Lifestyle

“None but ourselves can free our minds.”
— Bob Marley

When I was a freshman in high school, and struggling to find my way, someone anonymously slipped a note into my locker one afternoon.  It said, “Don’t let them get inside your head.  You’re not boring, nerdy or weird.  You’re complex, creative and far too intelligent for their small words.  And for the record, you are also infinitely more attractive than you give yourself credit for.”

I never discovered who wrote the note, but whoever they are, they changed my life.  From that day forward, I changed the way I talked to myself.

Specifically, I STOPPED saying…

1.  “I’m not good enough yet.”

You might think you’re not good enough, but you’ll surprise yourself if you keep trying.  Your past does not determine who you are. Your past prepares you for who you are capable of becoming.  What ultimately defines you is how well you rise after falling.  Don’t ever be afraid to give yourself a chance to be everything you are capable of being.  Forget the haters.  Never undervalue who you are and what you’re capable of.  Excellence is the result of loving more than others think is necessary, dreaming more than others think is practical, risking more than others think is safe, and doing more than others think is possible.

2.  “I should be living up to other people’s expectations.”

Remember, it’s always better to be at the bottom of the ladder you want to climb than the top of the one you don’t.  Happiness and success is all about spending your life in your own way.  Always be yourself and walk your own path.  No one can ever tell you you’re doing it wrong.  Everyone has their own dreams, their own struggles, and a different path that makes sense for them.  You are YOU for a reason.

If you end up living a boring, miserable life because you ignored yourself and instead listened to a parent, a teacher, or some gal on TV telling you how to live your life, then you have no one but yourself to blame.  Just remember, the smartest and most courageous act is simply to think for yourself and listen to you own intuition.  In the end, it’s better to die your way, than live someone else’s idea of your life.  (Angel and I discuss this in more detail in the “Self-Love” and “Relationships” chapters of 1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently.)

3.  “What they think and say about me matters.”

What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?

Don’t let others crush your dreams.  Do just once what they say you can’t do, and you will never pay attention to their negativity again.  Don’t walk away from these negative people… RUN!  Good things happen when you distance yourself from negativity and those who create it.

Truth be told, no one has the right to judge you.  People may have heard your stories, but they can’t feel what you are going through; they aren’t living YOUR life.  So forget what they say about you.  Focus on how you feel about yourself, and do what you know in your heart is right.

4.  “I need recognition for my actions to be worthwhile.”

Do what you know is right.  Integrity is doing the right thing, no matter what, even when nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.  Life always finds its balance.  Don’t expect to get back everything you give.  Don’t expect recognition for every effort you make.  And don’t expect your kindness to be instantly recognized or your love to be understood by everyone you encounter.

What seems like the right thing to do could also be the hardest thing you have ever done.  Do it anyway.  There is no greatness or peace of mind where there is betrayal of your own goodwill.  Always aim at complete sincerity of your thoughts, words and deeds.  If it is wrong, don’t do it.  If it is untrue, don’t repeat it.  Do what you do because you believe it’s the right thing to do.  Do the right thing even when nobody is looking.  Be one of the people who make a true difference in the world by leaving it a little better and more wholesome than you found it.

5.  “It’s too late for me.”

Don’t let yesterday steal your present.  Don’t judge yourself by your past… you don’t live there anymore.  Let go, grow, and move forward.  As we grow older and wiser, we begin to realize what we need and what we need to leave behind.  Sometimes walking away is a step forward.  Sometimes a break from your routine is exactly what you need.  Unless you try to master something beyond what you already know, you will feel forever stuck.

Don’t waste another minute regretting what you did yesterday, and start doing what you have to do now, so tomorrow you won’t regret what you did today.  It’s not too late.  If you feel like it is, it’s just your inner fears lying to you.  But remember, fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in your mind.  It’s difficult to follow your heart, but it’s a tragedy to let the lies of fear stop you.  (Read Awaken the Giant Within.)

6.  “I need to have it all figured out.”

Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?  Believe it or not, sometimes it’s the latter.

Sometimes the greatest dreams that come true are the dreams you never even knew you had.  It’s about open-minded exploration.  There are no wrong turns in life, only paths you didn’t know you were meant to walk.  You never can be certain what’s around the corner.  It could be everything, or it could be nothing.  You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and realize you’ve climbed to the peak of the most beautiful mountaintop.

7.  “I do not have enough to be positive and grateful.”

Some days you’ll find diamonds and some days all you’ll see is coal.  However, every day is a golden opportunity to learn, practice gratitude, and positively impact the world around you.  Do not ask for instant fulfillment in your life, but for patience to accept your current frustrations.  Do not ask for perfection in all you do, but for the wisdom to not repeat past mistakes.  Do not ask for more before saying, “THANK YOU” for everything you have already received.

And remember, everything in life is temporary.  So if things are good, enjoy it.  It won’t last forever.  If things are bad, don’t worry because it won’t last forever either.  Just because life isn’t stress-free right now, doesn’t mean you can’t laugh.  Just because something is bothering you, doesn’t mean you can’t smile.  The trick is to be grateful when your mood is high and graceful when it is low.

8.  “My life should be easier and free of discomfort.”

Great challenges make life interesting; overcoming them makes life meaningful.  It’s how you deal with failure and discomfort that determines your level of success and happiness.  Laugh at your mistakes and learn from them.  Joke about your troubles and gather strength from them.  Have fun with the challenges you face and then conquer them.

Emotional discomfort in life, when accepted, rises, crests and crashes in a series of waves.  Each wave washes an old layer of you away and deposits treasures you never expected to find.  Out goes inexperience, in comes awareness; out goes frustration, in comes resilience; out goes hatred, in comes kindness.  No one would say these waves of emotional experience are easy to ride, but the rhythm of emotional discomfort that you learn to tolerate while doing so is natural, helpful and prevalent.  The discomfort eventually leaves you stronger and healthier than it found you.  (Read Man’s Search for Meaning.)

9.  “I can’t forgive them.”

Forgiveness is a promise.  When you forgive someone you are making a promise not to hold the unchangeable past against your present self.  Forgiveness doesn’t mean what happened was completely excusable, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that person should still be welcome in your life.  It simply means you have made peace with the pain, and are ready to let it go and move on with your life.

Forgiveness has nothing to do with freeing a criminal of his or her crime.  It has everything to do with freeing yourself of the burden of being a victim – letting go of the pain and transforming yourself from victim to victor.

10.  “I am alone.”

You can’t make it through on your own.  None of us can.  That’s why, thank goodness, you are never as alone as you sometimes feel.  So many of us are fighting the same exact battle alongside you.  You may feel alone sometimes, but you are not alone in being alone.

To lose sleep worrying about a loved one.  To have trouble picking yourself up after someone lets you down.  To feel rejected because someone didn’t care about you enough to stay.  To be afraid to try something new for fear you may fail.  None of this means you’re weird or dysfunctional.  It just means you’re human, and that you need a little time to regroup and re-calibrate yourself.

No matter how embarrassed or pathetic you feel about your own situation, there are others out there experiencing the same emotions.  When you hear yourself say, “I am all alone,” it’s just your mind trying to sell you a lie.  There’s always someone who can relate to you.  Perhaps you can’t immediately talk to them, but they are out there, and that’s all you need to know right now.

Next steps…

If I eavesdropped on your self-talk, would I hear statements that empower happiness, or statements that refute it?  The next time you decide to unclutter your life and clean up your space, start with your intellectual space by clearing out the old lies and negative self-talk you often recite to yourself.

The floor is yours…

What would you add to the list?  What kind of negative self-talk do you need to stop?  What will you never say about yourself again?  Share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment below.

Photo by: Gianmaria Zanotti

Stay in tune with your spirit.  Be calm and think.  Listen to your inner voice.  Anticipate and plan.  Take 100% responsibility for your life.  Lean into your struggles.  Act with courage.  Maintain an open mind.  Practice kindness and compassion.  Keep your promises.  Forgive, let go, and move forward.  This is how you get from where you are to where you want to be.

I’ve learned these concepts gradually over the last decade.  Together they have helped me live a life of purpose.  Had I understood these things 10 years ago, I could have avoided quite a bit of confusion and grief.  So today I figured I’d share a few more things I wish I had known sooner.  My hope is that they help you hurdle over some of the barriers I stumbled into on the road of life.

1. Loving someone should not mean losing YOU. – True love empowers you, it doesn’t erase you.  True love allows human beings to build amazing things, by working together through passion, kindness, and good will.  So be strong enough to stand alone, be yourself enough to stand apart, but be wise enough to share your love and stand together when the time comes.  Read The Mastery of Love.
2. Getting even doesn’t help you get ahead. – You will never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with them.  Sometimes we don’t forgive people because they deserve it.  We forgive them because they need it, because we need it, and because we cannot move forward without it.  To forgive is to rediscover the inner peace and purpose that at first you thought someone took away when they betrayed you.
3. You attract what you show to the world. – So if you want it, reflect it.  Happiness, freedom, and peace of mind are always attained by giving them out to others without expectation.  The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are eventually helped.  You have two hands; one to help yourself, the second to help those around you.
4. Failure is success when you learn from it. – Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.  Obstacles can’t stop you.  Problems can’t stop you.  Other people can’t stop you.  These barriers are temporary – they come and go.  Which is why, over the course of a lifetime, the only barrier that can truly stop you, is YOU.  So don’t give up.  Sometimes you have to journey through hell on Earth to find heaven on Earth.
5. You are not what you have done, but what you have overcome. – All the hardships.  All the mistakes.  All the rejections.  All the pain.  All the times you questioned why.  All of these things have given birth to the wisdom and strength that will help you shine your light on the world, even in the darkest of hours.  Read Emotional Freedom.
6. Your past can only hurt you today if you let it. – Do not pay any attention to what the past whispers if all it’s doing is bad-mouthing what today has to offer.  There are times when you need to release the bitterness and grab a firm hold of happiness, without permission and without reason.  The only way to get over the past is to leave it behind.  If you spend your time re-living moments that are gone forever, you might miss the special moments that are yet to come.
7. It’s never too late to become the person you are capable of being. – Repeat after me: “I AM FREE.”  You can fulfill your life purpose by starting here, in this moment.  The purpose of life is not to simply be happy, but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to make some kind of difference that you have lived at all.  Remember, life is constant change, but growth is optional.  Choose wisely, starting now.
8. Passion is important. – If you are trapped between your dreams and what other people think is right for you, always travel the route that makes you happy – unless you want everybody to be happy, except you.  And whatever you do, don’t chase the money.  Catch up to the ideas and activities that make you come alive.  Go for the things of greater value – the things money can’t buy – and use them to create a relevant profession.  Read Quitter.
9. The pain is worth it. – You can’t really begin to appreciate life until it has knocked you down a few times.  You can’t really begin to appreciate love until your heart has been broken.  You can’t really begin to appreciate happiness until you’ve known sadness.  You have to struggle up the mountainside to appreciate the breathtaking view at the mountaintop.
10. Sometimes what you don’t want is what you need. – Sometimes the things you can’t change end up changing you for the better.  Master your responses to external events; don’t always attempt to control them.  You will rarely end up exactly where you wanted to go, but you will always end up exactly where you need to be.

Photo by: Pepe Santa

Do you put off doing things that would bring you closer to your desired goals?  I know I do.  But why are we so foolish?

It has something to do with how our daily responsibilities overwhelm us.  In the midst of all the important things we know we need to do, we somehow convince ourselves that none of these things need to be done right now.  In other words, we decide that some peace and relaxation in the short term is what’s most important.

So we take another break, read another blog post, watch another TV show and just kick back and relax.  And life is blissfully dandy… for a little while.

But then suddenly the inevitable deadline has arrived.  Ahhh!  It’s panic time!

So here are 7 common causes and proven cures procrastination.  I’m hoping these tips help you avoid that insane moment of panic.

1. Fear of the outcome

Sometimes we’re afraid we’ll fail.  Sometimes we’re subconsciously afraid we’ll succeed and then we’d have to deal with all the disruption (growth) and change that follows success.  And other times it’s our fear of rejection or simply our fear of looking like a fool.

The best way I’ve found to defeat fear is to stare it down.  Connect to your fear, feel it in your body, realize it and steadily address it. Greet it by name if you have to: “Welcome, fear.”

If you are conscious of it, soon it becomes shy, hangs its head, and mooches off, scraping one shoe on the ground.

2. Helplessness in the face of complexity

We look at a task at hand and feel intensely un-resourceful.  It may remind us of something we had to do when we were younger, before we had the skills to conquer it (even though that’s no longer the case). Or it may actually be a daunting task at our current skill level.  Either way, the task seems far too complex, so we try to avoid it.

This time the solution is to break it down.  Take that complex task and break it down to its bare essential components and then tackle each one of those components one at a time.

Sometimes it’s also helpful to recall one of your previous successes with conquering a complex task just to get yourself in a positive mindset.  Think of a time you were really on top of things, achieving great results – when you were in the zone.  Close your eyes and place yourself in that memory with all your senses.

3. Rebellion and laziness

We resent the task in front of us.  We feel imposed upon.  “I have to do this,” we think to ourselves.  “But I don’t have to do it now.”

Rebellion is about control.  We assert our control by choosing when (or whether) to do the task.

A friend of mine whose home-schooled son is very rebellious came up with a clever hack.  She said, “We’re going to do what kids who are in school do.  You’re going to sit and do school work for 8 hours a day.”  Her son rebelled, naturally.  When the rebellion was in full effect, my friend offered an alternative.  “Or, we could do this home-school style.  If you finish early, we can go somewhere fun.”  And her son worked more productively than ever.

So when you notice yourself feeling rebellious and lazy about a task, think of a way to reward yourself for getting it done now.  Also, remind yourself of the consequences of not doing it.

4. Lack of motivation

I procrastinate doing my tax return.  It’s an administrative task and I don’t like it.  But it helps when I think about it this way:  “I’m due a refund this year.”  When I concentrate on the amount of money I get back versus the time it takes to do my taxes, it’s an excellent hourly rate.  And it motivates me to focus on getting it done.

That by itself wasn’t quite concrete enough, though.  So I promised myself a reward: out of the refund, I would buy myself a kayak – something I’d been thinking about for awhile to help me get back in shape.

The basic principle is reframing.  If you know the job has to be done but it’s not emotionally important to you, find a way to make it important.  (If I was going to be paying a penalty fee for turning my taxes in late, I could set aside the equivalent amount of the penalty for a reward, for example.)

What are you going to get by doing this that’s important enough to motivate you to do it now?

5. Lack of focus and fatigue

Distractions are everywhere.  You must learn to ignore them.

Minimize distractions by secluding yourself.  Disconnect the Internet and power off your cell phone if you have to.  Check e-mail and voicemail at set intervals instead of randomly every few minutes.  Find a quiet space where you can concentrate on the task at hand.  And only take breaks as a reward for accomplishing smaller sub-tasks.

Also, it’s hard to focus when you’re fatigued.  So get enough sleep, eat healthy and exercise regularly.

6. Not knowing where or how to start

Or maybe the task just looms in front of you as a big block, like a building with no doors.  You walk around its perimeter and you don’t immediately see a way in.  How do you get in?  Where do you begin?  You can’t figure it out, so you set the task aside.

I’m creating a course on procrastination.  It started out as one of those buildings with no doors.  “How do I even start designing a course like that?” I thought.

Well, I wrote down a few reasons why people procrastinate (the starting point).  I thought about reasons why you’d want to stop (the end point or goal).  Once something has a beginning and an end, it’s a lot easier to start seeing the middle.  And usually you can work from both ends until you meet in the middle.  Each of those reasons is a topic.  And each of those topics has a start and an end, and so on and so forth.

So don’t give up.  Uncover the starting and ending points and start filling in the blanks one at a time.

7. Perfectionism

One of the best bits of advice ever about perfectionism comes from Melody Beattie’s book Codependent No More. “It just doesn’t matter,” she says. “IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER!”

But that’s hard advice to put into practice sometimes.  I’ve often put off implementing ideas by using the excuse that I’m not yet prepared to do the idea justice.  Some part of me thinks I’ll end up wasting the idea by implementing it poorly at my current level of skill.

But guess what?  My current level of skill isn’t going to increase unless I practice.  And I can’t practice until I implement.  And that means I have to implement with my current level of skill, make mistakes, learn from them and press on.

So in reality, not implementing that idea right now is the only true way to waste it.

And guess what else?  There are plenty of additional ideas and variations I haven’t thought of yet, and most of them won’t come to me until I’ve started implementing and making mistakes.  It’s impossible to steer a parked car.

Conclusion

By taking the time and initiative to understand your own reasons for procrastinating, and devoting a little energy to take the necessary steps to move forward, you can beat procrastination.  We all can.

In fact, simply writing this article was a testament to this.  I kept procrastinating on writing it because I lacked focus.  So I locked myself in my den, eliminated all distractions, kept the end in mind and started writing.  And as usual, starting was the hardest part.  Now I’m done.

For additional guidance on beating procrastination, I highly recommend The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination.

Photo by: Maya

Beware!  These ten inner enemies can quickly erode your grandest plans and your noblest intentions.  They can drain your life of passion and potential, and fill your spirit with lifelong regret.

1. Always taking the path of least resistance. – Just because you are struggling does NOT mean you are failing.  Every great success requires some kind of struggle to get there.  Good things don’t come to those who wait.  Good things come to those who work hard and struggle to pursue the goals and dreams they believe in.  Read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
2. Comparing yourself to everyone else. – You will never fully believe in yourself if you keep comparing yourself to everyone else.  Being true to yourself in thoughts, words and actions is as important as being kind and true to others.
3. Worrying too much about what others think of you. – As long as you are worried about what others think of you, you are owned by them.  Only when you require no approval from outside yourself can you own yourself.  If you’re being true to yourself and it isn’t enough for the people around you, change the people around you.
4. Ignoring your gut instincts. – There’s a difference between being agreeable and agreeing to everything.  Give yourself permission to immediately walk away from anything that gives you bad vibes.  There is no need to explain or make sense of it.  Just trust the little inner voice when it’s telling you, “This is a bad idea.”
5. Holding on when you need to move on. – Moving on doesn’t mean forgetting, it means you choose happiness over hurt.  Sometimes you have to love people from a distance and give them the space and time to get their minds right before you let them back into your life.
6. Living in the past. – If you don’t leave your past in the past, it will destroy your future.  Live for what today has to offer, not for what yesterday has taken away.  Life is a journey that is only traveled once.  Today’s moments quickly become tomorrow’s memories.  So appreciate every moment for what it is, because the greatest gift of life is life itself.  Read The Power of Now.
7. Doing the wrong things just because others are too. – Wrong is wrong, even if everyone is doing it.  Right is right, even if you are the only one doing it.  Always do what you know in your heart is right, for you.
8. Allowing small problems to overwhelm you. – Everything is going to be alright; maybe not today but eventually.  When you’re upset, ask yourself, “Will this matter to me in a year’s time?”  Most of the time it won’t.  Remember, sometimes bad things in life open up your eyes to the good things you weren’t paying attention to before.
9. Surrendering to the draw of comfort. – The most common and harmful addiction in the world is the draw of comfort.  Why pursue greatness when you’ve already got 324 channels and a recliner?  Just pass the chip dip and forget about your grand plans.  NO!  The truth is growth begins at the end of your comfort zone.  Stepping outside of your comfort zone will put things into perspective from an angle you can’t grasp now, and open doors of opportunity that would otherwise not exist.  Read The Power of Habit.
10. NOT believing that you CAN. – If we don’t know that greatness is possible, we won’t bother attempting it.  All too often, we literally do not know any better than good enough.  Sometimes you have to try to do what you think you can’t do, so you realize that you actually CAN.  And sometimes it takes more than one attempt.  If ‘Plan A’ doesn’t work out, don’t fret; the alphabet has another 25 letters that would be happy to give you a chance to get it right.  The wrong choices usually bring us to the right places, eventually.  But you must believe in your own potential to get there.

Photo by: Thomas Hawk

When you get up in the morning, think of what a priceless privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to learn, to love – and then make the day count!

The morning is extremely important.  It is the foundation from which the day is built.  How you choose to spend your morning can be used to predict what kind of day you are going to have, and thus, what kind of life you are going to live.

Each morning truly is a brand new opportunity.  Each day is another chance to get it right.

The happiest, healthiest people I know embrace this truth and use it to their advantage.  They have effective morning rituals that gradually improve their well-being and give their lives purpose.  Here’s what they do differently:

1.  They wake up with a sense of gratitude.

In other words, they start the day with love in their hearts and minds, and are truly appreciative of their life and all of its priceless idiosyncrasies.  They practice small acts of gratitude in the morning by expressing thankfulness directly to the people they care about, and to the immediate circumstances (health, opportunities, etc.) they could so easily take for granted.

From the research and coaching Angel and I have done over the years, we’ve found that the more a person is inclined to gratitude, the less likely he or she is to be depressed, anxious, lonely, envious, or neurotic.  Bottom line: Consider how very fortunate you are.  Consider it every morning.  The more you count your blessings, the more blessings there will be to count, and the happier you will be.

2.  They begin anew.

They know it’s a brand new day to start over and do something different.  Yesterday may have been a complete bummer for them, but today is a new day for learning, success and adventure.  Realize this.  Live now.  Not before.  Not later.  Just NOW – in the moment you’re in.

Inhabit your morning completely.  Don’t rent it out to the past.  Don’t let your history interfere with your destiny!  Let today be the day you stop being a victim of yesterday’s circumstances and start taking action towards the life you want.  You have the power and the time to shape the rest of this day.  Break free from the poisonous victim mentality and embrace the truth of your greatness.  (Read The Book of Awakening.)

3. They use self-inquiry to affirm a purposeful start to the day.

Steve Jobs’ morning routine used to start by looking in the mirror and asking, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”  And Benjamin Franklin asked himself each morning, “What good shall I do today?”  I challenge you to come up with questions that keep you on track and push you to live a purposeful life.  Here are three questions I often ask myself:

• What would I like to remember about today?
• How will I sincerely honor my own desires and truth today?
• What can I do to make a positive difference in the lives around me today?

4. They read something positive.

Some happy people read a bit of scripture each morning, while others read inspiring books, articles or quotes to get their day started.  Either way, they have a ritual to read some form of self-improvement literature to stretch and grow their insight and knowledge.  It’s starts their day off on a positive note with positive, productive ideas to guide their day’s journey.

And that’s crucial, because in life you often have to create your own sunshine.  So read something positive every morning when you wake up, and let it inspire you to do something positive before you go back to sleep at night.  That’s how memorable days are made.  (Angel and I discuss this in detail in the “Inspiration” chapter of 1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently.)

5.  They follow an effective morning routine.

Happy, healthy people know that morning routines are critically important.  They help you focus and build momentum for your day, and they give you the freedom to be present and relaxed – to enjoy just being right where you are each moment, rather than rushing from somewhere to somewhere.

Once you get your routine in order, for the first time in a long time, you will be able to, quite literally, smell the coffee.  For truly easy-going mornings, reduce the number of decisions you must make.  There are two simple ways to do this:

First, make your big morning decisions the night before: what to eat for breakfast, what clothes to wear, what you need to take to work, etc.

Second, build a simple routine for as much of your daily morning tasks as possible.

Really, there’s no need to drastically alter the simple things like how much time you give yourself to get ready for work, how complex of a meal you make for breakfast, or bathroom and shower rituals from one morning to the next.

6.  They give themselves enough time to eat a wholesome breakfast.

You can’t possibly have a happy, healthy day if you feed your body garbage first thing in the morning.  Period.  Your body is a temple.  You are what you eat.  So do not eat processed food, fast food, and all the filth the big processed food companies try to pass off as “healthy.”

Does it take ten extra minutes to prepare a wholesome breakfast?  Yes it does.  Is it worth it?  Yes it is!  Most foods that you don’t have to prepare manually statically cause sickness, cancer, and disease.  Do they taste good?  Sure.  It’s all well-seasoned, pre-packaged poison.  This is why so many people are sick – mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually – because they are hooked to the taste of poison, instead of being hooked on the truth and to real foods that heal and provide the human body with good health and wellness.  Don’t make this mistake.  Fuel your body properly first thing every morning.  (Read 100 Days of Real Food.)

7.  They move on gracefully to what’s most important.

As human beings, we are goal oriented.  We like making progress.  When we accomplish one of our goals, we smile about it.  That’s why the happiest people I know are also some of the most successful people I know.

And success is not something you have; it’s something you DO.  It’s something you experience when you wake up and act accordingly.  So let your first hour set the theme of proactivity and success that is certain to echo through your entire day.  The key is to focus your attention first thing in the morning on the right things.  Why?  Because at some point we all wonder, “Why is it so impossible to get everything done?”  But the answer is stunningly simple: We’re doing too many of the wrong things.

Several research studies have shown that people never get more done by blindly working more hours on everything that comes up.  Instead, they get more done when they follow careful plans that measure and track key priorities and milestones.  So if you want to be more successful, less stressed, and a lot happier at the end of a long day, don’t ask how to make something more efficient until you’ve first asked, “Do I need to do this at all?”  Simply being able to do something well does not make it the right thing to do.  I think this is one of the most common problems with a lot of time-management advice; too often productivity gurus focus on how to do things quickly, but the vast majority of things people do quickly should not be done at all.

Afterthoughts

Angel and I have our alarm set to the song Happy by Pharrell Williams.  For us, it’s impossible to not smile when this song plays.  This, combined with the other rituals above, set the tone for a productive, happy and healthy day.  

The floor is yours…

So what about you?  What helps you start the day off right?  Please let us know by leaving a comment below.

Photo by: Riana Green