In one of the classic personal finance books, ?The Richest Man
In Babylon,? we are told that the way to wealth is to ?pay
yourself first.? That a portion of all you earn is yours to
keep. Great words, and just as applicable to your life itself.
In other words, out of every sixteen-hours of wakefulness in a
day, one hour should be yours, and yours alone. Not your job,
not your husband or wife, not your kids or your parents. One
hour. Sixty minutes. Thirty-six hundred seconds. Yours.

The question you should ask yourself is: if you only had one
hour a day that belonged to you, what should you do with it?
What CAN you do with it? Television watching patterns suggest
that the average American watches over four hours a day?so we
can?t claim the time isn?t there.

Lifewriting?, the high-performance system for writers and
readers, maintains that with only one hour a day you can
completely take your life back from the world, build to the
career you desire, reach inner peace, get in the best shape of
your life, and engage in continuing education?all at the same
time!

The first trick is to learn to calm your mind, to center
yourself so that you have a ?clean stage? on which to perform.
Twenty minutes three times a week is a great start, and once
you are in the habit, you?ll start finding other times during
the day for contemplation. Either focusing on your heartbeat,
or counting deep belly breaths to ten over and over again are
great stress-busters.

Next, you?ll need energy to transform your dreams into reality.
Diet, rest and focus are important for energy, but one way you
can catapult your physical energy into new levels is proper
exercise. There are several forms of whole-body exercise that
are far more efficient than most fitness routines. We?re
talking exercises that simultaneously work all muscles, produce
high levels of aerobic fitness, and actually produce a healthy
stretch?all in less than 20 minutes a day! Check out the
?clubbell? system at www.rmax.tv, the ?kettlebell? techniques
at www.dragondoor.com, or the ?Combat Conditioning? system sold
at www.mattfurey.com. These three are fabulous, real,
hyper-efficient means of producing fitness. Three twenty-minute
sessions a week will probably double your energy.

Now you get to be clever. While total concentration on your
exercise is best, this is not a perfect world, and we must make
compromises. Listening to instructional CD?s or audiobooks
during exercise time is a great choice. Possibly the best
source of such material is the wonderful Great Courses series
available at www.teachco.com. The Teaching Company finds the
best college professors in the world, and records their finest
lectures on 30 and 45 minute tapes. The prices are reasonable
(everything goes on sale at least once a year) and the breadth
of knowledge staggering. The quality of the instructors is
absolutely top-notch.

Ten minutes every day clarifying your goals is also a good
idea.

Now, depending on how you?ve juggled your time (ten minutes
goals, twenty minutes exercise or meditation) you should have
about thirty minutes left. You can use this for making plans to
move your career into a desired direction. Let?s be specific,
and talk about my own career, writing. What can I do with this
time?

Well, after a half hour of planning, exercising, meditation,
and focus, you should be raring to go. In thirty minutes, you
can produce 300-1000 words of text, IF you don?t worry about
the quality of the draft. This is absolutely key to producing
the volume that will lead to quality. Say, Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday, you produce new text. These are ?flow? days, where
you simply make a picture in your head, or let your fingers
tingle (or however else you move into creative flow) and then
type.

Then, on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, you edit. This is
when you tear your work apart, polish, plan and dig in. DO NOT
CONFUSE THESE TWO STATES. Editing and Flow are completely
different parts of the mind, sort of Left Brain/Right Brain.
Writer?s block is merely the mixing of the two, ?editing? when
you should be ?flowing.? Separate them deliberately, and you
unleash a creative avalanche.

Of course, if you aren?t a writer, these ideas can easily be
modified. The most important points are:

1) One hour of every day belongs to you. Take it!
2) Clear your mind.
3) Plan your day
4) Raise your physical energy.
5) Take steps toward your dream goal.

If you will take these five steps, then you are on the path to
the life of your dreams?one hour at a time!


About The Author: NY Tmes bestselling writer Steven Barnes has
lectured on creativity and consciousness from UCLA to the
Smithsonian Institute. Learn more at: http://www.lifewrite.com
and http://www.lifewriting.biz