you challenge yourself in any area of your life, you end up growing. If you stick to what you already know and you only do the things you know you’re good at, you stay stagnant.
Choose an area of your life to challenge yourself in – and make sure that you cover each of them. For example, in the area of exercise, challenge yourself to do more than you thought you could with your exercise program.
Maybe instead of doing 30 minutes of walking each day, you shoot for 45 minutes. You’ll gain a sense of accomplishment that will make you feel happy and successful.
Try a new food – something that’s outside of your comfort zone. This broadens your horizons and can help you learn about other cultures. Maybe you find happiness in cooking, so this can bring your family together, too.
Learn something new. People that continually grow in knowledge challenge their brain. This can be a new language, book, or skill. It could be something like taking a dance lesson or visiting a place that moves you, shakes up your life, and gives you a deeper perspective.
Resurrect a failure. Every single person in the world has a failure of some kind in their life. They tried something and it didn’t work. They couldn’t accomplish a goal – couldn’t grasp enough of the knowledge needed to make an idea work.
Look back over something that you tried and really wanted but gave up on. Sometimes the passing of time can add fresh ideas and a better understanding of why the failure happened.
When you look back over your life at something that failed, it could be that you just weren’t prepared for that success. When you challenge yourself to be an ‘overcomer,’ you’ll find a sense of happiness because of the completion of each task.
Finishing something contributes to success. It’s especially rewarding when you go back to something you previously failed at. Remember, it took many tries before the light bulb finally worked!
Make it a Point to Give Every Day Your All
“FEAR has two meanings: Forget Everything And Run; or Face Everything And Rise. The choice is yours.”
– Zig Ziglar
We all have areas of life that we hold back in. Maybe it comes out of fear of looking stupid, or fear of failure. But working hard every single day is the key to success.
In everything that you put your hand to, you have to give it your all. If it’s working around your house, don’t settle for ‘good enough.’ Keep going – and even if you have to start the task all over again, work hard to make it right.
But remember – there is a difference in doing a task right and being a perfectionist. You can give your all with work and in personal relationships, and when you see the difference between doing enough and doing as much as you can, it will shock you at how better things are when you try hard.
Be fully present in everything you do every single day. Refuse to let yourself go through life on autopilot. You can tell if you’re on autopilot if you finish doing something, but you can’t remember parts about doing the task. Your body was there working, but your mind was already off on something else. When you’re fully present, it can give you an appreciation for what you’re doing and for what you have.
Some people call this mindfulness. You leave multi tasking behind and focus on one thing at a time – one conversation, one meal, one project, etc. It helps you maximize your effort and emerge with better results than if you didn’t try as hard.
Stop Working When it’s Time to Stop
Remember that your life is a series of seconds, minutes and hours each day. It’s important to work hard because this contributes to your happiness and success. There’s nothing wrong with being the kind of person who works hard. But if you’re working so many hours and you have such big projects on your shoulders that the line between work and your free time is blurred, it’s time to take a step back.
There’s a reason that taking time off work is important. This helps you recharge your batteries and helps you relax and not lose sight of the big picture of your life. Work is only a portion of your life. There are other aspects to it. When you allow work to take over, it throws everything else out of balance. This is one of the reasons that people start to eat unhealthy meals when they’re working too hard.
They get too tired or too stressed to take the time to prepare a healthy meal. It’s easier to grab whatever is convenient. If they took the time to de-stress, they would be making healthier decisions that would serve their work better.
You’ll be happier if you set work boundaries. People that have a definitive line between their work and off time are far more successful. When you take time off, you can actually improve your work performance. Not doing this will lead to unhappiness, poor health, stress and can negatively affect your intimate relationships. Besides, you need to enjoy the fruits of your labor, and having a predetermined quitting time will enable you to make plans for that!
Protect Your Sleep Time
Striving to find personal satisfaction – especially if you’re trying to build a business – can impact your sleep. You might already know the importance of getting the sleep that your body needs. But what you might not know is that when you skip out on getting enough sleep, you can sabotage yourself. Losing sleep leads to feelings of unhappiness, anxiety and irritability. Plus, when you don’t get the sleep that your body needs, it leads to a loss of productivity. You will begin to slow down physically and cognitively because your body just can’t function at top performance when it doesn’t have the right amount of sleep.
You’ll find articles and advice that will tell you that you must get at least eight hours of sleep every night in order for it to be enough for your body. But the truth is that eight hours can be too much for some people and not enough for others.
One way to tell if you’re getting the right amount of sleep for your body can be determined by how you feel in the mornings. If you wake up and you feel refreshed, that’s a sign that you’re getting enough sleep. Feeling sluggish means that you’re not getting the right amount. Getting enough sleep replaces the energy stores that you drained during the day. If you fail to refill that, then you’re running on a deficit the next day.
Sometimes the unhappiness in our personal lives or the work stress will prevent a good night’s sleep. It’s a vicious circle, because a lack of sleep contributes to the same issues. If you’re not sleeping enough, start by examining your sleep habits. Are you getting to bed early enough? Are you sleeping in a cool room with no distractions? Is your bedding comfortable?
If your sleep hygiene is good, but you’re still tired, you might go see your doctor. He may prescribe melatonin to see if that helps you get (and stay) asleep. Or he might have you participate in a sleep study.
Make sure you get to the root of the issue, because sleep is one health habit that will interfere in every part of your life, making you miserable – and possibly making you take out your frustrations on others.
Make Exercise and Eating Right a Priority
Having a daily habit of exercising can create happiness. When you exercise, your body releases endorphins or the feel good hormones that can lift your mood. When you exercise every day – even if it’s just going for a walk around the block at work or at home – you help improve the way your organs can do their jobs.
You make it easier for them to function. You also create more mental alertness in your brain when you exercise, because you increase the way that your organs can get the oxygen that they need.
Not getting enough oxygen can negatively affect your organs – and that includes your brain. Without the right amount of oxygen, it can impair your ability to think and to work through ideas, to attain goals and to get done what you want to get done each day. But when you exercise, you create a way for your whole body to benefit