Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Jump


Last week I jumped out of a plane from 11,000 ft. Amazing rush, buzz, excitement, thrill and all of those great things. But more than all of that, I had an amazing experience.

In my mind there are two ways you can do a skydive. One is to jump for the thrill, maybe get a DVD made where you're waving at the camera and taking a record of the dive, swinging your arms around in the air madly and screaming. Definitely a fun way. You'll have great memory and tell a great story.

A photo I took while freefalling

The other way to skydive is to take it all in while you fall. Look around you,  breathe it in, imbibe it! Not so that you'll have the memory and the story (or the DVD record) when you land, but so that you appreciate the view, the feeling of flying and the sheer beauty of the world from that height right there and then, for the 30 seconds that you freefall and the few minutes that you float to the ground. I guess you could call it 'mindful skydiving'.

But the best thing is, you don't have to be doing a skydive to take 30 seconds to remember how incredible the world is...

...though it definitely helps when you're seeing it from this view.




**I did the parachute jump for The RISE Foundation, who support the families of people affected by addiction. They do some amazing work and if you want to make a contribution to them you can do so at www.therisefoundation.ie **

Monday, May 7, 2012

Can you learn to stop snoozing?


Following my blog post last week where I shared my passion for snoozing and my plans to start something to tackle it, I have gotten a slew of emails and questions from people on the topic. It seems to have sparked something in people's imagination. It also got about four times the number of reads as any of my other blogs to date. This kind of confirms my thought that this is a latent problem people that people haven't been able to tackle. There are so many snoozers out there, but I'm convinced that people don't really understand (or admit) the actual impact that snoozing has on their lives.

So in response to my blog post, the common questions that have been asked by everybody who has emailed me or gotten in contact have been the following:

"Can you learn to stop snoozing?" and "Can you teach somebody to stop snoozing?"

In short, the answer to question 1 is "Yes". And the simple answer to question 2 is "I don't have a clue, but I'm going to give it a shot".

Q1: Can you learn to stop snoozing?


I don't want to spend too long on this, as the simple answer is yes. Lots of people have stopped snoozing and become early risers. You've done it too. Last time you needed to get a flight or do something really important, you probably managed to pull yourself out of bed. When people have kids, they suddenly don't have any choice about whether to snooze or not (babies are badly designed without snooze buttons). Also, lots of people on-line have written about their own success stories.

But getting up to tend a crying child or catch a flight is one thing. The true challenge comes when you are getting up with absolutely no external stimulus other than your own declared desire to get up at a certain time  in order to do something that you want to do.

The reality though is that although it is certainly possible to stop the habit, it is rare that epic snoozers become non-snoozers.

Q2: Can you teach people to stop snoozing? (and what would that look like?)
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
You've probably tried to stop snoozing before? I've often made the decision of an evening. 'Tomorrow I will get up early and go to the gym'... but when the morning comes the old habit kicks in. You can't just change such an in-built habit with willpower alone.


So how do you tackle it? The problem with a lot of snoozing tips is that they are taken in isolation and are only somewhat effective. My idea is to combine all the different elements of what is known about snoozing and put them into a 4 hour intensive anti snoozing workshop. As this is only a pilot I can't tell you whether this will work or not, but I am determined to find out.

The workshop will cover three main strands:

1. Goal setting: 
The key thing with stopping snoozing is knowing why you want to get up in the morning. For some people this will be getting up an hour early to go to the gym, for some it will be getting up just 15 minutes earlier to have a more relaxed morning. But whatever it is for you it's important to define and be clear about the reason you want to stop snoozing, and know what difference it will make in your life. This will give you the motivation to keep going with breaking the habit. The goal setting workshop will be run by a hugely experienced career coach.


2. Techniques, Tips and Practice: 
Snoozing is a habit, which can be broken. When you snooze you usually do so without really waking up or choosing your actions. It's a subconscious thing. But by changing some of our actions and thoughts in the morning we can change the context of the morning slog.
- Actually practice getting up in the morning. Periodically throughout the workshop we will actually practice the art of getting up immediately with the alarm clock.
- Tips and tricks will be provided, a combination of which can help to tip the balance towards getting up rather than staying in bed.
- Mindfulness. Mindfulness is a practice to bring awareness and thought to your actions in the moment. It can be really useful in breaking the automatic habits that we have in our lives, and snoozing is a pretty big one. The workshop will take some of the practical elements of mindfulness and apply them to getting up in the morning. Anne Twohig-Wall from Ananda Programmes, (a hugely experienced workshop facilitator) will be running that section of the day.


3. Network and Support:
The key element that brings all of the above together (and what makes this workshop really different from just reading about this on-line) is the network of ex-snoozers that it will bring together to support and encourage each other to stop snoozing and change their habits. We can support each other in our efforts, whether that's morning calls or texts to make sure people are awake when they said they'd be, sharing information and success stories on an online forum, meeting for a coffee before work in the morning, etc.

Workshop Details: 

Date: Sunday 27th May from 11am - 4pm (had thought about starting at 9am but thought given the audience that wouldn't be a great plan)


Cost: €20 per person (just to cover costs). For this you'll get the full day and a unique "Anti-Snooze Booklet" that I'm putting together. Lunch won't be included in that.


Location: It is being held in the CFCP, a great little venue on lower Pembroke Street (it will be worth coming for the venue alone!).

Interested? There are already 6 people signed up to come along to this pilot workshop, and I want to get 10 people on board for the first one, and then see where to bring it from there. If you are an epic snoozer or know any epic snoozers who might be interested, then either leave a comment below or email me at ryandarren@gmail.com

Until then, happy snoozing!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Morning Glory


"I'd like mornings better if they started later." - Anon

As anybody who knows me knows, I'm a fan of the snooze alarm. I'd say I'm a passionate snoozer. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I may be the very best (or at least most prolific) snoozer that I know. My superpower is being able to fall asleep instantly after being woken up, so I can literally snooze for hours, with an alarm going off across the room every 5 minutes for long periods of time (my record back in college was 4 hours I think). Think about that. Every 5 minutes for 4 hours, that is 48 times rising to turn off the alarm, and then sneaking back into the bed and falling straight back asleep. You gotta say, that is pretty impressive.

The only problem with this superpower is that it gets in the way of actually doing the things that I want to in life. I'm a pretty ambitious guy, and there are a few things that I'm trying to get done at the moment. But I'm also a pretty busy guy and a lot of my evening times are taken up with work, events, sports or just hanging out with some great friends. That doesn't leave all that much time for doing the bonus activities in life that I want to do. For example, this year I would love to get to the gym a couple of times a week to get fitter. I'm trying to learn Spanish. I'm keen to read more. And I want to start each day not rushing my breakfast, not rushing out the door to be in work just on time, and having time to just relax in the morning. These are all things that I could do in the morning if I could get myself out of bed at a reasonable time on a regular basis.


But it's not just me


I know I am not alone in this struggle. If you google anything about this there are countless tips and techniques suggested online (my favourite one is Steve Pavlina if you're interested in checking any of them out).

Too many times I've shared these stories with people who have laughed and shared their own experiences. It is pretty funny, but on some level it isn't funny at all. What we are effectively saying or accepting is that we are unable to decide when we wake and when we sleep. 'Rational Darren' makes the decision when going to bed that he will sleep until 7am and get up then. 'Morning Darren' overrules that decision. Laughs in the face of that decision. Morning Darren hits snooze and climbs back in to bed. In some ways it's almost like an addiction. I'm a snooze addict.

My Belief
I believe that the inability to get up in the morning is preventing people from achieving their goals in life.
Think about the number of people who are in the gym in the first few weeks of January, but then can't keep it up. Think about the number of people who say 'I really don't have time to read'. Think about the number of your work colleagues who get in either just on time or 5 - 10 minutes late. It's unlikely that they have had a restful and relaxed morning. Most likely they were rushing for the train or bus, skipping breakfast etc.

In addition there is evidence to say that early risers are slimmer, happier and healthier (it's science!). No wonder. If you have the time to exercise, eat well and start the day calmly, this has a massive impact on all three things (as opposed to rushing around with one leg in your trousers with a toothbrush in your mouth and the alarm still going off).


It doesn't have to be like this

I have worked hard at this issue over the last few years of my life, and I go through patches of being brilliant and patches of ridiculous and humiliating snooze failure. But there are ways to improve, and I want to help people to take control of their snoozing.




Morning Glory

I'm looking for 10 epic snoozers to take part in a pilot workshop that I'm running called 'Morning Glory' (possibly best name ever?).  It will cover some of the key techniques for getting out of bed in the morning, some theory and practice, and also will link you in with a network of 'snoozers' who want to wake up when they choose. By building a small network of ex-snoozers we can support each other in our efforts to break the snooze habit.

The pilot workshop will be held on Sunday 27th May from around 11am - 4pm (venue TBC).The first session will only cost about €20 per person (just to cover venue costs etc - this is a non-profit project. My only goal is to change people's lives a little bit here).

If you are interested yourself or know an epic snoozer, please e-mail me at ryandarren@gmail.com. I'm pretty sure that this is the first time that anything like this has ever been done, so it should be a bit of craic as well as lifechanging! :) Any thoughts and questions also welcome.