The world is full of opportunities, but sometimes too much thinking can get in the way. Changing your life for the better is about picking a destination and taking one step at a time to get there. If you try to take shortcuts, you may actually end up making your journey longer and more arduous. Getting serious about making improvements is a great start, and taking action is the next important step.:
- Rid yourself of one bad habit at a time. Make a serious commitment to change one bad habit. Re-wiring habits requires discipline, planning and commitment, so give yourself at least three dedicated months to do it. Focus on one bad habit at a time for success, and get a plan in action. There are plenty of apps that can help you stay on track, and you can enlist accountability and support from your friends or family. Once you have made it past three months, that new habit should be solid, and you can go into maintenance mode.
- Get control of your negative mental chatter. Follow these steps. First, notice the negative message that seems the loudest. Pause and listen to your mind and what it is saying to you; identifying the loudest negative message will happen over time, as you listen more and more closely.
- Next, track how often you are telling this to yourself. Is it happening every day? Every week? What are you doing that triggers these negative messages?
- Then, reverse that message. Write down a new message to tell yourself that is a more positive version of the negative message. This new positive message should be realistic–you can believe it just as much as the negative one. Repeat the positive message whenever doubts come up
- Focus on loving yourself more every day.There are two great methods for developing more self-love.
- First, tell yourself out loud that you love yourself. Just as powerful as hearing these words from someone else, saying it yourself can make you feel the same way. And you can do it as often as you like.
- Second, commit to a new activity that is something that you absolutely love and feel wonderful doing. Do it alone, and think of it as a gift to yourself for being you
- Expand your intelligence. Pick one of these three mind expanding exercises. For example:
- #1: Listen to Baroque and Classical music–especially Mozart. This type of music typically has a tempo of 60 beats a minute. When someone hears one beat per second, their heart rate and pulse relax to the beat, blood pressure decreases and the entire body unwinds. In this relaxed state, the brain is able to concentrate more easily.
- #2: Drink more water, especially non-fluoride water. Water helps your body take in vitamins and other nutrients more easily
- #3: Use your peripheral vision: When you are looking at the world with peripheral vision, you immediately access the right hemisphere of the brain. This is much more relaxing and allows the subconscious to come into the equation for super learning
- Get moving Commit yourself to being more active. Find something that is fun and a great workout, like dance, yoga, DVD videos you can do at home, walking, running, or skiing. There are so many options and opportunities to get out and move your body.
- Meditate
- More and more research is pointing to the benefits of meditation. In the future, meditation will be so prevalent and accepted, it will be as natural as showering or brushing our teeth. If you don’t meditate, start now. It will change your life and your health.
- Pick one or do them all. With these strategies in place, there is no way you can’t make 2016 the best year yet
- Be grateful for what you have. When you stop to remember what you have instead of worrying about what you may not be getting, it changes your perspective for the better.
- Start your day the night before. The most successful people I know end their workday by making a list of what they have to do the following day or two ahead. This allows the subconscious to work on things while you sleep.
- Be ready to grow up. Adults have the ability to learn to delay gratification, but we also have a choice as to how to behave when things don’t go our way. If you remember to take the high road, you’ll end up where you want to be.
- Drop the attitude. If you think the world owes you a living, you might want to reevaluate your position. It is quite possible that, by feeling entitled, you are pushing away things and people you might like.
- Don’t ignore your emotions, but remember that feelings aren’t facts. Emotions need to be honored—they don’t have to be justified—but just because you have a feeling doesn’t mean that you are right.
- Watch out for negative thinking. Sometimes we get into negative feedback loops and don’t even know it. If thoughts of being helpless and hopeless continue to enter your mind, you might just need to take a nap or perhaps talk with someone who can help.
- Set up and stick to a routine. We are creatures of habit; and good habits, such as getting regular exercise, make us feel better. Maintaining good habits also helps us feel that we have some control over our lives. Just do it.
- Drop your resentments. We all have them. Whether they are toward our parents, partners, or peers, resentments take up too much psychic space to allow us to function properly. By choosing to drop them, you will make your life much lighter. But the hardest part is making the decision to let your resentments go.
- Know who you really are, and learn to honor yourself. We all fake it from time to time and once in a while, this can be a good thing, but never compromise your personal values and always strive to be your best self.
- Enjoy a part of every day. Look for those little bright moments that happen all the time but that we often fail to recognize. Make a point of seeing some good in every day, and you will change your life.
Leadership Flagship 