1) Minimize

The first tip is probably the most important.  You just can’t do everything in life.  When you try to do too many different things and get spread too thin, this is the single biggest threat to becoming a quitter.  Instead, focus on what you really want to spend your time doing and minimize out everything else.  For example, I was signed up for several survey-taking websites.  I had made decent money over the years taking surveys, but I figured out that it took up considerable time to complete the surveys and took time away from what I really wanted to be doing with this blog and other online ventures.  I chose to quit the surveys so I could finish more items that i really wanted.

• Quit what you don’t really want or need so you can focus on finishing the important things.

2) Commit

Once you have cleared away the extraneous items and tasks, look at what you have left.  If you really are passionate about something then take the time to reflect on why you want to accomplish that project and imagine what it will feel like to complete it.  Make a commitment to the task and make a conscious commitment to finishing the task.

• Knowing why you are doing something – and having a vision of what it will feel like to complete it – can help you make it to the end.

3) Serialize

Now that you have committed to a small selection of items, put each part of the task in an order and do the steps one at a time.  One huge risk of being a quitter is taking a shotgun approach and doing a little here and a little there.  You can’t tell how much progress you are making and it isn’t clear what to do next.  If you know exactly what comes next, it makes it easier to overcome that inertia and jump back in when you have time.

• Do things one step at a time to get to the finish.

4) Organize

Having good organizational skills will help you immensely when it comes to finishing projects.  Keep all your supplies or equipment organized and in good shape.  Being organized will help you to track how far along in the project you are so you can clearly know what is left to accomplish.  Also, when everything is well-organized you will find that you want to keep going and it will be easier to pick up where you left off.

• Clarity will help you see where you are in the process and make it easier and more enjoyable to keep going.

5) Segment

This is somewhat in opposition to #1, Minimize.  You can’t completely minimize and only have a single thing to work on, so segment your life into different areas.  Then when you have a specific area, it is much easier to apply all the rest of the rules to a specific segment.  For example, I had a ton of books I wanted to read and I had about 4 different books that I started and never finished.  I segmented “book reading” and got my act together.  Then in this narow space, I was able to apply the other tips much easier.  First, I made a commitment to set aside time for reading and finish everything I had started.  Then, I serialized reading them by putting my books in a stack right on my nightstand and read only the top one.  I also organized my reading by setting up an account at goodreads.com to track the books I had read, were currently reading, and planned to read.

• Divide and conquer: apply all the other tips to each segment of your life.

Logan Challenge

I challenge you today to start with #5 and segment areas of your life.  Then find one segment – an important one, or maybe a small simple area to get you moving – and then apply the tips to that area.

Good luck, and make sure to give me feedback if this was helpful or if you have your own suggestions.

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Life is Now

In reality shows like Survivor, they have an intense experience with a group of people, and when it is all done they have the reunion show where everybody (mostly) gets along and they can rehash what a great experience it was.  Life isn’t like that.  There will be no reunion show.  Life is the show.  What you are doing right this moment is your life and it is defining who you are.  Are you happy with it?  Do you want to change?  What is stopping you?

Later isn’t Guaranteed

There are too many things on my to-do list that I have put off until “later”, but the reality is that there is no guarantee that we will have a “later”.  If you died today, what would you regret not doing?  If you have an answer to that, you should work on making it happen now instead of later.

Constant is Artificial

We tend to create an artificial sense of constancy and consistency in our lives.  By creating routines and patterns, many going back years, we create a feeling that life is constant.  It is anything but constant.  It is an ever changing and evolving thing and that is exactly why life is such a beautiful thing.  Embracing the change and evolution is another big way to life now.

Logan Challenge

Today’s Logan challenge is to find one thing in life that has been lingering on your to-do list and do it today.  Don’t save it for tomorrow, or later, do it today.  It can be something as simple as cleaning the bathroom, or as huge as moving to a new country.  Use this one thing to start a positive motion for you.

Make sure you leave me comments on what you plan on doing, or your own helpful tips for self-motivation.

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How To End The Cleanse

The first things to keep in mind is that you shouldn’t go right back to eating normally.  Do not try to make up for not eating by gorging yourself.  You will feel terrible – both physically and mentally/emotionally.  According to Stanley Burroughs’ original book (there is a link for it in my first day of Master Cleanse post) you should take 3 days to slowly get back to eating and resume normal (or better yet, improved) eating on the 4th day after you finish the cleanse.

Here are the recommendations:

Day 1

Drink several glasses of orange juice.  Nothing more than orange juice for the first day

Day 2

Drink orange juice again in the morning and afternoon and have vegetable soup – heavy on the broth and light on the vegetables – for dinner.

Day 3

Drink orange juice in the morning, vegetable soup for lunch, and normal (vegetarian) meal for dinner

Day 4

Resume eating normally

At the end of Burroughs’ book he has recipes and recommendations for eating habits.  It is a good read with many interesting suggestions.

Going Forward

After a cleanse it is a great time to rethink your everyday diet and make changes.  You are hopefully feeling better, more energetic, and have lost some weight.  Don’t get back into your old habits, but take this opportunity to make changes.  One of the ideas I agree with most in Burroughs’ book is keeping it simple and small.  We have been trained to overeat and we think we need a wide variety of foods.  The quantity and variety of different foods can be bad for our systems – having to work overtime to digest and process all that extra food, and deal with disparate foods that have different digestive requirements.  Just to be clear – variety from day-to-day is great; wide variety at the same time can contribute to digestion problems.

Logan Challenge

I’ll end today with a challenge for you – pick just one thing you want to change about your diet and make that change.  Have you been thinking about making a big change like going vegetarian or vegan?  Maybe something like reducing portion size, getting more fresh fruit, or cooking more.  Pick one thing and make the change.  Make sure to comment and tell me about it.

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Basics
If you aren’t familiar with the Master Cleanse, it is a liquid fast which acts as a detoxification program.  It was thought up in 1941 by Stanley Burroughs. The bare basics of it are that you do not eat solid food for 10-14 (or more) days and drink only lemonade made fresh with organic lemons, organic maple syrup, and cayenne pepper.

Planning

I have the basics like lemon juicer and plastic bottles from my previous time doing the cleanse, but today I went shopping for the ingredients. I got 2 jugs of maple syrup, 4 big bags of lemons, and 4 smaller bags of limes.  You need to plan on about 5-7 lemons per person per day.  I also picked up another box of Smooth Moves herbal tea.

Objectives

Last time one of my main objectives was weight loss, as I was 20+ pounds overweight.  I successfully lost over 20 pounds doing the cleanse.  This time, I am just slightly above my desired weight, so my main objective is detoxification.

My other main objective this time is to document my process and experience to create an ebook I plan on offering to my readers.  Last time I experimented with different ways of managing the actual making of the lemonade and I came up with some things that really worked well.  I believe my methods would be useful.  I also believe that I can offer inspiration for making it through the cleanse.

Logan Challenge

If you have been thinking about doing a Master Cleanse, or if you are having health issues and think it might help, I challenge you to plan and prepare and do the Master Cleanse yourself.  I’ll post more ideas and inspiration here as I go through the process and give updates on my ebook.

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Get Checked Out

It is so important to see your doctor regularly, but many people don’t do this and keep putting it off.  Regular annual checkups with your primary doctor can help to catch things before they become major health problems.  Also, if you wear glasses it is important to get your eyes checked every year.  Wearing out-of-date prescriptions isn’t healthy for you and you deserve to see the world better too.

Stay On Top Of Health Issues

If you know you have specific problems make sure to keep up with them.  I have found relief from chronic headaches by seeing a chiropractor.  When I slip up and don’t get in for a while, then it takes longer to get my neck and headaches back under control.  A little time used by going in regularly saves me in the long run by keeping things in check.

Listen To Your Body

Your body is great at sending out signals when something is wrong.  If you keep getting headaches, don’t just hide them with pain medicine every day, try to figure out what is going on.  Don’t ignore your body, but take the time to listen to it and figure out what it is trying to tell you.  Sometimes you may need to go to several different doctors, specialists, or alternative medicine practitioners before you figure it out.

Logan Challenge

My challenge to you today is to be honest with yourself and write down what you need to do for your health, whether this is getting in to your regular doctor for a checkup, or pursuing a specific health problem.  Then take action and follow up.  Your body will thank you and your family will thank you as well for taking care of yourself!

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1. Know what you want to do

This seems obvious, but isn’t.  In order to get motivated to do something you need a clear idea of what you want to do.  Call this the planning step.  Figure out what you want to do and then come up with a plan.  Writing things down on paper or on the computer can help.  If you make a list of everything in your head it usually seems less daunting than when everything is floating around in a jumble in your head.  Also, once you have a plan you have already taken action and then it is that much easier to go ahead and execute your plan.

2. Schedule it

Don’t just think that you will make time; actually make time.  Put it on your calendar and when the time comes, don’t make excuses.  If it is something recurring, get into a schedule and then stick with it.  For example, I set a goal to add one new post a day to this site so I picked noon as my time to get it out.  If I miss my noon deadline, then I feel bad and that motivates me to get it done (even if it is late).  If you are running, biking, or working out you can help yourself by scheduling a specific day(s) and time and then stick to it.

3. Use the buddy system

This one works great.  If you want to do something like exercise then schedule it (see #2 ) with a buddy.  All last year I averaged one bike ride a week (usually during the work week), but this spring I started scheduling Saturday morning rides with a buddy and now my average has consistently moved up to two times a week.  This really helps for several reasons.  It is an extra motivating factor – you can both encourage each other.  Also, it adds a level of responsibility because you don’t want to let down the other person.  It is much easier to hit snooze or keep watching TV if it is just you by yourself, but if someone else is depending on you then that helps overcome the inertia.

4. Think about it

Take a moment to think about your life and see the direction you want to go.  Are you where you want to be?  Is there something – no matter how small – you could do to move you in a better direction?  By really thinking about who you are and what you want out of life it makes it much easier to get going on something that really speaks to you.  Last week I was watching Jesse James Is A Dead Man and something he said really stuck with me.

I don’t know if you got the memo, but we’re all on a continuous march to death. I’m going to have as much fun as I can while I’m here before I die.
[paraphrased from Jesse James - sorry; I'll fill in the exact quote when I have time to re-watch it]

5. Change your perspective

Change the way you think.  Yes, this seems both obvious and ridiculous at the same time, but it is very effective if you can do it.  You have known yourself for your entire life, so sometimes you are your own worst enemy.  You hold yourself to the ruts and self-images you have about yourself.  Try changing your perspective on yourself.  This one is a little difficult to convey, so lets use some examples.

I grew up an introvert and always viewed myself as shy.  I kept telling myself that I was shy and I continued to believe it.  Once I moved away from my home town, I worked on having a paradigm shift and stopped telling myself I was shy.  I wouldn’t say that I am an extrovert, but I no longer consider myself shy and I don’t act like it either.

Another example came when I did a 10 day lemonade cleanse or lemon juice diet.  It was a great experience and I actually didn’t feel very hungry, but I really missed the action of eating.  Sort of like an ex-smoker missing the oral activity of having a cigarette in their mouth.  This was driving me crazy until day 3 of no food.  I finally had a serious talk with myself and just changed my attitude and perspective.  I got it into my head that I just wasn’t going to put any food in my mouth, and the rest of the 7 days went by like nothing.

Logan Challenge

So here is my challenge to you.  Find one thing that you have been putting off and get motivated to do it today.  I gave you 5 ways to motivate yourself, so you certainly can use them to do one thing today.  Be sure to post a comment with your results.  Good luck, and get off the couch!

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Reduce!

Start getting rid of stuff.  Go through everything you own and either sell it, donate it, reuse it, or trash it.  If you haven’t used something in a year, the chances are pretty good that you don’t need it.  There are always exceptions to this.  I find it hard to part with books, for example.  Even if I haven’t read a book in a year, I still keep some of them.  Make exceptions for a small number of things – what ever works for you.  Do not make exceptions for everything though!  Find bigger things to get rid of too – getting rid of lots of little things is beneficial, but getting rid of large items that you just don’t need will really make a difference.  When we got a big HDTV, We got rid of our huge entertainment center and the TV sits on a small table.  Even though the TV is bigger we have so much more space in our living room and it feels like a more comfortable room now.

Don’t Pay For Clutter

There is no excuse for having a paid storage area that is just clutter.  The same goes for a house that is too big for you.  Take the opportunity to get rid of your clutter and stop paying for a storage area, or even downsize to a smaller house to save money.

Start Small

Yes, it can be overwhelming when you start to go through all of your stuff.  Pick one room or even one part of one room and start somewhere!  Once you get the hang of it and see the positive impact it will be easier to keep going and going.  Make sure you don’t get stuck and stay small though.  Keep going and work your way through your house, garage, or where ever your clutter is.

Keep It Up

Once you have gone through all of your stuff and reduced it, you aren’t done.  Make a lifestyle paradigm shift and continue to periodically purge your stuff.  Yes, maybe that survived the last purge, but do you really still need it?  Continually go through your stuff and reduce your clutter.

Logan Challenge

Now it is your turn.  I challenge you to go through at least one room and reduce your clutter.  Post your results, tips, or feedback here.

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We all have those long-forgotten To Do lists, those tasks we are “eventually” going to do. Take today and Just Do It for something.

Just Do It (Today)

I have found that the more you put things off, the less likely they are to happen. Stop making excuses and do something today that you have been wanting to do. If you get in the habit of doing things right away you can change your way of thinking and become a person of action.

Just Do It (Be Active)

The general idea behind this is to be active instead of passive or inert. Stop watching the world do things around you, stop being a passive watcher and be a doer.

Just Do It (Something, Anything)

Stop making excuses, stop feeling tired, stop placing blame. There is nothing stopping you from doing what you want. Find your it and just do it. Start small or start big, just pick something. Make sure you see it all the way through and finish it. In that sense, starting small can be a good idea because you can build on your accomplishments. Sometimes, however, you need to totally shake things up and find something big to do.

So my Logan Challenge for you today is to find something and Just Do It. Comment here and let me know what you did and how you feel.

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As I discussed previously, I got up over 210 pounds at my heaviest.  I started eating better and excercising and lost a few pounds here and there.  Then I made one change and proceeded to lose 10 pounds in two weeks time.  What was that one thing?  Simple.  I stopped drinking canned soda.  My company – being a hip development shop – provides free soft drinks so we have refrigerators full of soda.  I used to drink 3+ cans of soda a day and in an effort to get healthier I had cut back to only one can a day.  I figured that was ok and I could still lose weight, but boy what a difference that final one can of soda made.  I decided to completely cut out that last can and switch to drinking only water and the occasional juice.  I couldn’t believe the impact!  The pounds melted away!  I was so struck by the difference that one can of soda made that to this day I still don’t drink soda at work.  I drink exclusively water, VitaminWater, and the occasional juice.  I do still drink soda occasionally when I go out to eat, but not on a regular basis.

Also, I discovered a great soda made with cane sugar instead of the high fructose corn syrup crap in regular soda.  It is called Jones pure cane soda and I get mine at our local Target store.  Check them out at www.jonessoda.com.  I like the cream soda flavor.  Be careful because they also sell soda with aspartamine, which I think is terrible.

On that note – before you suggest diet soda, I hate any and all diet sodas for two simple reasons: 1) they taste terrible and 2) the “artificial sweetners” they use are harmful and toxic.  Sounds like a good topic for a future post!

So, my Logan Challenge for you today is to completely cut out soda for a week, a month, or more.  See what the impact is on you and report back here in the comments or email me at logan@loganpaulson.com.

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I hadn’t updated this blog in a while and it was a little daunting to think about all the things I wanted to acomplish.  I have a list of topics I’m waiting to get down on the site and also a ton of ideas in my head for the site design.  Before beginning I took a few minutes and cleaned up my home office and now I feel like I can go all night!

This is a great starting point for my future topic of reducing your possesions to live a simpler life.  I’ll link to it from here once I get it written.

Also, this is a great place to introduce a new concept that I call Logan Challenges.  These will be simple things that I challenge you to do.  Post a comment about what you did and the results.  So here is your first Logan Challenge – clean up the space you are working in right now!

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