Sugar can be more addictive to children than addictive drugs. And if there is a night where they would ingest it in high amounts its Halloween night!
Somehow we all forget this and subscribe to the marketing of the candy and chocolate companies. We forget and allow them to binge eating as much as they can. We forget this and deal with their withdrawls, their screaming, their complaining. We forget this when we ask them to control their bodies and calm down. We forget this and expect them to have more contol on day 2 than adult drug addicts. 

Am I saying we should deprive our children of this holiday – no. Am I saying we as parents need to not turn the reigns of agency completely over to children as they are faced with one of the most appealing, tasty, and addictive substance they yet know of – yes! 

Love the children, love them enough to set boundaries for them. And if you dont know what boundaries are read the book boundaries, then boundaries for kids or teens or marriage or work they are all good.

Tonight is daylight savings time. Most people are ecstatic about getting 1 extra hour of sleep. I think there is something better we all can do with this 1 hour than sleep. Plus you can get an extra hour of sleep almost any night by going to sleep 1 hour early. “But i can’t because ” blah blah blah. Fill in your excuse, i can wait….. ….. ….. …..

I know i know i am asking you to have self control in a world that is full of instant everything. Have you stopped to think how instant our lives have become? Well take a moment, instagram, instant messaging, fast food, instant rice/potatoes, etc. With all these things around us it is easy to have shortened patience, and be tricked into feeling you can only choose the instant route, the quickest way. I can’t tell you how many days i get passed on the freeway even if i am going 5 over. I wish cars had the little thought bubbles as they passed you with the reason why they were going where they are going so fast, i can only imagine some of their sayings – “I woke up late and if i am late again for work my boss is going to kill me”. I think then i might have more patience for these crazy drivers.

Ok so we have established you can choose to have self control, and you can choose to get 1 extra hour of sleep any night instead of waiting for that 1 day per year. Instead lets use this 1 hour to do that 1 thing you have been trying to do since the beginning of 2014. What is it? Perhaps you never even started it it is just in the back of your mind and it won’t leave you alone. You keep feeding it excuses now it has turned into this living thing that is attached to you. You keep feeding it excuses thinking it will eventually go away but it won’t.

Let me take a second here to tell you not to listen to the invisible scripts ( to use a phrase from Ramit Sethi). He is the master of these scripts, but lets just say what ever conversation you have in your mind, anything that tells you you can’t to something because of this or that is an invisible script. It also will jump to the other side of the conversation if you talk yourself into doing something and play devils advocate – well now you need to be an expert before you can do that… etc. Recognize these for what they are, and choose to ignore them and do it anyways.

So here is the point of this rambling – use this extra 1 hour and don’t use it to sleep. instead get up at the same time you always do, get the same amount of sleep you have been getting, but guess what you will have 1 whole hour to do that 1 thing you have been putting off. What ever it is, exercise – do it!, write a book – do it!, start a business – do it!.

You have a chance to change your life tonight. Most people resist because 1 – i don’t have time, 2 – i don’t want to change. Here is your chance to use your habit of choosing not to change to work for you. Don’t change a thing, get up the same time and work for 1 hour a day on that 1 thing. You can shoot these two excused out of the sky with the same reason you have not done anything all year long.

Let me know what that 1 thing is, if i can help i will! I read all emails and comments.

I never read books in high school, I was too busy trying to be cool – I never liked books and when I did read them I often found myself reading the same paragraph or sentence over and over. I couldn’t understand what it was trying to say. I have grown out of that – thankfully!

Ever since then I have been using my free time to catchup for the lost years. I instantly got hooked on audiobooks, probably because of my lower reading skills, and now that has transformed into an even larger addiction to audiobooks with some actual printed books now on my shelves. I have found the one disadvantage to audiobooks – you cannot pause and highlight, or make notes to come back to.  Hopefully the apps get better and perhaps include an ebook that could be highlighted in the future. I digress – here is a list of books i have read, along with a list of the books that are next on my list:

Previously Read/Listened To – Blog In Progress

•  Jesus the Christ
•  Winning
•  Tuesdays With Morrie
•  Team Of Rivals
•  Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
•  The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Set)
•  How to Win Friends & Influence People
•  History of Joseph Smith
•  Good To Great
•  The Grand Design
•  Michael Vey
•  Eragon (Set)
•  All Dan Brown Books
•  Harry Potter (Set)
•  Winners Never Cheat
•  The Overton Window
•  The Five Love Languages
• Born to Win
•  The Art of War
• Various Modern Scholar Books

Future Reads

• EntreLeader (current read)
• Quitter
• …Looking for others – Please Recommend Your Favorites!