Creatures of habit and routines that rule you

When you take a closer look at living beings on Planet Earth you’ll invariably start to discover certain patterns in their behavior. You will see that every animal has habits it conforms to while it goes through it’s day. Of course, pretty soon you will see that majority of animals don’t even realize the patterns and routines that rule their lives. They stumble through their day without noticing all the shortcuts they could take and improvements they could make.

You will be shocked when you discover how many of these animals are healthy, full-grown humans. How many of them don’t even pay attention during most of the day. How they are trapped in their own negative thoughts or events that happened years ago. How they’ve developed a routine that makes them wade unhappily through every single waking hour of their lives, while clinging to status quo simply because they won’t think for a second, and start fighting for themselves.

That’s the most striking thing. Almost every human in the world today has the capacity to stand up and take the ownership of their life. True, some of us are more free than others. But I will argue that if you are reading this text on the screen of your electronic device, you can make a difference. The weight of burdens you carry does not matter – you can still make a stand for your and lives around you.

Decide what you want to do with your life and how you can help others. Do not let world, happenstance, negative thoughts or circumstances decide your habits. Design your routine for yourself. Consciously pick who and what you serve. And even if you want to surrender to your anxiety and fears – by all means – do it. But don’t do it unconsciously, while tricking yourself with other busy thoughts. Say it out loud and force yourself to acknowledge what you are doing.

Only when you make a conscious effort to realize your reality will you be on the path of building a routine which serves you as much as you serve it. Routine is a powerful master that can lead you all the way to the rags or the riches. You have the power to choose what your routine consists of. Choose wisely.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. -Aristotle

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. -Aristotle

Addition by subtraction. Remove unnecessary things from your life.

Do you ever imagine yourself living in the distant past? And how do you see that past? Glorious and exciting as movies and popular media try to present it? Or you imagine yourself vulnerable, ill equipped for time travel, struggling to accept amenities of simple life?

Even recent past can seem daunting. Just think about everything you would’ve missed if you go back only 30 years in time. All the choices you simply couldn’t make, innovations you would need to wait out…. lotteries you could win if only you remembered the numbers.

Not surprising, some people find past and less choice a positive turn of events. It is easy to forget how overwhelmed we are nowadays. How many choices we need to make each and every day, glued to our smart device that seems to keep ringing through the whole day, telling us of yet another thing we need to do.

And yet, there is no reason for it to be this way. We should rule choices rather than allowing choices to rule us. If choice is trivial, remove it from your thoughts. Do not allow anxiety to get a hold of you and push you into seeing every choice as a matter of life and death. Take a moment to step back and look at what you are doing. Realign yourself toward what is truly important.

Mathematics is probably the closest we humans have came to universal language of cosmos. And math can well show that subtracting a negative number will increase score in the same manner addition of positive number does. Use your ability to choose less. Remove everything meaningless from your life.

Nothing prevents you from enjoying each and every moment you live. But to get there you need to remove your busy thoughts, meaningless tasks, shallow ambitions and unhappy relationships. Remove things that hold you back, so that you can rediscover how long day actually is. And how there is time for everything you want. Subtract everything that is negative and – just go.

Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities. -Mark Twain

Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities. -Mark Twain

Keep your promises. Hold yourself accountable.

When you look at the list of traits people can have it’s easy to get lost in admiration. Confident, helpful, bold, excited, caring, brave, unselfish, wealthy, respectful, resilient, smart, well-spoken, persistent, encouraging, dependable, witty. And here is the best thing – you can be all of that. This is not a game where you need to pick and choose. You can make yourself into whatever you want to be.

All you need to start are just two things: honesty and determination.

When you are honest to yourself, everything comes easy. No one knows you like you know yourself. You can bend the truth for others, tweak conditions and circumstances of anything you wish to misrepresent. Depending on how good you are at it, you may completely fool others. Heck, you may be so great at it that you end up as wealthy career politician. But if you are honest with yourself you’ll always know and feel how much you are misrepresenting the reality.

Here determination comes into play – focus on your goals and honestly hold yourself accountable. Know what you promised and make yourself deliver on that promise. If you said that it will be done today – it will be done today.

Of course, while marching toward your goal you’ll come onto obstacles and excuses. Do not give in. Whether it’s other people or your own brain working against you – it doesn’t matter. Do not give in. Thoughts that are trying to protect you – by making you take a breather and procrastinate – may seem easy. Do not give in.

Say to yourself that you are not into easy. That you are on the path of keeping your promises because you always keep your promises. Do it once, and you can do it again. And again. Until you became everything you wanted to be… by simply keeping your promises.

These woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. Promise

These woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep

Stop procrastinating. Focus on your work.

We are all guilty of procrastinating at some point of our lives. It’s easy to succumb to the temptation of not doing what needs to be done. We have trained ourselves to procrastinate. Even when there is something we really want to do. Especially then – we lie and give in to yet another “let me just do this”.

Procrastination would be understandable, if it always brought you the pleasures you imagine as your drop your focus. But it doesn’t. Procrastination tires you out immensely. It brings you down. And it’s easy to figure out why – if you have even shred of character, deep down in yourself you know that you are cheating yourself. That you are trading what you truly are and what you truly want for something you don’t even care about.

Decide that today is the day where you take a stand and say no to procrastination. That you say yes to all the plans you have made for yourself. That you will not trade your goals for senseless wasting of time. And that from now until the end of time, you will write down everything you ever wanted to do and look at that list whenever you feel the urge to procrastinate.

If you make that promise to yourself, you will see that there is enough time in the day for all your plans. That you can accomplish so much more. That time used well will bring you immense satisfaction. That nothing can replace the moment at the end of the day, where you sit down with yourself and *feel* that you mattered. That your effort, persistence and resilience made difference in your and lives around you.

Trade moments you have for rest and things that truly interest you. But don’t you ever trade precious, scarce time you have in this life for mindless wading through the day that destroys your focus while giving you nothing in return. Stop procrastinating. Start working.

Failure is not our only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of others. -Jules Renard

Failure is not our only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of others. -Jules Renard

 

Happiness is easy

I often talk with people about happiness. And when I mention that happiness is easy, I usually get response that – it is not.

If happiness was easy, there would not be so many unhappy people in the world, they say.

Smart reasoning always brings smile to my face. It’s crazy how well people debate nowadays. How well educated people are compared to 100 years ago. How entertainment, choice and chances are increasing with each passing year. How demanding we all have become.

And demand is the key.

If you are not happy, chances are that you are demanding more than you are willing to give. It’s as simple as that. If you are not trumped by disability, illness or serious condition that prevents you from standing up and fighting for yourself right now – you can easily feel happy. Just start giving, at least to yourself.

Decide what is your goal… and then begin working toward it. Happiness will simply show up as a feeling that will accompany you as you progress toward your goal. Happiness can’t exist when you’re standing still for too long.

If happiness could be obtained by standing still, all those celebrities that have millions of dollars and millions of admirers around the world would be happy. And yet they are not – because by their own standards they are standing still or regressing. The more you have, the more you can lose… and that feeling is crushing to those easily scared.

Don’t be scared. On the path toward your goal, there will be obstacles. There will be disappointments. But there also will be happiness. Happiness that you are marching with your head held high and that you are giving it your all. That you are not allowing your fears to protect you from everything by making you stand still. Because you don’t need that kind of protection; as it’ll truly protect you from everything – including happiness.

Happiness is when what you think what you say, and what you do are in harmony -Mahatma Gandhi

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.  -Mahatma Gandhi