Today is Day 11, How to Resist Temptations, and Spending with Purpose

"If you don't plan what you're going to do with the hours of the day,
the day will plan it for you.

You'll be led to do this, do that, this will get your interest, that will get
your interest, which leads to that, talking to this person, picking up
some groceries, filling up the car with gas, etc.

And at the end of the day, not a lot really gets done. Mostly running
around in circles.

Sort of like how people deal with money. Without giving purpose to their
money, they just spend it on anything that comes their way and then
they find it's all gone. "

- Brian Kim MIT of 4/30/13

I know I posted this MIT on Tuesday, but love it and I want to signify the significance of this statement. I was talking to my nurse I was shadowing today in the ER and he said "you'll see why/how the money you make just goes by" and also mentioned that he liked to buy expensive things. He was a great guy but in my mind I was thinking, "You're right, it could certainly turn out like that, but at the same time, I want to spend my hard earned money on my priorities. The things in life that are truly important to me. The things that will allow me to achieve my goals." Don't spend and buy on impulse desires, because as stated in quotes, if you spend without purpose, you'll find that it is, somehow, all gone.


Yesterday, Wednesday, was supposed to be day 11. But no I relinquished again. The second time in three days and the second time out of 13 days. I am here to analyze why this has happened. Is there something I am doing wrong compared to my research of how others became early morning risers? Well to start, I'm not past my 30 day cycle yet but that shouldn't really make the difference. I can tell already after 11 days, minus the two days where I slept in, that my body is adjusting to waking at this time. I'm still not incredibly energetic to get up when I hear that morning alarm go off. I would like it to be that way because that's going to sustain me in the long run. Right now, it has worked because I have a set process that allows me to wake up. This process, as I have mentioned before, is to set my alarm in my bathroom the night before, and when it goes off, go to the bathroom, TURN on the light, turn the alarm off, and urinate. Now I just tell myself, "Just go wash your face and you'll feel better". So that's what I do and by that time I think about the psychological meaning I am doing this for. And that is the discipline, to show myself how bad I want it. While that's said, it isn't completely about motivation. As of now, since I'm not rolling out of bed at the sound of the alarm, there are definite temptations to go back to bed, and from previously reading a Brian Kim's article talking about resisting temptations, the best way to combat temptations is to not let yourself get into a situation where you will be tempted. This means taking precautions.

Here are some of the things that I did wrong on both nights where I ended up sleeping in until about 9:20 on both days. I went to bed and fell asleep later than 10:45 - 11:00. This may insignificant but I am not done with my 30 day cycle yet, so it is. On Sunday afternoon and night, I was not tuned into my goal, meaning, I was taking a day off, and although I've read another Brian Kim article talking out taking a day off for yourself once in a while, I felt like this one day shifted my attention away from my purpose. This isn't to say that I won't want a day off, but I need to finish my 30 day cycle first to ingrain the habit. Know what you want to accomplish the the next day that night before bed. There's also a peculiar mentality that I took on Monday morning when I was urinating. I convinced myself that if I was going to wake up early, I was going to wake up at 5 AM. I wasn't going to wake up at 7 because I've already lost two hours. I could make a case for this both ways. What does this mean for me in the future though on nights when I do sleep later? Am I going to have the same reasoning? I am going to have to see and make adjustments.

Regardless, I wanted to get those thoughts off my chest.

Here is that article I was referring to:
http://briankim.net/blog/2009/12/dont-overestimate-your-level-of-willpower/

"There’s no such thing as willpower in it of itself.

Willpower is always attached to a belief you have and the desire to live up to that belief. The stronger that is, the stronger your willpower will be. There’s no need to exercise willpower directly. It’s a byproduct of a belief you desire to hold strongly to."


"Don’t overestimate your level of willpower. It’s easy to do so in order to stroke the ego, but it’s like a person who overestimates his own strength when lifting weights.

He puts himself in a situation that tempts his blown up notion of how strong he is by loading up more weight on the bar than he can handle and gets crushed as a result.

Don’t overestimate your level of willpower. Don’t even put yourself in a position to cave into it in the first place. Focus on what you believe, on your desire to live up to that belief and that’ll prove to be the best move to make so you don’t cave into your temptations."