Many consumers just live into the day like that. They hardly save. They prefer to spend everything. They have no real challenges. You spend more and more time in front of your PC, smartphone or TV. Health and satisfaction are on the decline. Some people are lonely.
I find lessons from Mahatma Gandhi’s life that important things are lost from sight. We should take care of essentials. About the family/friends, hobbies/fun, finances, education/learning, job/career, the spiritual/meditation/religion, health/nutrition/sport/romance…
On every field we should try to improve. The new year is just around the corner. This is the best time to take a closer look at these fields. Where do you have gaps?
Nobody is perfect. That is clear. We all have weaknesses. The art is to work on the weaknesses. Nobody has to improve extremely. Even small steps can have a significant impact. We become more satisfied. We can sleep better. We become more optimistic. We don’t complain about everything every day.
With a new activity you can kill two birds with one stone. I mean, they cover several categories at the same time. I’ll give you an example: If, for example, you start playing sports with friends from now on – they meet for hiking, jogging or cycling. Then do something for family/friends, hobbies/fun, health… That’s not even expensive. In principle it costs nothing. Nevertheless you have a considerable positive effect.
It is not a question of buying a mountain bike or racing bike for 10,000 euros to be able to ride right at the front. It is about other aspects than status symbols.
To have a goal. To work on it. It’s something beautiful. It leads to gratitude. Even if you only make mini-steps forward. What does it do? You see light at the end of the tunnel. It makes you happy.
If you don’t write down a goal, it doesn’t exist. How you make decisions, you should think through everything clearly. Better not make decisions based on fear and worry. This way there is a danger that the problems will get worse.
Pay attention to your environment. Try to let yourself be influenced positively. My environment has a bad influence. The nice neighbour moved. She bought herself a huge apartment – renovated everything. Now she is sitting on a mountain of debt. She doesn’t make a satisfied impression. She recently said that her craftsman bills are significantly higher and she is worried about her finances. Her increased mortgage payments are a big burden. A neighbour bought a holiday home. Friends came by in a new Mercedes. A neighbour always grills the most expensive meat he can find in the supermarket. What I would like to say is that my neighbours have a rather bad influence. But I look ahead confidently.
Live in a clean environment
What sounds absolutely natural to many is not necessarily everyday life for others.
Investigations have shown: A clean, tidy environment is positively related to self-discipline.
So get your pad in order and gain more discipline.
Reward yourself
Rewarding oneself gives a whole new meaning to the use of discipline.
If we only use discipline to withhold something from ourselves, it leads to a lot of stress in the long run.
But if we use it to get a reward afterwards, the world suddenly looks very different.
“Then even the most boring tasks can become enjoyable.”
As we can see from the example of PC games, such a system works very well.
In most games, the emphasis is on reward, not punishment.
If you’ve lost a round you don’t think you’ve failed – you think you haven’t been successful yet.
That’s the feeling we can create when we keep rewarding ourselves for our achievements.
Everyone has to see for himself what he is rewarding himself with. The reward must have a high value for you.
Take a swing
If you’ve been meditating regularly for 17 days, the 18th day won’t be difficult either.
However, if you have meditated for 3 days, then take a 5-day break and then want to start again – that can be cheerful.
Many people think that things always remain as exhausting as they were in the beginning.
When we start with a new thing, we need discipline. That can sometimes feel a little overburdening.
But the big mistake is yet to come: we now believe that it will be so exhausting every day.
Unconsciously we conclude from this a very unfavourable cost-benefit calculation.
But the truth is: The longer we do something, the easier it is for us.
I just talked to my roommate in the kitchen. He told me that he takes a cold shower every morning since he was eleven years old.
He feels really strange when he doesn’t.
If I were to start taking a cold shower every morning now, it would be a great feat of strength at the beginning.
But if I stayed with it for a while, it would always be easier for me too.
So, if you can’t bring yourself to do without sweets, let me tell you: it will soon be much easier for you.
If it feels much too exhausting for you to go to the sport, then call into your memory that you will soon feel formally attracted to it.