No Day Without A Thought

If you have daily emotionally draining conversations, watch frustrating/fear driven news, have people around you who constantly point out how things can go wrong, you might not have such a positive outlook.

You might say that everything has it's right to exist and different opinions challenge your own. That might be right, but you should not lose course of your own compass.

Also, let's say you have stressful days at work on a frequent basis, find your balance, get some energy back, go for a run, read a book, paint, write, do something that gets you back on track.

"You are what you eat." This sentence has a long history (link).
But you are also what you read, what you talk about and mostly, what you think about. If your brain is constantly in fear/worry mode, guess what, you don't have much enjoyment, creativity, curiousity or much positive in your head or coming up with ideas and energy for new stuff.

Recognize that you are not your thoughts, you control your thoughts/operating system. Take care of what you think internally and what external impulses you let happen.

There is plenty of tools/apps/software out there trying to help you navigate the information overload of this modern age.

I kinda have the following setup
- Evernote: mostly for some notetaking and writing + saving articles that I want to come back later (bc their search is just amazing & they can even search through handwritten notes)
- Pocket: kinda neat, solid UI, but never got around to actually reading the articles saved there
- OneTab: during my work day I often open articles that seem like too much bandwith to read through while jumping back to another task in a moment. that sometimes adds up to a lot of tabs and the ram of the laptop struggles, so I just hit the button. Once I hit that button, I basically won't get back to it (600-something by now)
- open tabs are the winners, as I usually go through them on the wknd as my reading list
- emails: since I am not using pocket, I tend to send myself articles via email which I then keep sending myself via Streak. I am now at 40 emails = articles

Today I thought like, fuck this. I feel so bad about myself not reading those articles and keep having tabs open, not only articles but things I need to do. From now on, I will just close every tab I have open to start with a clean mind the following day. And whatever is important, will also be there the next day. Every article I don't read, I will likely read something similar another day. And that's ok. No #fomo.

Having sad that, it is 10pm. On a journey of less consuming and rather making/building/doing things.

Gonna stretch and read a book. (A book I still consider to be mind expanding and not mindless consumption, or is it?)

Anyway, not sure it helped you that much, but writing helps me through my process.

Namaste!

Feel like you take too long for things or that the same things are coming back haunting you, well knowing that you are just putting them off or keep reiterating on them?

Touch things only once and ship.

Perfection is an illusion and doesn't exist.
Give your best and ship it.

I am not advocating bad work. Just that "done is better than perfect".

Knowing what makes you tick and what you value in life and in others is important to know. Here is a quick and simply list you can go through to find out your own core values that you should live by to increase your happiness in life.

1. Think of times you have been most fulfilled, proud, and/or happy
What was happening? How come you felt this way? This are your peak experiences. Think of a couple ones and take your time.

2. Now think of a time when you felt angry, frustrated and/or upset
What was happening, how come you felt this way, which value was being suppressed? Think of a couple ones and take your time.

3. Now you might have a short or long list of value, cut it down to 10

4. Now cut it down to 5

5. Create value statements
- get creative so they actually appeal to you and trigger you emotionally/get you excited
- you can combine values like "health = living a sporty and food diverse life"

6. Reaffirm
- once done, look at your value statement, do you see yourself them, are you proud of the result?
- would you be comfortable telling others?