One is for sure. Habits can make or break your success in life. As much as we all would not like to admit it much of our time is spent in automatic behavior mode. This is otherwise known as reflexive behavior. Very few aspects of our lives are actually intentional. For the most part we are operating on autopilot and simply responding to our environment. That’s why it is imperative to modify our environments to suit our goals. Into incorporate beneficial habits into our day-to-day lives so that even during our reflexive habits, we are moving toward where we want to go.
These are the habits I have attempted to incorporate into my day-to-day as much as possible.
Number one gratitude gratitude is an interesting one as many look on the world in a somewhat negative manner. I myself have historically had a fairly negative view on the world which was its derivative of my rational mindset. I like it myself to a pessimistic scientist. Indeed it is pretty easy to take a pessimistic worldview when you just look at the numbers in the science. That being said the studies on gratitude don’t lie and so despite keeping a level head when it comes to the generally f***** up nature of our society plight of the environment etc. I try to start everyday with a few minutes writing down things I’m grateful for. If I can I also try to express gratitude throughout the day especially verbalized to another person.
Writing down your good ideas. Most ideas are repetitive. They have either been thought before by someone else or they’re the same idea you had yesterday. When you do have an idea you think is original make sure to write it down. Alternatively you can set aside some time every day to be creative and write ideas down. I personally don’t find this strategy to be very useful as many ideas come at random times so I always keep my phone or a pad close at hand where I can jot down my evil genius plans.
Walking walking is one of the best forms of exercise you can possibly do. Not only can it be a form cardiovascular exercise. It helps develop balance and can promote good spinal alignment. There is evidence that hunter gatherer groups walk between 5:00 and 10 miles everyday therefore it is highly likely that most human ancestors walked a good bit throughout the day. Unless I am incredibly active and some other capacity. I try to set aside some time for a walk. Anytime that works for you is great. You can pick the morning before a breakfast if you’re having trouble sleeping or losing weight. Or if you have a hard time digesting your food in the evenings you can go for a light walk post dinner. Many famous intellectuals were known to be walkers. You can also do many things while walking if you feel like the time is unproductive. You can practice some form of moving meditation such as paying attention to surroundings, you can bird watch and study plant ecology, you can listen to an audiobook, or podcast, or you can even call a friend. For an added challenge you can integrate other forms of exercise into your walk. For example anytime you encounter an object in your environment that you could potentially do some form of exercise off of you can get creative and do that. Example when you encounter a pull-up bar like tree do some pull-ups off of it. When you encounter a chain write it like a slackline, you see a park bench do some one-legged squats off of it or dips or practice your parkour. If you see a large Rock on the trail see if you can lift it overhead or throw it like a discus if it’s a smaller rock
Getting into nature
This can obviously be combined into your walk. Studies show that being in green or blue space if you’re on the water is incredibly beneficial to your health. One of my favorite studies is where hospital patients were assigned two separate rooms one of which was facing a courtyard which had green shrubs in the window. The other was looking into a concrete jungle. The patients looking into the greenery had a much faster recovery time. I’m addition getting out into nature is proven to strengthen your immune system, improve mental health, lower stress levels, and improve subjective happiness. I also often like to get out into nature simply to you get away from it all and reflect a little bit on what I’ve been up to and if I’m on the right path. It’s often easier to do this without all of the modern day cycle distractions that lead to mental overload.
Setting goals
Setting goals is a useful thing to do. It’s important not to overstretch your goals and to just focus on things you know you can bite into you for that particular day. Also recognize that it is okay if you deviate from the plan. Life is random and often I will find myself doing something completely irrelevant to the goals I had stated at the start of the day, yet if they still integrate into you my overarching long-term goals, I will jump on the opportunity and strike while the irons hot. It really pays to be flexible. I like to have a tiered system of goals whereby the goals are categorized temporally but also by subject matter. For example I have a tab of my OneNote organization software for my daily weekly monthly and yearly goals. I also have an individual tab for health, finances, career, family, friends, etc. Be careful when using goals, don’t beat yourself up too hard if you set your goal is too high. Cool thing about goals is they can always be changed but it’s important to have a motivating factor. I tried living for a month without goals once and it turned into a random and anxiety ridden experience which I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. For help setting clear goals I recommend checking out the self-awareness program by Jordan Peterson. Another important thing to note is that sometimes it can be hard to determine whether a goal is a valuable pursuit or not. If it’s a bigger more important goal or a goal that requires more time I would always fall back on your values. If you don’t have a set of values or principles. Check out Ray dalio’s book principles for help and establishing these. It’s pretty simple is this goal in line with my values as much as possible? If yes then pursue it. What if you have multiple goals that are bouncing around in your head, is there a way to organize these goals in a structured manner for prioritization? I like to use the Eisenhower matrix and the triage or 80/20 principle. The Eisenhower matrix is more useful for things that you have to do. it’s a pretty simple matrix a 2×2 square on one axis you have important and not important and on the other axis you have urgent and non-urgent. Thus there are four categories for items to be placed into the important and urgent tasks should be dealt with right away the important but non-urgent tasks should be scheduled, the non-important and urgent tasks should be delegated and the non-important and non-urgent tasks should be eliminated.
The triage approach is pretty simple. Do you the most important thing first or the minimum effective dose. Otherwise known as get her done. Often the triage approach involves lateral thinking. Maybe you’ve been looking at a problem all wrong and there’s an easier and faster solution. The tree eyes approach is to do this and use your limited resources to solve as many problems as quickly as possible.
Write down things you could improve on tomorrow
Self criticism is a very important part of everyday. It keeps you humble and leaves you something to strive for tomorrow the thing to know or keep in mind is where you stand naturally in terms of self-critical mindset. If you tend to be we anxious or neurotic type. You may not need to employ this strategy everyday. As you may have more of a natural propensity for self-criticism. If on the other hand you are bloated with hubris and generally a confident person was maybe a good strategy for you. If you can’t think of anything that could be improved upon you’re probably not thinking hard enough. Start from your room and extend gradually out to other areas of your life and if everything in your own life is perfect try to help someone else’s. You will quickly realize there’s no shortage of work that needs to be done in the world
Generalism 