Here are two posts from blogger and PhD student in Organizational Psychology Benjamin P. Hardy that really inspired me today. The first is about 10 simple behaviors that will bring happiness to your daily life and the second, resulting from the former, suggests 8 ideas for a morning routine. I am adopting at least 3 of them!
The Secret to Happiness Is 10 Specific Behaviors makes the simple statements that today people take for granted many remarkable things going on in life and consider that life, people owe them something (like discovering that your airplane has WiFi and being very upset discovering that it doesn’t work when you didn’t even know it existed 2 minutes ago), and that although we cannot control what happens around us we can control how we react to it and even better, we become proactive in our lives. And this is how (I love it):
- Let Go Of The Need For Specific Outcomes
- Define Your Own Success And Happiness
“Be everything to everybody and you’ll be nothing for yourself.” — John Rushton
- Commit 100 Percent To The Things That Make You Happy
- Be Grateful For What You Already Have
- Say “I Love You” More
- Have Hobbies Directed Toward Your Dreams
“When I decided where I wanted my life to go, my life vision, I consciously chose hobbies that would best get me there. Some of these hobbies include exercise, reading, writing, journaling, having deep and meaningful conversations, and being in nature. These hobbies refresh and rejuvenate me while simultaneously pushing me toward my dreams.”
- Don’t Wait Til Tomorrow For What You Can Do Today
- Do Something Every Day That Terrifies You
“Happy people step out of their comfort zone. You can’t grow if you don’t challenge yourself. And growth is a requirement of happiness. If you’re not growing, you’re slowly decaying and dying.”
- Put “The Important” Before “The Urgent”
“Not only important, but important and non-urgent. The important stuff includes exercise, reading good books, setting goals, writing in your journal, and spending time with those you love. None of these things are urgent. We could easily put these things off until tomorrow — which is ultimately never. The most happy and successful people in the world spend most of their time on the important.”
- Forgo The Good To Pursue The Best
The next post from the same author and called 8 Things Every Person Should Do Before 8 A.M. is the application of these principles in a Morning Routine that grants you that whatever you do for the rest of the day you will have the satisfaction to have accomplished all the important stuff right from the beginning of the day and will have more energy and creativity for the rest of it:
- Get A Healthy 7+ Hours of Sleep
- Prayer and Meditation to Facilitate Clarity and Abundance
- Hard Physical Activity
- Consume 30 Grams of Protein
- Take A Cold Shower
- Listen to/Read Uplifting Content (like Blinkist)
- Review Your Life Vision
“Your goals should be written down — short term and long term. Taking just a few minutes to read your life vision puts your day into perspective. If you read your long term goals every day you will think about them every day. If you think about them every day, and spend your days working toward them, they’ll manifest. Achieving goals is a science. There’s no confusion or ambiguity to it. If you follow a simple pattern, you can accomplish all of your goals, no matter how big they are. A fundamental aspect of that is writing them down and reviewing them every single day.”
- Do At Least One Thing Towards Long-Term Goals
52 Weeks Challenge 