Somehow for the last few days I have been feeling like going to Paris. I kind of have a trip quasi-planned later this year but that’s late. Anyway.

I have quite a few things planned for the summer. Apart from other things which I am not going to discuss here, I have two other goals.

1. Make your way with CPC and then make the move to being a vendor.
2. Catch up with quite some classical literature.

Now, #1 has been discussed already. I am doing so-so, I can see progress and opportunity and I’ll be taking it. Now, this could be just another over-statement. Yet, focus is the key here and now I have it. That. Taking action is the second key. I have some of it too. Fate seems to be showing me that I’m heading in the right direction (nah, I don’t really believe in fate) and I’ll handle this one. Alright.

Books are more interesting. I am likely to still have some free time during the beginning of the summer and I want to read some literature. I have not read that much. Okay, I could put a tick on The Count of Monte Cristo but there is just a lot of literature like that which rocks and that should be read by an average educated person a superior guy which I am (sorry for the partially unpremeditated expression of my superiority-complex). I don’t know, I should make a list. Or at least I should make a list with a few books in advance. Currently I am going to jump on Der schwarze Obelisk by Remarque. I know, it’s not really so much classical but I have gotten a few at least one recommendations. Then I’m thinking of something of Dostojevskij. Or perhaps Tolstoy. In any case, that is just gonna be a warm-up. But let me get the other books I read now dealt with, first.

P.S. Now I have even found a round-trip flight to Paris for €220. That’s still quite much. Oh, I guess some things have to wait. A bit. Then I’ll be able to reward myself with stuff, etc. (I hate to be so ambiguous and post-pone things but I am afraid that’s how it is supposed to be now).

There are two kinds of NLP. One you use on other people (I am not sure about the use of it) and one you use on yourself (I don’t know much about it either but there seem to be a few good ideas). I’ll be talking about the latter in this post. I’m no expert in NLP and I amn’t trying to become one as of now. So, just out of interest.

Pattern interruption. Think about it. You’re depressed and you’re going in a car. Suddenly, another car pops out of the other street and you must hit the breaks to avoid accident. Does your brain still remember it had been feeling depressed a few moments ago? No way, a rush of adrenaline has kicked in by now. Depression is gone.

That was an extreme example. Another one. You are on a high building and have a fear of heights. Suddenly, you notice a plain flying by with your name written on it. You immediately get interested. Ooops, where is your fear of heights? It’s gone for the moment, isn’t it?

Now, these are all pattern interruptions. They could help you get rid of small fears, laziness, anger and some other kinds of negative emotions. I could really see the use here. Now, the big question: can they be induced artificially? I am hoping the answer is yes.

I googleed a bit. Found a good site, read a bit and it seems it boils down to this NLP scheme for pattern interruption: IRC (just like internet relay chat).

1. Identify. Find the emotion and then the idea that’s causing the emotion. For example, if you’re afraid of spiders, the idea would be something like: “Spiders are dangerous for me”.
2. Ridicule. Imagine the idea said in a funny manner. Let mickey mouse say it. Or just use a funny voice in your mind. Use bad grammar or something. Anything that would make you think: “How silly…”.
3. Confuse. Confusion is the main concept in NLP. Now, what creates confusion? One answer seems to be: distraction. So, distract your thought! How do you do that? The way they suggest (and it sounds easy) is to use your surroundings as a source. Count the shades of black around you. Count the leaves of a branch of the tree in front of you. See how many faces you see around. Try to give names and remember to each person you see in front of you (if you are among strangers - this would also help train your memory). Anything to distract you from your original thought.

I like the idea. Seems easy. I have also tried it. It’s no magic pill but you don’t expect it to work magically especially the first time you try it, do you? It seems like it could become a really cool and useful psychological tool. You’re welcome. :>

Let’s talk about something else today related to yesterday’s topic.

It makes sense, that our beliefs determine how we act and what outcome we get. But, listening to Logically Critical, I realized that a question he had asked was reasonable: can you really choose your beliefs?

Sure, they can develop as we get exposed to new information. Say, a belief that “everything that happens is to the better” - seems like a nice one but how do you go about it? You can try to think that it’s true but it’s not like you would believe it just because you think it’s a useful belief to have. You may say you have the belief but do you really have it or do you just say you have it?

Generally, to have a belief, you must be persuaded. At least, I think, that’s the case for me… Maybe that’s why we don’t really see people getting new beliefs everytime they decide it would be good.

P.S. A short one for today. Posting everyday is becoming not as bad. Perhaps I’ll begin covering some different topics in the upcoming days. So far, only 3 days to go and we’ll see if we continue this.

Hurry hurry, let’s make a quick post today. Today I got to sleep a lot but afterwards I have been pretty busy (and it’s not over, although I’ll get some rest in the evening, probably), tomorrow is likely to be non-stop. So, I just have a few minutes to write a post fast.
(Edit: This post was totally not what I really wanted to talk about but whatever has come out, has come out…)

Since I could find myself interested in the topic of personal development (personal growth, constant and never ending improvement, KAIZEN or whatever you might wanna call it), I thought I’d throw in a few quick ideas I had on it today.

First of all, first time I attended a seminar on that topic, I observed the people around. But, duh, they were just ordinary people. Like, people into self-development should be all bumped up, smart and way better than simple people but they had all the problems and all the drawbacks of simple guys. What is it, then?

Another time I attended one (don’t think I have attended that many, I have just gone to a few (nearly) free ones), the lector told a story of him power-talking and one guy asking whether he could leave. To a question “Why do you wanna leave?” (just like in a sect, lol) the guy replied “To go achieve my dream!”.

I don’t know whether this has really happened or not but let’s imagine it did. So, the guy went on. You’re out of the building. You know your dream. What else? Okay, maybe he made some telephone call or whatever. Perhaps he has written a page or two. And then? Oops, he hasn’t got anything yet… “Need I make another call?” - he was probably thinking. I am pretty sure that in a day or two he would be on his previous track and the dream would not be achieved whatsoever. In other words, can you divide your life into “the day before I was not working for my dream” and “the day when I dived into completely achieving my dream”. Can you?

Next, I don’t think there is that much to know about and if there is, noone knows it anyway. For people who do well at certain areas, most of the knowledge is, in any case, subconscious knowledge and you can’t really get subconscious knowledge except from experiencing something directly.

Now, I still think life’s great (the last statement depends on large part on my mood but the mood is often getting better in any case) and it is possible to achieve “your big dream”. Just, likely, not overnight.

Talking about “the big dream”, I quite realize I ain’t got any. Like one guy, for now “I just have a direction I wanna go”. Hopin’ that will do…

Yesterday I completed the Personal Power course by Anthony Robbins. I am kind of not very much into doing courses like that (further in the text: seminars) but I got a personal recommendation.

Don’t get me wrong: sometimes seminars are cool. It’s just that often they are packed with useless stuff. Useless general stuff. Mainly, stuff that is unapplicable. “In order to be effective in life, you have to make effective decissions” - you know what I mean. What’s more, they often take people off taking action. Learning things has also taken me off taking action and in continuously does. Whatever, life’s great. :)

What I see now is that I have taken a pre-conception about seminars. But it suits me well. I take stuff and try to learn but I don’t take it too seriously untill it proves itself to be so. I also try to be eclectic and don’t take all courses in a row. Whatever it is, I like this plan of action so there is no need to change that conception yet.

Let’s now mention a few things that I really liked about the Anthony Robbins course. What’s more, I can actually see some usability in it. Of the top of my head:

• Managing your state - I find it that it’s still difficult to control my state but while doing the course I was getting in the state pretty often so if even that could make me feel good, I’d have to conclude it’s possible. :)
• Anchoring - very interesting. Does it work? What’s more, is it controlable? I have tried it and it kinda shows some results but I don’t know if it’s the anchor working or me laughing about finding it fun to be tapping my elbow (or whatever). If you don’t know about anchoring - go find out.
• Enpowering questions - wow, that’s a totally new concept. I knew there was something wrong about positive thinking. The hard part is getting yourself to ask those questions often. But I’d be guessing it’s still worth a try.
• Food - this 3/4 water-rich foods diet is interesting but I dunno, I have heard so many versions about food. Some diets say you should be eating practically only vegetables and others say you’ll die if you do that. I’m a bit lost. I’ve been trying to do this for 10 days, though, but, oh, it’s taugh.
• Breathing - 2 seconds in, 8 seconds hold, 4 seconds out (or at least change the seconds but keep the ratio) - interesting, but I often find myself without air. I have heard that if you do hold your breath and you are moving at least a bit, your organs actually run out of air and it backfires. I’m not sure, again, so many versions…

Next, there were some other good things but I can’t remember them now. Setting goals are very common and not unheard of. Following through is harder… Pain/pleasure linking does not give immediate results for me or I’m doing something wrong. What, it’s not supposed to be giving immediate results? When should I be expecting results then? Next year? Next month? Next solar eclipse? There must be a way to do it now.

Also, I have listened to the extra of the course. Some ideas were interesting. Some Indian guy saying something along the lines of:

We are not physical machines that have learnt how to think, we are thoughts that have figured out how to take shape of a physical machine.

Wow, that really made me think for a second. Sounds kind of un-argumented, though.

I still have a couple of tasks to finish from that course and I’ll be doing them untill the New Year. If I don’t post in the next few days… Happy Christmas, everybody!

I was, once again, browsing these making money online blogs to get me a bit less bored (it’s damn cold outside!) and I found this entry re-posting something from another blog stating that:

Experts say that if you do something for 20 days straight you will then form a new habit into your daily routine.

I was wondering, could it be true to really make a habit? Is there something to the number in this case, or is it just another number somebody has pulled out of his ass?

That looks quite interesting, because if we can really form habits in only 20 days, we could add a lot of new habits. It’s a matter of discipline now but I wonder how 20 days is related to that…

Is am temporary internet connection deprived so when I wanted to post something onto this blog yesterday, I was not really able to. I wrote it on my mobile phone but now it looks like the things I had written are put in a way that is just too silly.

The main idea is, recently I have been through quite a fair amount of stuff. That’s a change of my living-place, and a change of the environment. And I met many new people (some are not tottaly new, other are). Sometimes at some points I get depressed because stuff seems to be going wrong or some things appear not to be as I had expected. Sometimes, perhaps, it’s just a nostalgy that’s causing the depression.

So, I was walking back from the debates club yesterday (I registered to the club - debates are cool - even though I have never done them oficially before… but they are … and I met a few interesting people there already…). I realized that stuff is still moving to the positive side. Even though it’s slow, there is some improvement.

This is the excerpt of the text I have written then to my phone:

It just seams that whatever we are doing even though the circumstances are not always okay, it comes out all good in the end. So cool.

That realization made my day back then.

And I hope it’s just the beginning…

Sorry, this post won’t probably have much interest to you because it will only be me rambling. In fact, even though I am writing that, I still think my posts are valuable. Hell, I don’t even think I’ll publish this post. Even though now I think I will. Whatever.

As you have noticed, my blog is actually very much my blog and it’s just me rambling instead of me writing important stuff. Even when I sometimes find some cool stuff, very rearly I write it here. And the blog is not even niche-related so it goes about all topics. And these are the main reasons why I have 2 readers at my RSS subscription list.

I thought I wanted to revive it. But why? Why the hell do I need a blog like that? Business-wise? It’s not like the untargeted blog itself can earn me anything. Do I make it niche-targeted? Nah. If I was going to do that, I’d just start another blog. In general, blogs are not good means to do business. Seriously. Most bloggers make nowhere near much. And I’m talking about niche-targeted blogs. Ah. Other reasons? Nah.

But that is actually not what I wanted to talk about anyway. The first thing is, remember this post? Did I do much? I wasted it. Business-wise, I haven’t done much for sure. Fun-wise, ok, a bit. Not anywhere near as much as I would have liked to. Now, I’m moving to a different place where I would live like 65 percent of my time. And with it I’d be expecting stuff would be going to change. But is it?

Another thing is, most of the people just go along not thinking about what’s gonna come up next. I do think. Quite a lot, recently. But I’m not getting any damn results so far whatsoever, so what’s the point?

I still think stuff is gonna change to the best. Well, there is no reason why it shouldn’t. But now it’s still much of a problem.

Getting action-oriented. That’s what I need want to do. But I know I want that, it seems like I do it, but in the end I look back at it and I see it as just time-wasted. Gotta break up this crap.

And anyway. I’ll do something important about it. Soon.

P.S. Told ya.

It’s a bit late here already and I am tired and all but I wanted to talk about one thing here. The thing is, I waste my time. All the time.

I pick any topic, when I read stuff online and offline how to do it. Not simply I do read, I read to ridiculous amounts. This was not the case like 4 years ago and I seemed to be more action oriented then. Maybe I am just idealising myself, though. (Probably I am, because things still sucked back then). In any case, for example, take this website I wanted to make, which I won’t go into details about. I read about this idea on another site. I then still kept reading. Later I carried on to another stuff and now I got back to reading. This has taken me 3 months already and I am still in the zero-phrase.

That’s what I don’t like about it. So, here is the plan I have come up with (maybe I can start using it for internet marketing too after the 30 day challenge):

Pick up something, read about it and then stop. Select a goal which you want to achieve and till you achieve that goal, don’t you even dare reading anything on the topic. Nada. Not a single line.

I’m now willing to really put this into practice. All the good things in this life are about acting and not about thinking/reading/whatever about them. That’s so simple and yet I seem to be having all the problems in the world putting this into my head. I will change that.

I have two new ideas for websites. And one old idea that I am willing to revive.  I had  completely created a website with a very simple idea that could still take off like 3 years ago. I then did not launch the site, however. And then, though the site itself was old, it was clean and nice. I lost the code somewhere but I might get it back if I search my archives well. The bad thing is, I saw a very similar project somewhere. Anyway, I’m currently keen on finally making that project and releasing it.

Also there is some other stuff which is not hard to do but it needs quite some brainstorming and archive-reviewing for the key ideas in the content. I guess that website could still make a difference. Finally, I’m really willing to renew one of my sites that currently blow.

In any case, sorry for being so vague about stuff yet. I just kinda needed to note things down so that I could jump on then. Whatever it is, I’m going to make something big very soon.

And one thing that I have been doing for some time already - write your ideas on paper. Doesn’t matter if it’s easy or hard to do, if you come up with something, just write it down. I have been into doing this and I had like 20 crazy ideas on a piece of paper (a piece of paper, which I have lost)… Anyway, just a quick tip - write your ideas  down.