The Daily Habit That Makes You Happier and More Productive
The simple activities are often the most essential to our daily growth.
Do you desire to face every day in your self-development journey with renewed energy and refreshed mind? Then read this till the end.
Depending on who you dream to be, self-development can mean a lot of things to you. From developing skills and getting study degrees to building healthy habits such as eating right and losing weight,
Self-development is about becoming the best version of yourself.
Why do you strive to be better? Because you want to be valued and value yourself. Why do you desire value? Because it gives you a sense of fulfillment. Why do you crave that feeling of fulfillment? Because it gives you a sense of purpose and meaning.
Ultimately, we all aspire to be the best we can be because we want to give our lives meaning and fulfillment. This is vital to our existence and can be the borderline between depression and happiness.
But the process is often so tedious and sometimes frustratingly monotonous that we drop off, yield motivation and eventually relapse.
There is however, a misconception of growth that we maintain.
We repeatedly mistake growth for giant strides when in fact growth takes place with every neuromuscular signal from the brain.
Every time we successfully make it to the end of a day, we have achieved a certain level of growth, however little.
We should never undermine this amount of growth and in fact, be deliberately mindful of every bit of it.
One habit though that ensures that we never backpedal or lose motivation in our pursuit of self-improvement and peak productivity is intentionally having something enjoyable to look forward to.
As long as we can create something to make us dream about the next day at the end of each day, our life’s engines will always be energized.
Be it a friend’s visit, a date, or the publishing of a new medium article, there’s nothing quite like the anticipation of something exciting in the near future. It gives you a strange energy to get things done and fast.
When this habit is incorporated into your self-development plan, you will be powering through every day with renewed strength and motivation.
How do you do it?
Rather than think about what exercises you have to complete to improve yourself, think instead about who you will be after doing them each day.
Don’t just do it for the big picture but with every single exercise you complete, have a mental picture of who you will become in the short term.
For example, if you are learning to develop your vocabulary, rather than think about the next words you will be memorizing, picture how well your speech would’ve improved by the next day. That keeps you excited and energized for tomorrow.
Also,
Having something enjoyable planned for each day, can keep you energized, keep your life filled with purpose and help you sustain productivity every day.
The monotony and tedium of the things we do for growth can be so mentally exhausting that instead of being motivated, we dread waking up the next day. But this only happens when you focus solely on that development journey and ignore every other aspect of your life.
It doesn’t have to be so huge but having something you enjoy planned for each day or a couple of days in the week can bring you joy and keep you refreshed for the journey to being your best self.
Don’t make your life only about the online classes or the healthy habits, internalize what you do for growth and just fix it into your life.
Notice so far, I haven’t said set goals or take on a new challenge. This is because we are often prone to making our entire life only about these things that we end up fatigued and less motivated.
Of course, you’ll set goals and challenge yourself but when you make these things what you only focus on, you’ll undermine the little things that make a huge difference.
Finally, for you to harness the power of excitedly anticipating the next day,
You need to understand that growth is long term and your peak may be years away.
When we head out to make our lives better and develop ourselves, we often do it with this spurt of energy and the mindset that if we do more, we can achieve more in a short time. This is one of the biggest killers of motivation and consistency.
Growth is not about INTENSITY but CONSISTENCY.
Desiring to peak in the short run is not a proper growth mindset because growth happens over long periods of little changes and it continues. You can’t use the mindset of Let’s get it over with to ensure lasting changes.
When you make peace with the fact that growth takes time, you’ll learn to relish every small change and anticipate what the next day holds.
In conclusion
I must not fail to mention the importance of good sleep in all of this. Productivity, growth and happiness start with good sleep. So, learn to catch your breath and have a good sleep before you have mental and physical exhaustion knocking on your door.
True freedom is a sweet form of slavery and on the road to being our best selves, we must practice how to enjoy and make the most of the responsibilities we take on to reach our goal. One way of doing that is making sure there is something that makes us happy in front of us every day. That way we will experience a deep natural motivation to live out the new day and continue to grow.
So, start being mindful of each day while you set up something enjoyable for the next. Start now.
