What are 5 habits that can improve my life?

What are 5 habits that can improve my life?

#1- Five plus five

Every day spend 10 minutes (5 minutes after you wake up and 5 before sleep) attending to your mindset.

Depending on your circumstances, it could mean congratulating yourself, appreciating yourself, giving yourself hope or confidence or maybe just convincing yourself to keep going. Or saying a little prayer. The idea is to start and end your day with a good and healthy mindset.

In the mornings, you can also use this time to quickly go through your plan for the day and how it helps you with your life goals. At night, your focus should be on making yourself feel calm and peaceful and preparing yourself for a good sleep.

#2- Walk for 30 minutes

Do you want to burn calories? Do you want to live a longer and healthier life? How about better immunity and improvements in both your mood and the quality of your sleep? Well, if you want all this and more, for free, I have a simple suggestion.

Walk for 30 minutes daily.

#3- Diaphragmatic breathing

A few months ago I was surprised to learn that around 90% of us do not breathe correctly. And that it has adverse effects on our bodies and minds.

But while it's important to correct your breathing, you can reap great benefits by practising something called diaphragmatic breathing for as little as 15 minutes a day. It helps reduce your stress levels, lowers the harmful effects of the stress hormone and lowers your heart rate and blood pressure.

In short, it's a great way to boost your mental and physical health.

#4- Clarity of thought

Great enemies that prevent you from having a calm and peaceful mind are confusion and conflicts in thoughts. On the other hand, a clear head enables you to find goals that are right for you and to live a life that is aligned with those goals.

So, it's important that you work on becoming more aware of your thoughts - especially your desires and fears. One activity that can be of great help is journaling (writing down your thoughts and observations). But if that's too much for you, you can try sitting alone for a while and reflecting on your thoughts. Ask yourself questions like -

What are the emotions that you feel overwhelmed by?

What are the ideas that motivate you?

What are your concerns and fears?

The next step would be to resolve any inconsistencies or conflicts in your thoughts. Let me give you an example.

Some of the people I know feel a desperate need to quit their 9–5 jobs. At the same time, they are not at all willing to give up the security their fixed monthly salaries bring. Now, they can't have both. So, they must make a choice and find a way to be at peace with it.

One thing they could do is work on the side hustle and wait until it grows enough to replace their full time jobs. But then they don't want to work hard and so we have another problem. Another conflict. And more distress.

#5- Work from a calender

You don't need to be a CEO to use a calendar? If you have anything important to do (and that you won't do immediately), put it on your calendar. And when it's time to do it, don't let yourself think too much about the task of completing it. Just get started and stick with it for at least 10–15 minutes.

Very often you will realise that the task is not as unpleasant or difficult as it might have appeared. And the simple fact that you are working on it (instead of succumbing to procrastination) will give you the encouragement and motivation to keep going.

The simple habit can save you from a lot of unnecessary worry and guilt and reward you with great productivity.

#6 (Bonus)- 15–30 minutes a day on improving your knowledge and skill set

Like it or not, we live in a fast-moving world that is changing rapidly. If you want to stay relevant and have a good earning potential in the future, you need to grow and reinvent yourself constantly.

The good thing is it's not as difficult as it's made to appear. Just devote 15-30 minutes a day or 2-3 hours a week on improving your knowledge base and skill set. But remember, watching random videos or reading random books/articles doesn't count.