Sometimes all it takes is paying more attention to the simpler things in life
With everything that we are exposed to today, we can easily lose our center. You start with one focus and before you know it, you could be on a completely different course. Our attention span today, is lower than any other time in history. This is happening to the grand majority, so don’t think you are alone.
The problem is that the human brain is constantly being flooded with new information, new visuals, new processes and procedures, that it becomes overwhelmed. You may not think that the brain is overwhelmed, but it is. The only way you will see and feel the difference for yourself, is if you slow your life down. Creating more little moments of gratitude and less time on a schedule.
With all that being said, every individual must find a way to be able to pull themselves back to their center, their true purpose of being. Life moves with speed, and if you are not aware of this, you fall off course. So, learning how to pull yourself back to the things that actually matter is a crucial skill to develop.
In order to be able to properly identify when you are veering off course, and create the awareness to steer yourself back, you must pay attention to the little things.
It’s the little things in life that often make the biggest difference.
Learn To Pay More Attention To These Little Things Everyday:
Sleep
Sleep is something that can dramatically improve your quality of life if monitored properly. Let’s face it, sometimes life kicks it up a notch and before you know it, a month will fly by like nothing, and you have been sleeping 4 hours a night without ever considering your health. Which, is obviously not good.
It’s only when you slow down, that you realize you haven’t been sleeping much. This can affect your job, your school-work, your relationships, and your goals. Which is why sleep needs to become a priority, if it isn’t already.
Some people prefer going to bed early and waking up early. While some who have the flexibility, prefer to get more done at night and sleep off the morning. If you have the flexibility, do what delivers the best results for you. Experiment. Just pay attention to the total amount of hours that you are sleeping. I have found more success waking up early and getting to bed early. Regardless, getting sufficient sleep plays such an intricate role in our health. No matter what you may hear out there, a lack of sleep is detrimental to your health.
Improvements in sleep, can make you mentally sharper and more productive the following day. When we do not sleep well, we begin to see the signs the following day. Our focus is off, energy levels are suffering, increase in appetite due to hormonal imbalances and moody behavior.
If you are feeling off center in your life, take a quick second and audit your last 10 days of sleep.
Exercise
The everyday stressors that we experience in our day-to-day lives needs to be decompressed on a consistent basis.
Some of these stressors include: work, school, business, chores, relationships, raising families, being stuck in traffic each morning and each evening commuting to work, and the list can go on as you can imagine. And let’s face it, as humans in 2021, we are caught up on more than we ever have been.
A great way to combat the stress that we experience on a daily basis is through exercise. The body needs to move each and every day. The movement that we do naturally, like walking to the bathroom, or getting out of your car to walk into a building, or walking from the living room to the kitchen is simply not enough.
Less people are taking their bodies out for a long walk each day, or going to the gym to lift weights and condition their muscles. Which if you didn’t know, the heart is a muscle, and it can use the beneficial stress of pushing your body to new limits each day just like all other muscles. Nothing extreme, just incorporate an exercise walk daily.
This is one habit you are going to want to incorporate to help you stay centered and focused.
If you are feeling off center in your life, take a quick second to audit the last 10 days of physical activity in your life. Are you incorporating a block of time each day to get out and move?
This one small little habit can snap your whole life right back into where it needs to be. Focused.
Nutrition
As the saying goes: “We are what we eat.”
Nutrition is the foundation on which our health is built upon. It is just as important as sleep, hydration, and daily exercise. It is one of those facets within our lives that we should pay closer attention to in order to protect our quality of life. I am not saying you should avoid all the heavenly food that exist out there, but do find an approach that works for you in order to maintain physical health.
The human body when tuned properly, is one heck of a machine. I am sure you can look back at some point in your life where you have realized that what you posses inside, at heart, is something special. If you want to keep your body and mind functioning at an optimal level, where you can excel through your day, you need to look at how you are fueling your machine. It’s an important reality to succumb to.
Processed foods that have little to no nutritional value are going to taste amazing, but make you feel sluggish throughout your day. Your attention span and mental energy will suffer, and you will find yourself consistently seeking stimulants like caffeine, multiple times throughout the day. Simply because the body is running off of an improper balance of nutrition.
If you have fallen off course, and things are just not moving in the direction that you’d like, all of these tips will help you re-gain your center, but your nutrition will make the biggest impact.
Water Intake
Did you know that the human brain and the human heart are comprised of 73% water? This is only one of the many fascinating statistics that exist out there, that represent just how important our water intake is for our survival and daily functions like breathing and thinking.
If you are anything like me, when water intake declines, I tend to feel the effects throughout my day. My concentration towards my responsibilities is not the same, my mood is not the same, and my hunger shoots up dramatically.
Conversely, when I am focused on my water intake and ensuring myself that I am getting sufficient water, my mood improves, my mental endurance improves, metabolism improves and physical energy improves. These are changes and improvements that you can feel instantly too.
I encourage you to purchase a water bottle that can help you stay accountable for your water intake on a daily basis. After a few days of sufficient hydration, you will see what I am talking about.
Work Ethic
At the end of the day, the hard work you put in is going to be the driver of your results. We cannot achieve anything that we want out of life, if we are not prepared to put in the work that is required.
Your work ethic is the sum of your determination, self-discipline, consistency, and dedication that you give from your soul to get what you want out of life. In order to take an idea, an inception, and turn that into reality, you are going to have to work for it.
Anyone who tells you that hard work is not a necessary step in the process of achieving health, wealth and happiness is flat out lying to you. You will have to put forth an immense amount of work ethic to be able to achieve the things that you want.
If you find yourself lacking a good strong work ethic in your life, do not fear. You can build and cultivate hard work. The fastest way I believe to begin cultivating and developing a strong work ethic, is to begin exercising consistently each and every day.
Doing something uncomfortable each day will help you to build mental toughness, which is necessary to develop a strong work ethic. So, when those opportunities present themselves to you throughout your life, you now know that you have what it takes to seize them.
Always remember that work ethic is one of those little things in life that if you don’t use it, it deteriorates. So get to work, and never stop.
Gratitude
Tony Robins says that the most powerful human emotion is gratitude. The reason he believes this is the most powerful human emotion is because, no matter which state of mind your are in, or how upset, angry, depressed, worried, anxious—gratitude can immediately change your state.
Let’s say you are going through a difficult period in your life, and you find yourself struggling mentally. We all go through this from time to time. If you take a moment to slow your mind down, and you begin to run through a quick list of all the things and people you are grateful for in your life, your brain will shift from a stressful state to a state of positivity and gratitude.
The next time you find yourself in a mental struggle and emotional struggle, try it. Pretty powerful stuff.
Journaling
Journaling is something that I have been practicing for the past few years. It is part of my morning routine and a staple in my weekly habits. I have found journaling to be a great way to pull myself back to what is important in life when I find myself veering off course, or just experiencing a short-term distraction.
I recommend, journaling first thing in the morning. Waking up a bit earlier, and sitting down with a cup of coffee and your journal, is a productive way to start your morning. Journaling can help you map out exactly what you want to achieve for your day, and it also helps you to stay on course over long periods of time.
When you think about going after that big promotion, that college degree, that elusive dream you have in your head; all of these things are going to require years and a consistent focus on the process and end goal. If you are talking about working for something day in, and day out, over the course of years, you need to understand upfront that you will fall out of focus from time to time. It is only natural. At the end of the day, we are human not robots. It’s all about pulling yourself back in and learning how to do that over and over again.
During these moments of disarray, if you are journaling consistently, you should be able to minimize the time off course and bring yourself back to what is important rather quickly. Getting yourself right back on course makes all the difference over time. The only way to pull yourself right back on course, is by paying attention to the little things in life.
Life is all about getting 1% better each day. A habit like journaling, can help you stay on the right path and most of all, keep you centered.
