Been a long time since I’ve done one of these. Insert random excuse here. To my defense, though, it’s been a long time since I’ve consistently posted to my blog…

In the past three months, I’ve had quite a few ups and downs. First, I’ve actually started working with a trainer, so am exercising twice a week, now. I feel better and think straighter on the days I exercise. It’s amazing. My goal this week, though, is to exercise—some cardio—on Wednesday and Saturday. Eventually, I’d like to do some type of exercise every day of the week.

I’m still getting up relatively early, though it varies. Ranges from 6:00 to 7:00. My ultimate problem is still that I’m not going to bed early enough. So, my goal this week is be in bed by 10:00 and asleep by 11:00.

I’d also like to get an alarm clock that will wakes me up with light instead of sound. Take last night. I woke up twice. Once at 2:00 and once at 5:00. Both times I was wide awake. Of course, I went back to sleep. If I get up that early—even if my body is saying, “come on, get up, you lazy bastard!”, I’ll pay for it later. But when the alarm went off at 6:00, I could not get up. My body was saying: “What are you thinking?!” From what I’ve read, a light-based alarm clock will be a smoother transition from sleeping to waking, so I can actually get up when it goes off.

This past week, again, saw some modest improvements. I think my goals are set a bit too high. Time to face that reality and scale back a little.

First off, my failures.

• I did not exercise three times; I exercised twice.

• I was unable to get any lunches scheduled for next week. Got some possibilities for things in July, but nothing for this week.

I wasn’t a complete failure, though.

• I have consistently gotten out of bed every morning between 6 and 6:30. Pretty good for a guy who has considered himself a night owl for the past—well, since he was a teenager. We’ll leave it at that. I’m still getting tired before 11:00, and that is a problem. 8 hours just seems like a lot to sleep at night. I think my early exhaustion comes from my diet.

• I have not had a caffeinated soda in two weeks, and, most days, my energy level has remained high throughout the day.

I’m feeling pretty good about everything so far. I’d still give myself a “C”, but I’m out there. I’m doing it, and I will get better.

This week’s goals:

• Continue getting up at 6am. This has been the most successful thing I’ve got going, and I’m enjoying the early start.

• Stretch for 5 minutes in the morning and for 5 minutes in the evening. Ever day. This is my baby step toward creating an exercise regimine that I will stick with. Stretching is easy. Surely I can do it for five minutes twice a day. I’ll gradually build this up to 20 minutes twice daily over the next few months at which point, I’ll switch to a consistent exercise regimine.

• Change “…but…” to “…and…”. I’m reading Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott, which I will review later. The short of it: “…and…” statements are better.

• Create a list of 20 people with whom I would like to have lunch. So, my goal of scheduling lunches has been a flop. I’m going to take a step back and create a targeted list of folks I would like to meet as well as a description of why I would like to meet them.

• Plan out my meals for next week. We’ve already done the grocery shopping for this week. I need to sit down and plan some tasty and healthy meals and snacks for next week. Otherwise, I’m not going to get out of the rut I’m in—nor am I going to lose this gut.

So, last week was a good week. Kinda.

I had some trouble maintaining my energy level throughout the day at the beginning of the week. I’d start out the day just fine, but around 2:00 I’d get really tired. I believe the source of my energey-level problem was that I’m not going to bed when I’m tired. I’m trying Steve’s technique and am having some luck at it. I’m just having some difficulty actually going to bed when I’m tired. This is partly because I’m getting tired around 10:00 on some nights, and that’s just too early. I want to stay up until at least 11:00. I’m getting better, though. I still have some nights where I get tired early and other nights I get tired a little later.

So…how did I do with my goals? I did okay. I got up between 6 and 6:30 every morning; I drank no caffeinated drinks this past week; but, I did not schedule any lunches for this week; and I did not exercise three times as I had planned.

My goals for this week aren’t really much different from last week’s. They are:

• Continue getting up at 6AM through next Sunday.
• Not drink a caffenated drink through next Sunday.
• Exercise three times this week.
• Schedule two lunches for next week.

Last week was a lot of fun. I made some really great progress and came to some interesting realizations.

First, my realization: productivity, diet, exercise—all of them start with self discipline. If you attempt to improve any one of these without self discipline, you will fail as I often have in the past. So, I’m working to strengthen my self-discipline while at the same time working to improve my productivity, diet, and excercise. So far, it seems to be working. I’ll report back on my continued success in a week. (This realization brought to you by Steve Pavlina.)

Following this new technique, I made some nice head way last week.

Achievements

• I made three new contacts.
• I stopped drinking caffeinated drinks on Thursday.
• I’ve been getting up at 6AM since Tuesday.

My goals for the coming week:

• Continue getting up at 6AM through next Sunday.
• Not drink a caffenated drink through next Sunday.
• Exercise three times this week.
• Schedule two lunches for next week.

I’ve been at this self improvement game for several months, now. I’ve made some decent head way, and I still have so much to learn. Before I even attempt to learn new things, though, I need to better integrate what I have learned into my daily life. To help me do this, I’m creating a personal accounting system. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to post a personal improvement report every Monday that

• Sets my goals for the coming week
• Reports on my previous week’s goals

I’m going to report it exactly as it happened. Whether I achieved my goals or fell right on my ass, it doesn’t matter. So, prepare yourself, it’s not going to be pretty.