New Age Life - Your Guide to a Better Lifestyle

• Set your subconscious mind to respond to your alarm the right way. You can do this by practicing. Go to your bedroom, darken the room and set up conditions like how you go to bed. Set your alarm a few minutes ahead, and go to your favorite sleeping position, but don’t sleep - pretend that you’re sleeping. When the alarm goes off, stretch your limbs, inflate your lungs fully with air. Sit, and get off your feet with a big smile on your face. Repeat this whole process until your inner voice tells you that you’re ready for it. If necessary, do this the next day too, until you really program your subconscious mind to produce this exact response for this stimulus. A few hours of practicing this can potentially save you hundreds of hours each year.
• The more you practice your wake-up ritual, the deeper you’ll ingrain this habit into your subconscious.  Alarm goes off -> get up immediately.  Alarm goes off -> get up immediately.  Alarm goes off -> get up immediately. Try this, you have nothing to lose.
• Decide to get up early, and commit to yourself to get up half an hour earlier than the previous day. Repeat until you form a habit. Remember? 21 days of repeated action forms a habit.
• How would your life be, if you had no TV, Computer, Music systems or other things that keeps you awake at late night.. Make a choice to keep them away when you need to sleep.
• Don’t go to sleep if you’re not feeling sleepy. Sleep when you feel like, but get up when you want to, just once. So, once you get up early, you will feel sleepy soon at that night. Do this for once.
• Keep your alarm at a distance, so you can reach for it after physically extending yourself
• Breathe in deeply as soon as you get up, and stretch your body - don’t wait, get up!
• Take a cold water shower as soon as you get up, it helps your nervous system to buzz with life. Watch Ishaan therapy by Guruka Singh

Resources:

How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off

Discipline

From Steve Pavlina Blog:

Heuristics are rules intended to help you solve problems.  When a problem is large or complex, and the optimal solution is unclear, applying a heuristic allows you to begin making progress towards a solution even though you can’t visualize the entire path from your starting point.

Suppose your goal is to climb to the peak of a mountain, but there’s no trail to follow.  An example of a heuristic would be:  Head directly towards the peak until you reach an obstacle you can’t cross.  Whenever you reach such an obstacle, follow it around to the right until you’re able to head towards the peak once again. This isn’t the most intelligent or comprehensive heuristic, but in many cases it will work just fine, and you’ll eventually reach the peak.

Heuristics don’t guarantee you’ll find the optimal solution, nor do they generally guarantee a solution at all.  But they do a good enough job of solving certain types of problems to be useful.  Their strength is that they break the deadlock of indecision and get you into action.  As you take action you begin to explore the solution space, which deepens your understanding of the problem.  As you gain knowledge about the problem, you can make course corrections along the way, gradually improving your chances of finding a solution.  If you try to solve a problem you don’t initially know how to solve, you’ll often figure out a solution as you go, one you never could have imagined until you started moving.  This is especially true with creative work such as software development.  Often you don’t even know exactly what you’re trying to build until you start building it.

Heuristics have many practical applications, and one of my favorite areas of application is personal productivity.  Productivity heuristics are behavioral rules (some general, some situation-specific) that can help us get things done more efficiently.  Here are some of my favorites:

1. Nuke it! The most efficient way to get through a task is to delete it.  If it doesn’t need to be done, get it off your to do list.
2. Daily goals. Without a clear focus, it’s too easy to succumb to distractions.  Set targets for each day in advance.  Decide what you’ll do; then do it.
3. Worst first. To defeat procrastination learn to tackle your most unpleasant task first thing in the morning instead of delaying it until later in the day.  This small victory will set the tone for a very productive day.
4. Peak times. Identify your peak cycles of productivity, and schedule your most important tasks for those times.  Work on minor tasks during your non-peak times.
5. No-comm zones. Allocate uninterruptible blocks of time for solo work where you must concentrate.  Schedule light, interruptible tasks for your open-comm periods and more challenging projects for your no-comm periods.
6. Mini-milestones. When you begin a task, identify the target you must reach before you can stop working.  For example, when working on a book, you could decide not to get up until you’ve written at least 1000 words.  Hit your target no matter what.
7. Timeboxing. Give yourself a fixed time period, like 30 minutes, to make a dent in a task.  Don’t worry about how far you get.  Just put in the time.  See Timeboxing for more.
8. Batching. Batch similar tasks like phone calls or errands into a single chunk, and knock them off in a single session.
9. Early bird. Get up early in the morning, like at 5am, and go straight to work on your most important task.  You can often get more done before 8am than most people do in a day.
10. Cone of silence. Take a laptop with no network or WiFi access, and go to a place where you can work flat out without distractions, such as a library, park, coffee house, or your own backyard.  Leave your comm gadgets behind.
11. Tempo. Deliberately pick up the pace, and try to move a little faster than usual.  Speak faster.  Walk faster.  Type faster.  Read faster.  Go home sooner.
12. Relaxify. Reduce stress by cultivating a relaxing, clutter-free workspace.  See 10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace.
13. Agendas. Provide clear written agendas to meeting participants in advance.  This greatly improves meeting focus and efficiency.  You can use it for phone calls too.
14. Pareto. The Pareto principle is the 80-20 rule, which states that 80% of the value of a task comes from 20% of the effort.  Focus your energy on that critical 20%, and don’t overengineer the non-critical 80%.
15. Ready-fire-aim. Bust procrastination by taking action immediately after setting a goal, even if the action isn’t perfectly planned.  You can always adjust course along the way.
16. Minuteman. Once you have the information you need to make a decision, start a timer and give yourself just 60 seconds to make the actual decision.  Take a whole minute to vacillate and second-guess yourself all you want, but come out the other end with a clear choice.  Once your decision is made, take some kind of action to set it in motion.
17. Deadline. Set a deadline for task completion, and use it as a focal point to stay on track.
18. Promise. Tell others of your commitments, since they’ll help hold you accountable.
19. Punctuality. Whatever it takes, show up on time.  Arrive early.
20. Gap reading. Use reading to fill in those odd periods like waiting for an appointment, standing in line, or while the coffee is brewing.  If you’re a male, you can even read an article while shaving (preferably with an electric razor).  That’s 365 articles a year.
21. Resonance. Visualize your goal as already accomplished.  Put yourself into a state of actually being there.  Make it real in your mind, and you’ll soon see it in your reality.
22. Glittering prizes. Give yourself frequent rewards for achievement.  See a movie, book a professional massage, or spend a day at an amusement park.
23. Quad 2. Separate the truly important tasks from the merely urgent.  Allocate blocks of time to work on the critical Quadrant 2 tasks, those which are important but rarely urgent, such as physical exercise, writing a book, and finding a relationship partner.
24. Continuum. At the end of your workday, identify the first task you’ll work on the next day, and set out the materials in advance.  The next day begin working on that task immediately.
25. Slice and dice. Break complex projects into smaller, well-defined tasks.  Focus on completing just one of those tasks.
26. Single-handling. Once you begin a task, stick with it until it’s 100% complete.  Don’t switch tasks in the middle.  When distractions come up, jot them down to be dealt with later.
27. Randomize. Pick a totally random piece of a larger project, and complete it.  Pay one random bill.  Make one phone call.  Write page 42 of your book.
28. Insanely bad. Defeat perfectionism by completing your task in an intentionally terrible fashion, knowing you need never share the results with anyone.  Write a blog post about the taste of salt, design a hideously dysfunctional web site, or create a business plan that guarantees a first-year bankruptcy.  With a truly horrendous first draft, there’s nowhere to go but up.
29. 30 days. Identify a new habit you’d like to form, and commit to sticking with it for just 30 days.  A temporary commitment is much easier to keep than a permanent one.  See 30 Days to Success for details.
30. Delegate. Convince someone else to do it for you.
31. Cross-pollination. Sign up for martial arts, start a blog, or join an improv group.  You’ll often encounter ideas in one field that can boost your performance in another.
32. Intuition. Go with your gut instinct.  It’s probably right.
33. Optimization. Identify the processes you use most often, and write them down step-by-step.  Refactor them on paper for greater efficiency.  Then implement and test your improved processes.  Sometimes we just can’t see what’s right in front of us until we examine it under a microscope.

productivity productivity

I recently stumbled upon a fitness community where people help/motivate each other to attain their fitness goals. It is free to join. Link: www.PeerTrainer.com

I got this email from them today:

Hi There,

I hope you’ve scheduled something that you’re looking forward to today.

Today’s tip is to think about a plan for meeting your goal. This is another of
the core organizing themes of this email program, goal setting and expectation
setting. You might have heard this again and again, but you have to have a
plan, you have to have a map to where you are going.

When you start to change your habits, you start to get more granular and
focused on your portion sizes you are entering a new zone. This introduces
some stress, some discomfort and it is easy to get off track. Having a solid plan
functions as a guardrail to keep you on track.

We have put together a 5 step guide to this planning process. Again, we are
throwing a lot at you here, and the idea is to get some fundamentals in place
that we will be continually reinforcing:

http://www.peertrainer.com/diet/goal_setting_and_planning_for_weight_loss.aspx

One of the key components of the plan is to find support.

Many of you have had a chance to start logging on PEERtrainer and have
found a group. If you are not ready yet or you have a different support
mechanism that is fine.

But the most important thing is to know you are being presented with a proven
set of concepts, as well as a proven framework to follow through. No matter
what you do, know that change is possible.

On my blog, I have some very specific things that I do personally in my life in

terms of goal setting and planning and I even have some videos up there if you’d

like even more ideas to help you construct your plan:

http://blog.peertrainer.com

Jackie

Co-Founder, PEERtrainer

Thought you might be interested to join. Another popular fitness training community is SparkPeople.com.

I will personally review both of them and post results in this blog. Feel free to try it yourself!

Cheers,
Rk

Fitness

This is my favorite recipe that is tasty as well as healthy. It’s simple to prepare and takes less than 10 minutes. I like fruits a lot! Especially when conglomerated into fun healthy food like this, Slurp…!! I relish ‘em!!

Ingredients:

A. Strawberries
B. Pineapple
C. Apple
D. Almonds
E. Raisins
F. Low fat cheese
G. Sugar/Honey

Cheesy & Healthy Fruit Salad in making...

1. Cut/chop the fruits and cheese into tiny pieces of around 1 x 1 cm size.

2. Cut almonds into thin slices.

3. Heat a non-stick pan and pour some sugar and a little water. Let it caramelize.

4. Transfer ingredients A-F into the pan and stir for 2-3 minutes.

5. Transfer it onto a beautiful crystal bowl and spread some honey on it.

6. Garnish with a few mint leaves for the final touch.

Here You Go!

Now, Indulge… Guilt-free!

Nutritional Aspect:

> Strawberries and honey are rich in anti-oxidants. Helps enhance immune system. Heck, they are tasty as well!

> Almonds provide rich source of Vitamin E and magnesium. They are good anti-cancer element.

> Pineapples are rich in Vitamin C and bromelain which helps in tissue repair mechanisms that will help your cells heal quicker. They are also vital for immune system.

> Low fat cheese - Some of you might frown at me for this, but understand this - when you have this in less quantity, it is healthier than you imagine. Fat is essential nutrition for our body. Low fat cheese is rich in calcium and proteins.

So, what is stopping you from trying it? Please enter your comments and share your ideas.

Do let me know on what you want to read here, so i can feature them on my blog for you!

Cheers,
Rk

Health Food Recipes Gourmet food, Health Food Recipes, healthy eating

In my Goals for 2009, disciplining myself is listed as my #1 priority. While researching ways of getting disciplined, i came across some pretty interesting stuff… Let me share them with you:

#1. Guilt Vs. Self-Discipline:

This was the first time that i ever watched a ’spiritual’ video on YouTube!! I found it really enlightening.

Take-aways from this video (by Guruka Singh):

1. Make discipline your best friend.

2. Make discipline a habit, and enjoy doing it. Make it become your lifestyle. and never look back!

3. Develop habit as a routine, and make it an essential part of your life. Make it your ritual.

4. In any case if you were not able to keep up your disciplined routine, move on.. Don’t feel guilty. Guilt is self-torture. It will take you away from discipline.

5. You screw up sometimes.. So what? Make sure that you learn from it, and move on with your new disciplined habit.

#2. Steve Pavlina says:

“The five pillars of self-discipline are: Acceptance, Willpower, Hard Work, Industry, and Persistence. If you take the first letter of each word, you get the acronym “A WHIP” — a convenient way to remember them, since many people associate self-discipline with whipping themselves into shape.”

Did you notice how people associate the word ‘discipline’ to? No wonder why i find it so hard to get myself disciplined! Guilt, as Guruka Singh says, is nothing but self-torture (whipping themselves into shape)!!

When you signal your brain that you are going to undergo a painful process (here, getting disciplined), it will do it’s best to stop that activity, since the primary objective of our nervous system is to protect our body. This is due to what Tony Robbins calls “The power of associations“. Our neuro-muscular system has been designed in such a way as to avoid pain and obtain pleasure. So it largely depends on what we associate our feelings to. This is the basics of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).

Getting back to the topic - We need to associate pleasure to the things that we want to achieve (like getting up early in the morning, doing exercises and meditate) and associating pain with pleasurable sins (like getting up late, unhealthy eating, etc).

So, How to develop self discipline?

• Take small steps, keep it consistent and enjoy the process.
• Reward yourself every week for the commitment you’ve shown.
• Make discipline a habit.
• Associate pleasure to following your disciplined routine.

Conclusion:

Persistence is the key. Not only for this, but for achieving anything.

It Takes 26 Days to Create a Habit, or to Break it.

Cheers!

Radhakrishnan KG

Discipline Discipline, Empowerment, Personal Growth

Happy New Year 2009!

So This is it!

I have finally made my mind to start blogging, starting now. It’s been almost 10 years since i started using Internet, and have read hundreds if not thousands of blogs over these years. People called it ‘Web Logs’ initially, and evolved into what we all now know as ‘Blogs’. Some of them left a long lasting impression in my life.

Why did i start blogging?

Many reasons - I want to share my experiences. I want to be heard. I want to contribute to the same media which taught me several things in life. I want to make difference in people’s lives.

I have listed my new year goals here, sorted by priority. Have a look at it, we might have something in common!

I will share with you a few strategies and plans that worked for me to enhance my life. If applied correctly, it can work for you too!

Wishing you all a healthy, wealthy, joyous and rocking new year!

Cheers,

Rk

General introduction