate the trust that you have spent so much effort in building.

So, now you have your site, your well-thought-out ad placements, and you are writing quality content that you post often. You are using post titles and tags. What else can you do. PING! Sites such as http://technorati.com allow you to register your site with them and then ‘ping’ their search engine every time you change it. Think of a ping as ringing the bell at the counter to tell the staff that you are there. After you ping, the search engine will check your site for new content. Try doing a search for ‘

Make it easy for your readers to come back

Most blogs will have a button that allows your readers to follow your blog in a reader (read the information provided by your blog host). If you don’t know about readers yet, well that’s just another exciting area for you to do a bit of research on. Use the ‘follow this blog’ option when available.

Talk, talk, talk.

Talk to anyone in any way that you can about your blog. This should be easy. If you have chosen a subject about which you can enthuse then the problem will be that your friends will probably tell you to stop talking about it. You can also spend time looking at other peoples blogs and following them. If they start to follow you as well that puts you on thier page and acts as a free advert for your site. If you also have facebook or other social networking interests use them as well, but with care. Don’t make a nuisance of yourself. You will only turn people off.

Finally

As your mother always said, ‘If it seems to good to be true it probably is”! Watch out for people trying to get your money off you. There are lots of scams out there. Lots of people offering to make you a millionaire if only you will part with a few measly dollars. Don’t be fooled. The only tried and true way to make serious money over a long time is to produce decent content and let people know about it. Doing it this way will also future proof you. The internet changes rapidly and some gizmo or programme that you buy today could be out of favour or out of date tomorrow. One thing that won’t go out of date is the production of excellent, quality material.

Good luck with your efforts.

Get a free copy of Millionaire Upgrade.

I just want to tell you about a free audio book that I discovered recently on Audible.com. It’s called ‘ Millionaire upgrade. Something for nothing? I hear you ask. Yes that’s right FREE! So what’s the catch. The catch is that you have to register with Audible. That doesn’t mean that you have to pay anything. Registration is free and you don’t have to take a payment plan. In case you still have doubts here is a screen shot of the Audible web page.

A screen-shot of the Audible web page were you can find this book.

So why is it free? Because the author is also the author of ‘Millionaire MBA Ltd’ and he is hoping to hook you and sell you those audio books. As I haven’t yet done that, I can’t comment on their worth. On the other hand I can say that Millionaire upgrade is worth listening to.

The book is based on a true story. In real life the relative of the author took a flight in Australia and found himself upgraded to the seat next to Sir Richard Branson. During the flight Sir Richard gave him advice on how to be successful. This book tells the story in an easy to digest, entertaining way that points out, and brings home, the essential qualities that a successful entrepreneur needs and actions he/she needs to take to be successful.

I found it fascinating. For those of you who have read or listened to ‘Think and Grow Rich’ you will find that once again, it echoes the thoughts of that earlier book but in a modern context. One word of advice from me. Have a pen and notebook ready. The gems contained in this audio presentation are worth writing down.

If you are reading this entry and find that the book is no longer available, please post a comment so that I can delete the post. Thanks.

How to get up early.

To some people this will seem like a really trivial topic but to those who have a problem with it… it can be a monster. I personally struggled  with this one for years. Until I realised that I was focusing on the wrong question. The question I had been asking myself had been ‘How can I get up early?’ That’s the question that most people ask themselves and it’s the reason that I have used it as the heading for this post. I didn’t make a breakthrough until I started to ask myself, ‘Why do I not want to get up early?’

It was hard to admit but it was true. I didn’t want to get up early. I thought I did. After all, that’s what all of the fuss was about wasn’t it? I wanted to, but I couldn’t! NOT TRUE! If you can’t get up early it’s because deep deep down, or maybe even near to the surface you don’t really want to.

Ask  yourself this. When you are in bed at 6:00 am and the alarm goes off, what is your immediate reaction. After the shock of being woken up, is it a feeling of dread? Do you feel depressed at the thought of getting out of your nice warm bed, putting your feet onto the cold floor, shuffling into the bathroom bleary eyed and starting your daily routine. Do you feel that dark cloud hovering over you? On the other hand, does your bed seem like a warm and cosy haven? Does it feel like a refuge? Do you have the urge to drift gently back to that warm fluffy world of half sleep? If that’s your situation no wonder you can’t get up!

To get round this problem I tried all kinds of tricks. I would set the alarm 30 minutes early and then hit the snooze button a few times, hoping that this would give me time to wake up. Do you do that? I find that the only result of this technique is that it deprives me of half an hour of restful sleep. What about going to bed earlier and earlier until you can’t sleep late? I tried this one as well, for years. All that happened was that I ended up going to bed at ridiculous times, maybe 8:30 in the evening. In the end it reinforced my image of my bed as a refuge and caused me to have a poor sleep pattern. Usually waking at 3:00 am, (too early to get up) before falling back to sleep again and still struggling to get up when the alarm went off. So then I thought of myself as a poor sleeper and would take herbal remedies to help me sleep! Crazy!

Okay, so enough beating around the bush. What’s the secret? Well as I hinted earlier the answer is in the question. First of all you have to admit that really you don’t want to get up early. Then you have to ask yourself why. The answer to this can be quite profound so take your time about it. Think of the images that come into your head when you first wake. Do you think about that horrible job and the horrible boss that you have to spend the day with? Do you remember all of the things that you should have done but haven’t and today is the day of reckoning? Is it.. Oh no, another morning as the family slave! Getting up before everyone else to start breakfast for the kids, iron that shirt for your husband or yourself, then spend the whole day looking after the needs of everybody else while your own needs go uncared for? If you are having trouble getting out of bed it is unlikely that you think pleasant thoughts. After all, who has trouble getting out of bed when they are going on holiday for instance. Maybe you have noticed that you struggle to get up all week and then at weekend you wake up all bright eyed and perky at the same time or earlier than your normal time, even though you haven’t set the alarm? The real problem then is this. You won’t be able to get up easily until you have something to get up for. It means a fundamental shift, not just in how you see your life but, in how your life is. This may be an unpopular truth because it means that there is no easy solution. It means that you might have to change some basic things in your life.

I have read a lot of material on the subject and tried many ‘tricks’ including rehearsing getting up as soon as the alarm goes off (written by a very good author, but didn’t work for me). Going to bed early to get up early, counting down from ten and throwing back the covers on zero. I even tried Tony Robbins advice of getting up at 6:00 am to exercise and experience an ‘hour of power’. None of it worked for me.

Now, I can get up at whatever time I like, without problems, and in fact I don’t even use an alarm clock any more. The fact is that everyone you know that gets up early, without suffering, does it because they want to. This morning for instance I woke up naturally at 5:00 am and I lay in bed thinking about what I was going to do today. I started to write this article in my head and in the end I couldn’t hold myself in bed any longer. I had to get up! I was bursting with ideas and enthusiasm and my body just went into action.

So what can you do? Well the first thing to realise is that you are not weak or deficient in some way. You don’t lack will power, you are not lazy. You are a normal human being, an earthling. Second, if you really want to solve this problem then you have to take it as an indicator of a much bigger problem. You don’t want to get up in the morning because the world of your bed is a more pleasant place than the world of your daily life. You have to reverse that situation. This might start you on a journey that will last many years, as was my case, or it might mean making a few simple changes to your routine once out of bed. It might mean making other members of the family take more responsibility for their own lives or it might mean you taking more responsibility for yours. Perhaps you need to look at whether you feel that you are fulfilling your purpose in life. Maybe you thought you were but still have trouble getting up. Look again!

If you are one of those people who has a really awful job that you feel trapped in. Unable to change because of family or financial pressures or through fear of change. My heart goes out to you. But in the end, if you want to be happy, you MUST find a way to change the situation. Be courageous. You are not alone. There are lots of people like me who have passed through that situation and who are falling overthemselves to try to give you help and support. Realise that no matter what your current situation you can change it. You can be one of those people who wakes up in the morning with a smile on your face, who can’t wait to get out of bed because they have so many exciting and interesting things to do. It might be a deep dark hole that you are in now and it may take you some time to crawl out of it. But imagine all those arms reaching in to try to help you and go for it!

How can I lose Weight.

Why you are fat.

Losing weight is not difficult. Honest…. no… really! It’s true! Losing weight is a simple mathematical certainty! Calories consumed = X-amount, calories burned = X-amount-minus—anything = result, weight loss. Or at least that’s the theory. Just ask any thin person! You know… the ones that can eat ANY amount of food and not get fat. So why doesn’t it seem to work that way for you? Why do you go through the ritual of starving yourself to within an inch of your life, and end up fatter! Why is it that you don’t eat for a week and then, when you eat one chocolate bar, you put on a pound? What’s going on!?

Well, plenty! The first thing to realise is that calorie restriction on it’s own DOESN’T WORK! At least not in the long term. Sure you can put a balloon in your stomach and while it is there you will be inclined to eat less and you will probably lose weight. Or maybe you could have surgery to reduce the size of your stomach with the same effect. These are drastic measures and best left to those who are so overweight that it is life threatening. Even then, success is not guaranteed. Then again we could buy some of those magic substances, powders, pills, teas, etc, that will make you lose a quantity of weight equivalent to a small child in one week! But you know that’s not going to work don’t you? The only thing that will be lighter is your wallet.

In the end we come down to the grain of truth that lies at the centre of the problem. To be thin we have to maintain a level of activity and an intake of calories that is in balance. And we have to do it for life. Okay…. I can hear your protests: But I do eat sensibly, I am too exhausted by hard work to exercise, I don’t have time, I eat like a bird. Okay, lets say all of this is true, and it could be. Why are you not thin?

You are blessed with a truly amazing machine that we call the body. Millions of years of evolution (or the divine creator, as you choose) have honed it into a perfect survival tool. It will change and adapt to almost any conditions that you impose upon it. It’s goal is self perpetuation. So what do you think will be the result of depriving it of food? It will go into survival mode! It will find ways to consume less calories, it will reduce muscle mass because muscle burns calories. It will become more efficient at storing fat, because fat is our emergency fuel supply. It will slow your metabolism to a crawl so as to stretch out the meagre supplies of food that you are providing it with. Is it any surprise then that when we increase our intake of food again it grabs it and stores it as fat, just in case. Every fat cell becomes like a ravenous child, stuffing it’s face and its pockets to take full advantage of the momentary relief to its suffering.

So how do I become thin?

Well first of all we need a change in mindset. Being thin doesn’t mean being sentenced to a lifetime of dieting. Being thin is just that, a way of being. Thin people don’t think about not being fat. They are what they are… thin! And that’s the way they think of themselves. So, first of all you need to do the same. You are not a fat person that wants to be thin! You are a thin person who wants to get back to being what you know you are, thin!

It’s all about FOCUS!

You see, you get what you focus on. If you focus on being fat you will always be fat. You have to start thinking of yourself as a thin person. Sit down for a minute and imagine. If you were a thin person what would your life be like? What kind of clothes would you wear? What kind of foods would you eat? What activities would you do? What would you not be doing? Write it down and look at it regularly and make changes to be that person. START NOW! Not on Monday. In whatever small way. Go to the supermarket and buy some fruit. Plan what outfit you are going to buy for the beach (after all, being thin you won’t be self conscious). Now you don’t need to take refuge in food because YOU ARE NOT FAT! Make changes in your lifestyle. Be that thin person.

Find a Model

Another thing that you can do is to find a picture of a person on the internet that has the body that you want to acheive. Print it out and put it on the fridge. Noooo!… I am not going to tell you to look at it as a way of stopping you from eating! Instead, look at it every time you go to the fridge and take a second or two to imagine yourself with that body. Look at that picture then close your eyes for a second and actually imagine yourself with that body. Feel the curves or the muscles. Imagine what it is like to shower, to walk, to dress with that body. Imagine people looking enviously at you and wondering how you do it. Now open the fridge and choose with that picture in mind. By the way, make sure the fridge always has SOMETHING healthy in it.

Set yourself up for success.

I am a great believer in this, as you will see from my article on how to start running. Don’t set yourself the target of losing 5 stones in 5 weeks. You will fail or kill yourself. In fact you really don’t have to set yourself any targets. Remember you are a thin person and thin people don’t set weight loss targets! Second, this is for life! Not just the summer. Instead every week go over your thoughts on what it is like to be thin and make changes in your food purchasing habits, your exercise/activity level, your expectations of yourself as a thin person. Become what you know that you already are.

Here are some general principles to help you on your way.

Don’t starve yourself. Eat when you are hungry (and not before).

When you eat, eat like the thin person that you know you are. Not like a stick insect, like a thin person.

Trust yourself and your body. You both know what you are doing.

Your body is NOT your enemy. It is your best friend doing all it can to keep you alive and healthy for as long as possible. Treat it that way.

Take time to think about yourself as a thin person. What in your life is not congruent with that thought?

DON’T DIET! It doesn’t work.

As a thin person you will be interested in healthy eating, not calory counting. Do some research and put it into practice.

As a thin person you will probably want to do some exercise. If you are a complete beginner, take a look at my article on ‘How to Start Running’. It might help.

Finally, share your experiences with the rest of the world. It will re-enforce how you now see yourself.

Welcome to the world of the thin!