Politics, Covid, Inflation and now, whatever happens in the Russian war.
You have not been hearing much from me as I’m busy writing my second novel, the 64th Symphony.
Getting rod of stress is one reason that led to this shift to fiction
So here I am sitting in my pajamas as I write away… relaxed. But as you’ll see (and why) that won’t remain for long in the day.
What do pajamas have to do with eliminating stress? See a really simple routine that costs nothing and takes no time, but reduces stress and can help improve health.
About 53 years ago, when I first arrived in Hong Kong, one of my most powerful revelations was about pajamas. I arrived dressed for business, blue blazer, grey slacks, white shirt, power tie, highly polished-black lace up shoes. I had been taught that this was how successful people dressed, in suits and formally. Then I discovered something amazing. Many really successful, really rich Chinese businessmen wore pajamas all day!
One definition of pajamas is “a pair of loose pants tied by a drawstring around the waist, worn by both sexes in some Asian countries”.
This taught me a valuable lesson that dress does make the man, but that this dress does not have to be a suit and a tie, especially in hot tropical weather.
Dress codes have relaxed a lot since 1968. There is even a group called “pajama rich,” so rich they can go to a five-star restaurant or sit court-side at the NBA playoffs in their pajamas. They have so much money that they have nothing to prove to anyone.
A health routine more important than money can redefine this phrase. Let’s call it “The Pajama Wealth Routine” because the strange thing is that a striking number of the “Pajama Rich” get totally depressed.
(From research on “Enclothed Cognition” shown below.)
First, why pajamas? Modern connected living has added a new level of never ending stress. We are often stuck with our smart phones checking work email at night, in the day, weekends and even on holidays.
Slowly the lack of a break wears the body down. Down time is a requirement of natural heath. That’s why our language has the word “Re-Creation”. In France, the government recognized this fact and passed a law that gives workers the “right to disconnect” outside of work hours.
Companies have to set up hours, mostly evenings and weekends, when employees are not allowed to send or respond to emails.
The French government said at the time that an intervention was necessary for the health and well-being of their workers.
“All the studies show there is far more work-related stress today than there used to be, and that the stress is constant,” member of parliament, Benoit Hamon, told the BBC. “Employees physically leave the office, but they do not leave their work. They remain attached by a kind of electronic leash – like a dog. The texts, the messages, the emails – they colonize the life of the individual to the point where he or she eventually breaks down.”
The French government has science to support this law. Research at the University of British Columbia shows that checking email only three times a day is less stressful than checking continuously. Research at Colorado State University suggests that even the expectation of after-hours emails can have a negative effect on our well-being.
Research from the University of British Columbia published under the title of “Check less to reduce email stress” (1) suggests that easing up on email checking can help reduce psychological stress.
The publication says: “Some of the study’s 124 adults — including students, financial analysts, medical professionals and others — were instructed to limit checking email to three times daily for a week. Others were told to check email as often as they could (which turned out to be about the same number of times that they normally checked their email prior to the study).
“These instructions were then reversed for the participants during a subsequent week. During the study period, participants also answered brief daily surveys, including information about their stress levels.
“Our findings showed that people felt less stressed when they checked their email less often,” says Kostadin Kushlev, the study’s lead author and a PhD candidate at UBC’s Dept. of Psychology.
The Pajama Habit
Here is the simple habit that costs nothing and takes no time, but reduces stress and can help improve health. This tip was given to Merri and me by an Indian doctor many years ago because our business is at home, so we would never really quit work. A house cluttered with business and work can be even worse than after hours emails. The work is always present.
The Three Step Routine
Stress Reduction Step #1: Set a time to quit work and leave the work space, especially if it’s an office at home. Close the door. Get work out off site and out of sight.
Stress Reduction Step #2: Turn off all communication, relating to work, email as well as phone.
Stress Reduction Step #3: Change your clothes! This is an immensely powerful health ritual which tells your body it is Time to Relax and Re-Create.
Whatever I are wearing, each evening when at home, I change into soft, relaxing, all cotton pajama-like clothing.
Flannel is my particular re-creation clothing fabric of choice for what it’s worth. Every person should choose what works for them, but when I put flannel on, in the evening or to go out, my body gets the message. “This is NOT work”, even if I am going our to split logs or catch fish.
These efforts were not work because…
my flannel shirts told my body this fact.
What you wear changes the way you think to such a degree that there is even a word for it, “Enclothed Cognition”.
An article at Brainfodder.org entitled “Enclothed Cognition“ (2) explains how researchers have identified a series of psychological changes that occur when we wear certain clothes.
The article says: “Science says that the clothes we wear affect our behavior, attitudes, personality, mood, confidence, and even the way we interact with others. This is “Enclothed Cognition”.
There are examples of the influence of seven different types of clothing.
#1: Formal office wear and structured clothes put us in the right frame of mind to conduct business.
#2: Casual and relaxed dress codes at work help us become more friendly and creative.
#3: Gym clothes and active wear can make it more likely that we will actually exercise.
#4: Uniforms can make people more conscious of their duties and encourage them to pay more attention to their jobs.
#5: Luxury clothes can make us less likely to be helpful and more inclined to social climb.
#6: Wearing brightly colored clothes brightens us and affects how we cope on days when we are depressed, anxious and stressed.
#7: Even our underwear affects the way we feel about ourselves.
Pajama Business for Pajama Wealth
Writing a novel has changed my routine because I don’t have the deadline of a daily message that has to be done!
This lack of deadline forces me to create new routines that kick start my writing every day!
Before, I would start with meditation and yoga, breakfast and then write.
Now I rise early and before there is any distraction… write! This is my new deadline to write before anything else because that early start will carry me through the day. After my initial bout of writing then comes the meditation, yoga, and breakfast. The bike ride has been shifted to after lunch or the evening when I tell my body, time to quit for the day.
Politics has changed in America and altered our lives. Covid turn all our habits upside down. Inflation and supply line disruptions are creating shifts every day. What will the Russian enigma do? Darned if I know the specifics, but I’ll bet it brings change.
As the change comes, there’s not much we can do about that. We can however look at how the change affects our lives and change our routines to adapt. That’s a more likely way to survive and prosper in the change.
One great way to reduce stress is to be your own boss in a business that fulfills the purpose you have chosen to live. The health benefit of the business is magnified when you can choose how and when you dress.
Gary
I hope when the 64th Symphony is done, you’ll read it. To entice you and as an introduction I am making my first, the “65th Octave” available to you FREE.
Our motto is “Go Try Things” For fifty plus years In have enjoyed self publishing success by trying new things and then writing about the failures and success.
Good old trial and error is the only way to learn and in this day and age of rapid change, new tactics are continually required to have self publishing success. That means lots of T&A!
So after a twenty year gap in fiction writing, I’m not only enjoying writing another novel, I’m learning all about how to market fiction too.
If you are interested in writing and self publishing, then watch what I do over the months ahead to launch the 64th Treaty. We’ll gain some lessons and have some fun.
How do we start learning new things in a rapidly changing environment?
The answer is return to basics. So I’ll be applying the basics I have worked with for over half a century in the months ahead. I call them the Seven Ps. You can learn more about them below.
First, the FREE book. Just read below and follow the links.
The 65th Octave
To start reading the 65th Octave, go to: Prologue garyascott.com/2022/02/14/83616.html
Here’s more about how to self publish.
Here I am working poolside in the winter, at our Florida farm.
Here I am with our hound Ma, working during the summer at our North Carolina farm.
Learn how to earn everywhere, while living anywhere you choose. I have been able to earn by writing in Hong Kong, England, the Isle of Man, Dominican Republic and Ecuador to name a few of the places I have lived. Anywhere I am, I am able to work.
All I need is my laptop.
That’s all you need too… a laptop to be free!
Before computers, a pencil and pad did the job.
Freedom is just one benefit you can gain from a laptop business.
Another benefit is income. Writing has brought me both our farms in Florida and North carolina, free and clear… plus a lot more.
Another good example of earning potential is my friend Hugh Howey. He was working for $10 an hour in a book store when he self published his novel Wool, typing in a storage room during his lunch breaks.
Soon he was earning over $100,000 a month on Amazon.com. This helped secure a six-figure book deal from Simon & Schuster, and an option for film by Ridley Scott, director of Blade Runner and Alien.
That’s what he’s doing now.
Hugh and I playing chess (he beats me badly).
Writers like Hugh are great inspirations.
A couple of years ago Hugh left Florida, and moved to South Africa. He had a sailing catamaran built for him and now can sail the world while he continues to write.
Hugh explained it like this: And that’s the miracle of working as a writer: I can do it from anywhere and everywhere. The past few years, I’ve done a lot of writing from airplanes and airports while on business trips abroad. SAND was entirely written overseas while traveling through seven different countries; I think it’s a better story because of those inspirations. In upcoming years, I may be writing near your home port.
Hugh’s a super star writer and his success could not happen to a more deserving and talented person. He pours enormous energy into being worthy of his readership. But you do not have to be a million dollar a year earner or a traveler to benefit from writing.
The good news is… you do not need a huge success to have a rich and fulfilled lifestyle. Self Publishing can bring you a life that most people only dream of, as a journeyman writer, instead of a super star.
May I hastily add that the path to stardom begins as a journeyman… so the journeyman’s path brings success without stardom… but can also lead to stardom.
What most success stories like Hugh’s rarely explain is the many hours of writing that was devoted before their self published book sales soared. Hugh, like most writers were journeymen first. Stardom came later.
Here are sevens secrets that can help you become a journeyman writer.
The secrets are a writer’s armory of tools that allows almost anyone to create successful publications for income, freedom and fulfillment.
Take Merri’s and my publishing business as an example.
Merri and I are not writing stars. We are journeymen who have for more than 40 years, year in and year out, earned solid income writing and self publishing dozens of publications about multiple subjects.
Some years that income has been more than solid… over a million dollars. Yet in terms of stardom, we are hardly known.
In a moment you’ll see why that’s fine for us and probably will be for you too.
First some history.
Merri became involved in self publishing over 40 years ago… first helping a veterinarian publish a book on a very specific market… animal acupuncture. Then she showed a needle point artist how to sell more books to an even more specific audience… “needle point enthusiasts” about her needle point work to an audience larger than the population of the city she lived in. This led Merri to eventually become Executive Editor of an award winning magazine in Florida.
My story allowed Merri and me to work and live from Hong Kong to London to Europe to Eastern Europe, then the Caribbean and then Ecuador… making millions in the process of following our adventures… having fun… while helping a large readership adapt to a rapidly changing world.
That’s what self publishing can bring, profit, adventure and fulfillment, a great feeling of worth and wonder.
Self Publishing has created exactly the lifestyle we desire allowing us to span the world and work with meaning and purpose.
Self Publishing has become a new business art form.
The seven secrets can help you start your own self publishing business now.
Everything in publishing is new and exciting and changing. Publishing is being recreated by the wonderful power of destructive technology.
Everything is new… except the seven secrets.
Change in the publishing industry is disturbing many. We love this evolution due to these seven secrets we call the 7Ps. The 7 Ps are so fundamental to writing and publishing that new technology enhances rather than reduces their power.
The First P is Passion.
Whatever your passion, you can immerse yourself in it AND create income with self publishing. This can be your direct ticket to the kind of fulfillment you’ve always wanted.
Whether you want to travel the world or live as a recluse, work 12 hours a day or not work much at all, you can set your schedule to succeed, if you’re willing to learn these seven secrets.
You can start part-time with any dream, passion, and budget. Once you’ve created a product, you’ll enjoy the “multiple effect” of producing profits over and over again.
So the question is… What do you love to do?
What’s Your Passion: An example is that thirty years ago, a client of Merri’s had a passion to help people who were in pain? He published a series of pamphlets explaining various chiropractic disorders in very simple terms. For example: “What Is Whiplash?”
The pamphlets contained solid information, but were simple 5″ x 7″ brochures with drawings and explanations. He sold them with a rack to chiropractors, who put them in their offices for patients to read. These little self-published items sold year in and year out for decades.
There are thousands of ideas of this sort that can lead to big business. It’s just a matter of defining and then acting on your passion.
Although I can work when I please and go where I wish, for me the most important reason for being a publisher is the satisfaction it brings.
I love the projects I take on, so work doesn’t feel like, well… work.
What do you love? If you love golf, then you can write and sell publications about golf. Love travel, fishing, dogs, dolls, or art? Write and sell publications in these fields.
Are you concerned about crime, war, poverty or environmental issues? You can publish information products that help reduce these concerns.
Would you like to help the world be a more spiritual place? Publish a newsletter, write a book (or hire someone to write it for you), record a tape… publish something that enlightens people.
Whatever your passion, you can immerse yourself in it and earn income by publishing for ereaders, print on demand, CDs, lists, bound books, or any format you choose.
Be immersed in your passion and get paid well for it.
This is why stardom is not the main goal for most writers and self publishers. Extra income, more freedom and fulfillment are usually more than enough enough.
The seven Ps are:
#1: Passion
#2: Problem
#3: Person
#4: Profitably Priced Product
#5: Prospecting Pathway
#6: Promise
#7: Presentation
The first time I exposed others to the secrets in Self Publishing was in a weekend “Writer’s Camp” seminar. We offered the camp for $1,500. 80 delegates enrolled. People from all walks of life attended—chiropractors, businessmen, investors, doctors, realtors, inventors, airline pilots, engineers, and housewives.
Merri and I were so overwhelmed by the response, we decided to make it available to a larger audience. We created a written course based on our current self publishing activity called “Self Fulfilled – How to be a Self Publisher.” Then we recorded the weekend “Writer’s Camp” seminar.
Thousands have used the course as it has evolved over the decades.
Writing to sell is one of the most powerful forms of marketing and marketing is what we do in every aspect of life… every day.
The heart of all events requires marketing. We market ourselves, our business, our thoughts ideas and beliefs all the time. In business, marketing covers strategic planning, product design, packaging, distribution, advertising, public relations, promotions and sales. Marketing is the process by which anything and everything, product, service, idea, person is introduced and promoted. Without marketing, you may be or have something great, but no one knows it.
All marketing begins with writing… whether, a speech, picture, video, movie, advertisement, announcement, banner, jingle, song… the birth place is in the written word.
Why words are better than cash.
You can turn words into cash. Mix in a little wisdom and deliver benefits. The value of honest word’s never deflate. A dollar, decades ago, was worth 15 greenbacks today… or more. Useful, wise words, even hundreds of years aged… are often worth more now.
Take these 153 year old words: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
Has time diminished the value of these words?
Sometimes Merri’s and my writing led us into incredible adventures.
Here I am with Merri and an Ecuadorian Yatchak deep in the Llanganatis Jungle creating a shamanic tour.
Yet during the pandemic we have been able to continue sitting away from the madding crowd in our cabin on Little Horse Creek and at our Florida farm.
There is a possibility that Merri and I know more about writing from home than 99.9% of the people in the world. We have been at this for over 50 years now and thousands have taken our online correspondence course on how to create your own self publishing business.
A writing business not only creates unusual profit opportunity now… but can create income for a lifetime!
The course “Self Fulfilled” shows how Merri I and have created riches and a lifestyle beyond our wildest imagination and shares steps you can take to create a profitable and fun business.
This course shares how we have done this… what we did right… what we did wrong… how you can get started and what you can do much better than we have.
To help you start, I have created a special streamlined offer… our course on how to be a self publisher with all the frills removed at a 75% discount.
Self Fulfilled is normally $299. Thousands have paid that price. The streamlined course is only $79.
GUARANTEED. Even At This Low Price, We’ll Still Accept All the Risk!
We completely guarantee the program.
Order Self Publishing: Your Complete Business Plan for becoming a self publisher and take a full 30 days to put it through its paces. That way you can follow my simple process and start seeing the results for yourself.
If you’re not completely convinced that this information is so powerful that it can help you quickly develop income through writing to sell—all you have to do is let us know and you’ll receive a complete refund of every penny of your investment.
Fair enough?
Our publishing business has brought us more wealth, satisfaction, fun and friendship than we ever imagined possible. And now we want to share our knowledge and secrets with anyone who has a desire to experience this way of life.
Whether you are an engineer, doctor, housewife, business owner, or retiree… self-publishing offers a way to make a six- or seven-figure income by turning your passion into profit.
Don’t miss this special opportunity. Order Self Fulfilled How to be a Self Publisher today if you want to cash in on the satisfying, profitable and exciting lifestyle that publishing can bring despite and in fact because of trouble in the world.
Self Fulfilled Special $79
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Sincerely,
Gary Scott
(1) University of British Columbia: Check less to reduce email stress
