Author: 129966410

Chelsea and I are at day 9 of our 30 day early morning challenge. When I told Chelsea I was going to complete this challenge, she figured she may as well do it with me, and I am so glad she did! It has been remarkably successful and I can’t see myself changing this behaviour anytime soon. It had led to many additional successful habits. Here are a few things I’ve noticed.

1. Great feelings of connection with my partner
   
   I would say that the biggest surprise of the challenge is how doing it together has strengthened our relationship so much. Throughout the day, our energy levels are more aligned now, so it’s easier to connect when the natural energy cycles are flowing together. We have been feeling connected throughout the day, without a lot of negative energy. I used to not mind if Chelsea would sleep in later than me, but now both of us really see the value in maintaining the same sleep schedule.
   
   
2. Easier to keep the house clean!
   
   First thing in the morning, I make the breakfast and clean, while she does the dishes and puts away the dishwasher. It’s a really great way to start the day, with a full belly and a clean kitchen. This makes it easier to maintain a clean kitchen throughout the day since the dishwasher and sink is empty. Now we can put dirty dishes right in the sink or dishwasher right away instead of having them piling up on the cupboard. I recently identified maintaining a more tidy house as an area I wanted to improve in, and getting up early has really helped with that. We are not neat freaks by any means, and I am sure my sister Kaylyne would still find it a bit dirty for her likings 🙂 , but it’s good enough for us slovenly types.
   
   
3. There’s not a lot of value being had after midnight
   
   When I told my Dad about the 30 day challenge. He gave me a line that his mother used to always say: “Nothing good ever happens after midnight”. Grandma Aldea would always worry about her boys being out until 3 or 4 AM. “What were you doing out that late?” she would ask. The boys answer would always be the same, “Nothing!”. I am positive that their answer of “Nothing” was correct, and it sure makes for a late start the next day! Even if I am drinking at the bar, it’s a big improvement to shut down the partying around 10 or 11 PM anyways. The new COVID rules are an opportunity, not a threat!
   
   
4. When I need to do errands, the stores are always open
   
   With waking up at 8 AM on the weekend, I find I am usually done my main work for the day by around 2 PM. So this leaves lots of time left for running errands even if things close at 5 or so. On work days, there is always enough time to finish work around 4:30 or 5, go for a walk, have supper, watch a show, and then still get to the YMCA for a swim or a workout before they close at 10. It seemed like I was always pushing the late envelope before, the later a store or gym was open, the later I would show up there.
   
   
5. It’s much easier to maintain a workout routine

Since we are more consistent with our wakeup time, there is always time now for a workout. Chelsea typically starts work at 10:30 AM, so now we can get our workout and a quick nap in before Chelsea has to start getting ready. When our wakeup times were more variable, there were a lot of days where we couldn’t fit in a workout before Chelsea was off to work, this has been vastly improved now and working out togheter helps us fill up our love energy for each other for the day.

We have 21 more days left in the 30 day challenge and it has been nothing but positive, other than a few groggy early mornings. 🙂 Take care!

A great life is really just a string of great days, and the best way to influence that day is with a great morning. Setting good habits for the morning is important because it allows us to focus our energies to create more value for the world around us. This routine usually takes between 2-3 hours, but with more and more people working from home, this is a great opportunity to take back our power by using our time wisely. So with that, I present to you, 5 Steps to a Rock Solid Morning.

The first thing to do is:

1. Wake up when your alarm goes off the first time.
   
   Getting up early is a gift that you give to yourself. So when the alarm clock rings, remind yourself that this is a gift, and why would you turn down a gift? Setting the snooze button only has the effect of drawing out the inevitable, and it also loses critical minutes in the best portion of the day.
   
   After getting out of bed, make sure that you:
   
   
2. Don’t check work emails or other online distractions.
   
   Checking work emails or other online sources is not a great way to get out of bed. It’s much better to focus your energy on slowly waking up and cooking a nice breakfast. The worst part of checking online sources right away is that you might end up with to-do items. This immediate to-do list will erode your mental energy and it could fuck up the morning routine. It takes some focus to not immediately check your phone, but it is worth it.
   
   Focus on getting a nice breakfast in ya, and then get to:
   
   
3. A Morning Workout
   
   Morning workouts are the bomb, they help with focus throughout the day and ensure regular sleep patterns at night. Morning workouts are also easier than night workouts because the body’s natural energy cycles are peaked. Having a program or routine to follow in advance makes it much easier to ensure this critical step gets done.
   
   Chelsea and I like doing Hasfit workouts in our garage gym, or I will go for a mountain bike in the nearby trails. Depending on the available time, we workout between 20-45 minutes each morning. We try to only skip days where we are clearly needing a rest day.
   
   After a workout, I like to hit the shower and then:
   
   
4. Savasana / Meditation / Napping
   
   After a challenging workout, the body is ready for some recovery! 21 minutes seems to be the perfect time to run through a quick sleep cycle and feel energized. 1 minute to get into bed, 20 minutes of napping. This nap makes a big difference in overall energy and focus throughout the day.
   
   After nap time is over, grab your coffee and:
   
   
5. Write a journal
   
   A process picked up from “The Artist’s Way” is the morning pages. This is 3 pages of handwritten notes about whatever is on mind. The point of the journal is not to be a to-do list, or a logging of events, it’s to give thoughts an outlet for expression. There is no need to critique the thoughts or feelings, instead, focus on giving the truth a voice, even if it’s hard to hear. Good ideas for action items may pop up while writing, use the header of your paper to write down those action items and refer back to them when the journal is finished.
   
   I like to finish off journaling with the following:

a) Three things I am grateful for today:

b) Three things that would make today great:

c) Three daily affirmations:

More information on these three can be found on Tim Ferriss’s blog.

Adam

I would like to share some ideas on creating experiences and a life that is aligned with your desires. This is based off of my experiences with friendships, intimate relationships, music, and work. It has similar tones to content that my favorite blogger Steve Pavlina shares.

1. Express your desires and interests more openly to the world.
   
   To create a life that is a good fit, be clear about what you are trying to accomplish. Make yourself easy to find. The internet gives us super powers to find like minded people, so share your talents and interests openly. It is amazing how quickly people will reach out with opportunities and offers if they have similar interests. This can be done in any field: work, arts, personal relationships etc. The more authentic your personal expression is, the more aligned the offers that come your way will be.
   
   Default mode is to ‘hide’ the elements of your personality that some would find edgy. However, the edgy parts of your personality are where the “interestingness” lies. Let your freak flags fly and you will find your troop a lot easier. Expressing yourself early is a better alternative than hiding your desires and eventually getting mad that your needs are not being met. Be honest about your intentions and interests and save the drama later on.
   
   
2. Tolerate less bullshit in your life.
   
   When things are not aligning with your expectations, lean into your fears and let your reality know that the behaviour will not be tolerated. If you don’t object to it, reality may think this is acceptable and will give you more of the same. Tolerating poor behaviour is undoubtedly settling on quality of life. Don’t take the easy path of silent approval, because that becomes the hard path later on. Create more of what you want by denying what is not working.
   
   Another way to have less bullshit in your life is by refusing to engage with it. Reserve your mental and emotional energy on the relationships that matter. An area that I find can be a waste of my mental resources is through written messages. So when I get a message with a lot of emotional baggage attached to it, my default is to respond with “OK”. Do not buy into the notion that you need to match someone’s intensity through message. Save yourself the mental energy so that you can:
   
   
3. Put Yourself Out There.
   
   Focus on creating material and content that is associated with your desires. If you like singing, post songs online, if you like woodworking, share your projects in relevant forums. Don’t let excuses prevent creating and sharing, it is more important to get out content than it is to have a masterpiece. Art is never finished anyways, it only stops in “interesting places”.
   
   A good example of the results that can happen from this: Chelsea and I created videos of us singing and playing our instruments that we published to Facebook and Youtube. From those videos, I was asked by a Facebook connection if I would be interested in trying out for the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Revue as their keyboard player. Now I’m in a full band! That opportunity would never have come to me if we were not creating and sharing content.
   
   If you want others to help you, openly express yourself in the areas you are interested in. Don’t get caught up in creating perfect content. Create good content and let it out to the world.
   
   
4. Don’t be afraid to hear and say “no”.
   
   Are you a person who can handle hearing no some times? Are you hearing no once in a while? If not, you are likely not asking enough from reality. Focus on becoming a character that can hear no, and move on from that. The rejection is not an attack on your character, so focus on separating yourself from the offer that is being made. Re-evaluate your offer to make it more win-win, or find another person who would appreciate your offer more.

Protect your time by saying no to any event or offer that is not a fit for you. Look for offers that fit the character that you currently are, not offers that fit the ‘old you’. It is okay to change your character, and also okay to change what kind of offers you are saying yes to. Tradition and family is one area where you may find particular resistance. This makes it even more important to express boundaries clearly. The world will not collapse from saying no to gift giving, dinners, or mandatory religious requirements. It needs to make sense for you.

A good default decision making tree is “Fuck Yes or No”. The idea is that if an opportunity is not making you say “Fuck Yes”, then the answer should be no. Get good at saying no to offers that are not a win-win. This mantra is especially useful when it comes to relationships. Give less effort to the relationships that are not a “Fuck Yes” for you, to make room for more aligned connections.

Adam

Here is the new Sit Stand Piano Studio Desk that I built. It uses a CASIO PX-S3000 Keyboard, and the CS67BK stand that is optional. Desktop and white topper unit from IKEA. The Sit Stand Desk Frame is from Prime Cables. Sliders are from Amazon!

The keezer is largely finished, at least until Chelsea and I fill it up with more home-made beer. It has been a ton of work, and definitely had lots of trial and error, but it is certainly an upgrade from the old one, which was truly butt ugly.

I’ll start with the dual-hinge design. After looking at some other designs, I knew I wanted to use the stock freezer hinges to hinge up the whole collar, so that the cables were out of the way when I needed to swap out kegs. Therefore, I needed an extra set of hinges to hinge up the actual lid. However, trying to find hinges that would fit onto the freezer lid was challenging, so instead I purchased a second set of hinges and covers direct from Danby, the freezer manufacture.

Using actual freezer hinges, rather than some make shift door hinge was a good idea. Even though the second set of hinges, covers, and shipping set me back $80, it was money well spent and works really well.

Moving on to the fan. A fan is needed to keep the temperature consistent throughout the keezer. Without a fan, it can cause foaming because the beer tubing will be warmer than the beer at the bottom of the keezer. The fan for my design will plug in to the temperature controller and only come on when the freezer is running.

Acquiring the correct fan turned out to be a pain in the ass. By the third fan, I got it right though. The first fan I purchased was a 120 V, 20 Watt fan designed for pushing air through duct. I installed that and it was insanely loud. I first mounted it directly to the wood and Chelsea and I determined that it was using the collar like a guitar’s sound board, pushing air through the back opening. I think it reverberated the whole house. Trying to fix it, I installed some foam underneath the fan to try to stop the reverberations, but it was still too loud for our kitchen. Return!

The second fan was a small USB fan designed for a computer desktop. It was quiet, which solved my first problem. However, it didn’t mount well and it required a finger push to turn it on everytime there was a power cycle. Considering the temp controller cycles on and off regularly, this was clearly not going to work.

The third fan learned from my first two mistakes. It mounted easily, has a latching power button, and it is whisper quiet. I plugged it into the temperature controller and it has been running for a week. No problems!

I purchased dehumidifier that renews itself by being plugged into the wall. Cool design. It can be placed anywhere in the keezer. This is done so that moisture and ice does not build up in the keezer.

I wanted to route the tubing on the back collar, so that when the collar hinged up, most of the cables will go up and back, allowing easy access to swap in and out kegs.

For route on the back collar wall, I first thought that some tie wraps and a stapler may work, which was by far my most pathetic attempt during my keezer build. Deciding to do it right, I purchased a Rack Mount Cable Management Device. This item worked well! Happy I could find something for only $14. It also came with some velcro ties, which I used to route the beer lines around the left side.

I’m happy with my build, how it’s working and how it looks. It has certainly been a time commitment, and not overly cheap either, but I’m happy with the end result. Once it’s filled with beer, I’ll post a picture of all the C02 and beer lines happily running to their kegs.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been building a Keezer. What is a keezer you may ask, well it is a converted deep freeze that is now used for kegging delicious homemade beer!

This particular one is going to originally house 3 taps, but there would be space for up to 5 in the future. It has space for 4 full-size corny kegs in the deeper section of the deep freeze and there is a shelf on the right side that fits a 3 gallon keg and the CO2 Tank.

I purchased a 5 way C02 manifold so that I can run the 3 taps, and also pressurize 2 additional kegs at the same time. Most of the tubing, taps, and regulator components can be purchased as a bundle at Ontario Beer Keg. I wish I would have known about those bundles before trying to find every single piece individually. I crushed a few hours doing that.

Me and my pops built the wooden collar portion using pine on the inside, and oak on the outside. We followed the steps of this person’s build, picture below.

I still have a bit of work to do such as attaching the hinges onto the collar. This will allow the collar to lift out of the way. This will get the gas and beer lines out of the way so that I can more easily access the kegs. Just like the image below from the link here.

Here are few pics of the collar that me and Dad built.

We used a nice cherry oil based stain. We compared a black oil base stain, and a lighter looking cherry gel based stain. Both of us agreed the dark cherry looked great.

I’m still going to add in a fan, and a dehumidifier inside. The fan will keep the cool air circulating so that the beer will foam less. The dehumidifier keeps the amount of condensation in check, so that the wood absorbs less.

I’ll make another post when I’m done with the innards and the beer is pouring. Until then, happy brewing!

Adam

I would like to introduce you to a tool I like called the Power of One. It’s a useful tool that can be used in any area of your life, but I particularly like it for fitness. The trick is to complete a tiny amount of the activity that is being procrastinated on. I often procrastinate on important activities because I think it’s going to be hard. The problem here, is that most of the time, I have no idea how hard something is going to be. Now, the more an activity get’s built up in my head as being difficult, the more difficult it becomes to even start! So let’s look at a technique to overcome this.

Some days I am feeling lethargic and lazy, probably due to sitting around too long. Science tells us that a “body in motion, tends to stay in motion, and a body at rest, tends to stay at rest”. Now, using this as a guiding force, it’s time to put the Power of One to use! I don’t really want to be a lazy blob, it’s just how I’m feeling. So using the power of one, I force myself to do one push-up (hear crickets sounding). Now this may seem like nothing, but that’s not true. One is light years away from zero.  This means I have to clear off my yoga mat, take off my slippers, get down on the floor, and crank out a push up. Now, if am in a low energy state, and one push up is all I can muster, so be it, I didn’t feel like working out anyways. I hate you working out!

Now the above instance almost never, ever happens. Most of the time, I’ll do one push up, then usually think to myself how silly it is to do only one push up, so I’ll do a few. Feeling mildly better, I usually grab my heavy weights and make myself do one dead lift, which turns into two or more, then I’ll do one squat, do one pull up, etc. Before I know it, I end up having a 30 minute, full body workout. Compare this to the starting point of being so tired that I can barely convince myself to do one push-up. The compound effect in play here is a beautiful thing. Most of the effort in completing a task is eliminating mental barriers anyways, doing the first eliminates those barriers.

This habit can be applied to many areas of life, but it is best for areas where there is procrastination involved. For example, I registered this domain name a full year before I built the website. Getting tired of my exceptional ability of never ending procrastination, I fired up Microsoft Word, whipped out my first idea, and quickly critiqued myself on how poor my writing is. Regardless, I sent it to my girlfriend who seems to always support my wonky ways. Then, doing nothing with the post for several weeks, I managed to build up the courage to show it to one friend. I couldn’t believe they didn’t think I was an idiot!  My heart grew a thousand times that day from the shriveled up, Grinch-like state that it usually occupies. Without that first article, there would be no blog.

The biggest benefit of the Power of One is it gives an accurate reading on the work required to get what is desired. For example, my first employer after graduating laid me off due to financial problems. After an extended break, and being screamed at that I “need to get a job” from my mother, I interviewed with four different companies. I received exactly four rejection letters. My problem is I didn’t know how to “get to one.” However, I kept on learning, and figuring out how to get an offer. My next two interviews went great and I received offers from both employers. Getting from one to two is easy. But one is at the other end of the world from zero.

Most of the time, the reason we are procrastinating is because we have no idea how much work is required. Get that first one done, take the smallest step possible. Before you know it, you will be well down the path you’re looking for.

Adam

PS. If you liked this post, see my other posts, if you are on mobile keep scrolling down, if you are on desktop, posts are to the top right.

In a world where most people are NOT self employed, instantly creating more income is not that easy. In my opinion, cutting your spending is a much more important tool for creating financial freedom. Every dollar you save and invest is going to generate income for you. Eventually your money will be making more money than you can, so let’s learn to get out of the way of the numerous employees (dollars) who are begging to get to work.

Most people know some basic financial advice such as “pay off your credit cards”, “don’t get into debt” Boring! I already heard that one. This post is designed for the people who want to know why they aren’t saving more money, and the answer in my mind, is that social norms of what “most people do” are crushing savings accounts. Let’s evaluate alternatives, save thousands of dollars, and live a happier life.

Cycle

As an avid cyclist, I will be honest, I hate unnecessary driving. I was at my local bike shop and chatting with one of their bike techs who told me “Cars are coffins”. I don’t know if I would go that far, but it is amazing to me that taking a large, inefficient vehicle is most people’s ONLY mode of transportation. I don’t want to pay money anytime I need to go somewhere, talk about crippling! By biking, we can improve our health and our wallets at the same time.

Disregarding the tremendous health benefits to cycling, I’m going to give my example of how much money I save every month from cycling. I chose to cancel my car registration so the estimates are based off of that.

Car Insurance	$100 / month
Parking	$70 / month
Gas	$120 / month
Maintenance	$50 / month
Grand Total	$340 / month

Since my car is paid off, I didn’t include any lease amounts, but regardless, the amount that I save each month by cycling is a significant amount that goes straight into investments upon payday.

Now when I talk about cycling, the first problem most people say is “What about when I need to get groceries?” Now, I handle this question via my bike rack and pannier bags, and then if more groceries are required, via a bike trailer.

Using cycling as an option is my number one recommendation for turbocharging your finances. If you don’t yet have a bike, no worries, there are many low cost options available. Take a look to see if there are any local bike co-ops. Here in Saskatoon, we have the Bridge City Bike Coop which is a great service to help fix your bike or set you up with one for a low price.

Cut your own hair

When I moved to downtown Saskatoon, I tried out a new local hairstylist that offered men’s haircuts for $35 and up. After the haircut, I was left with a bill that cost me more than $50 before the tip, ouch! This was the catalyst that caused me to start cutting my own hair.

I asked my girlfriend if she would cut my hair, but she was a bit scared at first. So taking matters into my own hands, I used my universal hair trimmer ($50 at Shoppers Drug Mart) and went with the old buzz cut for extra breeziness. The top was a little shorter than I like to go, so I’ve started buzzing the sides only and doing the top with scissors. My girlfriend helps me out with the tougher spots such as the back of the neck and gives me quick feedback if I made a mistake.

The money saved for a men’s haircut is not a huge amount, but I really like the time it has freed up to do other things.  I also like that I can do a quick touch up on the sides and back which cleans up the look tremendously. Highly recommended!

Cut your own hair!

$35 or more / month

 

Use Your Local Library

As humans, we need to be gathering fresh information to be excited about life. Books are a super way to get that excitement back. Although purchasing books is money well spent, our local library has almost every single book available, so why not borrow it?

Some books I take out and never read because I realize they aren’t that interesting. This is all fine and dandy with a library card. Do you really need more stuff laying around your house anyways, it’s almost always better to borrow something if you’re only going to use it once.

My current savings from the library for the year are greater than $600 and the year is only half way through. So cost savings are based off of that.

Borrow books from library

$100 / month

When’s the last time you used the library? It’s time to start again.

Make Your Own Beer and Wine

Making your own liquor is one of those tasks that seems daunting at first, but is so easy and delicious that it’s a no-brainer. The cost savings and fun that come from making beer and wine are huge.

My girlfriend, Chelsea and I have made about 7-8 batches of homemade beer, and recently made our first batch of homemade wine. The beer is generally better than most bought beers and costs less than $0.50 a beer. I also like that we are reusing the bottles rather than having to send them away to be melted down which is more energy efficient.

A typical batch of homemade beer will cost about $30 or less and will make 60+ beers. The cost for 60 of my favorite store bought beers is $165 in Saskatchewan. At less than 1/5th of the price, it’s hard to ignore this exceptional way to save money. If you compare to a restaurant or a bar, it’s about 1/10th of the cost. Whatever happened to predrinks anyways? I think it’s time to revive the trend!

A quick way to get into home brewing is with a starter kit. Northern Brewer has a great offering below for $100 which includes everything you need to brew your first batch.

Brew Share Enjoy Homebrew Starter Kit

I am currently taking my beer making up a notch and am getting into steeping grains while still using liquid malt extract as the main source of the sugars. Steeping some grains allows for customization while using the liquid malt extract makes the process easier.

For more information on brewing your own beer I recommend “How to Brew” by John. J. Palmer.

I estimate the cost savings based off of 12 beer per week and a bottle of wine.

Homemade beer and wine

$150 / month

These are a few things that can be done to supercharge savings, and have more fun at the same time. Stop giving away money when lower cost, funner alternatives are available!

I read about an idea from Tim Ferriss’s book Tools of Titans which is the concept of the Jar of Awesome. The intent of this jar is that whenever something awesome happens, you jot a note down and place it in the jar of awesome. Tim recommends once a day as a minimum, with the qualifications for something being awesome being exceptionally low, even “I didn’t die today” is grounds for going in the jar of awesome.

There are already three notes placed into my Jar of Awesome.

1. A bird laid eggs and built a nest on my balcony.
2. I made an email sign-up list and put it up on my blog.
3. This one is Chelsea’s: I coloured the Jar of Awesome!

This is a good tool for showing appreciation for the day and remembering back on the funny little things that have happened in your life. Such an easy thing to do to brighten the day!

So since I drew up the jar of awesome, it clearly needed to be coloured in, so I purchased some colouring pencils. Art is something I used to like doing, but then the interest slowly dwindled to nothing. So I bought the pencils, Chelsea coloured the jar of awesome, and added some excellent features such as musical notes and hearts!

While Chelsea was colouring, I drew up whatever was in front of me. Like most good art, I just watched where it took me, and somehow the pineapple ended up in front of a murderous knife! How shocking, but also fun!

Drawing is a great tool to get out of the seriousness of life. Make some art, trust the creative experience and remember, art is never finished, it just stops in interesting places! We are all artists, musicians, and creative, brilliant people. However, we need to get out of the way and allow the creativity to flow. My logic behind this is to lower expectations. Once perfection is not expected, then fun and creativity can happen.

Adam