Ideas and Experiments.

Good morning America. It is currently 7:15 AM and I am wide awake. I actually have been up since around 4:30, and only got a couple hours of sleep. This is not a new problem. I mentioned in a previous post that I have had trouble sleeping for as long as I can remember. Let's solve it.

I really don't know how or why it started, but I think a lot of it has to do with how I was raised. Now I'm not blamming my parents or using that as an excuse, but I just think that is how this bad habit developed. Growing up at home, once I hit middle school I never had any real strict curfews and never really had a bed time. This is not due to a lack of care by my parents, they trusted me and allowed me my freedom. Also, another very large factor is that thing called the internet. I remember the first time we signed up for AOL; I was hooked. I wanted to spend every waking moment of my life chatting with friends, joining web forums, playing games, watching videos, etc etc. And once I bought my own computer for my room, I was done for. I was stay up until 2:00 - 4:00 AM many nights, and have to be at school or work around 8:00 AM. And since I never really liked school, many times I just slept in and skipped. After years of this, it can become a pretty bad habit.

Well, that's the history, now what about the future? I am honestly clueless as to how to go about curing this myself. It will definitely require the help of some outside source. It seems to have developed into a mental problem. For example, if I have to wake up early the next morning I will think to myself, "Ugh, I hope I can sleep tonight. I really do not want to be tired tomorrow." Thinking that way almost always makes my sleep that night bad or non-existant. Also, there have been many times where I will fall asleep at a normal time, but only wake up at 2:00 - 3:00 am; wide awake. I can lay there and try to fall back to sleep, but usualy I fail. I then will get up, become tired again around 9:00 - 10:00 am, and sleep until 4:00 - 5:00 pm. This was a cycle that I was in for a while. This can become very frustrating! It makes having a job, doing work, or a social life pretty hard, which is why I want to solve it.

So how am I going to fix it? Well, reading never hurt! I am going to check out if I can find any articles on sleeping or how to train yourself to relax and get a good nights rest. I will also see if I can find any good recommended books on the subject. I need any help I can get. Expect an update on this sleeping issue further down the road!

Seven sentences ago I said, "This can become very frustrating!" This was in regard to my sleeping problem, and today was no different. I woke up and immediately felt angry and frustrated, which probably did not help the situation. I was esspecially upset because I have to work at 8:00 am this morning helping a friend with a landscaping job. So I kept running the same thought through my head again and again, "Today is going to suck!! I hate that I can't sleep!" I wasted time for about an hour on my computer, made myself something to eat, all the while still in a bad mood. I kept convincing myself that today was going to be a bad day. It was around 6:00 that I started remembering something that I read in the book The Magic of Thinking Big; which basically was by thinking this way I would do nothing but make it so. I mean c'mon, the day wasn't over yet so why should I assume it will be bad? It has only just begun! I decided to get my mind on other things, so I listened to a few pod casts from Steve Pavlina's website, and decided to write. So here is where the experiment comes in.

I am going to try something today, and hope that it works. Instead of going into the day, and work, with the "Today will suck!" mentality, I am going to be happy and tell myself, "Today is going to be a good day!" I am going to see the great in everything, as opposed to the negative. I am going to go into the day with a great attitude and see what becomes of it. It is only fair to assume that it will be bad going in negative, so my hypothesis is that it will be a better day. Of course, I can not compare unless I found a way to live the day angry, then go back in time and relive it happy; which I am not sure of how to do! But based on past experience, I think this will work. I will let you know how this little experiment goes in my next update.

Now, onto the exciting part, Ideas! Remember in my last entry when I stated "I actaully wanted to bring up one other idea that came to me while brainstorming with my friends, but I will save it for next time." Well it is next time!

Here is the basic idea. Well, this blog is basically my journey on becoming rich, or wealthly, better, happier, whatever you want to call it. So while brainstorming with my business partners (Matt and Adam) I thought, "Why don't we create a website dedicated to our progress?" DING! We all stopped and thought, "Wow, that;s a good idea." Not just a website with 3 blogs, but a website with articles, reviews, forums, a community, the whole time documenting our progress. Also, we can invite others to join us on our quest! (We actually thought of the slogan "Join us on our quest to success!") We feel that this website will be a large success, and we feel that we will be different than any web sites out there on the same topic for a couple of reasons.

1) We aren't there yet. How many times have you seem someone who is successful say, "And you can be too!" I have mentioned this before, but if you're anything like me, I always thought, "Well, maybe, but I don't know." Here is what will seperate our web site from others; we're not there yet! You can join us and grow with us! You can become a part of the quest, publicly or privately. I would feel very inspired and more motivated to change if there was someone out there, just like me, who wants more in his or her life and is willing to grow with me. I personally would be willing to help anyone, share whatever knowledge I have and learn from others who know more than I.

2) We want to put a large emphasis on community. Sure, any website can install a web forum. It takes all of 10 minutes to get it up and customized. However, what if we took it even deeper? What if we gave each registered user their own page, their own blog, their own personal space to document whatever they would like to? I think people would love to become a part of something like this. Many other community based websites have had large success, and none of them have been dedicated to success! Of course, this kind of website design is not easy nor is it cheap. We have had many quotes on the idea, and we're taling 5 figures as a setup cost from most places. Yikes. So, for starters, we will go with a basic web-forum community that will eventually expand into an indivdual aimed community.

3) Constant updates. There are few websites, esspecially informational ones, that are constantly updated. We will all be updating our quest journal, along with personal blogs, articles, interviews, reviews, etc. Also, we will request and post these from members who join along the way. We want every member to feel good and want to give thema chance to get something published on the website. This would not only help content, but it would help that person develop skills and share their knowledge that they might not have been able to otherwise. We also have more ideas to expand off of user submitted articles and such which include contests and the like with cash prizes. This of course is when the site starts making money, however long it will take!

Well, that is the basic idea and I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited. In fact, we are all VERY excited about this. Currently we only have a basic skeleton uploaded with no content, but we hope to fill it full of information this summer. Who knows where this can take us and who will meet along our journey. Let's just say for one second that the website ends up not making much money, so what? Of course finance is one reason I am writing this blog and we are making the website; one of the goals is to generate a profit. But on a large scale, it is so much more than that. We would be reading, writing, and staying focused on our goal! Since I will be constantly smacked in the face with the idea, I won't be able to slack! Also, imagine the people we will meet. I can not wait until we get our first registered member, our first user submitted article, the first person to thank us for our website. We will make so many great friendships with great people, and I can not wait! (Almost forgot to mention the site name, which is non-coincidentally called Macardam and can be viewed at http://www.macardam.com)

Well, I think that is good for now. I have to run and have a good day working a that landscaping job that I mentioned! So remember, write until you're rich!