[seeker5]

I just successfully finished a new 30-day program that involved 4 habits. Here is what I implemented:

1) Get up at 5am every single day, even though my job didn’t start until 8am. Do this even on weekends.
2) Walk 30 minutes every single day.
3) Listen to 30 minutes of an inspirational/educational audio book every single day.
4) Avoid all general news website – sites like news.yahoo.com, CNN.com, digg.com, lewrockwell.com, worldnetdaily.com, etc. I previously was spending several hours a day (mostly at work) reading through those sites. Instead, I would direct my time and attention to read sites like businessweek.com, slashdot, and this forum. These sites are much more positive and would provide a way to help avoid general news sites. This is in addition to not watching TV news, a habit I previously conquered through a 30-day trial.

Here are the overall results:

I’ve had one of the most productive months in my life. My general mood has increased substantially; I’ve felt really great. My productivity has shot up: I’ve woken up, started working on stuff, gone to work for 9 hours, then came back home to work on more of my goals. My emotional lows were much higher then previous emotional lows. My emotional highs have stayed higher for longer. I feel an incredible increase in my sense of peace and am experiencing it for much longer periods of time.

All of these 30 goals really worked very well in reinforcing each other. I added the 30-minute audio listening after I read an article on Steve’s blog and I figured that would help keep my spirits high enough so I don’t feel the need to reach for online news. Walking 30 minutes a day helped provide a way for me to listen to 30 minutes of audiobook. Getting up at 5am has allowed me to walk for 30 minutes before going to work.

Here are some specific results/lessons I believe come from each of these habits:

Getting up at 5am: I was still able to accomplish this even though I drank several cokes a day. While I have previously woken up early by choice or for work or for school, this is the first time I woke up at exactly the same time every single day for 30 days straight. I absolutely loved it – I love having several hours of time before work to focus on what I want. I love being able to listen to my body when I get tired in the evening to tell me when to go to bed.

I noticed that even if I hurt when I wake up, the hurt will be gone within 15-20 minutes and then I’d feel quite normal and even great. Other days I’d wake up early but would stay in bed until 5am and then get out fully energized.

One completely unexpected benefit of this habit of getting up at 5am is that I now have a lot less of an issue stopping a project/activity at night to go to bed. Previously that would mean I wouldn’t be able to continue my project until 16-20 hours later (basically when I’d get off from work). If something intrigued me a lot, that’d previously push me to stay up late with the consequences the next day. However, with the habit of waking up at 5am, I knew I could immediately go back to work on my project when I wake up for a while before going to work. Thus I was a lot less hesitant about going to sleep when I should be going to sleep.

Another benefit, is that because I knew I’d have to wake up at 5am, and I know how eating late impacts the body, I avoided eating heavy meals in the evening, and frequently I’d just drink some soup so I’ve have very little on my stomach.

Avoiding the news: Avoiding the news is the one task I figured would be the most challenging. As Steve wrote, it is an addiction. During the first week, I started listening to the audio book from Wayne Dyers “Power of Intention”. I could not have picked a better one. The combination of avoiding all news, and listening to that spiritual audiobook produced such a high level of peace within me that lasted for a week or two. I felt such a sense of peace that was so amazing that I don’t ever recall feeling before at such a level.

30 Days later, my head is no longer filled with what is going on in Iraq, Gaza, Paris Hilton, and all the other disempowering stuff that I can do nothing about. Instead, much more of my brain cpu is going toward figuring out how I can improve my life and toward accomplishing my goals. Furthermore, as a result of that, I have visited and participated in this forum much more, and have started visiting businessweek.com more regularly. I have worked toward my goals in a more focused manner. I have even taken the time to implement David Allen’s GTD.

I had gained a big improvement in my emotions when I stopped watching TV News, so it was amazing to see just as big of an improvement on my emotional/productive level by stopping the general Internet news. I’m blown away by it. Never will I go back to this.

Listening to audiobook 30 minutes a day: In addition to helping my emotions by getting inspired, I've gained a lot of new information! In this month, I've listened to The Secret Audiobook (still haven't watched the movie though), listen to all of Jack Welch's podcasts, David Allen's GTD podcasts, 5 lessons of a millionaire, Suze Orman's audiobook, and others.

Because I've gotten into the habit of download or ripping audiobooks into my iPod for this habit, and thus always have an audiobook/podcast ready for listening, I've started listening to audiobooks and podcasts in the car when driving either short distances or long distances. Thus, even a trip to the grocery store can lead me to learning something new that I can apply in my life.

Walking 30 minutes: It was nice to walk 30 minutes a day. I had gotten out of exercising regularly, so this was a good way to get back into it. Furthermore, it was the perfect time to listen to the audiobook. I’m not sure how much this had on my overall effect, however, I really have enjoyed taking the time to walk. I’ve found myself in the evening taking extra walks just to think things out and enjoy these good feelings I was feeling.

So, I’ve done the 30 habit day trials for these 4 habits, I’ve loved them and I’m keeping each of them! I'm going to start a new 30 day habit trial to implement other habits I want.