Day 5 -- Getting fired up

Ugh. I ate a scallop in my sashimi tonight. I'm assuming that why I have a shooting pain in my stomach. So I'll keep it on the short side. 11 minutes early. Still hard to get up as soon as the alarm goes off. Still working on it.
Grateful for the support I've been receiving early in the game.

Total minutes early: 52

Got another 20 minutes from a friend today. Grand total: 91 minutes of created morning time

Day 4 -- Gaging

Somehow did not get up as soon as my alarm went off -- got up 4 minutes after. Those four minutes; got to whittle them down.

The thing that takes the longest in the morning routine by far seems to be picking out what to wear. It reminds me of deciding what to have for dinner.
We have the staples: rice, noodles, etc., then whatever certain vegetables have been given to us(me) that week, spices and whatever other fun stuff, and from there, we're supposed to put together something that tastes like good food and hopefully looks appetizing. Likewise we've got the pants and the skirt, the foundation of outfit, the shirts in all colors just like the vegetables, and then the jewelry, hair doodads, scarves, etc. that are the spice of dressing. We put it all together and we then take this spicy dressing and look in the mirror and hope it looks appetizing. How is one to fit this complex and delicate procedure into less than 10 minutes?

Regardless, today I was nine minutes early, bringing the total to 41 early minutes thus far.

I'm happy to report 20 early minutes I received from a friend today, bringing the combined total to 61 minutes. We're over an hour early. I hope you brought a book!

Day 3 -- Back on Track

Forgot to set my alarm last night to wake up this morning, but somehow still arrived at work 13 minutes early!

You know, once I'm up, it's pretty straight forward from there, but the actual getting up is hard. I've been told that one of the factors could be that I have low blood pressure. They say it can be harder for people with low blood pressure to get up in the morning. I'm not sure that's it though, because other people in my family have timeliness issues and I don't think they all have low blood pressure.

Just in case though, if anybody understands why it's supposed to be more difficult, go ahead and let me know. Nix that--just tell me what can be done about it. I'm now getting more and more frequent exercise than I was just a bit ago. That will either help or make me tired from exhaustion. Ha! How to win the Getting Up in the Morning Game? I feel like I'm playing chess against the computer; it's always 10 steps ahead of me...

I read that it's best to just get up the moment the alarm goes off rather than lying in bed groggily. This article argued that thinking at all makes getting up difficult. I'll try that tomorrow. Just get up when it goes off. (I also noticed it helps if I do things like wash the dishes and pick up a little the night before. That way, I'm not distracted the next day when I'm getting ready.)

How's your progress? Did you find a morning routine that works for you? We should add up our collective minutes and find a sponsor or something. I'm up to what, 32 minutes early? Cool, now if only time were money...

Day 2 -- False Start

I had a harder time getting up this morning, and thus arrived only six minutes early. Four minutes past the mark...

Although it may be difficult to get out of bed on some days more than others(for example, if I worked out heavily the night before, if it's raining that morning, I didn't sleep well, etc.), really, it shouldn't matter how I feel. I want to be able to get to there early regardless of a feeling or emotion. It will take some self-disciplining at first, and then autopilot ought to kick in after too long, I'm betting.

If this works, just think of all the things that can be achieved by training oneself in this way--being able to stick to an intention regardless of fickle emotion. No more impulse buying. No more wavering decision-making. No more crying over spilled milk or broken legs(gimme a minute to link this to a blog from my Arao #1 Middle School judo days and you'll get that one). And it all starts with a 30-day challenge.

I'm surprised I already slipped a little and it's only day 2.

Focus, Daniel-san.

Day 1 -- Go!!

Yes!! Success!

Not only did I get up easily, my notes kept me focused so that I didn't have to think, even when I was sleepy. I was out the door on time and arrived 13 minutes early, and received a nice reciprical "Good morning!" from the staff. I felt relaxed and even managed to get all nicely put together, with time to do my hair, etc.

A big part of this challenge is about moving into the space where I don't have to think about what I'm doing in the morning. If I can get the routine down--without thinking about it--I think I'll be set. 30 days is what I expect this might take, so, on with the challenge!

I hope you were also able to put out your best effort today to get to work early. Was anyone surprised to see you or come up to greet you like they did me? It's a nice feeling, isn't it?

See you tomorrow, early birds!

Okay, so I'm all set for tomorrow. I put a couple notes around the house to remind me what I'm supposed to be doing, and the alarm is ready to tell me when to scoot out the door. I'm really looking forward to this. It seems like life comes into focus by taking on a challenge, especially one I feel passionate about.

And thanks to at least three people by supporting me with their own 30-days early self-challenge. Good luck to you, and don't give up, even if you miss a day or two. I'll do the same!

And just a side note to two special people who are dealing with their own personal challenges right now. Keep on truckin' and you'll(we'll) get through this and come out stronger for it. My best to you both.

Get set...

Thirty Days Early

Man, what I wouldn't give to be early to work every day. Sometimes, I'm a few minutes early, most of the time I'm just barely on time, and more often then not, I'm a few minutes late. Like 2 or 3 minutes. On the rare occasion, I'll be 10 or 15 minutes late.

I hate being late to work. I don't like the feeling of rushing beforehand, and I don't like the feeling of arriving after I'm supposed to. I don't like cutting into the meeting in the morning or waiting out in the hallway until it is done. I don't think being late helps people to trust me, and I don't think it's very healthy to be rushing all the time.

So, why would I continue doing this if all these reasons tell me l shouldn't? Well, I haven't, until this point, looked very deeply into changing this habit. Don't get me wrong, I've tried different methods to be on time, but none of them have worked for longer than about two or three weeks, when I eventually drift back to being late every so often.

Among the things I've tried: setting my clocks fast, planning to the minute when I have to leave to get there on time, laying my clothes out and making breakfast the night before, showering in the morning, showering at night, among other things. Last year, from March til July, I actually kept a journal to record my timeliness to work. Somehow, it didn't help me so much to be writing down "4/24 -- late".

I'm tired of it all! I want to put an end to it.

Therefore, starting Monday, March 26th, I will be 10 minutes early for work. I will go into the building, relaxedly, and enthusiatically say "Good morning!" to my coworkers, make myself a cup of green tea, and sit down at my desk.

I will start on Monday, and I will continue in that way every day of next week. I will also do this the following week. I will continue the same pattern 'ten-minutes early, good morning!, tea, sit down' for thirty straight work days.

If I play my cards right after thirty days, I will be free, and the world will have one less latecomer to deal with!

If you often find yourself late for work or some other daily event, please join me on Monday and start your own "quest for timeliness." Do it publically or privately -- we can challenge ourselves to grow together.

I'll log my progress here. I'll also tell you what changes I make to my morning routine.
I'll start off by setting an alarm to go off at the time I am to leave the house to be 10 minutes early to work. Other than that, I haven't decided to change any other routine yet. I'll start Monday so that I really have time to get ready and focused beforehand.

On your marks...

What I Got

If you practice a lot, your skill level goes up really fast. That's what they say, right? Well, yeah. Practicing all the time is hard work; it takes time, energy and focus. But it layers on itself day after day, and it gets easier and easier.

The Mendelssohn is getting sooo enjoyable. I used to think it was impossible--I started it almost 15 years ago!! But I wasted so much time playing the thing over and over again, and then moved on, thinking I'd somehow learned the piece.

You know what made the difference this time? Well, firstly, I decided to memorize it. The first movement, that is. It's 7 pages--not easy for me. I never knew what people went through to memorize. Now I know. I finally get that it's just a matter of practice, reenforcing what I learned the day before. I've got about 5 of the pages down. I could memorize the whole concerto now. It'd just take a few more weeks.

Second thing is, I decided to try playing it in tune. Not close to in tune, but in tune. This is consistently impossible right now. So I just train my fingers. Thanks to the advice of the teacher A. E., who gave me couple lessons in Boulder when I was there in the summer, and to L, who bestowed to me the lessons in the first place, I slowly came to see that playing in tune is a huge part of the practice. And most of my life, I haven't bothered with it. I didn't know I _could_ play in tune.

Now I know that I can--that's because I already know how to play in tune in my mind, but my fingers and my brain really want to play faster than my mind can handle. It's like when you are making a speech in front of people, and you want to say everything you feel all at once. The mind knows it, but it takes time for the brain to verbalize, and for the mouth to vocalize it beautifully.

Thirdly, and lastly, I'm preparing this music for a purpose, that being to make a tape and send it in as an audition. That gives me a lot of focus and motivation. I'm doing nothing more than any musician would do. I'm happy to say that I feel like I'm truly giving it my best.

Let me say that no one has heard these pieces from me yet. I practice in the practice rooms at school, and not once has the door been rapped upon in two months since I started preparing. So it will be really exciting to 'unveil' what I've been working on for the tape. I really hope I can give a sample here too.

It would be so great if my Aikido practice could some day be like this too... I miss CO where people can practice any day... well, one thing at a time. I think it's more important to build the habit of practicing. It doesn't matter what I'm practicing, as long as it's the same thing consistently.

The world is so much bigger than I can take in. It's full of lots of people working really hard. It's inspiring. It gets hard to know what to do with yourself, whether music is good enough. But it seems to be what I've got at the moment...