Ed

Daily Habits: Writing - Done - 12 in a rowExercise - Done - 12 in a rowPublic Speaking practice - Done - 11 in a row My old running shoes were falling apart. I think I had them less than a year, they should have lasted longer. The were Asics Kayano, I've bought the same shoe before and they were great, but this time they just seem to fall apart. When I went to buy some new running shoes the guy told me that I wasn't the only one to have problems with Asics recently. It's a shame, they used to make such great shoes. So my new running shoes are the Nike Air Zoom Pegasus. From the moment I tried them on in the store they felt amazing. I went for a run and so far I'm really liking them. We'll see how well they hold up over time.

Congratulations, hope you make a ton of money from your writing.

Daily Habits: W - Done - 11 in a rowEx - Done - 11 in a rowPS - Done - 10 in a rowI'm starting to see diminishing returns on practicing recording podcasts. The next level is to record stuff I know is going to be published and end up as a finished product. But that would require writing up a script or at least an outline. And at the moment I have other things I need to concentrate on, so it will have to wait just one more week. I realized that I haven't posted any pics in this thread for a while so here's a rare selfie:

Daily Habits: W - Done - 9 in a rowEx - Done - 9 in a rowPS - Done - 8 in a row Definitely, it will have to wait until after the 17th. I want to record 9 episodes before I have guests on my podcast but I'd be happy to be a guest on your podcast before then. Thanks. 3. Most habits are easy to maintain if they're done consistently. A lot of habits that are easy to do are just as easy to not do. It's so easy to say "it won't hurt to miss out on it for one day", problem is that day becomes another day, then a week and eventually stops being a habit. On the other hand, it's hard to focus on multiple things at the same time. Sometimes I struggle with that, I want to do all these different things at the same time.

Daily Habits: W - Done - 8 in a rowEx - Done - 8 in a rowPS - Done - 7 in a row Thanks, glad you like it. I'll probably put a link to it in my sig once I start working on it again. I don't think I'll be promoting it heavily here though, people will either visit my blog or they won't. I'm not doing it to get famous or make money so while getting a huge amount of traffic would be nice it's not a major goal. The major focus will be doing podcasts, so how much people like/dislike hearing my voice is a major factor.

Daily Habits: W - Done - 7 in a rowEx - Done - 7 in a rowPS - Done - 6 in a row Thanks. They're good, they convey the general idea of what each episode will be about. Though I'm sure I can tweak them and make them better. I don't use Trello, what I do is either write ideas on paper or type them in a word document. I've still got a heap of half written blog posts that I never finished, sometimes you can know what you want to write and for some reason it just doesn't come out right. I might rethink them and see if they'll be worthwhile to turn into podcasts.

Daily habits: 1.Writing- Done - 6 days in a row 2. Exercise - Done - 6 days in a row 3. Public speaking - Done - 5 days in a row These daily habits are not my main focus at the moment, but I find that each one has a cumulative positive effect on the other things I'm working on. They're all small enough tasks that even when I have other things going on I'll still have the time to complete them. You're right. The change in words seems small, yet there is a huge difference in the power of the word "will" compared to "should". I will have episode 9 recorded by 25th of July. I've come up with a tentative list of titles for 5 titles. The concepts discussed will remain, the order and the actual titles are likely to change. Can you become a great public speaker if you're introverted?How you can use this military tactic to destroy your fears2 things you need in a relationshipWill you help your best friend bury the body?Every man needs to know these __ skills

1. Writing - Done - 5 days in a row 2. Exercise - Done 5 days in a row 3. Public speaking - Done - 4 days in a row. It's kind of weird to call this public speaking practice when I have no intention of making most of these recordings public. The plan is to have one episode ready to go on the 20th, then release one a week. And ideally be 3 weeks ahead. So episode 9 should be recorded before 25th of July.

Daily habits: 1. Writing 500 words - Done. 4 days in a row. I've got a few things on my mind at the moment so my writing isn't great. But the simple act of writing seems to help me get my thoughts in order and gives me a bit of momentum for the day. 2. Exercise - Did a workout, it was crap. That's ok, an ineffective workout is still infinitely better than no workout. 4 days in a row 3. Public speaking - Made another rambling recording. I'm not trying to make anything publishable at the moment, just working on delivery and impromptu speaking. 3 days in a row. Why I chose to use Libsyn Libsyn is a company that hosts podcasts, sort of like the Youtube of audio. Except you need to pay the to host your files. Another popular audio hosting company is Soundcloud, you get up to 200 minutes for free before you need to start paying. For that reason Soundcloud is popular with people starting podcasting and bands. So why did I go for the option I need to pay right away? Like I said yesterday, there are a couple of reasons. First one is that once you reach the 200 minute limit with Soundcloud you have to start paying $16 a month. With Libsyn the fees are $5 per month if you keep your uploads under 50Mb, or a total of $7 with stats. There's also the risk that Soundcloud will go out of business in the next year, there's reports that they haven't been profitable since they started. And that would be a huge pain to move all the files to a different host. The other reason is that by actually spending some money it makes it feel a bit more serious. It's not a lot of money, $7 per month, that's less than a couple of beers will cost me. I can easily justify the cost to myself as it's something that will help improve my life. I would like to collaborate with other people, I'd just like to record 9 episodes first before I invite guests on my show. That will tell myself and other people that I'm taking it seriously. If someone wants me on their podcast before then I'd be happy to do it, it will be a couple of weeks before I'm available though.

1. Writing - 500 words. Done 3 days in a row 2. Exercise - Went for a run. I'm using an app called zombie run to make it a bit more fun. 3 days in a row 3. Public Speaking. Made a recording. It's not good enough to publish but there's bits in there that are good and also things I can improve. I've also purchased podcast hosting with Libsyn, on the 20th of June I'll be launching a podcast. It will cost me $7 a month for hosting and basic stats. There's a couple of reasons I chose to do this, which I'll talk about in a bit more detail in tomorrow's post.

Just a quick post. 3/3 for daily habits today.

Mike's Twitter account is controversial, so is his website. If you don't mind a bit of controversy, there's tons of useful information on DangerAndPlay. And if you look hard enough you can even learn a lot from his Twitter account. Gorilla Mindset is a legitimately good book. It has the similar concepts to Think and Get Rich by Napoleon Hill, only much shorter and much easier to read. Even if you hate the rest of Mike's work I'd recommend reading his book. Gorilla Mindset has a masculine tone but I don't remember anything in it that could be considered offensive. Though to be honest, I'm not easily offended.

Thanks Cam. Though at the moment I don't have much reason to promote my site at the moment. After the 17th of June I'll start building it back up again, until then it's doubtful I'll have anything publishable. In the meantime I'm still writing most days and that's one of the 3 habits I'm trying to do everyday. There's heaps more that I do everyday but these 3 things I see as mandatory. I allocate 20 minutes for each one. Writing - I may not be publishing much at the moment but for some reason I find I'm more productive after a writing session.Exercise - Going for a run or lifting weights, doesn't matter, so long as I'm doing something every day that keeps me physically active.Public speaking - This one is still the harder one for me and the one that I'm most likely to avoid. Today is the second day in what will become a long series of days in a row. At least for 2 out of 3 of them. Pretty sure you can guess which ones. In other news I've got some hard decisions coming up soon, but I can't say too much at the moment.

I've finally let 52in52weeks.com die a quiet death. The website I have worked on for the last couple of years no longer exists. I've posted my 52 books in 52 weeks project at edtrigger.com but I've decided to leave out the 52 experiences in 52 weeks project. The only people who really cared about those posts were people who knew me in real life. In general if you want people to read what you're writing, you need to answer the "what's in it for me?" question. Which isn't really a problem, it would be nice if everything I write helps someone in some way. I kind of feel bad for adding links to my website in this forum. I know Cam won't mind but I've seen other forums where people join for the purpose sole purpose of driving traffic to their website. I don't mind if people from here visiting my website but that has never been a goal, I believe in the GameQuitters mission. Hopefully I can be a positive influence. I've been writing a fair bit lately, I'll usually write 500 words in Write or Die but what I've been writing has either not been good enough to publish or it's been too personal. It has been a while since I've written anything publishable but I'll be publishing a bit more regularly in a couple of weeks. This entry has been somewhat rambling so I'll make sure the next one is at least a bit more coherent.

This concept is in The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson, I can't remember if it was using the same mathematics, but the concept is the same. Great book by the way, @Florian has recommended it on his website. @Cam Adair has also recommended it and spoke about this concept in some of his videos.

Can you get a paper-route, mow lawns or do something else to earn money? Then you can buy your own equipment. You could also read books on music production, I've never made electronic music so I can't recommend any specific ones.

I did a search for the game. Found it. Ended up wasting hours playing it. Thought, "What the hell am I doing? This is stupid." Felt ashamed. Kept playing. When I first started, I thought this is a silly game with no point, no way I could get addicted to it. I already knew the psychological techniques they use, didn't stop me playing it. Fortunately you can cheat very easily, and get all the achievements and upgrades with a few clicks.

If it's important to you that your story needs to be a certain length, then your story needs to be that length. However, Fight Club, Fahrenheit 451 and Slaughterhouse-Five are all extremely popular books, they're all under 50k words. On the other side of the spectrum, Neil Gaiman's American Gods is over 188k words and that weird story kept me engaged from start to finish. I haven't written a book....yet, but as someone who reads a lot, I'm mostly indifferent about the word count. Give me an engaging story and I'll keep reading. But we're not talking about a novel, we're talking about your novel. As the artist you need to be happy with the finished product. If that means writing 80-100k, that's what you need to do. And if you're at 25k, you still have a long way to go but that is a big chunk already done. Be proud of the progress you've made.

If the mere thought of standing in front of a group of people makes your heart pound so hard that people can hear it across the room, you're not alone. Many people have a fear of public speaking, I know I did. I'm still working on getting more proficient at it but now when I give a speech I'm relatively calm. There are many books, podcasts, videos etc. that have great information. But these are close to useless if you're at the stage of being terrified of public speaking. At this stage there is one thing and one thing only that will help you: Practice. Give speeches. The best place to do this is with Toastmasters. I can't recommend them enough. It gives you a supportive environment where you can practice, they can always find something positive with any speech. They understand people are at different levels. Another way you can practice is to record yourself. You don't have to publish it anywhere. My absolute number one tip to get over a fear of public speaking is to practice. But here are some things that have helped me: Have good posture, you're going to feel so much more confident when you stand up straight compared to if you were to slouch. Check out Amy Cuddy's Ted talk. PracticeTalk loudly. This is similar to point 1. If you're loud, it signifies that you're confident, not just to other people but to yourself. Obviously you don't want to talk much louder than the situation calls for but as a general rule, it's better to talk too loudly rather than too quietly.PracticeTrain in MMA/boxing/BJJ etc. Knowing that you can kick ass in a fight against the majority of people you'll meet just gives you a huge confidence boost. And this confidence will transfer over into public speaking. (You don't have to fight anyone, probably better if you don't)PracticeLift weights, get in shape. This is a lot to do with how you view yourself. It's also about how other people view you. It's not politically correct to say, but people naturally have more respect for someone who is in shape compared to someone who is visibly overweight.PracticeAccept that you're not going to be an amazing public speaker right away. It took me a long time before it didn't feel like I was about to engage in mortal battle before a speech. You know what this tip is....

You're in a great part of Australia for a holiday. What's on the agenda for the rest of your trip?

Great start with your podcast. I remember reading the same article and having the same thoughts about Lord Nexus' comments. Some people just don't seem to understand that there are more motivations to do things besides money. Practicing at getting better at public speaking is something that's always going to be time well spent. Regardless of whether your podcast becomes popular or not, you've still gained valuable skills by doing it.

My online activities have shifted down on my priority list lately. That's likely to stay the same for the next 4 or 5 weeks. After that I'll get back to publishing some more stuff. In the meantime I've made the decision not to renew the domain of 52in52weeks, which expires in May. I've moved my 52 books in 52 weeks project there along with a few other selected posts. I've set up 301 redirects for the posts that I copied, so I'm hoping to not lose too much Google juice by the move. I've given 2 Toastmasters speeches since I last wrote here. The terror, the feeling that I'm going into a life or death battle, has gone. It's been replaced by what I'd describe as a nervous uncomfortableness. That's probably not something that's going to go away, I've heard about top UFC fighters who, even after years of getting into the cage, are sick before every fight. My public speaking abilities are consistently getting better. But I could improve faster. One way to do that is to start a regular podcast. I'm debating whether I should start a podcast that is based around my city or do one that is more general...

That's a big part of your problem. You didn't say that you're worried about being a dick. You're worried about looking like a dick. Unfortunately doing what's right or what needs to be done will sometimes require you to take actions that are going to make you look like an asshole. It's the situation that you've chosen to be in. She's sick now, but this isn't the only time you've complained about this. It might not be 100% your fault that you're in this situation, it is 100% your responsibility to do something about it. No, that doesn't mean you should be doing all the work. However, the decision about the conditions you'll accept into your life is all yours. You have 3 legitimate options: Accept itFix itLeaveComplaining about it will never make it better. If you choose to just accept your situation it could be a good idea to write about the ways she lifts you up and helps you achieve your goals. Write about all the ways she makes your life better. If you want to make the relationship better, you're not going to do it without some conflict. Regardless of what all the internet tough guys say, it's not easy. No More Mister Nice Guy by Robert Glover is a book that helped me a few years ago when I was in a similar situation. Breaking up with her is obviously not something you want. The only question, is that because you want to stay with her? Or do you not want to break up with her? Questions for you to think about but not necessarily ones you should answer here.

I'm still around, occasionally reading other people's posts here. I've been busy working on stuff offline, so some of my online projects have slipped down the priority list. One thing I've done since I last posted here is to re-join Toastmasters, it's been about 5 years since I was last a member. I'll be giving my first speech (since coming back) this week. I'll be recording it, I just bought a new microphone for this purpose. Now that my goal is to get good at public speaking, it's important to make records so I can listen to the aspects I could improve on. The mic I bought is the Rode SmartLav+. I haven't used it that much but so far I can say that it's super easy to use, just plug it into your smartphone and use your usual recording app. And the sound quality sounds quite good. Although I haven't been writing much here lately, it's good to see that things I've written earlier have helped people. Thanks to @hycniejsy for mentioning me in your post and congratulations on starting with Toastmasters.

There are quite a few things that can make you unhappy, seemingly without reason. If you are feeling sad and you can't work out why, it could be a good idea to examine the following areas of your life: Sleep - Most of us aren't getting enough. Conversely it is possible to get too much.Exercise - Helps keep you healthy, and has repeatedly been shown to improve people's moods. Also as an added bonus, being fit makes you look better.Diet - Crap food is going to make you feel like crap. Good, healthy food will help you feel better.Sunshine - I've found I feel a lot better when I can get outside a bit during the day. Some areas it might not be feasible now but some people have claimed to get good results from taking Vitamin D supplements. Social - Even those of us who crave our alone time still need to interact with other people sometimes. Catching up with friends or family can help to pull you out of a slump.It's still possible to feel crap, even if you have all these things sorted. But when you have all these areas going well it's much more likely you're going to be feeling great.