First a disclaimer: I am not a dietitian or a medical/fitness professional. These tips are what worked for me and if you find something useful in them, then good for you.

I’ve pretty much always been slim but since living in Canada I felt that I had let my diet slip a bit and put on a bit of weight over the Winter (as many of us do). I’m 5′6″ (165cm) and I was about 139lbs (63Kg) before I began my recent “simple” health and fitness campaign. You might be thinking: “Hey that doesn’t sound overweight at all”, and you’d be right. Nevertheless I had a bit of belly and chest fat that I wanted to get rid of, I was also fed up of feeling crappy/tired quite often, and I wanted to boost my general fitness.

Since embarking on my new simple regime I’ve lost 8lbs in less than a month through a combination of diet and exercise and I feel much healthier and fitter. Now you might be thinking that 8lbs is hardly very much to write home about, but it is 6% of my starting weight and I don’t think there’s much more to lose. Would you like to lose 6% or more of your weight without busting a gut? Read on…

So anyway, I didn’t want to make radical changes because I know that many studies say if you try to make too many big changes at once (like New Year resolutions) you are extremely likely to fail. Here’s what I did (some of these things I was already doing to a certain extent – I just improved them):

1) Give up sugary food and drinks.

This was actually the toughest thing I did because I love food so much. I’m not a coffee drinker and I’d gotten into drinking hot chocolates (from coffee shops) a few of times a week. I also sometimes liked to have biscuits (cookies) with my cups of tea, and I’d even got into drinking coke whilst crunching on my last game. I don’t think I consumed that much sugar, but I was consuming enough that I think my system began to depend on it, and when I didn’t have any for a while I would feel tired and crappy. I really wanted to break that dependence and now I feel a lot more stable throughout the day, which is great and totally worth it.

Other things I avoid include: fruit juice (it’s just sugar water) and smoothies, cakes, chewy nutty “breakfast” bars, chocolate, sugary cereal, maple syrup/honey, all pop/soda (even diet ones for psychological reasons), and food with a medium to high sugar content (I just check the labels). Some of the food I eat still has a bit of sugar in it (baked beans for example) but I try to minimise stuff like that.

2) Eat healthier.

Yes that sounds a big vague, but all I did was stop eating snacks like Doritos, chips ‘n’ dips and the aforementioned healthy-sounding-but-full-of-sugar nutty breakfast bars, and I eat more vegetables and fruit instead. If I ever feel like a snack, I normally eat a bit of fruit or a few nuts (not too many, as nuts are fatty), or maybe a piece of toast, or half a tortilla wrap with some hummus or Tofurky (I’m vegetarian, so I eat weird fake meat stuff). I’m also into eating baby spinach leaves because I read that greens help your mental well-being and it seems to work for me. I just scarf down a load and maybe finish with some baby carrots.

In order to make sure I can maintain this I have to consciously buy healthier food and make sure that my house is well-stocked with it. I try not to go shopping whilst hungry otherwise I’ll buy all sorts of crap. I also live with other family members, and there are some less healthy things in the house, so I have to exert a bit of willpower to not eat them, which can be tough at times.

Oh, I also take a multi-vitamin pill every day, which may have no effect, but I feel good about it.

3) Eat smaller portion sizes.

Some yogi’s say that when you eat your stomach should be 1/3rd full of food, 1/3rd water, and 1/3rd nothing. I sometimes used to eat until I was bursting and couldn’t eat any more. Whilst eating loads is fun, it stretches your stomach, stresses your system (and probably sends you to sleep), and makes you gain weight if you don’t burn it off. Well I certainly still eat more than the yogi’s say you should, but I just tweak my portion sizes down a bit or make sure there is more veg and less starchy stuff (like pasta, potato, rice etc). This one is really easy to do.

Oh and if you do have starchy stuff try to make sure it’s wholegrain like brown bread, brown rice (takes longer to cook) and brown pasta etc. because it takes longer to release the carbohydrates and so you don’t get such a blood sugar hit all in one go. Also, remember to chew your food properly to aid digestion and to help your body realise when it’s full before you eat too much.

4) Eat out less

When I worked at Big Fish Games in downtown Vancouver I often ate lunch in a restaurant with friends, which, although fun, hurt my wallet and my waistline. Now I’m indie again, I don’t eat out very often (sometimes with my wife), and when I do I always drink only water (instead of wine of pop).

One thing I find tough to do in a restaurant is leave some of the food on the plate if the portion size is too big. This is partly because I’ve paid for it and partly because I kinda feel bad leaving food on my plate, but it’s something I’m training myself to do.

5) Have less takeouts

My most common takeouts (or home delivery, seeing as I was going for ultimate laziness) were Pizza, Chinese and Indian. Most of those are laden with fat/oil/sugar and I tended to stuff my face with them and also drink pop/soda with the pizza. Now I get takeouts less often and also eat smaller portion sizes. We pretty much always have food left over that we save and eat the day after (curry always tastes better the day after).

6) Reduce alcohol and caffeine

I’m not much of a drinker, but if I do drink it’s always either a sip or two of neat whiskey or vodka. This is because they have a high alcohol content and so have an effect without having to consume tons of sugar like in beer or wine. Besides, if I do drink, my brain power is basically reduced for the rest of the evening, which is no good for coding or playing games that require fine motor skills, and I don’t sleep as well.

I read that regular caffeine drinkers need caffeine to maintain a normal level of alertness because it no longer gives them the same boost it used to when they first began taking it. I’m not sure it’s possible to reduce caffeine because you’ll probably always feel like more due to the nature of the drug, so I just totally gave it up years ago whilst training for my first black belt in Aikido. However, when I was crunching on my game recently I got into drinking coke (and snacking) and could really notice my body craving for some more each day. When I gave it up I actually felt a bit crappy for a few days but it soon passed. The crappy feeling was probably also due to going through a bit of a “detox” period due to lack of sugar and healthier food as well.

7) Get a standing desk

OK that’s enough about diet stuff, I’m sure you’ve heard it all before in some form or another, but suffice to say, it worked for me and I feel good! So now onto the exercise stuff.

Back in February I got myself a standing desk. It’s actually an Ikea desk with adjustable shelves that I set at the correct height so I could stand up and use my PC. At first my feet ached, and so did my back, and my legs, and also my hips (pretty much everything!) But this gradually got better and now I can stand at my desk to code and play games for hours on end. I also have a high stool that I can use on the rare occasions when I feel so tired that I must sit down, but it’s quite uncomfortable so I normally end up standing again before long.

Having a standing desk has some cool benefits: I have a better posture (no longer slumped in a chair), better digestion (no cramped stomach/bowels), greater clarity of mind (I don’t get sleepy as often), stronger legs (I never get tired in queues/line ups now), greatly reduced back pain (I used to get pretty bad lower back pain), I don’t want to waste as much time at the computer (instead I spend it with family, on other hobbies like playing the guitar or reading, and on going outside.)

8 ) Walk 30 minutes every day

Whilst my standing desk was an improvement, I felt that my legs and knees were a bit stiff and so I decided that I needed to get them moving. I made a commitment to go for a brisk 30 minute walk every day no matter what the weather was. I don’t stroll, I like to walk at a good pace. Often I end up going for longer walks/hikes with my wife, although I don’t always go for a walk on days when I do other intense exercise that lasts for more than 30 minutes, like when I teach Aikido.

I live in a nice area where I can simply walk around and enjoy people’s gardens, so I don’t always have to drive/travel somewhere first. Normally, if I do travel somewhere, I walk for longer because it’s a special outing. Sometimes walking around where I live can feel “pointless” and so to combat that I go on walking errands to the shops or bank and then carry on walking a few more blocks when the errand is done.

9) Tense your muscles

This one might sound a bit weird, but I often tense my muscles whilst doing other things; this burns energy and makes them stronger. For example, when I clean my teeth, I tense my stomach the entire time. Sometimes when waiting around to pick up the kids at school, or when walking, I tense my stomach or chest or arms (hoping that no one is looking ). I also tense muscles and move around a lot when I’m at my standing desk.

My biggest confession of all is that I pose in the mirror before getting in the bath . When I pose in the mirror I tense different muscles in my body and hold them for a slow count of 10. This helps me appreciate what I’ve got already and spurs me on to keep getting healthier, and it provides my wife with a good laugh. In fact I believe that when you focus on what you want more of, your mind and body is more likely to find ways to make it happen.

10) Be more active

Yes, this is a vague as “Eat Healthier” but let me give you some examples of what I mean.

I try to stay in an active mindset so that if an opportunity presents itself, I do an active thing instead of nothing or a lazy thing; such as taking the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator. In fact I always run up stairs both at home and everywhere else. When I’m in the park with my kids, I play games like “follow the leader” where we make up an assault course around the climbing equipment. If I realise I need something from upstairs, I run up and get it instead of thinking “I won’t bother, I’ll get it later.” I try to do my fair share of household chores (my wife would probably disagree) because pretty much all chores are exercise in some form or another (hotel maids are often super fit).

I also do funny little exercises from time to time like push myself up from the counter tops in the kitchen or stand on one leg etc. Once you get into the active mindset, you’ll find there’s a lot you can do and enjoy doing. You don’t have to go to a gym to stay fit.

OK that’s it for now. I hope that you found my tips interesting and perhaps can use some of them yourself.

Do you have any simple tips to share as well? One I missed out was getting a good night’s sleep, which, unfortunately, I regularly fail at for a variety of reasons.

Photo by Andrea_44

I was recently reading about someone who had a 90 minute commute to work and felt that they had no choice in the matter. I would never waste that much of my life (3 hours a day!) traveling to work for someone else, especially as I have children who I want to see in the evenings. It’s very important to remember that we ALWAYS have a choice in what we do, from tiny choices that are made many times a day (e.g. drinking water versus pop), to huge choices such as having children or moving to a new country.

I have a piece of paper that I wrote in 1999 on a noticeboard in front of me. It says “I am in control of my life” so that I never forget that.

Here are some choices I’ve made:

- I moved continent (from UK to Canada) and I could move back if I wanted to.
- I quit a well paid job recently and went indie. In fact I did the same back in 2005 when I stopped making business software.
- I could move to Poland or Ukraine or Malaysia and live cheaply, but I choose not to.
- I found a place for a family of 4 + cat in Point Grey for $2200 a month. Still not cheap, but much better than the average price around here.
- I choose not to have any more kids.
- I choose to drive a car, I could ditch it and save $500 a month on auto loan/insurance.
- I chose vegetarianism and healthy eating 20+ years ago and it has kept me slim.
- I chose Aikido 14 years ago and kept doing it every week no matter what.

Life is full of choices including radical ones. People are often blinded by their current life situation and blame external circumstances, but that is victim mentality. Making “better” choices is not always easy. It takes time to develop the awareness that you have a choice and the willpower to make it.

What choices could you make today that will improve your life?

photo by cpalmieri

I like saying “Yes!” to new opportunities and experiences … but not always.

Saying “Yes” to opportunities

I’ve been offered lots of opportunities to take on various responsibilities in my life such as: Becoming Manager of a business software company, taking over an Aikido club, and moving to Vancouver to become a Game Designer/Programmer.

They’ve all been fantastic growth experiences and I’m glad I said “Yes” to them. Sometimes people say “No” to such opportunities; perhaps because they think it will be too difficult, perhaps because they think that they won’t be able to do a good enough job, or perhaps because they are afraid of change. I had the same worries when I said yes, and I *did* have to work hard, and I *did* have to grow as a person in order to do the job, and there *was* a lot of change. And that is exactly why you should say “Yes” when a fantastic opportunity comes your way. Don’t shrink back into your comfort zone, come charging headlong out of it!

What opportunities have you said “No” to that you have regretted ever since? Is there an opportunity sitting on your plate right now (or just round the corner) that you can emphatically say “Yes” to? I hope so.

Saying “Yes” to your kids and loved ones

Last year when I was flying back to Canada form the UK I say a cheesy Jim Carey movie called Yes Man and I liked it a lot. After that I made a big effort to say “Yes” to my kids more often when they wanted me to do stuff with them or look at stuff. I was actually a bit sad to see that they looked surprised when they said “Dad, can you come and look at…” and I said “Yes!” and put down whatever I was doing. I was sad because I realised that I hadn’t been doing that enough

Anyway, we can’t change the past but we can change the future. So I resolved to be a lot more of a Yes Man with my kids (I just stopped writing this to help my youngest son on World of Goo) and it feels great – although I can still do better. When you are old you’ll look back upon the special times you spent with your kids and you’ll be grateful that you didn’t do an extra 30 minutes of work here and there because you spent it doing something that mattered with your kids instead.

What can you do today with your kids that they’ll really appreciate and remember? Can you do that every day?

I think I’m pretty good at saying “Yes” to Helen (my loved one) when she asks me things; sometimes little things like “Can you make me a cup of tea?” and sometimes bigger things like “Can you look after the kids while I go away for a few days?”. I also try to do small things without being asked as a sign of love, and to do them with a good feeling.

Try saying “Yes” to your loved one next time they ask you for something and better still, try doing something loving spontaneously.

Saying “No” to responsibility

Recently someone asked me if I could take on permanent role at Toastmasters and I said “No (thanks)”. I’m already finding it quite a commitment to just write speeches and take on the various weekly roles that crop up at Toastmasters, especially combined with having a full-time job, 2 kids, and running an Aikido club amongst other things. I knew that the role I was being asked to do would just eat up even more of my free time and feel like a chore, and I didn’t think it was something that would help me grow – so I said “No”. Now, to be clear, I am very grateful that other people DO take up these roles at Toastmasters because I get to benefit from their generosity, and I hope that they get something from it too. Perhaps later on, when I don’t feel like every minute of my day is mapped out, I will take on a role at the club, so that I can give something back.

The next time someone asks you to take on a responsibility, consider “Is this a good fit for me? Can I do it easily? Will I enjoy it?”, and if not, then maybe you should say “No” even though you might feel “obligated”.

Saying “No” to loved ones

Sometimes loved ones may ask you to do stuff that you really don’t feel like doing right now (or ever ). Sometimes what they are asking isn’t actually very important to them but would be a real hassle for you, so ask them “How important is this to you?” and figure out if you can say “No” without it being a problem, or perhaps “Sure I’ll do it, but I’d prefer not to do it at this instant. Can I do it later?” – that’s a good one to use when you are gaming and you get asked to put the trash out Just make sure you DO actually do it later otherwise you’ll build up resentment. Nobody likes a “sayer” who isn’t a “doer”.

Of course sometimes the thing you are being asked *is* important to the other person, and if you truly love them, then perhaps you should do it (like getting up in the night to deal with a screaming baby). However, occasionally you may have to say “No, I don’t feel like doing that. Why is this so important to you?” because the other person has have become fixated on something in a slightly obsessive way, and if you can get to the bottom of that you might be able to avoid doing whatever it is they want ever again! Watch out though, because many people don’t like having their “beliefs” or “habits” questioned in such a way…as the phrase goes “Choose your battles wisely.”

Is there anything that you would feel a lot better saying “No” to? If so, try to do it in as polite a way as possible – and remember that you might hear a few more (hopefully good-natured) “Nos” coming your way as a result, so be prepared for that. Good luck!

Conclusion

So I hope that I haven’t horribly confused you with my suggestions. Basically listen to your heart and if it feels right, say “Yes” and, if not, say “No” – it’s that simple. Watch out that it’s not your “lazy” self saying “No”, or your “ought to” self saying “Yes”. Saying “No” takes practice, and it won’t always be easy, but in the long run it’s easier than saying “Yes” to absolutely everything until you are utterly overwhelmed. Saying “Yes” to difficult things also takes practice, but can yield fantastic results, so go for it!

Photo by: viZZZual.com (licensed under Creative Commons)

Quite often I see posts on Indiegamer about people who have nearly finished making their game but then they’ve hit “the wall” and seem to have lost all motivation to continue. Their story is often all too familiar: been making a game for two years, been doing all the work on their own, recently come to the realisation that there is still a ton of stuff to do before it can be released.

I’ve hit the wall a few times myself, so here are some tips that might help you to climb over or break through your own wall:

1) Should you really be finishing this game anyway? Sometimes you might just be flogging a dead horse. Perhaps the best thing to do is ditch the game and begin work on a new one (or give up making games completely, gasp!). There’s no shame in changing projects when you know that the game won’t be financially viable, or you’ve had a much better idea (providing that you don’t have a “better” idea every week and never finish anything) – you’ll have still learned something e.g. how not to do it and how to make your next game faster and better.

I ditched Iron Fist and made my first match-3 game and it led onto to a fantastic career in casual games.

2) Make a To Do list of all the remaining tasks and bugs. Don’t forget to include publishing tasks, which can add up to weeks or months’ worth of work. Then add time estimates to all those tasks. This way you’ll get a decent idea of how long the game may actually take to complete. You may then decide to cut features and only include the high priority tasks in order to bring the launch date nearer, or you may decide that it’s not worth investing any more of your time in the project.

One good thing about having a prioritised To Do list is that you have a clear path about how to proceed and can get satisfaction from knowing what to do each day and crossing off completed tasks. The game doesn’t feel so massive once it’s split into discrete chunks.

3) Get the game play tested (privately or publicly). If the play testers think the game sucks, then maybe you should ditch it unless you really believe that you can still make it great without too many changes. If they think it’s great, then hopefully this will motivate you to finish it and make it even better – especially if they keep asking you when it will be ready.

4) Tell everyone a launch date. Once you commit to something publicly, you are much more likely to complete it in order to not look like a fool (or a “sayer” but not a “doer”).

5) Get some other team members on board who can help finish it and so you can motivate each other (like going for a jog or to the gym with a partner). Of course getting reliable team members is a whole can of worms in itself…

6) Get a publisher or portal interested so you know that you have at least one outlet for sales.

7) Visualise the goal! Remind yourself why you started making the game. Was it just to have fun? If so, and you’ve stopped having fun, then make another game and have fun again, it’s that simple! If it’s to be financially successful, then see the finished game in your mind looking great and selling bucketloads – and figure out the shortest route to get there.

8 ) Take a break. Maybe totally away from the computer (go and do something healthy). Or maybe by playing games that inspire you to get back to making your own game. Sometimes taking a break allows you to come back to your game with fresh eyes so that you can make better decisions.

9) Make a mini-game for a few days. This may get your creative juices going again so that you can get back to your original game with enhanced vigor. It may even make you realise that you need to ditch your game in order to make a better game.

Tips 8 and 9 may work for some people, but part of me still thinks that they are procrastination techniques when you should really just …

10) Finish it! Professionals are finishers, and hobbyists/wannabes are not – sorry if that sounds harsh but it’s true. Stop messing around, just knuckle down and finish it. It’s not easy, sometimes it’s a real slog, but you just have to push on through and finish it to savor the sweet joy of launching a game. If you want it bad enough, you’ll do it. So, what are you waiting for? Close your browser and get to it!

Last Monday I did my second speech at Toastmasters Club 59. It was a speech about money, a topic that some people are not comfortable talking about, but it didn’t seem to phase my audience because the speech went down very well indeed!

Here’s the written version of the speech – the actual speech varied a little bit from this because I did it from memory.

How I changed my Financial Blueprint

Greeting

Thank you madam Toastmaster. Good evening fellow toastmasters and most welcome guests.

Pause.

Strong Opening

“Rich People Suck!”

Pause

Last year I attended a seminar about changing our attitude towards money and during one exercise we had to write down our negative beliefs about money. The guy next to me wrote “Rich people suck” and it’s quite a common negative belief, along with things like: “I don’t deserve to be rich”, or “money is evil and not spiritual”, or “finances are sooo boring”.

Tonight I’m going to tell you about a book I read that made a big impact on the way I think about money.

About the Book

I’ve been into positive thinking and personal development for quite a few years but I never really applied that style of thinking to my finances properly until I read this book.

[Hold up the book]

It’s called “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” by T Harv Eker.

Has anyone heard of it?

It’s not a dry book about finances – it’s packed full of great ideas, and is quite funny and blunt in places.

[Put book down]

The main aim behind the book is to get you to look at your financial blueprint, that’s the way you think about money and deal with money, and to replace any thoughts that hinder your financial success with better thoughts.

I read it quickly and enjoyed it a lot, and then straight away I lent it to Helen, my partner, and said “you’ve got to read this so we can be on the same financial wavelength”.

Our successes

This was back in January 2007 and at the time I ran my own company making computer games and Helen was (and still is) a freelance Science Writer.

One of the things Helen got from the book was a realisation that she wasn’t charging enough – that her work was worth much more. She doubled her rates immediately and still got plenty of work and was able to say no to lower paid jobs. A couple of months later she was earning triple her original rate on some particular jobs!

As for myself, for a little while I’d had a goal of making £5000 from my game company every month. In March 2007 I had my first £5000 month. Then my company went on to have a great year, and the following year my turnover doubled and things are still going strong!

A large part of our success was because we are good at what we do but when we shifted our attitudes towards money, things got even better.

So where do negative beliefs about money come from?

Beliefs about Money

When we are children we hear our parents talk about money in the home, and we hear our peers at school, and what they say begins to shape our financial blueprint.

“Money doesn’t grow on trees”
“No way! We can’t afford that”
“I got the blues so I’m going out shopping.”

Stuff like that. Then by the time we reach adulthood our financial blueprint is already affecting the way we deal with money. It defines if we are always broke, or if we horde our money, or if we are well on the way to being a millionaire.

The book talks about many negative beliefs about money and offers positive alternatives that we can replace them with. Also the great thing about the advice in the book is that it doesn’t just apply to money, it’s about creating wealth in all areas of your life such as love, happiness and health.

For example, one concept I love from the book is that of being bigger than your problems. So let’s say on a scale of 1 to 10 that I’m only a level 1 in terms of dealing with problems. Then along comes a level 3 problem and it seems insurmountable to me. I think “Oh my God, how am I going to deal with that?” But if I work on myself and expand my comfort zone so that I’m say a level 8 person, a level 3 problem is really tiny by comparison, something that I can deal with easily.

Educating yourself

Therefore educating yourself about managing money is vital in becoming financially successful. Once you start effectively managing your money you start to think more about long-term savings, ways to cut your costs, and ways to invest your money to make it grow.

Another great piece of advice from the book is to split your income into several different bank accounts. That’s what I do.

I put 10% of my earnings into long-term savings that I never touch, this is for my future.

Then I make sure all my outgoings are dealt with and then I split the remainder into several more accounts: a giving account, a contingency account, an education account and a Play account. That’s the best account because the idea is to spend it every month just having fun. When you know how much money you have spare for fun you don’t overspend.

The result of using a system like this is that I know exactly how much money I’ve got available for different things. I feel much more in control of my finances.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I encourage you to examine your beliefs about money and ask yourself if those beliefs are serving you well or hindering you. I also encourage you to educate yourself more about money in order to manage your finances more effectively.

Strong Ending

Finally I’d like to remind you that to be successful in whatever you’re passionate about, you’ll need to overcome many obstacles along the way …

And that is why … you need to be … “bigger than your problems!”

Thank you madam Toastmaster.

I like to give feedback to people about a whole bunch of stuff from professional to personal matters. However, I learned a while ago not to just give feedback without being asked because it just pisses most people off, and also to try to help the person see for themselves what you want them to see as then they will be more willing to learn and grow. It’s not that easy to bite your tongue sometimes and find a more subtle way when someone clearly needs some guidance

I saw an interesting quote on the Steve Pavlina forums today:

“Loving someone doesn’t mean that you let them get away with bad behaviour. Real love is about seeing the best in other people and holding them up to being their best selves.”

This makes total sense to me. I wish it was just as simple as giving people direct feedback to help them grow (this is what we do in an Aikido lesson for example). I personally like this sort of feedback myself providing that it’s delivered constructively and without negative energy/emotion. Also, on a selfish level, if you are involved with that person in a personal or business relationship then probably helping them to improve and grow will make your life easier! That’s a win-win situation.

An alternative approach is to say nothing and lead by example and trust that people will find their own way. The problem I have is that some people just don’t “look” so they never see your example, they just carry on oblivious. What should you do in such a case? Start making subtle hints, or maybe just avoid the person altogether! (not always possible). Certainly it’s a conundrum that I’m still learning how to deal with.

Another approach is to alter myself so that I don’t need to “fix” everything and everyone So basically I’d need to just accept things as they are and chill out a bit. Sounds great right? But it’s not easy at all. Do you just let your kids throw food on the floor, or do you ask them not too? (or do you get a wipe clean floor?) Do you let your partner/friend regularly insult you to your face or do you tell them it upsets you? (or maybe you just get a new one!) Do you ask your employee to become more productive or do you just hope that they will anyway naturally without any input from you? (again, getting a new one may apply here too). These are some questions that I struggle with on a daily basis, and I try out different approaches, with varying, and often inconsistent results. I’m hoping to get closer to the answers over time by experimenting, and by asking other people what works for them.

What is your approach?

I was just reading an article by Steve Pavlina which starts off saying that having a fixed income (i.e job) is dumb. You may or may not agree with that but there’s some other great stuff in the article and I highly recommend reading it.

Anyway I wrote a comment in the forums and realised it would make a good blog post.

Positive Affirmation Posters

There was some talk about putting up positive affirmation posters at work and what colleagues might think. So I posted about my experience as follows:

I put up some positive affirmations at work about being highly productive and loving working on my current game and making the best games in the world etc. and got a funny look from at least one person, but I don’t care because it works for me. You do have to break through a certain amount of social embarrassment if you do something like that though.

Hire an accountant

I was doing a talk last night at the Vancouver Film School to a load of Game Design students about my Indie game developer days and I mentioned some key things that Steve mentioned today. One was about hiring an accountant because they save you time and money so are totally worth it. I don’t want to fill out boring forms, I’ll delegate that to an expert so I can do what I do best. I’ve used an accountancy firm for 7 years with zero regrets.

Speculate to Accumulate

Another thing I mentioned at the talk was “Speculate to Accumulate” in relation to spending money on a business venture. Normally people have no problem spending money on stuff that depreciates in value like a car or a huge TV, but when it comes to investing money in something, fear kicks in and they don’t want to spend the money. In 2006 I decided to spend about $2300 on a game I was making and I reasoned that the worst case was I’d loose it all, a middle case was I’d loose some or break even, and a best case was I’d profit by anywhere from $0.01 to infinity. Turns out the game has made $23,000 so far, nearly a 10x ROI, and it only took me 5 weeks to make, so I’m pretty pleased with that. Also, I constantly receive royalties for that game so the figure goes up every day

Why am I employed right now?

You may have noticed from my post above that I’m now employed instead of Indie (self-employed), and yes that was a hard transition but I did it for the experience of moving to another country and learning from the best in the industry, and to get paid loads. I still own my company and it still makes me passive income, which is nice.

So, who knows what the future holds? (Well I guess I probably do as I have a 5 year plan – do you? But things can change.) Most likely at some point I’ll run my own company again after building up more skills and contacts. Some people would worry about posting stuff like that on-line, but it’s the truth and don’t believe in having two personalities i.e. public and private like people do on facebook, how lame – and that’s a topic for a whole other post. Besides whilst I’m still an employee, I’ll be a damn good one because I want it to be win-win for me and them.

Anyway, that’s my thoughts. Hope they are useful to someone.

A good friend of mine just wrote me letter and he was telling me about the various growth-oriented things he was doing (hobby, business, family) and that he felt overwhelmed with everything and was wondering why he was doing all that stuff. Interestingly he felt a bit better towards the end of the letter just through the act of writing about it because he was able to clearly express and share his worries instead of them being a nebulous floating bad feeling in his mind (and no doubt a horrible physical feeling in his abdomen).

Lesson: Write stuff down, get it out of your mind whether it’s current tasks, future goals or fears. Don’t dwell on it.

Offer to you: tell me your worries in the comments (or email me if you want to) and see if it makes you feel better.

Anyway, I replied to him as follows:

So I hear that you are feeling overwhelmed by your new hobby, your new business venture, and your responsibilities as a parent and husband. Well that is understandable and OK to feel that way. In fact it’s GOOD. Do you know why? Because I was reading something a while back that said as we GROW we push the boundaries of our comfort zones, and we have to grow our comfort zones in order to be able to DO MORE and EARN MORE otherwise we would stay in the same (crappy) place.

So what happens when you grow is that your OLD mind tries to drag you back to where it was because it doesn’t like the change, it wants comfort and to curl up into a ball and do nothing (I experience this from time to time, and felt it Monday last week when it was raining and I was sitting on the toilet before going to work, BUT by the end of the day I had kicked myself into action and felt great about all the things I’m doing). You only experience that feeling of “why am I doing all this stuff?” BECAUSE you have changed and are growing – it’s an indication that you are doing the right thing.

My advice is roll with it; when you feel crappy say “that’s OK, that’s my old mind trying to drag me down, so I must be changing”. Then think about the amazing positive outcomes of all the things you are doing and visualise them. Hopefully you can change your feeling. If not, then go for a walk, connect with nature, listen to some music, read something positive, or get on with one of your projects until your *new* mind takes back over again. I hope this helps!

I’ve been practicing Aikido for 12 years and have learnt many amazing things including Ki Breathing from my Sensei. We often do Ki breathing for a small amount of time in an Aikido lesson but the real benefit comes from doing it everyday or when you are stressed or ill.

Ki breathing involves slowly breathing in and out from your centre (Hara), which is located 2 inches below your naval, whilst imagining a flow of Ki (life energy) entering and exiting your body with your breath. It has an excellent calming effect, especially when combined with a meditation, and helps to keep you healthy or heal you if you are unwell because of the increased flow of Ki (and oxygen) to the whole of your system.

How to do it

- Ideally you should sit in a kneeling posture called Seiza (the front row of black belts in the photo below are sitting in Seiza. That’s me second in from the left at the front.) However, if you have not sat like this very often, it will probably quite painful so you might want to start like that and then swap to cross-legged. Keep practising sitting in Seiza until you build up endurance.

- You can do Ki breathing sitting in a chair or standing up or even lying down, but you may be more likely to fall asleep if you are lying down

- Make sure that you are relaxed but not slumping; feel dynamic and alert.

- Ideally you should be in a quiet place so that you can concentrate. However, once you get good at Ki breathing you can do it anywhere with your eyes open such as on a bus if you don’t mind people thinking “what are they doing?”

- Close your eyes and take a big breath in to start.

- Breathe out slowly through your mouth making an “ah” sound, like you’ve just had a sip of a nice cup of tea. Your mouth should be quite wide open and the ah sound should be long and steady. The sound is made so that you know your breath is consistent.

- As you breathe out imagine Ki (energy/life force/spirit) from your centre travelling up your body and exiting your mouth and going onwards and outwards to infinity. Also feel any negative energy, feelings, worries or illness leaving your system.

- When you have finished breathing out lean forward slightly and imagine that you are still breathing out for a few seconds.

- Then close your mouth and breathe in slowly through your nose. The temptation will be to suddenly inhale a lot of air but you need to control your mind and body so that you do it slowly.

- As you breath in imagine Ki from the Universe flowing down into your centre, healing and revitilising every cell in your system and filling you full of positive fresh energy.

- When you have finished breathing in lean back up to the starting position and imagine that you are still breathing in for a few seconds.

- Then repeat at least 10 times. This may take quite a while because ultimately you should be aiming at 45-60 seconds for a complete cycle, but that may take a bit of practice to achieve.

- Always finish with an out breath, just breathe naturally after that. You may want to finish off with a meditation of your choice because you’ll be in a particularly receptive state.

After you have finished the Ki breathing, just slowly become aware of your physical body once again and then slowly open your eyes and become aware of your surroundings. You may feel quite spaced out but you should feel very relaxed, calm, happy and alive!

Ki breathing is a great start to the day, or a great end to the day because it can help you to get the most from your sleep. Also if you need to take a break from work or whatever in the middle of the day, even 5 minutes of Ki breathing can help. Try it out instead of going on Facebook or Youtube (or having a cigarette) next time you want a break. Enjoy!

It’s been a week since Helen and I attended the Millionaire Mind Intensive Seminar and I’ve had these notes burning a hole in my desktop – so it’s high time I turned them into a proper post.

A bit of background

A couple of years ago Helen and I read Secrets of The Millionaire Mind by T Harv Eker. We enjoyed it a lot and we immediately made positive changes to our financial “blueprints”. Just over a month ago we saw T Harv Eker in person in Vancouver as he presented a 2.5 hour seminar about being a “Wealthy Warrior” in the current times of economic hardship. At the end of the seminar he gave us free tickets to the Millionaire Mind Intensive that we’ve just attended. You can read more about the book and initial seminar here.

Cost

As I mentioned before, we got the tickets for free and supposedly they are worth $1295, but of course everyone I spoke to was there for free except for those who paid for VIP seats right at the front. For us it was not totally free though because we had to pay a childminder $500 for the weekend (3 very long days) and although we took a big bag of snacks we still bought a couple of meals and a few Starbucks. We’ve actually logged everything as an expensive towards our new business (more on this later).

Was it worth it?

So was it worth it? Yes I believe it was but only if we make some changes to our lives based on what we learned and also start our new business as planned. Also the networking was great and may yield great business contacts and/or friends. It was an interesting and generally fun and empowering experience too although it was very tiring due to the long hours. Furthermore, observing the sales techniques and what was happening to the people was fascinating from a psychological point of view, especially as I’ve just read a book on the psychology of persuasion and another on NLP.

Day 1

We had to turn up at about 8am on the first day to register and then the seminar started at 9am. When the presenter was introduced I and many others were a bit shocked to find out that it was not T Harv Eker himself. However, this actually turned out fine because the presenter was really good and he didn’t shout as much as T Harv does. I heard someone else call him an “everyman” – certainly his temperament was more suited to us and that was a relief as I had been a bit worried about T Harv hollering at us for 3 days flat.

There were about 500 people in a very large hotel ballroom (Marriot Pinnacle in downtown Vancouver) with a stage at the front. It was pretty packed, all the seats were full. By the end of the seminar a few seats were empty, but most people stayed for it all.

The first thing you notice is that the presenter does loads of audience participation stuff; so you have to repeat words after him, or finish the end of his sentences, or lift you hand up and say “Good” or whatever. Also there’s tons of high fiving the people around you. At first this feels odd, but when you get into it, it’s good fun. It’s all part of the brainwashing which helps you to change yourself (and also helps them to sell you stuff later on…)

Breaks

About every 2 hours there’s a 15 minute break which is just long enough to buy something they’ve just mentioned like CDs or cards or whatever and go to the loo. Also they get everyone to stand up and do stretches every so often. There’s lots of other standing up though for “declarations” where you speak/shout an affirmation aloud and for working with other people.

There are also two meal breaks at around 12:30pm and 6pm. Typically the breaks are only an hour which is not quite long enough to find a restaurant and eat and relax and get back in time. You are better off finding a cafe where you can get served quickly (we went to Urban Fare a couple of times). Also at lunch time we just ate snacks outside in the sun, which was really nice.

Upon returning after breaks normally everyone was dancing to some cheesy music and waving their arms around and clapping etc. This was pretty weird to me, but at least it energised everyone. The presenter worked hard on keeping everyone energised the whole weekend.

According to the booking form the event was supposed to go on until 11pm on Day 1 and 2 and finish at 7pm on Day 3. However, it actually finished at 9:30pm on days 1 and 2 which was a relief because we were knackered. It did start an hour earlier on Sunday though, at 8pm instead of 9pm. I believe there’s a reason for these long days which I’ll elaborate on later.

Oh one more thing, take a sweater in case you get cold because on the last day the air con was cranked up and I needed the sweater some of the time.

The Training

Much of the training covered what was in the book but with repetition and group exercises plus there was some new stuff too. This certainly helped to cement it into my mind and made me realise that although I’d read the book and done some stuff from it I could certainly make more changes for the better (which I’ve done).

The presenter talks and writes stuff on a big notepad and gets you to repeat plus you have a work book that you write stuff down in. This may sound boring but it’s actually fine because it’s broken up with many group exercises, for example:

- Singing Mike and the Mechanics and Whitney Houston (seriously! I never thought I’d be doing that with 500 people at once, it was weird to say the least.)

- Something with a $100 bill but I won’t tell you what we did because we all made a promise.

- Breaking an Arrow on our throats (mine said “Procrastination” on it). I was the group leader due to having martial arts experience and was able to encourage those who had difficulty in breaking through their fears. It was pretty cool.

- Meditation

- Discussion of our issues and emotions regarding money. (Some people got very emotional)

- Role Play

- NLP stuff including Pain Aversion

- Hugs. We had to hugs loads of people. This was actually really cool and I enjoyed it a lot. Another fun exercise was giving people compliments. I got really into this and wished I could do it to random people every day. I will try to incorporate more complimenting into my life though.

…and lots more. It was certainly a varied program. They recognised that people learn in different ways and so tried out loads of different things. All of it was designed to permanently alter your financial “blueprint” or at least make you aware of yours so that you can continue the process of change after the seminar.

My financial blueprint

At the start of the seminar you fill out a questionnaire which asks you what you think about money, weath, rich people etc. You use this to identify non-supportive areas that need work. Mostly I wrote very supportive things but there were plenty of people who had major problems and wrote stuff like “Rich people suck”. My two main issues were “It’s hard work to get rich and there won’t be much time for anything else like my family and playing games etc” and “It takes money to make money”. I had some other minor hang ups too. Anyway, I’m pleased to report that since the weekend I have erased those two non-supportive beliefs and it feels great. Helen also worked through a lot of stuff and she found it very useful. It’s amazing actually, it’s like living with a different person when we discuss money now (it’s great! The weekend was worth it just for that). Everyone else I spoke to made big breakthroughs too.

We also did an exercise where we identify if we are a Saver, Spender, Avoider or Monk. It turns out I’m a Saver, although it is possible to have a mix and I think that really I’m a Saver/Spender if that makes sense. Helen found out what she was and this has helped her a lot. The interesting thing is that often when you find out what your money type is you realise that you apply the same approach to other areas of your life too! For example if you avoid dealing with money, perhaps you also avoid dealing with other major areas of your life too like health, love, happiness.

Upselling

Because the seminar was free I suspected that they might do a lot of upselling of their other courses and products, which they certainly did. The products weren’t upsold that much, and I even bought a few good value ones (a deck of affirmation cards and a small Speed Wealth book, which I think I already own in e-book form, and Helen bought some meditation CDs that are really good). But the other courses were upsold BIG TIME.

On the first day they did a sales pitch once for two courses combined into one. The sales pitch lasted AGES, maybe an hour because it was interspersed with stories and information. On the second morning, after the “compère” hyped us all up the presented berated us for the fact that not many people bought the course the day before. There were two more upsells on day 2. We left early part way through the final upsell on day 2 because it was about health and we believe that we are pretty healthy and know quite a lot about it. On the final day there were two more upsells including one for their “Quantum” program which basically gets you access to all the other courses. Helen and I got pretty good at spotting these upsells from the first sentence of the sales pitch which was sometimes 15 minutes or so before other people realised what was going on.

Some people certainly found the selling to be annoying. I found it interesting to see how the audience were being manipulated although it was a bit tiresome after a while. But hey it’s a free course so I was expecting it, they have to make their money somehow right? Anyway, the constant theme was scarcity (limited places on the course, which is bullshit) and fear (if you don’t buy the course you’ll remain the same (crappy) person forever) and price reduction (from $9,995 to $1,995 for example). There were some other techniques used too. Most scary was the one where we were being sold to as we were meditating (hypnotism anyone?). Also by the end of the weekend most people were very tired due to not enough sleep, short rushed meal breaks and sitting in a room for 12+ hours a day of semi-brainwashing, which is bound to have made people more susceptible to sales.

Anyway, Helen and I resisted. I pretty much figured that I can do most of the research on my own for a fraction of the cost. I think the appeal of the courses is that a) someone has done all the research for you already and lined it all up for you to digest easily, b) you get to interact with other people and cement the learning in more strongly, c) you get to network, and d) you get to hang out in California or wherever the course is. But my concerns were: a) why pay for info that is probably free already, b) they might try to do more upselling on the actual course c) it would be a hellish long weekend again.

For me (and probably lots of other people) I would have found a more positive and genuine selling approach much better. For example they could have just outlined the positives that I mentioned above without all the fear-based selling tactics. I may have even signed up to something then, you never know. Perhaps though they’ve tested several selling techniques and found that theirs yields the highest return – distasteful as it is.

When we got back I did some googling and found this very interesting blogspot about the courses. I highly recommend that you read it if you are thinking of attending any. Of courses many people we met there said that they really enjoyed the courses they’d been on and got a lot from them. So make up your own mind.

Conclusion

Anyway, don’t let the upselling stuff put you off going. Just don’t take a credit card and steel yourself against the sales pitches. The bulk of the course (although a tad long-winded) was good fun and definitely made us aware of things that we need to change. We’ve immediately put several things into action including brainstorming a new business that will be a monetised blog just about positive thinking – an area that I’m passionate about, and Helen is a writer/editor, so it makes sense. Keep an eye out for that, I’ll be announcing it officially when there’s something more concrete to show.

At the end of the course they give you a workbook to follow each day for 90 days. I’ve started mine and I’m finding it useful. My favourite part is listing 5 or more successes I’ve had each day (I often list more until I run out of space).

I believe that some people got a HUGE benefit from the course. How much you benefit is probably related to how much you are living in the dark regarding your own financial blueprint. I was already pretty aware of mine. But then again if you are already making good money and you set yourself for an even higher level, then the course could be very valuable indeed!

I recommend going, just for the experience if anything, but I bet you’ll gain something from it. It could even be life changing.

Free tickets

As per usual they gave away free tickets to other Millionaire Mind Intensive seminars. I have 10. Each has a little code on it that can be used when signing up for the seminar, so I don’t think you even need the ticket, you can just enter the code online or say it on the telephone. So if anyone wants a code, just email me and I’ll send you one!

I hope that you have found my report useful. I’ll report back how my “reconditioning” is going over the next few months.

Also if any of you have been on the MMI or other Peak Potentials’ courses then please post a comment. Thanks!