The Michael Masterson Journal

Issue No. 22 - $1.91	Saturday, December 26, 2009
Something to do the first workday after Christmas... I hope you enjoyed yourself on Friday. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope you had a very good day. When you head back to work Monday (or if you're back at work today), resist the urge to plunge in fully. Don't make it a regular day. If you typically schedule eight hours of work, schedule only five or six. Spend an extra hour relaxing and another hour thinking about the year that's passed and the year that's coming. Make a mental list of those who have helped you succeed this year. And another list of people you've helped. Ask yourself what you'd most like to accomplish in 2010. You don't need to come to a definitive answer today. Just get your subconscious mind working on it. If you have the opportunity, spend some time talking to friends and colleagues about their accomplishments and goals. This will give you good ideas. It may even deepen your relationships a bit. We'll talk more in the near future about what to do with this mental list. And how you can turn "resolutions" into goals you can achieve in 2010. I'm taking yoga again, twice a week before work. This ancient Hindu practice has been very helpful to me in the past. It's healed a chronically ailing back, increased the flexibility of my hips and shoulders (the two most problematic areas for most middle-aged former athletes), and I'm sure it's been good for my internal organs. I can feel it. I took yoga lessons regularly for about a year several years ago, and then stopped when my instructor moved away. Since then, I've practiced a few postures every morning -- but without taking lessons, I wasn't getting any better. Yoga, like golf or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, is extremely technical. There is no end to what you can learn. It's possible to keep getting better at yoga for 50 or 60 years. You can improve your movements till the day you drift off into Namaste land. My new instructor, a very knowledgeable yogi (most "teachers" in America are rank amateurs posing as experts), explained that before you can master yoga you must master three personal skills: 1. The skill of memory 2. The skill of practice 3. The skill of dissolving the ego That seemed exactly right to me. For these are the same personal skills it takes to master Jiu Jitsu. (And I suspect they are the skills you need to master any complex activity.) Memory is the most obvious. You need to develop your memory -- both physical and mental -- so you can execute the skills you have been taught. Practice is the least appreciated -- for two reasons. Many people believe that unless they have a "talent" for a complex skill, they can never be really good at it. This is foolishness. You can master almost anything if you are willing to spend enough time -- maybe 5,000 hours -- practicing it under the instruction of a master teacher. Dissolving the ego is the most difficult of the three personal skills. Only one person in a hundred can do it. But to get to a master's level, you must be able to two things: (1) Be humble enough to accept your mediocrity when you are mediocre, and (2) separate your emotions from your desired outcome. You can do that only if you have control of your ego. If you understand this, you understand a great deal about self-improvement. "Things suck," Jerry said. "Why's that?" I asked, worried that someone in his family was ill. "I got laid off." He'd been working as a manager for Office Depot for the past 10 years. Before that, he had a successful plumbing supply business. He sold that when his kids headed off to college because he wanted to "take it easy" and just live off his investments. But taking it easy lasted only two years. After the tech bubble burst, he was forced to go back to work. Rather than start a new business, he went to work as an employee. Employment felt easier and more secure, he told me at the time. Now, he felt very differently. I suggested a number of ideas, all of which he turned down. "I'm too old to start over," he said. He is 65 years old. Later that night, I Googled "late bloomers" -- and these are a few of the nuggets I found: Verdi composed his Ave Maria at age 85. Harlan Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken at 65. Ronald Reagan didn't get into politics until he was 55. Laura Ingalls Wilder (author of Little House on the Prairie) published her first book in her 60s. Rodney Dangerfield didn't start doing comedy until he was 45. Cezanne's most highly prized paintings were done in his 60s. Alfred Hitchcock's best films, including Vertigo and Psycho, were done in his late 50s and early 60s. I'll be 60 next year. So I can appreciate Jerry's desire to have less stress in his life. But I decided a long time ago that I wasn't going to give in to age easily. I wasn't going to "go gentle into that good night." For a while, I thought I'd have to accept living with stress in order to accomplish everything I wanted to do. But since I've been writing about (and experimenting with) productivity strategies, I've come to believe that when it comes to personal accomplishments, you can have your cake and eat it too. You can have less stress and also accomplish more by: Following a good goal-setting program Setting aside time every day for exercise Getting at least seven hours of good sleep every night Eating for energy (high protein, low carbs, etc.) 2009 was probably the least-stressed I've been in twenty years. And yet I was able to accomplish an awful lot. Here is some of what I did this year: Wrote two new books that will be published next year Finished two books from last year that will be published this year Wrote 50 poems, six short stories, and 16 chapters of a novel Produced a feature-length and a documentary film Competed in two national Jiu Jitsu championships and won three first-place trophies Wrote 50+ essays for Early to Rise Painted a half dozen paintings Wrote hundreds of briefs for Early to Rise and the Michael Masterson Journal Consulted with half a dozen companies Started a fine-art business Studied Spanish and French Read more than 30 business books Learned 300+ new words Traveled to Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, San Francisco, Denver, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Panama, Rio de Janeiro, Morocco, and Nicaragua Bought and renovated two rental properties Learned to play golf Began the development of a community center in Nicaragua One of the books I wrote this year has been expanded into a program that will be called something like Creating Abundance: Your Master Plan for Living a Richer, Healthier, More Enjoyable Life Starting TODAY. Among other things, this program will teach you: How to Allocate Your Hours for Maximum Productivity 3 Steps to Success: Thinking, Acting, and Breaking Up the Day A Daily Eating Routine for a Healthy and Productive Life 4 Things You Can Do to Give Yourself More Time to Be More Successful The Vocabulary of Accomplishment Why You Must WRITE DOWN Your Goals How to Use Daily Task Lists to Accomplish Your Goals How to Make Measurable Progress Toward Your Most-Neglected Goal: The Junkie's Secret Why Positive Thinking Doesn't Work ETR will be publishing the program next year at a price of $500 to $1,000. But if you'd like to find out how you can get it for free -- and start working on your goal setting immediately -- go here. As I've mentioned in the past, Dr. Al Sears guides my nutrition and exercise routine. I also turn to him for more in-depth anti-aging therapies. In a recent e-mail to his subscribers, Dr. Sears mentioned his breakthrough supplement for "turning on" the genes that promote longevity and health -- no matter what "bad" DNA you inherited. You probably know part of the story. The compound resveratrol has been talked about on 60 Minutes and all over the Internet. But what the mainstream media got wrong, says Dr. Sears, is that resveratrol is only one small piece of the puzzle. Here's what he had to say: "Here at my clinic, I combine two other nutrients with resveratrol for a formula with stronger gene-switching power. I added EGCG (green tea extract) and SOD (the most potent antioxidant your body makes on its own). "I'm sure you've heard about green tea. Clinical testing continues to amaze the medical world. It's one of nature's great gifts. SOD is the most powerful antioxidant your body has. Antioxidants that come from vitamins and food sources pale in comparison. SOD is the 'master guardian' of your body's immune system and is your number one primary antioxidant. "It's so vital, production of SOD starts when you're in the womb. In one study, genetically engineered mice whose bodies couldn't make their own SOD died in just days from massive free radical damage. "You don't have to figure out which genes will give you the happiest, most vibrant life. These nutrients do it for you. "Together, these three nutrients make what I call RES-3. It's ready for you right now." I trust Dr. Sears. You should too. Check out more details on this supplement here. "I'm keeping this article for my swipe file." "Porter Stansberry proves once again that he is a master of the 'Big Idea.' All copywriters should carefully review his article 'Would You Like to Be My Partner?' Although this article is not directly selling any product, it is a wonderful example of how to capture a reader's attention and persuade them of a point of view. I'm keeping this article in my swipe file to inspire my copywriting. "I have to think about how to characterize this technique. Perhaps 'The Dangerous Imposter' or 'The Sleight of Hand.' "Thanks much for the inspiration. " Jack Krasuski, MD [Ed. Note: Michael Masterson welcomes your questions and comments. Send him a message at AskMichael@ETRFeedback.com.]
© 2009 Early to Rise, LLC.
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