HappyLifestyleJournal
1. MEDITATE
There is so much more to meditation than just merely “ohm”-ing while sitting on your buttocks with your legs crossed. A growing body of research has proven the benefits of meditation. Meditation helps lower stress, increases focus and encourages emotional stability. Meditation also helps us to be more mindful and to think more positively. Mindfulness and positive thinking have both been linked to increased immune defenses and longer life spans.
2. KEEP A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
It’s probably been said far too many times but if you really want a high quality life you must stay fit and healthy. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is about so much more than just looking good, although that helps too. How well do you do at work when you feel bad about yourself? How well do your relationships workout when you are suffering from low self-esteem? It seems superficial but we cannot deny that how we look and how we feel in our bodies sets a precedent for all the other aspects of our lives. Aside from looking good, being healthy allows you to do things you like for longer.
3. INVEST IN YOUR SELF-IMPROVEMENT
To be the best version of yourself you have to constantly push yourself to learn and engage in new things. Pick up a hobby, learn a language, try gardening, teach yourself how to small talk. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as you are doing it for self-improvement. A lot of people have the latest gadgets and are decked out in the latest fashion but cannot spare a dime to learn a new sport or improve their skill set.
Investing in yourself is a lot like investing in a business or in the stock market, except that you can always take your earnings with you and there’s virtually no risk of your investment ever going down the drain. Especially when you invest in your skill set. We all know the job market isn’t exactly what it used to be. Not in the US, not anywhere in the world. So how do you make yourself indispensable to your company? – By investing in yourself. Start by taking online classes, going to trade seminars and the like.
4. INVEST IN YOURSELF FINANCIALLY
It sounds cynical but it is true what they say about money making the world go round. It’s just the way things are and instead of fighting it, it’s time to be smart about it. Take a look at your finances, in fact you can do one better and hire a financial advisor. There is always something in your budget that can be utilized better, cut down or completely cut off. A financial advisor could help you manage whatever salary you are on and make it work for you.
5. INVOLVE YOURSELF IN WORK YOU LOVE
One of the best ways to succeed in your career is to doggedly pursue and work hard at something you really love. Doing work you love is like waking up every day excited at another chance to do something you really enjoy and great success always comes at the heels of great and relentless enthusiasm. Another variation of this is to do more of what you love. Whether at work or at play, do more things you actually like to do. Stop engaging in mindless automated entertainment. Make plans, whether it’s to take a walk in the park, see friends for lunch or series binge on a weekend with your sweetheart. Be more deliberate about how you spend your time and before you know it you will become more deliberate about how to spend your life.
6. GET A COACH/MENTOR
Most people don’t think of asking for help when it comes to self-improvement. It does say “SELF” improvement after all. The downside to this is that by nature humans are a little bit blind to their own flaws but are quite crystal clear on the flaws of others. Use this to your advantage – get yourself a mentor or a life coach. Find somebody who can point out what you need to work on and then take the journey with you. Most people who find extreme success in this world do so when they get in touch with a great mentor.
7. RE-EVALUATE AND RE-ALIGN REGULARLY
It’s hard to stay on top of everything when life just constantly keeps happening to you. All our energy becomes so focused on just getting through everything that at the end of the day we have no more energy left to focus on our growth as human beings. When this happens re-align and re-evaluate. You might want to go on a retreat to do this, though self-reflection is just as effective. Re-evaluate what you can do better, how you spend your time and find ways to be more productive. Re-align with your vision of how you want your career, body, spirit and personal life to be.
8. LOVE YOURSELF
The problems we create for ourselves and the pain we cause others are all rooted in a place within us that feels unloved. When we snap or become defensive, or when we become attracted to relationships that bring out the worst in us, we can trace all these things back to something within us that needs mending. However, this love is not something we can expect others to give us, because other people usually only respond to how we treat ourselves. So the love we have to cultivate to become the best versions of ourselves is SELF-LOVE. Once we find this love, everything else will just fall into place.
