Making stuff

For those of you that haven't seen my Facebook page you may not have seen my new Video Blog (Vlog). "Oh no! Not more crap from Alfry!" I hear you cry. Well fear not, because if you have said that then you can skip this paragraph and move onto the next. For those of you still reading you will be able to access my Vlog through my Facebook page above as I film a short clip each day. This is to start a journal of sorts that I can look back over in years to come and say "ooh look how far I've come" whilst stroking my beard in a wise manner. It's also for any of you that forget what I look like from time to time and for those interested in seeing a little of Sydney and reminding yourself of fun times here. So feel free to check the vlog out and leave any comments.

If you've been following the photos I have posted recently you will have seen my home DIY project the "Doable". It's a writing desk made from two doors and a bunch of Merbau offcuts from a few jobs I've done recently. I was fed up of craning over the coffee table to type this blog, so I thought it would be a good way to save my back and recycle some waste timber. The photos that follow will give you some idea of how it came together.

It also now means I have a dedicated writing room away from the TV and other distractions. The best thing is that it looks out onto the road so I can still see and hear everything that is happening outside, which I find helps me focus. I've always found the most creative places for my brain are often those bustling with people or different noises. Don't get me wrong I do love being away from it all in the peaceful countryside, but sometimes that gives me too much quiet time to think!

I hope to document a few more of the interesting projects as they come about and they will be included on my carpentry website. Until then I will leave you the "Doable" because anyone can make something out of nothing.

Tom :)

Another reality

The recent EU referendum reminded me how detached we can get from what is going on around the world. Since I moved our TV to the other side of the living room I haven't watched any news. I also stopped reading it online or in print. If it wasn't for social media I would have no idea what was happening around the globe. To be honest I got sick of reading about a great deal of negative shit that I have no control over. I used to take pride in knowing a lot about world current affairs, but it didn't actually help my life having this knowledge. In a lot of respects I get better news reporting from Twitter than any of the biased news outlets, which is just a sign of the times. I don't trust the media or the government to tell the truth in any way, so I have given up on them. 

That is not to say I don't care what happens to Britain. But when you decide to move abroad you are choosing to live somewhere else completely, otherwise you are just on holiday. I care most about what happens to my family and friends, so the best thing I can do is support them by keeping in touch. That is something I am putting more effort into in order to know how they are. I've made it one of my new habits to contact family everyday and friends at least once a week. It basically means I have to be more organised, which is never a bad thing! So if you get a message out of the blue from me then know that I am thinking of you and let me know how you are doing. Some times it is all too easy to get caught up in our lives and dealing with day to day stresses (understandably), now that I am not as crazy with work I have time to look out for my mates.

I'm working on a few little projects at home that will go on my new website that I finished yesterday. It looks reasonably bare at the moment, but I will be gradually adding content to it for your viewing pleasure! I am also looking into producing some reclaimed furniture, so I'll have that on the site over the coming weeks. Aside from that I am working on my running and weight training with Catherine and our mate Kurt. Our acrobatics is also coming along slowly but surely. Once Catherine stops working for the whole of Australia then we will get some serious practice in and maybe even produce some videos of the skills.

Until next time,

Tom :)

www.tomalfry.com

Fear

Fear

Hey I may have written about this topic before, but ideas are constantly changing in my brain, so there might be an evolution of any previous “chat” I have had about this.

Let me start by asking you two questions. What is your greatest fear? When did you learn it?

I will answer these questions myself, but please feel free to write down or say aloud your answers. Getting them out of your head does help in dealing with them.

I would say my greatest fear is a fear of failure, of letting people down and others looking at me with disappointment etched on their faces.

The second question is much harder to answer, I really have to think back about that, so give me a minute… Ok I think I have it. I would say that I began learning this fear back in primary school, possibly around the age of five. It might have been before that but I remember my school reports from back then consisted of a tone of disappointment from the teachers. “If Thomas applied himself as much to his work as he did to daydreaming he would be an excellent student”. Ok that’s not word for word, but that particular comment has been powerful enough to stay with me for years. I read my other reports from primary school a few years ago and they carry the same sort of comments, so I was learning that fear of letting people down and “failing” in their eyes from an early age.

Cut to the present day and I generally don’t give a shit what other people think. I’ve probably developed this attitude as a way of getting on with life and not taking the usual road like everybody else. I do take on board what those closest to me think. But I save my respect and listening to those few friends who have tried, “failed” and get back up and do it again having learnt and developed themselves. I can number these people on one hand.

Having worked on meditating and educating myself over the last year I am starting to appreciate my thoughts and feelings for what they truly are. They are just thoughts and feelings! Nothing to get caught up in, but something to take notice of and observe. Sometimes they require an action, but not always. They do not define me, who I am. But if I let them they will. Much like if I let other people’s opinions affect me and put me down. Rather than choose this path I can choose to use these fears as motivators, something to push me onward to trying new things regardless of whether they are “safe and successful” or “fearsome and failures”. This may sound like a commercial for a Tony Robbins seminar, but it’s not. My seminars will only cost you $4,999!

Where was I? Ah yes being pushed along by fear. So I am now confronting fear of failure by setting out to do my own work in carpentry, to do all the things that I am scared of. By doing this I can prove to my brain that reality isn’t as bad as what my brain constructs. But even if it was, what difference would it make? It wouldn’t hurt me unless I really fail with a power tool, oops! More than likely it would just mean a short period of embarrassment and shame before going back to normal. Not exactly something to be really scared of is it?

Obviously this is the start of a long process for me to learn new habits that will replace several bad ones. As positive as I sound now I still have doubts, negative feelings and thoughts. But rather than let them hold me back I am embracing them in order to rise to the challenge. I am sure I will fail along the way. As long as I learn something from that failure then it will be a success that I can use to better myself. The ultimate goal is still to be calm in my mind and not fluctuate to extremes in either direction. I feel I am only part of the way there.

Tom :)

Bad robot

For all my success with establishing new healthy habits recently I have failed completely at an old habit of mine. When I was growing up I bit my nails. Often I would chew them back til they bled. I don't remember the where, when or why of this grim habit, but it was bad. My parents tried a lot of the usual tactics to get me to stop. I remember they went with one "carrot" method, which consisted of a weekly nail check by my Dad. If I hadn't chewed a nail I would get money as a reward. I don't know if I was also penalised for chewing a nail and that cancelled out one good nail, but for a time it worked. However although I like to spend money (don't we all darling!) I am not driven by it, so in the end I went back to my chewing. The "stick" methods stick in my head too with the most common being a "telling off", which used some form of shaming and "you won't have nice nails like your father if you carry on chewing".  I find these memories hilarious because my memory recall is generally terrible, but when it comes to these things I have a movie like detail of the memories. Oh and my Mum even tried painting that fowl tasting synthetic crap on my nails in order to deter me. However it would fade after hand washing and then chomp, chomp, chomp.

At some stage in my teens something changed. I stopped chewing my nails and starting biting my cuticles, "huzzah!" No more nail biting. Oh what that is a worse habit, ah ok. So ever since I don't chew my nails to oblivion (I admit I still "trim" them), but instead I bite the skin around the nail resulting in sore fingers, bleeding and a lack of hand modelling jobs. As I look at my mitts typing this blog post I am slightly ashamed. Perhaps if I actually gave a shit about what people think or tell me then I would have stopped long ago. For like many habits it is unconscious and I have to be "told off" to realise what I am doing.

Thankfully some clever person gave a name to this habit of mine and I am by no means the worst. I remember one of my friends from Downton school who I won't name used to chew the skin on his thumb until it looked like a bad case of eczema. He was 6ft 4 when we were 13 so he may have just been hungry I don't know. In any case it is something that I do want to stop doing, so I am going to trial a few options. Below are things I have tried and things I will give a go and let you know how I get on.

Fails
Rank tasting synthetic liquid painted on nails
Dandelion stalk juice smeared on nails (again rank tasting)
Smacking of hand by family member
Chastising and shaming by family member
Monetary rewards
Being reminded of all the dirt that is under my nails (not phased at all)
Gentle encouragement
Moderate encouragement
Extreme encouragement
Food
Replacing habit with another habit (doesn't work as the bad one is performed on autopilot)

Things to try
Being calmly reminded of biting (without shaming)
Hypnotherapy
Plasters on bad fingers as visual reminder and physical barrier (currently trialling as of today)

Righto if you have any suggestions please put them on a post card and leave them below.

Let me know below if you have overcome a bad habit and how you did it, I'm keen to learn!

Tom :)

Staying power

Going the whole distance is important in many areas of life, no less when creating new habits. A few weeks ago I began three new habits with the help of the app Habit List to track my progress. As of today I have meditated, written and read everyday for the last 22 days. As you can imagine I am pretty pleased with myself because I am often full of great ideas, but lacking in the implementation of them. I have also failed at a few habits that I set for myself at the same time as the successful ones, so I want to mention those too.

Why were you successful at some habits but not others?

I've had time to reflect on the last few weeks of habit making and have come to a simple conclusion, I have a short attention span. This is by no means a revelation to those that no me; I can day dream better than I can breathe. However it is important to be aware of when I am trying to focus my energy on something new. Like every other normal human being I have all the good intentions in the world to improve and challenge myself. But setting unrealistic, multiple goals is not going to work in the long term. That is why I have succeeded at some habits and failed at others.

How can you improve in these other areas?

 It comes down to a couple of points. Set stupidly easy goals. I know I want to run another marathon this year, but I am not running regularly at the moment. In order to achieve my aspirational goals I have to start with small steps. My meditation works because I set a stupidly low target to achieve and am not often doing much more than the three minute goal I aim for. Once I have been consistent for a month with my new easy goal I know that I will be able to do it whatever mood I am in, no matter what life throws at me. Habits don't require motivation, so stop searching for it.

The Second point is that I feel I have a limited amount of energy to give out for tasks in life. I've started to see it in a simple metaphorical way. I imagine the energy I have as coins to spend. I can waste them on worrying, procrastination and idleness or I can invest them in producing, learning and improving. Right now my focus has shifted to work and education, so I now have daily "coin" commitments for those things. Training has taken a back seat of late, so I will spend a little coinage on that. Then there is communication with friends and family. Importantly the old romance sector needs constant investment because it's a team game. Then there is the writing on my book, which needs a lot more attention. Soon you can see how my coins might get used up and that's not including anything that life might throw in the way, day to day annoyances and challenges at work. All I need to do is do a little everyday on each of these things and not strive for magnificence before I've put in the hard yards to get there. Trying and failing are my new friends for learning.


Where to now?

I used to feel that I had wasted my life and that I had lost my joie de vivre. But life is terribly short and what has been before and what will come are inconsequential. This moment is the most important moment we have. Taking action now and living the moment with no guarantee that you will get another tomorrow should be our only motivation. "Momento Mori" is my new motivation to achieve something of significance with the time I have. It's a far cry from the time when I considered ending my own life, but from the ashes we rise again.

I've done a 20 minute meditation, read several pages of my book and have written this already this morning. Now I am off for a short run before I focus on work. Here's to taking action everyday.

Tom

The Holy Trinity of Habits

It's been nine days since my last confession to you, so I'll ease you back in gently with a short post about habits and what my "holy trinity" are.

Despite the religious connotations of my post title I won't be taking my guidance from any of the Gods available to me. However by following a routine of acting out these habits I have received a level of calmness and support that have made them my own religion of sorts. In times of stress or depression I can turn to the routine and my habits for solace and feel the benefits of taking action and completing them. They are simple to complete, but powerful on the mind and when performed in the following order at the start of my day I feel prepared for action.

If I repeat myself a little here it is only because these three habits are the ones I've found have helped me the most in the last two weeks.

1. Meditation

The apps I use

I probably sound like a New Age healer with the amount I talk about meditation (if not then I am doing something wrong), but as I have said before it is an excellent go to tool for reducing stress and improving your mental health. My new habit is to meditate for at least three minutes a day. That is what I like to call a POP (piece of piss) target. It's easily achievable for even the busiest of people. First thing in the morning I put the kettle on and make my tea, straight after I sit down and do my meditation. If I've woken early then I'll do ten minutes or more, if I'm pushed for time I just do three minutes. Either way I've hit my target for the day and kept my consistency.










I use the meditations from the excellent book Mindfulness: Finding peace in a frantic world however I can recommend the apps Calm and Headspace as great free tools to help you meditate. Check them out today.





2. Write

My A5 notebook, one page (POP)

Straight after meditation is the perfect time to jot down any thoughts that I've had or ideas that come to mind. If my creativity is free flowing then I will write like a mad man, but my POP target is to write just one page in my notebook. It's just an A5 notebook, so it's easy to write enough to fill a page and knock down my writing target for the day. My plan is to increase this gradually over the next few months, but it's all about baby steps to start with. Set a realistic goal and achieve it every day without fail.











3. Read

I love reading, but you might rather poke your eyes with a stick. However the benefits of reading for expanding your mind or just entertaining you are unmatched (in my opinion). You can take a book anywhere and with smartphones you can carry a library in your pocket (I am not being paid by Kindle ;)) Straight after my writing I will open up my kindle or paperback and read just three pages. That's my POP target for the day and I will usually smash that and read a lot more. Again it depends on how much time I have and how my mind is, but it's a nice way to switch the brain into imagination mode and leave me feeling great for the day. So whether you love a bit of Danielle Steel or prefer to ponder  Marcus Aurelius grab a book and get turning.






Conclusion

Each morning I perform these three habits religiously. It sets me up for the day by putting me into an action mindset and leaves me feeling a sense of accomplishment within an hour of waking up. So no matter what happens thereafter I know that at least I have had success and got things done for myself. From there I am pumped to work, learn or write my book and am satisfied when I get to the end of the day. There are many things I won't be able to control in life, but at least I can work on myself and create what I want from there.

Just something to think about,

Tom.

Doubt

For many the word above is a powerful one which rules their state of mind and lives. Whether you have depression or not I'm sure you will recognise it. Sometimes it comes as a feeling or is heard as a voice. Like that slightly racist, overly chatty neighbour you try and avoid, doubt will present itself at the most inconvenient moment.

Everyone feels doubt. Don't they? Well that's just an accepted statement that I have no way of proving. But it would make sense that if you have never felt the 'D' then you are in a very small minority and should probably consider running for President. It is a part of life like breathing and eating, but is it a bad thing? We could spend hours delving deep into our psyches as to the cause of our doubts. Like that moment when I was 8 and my Dad didn't reassure me after failing to nail that armstand back double somersault at our local pool. How that must have affected me!

Perspective.
My tattoo viewed from the side contains a smily face
 with a magnificent beard.

I digress. Everyone feels/hears/sees doubt, but clearly it affects people differently. I have only recently learnt through my meditation and reading that there is nothing wrong with doubt. It may help in certain situations by protecting us both mentally and physically. If we have failed at an action in the past then our brains may produce doubt when trying to repeat that action in order to warn us and prevent failure/injury/death. It may be as simple as our brains exerting our caveman instincts in order to save our lives. But we get all caught up in the emotion and let our brains run away with a negative loop.

So doubt is negative? It is if you let it be, if you let your mind start a negative dialogue about how crap you are at pool diving. Quite simply doubt is just a thought, a feeling, a set of emotions rolled together. It is really no different to love or happiness. It serves an excellent purpose if we take time to listen and take the appropriate action. Doubt like happiness should be observed and recognised for what it really is, a fleeting emotional state. Neither last forever, but both will come and go throughout our lives. 

What is the "appropriate action" you speak of? Well often the best action is to do nothing. Just being aware that you are having these thoughts and when they popped into your head is a lesson. We humans are so worked up about finding a solution to our problems that we forget to just experience. We can learn more from listening and observing our minds than anyone can teach us. 

This is not the doors in question. But they did go in that hole.

For example today I felt doubt when I was fitting a pair of doors. I started to have feelings of nervousness and anxiety. I won't lie it slowed me down and I started to get angry with myself for taking so long. This came about because I always want things to be perfect, but I haven't been fitting a lot of doors lately, so I'm slow, I take my time so as not to make a mistake. I can't be perfect without a lot more experience and time spent fitting doors. So I took a breath, noted why I was feeling this way and just carried on. The feeling didn't go away, but I didn't make any huge mistakes and I learnt a few things along the way. I knew there was nothing I could actively do about feeling doubt other than carry on and prove to my brain that it's ok. Often the best thing to do is stop, breathe deeply and tell yourself "I've been through worse, I've got this shit." 

Conclusion
Doubt has become one of my new friends when it comes to learning my brain. If I experience doubt now I can observe when it came up and see if there's anything I can do about it. The same goes for when I feel an episode of depression coming along. I thing back over the last few days and can normally identify what I have or haven't done to cause it. Then I learn from that and make changes for the future. You know the wondrous thing I have learnt over the least year is that if we stop and listen our brains will tell us exactly what we need to be doing. So next time you feel doubt just thank your brain, note when it came up and breathe!

The 5 things changing my life

I must preface this post by saying that my wife Catherine is a huge force in helping me change my life. Although I haven't included her in the five life changers below it is not because she doesn't deserve to be, but just because you can't have her! The following list is here to help you as the contents have helped me and continue to do so. Catherine although amazing will not be able to fly around the world to help you out, she's my BWE*. Ok onwards, I hope you enjoy the read. (*Best wife ever)

Five life changers

1. Meditation

The idea for this post came to after my morning ritual of meditating. I know I bang on about meditating, but for something so simple it really has some great benefits that everyone could do with. Schools around the world are including it in their lessons (much like mine did 20+ years ago) to help kids develop a tool that will help them throughout their lives. However this practice is ancient and by no means a modern "fad" that will come and go. Science can now prove through the use of MRI that meditating daily for a period of 6-8 weeks can reduce the brain activity in areas associated with stress and anxiety. For me it has been a gift that I can use to calm my mind when practiced regularly and gives me the knowledge that I have control over my brain, not the other way around. The latter is more powerful than anything because for someone with depression it is a tool of action that can be used immediately and very quickly produce results. Without further ado take three minutes out of your day and try this simple meditation below. It is one of my favourites as it helps me "check in" with my brain and make it take a bloody holiday from itself.

Three minute Breathing Space meditation


2. Routine

I actually wrote this out as number one when planning this post because it has made such a difference to my mental health in the last few weeks that I have been practicing it. Now I am not a naturally organised or disciplined person. I like to think I am fairly relaxed, free thinking and creative. However I refuse to accept that we are born a certain way when it comes to which side of the brain is more dominant in our thinking. In my research into the brain I have learnt a great deal about the brain's ability to repair itself and adapt at any stage of life. Yes it takes hard work, but it is not impossible as many would have you believe. That is where routine is the King of change. In order to produce consistent results in a new habit or when learning a new skill it is routine which will enable success. Motivation alone cannot get you your goals, you need routine to ensure that you get out of bed at 5:30am everyday, do your meditation, educate yourself and train before you go to work for ten hours. For creative types routine may seem mundane and a killer for their "organic" process, but it is through consistent balanced effort that you actually develop your skills. Without further ado here is my morning routine:

• 5:30 wake up and put kettle on (I am British), brush teeth
• 5:30-5:35 mobility exercises whilst making tea (I'm not getting younger)
• 5:35-5:50 meditation from Mindfulness book
• 5:50-6:00 write a page (normally exceed this!)
• 6:00-6:10 read a minimum of three pages (small goals = frequent small wins)
• 6:10-6:20 handstands and warmup exercises (just for fun and to get the blood pumping)
• 6:20-6:30 breakfast
• 6:30-6:40 leave for work.

In the last week I have found this routine massively improves my mood and sets me up with a feeling of accomplishment at the beginning of the day. In other words I am ready to take on the world! You should try it, seriously it's the shizzle.

3. Healthy Habits

I have momentarily forgotten what I meant by this. Ah yes ok I've got it. I think when I was having this great idea that I meant small habits that have multiple beneficial outcomes. For example I have been focusing on stretching this week for 5 minutes a day. I use an app called Habit List to help remind me and track when I have and haven't completed the tasks on it. The idea with the stretching is to make it small enough that it isn't a big deal. Anyone can stretch for 5 minutes right?! I can do that whilst my dinner is cooking in the oven and because 5 minutes is such a small amount I am more likely to exceed it. But if I don't then it doesn't matter because I've achieved what I set out to do. When creating these new healthy habits I have found the POP (piece of piss) technique to be the most effective. When it is so easy that you can do it everyday you are much more likely to develop that new habit into a powerful change in your life. Plus 5 minutes every day is 35 minutes a week more than I am doing now, so you can see how it will add up. 

Here's what my current habit list looks like:

 

As you can see most (but not all) of my habits are specific and small targets i.e. 5 minute mobility warm up, 3 handstands, 3 minute meditation etc.

Some are too general (I will be rectifying this immediately after I finish here) such as writing research and foam roll. If they are not really specific then it is too easy to cop out early and be "loose" when undertaking them.

There's fun habits in there as well as serious ones that help me change as a person because if it's not fun and adds excitement then I may truly go nuts.

Check out Habit List here: Easy habit maker

4. Writing

As you may know I have written for years, but it is only really within the last year that I have discovered the huge impact it can have on my mental health. In it's simplest form I use it to offload the shit stuff in my head and free up space to let my brain be creative. As I have learnt over the last year I actually enjoy the physical act of putting pen to paper and there is a huge amount of stuff I write that I will never publish, it just brings me joy. I know that it is easy for me to write and that may not be the case for everybody. But if you noticed on my habit list I have one to write a page a day. This is for two reasons, one is to help me finish my book before the end of the year and the other is so that I can write more and thus develop my craft. However one page is easy for anyone not just me. So I encourage you to use it to note how you feel in that moment, how you felt during your day, conflicts you encountered and wins that you had. It is a great way of ridding yourself of pointless negative chatter in your head and will help you see it more rationally if it's on paper where you can read it. If you can't talk about your problems then please write it down, it may just help.

5. Exercise

Some of you may know that I am a qualified personal trainer (no sham fitness advice from me!) so I know the benefits of regular exercise. However if Carlsberg did personal trainers I would probably be the laziest of them all (oblique reference there). Most people wrongly assume that I must be really fit and find training easy. This is far from true. My favourite X-Men character is Wolverine and I would happily say that I am much like him. Not the Adamantium skeleton, the claws, the ability to regenerate after being wounded or his immense strength. No I am more like the grumpy, angry Logan that enjoys shots of alcohol and being left alone by the muppets of the world. Yes that is most definitely me. So going to the gym is not my number one pastime. However I know it's good for me especially lifting heavy weights, which release a few chemicals into my bloodstream that help my brain to shutup for five minutes. Running can also help, but I have to run fast enough that I feel pretty uncomfortable and my head doesn't have space to think of anything but preventing my heart from jumping from my chest. In a long winded way what I am trying to tell you is that you should take some exercise whether you like it or not. You don't need to run or go to the gym, just find some activity that raises your heart rate for an extended period of time. Yes sex could be one, although you'd need to be able to go for a long enough time period to have a beneficial effect. Having said that you could employ the Tabata Protocol (20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest) if you struggle in this department. Just saying. Simply put pick a fun activity that you will want to do regularly and go and do it "little and often". No need for 2 hour long sessions in the gym unless you bloody well work there or are a professional athlete/bodybuilder. 

Here's my training aims at the moment:

Monday: Gymnastic Bodies stretch program at home.

Tuesday: Interval run training 20-40 minutes

Wednesday: GB stretch program

Thursday: 10km mixed run of different speeds

Friday: GB stretch program

Saturday: Gym/acrobatic training

Sunday: Long run 14km+ and acrobatic training

Now the reality this last week was a lot different and I probably achieved about 20% of what I wanted. Fortunately I am working a physical job at the moment, so that helps, but I have been lax. Learn from the master of mistakes (don't call me MOM) and go for a small realistic goal with your training. 

Conclusion

I get carried away when writing, so I apologise if this was longer than you'd hoped. But I am passionate about these things and that is what helps me get through my days. If you are struggling with your mind, stressed at work, lost in life then maybe it's time to help yourself and use some of these tools. You have the power to change yourself, just start small and take a step.

Tom :)

Keeping it short

Hey world. How you doin'?

This is a short update on my progress with my new habits of regular writing, meditating and action on work and life. That actually sounds like a shitload of stuff to go over, so I promise to limit this to 800 words or less. Shit here goes...

Across the board I am doing pretty well at routinely training, writing and meditating. No I am not Mother Theresa because that would be weird, she was much smaller than me. So yes I have room for improvement and that will be my focus once I've cracked out a couple more weeks of routinely sticking to my plan. One thing that is helping to remind me to be a badass is the app called Habit List. With it you can create a number of habits that you want to develop and it will remind you to do them as well as track how many you actually complete. So at the end of each week you can see some concrete evidence on whether you have actually achieved all those training sessions you talked about or whether you were talking out of your arse (again). I like it, it's simple and effective and comes well recommended by efficiency aficionado Tim Ferris who wrote the Four Hour Week, Diet and Chef. Check out any of his books, they are excellent. I fully expect my kickback for mentioning him to be huge ;)

One of my new habits of getting up early is going pretty well. I have read or heard from numerous sources that successful people across many different fields rise between 4:30 & 5:30am. As I normally have to get up for work at 6am it isn't much of a stretch for me to make it 5:30, so I have been setting my Sleep Cycle alarm to go off between 5&5:30 for the last week or so. I have probably averaged just over 7 hours a sleep a night since I've been doing it and feel so much better for getting writing and meditating done as my first task of the day. I am also well rested and get off to sleep quickly at night. Fuck that concept of 8 hours a night though friends. If you read the latest research you'll find that they don't actually know what is best and that it is specific to each individual. What works for me might not work for you. I know that 6 isn't enough and I normally wake up naturally after 7-7.5. Anyhoo (I know that isn't a real word) I have been able to write a page, read three pages and meditate during this extra early wake up time, so I am pretty stoked (dude) about that.

In terms of the writing I am progressing on my book (Sexual fantasies of a sloth Part 1) pretty well. I do need to write more on it everyday, but like a sloth it can be slow going. All joking aside my book needs a little more time focused on it, so I will be doing that before I do any blog posting in the future. I think it is often easier to talk shit than knuckle down to what we must do to move forwards. I think clever people call this procrastination, bloody know it alls.

Meditating am I. Ten minutes a day is my go to, although my target is actually three because any mother tucker can sit quietly and meditate for three bloody minutes! It's all about the small wins. Like I said above I am not Mother Theresa.

Work is mental with a capital M and L. I am happy that my own stuff is progressing well and just need to spend a little time this weekend thinking about where I am headed with it all. Once my book comes out I probably won't have much time for anything else because of all the interviews, book signings and TV serialisation. I know there is a huge interest in Sloth related material, so it's going to be full on. Nevertheless I need to set some new goals and have a think about my direction, both of which I am crap at doing.

Right I think that is everything. I probably missed something out, but hey I need to have material for my next post!

Until next time avid readers of this no nonsense blog,

Tom "the sloth" Alfry.

P.S If you are not very good with sarcasm then I apologise for you. No sloths were harmed in the making of this post or my new book.

P.P.S It was 772 words. BOOM!