MINDSET and HABITS – the two things that make your life what it is. And the best part is you have control over them.
Mindset can be changed in a matter of seconds. As soon as you realize that you want and deserve a better life, choose to be happy and consciously decide to look at things in a more positive way, you have already made the most important step. Now keep it up! Remind yourself what you want in life daily, read and watch content to keep you motivated, do the best you can and just enjoy your life! Remember, the joy is in the journey!
Habits take time and effort to build, but it’s worth it. Мore than 80% of what you do is because of your habits so it’s very important to consciously work on them. A habit needs about 60 days to form. Once established it becomes a part of your everyday life and requires much less effort to keep up with. Take action and don’t let your habits control you! Control them instead, follow up with your own goals and be a better, stronger and more successful person!
You want to change your mindset and your habits? Start with these below…
EXERCISE
Physiology and psychology work together. Exercising will make you sharp and focused. When your blood is flowing well, you wake up and prepare your body and mind for the upcoming challenges. Your brain needs physical exercise to work better too.
Exercising helps you relieve stress. Being fit boosts your confidence and helps you feel better around other people. So walk, run, ride a bike, work out in the park, at home or go to the gym, play sports, whatever physical activity you like. Keep your body fit!
DRINK WATER
About 60% of your body is water. According to H.H. Mitchell, Journal of Biological Chemistry 158, water is about 73% of the brain and heart and about 83% of the lungs. Do not underestimate it. Drink a lot of water every day, especially in the morning.
When you sleep during the night your body gets dehydrated. Drinking a glass of water is probably the best thing you can do when you wake up in the morning. Remember, no other liquid can replace plain water. Believe it or not, lack of water is the reason for more than half of the headaches people suffer from. A good tip is to squeeze a lemon into that first glass of water. It gives you a good kick, gets your digestive system back to work, fills your body up with Vitamin C, which helps your immune system and hormone activity, and also increases dopamine, which is one of the main hormones that make you feel happy.
EAT HEALTHY
Food is the fuel of your body and mind. Your body needs proper nutrition in order to function well. What you eat reflects on your energy levels. Eat good and healthy food! Try to diversify your diet in order to fulfill your whole body’s needs. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, fish, lean meat, and eggs. Okinawans, who are known for their exceptional longevity, have a rule – always eat until you are 8/10ths full. Eat enough, but never overeat.
SLEEP
Sleep is the only way your body and brain really take some rest. Every cell in our body needs sleep in order to work at 100%. When you sleep your brain refreshes and forms chunks of information which helps you learn, focus, and work better. The muscles grow when relaxing. A good sleeping habit is to go to bed early and wake up early in the morning.
Humans get the best sleep from 10 pm to 2 am. It’s hard to do it every day and you don’t need to, but when you can – give it a try! You will be surprised how much energy you have early in the morning and how long and productive a day could be. It’s very important to sleep enough. Around 6-7, up to 8 hours is fine. A short power nap during the day (20-30 minutes) can really help you refresh and get energy for the rest of it.
DREAM BIG
If you want to live big, you have to dream big. If you want to do big, you have to think big. Imagine exactly what you want from life. Be creative. Free your mind from any boundaries and let it show you the path to your perfect life. Nobody has ever achieved anything that they didn’t imagine and visualize first.
It’s not even about having a plan. Plans change all the time. Ask anybody successful and they will tell you their plans at the beginning were completely different from what actually happened. It’s about setting the mindset needed for success. It’s about motivation and desire for improvement. And we all know it’s scary sometimes. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said, “If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” Free yourself from the prison of your own mind and stop thinking “I can’t do it” or “This is too big for me”. Free yourself from the negative people around you who always tell you how hard and impossible everything is. You can do it!
Feed your dreams with thoughts and desire. Visualize your goals. What do you want to be 5 years from now? 10 years from now? Dream, think, do, repeat!
LEARN
Be curious. Ask questions and find answers. Learn as much as you can.
If you think your education ends with graduating the university or your Ph.D., you are completely wrong. Lifelong learning is the path to success. Learn from successful people. Cut the learning curve and try to get the knowledge from first hand. Find mentors. Find people who are already successful, talk to them, listen and learn.
Nowadays you can find so much information on the internet about almost anything. And it’s very cheap or a lot of times even completely free. You just need to know what you want to know. Resources are unlimited. Read more books. Bill Gates reads a book a week, Warren Buffet reads 5-6 hours a day.
Educate yourself everywhere you can – during your commute, in public transportation, even while you are in the bathroom (you will spend that time there anyway!). Grab that book. Start with a book per month. Move to two a month. Learn speed reading and read four books a month. Subscribe to magazines and blogs on topics that you are interested in. Listen to audiobooks or podcasts while working out or driving. You can finish a book in a few hours if you are listening to it instead. Find free online webinars. Join online courses. Visit seminars and conferences. Watch videos on YouTube.
Sometimes it’s difficult to keep up, but you have to challenge yourself. This is the only way to improve. Rich and successful people invest a lot of resources – mostly time and money – in their education, in learning and getting better. Build a habit. Invest in knowledge. You may not become a billionaire overnight just by reading a few books, but it all pays off in the long term.
SET GOALS
If you don’t know where you are going, how are you going to get there? You need to know what you want to achieve. A goal is a dream with a deadline. Know where you are heading and organize your way.
Setting goals and priorities helps you focus on what is important now and keeps you away from procrastination and distractions. If you know what you want to happen in your life, you will be able to figure out and plan exactly what you need to do in order to get there.
But big goals can sometimes be overwhelming. So break your plan into very small steps, little goals, actionable items that you can complete one by one. Plan the timeframe, and make a deal with yourself to achieve each of those small goals by some point in time. You will see immediate results and the dopamine from achieving those little steps will keep you going.
DO
It’s not what you know, it’s what you do! Information is nothing until you turn it into knowledge. And knowledge means accurate information turned into action.
You cannot achieve anything by sitting and waiting for something to happen. You have to put in the work. Sam Walton, the man who founded Walmart and one of the most successful men on the planet, gives one of the greatest pieces of advice in one word: “Commit!”. Know what you want to do and commit to it. Start right now! Keep the big picture in mind. It will keep you motivated through hard times. And just do it!
Doing doesn’t mean going with the flow. Stop finding excuses for not getting sh*t done. Take action! Think about work as a game. Combining work with play will make your life a lot easier. As Mark Twain said, find a job you enjoy doing and you will never have to work a day in your life.
Don’t strive for perfection. It’s always better done than perfect. Strive for done. “Great is the enemy of good” says Voltaire.
STUDY PEOPLE
No matter what you do, there are always people involved. You live and work around, with and for people.
Humans are social animals. We want to be loved and respected, accepted and recognized. One of the most valuable things you can do is to learn how to read and communicate with people. Get out there and practice, there is no better way to learn. Lack of confidence? What is the worst that can happen? People will show you if they don’t want your company. And you will always meet others. There will always be people who will be happy to know you.
The actual words that people say represent only 7% of the communication. 38% is the tone of voice. And guess what? 55% is body language. Learn body language.
Learn what motivates people and how they react to different situations. Make compliments and show them that you value their presence in your life. Show that you care about them and how special they are for you. Learn how to inspire people. Do not judge. Everyone is free to make their own choices. Give away the desired support, respect, and recognition. This way you win people’s trust, admiration and love and they value your company much more.
During your life, you will need to persuade and influence people in order to get what you want. Remember, people are influenced mostly by those they trust, admire, and believe care for them. Understand this and you can help the people around you, be a good leader and manager, win friends and influence people. Study people!
BE GRATEFUL
Look around. You have so many things to be thankful for. You have a home, you can choose what to eat, you have friends and family, you can breathe, see, hear and smell. Look outside. Look at the blue sky, the clouds, the rain, the sun, the green trees and the grass, the kids playing, the people walking around talking to each other. It’s a beautiful world and you are so lucky to be a part of it. You are alive! Be grateful for it!
Thank everyone for everything they are doing for you! Thank the lady on the cashier in the supermarket, thank the guy who waited for you on the elevator. Thank the Universe that you exist and enjoy such an amazing world. Smile and be grateful!
LOVE, BE HAPPY AND ENJOY YOUR TIME
Love everything around you. Show love to the people you care about. Show your friends that you value them. Love life! It’s amazing.
Sometimes we get angry at our bosses, friends, bad luck or whatever. In these moments, just stop, take a deep breath, and look around. Think about it. Would the situation that made you angry matter in 5 years? How about 2? What about a month? Let’s be honest, most of the time it doesn’t even matter in a few hours or even minutes. So why bother at all?
Instead of torturing yourself with bad feelings and emotions, just solve the problem and move forward. Problems exist to be solved. Every problem you solve makes you smarter, stronger, better. Remember to enjoy everything you do as if it is a game and you are the player. Happiness depends on you. It’s a choice. Choose to be happy!
LIVE NOW
Stop complaining about the past. You know what? Stop thinking about it! And all those plans for the future, and all the things you are trying to figure out in advance – what might happen, what you might do in this or that situation… Forget it! Live now! Focus on what you can do now. Not tomorrow, not after the crisis, not after you graduate… Today. NOW!
What you do now is the only thing that matters. Destiny doesn’t care about your bad childhood, your divorced parents or who you used to be and what you used to do. Destiny doesn’t care about your 200-page business plan and it does not obey orders – what should happen and exactly how. No! Destiny cares about what you choose to do now and gives you what you deserve for choosing that later. To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want. Think now. Do now. LIVE NOW!
FINAL THOUGHTS
Changing your lifestyle is not easy at all and requires strong willpower, focus and effort. And you can’t change everything right now. It all happens naturally, gradually, step by step… Change your mindset, form the right habits, and achieve anything you want.
“He who says he can and he who says he can’t are both usually right.” – Confucius
Choose to believe you can and you will see how fast your life will change. You have the power to choose!