Life can be complex and difficult – the problems and experiences of it are way beyond the scope of this post. Instead, here are eight recommended habits that can actually help you.
These are broken down into their most simple form for ease of reading and ease of starting.
1) Make your bed – Admiral Willaim McRaven
The premise is simple – each morning after you get out of your bed, make it. Simplicity wins out in this situation. As Admiral McRaven states himself, by doing this you start the day with a task completed. The added bonus? You get to come home to a made bed every night.
I only started doing this consistently in my final year of High School, but I definitely came to appreciate it – and the sense of accomplishment it gives at both the start and end of the day.
2) Stand up straight with your shoulders back – Jordan Peterson
Jordan Peterson dedicates an entire chapter to this topic in his best-selling book, 12 Rules for Life. While he goes far more in-depth, explaining the biological reasons and why we are pretty much lobsters, I’ll keep it simple: It gives you confidence.
The majority of communication in day-to-day life is non-verbal. You want to communicate correctly. Standing up straight with your shoulders back will help release serotonin, and gives you an aura of confidence. Not only is it better for your spine – good body language has been linked to success in many careers.
3) Clean your room – Jordan Peterson
Your room is a reflection of you as a person. It reflects your mental state. It reflects your personality. Those should be reasons enough to keep it clean – but if not, do it for hygiene reasons… I mean come on guys.
A benefit of making your bed every morning is that it shows how dirty the rest of your room is. So: Clear your desk. Washing in the wash basket. Put the rubbish in the bin. Tidy your shelves. Clear your bedside tables. Simplicity wins once again.
4) Read Daily (or listen to podcasts)
Your brain is the engine of your body. Fuel it. Read great books. Read great blogs. Listen to great podcasts. Listen to great speeches or TED talks.
Whatever you choose, it’s bound to have a better pay off than Instagram Videos or Netflix Binges. Feed your mind. Fuel your future. And if you want bonus points: take action on what you’re learning.
5) Journal Daily
I started Journalling when I was 13. I still have the leather-bound journal I picked up for $15 at the shops. Inside that book, I can see my struggles, my innermost thoughts, my experiences (Ranging from my first dates to the first time a close friend passed away.)
The Journal provides me with motivation – seeing how far I have come and how much I endured. I will be able to pull passages from it to reflect for the rest of my life. And it’s pretty cool to have a few books filled with your life story on your bookshelf.
Beyond that, it provides me with clarity. I am always doing my best – both emotionally and mentally – when I have been journaling. There is something undervalued about bleeding through ink onto paper.
So start journaling. Get a book or use a website like Penzu or even just the notes on your phone. But whatever you choose – get started.
6) Exercise
Just keep moving. Mental health and physical health are constantly proved to be linked. Pick up a book if you want to (The Four Hour Body is great) or just keep it simple.
Play a sport. Run. Swim. Lift weights. Go for walks. Doesn’t matter. Keep moving – your mind and body will thank you for it.
7) 10 Ideas a day list – James Altucher
This simple practice has kept me creative. It’s provided me with a cache of thousands of ideas (ranging from businesses to start, to books to write, to people to meet, to self-experiments to try) that I can call upon whenever I’m feeling stuck.
Several months ago I wrote in my journal, complaining about a lack of ideas, it was around that time that I decided to double-down on this exercise – doing it twice a day, every day. I now have more ideas than I know what to do with. I now have a time problem, not an idea problem.
The ideas don’t have to be good ones – you can throw the list out when you’re done. But just get in the habit of writing these lists. You’ll surprise yourself.
8) Eat Better
We all know the foods we should eat – and the ones we shouldn’t. I’m not saying go Cold Turkey. If you’re not in control of the food at your house or your put in the position where it’s just easier to eat poorly, it’s quite hard to eat healthily – and you certainly shouldn’t stop eating.
Just keep it in mind when you’re eating. Get a salad instead of fries with your burger. Go for the small coke, not the large. Even better, Drink water over Coke. These changes may seem small but they compound. If you eat better at one meal each week, then within half a year you’ve cleaned up your diet. Consistency over intensity.
Bonus: Habits not to-do
1) Lie.
White lies can be harmless enough – and it’s probably best that you don’t go for radical honesty and just insult everyone you know. It’s the other lies that hurt.
The lies you tell yourself – about why you can’t succeed, about why you should give into temptation – these lies are the most dangerous.
The lies you tell the people you care most about – that you’re fine, that nothings wrong, that what they did is okay – they all create long-term damage at the cost of short-term salvation. Don’t do that. Tell the truth. Don’t let things build up.
2) Cheat.
Don’t cheat on the people you care about. This is in both the literal sense and the non-literal. Don’t tell them you’ll do something – and then don’t. Don’t tell them you’ll keep a secret – and then don’t. Don’t cheat them out of knowing how you feel. Don’t be a cheat.
Don’t cheat yourself. Odds are you know that you could be so much more but the world seems set on telling you that you can’t be. Friends, parents, teachers, everyone that should care – they say they only want what’s best for you. They think they do – but they have themselves to worry about. Don’t cheat yourself – work to fulfill your potential
3) Procrastinate.
We all procrastinate – it’s human nature to want to avoid discomfort. The problem really begins when we put off the things that we have been “meaning to do” or the things that we really should. This procrastination finds many forms: its not starting that business, not writing that book, not confessing your feelings, not pursuing your goals. We regret the things that we don’t do, more than the things that we do.
People will throw themselves into the unimportant, never taking action on the things that they care the most about – never taking care of their health, following their dreams, or spending time with their families. The Ghost of the Person you could have been will be there at your Death Bed – do your best to minimise the difference.
4) Let others rule you.
“It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.
The people who matter don’t mind and the people who mind don’t matter. A common expression but one that should be heeded. Our lives are short and can be made shorter by any cruel twist of fate. Don’t waste your time living someone else’s life.
A simple trick that I always find useful when someone is bothering me – be it a teacher or peer – is to ask myself: Would I hand my life over to this person? In other words, would I let this person control my destiny? The answer will be no. And if that’s the case, why care what they think? Each person has their own failings. Accept that if they’re focusing on yours – they’re trying to escape their own.
Zachariah Lewis 