Gary North

YESTERDAY'S ASSIGNMENT

You should have completed step one in a multi-step strategy of estimating the time required to meet each of your assignments in all of your classes. The sooner you complete this entire assignment, the better. If I had thought that you would have followed my instructions to the letter, I would have told you to get the entire scheduling task done in one day. But I do my best in this course to keep my assignments realistic. It's real-world.

If you did not do even one class's time estimate, stop reading Lesson 7 now. I mean it. Quit. You're not ready. You aren't following my instructions. Don't come back to this lesson until you have finished Lesson 6's exercise. Get your time-estimate for one course finished.

You think I'm kidding. I'm not. Quit reading. Now.

OK, you say you have at least one course completed. I'll take your word for it. (What else can I do?)

I have told you to count the costs of success. There are no free lunches. Success is not free. It's not even cheap. But it is attainable. It would cost a lot more if most people knew what I will teach you in my 27 lessons -- knew, and then followed my instructions. But hardly anyone will hear about this course, let alone order it. And most people who order it won't finish it.

If you finish it, then you will have begun to lap the pack. Your grades will start going up.

When you count the costs, you must also count the benefits. Otherwise, you will get discouraged and quit. I don't want you to quit.

So, your task today is to make a time-estimate of the things you really want to do. Then enter them into your schedulers.

Splurging is OK, whether it's time or money. But this should be controlled splurging. The procedure is to select something you really want, and then save for it.

This may be calories. It may be money. It may be time. The correct procedure is to save, then splurge.

That's why I don't like credit cards. That's why I do like debit cards. Each card reflects a philosophy of spending.

The average college student in America has at least $2,000 in credit card debt.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/19980605.asp

At 18% per annum -- typical -- that's at least $360 a year in interest.

There is no interest payment with a debit card. You spend your own money.

If you haven't got your debit card yet, it's time. If you have no money to put into a debit card account, then it's time to think of a debit card account as a splurge item. Save, then splurge.

THE FATS GOLDBERG STRATEGY

This may be off the track, but I think it's time to tell you about Larry "Fats" Goldberg. Fats Goldberg was 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 160 pounds. That's not fat. But he used to weigh 320 pounds. That is fat. Really fat. Kills-you-by-age-48 fat.

He died in 2003 from complications associated with Alzheimer's disease. His weight did not kill him.

One day, decades ago, he went cold turkey on the foods he loved. He went on a rigorous diet. But he knew he couldn't stick with it if he could never again eat what he really loved. So, he made a deal with himself. He would stop eating anything but the usual low-calorie foods for three weeks. Then, with his appetite under control (he hoped), he would have one day when he would eat anything he wanted, in any quantity. Then he vowed to go back on the diet for another week.

He did it. It worked. He was able to get back on the diet after his one day of gluttony. He could go back onto it because he knew that one week later, he could again pig out -- an odd phrase to use, since he was Jewish.

Twice a year, he would fly from New York City to Kansas City, Missouri, where he had grown up. For seven days, he would eat. The word "eat" barely does justice to the quantity of food he would consume. One day's intake is described in Chapter 1 of a book by the humorist, Calvin Trillin, who in this case was not being funny. Here is a section from a review of Trillin's book, "American Fried."

His friend Fats Goldberg (who owned Goldberg's Pizzeria in New York City, the neon sign of which is now in the Smithsonian) plays a large part in this book. Fats actually lost 160 pounds, and now weighs 160 pounds. He accomplished this by an extremely stringent diet, and allows himself to go all out only when he returns to Kansas City for a visit. He says that he can put on 17 pounds in one week. Here's some of their conversation:

" 'Just what did you eat on a big day in Kansas City the week you gained seventeen pounds?' I asked. I was prepared to make a list.

'Well, for breakfast I'd have two eggs, six biscuits with butter and jelly, half a quart of milk, six link sausage, six strips of bacon, and a couple of homemade cinnamon rolls,' Fats said. 'Then I'd hit MacLean's Bakery. They have a kind of fried cinnamon roll I love. Maybe I'd have two or three of them. Then, on the way downtown to have lunch with somebody, I might stop at Kresge's and have two chili dogs and a couple of root beers. . . . Then I'd go to lunch.'"

Then he would fly back to New York City and resume his diet. This strategy kept him going psychologically.

He owned a pizzeria, but he didn't allow himself the pleasure of eating his pizzas.

In 1985, he wrote a diet book, Controlled Cheating.

The secret of his diet, he said, is that it allowed him hope. He knew that he would be able to eat all he wanted. He just would not do this all the time. He paid the price of being slender by sticking to his diet. He paid the price of being able to stay on his diet by going off the diet for one day a week and then for one week, twice a year, separated by six months.

Fats said that on his "days off," he ate what he really loved. He allowed himself to eat anything, but he wouldn't eat marshmallows. He thought marshmallows are bland, even though sweet. He ate only what he really could not live without and still stay on his diet. If it was going to fatten him up for that day -- he sometimes gained five pounds -- he was only going to eat the good stuff.

I don't recommend Fats Goldberg's diet. That's for a fat person to decide, with a physician's advice (as Fats insisted in his book). But I do recommend that you do what Fats did -- with time, not food. You've got to go onto a time diet. You have got to stop wasting time. You have got to make the minutes count. But you don't have to make EVERY minute count. You must cut yourself some slack.

I recommend that you occasionally follow the state motto of Louisiana: "Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler" . . . .

"LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!"

Fats loved hamburgers, but he ignored marshmallows. You must also learn to discriminate.

Get out a sheet of paper. If you can get a copy, look at your school's social calendar for the year. What things do you really want to do? I mean, if you miss doing them, you'll feel cheated.

Write them down. All of them. I'm going to show you how to do them.

Look, we both know that great times are scarce. Not every party is a winner. Not every sports event is worth attending. Some are; most aren't.

Are you going to go to the major proms? If you think you might, then set time aside. Girls: this means scheduling a trip to the hairdresser's and maybe the dress shop. It means a lot of preparation. Guys: this means a bath, a shave, and showing up on time.

Don't assume that time grows on trees. Schedule the whole deal. That's what this exercise is all about: scheduling whole deals.

Once you get your maximum time mapped out, record it in all of your calendars-schedulers. This, you should put in ink. This won't change unless you don't get a date.

If you don't get a date, then schedule something else that would be special.

(If I could devise a system where I could guarantee every teenager that he or she would get dates to all of the Big Events, I sure wouldn't give the idea away, the way I'm giving away this course. I could retire in luxury in a mansion with the income I'd receive.)

The point is, you have to determine in advance what is really important to you, and what isn't so important. You are going to have to learn how to allocate your time. The best way I know to teach yourself how to do this is to set your own priorities. I won't tell you what these are. You will tell you. On paper.

You've also got to identify your wasted time. The best way to do this is first to identify your most precious time.

Go through the semester's events calendar and block out sections of time that are for you and nobody else. These are what I would call non-negotiable events.

Just like Fats Goldberg and calories, so are you and time. You cannot afford to pig out uncontrollably on time, any more than Fats could afford to pig out uncontrollably on calories. But you are allowed to pig out controllably on time, just as he allowed himself to pig out controllably on calories. He called his plan controlled cheating. You can, too.


REVIEW

Before you count the costs, count the benefits.

Most people can't stick with any self-improvement program that denies them the things they love.

Identify the things that you really want to do in this semester, and write them down. Then enter them into your schedulers.

ASSIGNMENT

This is obvious. Identify your must- do events, and enter them in ink in your schedulers. You have one day to complete this task.

Don't forget to schedule another class's assignments/deadlines. Do one class per day, minimum.

Don't forget to lecture to the wall: one page, one class.

PREVIEW OF TOMORROW'S LESSON: Find a study partner

Any time you want to ask me specific questions regarding your plans for college, you can find out where to contact me by clicking this link: Answers.