My Simpleology Diary

So, why isn't my Simpleology Diary being updated more frequently

2006-04-15T07:26:00.000+02:00

Well, the main reason is because Simpleology is working for me :-)

You see, one of the powers of Simpleology is that it keeps your energy and attention focused on the important tasks - the tasks that leads you closer to your target.

Coming here in the beginning as I started using Simpleology was important because one of my short term major targets was to learn and use Simpleology.

Writing diary entries is a great way to organize your thoughts, it's a great way to increase retention of what you've learned and by doing it publicly it also gave me something/someone/somewhere to be accountable for.

So, will this blog be updated again?

Yes!

On a fixed schedule such as daily or weekly?

No, not daily, but weekly is definitely an option.

The reason for this is the weekly telecasts that Mark puts together for us Simpleology members - if I decide to listen to the telecast, I'll definitely come back here and blog about it.

Oh, bwt, the next telecast is titled "Pressure Proof your Life: Bouncing Back From Stress, Pressure and Burnout" - and this is one I'm not going to miss - even if it means staying up until 3AM CET to catch it live.

Stuff gets in the way

2006-03-17T14:25:00.000+01:00

I got a replacement for my broken PSU and got my computer back up and running again.

But then the graphics driver started acting up and it was impossible to work more than 5 minutes at a time before rebooting the computer.

It took all my spare time for two full days to get it fixed.

I wasn't very productive during those days, and normally I would have been stressed about not being able to do anything online, but this time it was just a minor annoyance.

Because, despite having a broken computer and a Major Long Term Target that deeply involves using computers, I just kept doing my Daily Target Praxis, and doing so I knew that I was heading in the right direction.

And the Mental Lock Box and the Dream Catcher also came in very handy during those days.

The computer is back in shape, my mother in law is due back from the hospital today, my first Short Term Major Target will be reached tonight and I've even had the surplus to take the required notes to make reaching my second Short Term Major Target even easier.

I got tired of Mark Joyner and Joe Vitale...

2006-03-09T11:53:00.000+01:00

...because I stayed up last night until 3.11 AM to listen to Mark Joyner and Joe Vitale - and man was I tired when I woke up this morning ;-)

People from all over the world called in - Mark called in from Auckland, a woman called in from London, a guy called in from Germany (I think), lots of people from USA of course. I listened to the webcast over the internet, as I'm sure lots of people did.

My notes from the telecast is on the computer i "stole" from my wife last night because my own had blown its PSU, but it was really interesting to learn how far down in the gutter - litteraly - Joe Vitale has been, and how he moved on from being broke, homeless and living in the streets to where is is today.

I'll have to go through the notes tonight, because I know there are a few good pointers I could use myself, but I just can't remember enough of the details right now to make sharing them right here and now an option.

Day 16 didn't start as expected

2006-03-08T22:30:00.000+01:00

When I went to bed last night I was really looking forward finally getting started on my Power Praxes, but the day didn't start out as planned.

My mother in law got ill, and we had to get her to the hospital this morning.

Then I was late for work because of the unexpected trip to the hospital.

When I got home from work I switched on my computer - NOT. I think it's the PSU that gave up on me, so tomorrow I'll have to spend time getting a replacement.

Then we lost our internet connection, but I had some spare parts and we got back online within the hour.

I'm writing this from my wife's laptop - and she wants it back now :-(

Maybe I'll just have to 'steal it back' from her when she has fallen asleep, so I can stay up and listen to the webcast tonight with Joe Vitale and Mark Joyner

I did Day 15 yesterday

2006-03-07T21:06:00.000+01:00

Day 15 has go to be the most uneventful of the Days in the course so far.

It's part 2 of what was introduced in Day 14, but you don't really get to work on your goals.

Daily Target Praxis, Energy Power Praxis, Time Power Praxis, Morning Brain Dump, Mental Lock Box, Daily Targets, Delegation Station, Observation Log and Dream Catcher are all introduced, but there are no exercises yet :-(

I was so hooked on finally filling out those nice worksheets that Mark has made available - and then ... nothing

Or as Mark put it in the second to last sentence of Day 15: "Tomorrow, you'll do your Daily Target Praxis for the first time" :-(

And yet, in the very last sentence, Mark turns it all around and makes this yet another worthwhile Day - a carefully crafted sentence, put right there in the course material in the only place where it fits - this is so cool, and it keeps me hanging on for what's next to come.

Mark Joyner and Joe Vitale on the air - for free

2006-03-06T07:37:00.000+01:00

Good news - and bad news (for me)

The good news is that Mark Joyner is having Joe Vitale on for a telecast/webcast this Wednesday - and it’s all free to Simpleology members (and I’m obviously a member)

The bad news is that it’s at 8pm Eastern which translates to 2am CET - and at 2am I’m asleep

Here’s what’s on the agenda:

How can anyone go from homeless to millionaire?

What are the three keys to changing your life around?

What is Joe’s number one marketing secret?

What is the secret to manifesting whatever you want?

And much more …

I know that I can always get to the recording of the event in my members area, but there’s something special about being there live that a recording doesn’t have.

Re-doing Day 14 worked wonders

2006-03-04T15:58:00.000+01:00

I was right in my decision to re-do Day 14 and spent some more time detailing my Long Term Major target before doing the backward Planner.

I selected a another target - one with more substance, and a very clear end point.

With that in place it really was no problem to do the Backward Planner thing, and I now have a Backward Planner spreading across 3 pieces of paper.

Now I can't wait to get started on Day 15, because now I have a lot of activities that I'll need to go through to reach my target.

Day 14 is hard

2006-03-03T21:36:00.000+01:00

I worked my way through the rest of Day 14, and ended up with the task of filling out my Major Target Backward Planner.

At first I thought: "No problem" - I had afterall used 3 pieces of paper to list my Long Term Major Target.

But it has turned out to be quite difficult :-(

Looking at my Long Term Major Target I discovered that eventhough I had used many lines to describe that major target, I completely left out the specific details.

And I guess that it's these missing details that makes it hard to do the backward planner exercise.

I can easily understand the power of the Backward Planner, and for physical goals, such as loosing weight, completing a marathon or any other physical activity I can easily backtrack from my Long Term Major Target to where I am today, but for my own more - I guess you could call them "conceptual" - goals I find it hard to backtrack.

I've come to realize that I need to work on defining my Long Term Major Target more accurately before I can put ther Backward Planner into action.

Halfway through Day 14

2006-03-02T21:04:00.000+01:00

Day 14 is really the first "hard" day.

Not because it's complicated or anything, but Day 14 is where you start defining your Long Term Major Target.

The definition of the Long Term Major Target is made up of 3 parts, and the worksheet that comes with the course have all these put onto a single piece of paper.

Maybe it's just me, but I ended up using three pieces of paper, because I wanted to put so many details into my Long Term Major Target.

The worksheet has room for answering both the "what" and the "why" - and it's the "why" that I think is the most important piece of information.

If you don't have a clear and compelling "why", then you risk ending up with a "why not?" and just ditch your goal when the going gets tough.

You should get so much energy out of answering the "why" as if you had already achieved your goal. Writing these things down, you should experience the emotions you'll go through when you reach your goal.

It's been a long day, and I'm not done with Day 14 yet, but I'll rather complete it tomorrow - and do it right, than do it now when my eyes are getting heavier and heavier and heavi......zzzzzzz

Now we're getting there

2006-03-01T22:00:00.000+01:00

I just finished Day 13, and now it looks like the course is about to really take off.

Day 13 introduced me to Daily Target Praxis and two different Power Praxes.

I didn't do any of these Praxes yet, but it can't be more than a day or two away in the course material.

The Power Praxes builds on the Band of Excellence and is a way to consistently increase your time and energy power.

It really makes sense to me, and this alternating between two different things is also at the heart of a way to establish good habits and getting rid of bad habits that I wrote about a year ago.

Back then I used the alternating between two things to illuminate the differences between good and bad choices in your life, so you would automatically choose the good choices because you have experienced them contrasted to your bad choices.

Mark is using this alternating thing in a slightly different way.

It's almost like climbing a ladder:

If you're only using your left foot and your left arm, then you can only take a few steps before your right foot and your right arm is preventing you from getting any higher.

But if you keep the two sides in sync you can get all the way to the top.

Going back in time

2006-02-28T21:04:00.000+01:00

No, it's not about rebirthing or anything even remotely related.

After I finished a lot of Days in just one day I really felt that I had accomplished something - that I was moving ahead.

But I guess I was wrong.

As I dozed off to sleep last night I had this feeling of not having total clarity of what it was that I had learned.

This morning I went through all the answers I had written in my checklist, and even if the answers made sense, there was something about them put together that just wasn't right.

The previous days I had gone to bed with total clarity of what it was that I had learned that day, and how I was going to implement it in my daily life.

When I bundled these last Days I ended up with something that wasn't clear and with too many actionpoints.

I guess there's a reason for Mark chunking the information the way he does.

So today I didn't take on another Day - I simply redid the previous Days to get a good solid repetition.

And tomorrow I'll continue with the course.

The two most important decisions of my life

2006-02-28T09:29:00.000+01:00

Where the previous lessons were repetition of principles introduced earlier, Day 12 is something alltogether new.

It's about the decisions we make and the behaviors we engage in - and how they form our future.

Mark has some really good points on how weakening decisions and weakening behaviors put us on a downward spiral, where it gets increasingly difficult to make the empowering decisions and engage in empowering behavior.

If you make a disempowering decision once, such as leaving your used plates on the kitchen table instead of putting them in the dishwasher immediately, then that weakening decision becomes easier to make the next time, and the next time and so on - until it has gotten to be a bad habit.

On the other hand, if your take care of your used plates immediately after dinner just once, then it becomes easier to also do it the day after, and the day after - until it has become a good habit.

It's kinda the same when Anthony Robbins talks about CANI (Constant And Neverending Improvement).

An interesting things about habits is that they run on autopilot because you have trained them so many times. It leaves room for new tasks that need more of your conscious attention and directed energy.

I'm not sure if this will be in the next lessons, but I've found that it's very effective to run a Meta-Yes pattern on your empowering decisions and behaviors, and a Meta-No pattern on your disempowering decisions and behaviors.

The days passed quickly

2006-02-27T18:58:00.000+01:00

Day 5 through Day 10 took me less than two hours to go through.

Day 5 ties the previous 4 Laws of Simpleology into "The Scientific Formula for Success"

It's a simple law (this is Simpleology you know) - and it's only made up of 3 steps or components.

Day 6 expands on the 2nd Law of Simpleology, Day 7 goes into some more details about the 3rd and 4th Laws of Simpleology, and Day 8 touches on the 1st Law of Simpleology.

I know I've said this before, but I'm really impressed with how Mark utilizes all sorts of learning and retention enchancing components, so that you absolutely cannot not learn or remember what he's teaching.

He's catering to the visually oriented, the auditory inclined and even AD types.

He's using repetition, feedback loops and tests,

And he's spicing it up with isomorphic metaphors in the form of anecdotes.

Day 8 for instance has a cool story about a rather expensive NASA developed space-pen that can write in zero gravity - and this specific story is helping to illustrate the 1st Law of Simpleology.

Day 9 boldly states that there's no such thing as procrastination or laziness.

Dammit, so I wrote a book about nothing :-(

Day 10 introduced Three Sources of Power: Money, Time and Energy.

Day 10 is mostly an introduction, but in Day 11 yet another cool concept is introduced: The Band of Excellence.

An awesome concept that I expect the rest of the course material will build upon.

There's something wrong with the Quiz for Day 11 though.

There are two questions, that can't be answered by reading the course material, it can't be answered by watching the video, and I don't think I heard the answer to it in the audios.

But you can easily guess the correct answer anyway ;-)

A reply from Mark Joyner

2006-02-27T08:30:00.000+01:00

I just had someone reply to my forum post - and it was Mark Joyner himself.

It wasn't from one of the moderators, or some of the more experienced Simpleologists - it was from Mark himself :-)

How cool is that?

And I got a way to tell Attention from Energy.

What I think I got from the reply is that if seeing Attention and Energy as two different things, and it's working for you, then this is a good way to look at it.

And if seeing Attention and Energy being two separate thing, and it's working for you, then this is also a good way to look at it.

As long as you do your "Daily Target Praxis", then it doesn't matter how you tell Attention and Energy apart.

I don't know what a "Daily Target Praxis" is yet, but I hope I get to it soon.

And with this "confusion" out of the way, I'm ready to go through Day 5.

Confused by Moderation

2006-02-26T14:24:00.000+01:00

I went over to the Discussion Forum to have other people's view on my Attention/Energy confusion.

I submitted a post and there was a notice saying, that if this forum is being moderated, then there will be a delay before it makes it to the forum.

Well, I submitted another question a few hours later - risking a doublepost - because I didn't find it in the forums.

The second one "dissapeared" as well :-(

So I went to the Support Center and found a nice FAQ entry about the forums being moderated, and that this was the reason for my post not showing up.

Why not just say so on the page you get after submitting a post?

"Your post has been added to a moderation queue, where it will stay until it has been approved" - would have worked.

Anyway, I hope that the moderators only approves my first post, and discards my doublepost :-)

Day 4 was all about energy

2006-02-26T12:02:00.000+01:00

Day 4 was just as easy and fast to go through as Day 3 and Day 2 :-)

I skipped the exercise because I didn't have any leftover cardboard boxes in the house - but the video drove the point home for me.

I passed the Quiz with 100% correct answers again, but answering the questions in the Checklist proved a bit difficult.

The 4th Law of Simpleology deals with energy, and my answers reminded me so much of the answers I gave for Day 3 which deals with attention.

Energy and Attention - in my world is about the same thing - and I'm having a hard time figuring out in which way they are different in Mark Joyner's universe.

Well, I guess I'm off to the Support Forum for assistance.

Day 3 was a short day

2006-02-26T11:35:00.000+01:00

Day 3, Lesson 3 and the 3rd Law of Simpleology was just as easy to go through as the first two days.

I did the exercise in Lesson 3, and I failed miserably.

And it's all Mark's fault - he designed the exercise so that I would fail it.

But it drove home the point of the 3rd Law of Simpleology.

Actually, if you complete the exercise with success, then you haven't been paying attention to Mark's instructions.

Hint: The 3rd Law of Simpleology has to do with focus and attention - and Mark really distracted me - almost like when a magician says "Watch my right hand carefully" (all the while his left hand reaches into a secret compartment in his cape and pulls out a white dove)

Day 3 and the Lesson, Video and Quiz took less than 10 minutes to complete - and I had answered the questions in less than 10 minutes as well.

The pace of this program is obviously designed so that even if you only have very little time in your daily schedule, you can still go through the program.

And curious as I am, I'm going to start Day 4 right now - I just don't want to wait until tomorrow.

Day 2 ended without surprises...

2006-02-26T10:59:00.000+01:00

...because it wasn't really surprising that it was just as good as Day 1 ;-)

Day 2 took me through the Lesson 2 video, and the quiz that came with it.

100% hitrate on those questions, but just as with the Lesson 1 questions, I think they are more meant as repetition than actually testing that I learned the stuff.

I didn't do the exercise because I was out in public when I read through the material, and I'm pretty sure that bystanders would have called the mental hospital if I had tried the exercise ;-)

I mean, what would you do if you saw someone spin around with their eyes closed, and then they started walking into walls, or across the street with their eyes closed?

Lesson 2, and the 2nd Law of Simpleology which it introduces is just as simple as Lesson 1 and the 1st Law of Simpleology, but it's equally powerful.

And now I'm off to watch the Day 3 video...

Day 1 ended with a surprise - a pleasant one

2006-02-25T16:58:00.000+01:00

Day 1 ended with a really nice surprise - it was almost like deja vu.

Several years ago, when I was training to become an NLP Business Master Practitioner our teacher asked us a question after one of the lessons that's very much like the questions at the end of day 1 in Simpleology 101.

After one of the lessons our teacher asked us a question that took us all by surprise - and I'm sure that everyone in our class remembers this question vividly - even after so many years.

It was a question that totally silenced the room.

That question alone changed my whole approach to learning new stuff - it really was that pivotal.

Here's what he said.

"So, what have you learned today?"

For most people this was rather easy to answer, but then came his follow-up questions.

He said:

"And what's the importance of this?"

And the classroom became completely silent.

And he continued:

"And how are you going to make sure that you are going to use this to improve your life right now?"

And you could almost hear 16 brains going into overdrive all at the same time.

I mean, in a usual classromm setting, your teacher will be more than satisfied if nobody has any questions.

But not this teacher - he wanted to make sure that we thought about the implications of what we've learned - and forced us to think about ways that we could put the information to good use - right away.

The questions put us all into a forward looking creativity mode.

And Mark Joyner does the same in Simpleology 101.

I've browsed through the rest of the days in the course material - and they all have these eye-opening and action-focused questions.

I've only been through Day 1 and Day 2 of the course, and I can already tell now, that this is a course that I'll be recommending to anyone interested in goal setting.

Lesson 1 Quiz complete

2006-02-24T16:36:00.000+01:00

I'm halfway through Day one of Simpleology 101, and I just passed the Lesson 1 Quiz with flying colors.

Some of the questions have really silly answers to choose from, but they all have me revisit what I watched in the Lesson 1 Video - so the quiz is essentially forcing me to repeat the material, which will help it stick in my mind.

The video, and the accompanying text book for todays lessons deals with "The 1st Law of Simpleology"

This law is so simple, and the exercise had me smiling - and the rest of the family laughed. Maybe I should get a sidejob as a stand-up comedian, because all that was needed to bring out the laughter was me and a glass of water.

I've have also passed a section called "Write Down the One Thing You Most Desire in Your Life"

Nothing is really different from so many other goal setting programs, but I'm expecting something radically different from this program - and I'm sure it will show up as I go through the rest of the steps.

My wife is a liar - and she also thinks I'm crazy

2006-02-23T14:03:00.000+01:00

I went through every single yellow plastic bag in the house this morning to find my Simpleology 101 materials, then I checked and doublechecked the car - and I still couldn't find it.

My wife kept telling me that she handed the bag back to me yesterday after we were done taking snapshots of our ponies - I kept telling her that I didn't get it back.

Guess were it was?

On the wall in the stable - were she put it

Liar... ;-)

But not only did she try to convince me that I had lost my bag - she also concluded that I lost it - or was slowly loosing it.

I must have looked pretty desperate going through all these yellow plastic bags just to find a black folder with some printouts because our trip to the stables went pretty much like this:

Wife: Why is it such a big deal - can't you just read it online?

Me: Yeah, I could, but it's not the same.

Wife: Why not? - it's the same words - isn't it?

Me: Well, yeah, but it's just not the same - and I can't do the exercises without my printouts.

Wife: Why? - can't you just open your computer and type the answers there somewhere?

Me: No, that's just not the same - I need to have my printouts.

Wife: Why? - what's the big difference between opening your computer and write there as opposed to writing on a piece of paper?

Me: It's because of how our brains work

Wife: Oh...

And then we arrived - and I didn't get the chance to explain why it's important.

The thing about why it's so important to actually write it on a piece of paper is because of the neural connections that's strengthening in our brains each time we repeat something.

It goes a little something like this:

To write something you have to think about it first - you have to create the sentences in your head.

Then your brain send signals to the muscles in your arm and hand and fingers so your thoughts can be converted into words on the paper.

As you write, your eyes will se what you are writing, and this will feed back into the loop and solidify these neural connections.

And the stronger the neural connections - the better you remember something.

And the better you remember something - the better the chances of this information becoming a part of who you are and how you act.

So writing things down is important.

And if you really want to make sure that you remember something, then you say it out loud as you're writing it.

That way both your speech center and your hearing is involved in the feedback loop.

So that's why I insist on following Mark's recommendations to the letter - and talk to myself (when I'm alone)

Off to a fabolous start - NOT:-(

2006-02-23T11:38:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I watched the Simpleology 101 intro video, I printed out all the needed material, put it in a folder and was ready to start going through the course yesterday.

But my morning plans was turned upside down, so I didn't have the time to go through the material.

But I wanted to go through it - the intro video alone demonstrated that this was a course and approach that was somehow different from the usual approaches to goalsetting.

So I brought the folder with me - hoping that I would be able to get some spare time during the day.

I was able to find 45 minutes of solitude, but what did I do?

Did I start going through the material?

No, I spent the time listening to an audio presentation by Holly Cutter.

The presentation was ok, and I picked up atleast one nugget of useful information, but it wasn't really what my plans had been :-(

My problem is that I'm too curious, and I easily let myself follow any spur of the moment interests.

That's ok some of the time when evaluating different things to see what might be most useful for me in the current situation, but it also keeps me from focusing my attention on one single task.

I know that this is covered in detail in Mark's course, but since I haven't even started going through the course, I'm not able to benefit from it - yet.

Then today I managed to put aside some time in the morning to start going through the course - but now I can't find my folder :-(

I left it where I listened to Holly's audio presentation, so I should be able to pick it up later today.

Jason Oman made me do it ;-)

2006-02-22T01:40:00.000+01:00

A few days ago I got an email from Jason Oman with a link to simpleology 101.

I generally trust information coming from Jason Oman, so I took a look at the site.

At first I thought - "Oh no, not a Mark Joyner site"

I haven't really been a big fan of Mark - or more correctly, I haven't really taken the time to take a good deep look at what he's been up to.

So it was with a bit of scepsis that I signed up.

I downloaded all the material and looked through some of it, although I had to wait several days to get it printed out, and I watched a few of the videos.

When I watched the intro video I knew that I had my hand on something so very different from all the other success and goalsetting books and courses I've read before.

That instant my conception of Mark Joyner changed.

The learning principles Mark is applying to this course to get his message through makes a lot of sense and is very much in tune with how I have put together and presented training material in the past.

Right now I'm thinking back several years to a product I think was launched by Mark Joyner that even back then in the good old Roibot/Aesop days should have told me that Mark had a bit more focus on motivation and goal setting than most of his contemporary internet marketers. Promotivator I think it was called.

And now I suddenly remember why Mark hasn't been my cup of tea for several years: Because of Aesop - and the way it was presented as the next search engine ready to take over all the established search engines.

But anyway - that has all changed now.

It's getting close to 3AM, and I need to get some sleep, but when I get up again I'll grab my 2-ring binder (no 3-ring binders in Denmark ;-)) and start going through all the exercises.

I'm really looking forward to see if Simpleology 101 can deliver what it promises and if it's everything I expect it to be.