1. Yesterday saw another minor action step fulfilled in my running program.  I am well into my base training phase now.  The entire series is lasting 15 weeks and I just completed the second 6 week block successfully.  The only changes to my programmed workouts were due to racing and recovery so I am very satisfied.  What this means is that I have trained consistently, 6 days a week for 12 weeks in exactly the way that I programmed.  That has to be a good thing.  It is also a rare thing for me to go for 3 months without a significant injury.  I am off to buy myself some new running clothes as a reward this week.  Then only another 3 weeks and I have finished the base phase of my marathon preparation.  I am still working on how to celebrate that milestone.
2. My Kanji challenge is back on track and in the first 9 study days I have covered 508 characters.  That is a bit behind schedule but close enough that I still expect to get there in 31 days.  I am finding the mental process exhausting, trying to connect with so many new characters at a time.  But, I am glad that I have chosen such a tight time line, because already the end and success is in sight.
3. I have been having reasonably poor results with getting up early recently.  I have been up before 6:00 every weekday for months now but often don’t manage 5:00.  This has been making it increasingly difficult to keep my writing goals under control.  I put it down to the change of seasons meaning less daylight and increased tiredness as my body grows accustomed to higher training volume.  I am working hard to get back on track and I expect this week to pick up substantially.
4. I have begun working on a series of down-loadable study courses that go into more depth than the articles on LifeGoalAction.  I am going to need some technical help getting them to the stage where they are ready for download.  It is time for me to start looking for people who know how to publish resources like this for automatic, staged download.  Does anyone have any leads?

Thanks

Tom

This week has been one of those weeks.  I have been feeling seriously low in motivation.  Like I am just going through the motions rather than enjoying  the journey.  I know it isn’t possible to be on fire all of the time but I love it when the spark returns.  I put this dip down to a change of season.  I normally get down for a week or so when summer comes to an end.  It takes me a while to readjust to less sunlight and cooler temperatures.  

1. Today, I finally got the Kanji review cards that I ordered from Amazon a month ago.  This means that I am back onto my super Kanji Challenge.  I am going to cover the first 6 days again, because I have really lost my steam.  So in effect I am starting from scratch again.  Day 1 is tomorrow and I will work at it at least 5 days a week from now on to finish in 31 days.
2.  Last week I made another significant step up in my weekly running mileage.  I am midway through my base training phase now and clocking 75 km per week with a long run of 19km.  I love adding distance to my runs, but it definitely makes me tired for the first 2 weeks.
3. Tomorrow is my internet marketing morning, where I’ll be dedicating a few hours to my new marketing plan.  By the end of that time I will have a few concrete plans and time-lines to work on.

 I’ll leave it at that for today, so thanks for reading

Tom 

This is how the idea for a goal erupts in my mind.  Early last week, I had the hankering for a new long term goal.  I decided that I needed another motivating light in my future around a year away.  I decided to form a new sporting goal around the middle of next year to keep me inspired.  I came up with two possible options, both in June.  The Hokkaido Ultra Marathon is an attractive target, and the Japan Ironman triathlon also tickles my fancy.  At this stage I am still having difficulty choosing between them.  The Ironman would probably be more fun, but I have a friend who is running the Ultra marathon and the training would be less complex.  I have yet to decide and the process is quite distracting. 

Meanwhile, I am just making average progress in my weekly goals.  I missed a couple of early starts this week, not getting up until 6:00, but on the other hand I have been working extra hard and was up well before 5 on Sunday to go riding.  A few wins and a few losses.

My Kanji super challenge is still on hold, until my review cards finally arrive.

After taking a short break, I am back onto promoting this site to the world again, so I expect to see another inflow of new readers over the next fortnight. 

I’ll leave it at that for this week as there is nothing else exciting to report.  Weeks like this are boring, but necessary building blocks to progress.

Thanks

Tom

1. As I mentioned elsewhere last Saturday was race day, at the Tsukuba 8 hr enduro.  It was the last cycling race of the season and my aim was to get myself into the fastest pack on the track and see if I had it in me to stay there.  I managed to do this a couple of times and was able to stay with it and do my fair share of the work which was very satisfying.  The third time was a bit disappointing because after a lot of hard work hunting down the pack, I didn’t have the strength left to stay with them.  It had been a very hard day and I ended up totally empty and simply didn’t have the energy to keep it up.  I decided that I have to do some serious work on my race re-fuelling and I should be able to solve this last half hour burnout.
2. I have put my Kanji explosion on hold until the review cards that I have ordered arrive.  Amazon seems to take forever to get things to Japan.  So I am not holding my breath, but I have 360 kanji under my belt (6 days worth) at this stage and have decided to hold off until I can get a proper review process in action before I start to pile on any more.
3. Last week was my first full week back to full house-dad duties.  My wife went back to her work after her maternity leave.  So it is back to Tom and the two kids during the week.  It has been difficult balancing all of this as I am trying to fit in a lot into very limitted time.  I am studying, the equivalent of full time, towards a bachelors degree.  I am training six days a week.  I am online working six days a week.  And I am once again a full time father to a 2 year old and a 2 month old.  On top of this my Japanese study and anything else I can cram in.  All of this doesn’t make me a legend, it just makes me very busy, so I have to be very organised.  That is my life.
4. I celebrated my 34th birthday on Wednesday with my family and friends and decided that this has been the best year that I have had in ages.  I just get the feeling that I am making real progress towards my goals and having a great time doing it. 

So it was another big week and the next won’t be any quieter.  Wednesday I have a final exam for a uni subject.  Sunday I am riding in the Kasama century (160km) tour and in between life keeps ticking over.

How is your progress going?  Do you feel up to letting us catch a glimpse into your achievements for the week.  We’d love to read your comments.

Thanks

Tom

1. I have finalised the planning, and begun the execution of my Super Kanji Challenge.  My tools are : About an hour a day, Remembering the Kanji 1 (an excellent book and flash cards by James Heisig), pencil, paper, stopwatch and uncommonly focused attention.  I am learning the reading of the primary meaning of 2042 kanji at the rate of approximately one every minute.  I have been progressing at over 60 kanji each day and so I will be completing the 2042 in 31 days.  So far I have learnt 300 and I am on fire.  I love short, condensed goals like this.  My next decision is what to do next?  When this challenge is completed should I head straight into learning to pronounce the kanji that I have learnt to read? 
2. On the down side, I have suffered a minor leg injury which has slowed my training over the weekend.  I have had a mildly uncomfortable hamstring since soon after I ran on Friday morning.  Since I am training like an elite athlete, I decided that I couldn’t afford to take the sensation lightly.  I took it easy on Friday and woke up feeling a bit looser on Saturday.  I went out for a test jog and it immediately felt bad again, so I cancelled my run.  I usually spend half of Saturday training on my bike with my team and I decided that this was too risky, so I cancelled this as well.  Instead I took my son in his pram for an easy 8klm walk and then called it quits.  On Sunday, I cancelled my normal long run and just went for an easy 4 km walk.  Today is my rest day and so all I will do is stretch tonight.  I expect to be 100% fit by Tuesday morning.  So far it feels great.  Taking a brief break from training now will have saved me from taking a longer forced break with a serious injury.  That is how an elite athlete would train, and so that is what I do.   I have to look after small issues before they become big issues. 
3. This week I also plotted out my next few goal races.  Next weekend is the Tsukuba 8 hr enduro cycling race and the weekend after is the Kasama century ride.  After these I think the cycling season will be winding down.  I’ve decided to race the Tsukuba Marathon in November.  Next I entered for the Tokyo Marathon in February.  This entry isn’t certain because if the entrants end up over the cutoff of 25,000 people the qualifiers are chosen by lottery.  At the closing date, they had over 100,000 entrants, so I guess there is only 25% chance of getting in.  My next goal race after that is the Canberra Marathon in the middle of April.  So there is the time-line for my running.  Tsukuba will be a progress test, Tokyo (or another close to it if I don’t qualify) is my primary goal, and Canberra will be my second goal.
4. I will make this the last time I write about early rising in these weekly reviews unless something changes.  They are now a part of my life, that is all there is to it.  I get up at 5:00 every week day and usually on Saturdays.  I sit down at this computer and I get a significant chunk of my daily writing down before the world wakes up.  I love it.
5. Another big change began today.  Today was the first day back at work for my wife after her maternity leave.  This means that it is getting back to normal around our house with me working at home with the kids and my wife working away from home.  I will have to write a full article about what this means in practice, so I’ll save it for later

Today I would like to put out a call for comments.  How about taking a couple of minutes to write your own weekly review.  Write it down here for us all to read.  You will encourage us by your progress and you will also reap the benefits of  increasing motivation.  Keep it short and submit it as a comment and include what you are working on and what you have achieved this past week.  You’ll find that it will inspire you as much as it will us. 

Thanks

Tom

This is the third week of LifeGoalAction.com and I am re-discovering an interesting thing about myself.  I am a bit of an achievement junkie.  During the first two weeks, I saw spectacular growth in site visitors, page views and RSS subscribers.  This third week has been much less spectacular.  This felt kind of disappointing.  I put in exactly the same amount of effort into writing but had less progress to show for it.  I have become accustomed to progressing, so that holding ground does not feel right.  Rather than being glad for the wonderful readers that do come back day after day, I am sad because I am not reaching even more!  I have developed a kind of addiction to achievement.  This is good and bad, but I’ll have to think a bit more about it before I write any more.

This website aside, I feel like I am really getting into the groove of early rising.   It is past 21 days now and the general advice that people spread is that between 21 and 30 days is when a binding habit starts to kick in.  I am not sure if I believe in numbers like these but I do believe that I am well on the way to a new and sticky habit.  I have had some (probably four) productive afternoon power naps this week.  I have found that they allow me to feel good throughout the day until I am ready to go to bed.  It is a good exchange, I rise an hour earlier for an hour of peaceful, productive writing and I pay for it with a 20 minute power-nap in a time that I would be relatively unproductive anyway.

I am still developing my next short term, self contained goal.  I am going to start my new Kanji learning program today, but I have yet to decide how long I will give myself to complete it.  If I concentrate it into a very short period of time, then I will have to put other goals on the shelf temporarily.  If I take a more moderate pace, then I will have the opportunity to try another complementary goal at the same time.  I will decide which way to go this week.  But I’m starting.

Yesterday, I completed 6 weeks of 100% unbroken running training.  This means that I accomplished every single session as I had programmed in advance (including rest days and replacing one workout with a race).  I consider 95% completion of any phase of a training program to be a success and so I am very happy.  I have a brand new pair of running shoes waiting for this week as a reward and overall I am excited.  It is now time to work out a reward for when I complete the next six weeks 95% or better!  I picked up some entry forms for races coming up, and these add even more to my motivation as they are definite stepping stones towards my major running goal.

I’ll leave it there to avoid boring you with too much detail about my personal journey, but believe me, it is possible for even ordinary people like you and I to achieve our goals if we use the right tools.

Thanks

Tom

In my own life I have had a few wins and losses this week.

1. I was up and writing at 5:00 four out of five days last week and the day that I didn’t make it, I learnt an important lesson.  I realised that as I go to bed at night, I set my internal alarm clock.  The last thing I think about consciously, is waking at 5:00 the next morning.  I decide it and it happens.  However, when I have to get up during the night to a screaming baby boy, this internal alarm is disturbed.  When I finally fall back into bed again, I am so happy to be horizontal, that I forget to reset it for 5:00 and subsequently I sleep through to 6:00.  It is simple logic, but powerful.  I can now see how to make waking early more sure by locking in 5:00 no matter what time I lie down.
2. My afternoon power naps have been marginally better.  Maybe half of the days I have had a successful power nap of 20 minutes in the early afternoon.  This is difficult but important for me, so I’ll have to stick to it until I succeed.
3. The readership of this site has continued to grow, with the RSS subscribers up from 40 last week to 60 this week.  The average site visitors is also up from about 100 to around 130 per day.  Of course these numbers aren’t too spectacular until you remember that the site is just over 2 weeks old.  Reminding myself of this helps to keep me motivated.
4. I am working on a new challenge.  Late last week I decided to take on a new language challenge.  I am going to learn the readings for the first 2000 Kanji Japanese characters.  I have selected a book and accompanying  cards to use and I am now just working out the time frame.  Theoretically I could manage the entire 2000 in 30 days, a feat which takes most people a year or two if they ever make it.  I might take it easier on myself because of my current work load, but perhaps I should go all out just to stick a bomb under me.  I have a few days to decide before I am locked in to the new goal.
5. On the down side I have been getting a bit loose with my running form and am experiencing a mild recurrence of my old calf injury.  It is my own fault and so tomorrow it is back to the drills as I seek to sharpen up my style again, to give myself a chance to recover.

Overall I am finding that this whole site is an exhilarating motivation for pursuing my own development.  I am doing things that I would do otherwise, but I am giving them a lot more thought and being a lot more deliberate in how I use my time.

I hope that these articles are inspiring you to do the same for yourself.  Nobody can develop your life for you.  It is up to each of us to use the best tools that we can find to make the most of our finest asset.

Thanks

Tom

Early last week I decided that I simply couldn’t fit in all of the writing that this new site needed without making some changes.  I decided that I could liberate another hour each week day by getting up at 5:00 instead of 6:00.  This would give me an hour of complete peace and solitude to write, before I go out running at 6:00.

This first week has been very exciting.  Monday through Friday I was up and at the computer almost like clockwork.  Some days were spot on 5:00, two days were as late as 5:15.  Nonetheless I was very excited because on all of these days I set my alarm for 6:00 as normal to go running and woke up early by willpower alone.  I think the reason that getting up early was easy was because I looked forward to sitting down, undisturbed at my desk to write.  In fact, on Monday I was heading out the bedroom door at 3:00 when my wife sleepily told me that I was a bit early and I should look at my watch.

This may seem like a minor change but it is already having a major impact on my ability to write undisturbed.  A side effect is that I have felt a little weary after lunch, particularly today, so today I started a new ritual of having a 20 minute productivity nap after lunch.  I am hoping that this will power me through to the second half of the day and into the night.  Today’s didn’t work too well because I didn’t consider the amount of noise that my daughter would be making upstairs.  Tomorrow it is on with the ear plugs and I’ll give it another shot.

Yesterday was race day again for me.  It was the Tsukuba 6 hr enduro cycling race held on the Tsukuba circuit auto race track.  The track is just over 2 kilometres measured on it’s shortest route and is windy, includes a hill, one tight hairpin and two looser bends.  Up until this race I had never been able to ride a lap under about 3 minutes and 10 seconds.  Yesterday I set my sights at 3 minutes and achieved it on the second lap of my second ride.  After that I readjusted my goal and aimed to ride at least one lap under 3 minutes.  This came in the 2nd lap of my third ride with a 3:59, and then again on the 4th lap of that same ride with a 3:56.  Unfortunately I am paying for my efforts today with a general feeling of low energy.  But I am deeply satisfied with my achievements, particularly because I was able to beat even my own high expectations.  Needless to say, I love racing bikes.  It makes me feel so alive and on edge.  When I am racing I feel like nothing but air is between me and any of my goals.  It simplifies life, tunes my focus and afterwards, I wonder if anything could hold me back from achieving whatever I aim for.  It isn’t just bike racing that excites me like this, but I’ll save that for later.

That was my week.  How was yours?