Your stress levels have been rising steadily over the last few months. Your energy levels have sagged like an old mattress and you feel like a whipped dog. You’ve become mentally frayed and have been reaching out to all your favourite vices for backup.
“Coffee, I need you now! Don’t fail me.”
“Ahh…my old friend, Case of Beer. I knew I could count on you.”
“Junk Food, Sugar and Processed Foods: We should hang out…All day.”
You’ve been sleeping more, but waking up feeling exhausted. The alarm clock sounds like an air raid siren. You hear a screaming baby somewhere off in the distance — it’s probably yours.
Your kitchen looks like a war zone and bills have been piling up like a body count. You know that your drill-sergeant of a supervisor at the office eagerly awaits you with his whip.
The day is looking like it’s going to be another long one in the trenches. How much more of this can you possibly take?
Knowing we need to make changes, and not doing anything about it can feel like a huge weight on our backs. When we fall into a period of extreme stress and pain, we sometimes need to make a massive effort to regain our stability.
But how can we make changes in a way that feels like it’s attainable? And in a way that doesn’t add to our stress?
With so many competing stresses, it’s hard to figure out which ones to tackle first. If we try to tackle all of them at the same time, this can end up feeling too overwhelming. We might give up and fall right back into our old habits.
The Solution?
Make several small changes at the same time to create a larger change overall which reduces your stress levels. Making a series of smaller changes is easier to manage than taking on major changes.
For example: Always rushing around in the morning? Wake up 15 minutes earlier to give yourself a bit more time.
Food and drink habits that are costing you money and your health? Make a strategy to minimize or avoid them.
Too many things to do in the evening? Examine which activities you can reduce or cut out. Write this down and commit!
These are all simple, attainable actions that can collectively yield bigger results overall. If the right actions are done simultaneously, your new habits and choices help support each other:
When I minimize alcohol, coffee and sugar, my energy goes up. When my energy goes up, my mood improves. When I feel more stable each day, my relationships improve and I can handle stress better. When I spend less money on my vices, it helps with all those bills.
It’s all cumulative and these small changes are powerful as a unit.
Do a Time Audit
Our lives have gotten overly complicated. It often feels like we’ve got the same amount of administration and paperwork as a small business. Resist this! Find ways to reduce the “management” of your life.
Embrace simplifying your life whenever possible. This will probably entail saying “no” a lot more often and reducing some social obligations.
Do you need to stay at that social event for six hours when you know you really don’t have time that week? How much time are you wasting in unnecessary communication? Email, texting, social media, and phone calls can suck up your time unbelievably fast.
Install time-tracking software like the free RescueTime to see where your time on the computer is being spent. You will be blown away to discover just how much time you spend each week just on YouTube or on email. We get sucked into watching random videos on YouTube and before we know it, an hour has passed. How much of that activity was really necessary? What are you not doing while spending time on the computer? What are you missing out on while aimlessly surfing the net?
Stuff, Gadgets, and Things
We spend time insuring, cleaning, fixing and dealing with our cars, homes, tools, appliances, sports gear, electronic gadgets and a variety of other objects that end up owning us more than we own them.
Get rid of stuff you really don’t use. Reduce your responsibilities!
Are you so busy and overrun by your daily obligations that you don’t even have time to rest for 15 minutes? Is time so tight that every moment of your day, including leisure activities, is planned and scheduled?
Creating simplicity in our lives is a choice. Taking on small, attainable habits is the key. Take your life back. Question your current habits and make adjustments. The more adjustments, the faster the change.
Your Mini-Mission:
Write down 3 actions you can take that will help to improve your health, increase your free time, or save you money. Commit to this for at least 1 week.
