Upgrade your morning routine to get an even better start to your day

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Upgrade your morning routine to get an even better start to your day. What small or significant adjustments will you make?

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Khadeeja Yasser

What do you include in your morning routine? How often do you need an alarm to wake you? How often do you push the snooze button for a few extra minutes?

What time do your go to bed? What bedtime rituals occur before your head hits the pillow?

When was the last time you experienced jet lag?

When have your circadian rhythms been knocked out of whack by changing time zones, daylight savings time, or even staying up extra late to watch a movie or go out on the town? When we do, there almost always seems to be a cost we pay the next day in our ability to focus and be productive.

EXERCISE:

Consider reexamining your bedtime and morning routines. What tweaks or tectonic adjustments can and will you make to get a better start on your days?

Friday Review: Energy

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Friday Review: Energy

What energizes you? How energetic do you feel most days? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.

“Energy is contagious: either you affect people or you infect people.”

 

 

 

“A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.”

 

 

 

“The best cure for a sluggish mind is to disturb its routine.”

 

 

 

 

The chief prevention against getting old is to remain astonished

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“The chief prevention against getting old is to remain astonished.”

—Kevin Kelly, founding executive editor of Wired magazine

Image from Unsplash by Esther Ann

Regardless of your age, how do you stay young at heart?

The other day I was feeling my age and didn’t like it very much.

I’m reading Arthur Brooks new book From Strength to Strength, and I’ve reached the chapters where he describes the overwhelming evidence of how we decline from our peak capabilities far sooner than we care to admit.

Putting our heads down and striving even harder is usually not the answer and often compounds our frustrations.

There is considerable evidence that life satisfaction for many people tends to increase once they shift their attention from personal success to a life of significance where they pour their skills and wisdom into others.

Doing this type of work as a coach for many years keeps my moments of astonishment coming and, on most days, puts pep in my steps.

EXERCISE:

What are the activities that astonish you with excitement and wonder?

How and where can you engage in more of these to remain forever young?

About 99% of the time, the right time is right now

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“About 99% of the time, the right time is right now.”

—Kevin Kelly, founding executive editor of Wired magazine

Image from Unsplash by Randy Tarampi

What are you waiting for?

How often do you ask yourself this question?

How clear are you about what stops you from taking action in each moment of hesitation and procrastination?

How and in what ways is NOW the right time for the important (not just the urgent) matters in your life?

What are the risks and the rewards of seizing this moment to act with greater courage and boldness?

If you knew you had a 99% chance of success each time you initiated an important task, what new resolve would you find?

EXERCISE:

What can and will you do right now that will move your life in the direction you desire?

How can you support and coach others in your communities to also step more courageously into the NOWs of their lives?

“When your rage is choking you, it is best to say nothing.”

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“When your rage is choking you, it is best to say nothing.”

—Octavia E. Butler, late American science fiction author

Image from Unsplash by Brett Jordan

How familiar are you with the Heimlich maneuver? You’ve probably seen it performed on TV in both dramatic and comedic situations. Did you know that you can even perform a variation of this procedure on yourself?

Dislodging an item of food to reopen an airway to breath is serious stuff. Sometimes, however, we find ourselves choking with strong emotions that, if released, can make a situation far worse.

EXERCISE:

Where have you or others in your life opened mouths and inserted feet or caused other difficulties?

Where and when is it best to say nothing when choked with rage or other strong emotions?

The universe is infinite in all directions

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The universe is infinite in all directions. Taking this cosmic approach with lightness and humor makes the trip far more wonderful.

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Jose Filipe

More and more people are flying these days to visit family, meet with customers, and finally to engage in adventures and travels that needed to be rescheduled on numerous occasions.

How many flights do you take in a typical year? How many frequent flier miles have you logged in your lifetime? What status level have your reached with your favorite airline?

Let’s compare this number to the distance to our moon, the nearest planet, the locations of Voyager 1 and 2, or even our nearest star.

When we make comparisons to these objects and the infinite nature of our universe with billions of galaxies, we have far to go. Luckily our minds have the ability to travel the 93 billion light years to span our known universe in the blink of an eye.

EXERCISE:

How and where would taking a more cosmic approach to your life bring you more peace and joy?

How can you travel with more lightness and humor in the days ahead to make your trip more wonderful?

Friday Review: Resourcefulness

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Friday Review: Resourcefulness

How resourceful are you? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.

“Life is not about how fast you run or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.”

 

 

 

“I not only use the brains I have, I use all the brains I can borrow.”

 

 

 

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”

 

 

 

 

Don’t ever work for someone you don’t want to become

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“Don’t ever work for someone you don’t want to become.”

Kevin Kelly, Founding Executive Editor of Wired Magazine

Image from Unsplash by Christina Victoria Craft

How have you been influenced by the great resignation? What is it that makes large numbers of people leave their jobs to pursue other ventures, given the need many of us have for safety and security?

More and more people these days are insisting on thriving, not just surviving. Life is short and we only have one. Experiencing current regrets and projecting them into the future is not acceptable. Observing those around us in distress — and perhaps feeling our own — has many people throw more caution to the wind to chart a new and better course.

EXERCISE:

How good a fit is your current job? To what degree do you admire and respect the leadership within your organization? How proud would you be to see yourself in their shoes down the road? If the shoe doesn’t fit, what then?

For those who expect everything, there are many curses

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“For those who expect everything, there are many curses. For those who appreciate everything, there are many blessings.”

—James Clear, Writer, Entrepreneur and Behavior Science Expert

Image from Unsplash by Yasin Yusuf

As we get older and hopefully wiser, many people come to learn that the myth of “having it all” is a lie. At some or many points in their lives, they learn that life forces us to choose and make many difficult tradeoffs.

If I say Yes to this it often means saying No to that. If I grasp this, I will likely need to let go of something else.

EXERCISE:

What have you discovered over the years regarding expecting everything versus appreciating everything? In what ways have your blessings outnumbered your curses with this added wisdom?

Spend as much time crafting the subject line of an e-mail as the message itself

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“Spend as much time crafting the subject line of an e-mail as the message itself because the subject line is often the only thing people read.”

—Kevin Kelly, Founding Executive Editor of Wired Magazine

Image from Unsplash by Brett Jordan

If you are a blogger or happen to read some good ones, you know that the subject line of each message is critical. Our time is precious and we sure don’t want to waste it on useless ramblings and nonsense.

A metric many bloggers consider important is the open rate of each post. This metric helps let them know if their readers are finding their efforts of interest and value. Wit and cleverness are often used to hook readers at least temporarily to read further to hopefully grasp their messages and nuggets of wisdom.

From the people I know, like, and trust, just the subject line “Message from (their name)” is enough for me to read further, knowing that my previous interactions with them have earned my attention and interest.

EXERCISE:

Where and with whom would your name alone be key words in the subject line of an email to guarantee the open rate you desire?