Robert French

This post is part of an ongoing experiment series centered around success and getting life back on track. (specifically mine, but these steps will work for yours too).
Today I’m giving you the third and fourth steps in the process and a real world example of how it applies.

So far so good… I’ve been thinking and additional to my 14 primary goals that I would like to accomplish this year is at least a ‘30 day trial’ of the polyphasic sleeping pattern… for those that don’t know what that is, put simply rather then sleep for one long stretch each day, sleeping in much shorter duration’s throughout the day (25 to 30 minutes every 4 hours). Typically this would happen at say 2 am, 6 am, 10 am, 2 pm, 6 pm, and 10 pm. totaling 3 hours of sleep for every 24 hour cycle.

While that may just sound totally insane to some people, I know that personally I have functioned best on 4 to 6 hour night time sleeping with an hour nap in the afternoon/evening for pretty much my whole life. So the thought of being more productive and alert, and the reported benefit of less brain chatter and clarity of thinking make this sound like an ideal way to live.

A 30 day trial is really just that, 30 days to try out something new, (like the plan to reduce my nicotine intake over the next 30 days (which seems to be going well so far)).

That aside … I did over sleep today, and have been for the past months … but thats ok, because it helps to exemplify the next step.

Step 3. – When you fail (and you will fail), accept what happened as an opportunity, learn from it, know forgiveness for yourself, don’t dwell on it as negative, and keep going.

So, with that in mind, today is another day to try and get it right, I want to sleep less and get up earlier. So I will try again.

The opportunity is to access the amount and quality of sleep that I’m getting, I have been sleeping a lot more n the past few months, and that isn’t really congruent with my wants, by missing out on a good portion of my morning or the latter part of my night and feeling rushed for the first part of my day I was able to see that isn’t what I want, and see that it isn’t congruent with the direction I really want to go in, and that will server to re-enforce the goal.

Hopefully that makes a good example of a real life lesson in the process.

Next will come the focus stuff… something that I personally have had a great deal of experience with, so hopefully that will benefit some other people out there.

I have to admit, focus is one of my personal nemesia. I’m the guy that reads 4 books at a time, always has multiple projects on the go, get distracted easily, etc … in a nut shell I’m ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) … (if you are the kind that buys into disorders (which, for the record. I don’t … (another post))) … See that distracted thought? but it was still along the same thought process and not totally all over the map, so thats a bit of focus and I’ll give myself the kudos for it.

Focus is essentially, a discipline of the mind. In todays fast paced instant gratification society where we bombard ourselves constantly with 30 second ads, and 500+ channels on the television, its no wonder that there are so many people that have a hard time keeping focus. Focus is a key to the universe, I’m sure that almost everyone here has read or seen ‘The Secret’, or understand the ‘Law of Attraction’ or the ‘Power of Deliberate Intent’, or has read some Napoleon Hill. If you haven’t you may want to check out one (or all) of the aforementioned so that you have a grasp of the direction I’m coming from.

Step 4. – If you can focus on a goal, for a minimum of 68 seconds, several times a day, you WILL manifest that goal into your physical reality.

Now that isn’t to say that all you need to do is focus on your goal, you still need to write it out, and you still need to make yourself accountable, and you still need to not focus on the negative side of the goal (for example, if your goal was a specific amount of money (coming up) don’t focus on your current lack of that money, that will continue the manifestation of the lack of money). Focus instead on the positive side of the goal (for example having the money in your possession already), and you need to know forgiveness for yourself when you fail. Being hard on yourself will not help in anyway.

So what can you do to improve your focus? As you will see for yourself, that mere 68 seconds of intended focus on a goal is not nearly as simple as it sounds, you will undoubtedly tell yourself that you are focusing (even when you are not), and in rather short form you will forget to focus and then you will say ‘that doesn’t work’ … well thats breaking Step #2 (accountability). So rather then do that, try this instead.

Tonight when you go to bed, get into a comfortable position (on your back) uncross your legs, put your hands at your sides, and take a few breaths (in through nose, out through mouth). Relax. take a few more breaths, don’t force them, don’t try to alter your breathing, just relax. Once you have started to relax I want you to direct your attention to your toes. Just your toes, I want you to ‘feel’ your toes, forget about the rest of you, there are only toes. Let them relax, then move into the ball of your foot (top and bottom) and again keep only that part of your feet in your attention, let that part relax, next into the arch (middle of your feet), same thing, relax that part and hold your attention on it.

Now if you have never done a relaxation or meditation before this will seem very foreign to you, but honestly what have you got to loose? you’re the only one that will know where you are directing your attention, there is no reason to feel foolish, and I know that the more you practice this exercise, the better you will become at it.

If you have done a relaxation or a meditation before you will undoubtedly be rushing through this part of it (don’t). Take your time, relax. The point of this exercise is to gain focus, that only happens by taking your time, the longer you take, the more your mind will wander and that’s OK and perfectly normal. its part of the process. So for the experienced, SLOW DOWN.

Your mind will wander, you will think about something that happened during the day, or anticipate what you need to get done tomorrow, or repeat a conversation in your mind, or review a TV show, or Movie you watched, or some other less important thought will come along. Thats all perfectly normal, what you need to do as soon as you become aware that you are distracted and not focused on the part of your body you should be, is finish the thought (that point where it changes into another thought) and gently but firmly direct the thought back to the last part of your body you were on and continue.

Personally, I like to use the following format … toes, balls of feet, arch(mid foot), heels, ankles, shins, calves, knees (back of knees / kneecaps), outer thighs, inner thighs, ass, genitalia, hips/pelvic, spare tire, tummy (lower abs), lower back, sides, abs, mid back, soloplex, rib cage, upper back, chest, sides, shoulders, finger tips, thumbs, palms, backs of hands, wrists, forearms, elbows (inner/outer), biceps, triceps, back of shoulder, neck, back of neck, throat, jaw, base of skull, back of head, ears, mouth (open slightly), cheeks, temples, top of head, nose, bridge of nose, eyes (closed), eye sockets, eye lids, forehead, and end on the ‘third eye’ (center of forehead just above your eyes.

The first little while you will undoubtedly drift off to sleep long before you finish this exercise, thats ok. Do it again the next time your laying down to go to sleep. The important thing is to take your time and relax each part of your body, make the part your attention is on the only part that you are aware of, don;t worry about littel itches, sounds, ringing, twitching, or any other distractions, just keep the attention and the focus on one part at a time.

You will get a refreshed feeling from this once you have managed to get all the way to your third eye and then focus on one of your goals for a few minutes.

I’ll expand on this exercise later, I think thats enough for now.

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