Hour of Power

Not sure where I got the graphic above, but it's a good one. Right now I'm out of work. So I have all this time. But my biggest frustration is how much time I waste. It all starts with my iPhone. It's evil . I look at it to see what time it is first thing in the morning and the next thing I know, it's 10:30 am and I've been up since 7:00am.  It's evil, but it's My Precious. I called it that about a month after I first got it. Before I got an iPhone, I'd never had a smart phone. I'd often put my phone on the charger and forget about it for days. Once for almost five days. People would get really frustrated with me, but I couldn't figure out why they didn't just email me. I always checked my email first thing when I got to work in the morning and just before  I went home at night and hey, several times during the work day.  But of course for a long time, I didn't have internet access at home, so that meant that on weekends, if I'd left my phone on the charger and turned off, because, of course, it  charges faster if it's turned off, that meant that for the weekend, I was incommunicado.  I'd wanted a smart phone for a long time and lusted after the Blackberry. Mostly because I liked the idea of  24/7 internet access with a small device. In 2007, I got a laptop and internet service at home.  But I didn't get wifi for the laptop, because while I had the idea that I could take it out and write anywhere, I never took it out of the house for over a year. Even now, I average taking it out of the house about once a month. So why pay for a service you so rarely use?  But then I had a couple of private bookkeeping clients who would email late at night, and want answers.  I did not keep my laptop powered up even at home, so I often wouldn't get these emails until I was at my day job the next day and where I couldn't get to any answers until I was off work and back at home. So I justified the expense of the iPhone because I would always be connected to the internet and might be able to answer clients' questions a bit sooner. Also I'd always wanted an iPod and didn't have one, so that helped justify the expense.  AND THEN I LOST IT!!! When I found it, I called it My Precious and I realized owning the iPhone had changed my life, just as my friend Will had told me it would.  The My Precious nickname was totally apt too. My phone was a small glowing thing that I knew I shouldn't look at, but I wanted to look at all the time. So fast forward to being laid off and wasting at least three and a half hours a day on your iPhone. It's evil, I tell you and I think I must take it back to Cupertino and destroy it in the fires of Apple. But one does not just walk into Cupertino and Apple headquarters. That means I must break the bad habits that I have forged so relentlessly.  To be honest, I'd be on my iPhone in the morning before work, but that was limited because I had to freaking get to work.  So that habit of early morning iPhone addiction has been forged in the fires of my addictive personality for over two years. Now, however, there is nothing to stop me from fucking around on the iPhone except my own guilt which doesn't kick in apparently until somewhere around the three hour mark.  So I needed a new early morning routine.  

Enter the Tony Robbins Hour of Power http://mcgmedia.wordpress.com/2010/10/24/part-2-review-of-tony-robbins-ultimate-edge/ Basically you start your morning, by moving, breathing, giving thanks, and visualizing and more moving while repeating an affirmation. I even wrote it on the wall so I would see it first thing when I woke up. And it worked!  I woke up and was thinking about other stuff I wanted to do today and I saw Hour of Power written on the wall and I freaking did it!!!! Plus I bought an iPhone app called Streaks that lets you have multiple calendars to keep track of daily stuff you want to do, and if you skip a day the streak is broken, but you can see your streaks and keep track of your progress when you start anew. But I have not logged into Streaks today yet. I got up, did the hour of power and then I worked on the job search and then I freaking blogged. Pretty awesome. Now to keep the streak going.