CXXX: 10 Habits To Dramatically Change Your Life — A Realist’s Perspective!
I: Start your day with an 8 oz glass of water
This seems like it wouldn’t have any effect on your day at all, but trust me, it does. Starting your day by hydrating and taking a few breathes really has the ability to change the trajectory of your overall day in terms of mood and productivity.
For me, it’s a good start because I almost always reach for coffee with whatever I decide to have for breakfast, so the way that I see it I’m just priming my tummy for what’s to come by starting with water! It also helps me drink my 64oz a day.
II: Exercise/Walk 30 minutes a day
Although this has become quite the task for me since I moved, I can still appreciate the gains that walking or exercising for 30 minutes a day can bring!
Whether you’re on a fitness journey or not, the benefits of daily exercise are ones that you really should not miss out on. Exercising can include meditating, stretching, relaxation training, walking, running, dancing, etc. And the results include: a faster metabolism, greater flexibility, a boost in energy, better sleep (when it’s time), a good release, increase in heart rate, and so on. Why would you not want to get your body going to help keep your day going?
III: Make one day a week a “no meat” day
Believe it or not, meat really weighs you down! It sits with you for an uncomfortably long period of time regardless of whether or not you think that your body has processed it.
Trust me! When I went vegan, I completely felt the difference in how my body feels without the meat and how it felt when I ate meat, so I have been working to get members of my family to just make one day a week a “no meat” day to see the small gains and benefits that not having meat will bring them because the differences are truly interesting.
IV: Set a bedtime and stick to it
Although our schedules have probably all been thrown off as of late, we should still work to find a new schedule to keep us productive and to protect our circadian rhythms. If we aren’t conscious of our sleep schedules, we risk sleeping through the days and staying up all night. For those with normal 9-5 jobs, that schedule just won’t work.
So, set a bedtime and practice getting in bed on time whether you like it or not.
It only takes 21 days to form a habit, so within 21 days, you’ll be in a regular sleep pattern that will truly benefit your body and your day’s productivity levels.
V: Have at least one “dying day” a week
Sounds funny, I know!
When I was in law school, it was all work, all the time. By my last year of law school, I was tired and over absolutely everything knowing that the biggest amount of work was yet to come. But, I had nothing left to give because I didn’t give myself time to rest, relax, or just have fun!
So, nowadays, I make it a point to have at least one “dying day” a week.
A dying day is what you give your pet who was given a day to live. It’s where you give him all of his favorite toys, hug and kiss him, let him know that you love him, take him to his favorite park, etc. I believe that having one of these days a week for yourself serves as an ongoing reset.
My dying days are basically promises that all of the hard work will pay off even if it’s in the form of a day of doing absolutely nothing (or everything that I love)!
VI: Get a planner and use it
How odd is it that a piece of paper with boxes and calendar days on it literally makes you productive? How does it keep you on track when you can’t even keep yourself on track?
Ah, who cares, the point is that it just works!
Planners have a way of organizing your thoughts, your to-do lists, and your tasks. It gives you space to lay out your days in ways that make you want to check those tasks off.
So, get yourself a planner and use that badboy!
VII: Take a “Good Day” selfie
I never appreciated a good selfie until the days where I was stuck in the house with no need to wear anything but sweatpants and t-shirts for months!
Looking through my phone’s camera roll while in sweatpants day after day did nothing but make me realize that (1) I have a ton of clothes and (2) I’ve taken some adorable selfies!
Months in sweatpants and workout clothes will really make you question your cuteness, so those selfies really raise your spirits when you come across them. That’s why I suggest that, whenever you’re feeling adorable, grab that phone (which is probably in your hand anyway) and take a selfie!
VIII: Pat yourself on the back, but only when you deserve it
The positivist will say to pat yourself on the back no matter what, but this realist says only do it when you deserve it.
The world is filled with undeserving pats on the back and it does nothing but foster entitlement, so when you consider this “habit” do so without the rose colored glasses!
But, the point is that, sometimes you deserve a pat on the back and others won’t be around to administer it! So, do it yourself and move onto the next accomplishment.
IX: Read
I am definitely not a stranger to getting lost in a good author’s story. With all that’s going on in the world today, who wouldn’t want to get lost in the life of another? And, no, I don’t mean by scrolling through someone’s Instagram story!
I mean, picking up a book and getting into a character’s development as the story progresses!
Simply put, I’m telling you all to read more! If you are lost on what books to read, then start with some of the books that I’ve mentioned before:
X: Meditate on all that went wrong and all that went right
All too often, when we are wrong, we don’t sit and think about being wrong. We quickly move on so that no one can see that we’re actually human and don’t know everything that there is to know. It’s like many people miss the part of life where maturity and knowledge are shown best in those who are (1) quiet and (2) able to admit that they don’t know everything.
Focusing on both the right and the wrong is super helpful and both can teach you so much about yourself and new things. There’s an amount of openness that you allow yourself to have when you acknowledge all that was right and all that was wrong, so I encourage you to meditate on both moving forward.
LET’S GET OUT OF THE HABIT OF STARTING OUR SENTENCES WITH AN EXCUSE OR AN EXPLANATION