TMT005 - Fatness Without the Muumuu

Listen to Episode 5 of The Matt Trick in the player above or download it.

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The Matt Trick

Free your endorphins!

For the Matt Trick, I do a field review of my favorite running app (heavy breathing included). They have a free version, a paid version, a monthly subscription version. I don't pay the monthly subscription, but I've owned the Pro version of the app for about three years now.


I've continued to use it over time because of the great statistics that are available from the web interface. They also have excellent social tools. If you start using Endomondo, you should add me as a friend so we can give each other running motivation. Just make sure you tweak the privacy settings to suit your needs as you can share a map of your runs with your friends.

Goal Line

Going to bed by 10:00 pm. With or without underpants on my head.

Hal Elrod's podcast where he rehashes some of the fundamentals of the Miracle Morning.

The Marathon Training Academy where I recently purchased a Marathon Training plan to guide me on my way to upping my mileage.

In order to help me with my Miracle Morning and also with my marathon training, I want to be in bed every night for the next two weeks by 10:00 pm. Exceptions being when I'm out with the family or on a date with Megan.

Matt-spiration Moment

Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy...feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness. 

2 Nephi 2: 51 from the Book of Mormon.

Last week I spoke about good habits, how even if they are simple and small things, when performed regularly over long periods of time, can amount to a meaningful result. Just like Albus Dumberdore’s long hair and silvery beard which are truly magnificent, but took ages and ages to grow. I want to continue this train of thought for the Mattspiration today.

Growing up, throughout high school, middle school, and probably elementary too, I didn’t have much spendable cash like most kids. But I did have plenty of spendable time. And the two things that I spent my time on more than anything else were playing Nintendo and watching reruns of the Simpsons.

Now like I said last week, small and simple things everyday can amount to great things over time. Well, by the time I graduated high school, I could recall pretty much recall any episode of the Simpsons up to season 10 (because after season 10 it just wasn’t the same anymore). I also realized the fruit of my time investment one afternoon post graduation. I was killing time with a friend in my parents basement playing my favorite old Nintendo game, Mega Man 2. As I directed Mega Man from platform to platform perfectly avoiding every obstacle, I eliminated every bad guy as I predicted their every move from the many hours I’d invested into my favorite game. My friend dropped his jaw in amazement and said, “Wow, you’re really good at this game.” I kind of sighed and replied, “Yes I am, but it’s not something I’m proud of, all those wasted hours it took to become this good.”

In the end, the ability to quote a decade of Simpsons or beat Mega Man in under an hour did not help in any useful way in my life. You could say I’d spent my time and labor on something that couldn’t satisfy me. I still struggle with harmful compulsive tendencies that claw for my time and attention but add no net worth to my life, like compulsively checking Facebook, or since I started this podcast compulsively checking to see if I have any new subscribers, or religiously reading politics websites and polls for how the next election might turn out, or checking out new features on a super expensive phone that just came out that I might be able to afford used on ebay in a year...but like filling my life with Mega Man and Homer Simpson, these things will only leave me unsatisfied and wanting something more real.

So what do we do? How do we “delight in fatness” as the scripture says, without needing to go out and buy and Homer sized muumuu? Evaluate how you spend your time --if it is on things that are building you up and making you the person that you want to become, or if they are simply thoughtless habits that cannot satisfy. Make personal time for personal prayer and meditation to nourish your soul. Make time for good reading that feeds your mind and commit to lifelong learning and self-improvement. You could always join the Summer Reading Bingo Facebook group I set up in the second episode or make a commitment device like I mentioned in the last episode to commit yourself to something new, if you’re looking for more good things to fill your life with. But most importantly, I think, is to invest in serving those around you and building stronger personal relationships with those people in your life that you love.

In Matthew in the New Testament, Christ says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart is also” (Matthew 6:21). I think a good indication of what you regard as your “treasure” is how you spend your time. And I decided a while back that I didn’t want my heart to be held by any Japanese video game or a fat guy cartoon character, but that I would rather feast on the things that make this life good and delight in the fatness of a life well spent.

The Matt Trick Episode 4 - The $500 Diet

Listen to Episode 4 of The Matt Trick in the player above or download it.

Make sure and check out the poll in the sidebar---------->

Here is a PDF of The Miracle Morning for Kids that I made for Oliver and Camilla.

Your hair grows everyday. Oliver's curly hair is proof.

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Ian Ayers website - Here you can see all kinds of information about his research, including a 40 minute presentation he gave about incentives to keep your goals.

Stickk.com - Ian's website where you can setup a contract with Future You.

The $500 Diet by Ian Ayers on Amazon.

Carrots and Sticks by Ian Ayers on Amazon.

Commitment Devices on the Freakonomics Podcast.

Goal Line

I was thinking of using the $500 Diet to commit myself to get out and do my long runs each week. It’s been difficult to find the time (and energy) on my weekends to go run for 2 hours, and then to be physically drained for the rest of the weekend after my long run. These long runs are necessary though if I want to run a marathon this fall, which has been a tentative goal of mine.

But I think I’ve come up with a more practical commitment device for me this week though. I up and registered for the New Hampshire Marathon on October 4th in Bristol, NH. The registration cost about $60 after fees, so there’s financial incentive to make it to race day. I don’t need a referee because the money is spent and is non-refundable. I’ll post the news all over Facebook and in my Running Group on FB, I’ll tell all my friends at church and work so that it will add the cost of embarrassment if I bow out. And I’m telling all of you so you can hold me to my goal.

http://www.nhmarathon.com/ - if you feel so inclined to come and run with me.

Matt-spiration Moment

It is our choices that show what
we truly are, far more than our abilities.

By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. Alma 37:26

You’re hair grows every day, though you can’t see it happen, nor are the effects noticeable from day to day. If you’re like my four-year-old son Oliver, that growth is very evident by his crazy beautiful curly hair. In that same respect, our actions, even small, if repeated daily over a significant time period can yield a meaningful result.

Each of my sisters is an excellent and accomplished musician. I took up the trombone from my sister Melanie, and growing up, I would often go to bed at night to either Martha on the piano or Becca on the harp practices for long hours. (My brother McKay was also a musician, but he played the drums and we would all get mad at him if he practiced for long hours into the night). The secret to their success wasn’t necessarily the “long hours” part, but the “often” part. No one wakes up one morning with a mastery of anything.

Throughout my life, I am amazed at the mastery and experience of people that I get to rub shoulders with. Whether it be how some of my coworkers have a suggestion for any kind of engineering problem, or how some of my friends at church are able to recall scriptures from memory for any gospel topic, or some of my running friends who are twice my age can kick my butt on their “slow days”. None of these things happened overnight, and certainly none of them happened by accident either, but through constant, simple, effort over time.

Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said, “We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day” (Scott). If you want to be the kind of person who is great at music, put yourself in it everyday. If you want a close relationship with Christ, put yourself in prayer and scripture study every day. Not a huge chunks of time, but consistent effort will yield results. The same goes for anything-- running, math, relationships-- each of these things require an investment over time. (By the way if you’re having trouble committing to an everyday sort of habit, you might try a commitment device like the $500 diet!)

Unfortunately, this idea can work negatively too. Life destroying addictions begin with bad habits which had to have begun with a first bad decision. No married person decides in a day, “Marriage has been nice, but I think I’m having adultery today.” When married people claim to have fallen “out of love” it may be that they have simply failed to give their their spouse the regular and everyday sort of love and nurturing that such a relationship requires. Or maybe the marriage was poisoned slowly by pornography, unfair judgements, hurtful words, and pride. Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles observed, “An old proverb says that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, so watch your step” (Holland).

Be the kind of person you want to be by being that person everyday. Spend more time building good character traits and forming strong relationships with the people you love. Beware of spending too much time in trivial matters and stay away from bad habits that can tie you down with addiction and destroy you. Over time, the choices you make will make you the person you will become. As Albus Dumbledore said, “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” and if there’s anyone who understands how your hair grows long over time, it’s Albus Dumbledore.

The Matt Trick Episode 3 - Happy Father's Beard!

Listen to Episode 3 of The Matt Trick in the player above or download it.

The Matt Trick

Good Miracle Morning!

The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. His whole story, the Miracle Morning, and his plan to get you on it.

"Yo Pal" Hal Elrod's website about the Miracle Morning. Here he gives you enough freebies to get started on his technique to "change your life before 8AM!"

Here is Hal's interview on the Run Run Live! podcast. It's where I heard about him. The interview outlines his program and what motivated it.

Goal Line

I've been putting my toes in the water with the Miracle Morning this past month, and I have seen some results, but nothing too drastic. It's during these morning hours that I've had the time to put together this podcast, as well as do other studying and writing. However, I haven't fully committed myself and I haven't taken seriously the affirmations from the program. I've let myself slip about 40% of the mornings, mostly because of Baby Lillian waking me up in the night giving me an excuse to stay in bed when the alarm goes off :p

My goal this week is to commit to the Miracle Morning for two weeks straight. This includes the affirmations, even if I think they are a little cheesy. But we'll see who's the skeptic after two weeks straight of the miracle morning. I'll report back and let you know my results. Email me or post a comment to make a Miracle Morning goal for yourself!

Matt-spiration Moment

My dad in his bearded glory.

Since today is Father's Day, let me tell you about my dad’s beard. He’s worn it pretty much all his life and it’s part of the image that comes to mind when you think of my dad. It’s grey now but it used to be Scandinavian red, so much so that even though the hair on the top of his head used to be brown, people would refer to him as "that guy with red hair and a beard". As far as I can tell from pictures and stories, my dad has only shaved a handful of times in his life: when he served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints, when he got married to my mom, and then about 10 years ago when I was about to graduate from High School.

At that time 10 years ago, the Stake President of the Church in my hometown (Stake President is the leader over a group of congregations in an area) called my dad into his office to extend to him an important calling to serve in the Church. From how my dad tells the story, the conversation went like this:

Stake President: Ken, do you love the Lord?
Dad: Yes of course I do.
SP: Ken, how much do you love the Lord?
D: With all my heart, with all my might, all my strength and my life. He’s given me everything and I’d do anything for Him.
SP: Ken, do you love the Lord...more than your beard?
D: Wait, huh, now hold on, who said anything about my beard, let’s not get too hasty here…

This is a cute exaggerated story, but it is true that my dad was willing to give up his beard to serve. I believe, in fact, that my dad would be willing to sacrifice anything necessary in order to serve the Lord and further his progression. (As a side note, after 5 years, my dad was released from that calling at which point he stopped shaving and grew his full beard back overnight).

In the New Testament, Jesus Christ tells two parables, first is about a man who finds a treasure in a field, sells what he has in order to go buy the field and get the treasure. Second is another man who finds and sells pearls, finds the Pearl of Great Price, and sells everything he has to get the pearl (Matthew 13:44-46).

It doesn’t matter what the price is, the cost of the Pearl or the treasure was everything--everything the way of progressing. On my first episode, I mentioned the young rich man who wasn't willing to sell his stuff to follow the Lord. His riches were in the way of his progression and he couldn't let go of them. So do we really have to give up everything? Like the seller of pearls, do we really have to sell all of what we have to obtain our Pearl of Great Price?

In the Book of Mormon, there is a missionary account from Ammon, one of the sons of Mosiah, that illustrates the idea well. Ammon is teaching the King of the Lamanites who has recently been touched by the Holy Ghost and wants to convert to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The king says, “What shall I do that I may have this eternal life of which thou hast spoken? Yea, what shall I do that I may be born of God having this wicked spirit rooted out of my breast, and receive his Spirit, that I may be filled with joy, that I may not be cast off at the last day? Behold I will give up all that I possesss, yea I will forsake my kingdom that I may receive this great joy." (Alma 22:15-16 , emphasis added).

Ammon responded that he didn't have to do that, but only had to give up his sins, "call upon God in faith believing that [he should] receive," then he would receive everything that he was hoping for.

We don’t have to give up everything for the Lord, just anything that’s in our way from progressing. Our sins, addictions, and pride. We can also give up our sorrows and pains as the atonement of Christ can take all of these from us. And like the man seeking the Pearl of Great Price, we have to be willing to sacrifice it all if we are to progress to our fullest potential.

The Matt Trick Episode 2 - Summer Reading

Listen to Episode 2 of The Matt Trick in the player above or download it.

Get the bingo card here, join the Summer Reading facebook group here.

Princess Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!

The Matt Trick

http://www.thekindlechronicles.com/, The Friday Podcast all about your Kindle, by Len Edgerly
http://www.ereaderiq.com/, A website for tracking ebook prices
I mentioned Send to Kindle, Readability, Instapaper, and Read it Later (or Pocket) all which have features for sending webpages to your kindle. I think they all have Android or Iphone versions too.

Here's some links on how I rooted my Kindle Fire HD 7". PLEASE NOTE that when you mess with this stuff you void the warranty and can potentially permanently damage your device. So don't say I didn't warn you. I got all of the instructions from androidcowboy.com.

Root
Load Google Play
Load Alternative Launcher

Android Cowboy has pretty easy guides but I still got hung up getting all of the Google Apps to work right, especially Gmail. In the end I got it to work acceptably well.

Other Links:
Download a kindle app for most any phone or tablet.

My favorite reader, the Kindle Paperwhite, to read books.

Goal Line

Join the Matt Trick Summer Reading Group! Print out a bingo card provided by Books on the Nightstand. Print out the bingo card, join the facebook group, and find something to read! Prizes to anyone who completes a bingo, special prizes to the first three bingos, and EXTRA special prizes to anyone who gets blackout. You must post your bingos on the facebook group to win.

Matt-spiration Moment

Let me tell you about my favorite pen. This pen isn’t expensive or fancy. It doesn’t have multicolored ink or gelly grips or other bells and whistles that would make it stand out. In fact, I got this pen for free from a TD Bank. I used to grab a couple of pens every time I would go in there. A few months ago, I closed my checking account at TD because I didn’t like the fees they were charging, but on the way out, I was sure to fill my pockets with many of these amazing pens.

You know what’s spectacular about this pen? It works. Every time I put this pen to paper, it writes. Even on the annoying special clean room approved paper that I have to use at work, it writes. And it writes consistently and accurately. I don’t have to scribble for a few seconds every time. It doesn’t pool or puddle ink in blobs at the beginning of words. It doesn’t whine, complain, or talk back. It doesn’t first give me its opinion on what it thinks I should be writing, but it writes down what I want written every time I touch the page.

Let me contrast that with my four-year old, Oliver. Oliver, though he is brilliant, picks up things amazingly quick, reads like a first-grader, and sings like an angel, he is no TD Bank pen. When the New England snow had receded this Spring, I went out to do some cleaning in the yard. Oliver got really excited to come and help me. Great I thought! He could do some of the easier stuff like picking up leaves and sticks or finding little weeds and pulling them up. So I explained to him what I wanted him to do and demonstrated how to do it. Then I went to dethatch the lawn. When I began my work, he immediately dropped his first leaf that he picked up and ran over to take the thatcher out of my hands! “No,” I said, “I’m going to thatch. I want you to pick up leaves and sticks.”

So he picked up two or three leaves, then started dancing around, picked up a stick, tried to sword fight me with the thatcher in my hand, stood right in the way of where I was to be working, and proceeded to jabber at me until my head spun! No amount of reminding, prodding, or threatening could get him to pick up more than a few leaves at a time before not only becoming distracted from his own work, but keeping me from my work with his light saber sticks or his dance moves. Knowing that my yard work time was limited, I thanked him for the help and told him to go play somewhere else!

I obviously don’t want a pen for a son, but there’s something to be learned from these examples. In the Book of Mormon, there are some fantastic accounts of missionary work from the sons of King Mosiah. It describes these men as having sought the Spirit of the Lord through fasting and prayer “that they might be an instrument in the hands of the Lord” (Alma 17:9). As instruments of the Lord, they converted the better part of a nation that was otherwise hostile towards them, to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The sons of King Mosiah were less like my preschooler Oliver and more like my TD Bank pen. When the Lord needed them to serve they went immediately and obediently without question or complaint.

President Thomas S. Monson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints often talks of times when he acted on a prompting, an impression, or a thought and he found himself able to be the answer to someone else’s prayer. On one such occasion while he was exercising, he felt impressed to visit a friend at the hospital who was confined to a wheelchair. He immediately got dressed and went. When he arrived at his friend’s room, his friend wasn’t there but the nurse directed him to the hospital swimming pool. There he found his friend alone in his wheelchair by the edge of the pool.  They had an enjoyable visit and President Monson escorted his friend back to his room. He later learned from his friend that he had been in a deep depression from his illness and had been considering taking his life that day. President Monson had arrived at a critical moment in response to the Heaven-sent inspiration. His friend later recovered and lived many more happy years. (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/consider-the-blessings?lang=eng)

If we are to be an instrument in the Lord’s hand, like the sons of King Mosiah or President Monson, we need to be more like my TD Bank pen and just do what the Lord expects of us, relying on His spirit to direct us. I think about how often I’ve been directed in my life, and still, like my son Oliver when asked to pick up leaves in the yard, I just dance around procrastinating and making a distraction of myself instead of getting to work. We can do the great work Heavenly Father would have us do, and perhaps even be the answer to someone else’s prayer, being directed like an instrument in his hand, if we are willing to obey His commandments and respond to the call when it comes.