Dare to Self Improve

Well, I just finished reading my last book, and I DEVOURED it in just a few days. There are a lot of books I like, and recommend, but when I have things to do or get sleepy, I don’t have a problem putting it down.

This was not one of those books.

“A Champion’s Mind” is essentially Tennis legend Pete Sampras’ autobiography. Part of the reason I love this book is because I’m a huge fan and followed a lot of his matches. The other reason though, is that he offers a lot of insight to his ambition and relentless motivation to be the best…to be a CHAMPION. This mindset is something everyone should be exposed to and try to employ. He worked relentlessly to be the best, and came away achieving his goals.

This book offers a lot of insight to thinking like a champion which is why I recommend it, along with Pete’s interesting anecdotes. Tennis fans will enjoy this immensley, and non-tennis fans will hopefully find it informative.

Currently, I do watch some TV but compared to most, relatively little. I watch about 10 minutes of news in the morning before, and usually like a half hour of a “Friends” rerun (my guilty pleasure) when I get home. Aside from that I don’t have any regular shows.

I will admit that I’m a sports fan, so during football season, I’ll watch my Kansas City Chiefs play on Sundays, I watch the second half of Laker games in the playoffs, and parts of tennis matches here and there in Grand Slams. I probably average between 5-8 hours of TV per week (including movies).

One of the biggest ways of avoiding the hook, is to not get stuck in a series! Once you’re hooked, it’s virtually impossible to escape! I would know…I had heard about “24″ and got hooked for the 5th or 6rh season. Luckily I escaped afterwards

No matter how good anyone says a series is, hold strong! No regular TV show is worth the sacrifice of your time that you could potentially be spending doing a number of more fullfilling activities!

One of the biggest improvements I’ve made in my time management, is dramatically reducing the amount of time I spend watching TV.

Growing up, I used to watch an obscene amount of TV. It’s almost painful to think about the multiple hours a DAY I spent watching TV. Now, I get restless watching for even a little while. The great thing is, I now have tons of time to do much more fullfilling and healthy activities than watching TV.

Think about it. What fulfillment do you really get watching TV? Basically, you usually get the pleasure of relaxation WHILE you’re watching, but afterwards there are no lasting benefits! Furthermore, your mind is minimally stimulated while watching TV and your creativity is COMPLETELY turned off.

I’m going to continue the “minimizing TV series” tomorrow!

So I’ve decided to periodically incorporrate some reading recommendations of books that have positively impacted my life to a noticeable degree.

When I got my first post college graduate job about two years ago, I all of a sudden was making more money than I ever had before, but had no idea what to do with it (aside from spending it on fun!). So I sat down and devoured a series of personal finance books.

The first one I started with was “Personal Finance for Dummies.” This was a logical first choice since I really was a “dummie” (hard to believe, I know). I don’t like getting into ultra-specifics during reviews, but I will say that the book is comprehensive in teaching all of the basics in investing and personal finance advice. It’s an easy read, and can be used as a reference as well as read cover to cover. I really helped give me a great start in terms of learning about smart investing and a basic path to put my money to work. I would recommend this to everyone!

So one of the major rationals I use to break myself away from the slumber of laziness, is to imagine the best possibilities of what could happen if I go out. If I choose to stay at home, there’s absolutely no question as to how the rest of the day is going to unfold. But, when you go out, experience the environment, and meet people, anything can happen!

Of course there are times when I go out, and nothing really exciting happens, and I think “Gee I really wish I was home sleeping,” but most of the time, I’m glad I sucked it up and escaped laziness! Sometimes, you just need to sack up, and power through your laziness. Be an optimist and imagine the best scenarios that could happen if you decided to go. Sure they probably all won’t happen, but at least you allowed the possibility, and experienced one more day of life! Go out and experience the endless possibilities!

One challenge that almost everyone, myself included, struggles with is overpowering your desire to be lazy! Actually, it’s usually not even a desire to be lazy, but more of a lack of motivation to do anything else and succoming to the easiest thing to do…laziness!

This weekend for example, my friends were all set to go out on Saturday night. I was too…until I fell asleep around 8:00 pm. My buddy woke me up a litte after 9. “Common man! Let’s get ready to go!” Inside I was thinking about how nice it would be to stay home, veg out on the comfortable couch watching a movie and eating popcorn. It was going to be so much effort to get ready, and hit the town for a few hours! So what choice did I make?

I think you know, and you’ll hear my reasoning tomorrow.

So these days, I of course continue grooming and do my hair and all that before going out, but I’ve realized, as long as you are clean, smell good, and are confident, your physical appearance isn’t that important! Sometimes, after I’ve been out and about, talking to friends, women etc, I’ll glance at myself in the mirror and realize what a mess my hair is!

Now I want to iterate, I do think it’s important to make yourself look your physical best, mainly because it gives YOU confidence in yourself. Of all the things to worry about, the one that won’t need to concern yourself with is whether or not you look good! If YOU are confident that you look well, other people will think you look well also! It’s amazing how confidence in your own self is contagious to those around you!

I keep well groomed and am usually pretty clean cut.

However, a couple of years ago, I decided to try and grow my hair out, after numerous failed attempts where I’d cut it when it got to the first or second awkward shaggy stage. This time though, for some reason, I gutted it out, and now a days, I rock the longish hair!

The thing is, throughout the growth process, and even now, long hair is much harder to maintain than short hair. A lot of times, I catch my self in the mirron and realize how sort of “all over the place” my hair is. The beauty is, I DON’T CARE!

When I had shorter hair, I used to check my reflection quite a bit and make sure I looked my best. As I grew my hair, I became used to the fact that my hair was just gonna do it’s own thing a lot of times and it would be futile for me to constantly check on it. As a result, I’ve become much more confident in my physical appearance realizing that BEING confident overcomes any type of hair desheveledness I have!

I’ll expand more on this tomorrow.

The first thing you need to do to transfer what you are reading about directly into your life, is to start right away! Start employing techniques and thought processes you learned the VERY NEXT DAY! Don’t make excuses or postpone diving in otherwise it will never happen!

Next, break down the ideology into very small steps and goals. Everyday, one of your daily goals should contribute towards integrating the new ideology you read about, into your life. This could be exercising for twenty minutes (if you’re incorporating a new fitness regime), meditating (if you read about a great new relaxation technique), writing a blog post (if you’re trying to become a writer)…whatever! What’s important is that you continually make progress towards integrating what you’ve read into your life!

Make daily goals, and at the end of each month, honestly evaluate the progress you’ve made so that you can adjust your integration techniques and really embody the lifestyle you want to achieve!

It’s definitely a difficult task to translate what you read and apply it into your actual life. How many people that read books like “The Millionaire Mind” do you think actually become millionaires? Not a whole lot.

Sometimes, we mean to do these things and never get around to them. Other times, we feel like we just don’t have that genius plan or idea to get the wheels moving. I’ve been vicitim to thoughts like this many times (and in some respects still get caught in that trap today). I’ve read books on a lot of subjects ranging from social intelligence, to personal finance, to being good with women. I think it’s fair to say that for my age (24) I’m doing pretty well in terms of being a socially savvy person, making pretty good money, and dating multiple women.

I’m not the constant life of the party, a millionaire, or a Casa Nova…yet. The important thing is that I AM applying what I’ve read to my life and taking steps towards my ultimate goal of mastery (like that of the respective authors). So what techniques do I use that make me, unlike most people, actually successfully apply what I read? Tomorrow.