Drink a glass of water upon waking. Did you know that due to perspiration and the act of breathing, the body loses up to a litre of water while you sleep? Beat first-light dehydration by drinking a large glass of water when you wake.
Take a teaspoon of honey just before you go to sleep. Your brain needs a certain amount of glucose to switch itself off. A teaspoon of honey (local honey is best) will provide the hit you need, promoting swifter and deeper sleep. Just don’t forget to brush your teeth before bedding down.
Try ten minutes of exercise in the morning. Avoid the morning blues with a mini-workout when you rise. Choose your own heart racing adventure, anything that ups the pulse rate will do. Ten minutes of morning exercise, followed up with a good stretch and ten deep breaths will kickstart your metabolism, oxygenate your brain and offset the day’s stress in advance.
Eat for energy first, entertainment second. Sounds simple, and it is. Most people choose to eat for entertainment (based on what tastes nice) meaning they lack the energy required to lead a truly entertaining life. Choose food with a high ratio of nutrients to calories, and major in a low toxin, low inflammation and low allergen diet, for a body and mind bursting with feel good energy.
Put a sparkle behind people’s eyes. Make a daily practice of adding sparkle behind people’s eyes by dishing out compliments regularly. Start small, stay genuine, and let this become a daily habit of positivity, both reminding you of abundance and helping you feel connected.
Grow the sparkle behind your own eyes. Roald Dahl wrote: “Its impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren’t feeling twinkly yourself”. Could it be better put? Its important to identify easy ways to focus your mind on those ideas that make you feel great from the inside out. Try this: most smartphones have a recording app. Record a description of an ideal day that is possible late in 2015, and make sure it inspires you. Next, play it back, as often as you fancy, to trigger positive emotions while familiarising yourself with success.
Work harder and smarter on things you believe in. Our life energy works in interesting ways. When we do things we love, we find energy we didnt know we had.
Celebrate and reward your successes. Prove to yourself that you are worth it and you count by rewarding your own hard work with things you enjoy.
Insulate yourself from distractions by switching your phone off for at least an hour a day. Most people dont realise it takes 15 minutes or more to get into the deep state of focus associated with doing a task really well. Meanwhile, their phone makes it easy for them to be distracted, and their attention divided. In management science, this is referred to as the cognitive switching penalty. The answer is to turn your phone off for at least an hour a day, affording yourself time to think. Focus that same time on activities that will help you progress. Your progress will energise you.
Regularly review your small achievements, and your moments of excellence. Our brains boast a curious echo effect, which radiates outwards from point of focus. Translated? If we think about something intensely, we notice elements related to this original thought as the day goes on, without any effort on our behalf. You can use this to your advantage by spending five minutes a day making a list of the things you did the very best, things you enjoyed, and things you accomplished . This will help connect a sense of joy with your state of high performance.
Ask more ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions to reduce paralysis analysis. We live in a complex society, and we are faced with an overwhelming number of choices. But we cannnot take action, until we make an actionable decision, which is as simple as ‘do I do it; or ‘do I not’. Make a practice of asking yourself more yes or no questions to reduce your mental clutter, freeing you up to focus on doing what counts.
Make the right choices easier. Set up your life so that it is easier to make the right choices and harder to make the wrong ones. For example, if you get your gym bag ready the night before, when its time to leave you just have to pick it up. If you buy health food in advance, it will be there when you are hungry. By making the right choices more convenient, the right moves come naturally.
Spend more time with successful, inspiring people you genuinely like. How is this for a thinker? You become the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And success rubs off.
Invest in your inspiration. Prioritise those activities that continually renew your spirit. Book them in so they happen and lifes distractions cannot get in the way. Dont wait. Throw your hat over the fence.
Make the most of yourself so you can make a difference. Your life energy, passion and inner spark are among your most precious resources. They are the key to unlocking successful and satisfying living, and being the kind of person who can uplift the world. Commit to doing what it takes to make the most of yourself.
Your unfulfilled desires contain incredible energy. Its not too late to live your dreams. If you didnt experience something earlier in your life you always wanted to do, its not too late. That dormant desire contains energy you can tap into. Its the pathway to your highest success.