Because I got to work earlier than usual I was able to go home earlier. My wife was shocked to see me home so early and didn’t really know what to do with me.

One thing I noticed was the absence of the normal afternoon sleepiness I experience at work each day. I felt good the whole day and I believe it was because I got to bed at a decent hour last night. Now I know that one day doesn’t prove anything but I am encouraged so far.

There is a term used often on many self-development web sites. It is: Live Consciously. I experienced at bit of that today. I was much more aware of my time and what I was doing with it. I was also consciously doing what I had planned to do and not just what I happened to feel like doing at the moment. It felt good!

It just so happens that today is a Sunday and my Sundays are anything but typical compared to my weekdays. I am very active in my church and so my Sundays are generally filled with church and family activities. So, like I said yesterday, weekends are very different than weekdays. My true test of my new schedule will be tomorrow.

My advice when attempting to make major changes in your life is to keep it to yourself. We all know people who talk big but never do anything. They don’t walk their talk. Don’t be one of them. In my opinion it’s better to be a man (or woman) of few words and let your actions speak for you.

With that said, I want to share the twelve changes I plan to make. Okay, I’m violating what I just told you. My above advice applies to those people who are closest to you in your life, the ones who know you best and who will have the biggest doubts that you really mean it. My purpose for sharing my twelve changes here is so you have an example of what I am talking about.

Before I share my list of changes I want to explain a few things about them. First of all, there are many changes a person could make in their life. We can’t change everything all at once. So my thinking is to find the twelve things I could change that would make the most difference in my life right now. Your list will be different than mine. You won’t see any changes on my list related to financial matters because I’m doing okay in that area of my life right now. The ones I do list are those I want or need to change.

It has honestly taken me months to put this list together. It really shouldn’t take that long to do it but I did put a lot of thought into it.

Here is my list.

1. Live by a Schedule. Develop the discipline to go to bed and get up at the same time each day. Stick to a morning routine of studying, writing, meditating, exercising, planning, and getting to work at basically the same times every day and not letting anything get in the way. I realize this is a big change but I also realize that mostly it doesn’t get done simply because I don’t follow a daily schedule.
2. Eat Healthy. Be conscious of what I put into my body. My main diet will consist of fruits, vegetables and grains and only eating meat sparingly. I will cut out of my diet soft drinks and other sugared drinks. I will cut out high-fat and high-sugar foods. I will be sensible in my approach, not be fanatic or extreme.
3. Tone My Body. I currently exercise by running or hiking 4 to 5 times a week. This is good aerobic exercise but does nothing for toning my whole body. My goal is to develop a plan for daily body toning exercises to help me be healthier, look better and feel better.
4. Medicine Free. I have struggled with headaches and migraines for years. I have dealt with them using over-the-counter pain medicine and also prescription migraine medicine. I believe if I accomplish the first three items on my list that I will have fewer headaches to deal with and can free myself from pain medicine. At some point I would like to be free of taking any medicine at all for any reason.
5. Improve My Relationship with My Maker. I believe in a Supreme Being who created all things. I want a better relationship with Him by doing things that please Him. I want to know Him better by studying His word and talking to Him often. I want Him to communicate with me regularly. I want Him to be on my side when I fight the battles of life.
6. Correct My Eyesight Naturally. Using natural methods, I will attempt to correct my eyesight. I want to do this for several reasons. First to find out if it can be done and second to be free from the hassle of glasses and the constant care of them.
7. Significantly Improve My Memory. Using current memory enhancing technologies, I would like to improve my memory abilities to a significant degree.
8. Wake Up Without an Alarm Clock. I believe that the human mind and body can be trained to automatically wake up at any desired time if trained to do so. I would like to learn to do this mostly out of a desire to master myself and not be so dependant on external crutches.
9. Learn to Speed Read. One of my loves is books and of course the reading of them. I believe that leaders are readers. At my current rate of reading I will never finish all the books that I own. My goal is to use proven methods and train myself to speed read.
10. Be 100% Punctual. A character flaw of mine is to cram too much into a day and not give myself enough time to be where I need to be on time. My goal is to be much more conscious of time and how long things really take and then plan accordingly to allow me to be 100% punctual.
11. “Fireproof” My Marriage. There is a great movie called Fireproof that I watched some time ago. It made me look at my marriage as I have never looked at it before. I also must confess that I never cried so much watching a movie as I did watching this one. In the movie there is a 40-Day Challenge with steps to make your marriage better. I plan to follow this challenge to improve my marriage.
12. Be a Positive and Happy Person. This may seem like a small thing but in reality it is huge. Most people in life are much more negative than they realize and that goes for me too. My hope is to have a smile on my face most of the time, to never speak ill of another person, and to always look for the good in any situation.

Well there you have it. As I ponder the task of making these twelve changes and reporting regularly on a public forum such as this, it is a little intimidating. Can it really be done? Am I going to be a huge public failure? Will anyone care to read about it? All I can say is, what do I have to lose? Wish me the best!

What can you become?

Can you totally change your life? What could you accomplish in a year’s time? Could you master all aspects of you life in a year’s time? How much of a total change could you make? If you could be the person you wanted to be, who would you be?

These are questions I constantly ask myself. I have thought and pondered these questions incessantly for years. I would like to find the answers. And that is what I intend to do.

Most of my past posts on this web site have been in the form of an article. I would like to change my direction with this web site and use it for what blogs were really created for: an online journal.

As you may have gathered by reading this website, I have a passion for Self-Mastery. It’s something I strive for every day in my personal life. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fail – but I always learn.

One idea I have had for quite some time is the possibility of doing a total life makeover. Dave Ramsey has his Total Money Makeover. What if you could do a “Total Life Makeover?” What if you could design the person you would like to be and then make it happen? What if you could say, “One year from today, this is who I will be.” What would you give to be able to do that?

This may sound over-ambitious and I may fail miserably, but this is what I intend to do!

This is my plan: I will determine 12 major changes to make in my life in the next 12 months – one for each month. These would be the 12 most important and impactful changes I could make – 12 things that would make the biggest difference in my life. Then I will work and focus on one major change for each of the next 12 months with the idea that one year from now I will have accomplished all 12 changes and essentially be a new person – the person I want to be. I know it sounds crazy but what do I have to lose?

As I go through this process I intend to report on my progress on a daily basis on this web site. I will write about what works and what doesn’t work – my successes and my failures.

Part of my motivation is, of course, to improve my life. But another part is my desire to explore the human potential to see what we are really capable of doing. What are the boundaries and limits of human achievement and accomplishment? Are there any?

So, starting November 1^st I will begin my new journey.

Isn’t that the way we are? We seldom perform as well as we know how. I’ve heard people say that “knowledge is power.” To a certain degree it can be. But in my own personal experience I find that I know a lot of things that I should be doing but I don’t. Just having knowledge about something doesn’t necessarily translate to the ability or power to do it.

Many times over the years I would tell my children to do their homework. Invariably they would answer back, “I know dad!” and I would say back to them, “Then do what you know!” It’s kind of a joke around my house because I have said that phrase so many times to my children: Do what you know.

How many self-improvement books have you read over your life time? I have hundreds of them! We probably learn ten-times more than what we ever put into action in our lives. Yet we keep buying books and wanting to learn more.

At some point it’s time to stop learning and start doing. We need to put our knowledge to use. I’m not suggesting we completely stop learning but what good is learning if we never use it?

Here is my suggestion: How about making a list of all the things you know you should do but aren’t. Then from your list choose two or three things and start doing them! You can read books, read blogs and listen to tapes and CDs till the cows come home but until you actually do something you are going nowhere. It’s time to take real action! At the end of the day, knowing the answer means nothing if you don’t do anything about it.