Rituals that would help me: Set a bedtime, make lunches the night before when kitchen is cleaned up, Work out (Sun Salutations) as soon as I wake up. Decide the night before the most important activity for the next day, Decide what breaks are appropriate for after the most important activity, when my knee jerk response is triggered, automatically ask the question “What is the story I am telling myself and how can I tell myself a more hopeful and empowering story with the same set of facts?” Notes below are taken from: http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2011/05/the-only-way-to-get-important.html Questions we all ask - How can I get more time to do the things I like and need to do to be successful? When do I think reflectively and strategically? Everyone feels pulled in multiple directions, needs to work longer hours and get more done with less. THere is a small subset of people who are getting the important things done and still managing to have a life. These people are good at making things that need to get done automatic which requires less energy. Everyday we have a set amount of will and discipline that gets progressively smaller by any conscious act of self-regulation. One approach to the problem is to decide which behavior you want to change and design a ritual you will undertake. Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can poerform without thinking about them. Five daily rituals that make a difference to the author:
- Abide by a specific bedtime to ensure you get 8 hours of sleep. Sleep is critical to the way one feels everyday.
- Work out as soon as he wakes up.
- Decide the night before the most important activity for the next day and work on it for 90 minutes and then take a break. Breaks can be breathe for five minutes or an hour working out.
- Make note of ideas and tasks that occur during the course of the day. Once it’s on paper one wont worry about forgetting it.
- When one gets triggered or has the knee-jerk response to someone or something - ask the following question, “What’s the story I’m telling myself here and how could I tell a more hopeful and empowering story with the same set of facts?”
More from James Altucher: B) Build a practice. I’ve written plenty of times about the practice that works for me. Build a practice or follow the one that I’ve suggested. A practice needs four legs: Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual. Ultimately the path to your own personal realization is inside of you. Everyone’s path is different. The religions of the world can be a guide or a map if you want them to be. But you have to build your own practice. And its called “practice” for a reason. The remaining 23 hours a day is when you put the practice to work. You put it to work via… C) Surrender. Build your practice, then surrender to it. Know that if you follow the practice then the leaks will get plugged. Only good things will happen. There’s a kind of meditation where you bow down 200 times in a row. Bow down in your mind to your own practice. If a leak pops up, if a worry pokes and prods, then pull yourself back into your practice and bow down again. Surrender completely in every way. Don’t waiver and you’ll find yourself flying from crest to crest. When you surrender, you give up everything, and you become a superhero.
