Personal Growth From the Bottom Up – BroderickDurisseau.com
A Blog Dedicated to Personal Growth, Success and Goal Achievement

This month my focus will be on visualization. My first 30-day trial was on visualization, but I really didn’t dive into it like I want to now. Plus at that point I didn’t know enough about it or have enough direct experience doing it consistently to write too many quality articles about it. I’d like to read at least 5 books on the subject, listen to several hours of audio, and share what’s useful on this blog. I’ve probably spent 20 minutes visualizing each day for around 80 days since Oct 1. During the last month I went for about 10 days straight without consciously taking time out to do it, and I could definitely tell the difference in those days.

I’m pretty excited to implement some different strategies I’ve read in Creative Visualization, and I’d be happy to hear any other recommendations on the subject.

I want to visualize for at least 45 minutes each day. 15 min right after I wake up, 15 min in the middle of the day (we’ll say 2:00pm), and 15 before I go to sleep.

I’ll be giving updates on daily on Steve Pavlina’s Forums and Zen Habits’ Forums.

30-Day Trial #3 didn’t quite go as planned. I started the trial with 7 goals then ended up cutting it down to three.

After the revision on Day 6, the three goals were to:

1) Wake up at 6:00am daily and stay awake
2) Visualize for at least 20 minutes daily
3) Eat no processed starches, foods with refined sugars, cheese or fruits throughout the day

There were stops, revisions, twists, turns, and bumps, but it was still a fun learning experience for me. I imagine that will be similar to many 30-day trials I do. After the initial revision, things went pretty well up until around the 19th.

Waking up at 6:00am and staying awake

On most days I would go to bed late and wake up at 6am only to go right back to sleep for another hour or two or wander around and waste time.

This goal just didn’t happen at all. There were many times I wondered if deep down inside I really wanted to accomplish this goal. I do want to be an early riser, and there’s no doubt in my mind I can do it. Going to sleep when I’m sleepy has been the real source of the problem, so I’ll have to do some more searching to find out why I’m not getting to bed on time.

I know one cause is productivity-related. As I’m writing this now, I’m wondering why it took me so long to get started with this update seeing as I’ve had the whole day open to get this done. Many times I’ll wait until late at night to start something I would have liked to had done earlier. Lord, I remember my first visualization trial I probably hit the “publish” button on 80% of the posts right before midnight just to get it up on time. I think I’ll re-read some productivity books so I can dissolve this problem.

I know that isn’t the only problem though. There are days when I don’t write for the blog at all, soooo there’s gotta be somethin’ else.

Visualizing for 20 minutes

I stopped visualization after the 19th and I started doing it again around the 28th. I can tell the lack of visualization had an impact on my focus and the other two goals in this trial. Things started getting more relaxed and the days were filled with me succumbing to one distraction after another. I’m pretty sure I won’t have a problem with this goal next month though.

Cutting out processed starches, foods with refined sugars, cheese and fruits

When I stopped visualizing, I started eating processed starches and foods with refined sugars after going a month without eating any. Next time I try a goal like this I’ll put the goal in words that focus on what I want (more whole foods) not what I don’t want (processed crap).

This is a health goal, but it’s a health goal that is affected by finances. A person that has built a life-long healthy lifestyle earns enough money to buy health conscious food and supplies. I want to be a person who can afford the healthy options too. Right now I’m not quite there yet, but I can see my finances going in that direction too.

When I hear people say that they’ve watched The Secret and nothing has happened, I always ask if they’ve listened to the commentary that comes on the movie. The commentary is a transpacific interview given by the producer, Paul Harrington interviewing the executive producer and creator of The Secret, Rhonda Byrne. Until I listened to that commentary, the actual movie didn’t click for me.

Personal Experience

When I first watched The Secret, I didn’t really give it too much thought and put it away for two years. Then I cracked it back open when I was at my lowest point and simply wanted to feel good. After I re-watched it, it made me feel better and it made more sense than the first time I watched it but I still felt like something was missing from it. I became crystal clear about it all only after listening to the transpacific interview/commentary on the DVD where Rhonda Byrne explains why implementing what’s on the movie works and shares her personal experience with it.

Why the Commentary is Better

There were a lot of people featured in this documentary, and each person only had a limited amount of time to speak. Today I understand why they structured the DVD like this, but I could see how it could seem unfocused and jumpy to a person searching for answers and seeing it for the first time. However, in the commentary Rhonda Byrne has the whole length of the movie to respond to the common questions and concerns Paul Harrington brings up.

After I heard her commentary, I listened to it about 10-15 more times. Then I went back to watch the movie again and it all made sense.

This is a continuation of 30-Day Trial #3 Revised.

Waking up at 6:00am and staying awake.

I think I’ve now formed a habit of waking up at 6:00am, walking around, then going back to sleep about an hour or two afterwards.  

I underestimated how difficult this would be. I thought it would be easier because I’ve had to wake up at around 6:00am for school and for jobs, and I also remember the yuck, sluggish, unrested feeling I would have forcing myself to get up. That situation is totally different from waking up at 6:00am feeling totally alert and well rested simply because you want to wake up early.

I’m pretty sure the problem stems from not going to sleep when I’m sleepy. Lately I’ve been considering the possibility that I’m self-sabotaging.  I don’t want my life to even remotely resemble a 9-5 job so maybe subconsciously I’m stopping it from getting closer to that. In many cases, it just comes down to decision. Usually late at night is when people message me, call me, or want to go places, so I might try connecting with more people that wake up early and value going to sleep at a reasonable time.

Visualization

This part of the trial has been going great as usual. I do it throughout the day now too, along with the daily 20-minute sessions. When I’ve been feeling self-doubt or frustration I take a deep breath and start visualizing. When I do that, my state changes instantly. Indecision, procrastination, doubt, worry, and anxiety are replaced with peace, appreciation, excitement and an eagerness to get started. I know that feeling is the most important part of the whole success process and I understand it a lot more now. When I do it before I write, the writing just flows and everything seems to go much easier. Because I feel abundant on the inside I can give abundantly on the outside. Contribution = power, so as a result I end up feeling more powerful too.

No processed starches, foods with refined sugars, or cheese

This part of the trial has yielded the most significant results for me. I’ve lost 27 pounds by just this diet change. The crazy thing is that I’m doing it with a lot of processed starches, fast food, and foods with refined sugars in the house I live in.

I’ve been able to keep this up because I’ve focused on less. First, I eliminated fast foods. I actually gained weight after that because I loaded up on store-bought processed junk foods, but once I had proven I could live without fast food then I cut out all processed foods. I realized cheese had the same kind of effect so I stopped eating that too. That caused me to load up on chicken/fish/beef/pork and vegetables. Taking it one step at a time has really allowed me to keep moving forwards. Glad I learned that from The Power of Less.