selfdevelopment Archives - Page 2 of 3

By Adam Smith

“If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.” Frank A. Clark

What is gratitude and why it’s important?

I never learned what gratitude truly was until my early 20’s.

Of course, you’re always told be grateful for the food on your table or comparisons with other poorer countries on why you should be more grateful for what you have.

But it was never fully explained to me the true benefits of what gratitude can give to you. Especially with all the studies I have read on the benefits on your mind and body and overall happiness with life.

For me, gratitude is taking the good from the past and making it present that fuels me for my future. It allows me to calm my mind and be free in that moment.

Studies have shown those who wrote gratitude letters reported significantly better mental health four weeks and 12 weeks after their writing exercise ended. This shows the importance gratitude can have on the mind.

It’s a practice that has been performed for thousands of years amongst religious leaders and philosophers. The benefits are documented and have been proven to work even if we don’t quite understand how.

So why in western culture it’s not part of our education or taught within our workplace? With the advancement of industrialisation and technology, is it something we have taken for granted?

These are questions i wanted to answer myself.

So I decided to go 30 days without fail to practice gratitude myself. To learn the true benefits of practising it daily and making it a habit that’s part of my life.

The best thing about this challenge it’s a win-win outcome.

Here’s how I got on,

Why practising gratitude unlocks more than you know is best when written in a journal.

My 30-day story of practising gratitude

Week 1

With all the information at my disposal, I was ready to start my gratitude challenge of at least 1 minute a day. (I choose 1 minute to make it impossible not to do)

Understanding the time of the day I enjoyed best I choose the morning as the best time to do it. I could either do a quick gratitude of my surroundings or I could write it down.

After my first week, on reflection, I was definitely more conscious of my surroundings and everything good in my life.

It’s easy to get lost in the future of where your headed and dragged back to past experiences but with practising gratitude I truly felt present and defiantly happier for feeling that way.

Week 2

Beginning my second week I was happy with this technique being part of my daily routine but as the day went on this feeling slowly went away.

So I scheduled a quick 1-minute gratitude wherever I was within my surroundings to keep me present. Especially when my thoughts were starting to drift towards negativity and things got out of my control.

In the evening when I was winding down to review my day. I added in a gratitude journal time that allowed me to gather my thoughts from the day.

It enabled me to let go of anything bad or picture experiences I had again and find the positive from it instead.

Week 3

After 3 weeks I felt a lot happier and much calmer than I have felt in a while.

I was defiantly more conscious of my surroundings and how I respond to situations.

For example, I walked into a local shop and I didn’t get a good vibe back from the person serving me. I remember coming home and explaining this and 3 other negative things I spotted on my way to the shop.

Then my brain was triggered with being more grateful. I went back over the situation and changed from looking for the bad in my experience to looking for the good.

For example, I am grateful that the shop is just a minute walk away. They have the food I wanted and I had someone to serve me so I could purchase it.

For me, this was a big turnaround and showed the importance of being grateful for the experiences we have every day. Understanding that you can either have a positive or negative experience is down to your perspective.

Week 4

This was now becoming a great daily routine and also a conscious one with my experiences. It was a lot easier to apply and I was seeing the benefits of it in my interactions with others.

What were my findings?

On reflection, this technique is highly talked about and practised because it works.

I have learned to be grateful for what I have, who’s part of my life and the world around me.

It has also challenged my negative reactions to life that was deemed normal. Now I have a different approach that makes me happier without any more energy.

Overall I feel a lot more balanced and my whole body language is a lot more positive for it. I have better interactions with my family, colleagues and even strangers. When your brain is calm it’s in a positive state and the benefits you gain from this are exponential.

I challenge you to start a 30-day gratitude challenge!

Let me know how you get on.

I will leave you this quote

“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” Charles Dickens

FUTURE MINDSET

At Future Mindset, we are here to push the boundaries of our thoughts and actions. By chasing discomfort in our lives, it can lead us to unlock things inside us we never knew was there. Let’s change our mindset to change our future.

For all of our latest blog posts on developing your mindset, make sure you sign up to our weekly newsletter to stay informed. Thank you so much for your support and would love to discuss any comments on this post and if you have any suggestions on future posts I’m more than happy to research and deliver that for you.

Chase discomfort and have a great day wherever you are!

WHAT TO EXPECT!

In today’s article, How To Start Your Day With A Successful Morning Routine. I will show you my morning routine and how it helped my performance increase, overall wellbeing and how these habits have changed my whole outlook on life. Having a winning morning routine develops you to strengthen the mindset to deal with any challenges in your day effectively. Change your mindset, change your future!

My Morning Rundown

We all have a morning routine. I’m sure we all want to wake up in the morning firing out the blocks for a great day, but unfortunately, it’s never that simple and it can be more like a chore to wake up early. Then one day I had enough of my comfortable warm bed taking control of me and so I researched how to start your day with a successful morning routine.

There was an amazing amount of articles, books and videos on the subject. Everyone had their own style, timings and tasks they did that set them up for a great day. So I decided to find the patterns that came about the most and put them to action. Plus I added in a few of my own that would help me with what I really needed.

So here are my top morning tips on how to start your day with a successful morning routine.

How To Start Your Day With A Successful Morning Routine

1. Pick A Time And Stick To It

The most important part of your whole routine is getting up. Sometimes this can be a challenge as the comfort of your bed and more sleep will try and get the better of you. This is normal for everyone but you still have a choice.

So the night before, you need to set an alarm that you know you can wake up to. Make sure you’re going to bed 6 -8 hours before you have to wake to make it an easier experience as the first few days, it’ll be very challenging to wake up early.

Once your brain knows when you want to wake up, it has an amazing effect of waking you up just before your alarm apart from the days when you haven’t had enough sleep or your body is exhausted from the previous day.

This is when you have to take control of your mind and just get up. This will be your most important win of the day because you have already beaten most people who don’t

2. Drink Water To Re-hydrate the Brain

Waking up the brain quickly in the morning makes everything else that you’re trying to do a lot easier. Overnight your body was of course still working, so rehydrating it before you start anything helps keep it in top-notch shape.

3. Read A Personal Development Chapter

For me getting my brain firing on all cylinders is reading a book that can develop you and unlock new ideas. Reading in the morning is like fuel for the brain that gets it operating for the day ahead. Also, reading can be difficult once the day gets going due to commitments and at night your brain will be tired to take in the new information. So it’s a great time to do it in silence.

4. Start Writing

Straight after reading, I start writing. This is a great way to put all your thoughts on paper. From doing this action – I have started writing blog posts more often, and it has given me a greater understanding of my thoughts. It also makes me feel great after the whole experience.

Writing straight away in the morning also takes away the procrastination of doing it later. When your minds busier with daily life. Especially when your children want your undying attention.

If blogging isn’t your thing then journaling just for your eyes only is exactly the same process. If not, find what works for you.

5. My Purpose & Vision

An important part of my morning routine is knowing where I’m headed throughout my day and life. That’s why I designed a vision board of the top things that I want to achieve within the next decade. This helps me stay positive and focus on what I need to achieve.

My goals for the day mainly revolve around achieving this objective.

This is a real personal experience. It doesn’t matter how you put it all together as long as you know clearly where you’re headed.

6. Gratitude Time

To lift yourself up is being grateful and thankful for anything in your life that comes to mind. It can be family, your home, the earth or just to be alive. When you’re grateful it releases positive emotions. Being grateful takes you into your day in a positive mental state. As well as keeping yourself balanced as a person.

7. My Victory List

It’s easy to see other peoples successes which can either lead to inspiration or jealously. The most important person you should reviewing for successes is yourself. We take for granted all that we have done in our lives.

So I created into sections the decades that I’ve lived and all of my achievements I could think of. Early on that, I learned to walk and talk.

My second decade was Winning the cup double and going to university. My last decade was opening my own business and having a wife and children.

When you have this list. It allows you to know that you are a success and you are worthy to be in this world. It also allows you to visualise what else you can add to your victory list

8. Breathing Meditation

Any form of mediation has been proven to boost your mental and physical capacity. The one I chose was the breathing meditation led by Wim Hoffs techniques. This is such an amazing journey to go on. I have definitely seen the benefits of being more balanced and calm as a person. I highly recommend this format but go on your own journey to find yours.

9. Yoga

For me getting older and having more responsibilities led to less time focusing on my body. Then I decided if I want to live a healthy life as I get older this has to change.

I thought Yoga was for women and now I know how wrong that statement was. This is for anyone at all different levels and my experience of this has been an absorbing one.

I practice with Breathe and Flow. It has shown me that my whole body needs work in flexibility and core strength. For you to add Yoga into your morning routine. It will definitely impact you later on in life. As well it will give you a great mood and accomplishment boost to start your day.

10. Full Body Workout

We all know the benefits of working out our body and the endorphins that get released from them. For me, it’s just committing and doing it. The mentality approach I have when I’m doing it is by saying “just one more.” That could be one more rep or one more set to go. This helps me stay present and get through the workout fully disciplined. You can research all the benefits but the answer will be to just do it!

I set aside 2 hours of my morning to do this. It has changed my life when it comes to happiness and productivity throughout the day.

If anyone out there may be suffering from anxiety, stress, forms of depression. Please create a morning routine. It will literally change your whole outlook on your day and eventually with hard work, your life.

What I Enjoy About My Routine

For me, the best thing about having a morning routine. Is that I have already won before I have even started my day. Every morning I work on 10 tasks that I need to achieve on my to-do list. Once that I’ve ticked off everything on my list, feel like a winner.

With that positive energy, the momentum takes me through the rest of my day with purpose. The number of times I have got into the state of flow because of my morning routine. Is too many to count.

There is a reason why athletes and successful people in all walks of life have a morning routine. It allows them the best possible start to their day.

What Can Set You Back

At first, this can be a big change in someone’s life. Especially with all the hurdles that can be thrown your way. For instance, if you needed more sleep and you woke up later than planned. Don’t write off the whole routine, just manage it the best you can.

For me having a 1-year-old wake you up at 4.am can be a real challenge to start your day with only 4 hours of sleep. It could be you have an important meeting that’s in the middle of your routine. It’s not ideal but we just have to adapt and not be so hard on ourselves.

We are not robots we are humans who are built to adapt. So you can use it as a strength and still get great results from your morning. It’s just our mindset towards it.

Final Thoughts

I hope now you know how to start your day with a successful morning routine. It’s definitely changed my life for the better. Before I end this post, I challenge you to create your own morning routine. It could be 1 thing you wish to do or it could be 10. Take action and commit to it and watch your life change for the better. Let me know how you get on. I would love to know!

THE FUTURE MINDSET

For all of our latest blog posts on developing your mindset. Make sure you sign up for our weekly newsletter to stay informed. Thank you so much for your support. We would love to discuss any comments on this post. If you have any suggestions on future posts. I’m more than happy to research and deliver that for you.

Chase discomfort and have a great day wherever you are!