Blue light at night

We humans are programmed, like a lot of animals, to be up in the day and sleep at night. When the sun is high the sky is blue. When we see blue light our brains manufacture cortisol to keep us awake.  When it’s dark, our pineal gland in our brain makes melatonin to make us sleepy.

What color light comes from laptop screens, smart phones and tablets? Blue.

Get a better night’s sleep and keep those things off when you get into bed.  

Better sleep, better day after.

Habits for a life you may not want

Do you have goals to grow into?  Do you have habits you formed a long time ago?  For most people it’s yes and yes.

Consider your habits may have been formed for a life you no longer have or want.  First we shape our habits and then they shape us.

What habits do you have that are incompatible with the future you that you are trying to be?

Is it time to replace them with the habits of the person you want to be?

Start out as a phony

Knowing what you want is the first step. Then act like you already have it or are it. 

Of course, you don’t and you ain’t; you’re a phony.

But if you fake it and work your way into being real, that’s how you change and be what you want.

Who do you need to start acting like?

Sleep deprived?

An estimated 80 million American adults are chronically sleep deprived, sleeping less than the recommended seven hours of sleep a night.  

Not getting enough sleep affects our alertness and performance.  You know this.

Do you get enough sleep?

Energy – Have it… or create it?

When you wake up in the morning and “don’t feel like it today”, and have trouble summoning energy, maybe it’s not that you “have no energy”; it’s more like you aren’t generating any.

Besides diet and exercise and sleep, we generate energy when we are really, personally, looking forward to what we are about to do. So, can we do things that we look forward to every day? Can we schedule in time for things we love? Can we do our jobs in a way that is unique and novel and experimental? 

Can we run our life in a way that we look forward to each day?

I think we can. What do you think?

The best version of you

We were born with inherent talents and ambitions. If we ignore them, and try to be someone we aren’t, we will likely find ourselves unhappy.

Mix virtue and best effort with who you already are. I think that’s the recipe for happiness.

What do you think?

Comment with the orange button!

We like consistent forward motion

If we made no money for nine years and then made a million dollars in a year, we would be less happy than if we made $100,000 a year.  If we had nine dull days in a row and then one fantastic one, we’d be less happy than if we had small daily rewards and satisfactions.  

Most people know this and develop daily vices and habits that provide satisfaction in the short term, but not necessarily in the long term.  People who delay gratification in favor of “paying the price” for long-term goals (hopefully that’s you) can be a lot happier if they break down rewards (the fun, the celebration, and soul-satisfying recognition of progress) into small chunks fit for daily consumption. 

Enjoy the journey.

FOMO

Addicted to your smartphone?  You may be suffering from FOMO – Fear of Missing Out. Who said what on Facebook? Returning texts and emails within minutes? Notifications? Meat for marketers?….many of us have lost control of our consciousness and attention.  

You may be able to get by this way in a world where everyone is cycling between floating slivers of distracted attention, but you will never realize your full potential this way.

Do you need to get control of your relationship with technology?

Someone wants to change you…

Lots of people want to “change the world.” Often that means they want to change you. There are lots of them and they have different ideas. Will you comply?

Of course, you’re going to say no. Your life is your own, and you’re not going to bend to the will of anyone else if you don’t want to. Fair enough. But we must understand that is what other people are thinking when we want to change them. They aren’t going to let you do that.

The only people we can really change is ourselves. Control that controllable, because when we change, our world changes.

How are you doing on you?

Ready to hear it.

Sometimes we hear good advice or the answer, but we just aren’t ready to hear it.  We don’t recognize the value or dismiss it because our head is just in a different place right now.

Maybe it’s not something new we need; we just need to listen to what we have heard before.

Are you ready?