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Most people in developed countries admit to using a technological device during the hour before turning in, and children often use electronic media to help them relax at night.
Now, if you’re getting started in setting up an online business, or are already running one, then you may be one of those statistics who use electronic devices late into the night, like we used to, until we found out the evidence that this can make it harder to settle down to sleep.
You see, using electronic devices before bedtime can be physiologically and psychologically stimulating in ways that can adversely affect your sleep.
Here’s what happens: Using TVs, tablets, smartphones, laptops, or other electronic devices before bed delays your body’s internal clock (your circadian rhythm), suppresses the release of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, and makes it more difficult to fall asleep.
This is largely due to the short-wavelength, artificial blue light that’s emitted by these devices, LED light in particular. The more electronic devices that a person uses in the evening, the harder it is to fall asleep or stay asleep, even if you’re physically exhausted, because of how the messaging in the brain responds to that type of light.
Besides increasing your alertness (like caffeine) at a time when you should be getting sleepy, which in turn delays your bedtime, using these devices before turning in not only delays the onset of REM sleep – the most productive part of sleep, but reduces the total amount of REM sleep too, thereby compromising your alertness the next morning. Over time, these effects can add up to a significant, chronic deficiency in sleep. Which is bad news not only for running a business, but bad news for your health and well being.
All of this is true for children and adults alike.
Research shows the onset of sleep can be delayed by the use of electronic viewing devices at night
Sunday is a great time to pause from our work and enjoy REST with those dear to us. So this Sunday, why not try to cut out electronic devices and even dim the lights (especially LED lights) for the night. Try stopping ‘screen time’ two hours before bed, one hour before bed, or even 30 minutes before bed—the earlier in the evening, the better, but whatever is realistic in your circumstances.
We implemented this change and really felt the benefit.
One good substitution is reading an old-fashioned printed book under lamplight (as opposed to bright overhead lighting) or an e-reader (like the Kindle Paperwhite, as opposed to the Kindle Fire) is also a good idea, because it doesn’t produce the same type of blue light that a smartphone or tablet would.
Anyway try these tips for yourself, and let us know if your sleep improves.
Hope you have a restful Sunday with those dear to you!
None of us want to be guilty of being unproductive, whether that’s in our work performance, sporting performance, financial performance, I mean, life’s too short to waste it, so any reasonable person wants to use their time in a productive manner.
In fact our western society is set up to increase productivity in every area of life, so no matter where you look we’re encouraged to do more and get more.
In my late teens and early twenties, like most guys, improving my physical athletic performance was high on my list of priorities. “No pain no gain” was the given mantra. So I trained hard 6 days a week, often twice a day. Even after formal coaching sessions had finished, I did extra training on top, because ‘more was better’.
The result?
I got injured, but still trained through and with those injuries to the extent I needed multiple corrective surgeries.
Why?
Because “No pain, no gain” was my mantra, and the idea of rest was a non-productive cop out in my mind.
A Half Truth Mantra
But the problem was, my mantra was a half-truth, in that it’s true pain is involved in any kind of development, so embrace rather than reject it, but it’s only half true because pain is also a design feature signal that warns us ‘something is wrong’. You know those dashboard warning lights on your car?
Please don’t ignore them, it doesn’t matter how urgent your journey is, please check out what the manufacturers manual says about those lights, otherwise you might not make it to your destination at all.
And, that’s what happened to me athletically, I didn’t make it to my destination.
And do you know who was to blame?
Me and my half truth mantra. I thought I knew better than the design feature signal.
The Productivity of Rest
You see the evidence from the world of sport science is that ‘quality rest’ is fundamental to ‘quality growth’ and that overtraining and minimising rest, will harm you and your development. Any coach worth their salt will tell you that.
Did you know Usain Bolt sleeps in the hours before he races?
That’s even after he’s had a quality 8hrs sleep the night before by the way.
The benefit of that natural, drug free but essential reset and boost prepares his body to do what no other body has done athletically in recorded history.
So, is rest a productive, or non-productive activity?
Having worked many years in the corporate world, I know what many Execs think of ‘rest’, and I’ve witnessed their abysmal decision making as a result. (Did you realise sleep deprived individuals perform worse at ANY given task than those who have just above the legal level of alcohol in their bloodstream?) But, taking the hard lesson I learned from my teens and twenties I want to share with you a couple of parallel lessons I’ve learned when it comes to being productive, particularly as it applies to learning and investing in new activities such as starting an online business from scratch, something I did while holding down a full time job and raising a young family with very little spare time and spare cash floating around:
No.1 Set a balanced schedule which includes ‘rest’ and stick to it.
Recognise you need some outgoing time and finance (pain) to make any business a success, but balance it according to where you are right now and where you want to get to.
You need to factor in a break/rest point, and realise that break/rest point is actually necessary for you to be productive and grow.
Many people don’t get started because they’re intimidated by what seems to be the immensity of the task at hand, they know where they’d like to be, but don’t know what first step to take. So they don’t start.
So work out a time limit you’re comfortable to committing to in your current situation, recognising your current situation is not permanent, but it’s your starting point, then start from your starting point.
So, if you can only afford 30 minutes a night to study new skills or set up new platforms, set a 30 minute timer, and work at it for 30 minutes, not 31 minutes, then stop and move on. But, don’t drop off at 29, 28, 27 minutes either! Being disciplined in this aspect will focus your mind to the task at hand.
Try it, set the time limit, then move on to what you have to move onto, and that could even be ‘sleep’.
Likewise with your budget, sit down and calculate what marketing budget you can afford to commit to now based on your circumstances. If you have a marketing budget of $1,000, for a few months don’t spend $1,000 in a few weeks. Set a limit and keep to it, it will focus your mind, otherwise, your mind will be tempted to be pulled in all sorts of directions. Likewise don’t just stop marketing after a few weeks either when you’ve underspent, because you won’t have enough data after only a few weeks to make an informed decision on what is or isn’t working, you need to commit to the process.
Set an alarm to finish the task.
Set a budget for the task.
No.2 Listen and put into action advice from proven coaches
Like my half truth fitness mantra, I came to the online world with some half truths. Thankfully, I found a community of online business practitioners and mentors who challenged and corrected those half truths, and now we can run an online business based on our values of INTEGRITY, COMPASSION, & FAMILY WELL-BEING.
The truth is, we wouldn’t be running an online business today without the support and direction from those mentors. That is why we’re sign posting others who are interested in starting an online business from scratch to those very same mentors.
PROVEN PRODUCTIVE STEPS FOR RUNNING A PROFITABLE ONLINE BUSINESS
So, if you’re interested in learning proven productive steps for running a profitable online business, then join Stuart Ross as he reveals his strategies for profiting online and growing your income with a business you are passionate about … (business models and concepts that very FEW people know about)…
Get your FREE spot today, and get a “crash course” on profiting online with our proven out-of-the-box Digital Business System (even if this is all new to you). Learn steps that you can start using YOURSELF to begin making profits online and grow a business you are passionate about. Giving you more time to enjoy the life of real personal freedom.
Learn the same strategies Stuart personally used to:
Start a profitable Internet business without any previous experience
Generate sales and income without any of his own products (or ideas) working part time
Build one of the fastest growing exclusive private online communities
Grow Digital Experts Academy to a multiple million business in 12 months!
The feeling of excitement and anticipation of being in a completely new place?
The feeling of leaving the security of the ground behind, the feeling of “Should I really be doing this?”
Flying for the first time is a lot like creating your own online business, launching a start-up, or establishing a nonprofit organisation. Stepping out from your ‘norm’ requires overcoming the very real fear of leaving the safety of solid ground behind, defying gravity, and taking a path of unexpected variables toward your destination.
Let’s face it, it requires courage.
Did you ever wonder what the Wright brothers had on their minds and in their hearts that caused them to build a machine heavy enough to hold people yet light enough to fly through the air?
What compelled them to utilise scrap materials (from a bicycle shop of all places!) to build wings that would forever change the world?
What drove them to try and fail and try some more and to keep trying time and time again when not only friends were against them, but even when the wind was against them?
Whatever it was, their passion for innovation, underpinned by perspiration, resulted in aviation!
The Wright brothers knew the laws of gravity worked against them. They knew that people thought they were crazy for even trying to create a flying machine that could soar through the skies above everyone else. However, they persevered, refusing to give up until they discovered new laws, principles of aerodynamics that enabled a craft of a certain weight traveling at a certain velocity to gain momentum and catch flight. These pioneers of the skies created a new norm, so life-changing that it transformed the way we live our lives today.
My Father’s life was saved last month because of an Air Ambulance. I’m thankful the Wright Brothers didn’t give up on their dream. Who could suffer if you give up on yours?
Now maybe you aren’t interested in building a flying machine, but in essence the Wright brothers’ aspiration is the goal of every entrepreneur; “What do you need to build in order to get up there into the sky of economic viability?”
How can you take what you have and escape the gravitational pull of a salary that limits your ability to escape from living paycheck to paycheck?
At the end of the day, the same courage and perseverance that fuelled the Wright brothers is what will determine the direction of your own dreams. It is the power of a transformative belief that says: “Just because I haven’t seen it modelled in my past doesn’t mean that I cannot create something that changes the direction of my future.”
Simply put, it is the power to make the seemingly impossible dream that’s been placed in your heart and mind become your new reality.
One of the voluntary activities I’ve been involved in over the years as a Chartered Scientist is to act as a Science Technology Engineering & Math (STEM) Ambassador in Schools. The idea being, as practitioners, we can bring real world STEM examples from industry into the class rooms to inspire students with real world application of classroom theory.
Generally when I go into a school and ask “Who likes Science & Math?” very few hands go up.
“OK, so who likes making paper aeroplanes?” all hands go up.
So we make aeroplanes on A4 sheets with a template printed on them for the students to fold in certain ways. We then take their final aeroplanes and let them launch them from a special electric powered launcher which fires the aeroplane at a speed of 70mph. If the students have got the folds in the template right, the plane will travel from one end of a Basketball court into the wall on the opposite side of the court (~100ft).
Sometimes the folds aren’t right so the planes don’t make it the length of the court, or go off to one side. But that’s fine, we simply readjust the folds to optimise the product, then fire again.
At the end of the session I’ll explain to the students the principles they used to fly their product were all based on Science & Math. Then I’ll ask them the same question I asked them at the start of our session; “Who likes Science & Math?”, this time every hand goes up.
Why the sudden change in the students response?
They’d simply experienced the real world application of what was otherwise bland theory.
Here at Digi Life Enabled we want to encourage people to fulfil their dream, their purpose, through a life of integrity and sign post people to training and skills that can help them realise that.
We recognise when starting something new, there’s both excitement and fear, we recognise courage and perseverance is required to get a break through, and we recognise the need for pragmatic real world training and coaching, not just bland theory.
So, if you’re looking for an online business to support a lifestyle that’s congruent with your dreams and your purpose, then if you haven’t done so, why not take a RISK FREE step toward your goals by setting up your own FREE TRIAL account with SFM by clicking here.
For 30 days you’ll be able to explore the system that we ourselves benefitted from, have a FREE 1-2-1 with a system consultant over the phone at a time convenient to yourself, and if during those 30 days you feel it’s not for you, then you can cancel at any time without any additional cost to yourself.
This week I wanted to share a thought with you about the Mind-Body Connection.
Did you know it’s only since the middle ages that the mind, body and spirit have been considered separate?
Before that, we were considered whole integrated people.
Writing as I am from the UK, it’s noticeable how our Western culture has been influenced by reductionism – splitting into parts and specialisation. Each aspect is now cared for separately: surgeons for the physical, psychiatrists for the mental and clergy for the spiritual.
Matters of health tend to be viewed by many as purely physical however, it’s not that simple. For example, the Reticular Activating System connects the cortex and the sub-brain; physical stimulation affects the mind and mental stressors affect the body, generating physical responses. In other words, our physical state of health affects our mental health and vice-versa.
Let us look for a moment at what we think, believe and meditate on and it’s relation to our physical state.
The belief of the mind has enormous influence over our physical abilities to the extent that sports psychology is the determining factor in many athletes physical performance.
Most people know the basic story of Roger Bannister, who, on May 6, 1954, broke the 4 minute mile with a time of 3 minutes 59 seconds. But what many people forget is that runners had been chasing the goal seriously since at least 1886 and that the challenge involved the most brilliant coaches and gifted athletes in North America, Europe, and Australia. For years runners had been striving against the clock, but the elusive four minutes had always beaten them to the extent that it had become as much a psychological barrier as a physical one.
When Bannister eventually broke the record, even his most ardent rivals breathed a sigh of relief. At last, somebody did it! And once they saw it could be done, they did it too. Only 46 days after Bannister’s feat, John Landy, an Australian runner, broke the barrier again, with an even faster time of 3 minutes 58 seconds! Then, just a year later, three runners broke the four-minute barrier in a single race. Over the last half century, more than a thousand runners have conquered a barrier that had once been considered hopelessly out of reach (the current record is 3 minutes 43 seconds).
Many studies have reviewed this phenomena of a sudden surge of success in the physical realm. They concluded that a positive mindset based on a belief of what could be possible is actually what helped those runners beat that record.
So does that mean we can all run a sub-4 minute mile if we simply believe it?
No. Because as whole integrated people there are other factors around health and fitness we also need to take into consideration. It does mean, however, that when it comes to success and wellbeing, in whatever sphere of life, what we think, believe and meditate on is key.
So, take control of those limiting thoughts that come your way; remember you have a purpose in this world that you can fulfil through a life of integrity.
If you have a dream in your heart, you don’t have to work out every detail of it before you take your first step. Instead, take one small step today and leave the other steps for tomorrow. Focus on what you can do now. Believe you will succeed and you will!
One of my roles as a consultant over the years in what is now commonly called organisational resilience has been to come alongside Critical National Infrastructure businesses to identify threats/risks that an organisation may be vulnerable to, perform a gap analysis of organisational capacity and capability to deal with those threats/risks, then, identify opportunities for enhancement to enable a more resilient response.
I can share with you that regardless of the subject matter under review, the opportunities for enhancement identified came with the caveat that resilience is a journey not an end point. In other words, you can never be 100% resilient to all risks and threats, however, you can be more, or you can be less resilient than you are now. So, on the journey to resilience, I see my role as giving people a road map so that they can take the steps they need to becoming ‘more’ rather than ‘less’ resilient. It is however up to them whether they choose to take those steps or not.
So how does this apply to the small business owner, I mean, we can understand the large corporations taking organisational resilience seriously and going for ISO accreditation, but if you’re a sole trader already running or looking to start an online business, how does organisational resilience apply to you?
Well the first thing I would ask is, are you serious about starting/running an online business, or is it more like a hobby, something you’ll dip in and out of when you feel like it?
Only you can answer that question, but for those who are serious about running an online business, then all I can say is please do be serious about it, and do run it as you would any business, and that includes identifying threats and risks that you need to deal with.
The importance of your digital data
As an online business owner, think about how much you rely on your digital data, such as customer details, quotes, orders, and payment details. Now imagine how long you would be able to operate without that data?
You see, the truth is, all businesses, regardless of size, should take regular backups of their key data, and make sure that these backups are recent and can be restored. By doing this, you’re ensuring your business is more rather than less resilient, and can still function following an impact such as a flood, fire, physical damage, theft or other loss.
So to encourage you to be more rather than less resilient in your online business, here are 4 steps you can consider taking:
Step 1: Identify what data you need to back up
Your first step is to identify your essential data. That is, the information that your business couldn’t function without. Normally this will comprise documents, photos, emails, contacts, and calendars, most of which are kept in just a few common folders on your computer, phone, tablet or network.
Step 2: Keep your backup separate from your computer
Whether it’s on a USB stick, on a separate drive or a separate computer, access to data backups should be restricted so that they are not permanently connected (either physically or over a local network) to the device holding the original copy Ransomware (and other malware) can often move to attached storage automatically, which means any such backup could also be infected, leaving you with no backup to recover from. For more resilience, you should consider storing your backups in a different location, so fire or theft won’t result in you losing both copies. Cloud storage solutions are a cost-effective and efficient way of achieving this.
Step 3: Consider the cloud
You’ve probably already used cloud storage during your everyday work and personal life without even knowing – unless you’re running your own email server, your emails are already stored ‘in the cloud’.
Using cloud storage (where a service provider stores your data on their infrastructure) means your data is physically separate from your location. You’ll also benefit from a high level of availability. Service providers can supply your organisation with data storage and web services without you needing to invest in expensive hardware up front. Most providers offer a limited amount of storage space for free, and larger storage capacity for minimal costs to small businesses.
Step 4: Make backing up part of your everyday business
OK, so backing up is not a very interesting thing to do (and there will always be more important tasks that you feel should take priority), but the majority of network or cloud storage solutions now allow you to make backups automatically. For instance, when new files of a certain type are saved to specified folders. Using automated backups not only saves time, but also ensures that you have the latest version of your files should you need them.
Many off-the-shelf backup solutions are easy to set up, and are affordable considering the business-critical protection they offer. When choosing a solution, you’ll also have to consider how much data you need to back up, and how quickly you need to be able to access the data following any incident.
So do take those 4 small steps towards becoming more resilient online, and if this isn’t just a hobby for you, if you’re serious about getting professional mentoring for the whole lifecycle of online business principles by individuals who are themselves running successful online businesses, then why not set up your own FREE TRIAL account with the Six Figure Mentors by clicking here.
You’ll be able to explore the SFM system for 30 days, have a FREE 1-2-1 with a system consultant over the phone at a time convenient to yourself, and if during those 30 days you feel it’s not for you, then you can cancel at any time without any additional cost to yourself.
Staying Motivated for the long term, one step at a time
You know, getting motivated is one thing, but staying motivated for the long term is another thing, but it can be done.
It can be done because staying motivated is about taking one step at a time on a journey.
While we’re all in different places career wise, family wise, health wise, it’s within all our gifting to simply take one, not 10 or 20, but one more step in the ‘right’ direction on our personal journeys, and that’s all we need to do to keep motivating ourselves; take that next small step.
Imagine you are playing a game of tennis against a child. It’s a really fun thing doing that and I do it a lot with my kids, but if you try to play a serious game against a six year old, you will quickly become demotivated and bored. The match is too easy.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you try to play a serious match against a professional tennis player like Roger Federer or Simona Halep, you will find yourself demotivated for a different reason. The match is too difficult.
But, compare these experiences to playing tennis against someone who is your peer, your equal. As the game progresses, you lose a few points and you win a few points. The match could go either way, but you actually have a chance of winning the match against your equal, but only if you really try to make that difference.
In this environment, suddenly you become more focussed, distractions fade away, and you find yourself fully engaged in the activity at hand.
The challenge you are facing is “achievable”, and while victory is not guaranteed, it is possible. Activities like these are the most likely to keep us motivated in the long term.
We all rise to challenges, but only if they are within our personal unique zone of difficulty. Activities that are significantly below our current abilities are boring. Activities that are significantly beyond your current abilities are discouraging. But activities that are right on the border of failure and success are incredibly motivating to us. We want nothing more than to master a skill just beyond our current horizon.
So if we’re looking at maintaining motivation for the long term in whatever aspect of our lives, then we need to keep our momentum going by engaging in those activities where we feel challenged, but capable.
Wherever you are in your personal journey at this time, if you’re losing motivation, I just want to encourage you to take your next step on your journey, because it’s within all our gifting to take one small step.
You can stay motivated for the long term!
