7 Suggestions for Happy Living

Success comes in two parts. It's all in how you start your day and how you end your nights.

Just like how breakfast is the most important meal of the day, creating a satisfying and fulfilling life starts with your mornings. Most of us wake up and drag our feet to the bathroom. With drowsy eyes, we brush our teeth and groan about some of the painful events we expect throughout the day. Eehh! Wrong! Here's a better way to start:

1. NEVER hit the snooze button!!! Get used to getting out of bed the first time your alarm clock rings. Every time you wake up and try to get five more minutes of sleep, your body actually becomes even more tired than it was previously. Face the facts of your day head on! Be honest with yourself and learn to sleep according to the time you need to wake up. If you need to go comatose for at least 8 hours, go to sleep by 10pm whenever you need to wake up by 6am. Sometimes, how well you shutdown determines how well you start.
2. Oxygen = Happiness. Don't just roll your fat ass out of bed and to the toilet! The moment you get out of bed, do a few warm-up exercises to get the blood flowing throughout your body. You are tired and miserable because your body drastically slowed down the flow of oxygen during sleep. Give yourself a good stretch every morning. At least sit up, get out a good yawn, and stretch your arms out as far as possible. If you're bold enough, go out for a morning jog.
3. Eat some fruit. I'm not telling you to be an idiot and start carving up a watermelon every morning. Just grab an apple or banana. Keep it simple. You can still have your coffee or Red Bull. But unlike the crash and burn of artificial energizers, simple fruits give you quick energy that lasts longer without the heavy burnout.
4. Work on what's most important. Find out what the most important item on your list is and start working on it. Finishing everything in one day doesn't matter. A better way to think about it is "if I were to die today, what is the one thing I would be sure to do?" I doubt that the first thing you'll think about is organizing the pencils on your desk, or getting back your red st-sta-stapler. Be brutally honest and get started with what's truly most important.
   
5. NEVER schedule your breaks! Beware the danger of telling yourself "I'll take a break in 10 minutes." Treat your break times as a reward. Arrange some rest after you finish a set of tasks. Instead of taking a breather every hour, step outside after you've finished adding the new cover sheet to 7 of your TPS reports.

Who you are today depends on what you did yesterday. And rest is just as important as work. I know you love your job, but we all need to unplug ourselves from the matrix. Knowing how to rest will be much appreciated by the next morning's you. Here's some tips on winding down:

1. Keep work at work. No matter how much you might love working, you need to remember that work involves exhausting your energy. Retreat to some of your hobbies to give your work engine some rest. (And no, your hobby can't be work!)
   
2. Reminisce a little. Mentally go over what you did for the day and write down some of your proud accomplishments. The point is to leave footprints of your life. You will never know how far you've come if you forget where you've been. Don't trust gratitude to your faulty memory. Leave a few reminders of what you have accomplished to be grateful for.

Life gets complicated on its own...there's no need for you to intentionally throw another wrench in the system. Keep it honest and simple.