During the time, I was able to keep it up for about 3 weeks straight back when I trying it out in late Dec ’07 up until Mid-January 2008. That was when I caught the cold and had confined myself to bed for a few days.

Whatever momentum I had built up over the past few weeks of waking up at 5:30 AM, I felt I had lost. It was like having the wind being knocked out of me while running full-speed ahead.

While I thought it was something minor where I could recover on my own, boy was I wrong. It taught me an important lesson that when you build up so much momentum – a routine that you feel is working for you – becoming sick can just throw everything you’ve worked for up to that point into turmoil.

By day 4 after I had caught the cold, I took some DayQuil medicine in order to alleviate the symptoms, which helped me feel better, but I didn’t feel I was my same ‘great’ self a day prior to becoming sick. What it boils down to is that being proactive about your own health is something that needs to be addressed immediately so you minimize the loss our most precious resource – time. I’ll be adopting the use of ColdFX – a daily cold/flu prevention medicine available in all major Canadian Drug stores.

I have to admit at this point of my life, it’s a constant struggle and battle to sustain that positive change especially when you’re coming from toxic cycles of waking up to an erratic schedule.

I’m going commit myself to waking up at 5:00 AM for about the 2nd time now, and I’ll report my progress and what make use of the time I have to myself in the morning, within a week.

- Will

Below is a run that I completed earlier this afternoon to see how much further I could push myself. Here I chose my school, the Ted Rogers School of Management right beside Eaton Centre as the destination, where I’d swing around down along Bay St. and back east along Queen St East back home.

I’m excited to measure my marathon training progress here. I think I’ll bump up my distance up to 10 km for next Sunday (weather pending). See you on the street or on the trails!

- Will

I had to imagine two disempowering core beliefs that I had carried to this day and brought myself to the future in 5, 10 and 20 year increments.  I was to “create the pain” with the weight of each “time warp” was painful, humiliating, embarrassing, and everything negative I was able to conjure had I held those two core beliefs all the way into the future.

Those two core beliefs were:

1.  I don’t have enough energy right now.

2.  I don’t have enough drive, passion or determination to get me through to learn and apply my accounting courses and ultimately graduate.

After this exercise, I felt so beaten down and old.  My physiology suggested it as well, as I hunched over as if trying to protect myself from physical harm, I was in tears and my knees bent.  Fearful of the future I envisioned had I continued to carry these core beliefs – the pain was unbearable.

Covnersely, when I had installed my two new core empowering beliefs to fill in the void created by the pain felt by feeling those previous beliefs, I felt energized, powerful and excited of my future.   My two new core beliefs are:

1.  Graduating is just another job that I need to pour all of my passion and determination into to craft a life that is fulfilling.  Short term pain for long term gain, otherwise it would spell pain or perhaps death.

2.  I am a power plant and I can tap into an abundant amount of energy, so I can wake up at 5 AM and power through a productive and  fulfilling day.

This has probably been the singularly most effective day in all of his programs.  The effectiveness depends on the level of pain you are willing to induce upon yourself, so that your re-conditioning over your old patterns are nullified.

Beliefs affect attitudes.  Attitudes affect behaviours.  Behaviours affect actions.  Actions affect results.  Results affect beliefs.

- Will