5 Tips for Keeping Self-Sabotage at Bay

We want to be productive. In fact, you might even wake up in the morning with all kinds of enthusiasm for the projects you’re going to get done during the day. 

 

Now fast forward a few hours, and suddenly you’re dragging yourself home at nightfall wondering where the day went, feeling like you never accomplished anything at all.

 

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Most people feel this way at least sometimes. The trick is to realize that this isn’t something entirely outside of your control. Sure, things are going to happen, which derail you, but more often than not, you’re reaping the fruits of self-sabotage. You’ve derailed yourself, through your own negative self-talk.

 

How to get past this? Simple! Start with these easy tips:

 

Listen to Music

 

It’s hard to get yourself going if your mood is what’s dragging. Thankfully this is a quick fix. Put on some music you love, something fast-paced and catchy for a quick pick-me-up and watch your productivity soar.

 

Get up and Move

 

Like listening to music, putting your body in motion will build your energy levels (so long as you’re not trying to run a marathon). Dance around the room, take a brisk walk or try a few jumping jacks to get the blood flowing. Then tackle your task again, wide-awake and energized.

 

Look Inward 

 

Conversely, sometimes what you need is some quiet time. If you find your mind racing and yourself unable to concentrate on what you’re going, try meditation to slow things down. Find a quiet place, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing. Take deep breaths, nice and slow, and focus yourself on the present until you feel calm again.

 

Reassess What’s Important

 

It might be you’re not getting things done because you no longer find the value in your goal. If this seems to be the case, take some time to ask yourself some very crucial questions about why you’re on this journey. It might be you either need to shift your goal to something else entirely or, at the very least, adjust the outcome to serve your present needs.

 

Contribute

 

When all else fails, if you do not feel your work has value, offer to help someone else. Mentoring is one of those win-win situations where you bring your life skills and experience to help someone else who truly needs it. At the same time, you rediscover your passion through the act of teaching others what you know.

 

Do all this, and it’s good-bye self-sabotage, hello accomplishment. Soon you’ll be more productive than ever! 

 

7 Things You Can Do Right Now To Get Organized in Your Life

You've been wanting to get organized for a long time. It seems a little daunting though, doesn't it? It doesn't have to be. In fact, you can get started right this minute. Try any one of these quick tips to help yourself get started on the road to organization right now. The best part? None of these are hard to do. 

 

Decide for Control

 

No matter what, the first step to organization is to decide you are in control. We tend to get disorganized when we feel we are at the mercy of our stuff, our situation, and our lives. This is why it's so important to consciously take control of our lives. 

 

Create a To Do List

 

No matter what, you're not going to get anywhere without some level of organization to start with. This means sitting down and making a list of the areas of your life in which you're trying to get organized. This first list will be very valuable in helping you to stay on task. It will also help you to make sure you're not missing something important.

 

Write Things Down

 

As you go about getting organized, thoughts will occur to you about what you're doing. Keep something handy so you can write down these thoughts as they occur. This way you won't forget some brilliant system to organize your closet and will remember to pick up more garbage bags when you go to the store.

 

Sort Your Stuff

 

Clutter needs to fall into categories. When doing the physical act of organizing it's best to sort things into three piles: stuff to keep, stuff to toss, and stuff to give away. Here's where you want to get brutal. Your best rule of thumb? Get rid of things which do not give you joy or which you have not used in a very long time. Pro tip? Don’t tear apart an entire room at once. Start small with a drawer or closet only.

 

Find Places for Things

 

Once you know what you want to keep, you need to determine a place for it. Clutter happens when we don't have proper storage for what we do have. If you do not have a space for an item, it is time to look for alternate storage solutions, or even reconsider whether you truly want to keep it.  

 

Use a Calendar

 

Nothing gets you organized like a calendar. Schedule absolutely everything. Also, use the function on your phone to give yourself reminders of upcoming appointments and deadlines. This will help you to organize your time your time.

 

Overprepare

 

Sometimes it's good to stock up on a few extra items, especially things you run out of frequently. This keeps you from needing to make frequent emergency runs to the store. 

5 Advanced Biohacking Techniques

Now that you have mastered the basic steps in biohacking it’s time to amp it up. There are truly endless possibilities when it comes to biohacking. This is because biohacking involves making daily changes that improve your wellbeing by doing whatever needs to be done to get to reach your ideal health and performance goals. The following five biohacking techniques to advance your journey will help get you on track.

 

Get a Blood Test 

 

Getting blood tests is essential to biohacking. It is the best way to know what is truly going on in your body before your body even has a chance to inform you that there is something wrong. Blood tests help identify the areas you need to improve from getting enough vitamins to managing your cholesterol to improving overall organ function. Each year you should test your blood sugar levels, cholesterol, vitamin levels and get a complete blood count. Notice any areas that are not in the optimal range then improve them by changing your diet and by adding supplements when needed. 

 

Advance Your Nutrition 

 

Advance your nutrition by starting the elimination process. Do not make the mistake of eliminating everything from your diet all at once though. Start with one area and work your way through each day or each week. This way you are sure to accomplish your goals. Plus, it makes it easier in the long run to make slower changes. A good place to start is by eliminating sugary drinks. Once you are feeling really encouraged drop sugar all together. Eventually, you will want to eliminate sugar, processed foods, and unhealthy fats. You can do this by replacing them with healthy fats, two servings of fruit, grass-fed, antibiotic free proteins and vast quantities of vegetables. 

 

Get Outside

 

Getting outside and embracing Mother Nature is a great way to improve your mood, health, and overall well-being. This is because it forces you to get moving and soak up vitamin D from the sun. Vitamin D is essential for optimal bone growth. Vitamin D deficiency is linked to breast cancer, obesity, depression, andcardiovascular disease. Studies have shown that vitamin D deficiencies are becoming very common due to people being indoors more. The best way to get Vitamin D is from the sun. Start by getting at least fifteen minutes of sun a day. Use this time to go for a walk and avoid sitting down. According to a study by Harvard Medical School, being too sedentary is linked to early death. May as well get moving while you’re soaking up those rays.

 

Meditate 

 

Free your mind of stress by starting your day off with meditation. Find a quiet place to sit and close your eyes. The way you choose to meditate is up to you. You can let your thoughts run free or focus on your breathing. The goal of meditation is to find your inner calm and silence your mind from everyday stress and concerns so that you can go about your day in a positive frame of mind. Start with five minutes a day and see how it improves your daily life. Find a balance that you feel is optimal. Meditation hacks your brain and can lead to increased productivity, reduced stress, and even help curb unwanted cravings. 

 

Boost Your Exercise Routine

 

Now that you have tracked your daily exercise it's time to boost it up a bit.  Find areas that you feel that you are slacking in and implement new exercises to improve those areas. The best way to biohack your exercise routine is to do high-intensity interval training or HIIT. HIIT improves muscle tone and helps improve brain function at the same time. 

 

HIIT is simply alternating bursts of vigorous exercise with a short active rest period. For example, a high-intensity interval training routine could be one minute of sprinting with thirty seconds of walking or one minute of jumping jacks with a thirty-second walk to rest. 

Keep these techniques in mind throughout your journey. These advanced biohacking techniques will lead you to overall greater health with a better attitude and more productivity in your life. 

 

4 Simple Ways to Get Started With Biohacking

Do you have a desire to improve your overall health? Mind, body, and soul? Then biohacking is exactly what you need. Biohacking is making and experimenting with different changes to reach optimal health. The goal with biohacking is to have the increased energy while improving your productivity so that you can be your best self. 

Although it may sound complicated, it’s quite easy to get started. Here are four simple ways to get started with biohacking.

 

Identify Areas That Need Improvement

 

The very first thing you need to is to identify the areas you feel you need to improve. Do you feel like you get enough sleep every day? Do you need to lose a few pounds? Or maybe you just need better time management skills at work or with your social life. Whatever it may be, take a mental note or write it down. This way you know where to start and it won’t seem so overwhelming. The great thing about biohacking is that it is all about your individual path to overall wellbeing; no one else’s. 

 

Track Your Sleep

 

Just like most people in the world, more than likely you are not getting enough sleep. Sleep is one of the most important things for optimal health. Poor sleep can wreak havoc on your immune system and cause unneeded stress and anxiety. Not getting enough sleep can also lead to making poor decisions when it comes to diet and exercise. Lack of sleep is also linked to mental fog and underperformance. Studies show that lack of sleep increases your chances of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and depression. 

 

Track your sleep each night and make sure you get at least eight hours every night. Just remember, if you still don’t feel like you are getting enough with eight hours you can increase it until it works for you. Always keep track so you know exactly how much sleep you are getting each night so that you are aware if you need to improve or not. A great way to stay on track is to use a Fitbit.

 

Track Your Diet

 

Chances are high that there are areas that you need to improve when it comes to your diet. Before you do anything major, write down in a journal or download an app on your phone, like MyFitnessPal, to track your diet each day. Do this for about a week so you know exactly what areas you need to attack first. While you track your diet take notice of any negative reactions experienced from the foods you are eating. Maybe you have sensitivities to foods you are not aware of. Take note so you can rid these foods from your diet first. 

 

Ultimately, you will need to eliminate from your diet sugars, processed foods, and any foods that are causing sensitivities. A diet high in veggies, healthy fats, and quality protein is your best choice. Dave Asprey, the founder of bulletproof coffee, raves about biohacking and created a great diet plan to follow called the Bulletproof Diet. 

 

Track Your Exercise

 

Take notice of how much exercise you are currently getting each week. Invest in a Fitbit or tracker so you can track your steps and the overall number of calories you are burning each week. You maybe be surprised that you don’t get enough exercise each day. Exercise is known to increase energy, promote better sleep, increases your confidence and self-esteem. Exercise also contributes to weight control and prolongs your lifespan. Once you have a general idea of what your daily activity is going to be, find areas that you feel will be easy to improve first such as getting 15,000 steps in each day.

 

Take these four simple steps and to get started with biohacking and improving your quality of life. As you can see, the term may sound overwhelming, but biohacking is actually very simple when you break it down and start slow. Track your sleep, diet, and exercise and use that information to improve your quality of life and your journey to overall wellbeing. 

 

5 Benefits of Biohacking

Biohacking is an individualized system of techniques that gives you the feeling of full control over your own biology. It’s noticing areas you feel you need to improve and implementing hacks to improve it. The benefits of biohacking, due to its personalization, are truly endless but, here are the top five benefits that you are sure to experience. 

 

A Better Understanding of One’s Self 

 

By far the best benefit of biohacking is learning who you truly are. With meditation and experimenting different things each day, you learn exactly what your body and soul need to be happy and healthy. During the journey of biohacking, you may identify new characteristics about yourself or identify new areas of interest you may have never discovered before.

 

You will learn that you are powerful and strong and that you can do almost anything by doing the work. You will understand what works and doesn’t work which will prevent you from experiencing most frustrations. Once you understand your true self, getting to your goals will be streamlined and easy. 

 

Improved Mood

 

Biohacking improves your mood in several different ways. Through hacking your mind, diet, and soul you’ll discover the causes and fix them. Chemical imbalances, as well as poor diet and exercise, are the main culprits of poor mental health. Improving your mood can truly open the gate to a better life.  

 

More Focus and Boosted Productivity 

 

Implementing hacks into your diet and exercise will increase your energy levels which in turn increases your productivity. It will lift the mental fog and keep you focused. Drinking bulletproof coffee each morning, drinking plenty of water each day, and getting a full night rest each night are just a few ideas that help in these areas.

 

Reduced Stress and Anxiety 

 

Dopamine and serotonin are hormones that are responsible for the “feel good” feeling. These hormones, in turn, reduce stress levels. Biohacking techniques such as meditation and eliminating sugars and processed foods from your diet will help increase these hormones. A very common goal of most biohackers is finding things that increase these hormone levels whether it be medication, diet, exercise or meditation and then doing them every day.

 

Optimal Health 

 

Optimal health is when your physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual health is balanced. Getting to a balance is all up to you and dependent upon where you feel you need improvement. Biohacking is all about getting to that balance and finding those areas to improve. Just remember that optimal health is a never-ending journey. It always needs to be worked on to get to where you want to be.  

 

Overall, there is really no reason you shouldn’t use biohacking. Everything you do with biohacking is meant to improve your quality of life in every single way. To hack your system into better cognitive functionality, greater strength, and wellbeing, and to improve your mind and soul can all be accomplished with biohacking. If you do it properly there really are no side effects. The journey to overall wellbeing is all your own. 

 

Biohacking: The Simple Way to Reach Your Goals

There is a new buzzword floating around social media that by now you may have heard of; biohacking. But what the heck is it? Biohacking is a systematic approach to reaching optimum health. It is implementing small changes or hacks to improve areas of your life. According to Dave Asprey, the founder of bulletproof coffee, it is making changes in your life to becoming superhuman. 

 

Most biohackers strive to be the best version of themselves. Any areas of your life can be hacked whether it be physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual. The journey of biohacking is up to you and where you see the need to change. 

 

The following is a must when starting your biohacking journey: 

 

Assess 

 

What areas of your life would you like to improve? Maybe you simply need to fix your sleeping schedule. Perhaps you have a lot of stress that you would like to reduce or eliminate. Whatever it may be there are hacks that you can do to help improve those areas. Some common areas that biohackers target include improving happiness, productivity, diet, athletic endurance and mental performance. 

 

Implement 

 

Now that you have assessed yourself and know what areas of your life you would like to improve on, it is time to implement hacks to reach those goals. It can be as simple as tracking your daily exercise or taking an anti-anxiety pill. Whatever the hack may be it’s important to start doing them right away and track your progress as you go along. 

 

Document and Evaluate

 

Although implementation is the key to biohacking the other area of importance include tracking your results and evaluating them. This way you can be sure that the hack you implemented is accomplishing the goal you had in mind. Maybe the hack will improve other areas of your life that you were not aware of. Take a just a few moments out of your day each night to record any little thing you have noticed throughout your journey. At the end of each month create some kind of challenge such as a test to see if the hack you implemented has truly made an impact. For example, maybe you wanted to increase your stamina. Before you implement the hack test your stamina and then in a month do the same test to see if you’ve improved. 

 

Adjust

 

Once you evaluate your results it is time to determine if the hack you implemented provides the results you were hoping for. If not, adjust the hack or implement a brand new one. If you received benefits from the hack determine if it is worth continuing or not. Obviously, if the hack didn’t produce the results you were hoping for it may not be worth continuing. 

 

Repeat 

 

If there are more areas in your life that you want to improve to reach the goals that you have set for yourself add more. If what you are doing is working keep doing it. Once you have mastered the hacks that you implemented you may even want to take it one step further. The choices are truly endless.  

 

Biohacking is a never-ending journey. It is not a fast-track system to optimal health or the perfect life. It is a cumulation of lifestyle changes that take work and dedication. Implement, evaluate, adjust and then repeat until you reach all your goals. You can truly accomplish whatever it is that you want to with biohacking.

 

7 Action Steps To Maximize Your Potential

Maximizing your potential means being more productive and having the ability to flourish in most situations. The basis is to understand your goals and be persistent in achieving them. It requires time, effort, dealing with obstacles, and taking risks to achieve the result. However, the benefits are powerful. Following are seven steps that you can take to maximize your full potential.

 

Step 1: Define Your Goals

When people have defined goals to achieve, they have a roadmap for pursuing their objectives and dreams. The first step is to think about what you want to accomplish in your life, whether it be short or long-term. Goals should be realistic. For example, if your goal is to become a professional actor, but you have no experience, your chances of success are low and can lead to disappointment. On the other hand, realistic goals would be to take classes and perform in local community theater to gain experience.

 

• Make a list of goals that motivate you.
• Evaluate each goal and define the steps needed to achieve the goal.
• Set a completion due date for each step within a goal.
• Monitor your progress.

 

Step 2: Develop a Growth Mindset

People with a growth mindset are optimistic and embrace challenges. Other characteristics include:

 

• Acknowledging areas of self-weakness
• Learning to listen to constructive criticism
• Focusing on the process, not the result 
• Being motivated by the success of others
• Knowing that failure is an opportunity to grow
• Never giving up when things are difficult
• Thinking of learning as an opportunity to exercise the brain

 

Step 3: Journal Your Thoughts and Ideas

Keeping a journal enhances self-growth and can lead you to maximize your potential. Journaling has numerous benefits, such as boosting creativity, improving mental health, and motivating you to achieve goals.

 

• Think about your feelings and write them in your journal.
• Evaluate the triggers for each feeling – what happened that caused the feeling?
• Assess your emotions – for example, were you angry, sad, or embarrassed?
• Examine each scenario for lessons learned – what can you do better in the future?

 

Step 4: Embrace Mistakes

 

Everyone makes mistakes occasionally. When you make an error, you have an opportunity for personal growth by exploring what went wrong and how it happened. The lessons learned will help you to prevent the same mistake in the future. 

 

Step 5: Opportunities and Risk

 

As you work toward maximizing your potential, you may encounter risks. Assume that you have a limited budget to achieve your goal. There is a risk that you could run out of money to bring your objective to a successful conclusion. This may cause you to worry excessively about the risk, distracting you and decreasing productivity. You might feel like giving up.

 

Avoid worrying about risks by identifying the types of risks that could occur. Evaluate each risk and how to mitigate it: accept, avoid, reduce, or transfer it. Learn more about Risk Management at Coursera.

 

Step 6: Practice Self-Care

 

When you feel good mentally and physically, you may reap the benefits of increased motivation, adaptability to changes and coping with difficult situations, reduced stress, a sense of well-being and happiness, and more. 

 

Start your self-care journey by eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep. 

 

Step 7: Manage Your Time

In today’s hectic world, it feels as though there is never enough time to do everything. Don’t let that be a blocker to reaching your full potential. Following are several time management tips to help you make the most of your time.

 

• Plan Ahead: The evening before, plan for the next day. Make your to-do list and prioritize each task. Remove tasks that are not essential or delay low-priority tasks to another day.
• Minimize Interruptions: Set a “do not disturb” time each day. During that time, find a quiet place and temporarily ignore social media, phone calls, texts, and emails. Share your boundaries with those you know so they are aware. You’ll accomplish more in less time without unnecessary interruptions.

 

Conclusion

 

Being your best self requires knowing your goals and making a lifelong commitment to learning. It takes time and practice to improve yourself; the benefits are vast. When you maximize your potential, you have a vision for your life and are on the road to success! 

 

7 Good Morning Questions That Create Happiness

Voltaire says, “Judge someone by their questions, rather than by their answers.”

 

In other words, the right kind of questions are those that expand your thinking. They make you reflect on how to be better and do better. They can also help determine the quality of your day.

 

A good question can be especially helpful in the morning when you’re trying to get ready for work or school.

 

So, why not try to add some liveliness and vigor to your mornings with a few motivational questions?

 

Starting your day out with purpose and a sense of gratitude has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to live a happy, fulfilling life.

 

Asking the right questions in the morning has the power to put you in a good mood for the whole day. As a result, having a positive mindset allows you to focus more, retain more information, and get more done.

 

Here are seven good morning questions to create happiness and start your day with focus and energy. Try them out and see which ones work best for you.

 

What is the most important thing I can do today for my well-being?

 

There’s a reason why they tell you to put on your oxygen mask first. If you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t be able to take care of others. So, take the time to figure out what you can do to serve your own well-being.

 

Remember, every day is a new chance to change and improve the life you’re living. Work hard to reach your goals and achieve the things you believe in. Take small steps, and before you know it, you’ll get closer and closer to your goals.

 

What am I excited about accomplishing today?

 

Visualize your schedule for the day, starting from when you walk out of the door, reach your workplace, then come back home. What tasks do you need to accomplish? Do you have any deadlines for today? Meetings?

 

Try to picture everything in detail but put more focus on the positive aspects of your day. By giving yourself something to look forward to, you’ll be better equipped to handle the complex or tedious tasks of the day.

 

How can I encourage others, and myself, today?

 

To accomplish anything meaningful in life, you need to dream big and believe in those dreams. The more you believe, the farther you’ll get.

 

Yet, sometimes, we need a small push to get us going. This is when spreading around some reassuring words of encouragement and motivation. Be courageous in your thinking, yet also maintain your sense of optimism and cheerfulness. In other words, have your head in the clouds and your feet firmly planted in the ground.

 

Don’t forget to spread your eagerness and zeal to everyone around you.

 

What am I grateful for?

 

Socrates said, “Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.”

 

Don’t waste your life fixating on what you don’t have rather than what you already have. If you do, you’ll never have enough.

 

The best thing you can do is appreciate the goodness that’s already yours, and you’ll have plenty to be grateful for. When you appreciate the people and things in your life, you’ll discover that you have a lot to live for.

 

How can I show my love to those I care about?

 

Relationships with friends, family, and life partners only work when the two sides decide to make a conscious effort to put in the work. They can be small acts of love and appreciation, just to tell one another that you’re there and that you care.

 

But these small acts go a long way in, especially when they come from the heart because it’s not so much what you do as it is how you do it. So, understand what matters most to those you care about. Then, spend a few minutes showing them in their own love language.

 

Can I take a break?

 

This question can be taken to mean two things: can I take a break for the entire day? Or can I take a break during the day?

 

If you find that you keep asking yourself the first question every morning, it could be your body’s way of telling you need to schedule time for yourself. Try to set aside no less than 15 minutes each day for some self-care.

 

On the other hand, if you’re asking yourself ‘Can I take a break during the day?’ that alone can unlock those feel-good hormones and happy emotions.

 

Even if your schedule is packed for the day, knowing that you have a break coming up will give you something to look forward to.

 

What would I like to remember about today?

 

Every day is special because it’s a chance to live your truth and take action toward meaningful goals. Yet, many times we take our days for granted without embracing the gift we’re giving with each sunrise.

 

So, ask yourself this: what can you do today that’s worth remembering?