Rewards
What do I get out of this?
So far I've mostly been stocking up on punishments if I fail at Hacked Man. I'll be globally ridiculed in all major newspapers for failing to post enough blogs. If I fail Beeminder goals, they'll bill me for real money. My spouse will be sad because I didn't clean as much as I promised.
But what do I get if everything . . .
Habits and trackings
On the difficulty of tracking anything
I'm not sure if I'm extremely bad at this or if everybody is. I personally just seem to have astounding problems noticing what changes actually happen.
At some point or another I've for example
- stopped eating lactose, glucose and FODMAP-stuff and started eating them again
- taken vitamins regularly, but . . .
Close calls
Teetering on the edge with a Beeminder goal
I had a moment of truth. I've been struggling with my "get to bed at 22:00"Beeminder goal. I seem to be constantly just one bedtime away from failing the goal. A couple of nights ago I felt like I needed a night off. I've managed to get the kid to bed already, had an empty house and could do anything I wanted... except I . . .
Creating Motivation
As seen on the YouTube
I bumped into a YouTube-video of a motivation hack. Seemed really simple, so naturally I had to test it.
Recipe: how to create motivation to do something:
Close your eyes.
Picture the thing like it's already done (a cleaned desk, for example)
FEEL GOOD about it. There has to be an emotional response here! . . .
Constraints are brilliant
There was a nice idea in The Motivation Hacker: don't spend time on stuff that's only sort of amusing. I have an regular habit of sometimes meandering between a bunch of computer games, never really managing to decide what I would really like to play and then I end up using two hours on it and growing more frustrated by the minute.
. . .Self-improvement? Why!?
Is this a good idea at all?
There's one issue I suppose have to handle a bit: is a self-improvement project a good idea at all?
Self-help, boo!
The first obvious argument against self-improvement projects is that the manuals, self-help books, are harmful bogus. An especially garish example is Rhonda Byrne's The Secret, which basically . . .
First experiences on meditation
Whoa, I mean, whoa!
First time I trying meditation based on these instructions was a pretty intensive experience. I might have overcharged it a bit, as I drank a cup of coffee just before trying, listened to binaural beats (using Binaural Beats therapy android app) and used feeling of elation instead of "normal" happiness as my metta (= focus of . . .
