Block access to all but the highest...don't allow anything else...

(Click on the post title to read the whole post.)

THE ROAD TO "UNSUCCESS"

Save it all for "later", pile it up in a mass of potential, accumulate lots of bits of information to process later, read everything you can on what you're interested in (in bits and pieces).   This is what happens for the people who don't get down the road of life to living successfully.  Everything is saved for later, for processing and "getting it all together...later" - maybe...  

Imagine the life of the person who saves up all sex until old age.  

Or the person who still is penurious far after he has left poverty and is now flush in a good degree of wealth.  

He has forgotten, in his panic and fear, that money is an accumulated source to use for one's own benefit.  He vaguely thinks (and perhaps justifies, in "lazy thinking"), maybe, that "well, it is good to leave more to the children", so he saves it all, living a life of eating metaphorical beans when he could consume a rich life where he has permission to love himself, to do what is good for himself and for his life (and for his spouse).  

THE POINT OF LIFE

The point of life is to "spend" it to "purchase" what one most wants in life and what creates a better experience of life.  All of these are measured in terms of actual results in life - not "potential" results (never attained).

I'm not talking here about how foolish it is to be penurious or to keep saving for later for no reason.

It's not about right/wrong or good/bad.

I'm talking here about actually holding life as so precious that one will not waste it on what does get us our "money's worth" or our "life's worth".   Life only occurs in true results and a great life occurs in getting results of high value.

The two currencies we have to spend are money and time/effort.  If we don't spend them and we let then pile up for "later", then we are wasting our lives.

So, as I write this I must address what spurred me to write this.

SO, NOW...

I have noticed in others the great folly of "piling up" or diverting energy for no good use, but now I note that I am doing the equivalent more than is useful in my life.

Because I am trying to "gather" information to write greatly useful books and materials, I have lots of "materials" to read, many passing through my life in the form of emails.

I fooled myself into thinking that I could just sort and pile up the good ones for later reading.  [I did this so that I would avoid using my golden hours in the morning for a low value activity.called "processing emails".]  

But the great crime was in, whether in precious morning time or non-precious low energy time, doing any processing at all that was not going to be harvested in a practical, time efficient way.  I was "processing" everything, saving it in Evernote, perhaps highlighting and commenting, but not going back, yet, to actually put it into the form of getting a result - I was thinking I was getting a result by piling up lots of potential, but I forgot that the value lies not in a "so that" effort but in the actual experience of the valued result (ultimately in terms of all the components of happiness).  A "so that" is a "means to an end", something one does so that one can at some point in time actually get what one wants.

What does one want?  

It's not "money", as money is only a means.  Unspent it is a pile of uselessness.

It's not "massive knowledge", for it, too, can be unspent (unused) if one's life does not have great results in it.  (Note that the accumulation of knowledge is not "costless", for it takes time away from getting the results one could otherwise get with the time!!!!) 

What one wants is, always, a great experience, good and great memories that one can "experience" when one thinks of them or reviews them on purpose, a feeling of underlying confidence and competence, a feeling of gratitude, a feeling that all is well (and swell) - basically those all fit under the umbrella called "happiness".   (See the 4 major necessary components for happiness listed at the top of:   THE ROAD TO ENDURING HAPPINESS AND GRATITUDE.).  

So, returning to my own situation, I have decided to use my precious resources and invaluable brain only for higher results producing activities.  

Writing these blog posts may be satisfying, perhaps, and possibly useful for some people, but they are scattered in subject matter and often do not end up in contributing to some great beneficial results. So I will do fewer of them. There may be some value as a form of "journaling" for myself, as I think out what is going on in my life and/or brain.

Reading those emails is something I will limit to only 5 a day of the best - the rest will be digitally automatically diverted into "labels" or "subject" "folders" of email, so I spend no time on them until "it is time to process them".  When I so choose to visit the topic and to process the information into a useful whole, then and only then shall I let this use my precious energy that I must only use to get results directly and/or as efficiently as possible through "so that"s that are harvested fully, instead of left in piles never to be processed.  

BLOCK ACCESS!!!

Neil Pasricha's article "How To Save An Hour A Day", excerpted from his book The Happiness Equation - Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything, drives home the vital necessity to "block access" to your precious brain from all matters that are not of the greatest use (to get end-results for oneself now or soon).  Consider that story and see what you can do with it.  

I will now "save" the massive amounts of time I normally would spend in "diversions from the path of getting to where I want to arrive at".  Very limited access to emails (spending the time only to set up the automatic diversion into a "folder" in email, which can be accessed when I will truly use it). 

And I will use that time for what is directly on my key paths (the work to devise useful books and materials to tremendously benefit the lives of others).  

And this means that I must recognize that there should be far fewer blog posts (perhaps seeing that I am delusional in thinking that they are useful in tidbit and piecemeal attempts at communicating).   

Hmmm... I wonder how many hours a day that would free up to actually get higher and better results...

I CHALLENGE YOU...

And, I would challenge you to use the same thinking on your own life.  Where are you "piling" up money or information or projects for "later" or anything that is getting in the way of your staying on the key paths to what you really, really want in life.  [Have you identified what those key objectives are, so that you can set a path?  For instance, Daniel, a prototype on The Site, would have for sure these two:  1) To arrive at a full, solid foundation for peace of mind, confidence and happiness, free of all anxiety and false beliefs (to get rid of endless indecision, angst, constant anxiety, fear of disapproval, shame...and to clarify my emotional awareness so that I might see what is needed and to be able to do the necessary corrections.). 2)  To find out and then implement what is necessary to have myself and my spouse fully enriched by our relationship (and to no longer be not present emotionally and mentally for my wife, to no longer be so ineffective in following through for her, to ... ]

[If you are reading this, you should have only scanned it to determine whether it is useful and, if it is, then you should follow up, right now or put it in your schedule to do, the relevant actions I have suggested here.  But if you are not really going to process and use this for a good forwarding benefit, then just dump it directly into oblivion instead of leaving it in a pile of undones that you will never get around to and which merely clutter your life and rob you of your energy and efforts for no good result.  Realistically, it is best to plan on fully harvesting this and doing all the steps and necessary reading.  Thus, you'd plan to spend four hours or more to fully understand and follow up on this, not stopping until you are "finished" and "complete" on this - and then you will free up massive amounts of time over the next months and years and be able to fill it with real results that lead to true fulfillment and happiness.]

_________________


JUST FOR MYSELF, BUT POSSIBLY USEFUL FOR YOU 

So, my action plan, so that I don't leave the above to lack of clarity/definiteness, and ultimately inaction, is:

1.  Put in my calendar an hour to have my regular emails go into subject "folders" in my email server.  (Just did it right now.)

2.  Finish up my "rules" and routine for using email.  (Only up to 15 minutes in the morning, during breakfast,  for the few that I enjoy for stimulation of thought and energy.  No processing to Evernote on anything that can be processed later from the email subject folder when I get to the point of actually processing AND harvesting from the folder into something useful.) (I just now put a time block in my calendar for "write out rules and routine for using email, see step 2 in action plan in "block access" blog post" - I put in a complete reference so I can recall later where to go and what to do.)

Other steps:

Rules for other diversions:  Block access (don't allow) to any news that is interesting, except for up to a 10 minute limit in low energy times and only in later evening winddown.  Best to skip several days in a row.   The curiosity about it is useless and does not contribute to my life!

Block out two hours each day I'm home at 8-10 for writing the book.  (Posted and blocked out just now, in a unique color.)  Use a chart on the wall, checking off each successful day, using the two month page from Month-by-day - I just posted it right now, so that is done.... 

Rule:  Study only one subject at a time, not allowing lots of subjects or "projects" to clutter up my time.  Otherwise, the lack of continuity  is a huge waste of time.

(When you are reads to make your life much better, do the exercises suggested in Rules, Toward Living My Best Life.)