One of the central tenets of cheerfulegg is the idea of constantly investing in your personal capital – your skills, knowledge, experiences, perspectives, health, and overall awesomeness.
Why? Because I believe that the very best investment you can make is in yourself.
The higher your personal capital, the closer you are to a rich life. Top performers – the people with large stashes of personal capital – are often so highly valued in their jobs, their communities, and their lives that it becomes pretty easy for them to live rich, fulfilling, lives.
Testing the Best Methods
One of the great things about personal capital is that it’s easy to use your life as a personal laboratory. You get to try different things – at little or no cost – and see which methods work best for you.
That’s why I launched LifeTests – a series of experiments aimed at increasing personal capital (This was inspired by Raptitude, a blog about becoming better at being human). Instead of just blogging about advice and ideas, I’m going to try these experiments out in my own life.
Along the way, I’ll be logging my experiences, thoughts, and lessons learnt. If these LifeTests work for me, then there’s a pretty good chance that you can pick up something from them to increase your own personal capital as well.
Here are the LifeTests that I’ve conducted so far:
LifeTest #1: No Morning Coffee for 14 Days
In this LifeTest, I attempt to break free from my morning cup of coffee, which I’m heavily addicted to.
Results: Success! I no longer feel the need to down a caffeinated drink in the mornings. I’ve got more sustainable, higher-quality energy throughout the day, and I saved the equivalent of a full meal from not buying coffee for two weeks.
LifeTest #2: Sleep 7 Hours a Night for 7 10 Consecutive Nights
I attempt to consistently get sufficient sleep, and see if that has a disproportionate effect on my mood, focus, and productivity.
Results: I did it, but the results weren’t what I expected. To my surprise, sleep didn’t automatically change me into a super productive jet engine of efficiency. But it did prevent me from feeling entirely crappy when I woke up in the mornings, which was a refreshing change. More importantly, I’ve discovered a better nightly routine to get my ass into bed on time. Here’s to more slee…..zzzzzzz.
LifeTest #3: Wake Up One Hour Earlier
I attempt to wake up 5 minutes earlier every day, until I hit my target time of one hour earlier than usual. If I succeed, I’d be able to carve out a huge chunk of time to pursue awesomeness the first thing in the morning.
Results: Mixed. My fatigued body fell short of hitting my intended goal of waking up at 5.50am, but I was able to create a new habit on waking up early and getting work done in the mornings, which provided a helluva boost to my productivity!
LifeTest #4: Lose 5 Kilograms
I attempt to lose 5 kilograms and get a flatter stomach using Tim Ferriss’ Slow-Carb Diet. If I succeed, it would mean being right in the middle of the “healthy BMI” range, easier execution of pull-ups (for IPPT!) and clothes that look better.
Results: Really, really successful – almost too successful, in fact. I achieved my goal of losing 5kg, and almost everyone I know said that I lost too much weight! It’s almost scary how effective the diet was – I could fit into tight T-shirts I hadn’t been able to wear since college. Overall quite proud of the results, but now I might have to put back some weight to look a little more “normal”.