#7 Sleep (The Branching Tree Theory)

Imagine a tree with its big strong trunk growing upwards until it begins to branch out into hundreds of  different branches. Whenever I think of waking up, I think of having a strong focus and high energy levels until my thoughts begin to branch out into hundreds of different thoughts about hundreds of different problems. Kind of like a tree.

What I realized is that there is nothing like the first few hours when I wake up and my attention is focused on just one (or two) things and no distractions have entered my day. This is the time I learned to guard. In college, during the exams, I remember taking a quick power nap every four to five hours before picking up a textbook, studying until my mind is completely overwhelmed with information and then taking another power nap, only to wake up and have another 2-3 hours of studying again. Sleep gives us the energy of mind in its purest form. Often, staying awake and pushing yourself to the levels of exhaustion for hours, actually, allows you to complete only a fraction of the work that could have been done if I was to choose just a little bit of sleep instead...

#6 Living Your Inner Animal

Physically and emotionally. It is time to remember there is a very physical, very emotional animal inside of every one of us. Civilization has been trying to kill this living, breathing animal in each and one of us and as time goes by, sometimes we really forget who we are.

Really forget.

For a moment think about who you are. Be a lion, be a tiger, be a fish in the depth of the clear waters or an exotic bird. We are here for one life only. Let's not forget what's inside of us. Let us be physical, emotional beings. Let us be animals again. No silly diets. No television. Eat when we want to eat. Run when we want to run. Sleep when we want to sleep. Breathe. Just breathe.

#5 "Top Of The Slope" Clarity

In Russian we have this old saying "if you love riding down the slope on a slate, than you have to love getting the slate up the slope." This is a very approximate translation, of course and can be used in all kinds of situations. In this particular case, I am applying it to the concept of "Big Picture," or TOP-OF-THE-SLOPE Clarity.

For me it started with the question.

At first I couldn't understand why is it that I, sometimes, can be going for days, extatic about working towards a specific life goal until, gradually, my desire to work towards that goal would diminish to nothing. I could not understand how it was possible for me to suddenly slip from the feeling of excitement towards my goal into a feeling of complete apathy towards anything. Observing the same pattern occur over and over again, I have developed a clear understanding what was taking place.

Realization 1. Every grandioze and exciting goal that I have, actually, consist of a large number of tedious tasks that NO person would ever want to do unless they have a clear "Big Picture" and a very clear end result in mind. Typically, NONE of the tedious subtasks of grandioze goals are exciting enough, outside of my understanding and my view of the "BIG PICTURE". Basically, as an example, roofing work is not very motivational on its own, however, if roofing will allow you to protect your family from rain, you will have more than enough motivation to get it done.

Realization 2. Most of my, so called, "grandioze" projects (such as the book I am writing, or a social network I am creating, or a healthcare unification platform I am building), require such huge number of maindaine, tedious subtasks that it is way too easy for me to completely lose the sight of the "BIG PICTURE."

Realization 3. I've realized that although both, my so-called "end result" and my "Big Picture" of my goal are extraordinarily exciting, it, actually, quite litereally, TAKES TIME to get back to the birdview level where I can see how grandioze and exciting all of my projects are. It TAKES VERY REAL TIME to get up and onto the "top of the slope" to re-establish where I am at in the big scheme of things before I can take another, exhilirating ride of action-filled days.

Realization 4. If I don't take enough time OFF to get to the "top of the slope" where I can see my goals clearly, I simply am not capable to have an exciting, action-filled day. Going back up to the "top of the slope" and taking time to see the BIG PICTURE is ESSENTIAL to productive, energy-filled day which becomes more like a fun ride of meaninful activities.

#4 "No Junk" Band

Yep, this is for real. This is my "No Junk" band on a book stand on my desk and when I put it on I am not allowed to let any junk into my body or into my mind. What is junk? I think, in reality, deep down we all know what this "junk" is and I am not just talking about junk food, I am talking about junk (negative) thoughts and junk (negative) people. One day I will patent it :)

And although the "No Junk" band does not give me energy directly it helps me maintain my energy by reminding me to not allow things that drain my energy near me.



Hours after putting               Energy Level:
the "No Junk" band on:

1                                           5

3                                           5

5                                           5

#3 Getting !@#$ Done

Kinda like running in the morning, I look at getting things done as another energy paradox. Often we really don't have the energy to get things done and yet our ever increasing ability to get things done is what gives us more and more motivation and energy to keep going and going and going. And, of course, the sooner we get something done the more energy we have! I figured that the earlier I get things done the less of a chance I have for those things to not happen during the day. For instance, I may be planning to finish to delay the writing of another chapter of the upcoming book (to which I am a ghost writer) only to receive a phone call that I have to be somewhere immediately. More energy, paradoxically enough, is about getting things done and getting those things done early!

P.S. As we are plannign another major fashion event in Chicago, this blog is a reminder for me to get my own butt moving.