A key to happiness - Today is going to be awesome
For most people, a new year becomes synonymous with new year resolutions. The thought of being healthier, more relaxed, better organized, improved in every sense of the word is energized by a brand new blank year. It usually takes only a few days to realize that you already missed a few opportunities and that is how you set yourself up for a year long failure. I like to think of every day as a new beginning. Each day is a new chapter that can be written or edited.
First step to success is to make your bed daily. It really takes only a few moments and the result is immediate gratification. This simple act sets up a chain reaction of other productive habits. You set yourself up for success for the rest of your day. I urge my children and my clients to do the same.
In the book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg notes that "making your bed every morning is correlated with better productivity, a greater sense of well-being, and stronger skills at sticking with a budget." Making your bed is what he calls a "keystone habit," an event that fuels a day long pattern of other good behaviors.
In case this is not convincing enough, Admiral William McRaven, author of "Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life... And Maybe The World," explains how making your bed every morning can have a positive impact on your well-being and behavior throughout the rest of the day. This is a transcript of his online video.
Admiral McRaven: A normal part of a day for a Navy SEAL was we would arrive at about 7:30 in the morning. From 7:30 to 9 o'clock we did physical training every single morning of most of my career when I was assigned to SEAL teams. That's not an easy thing to do every morning. And of course some people get up, they run or they do whatever their routine is. The idea of making the bed is it's the same sense of discipline. It's the same sense that you're going to get up and do something, but it's an easy task to undertake. You roll out of bed, you just put your bed, you make it straight. Again, you get it right, too. It's not just about kind of throwing the covers over the pillow. It's about making your bed right and walking away and going, "OK, that's good. That looks good. I'm, as simple as it sounds, I'm proud of this little task I did." And that is really what I think sets the tone for the rest of the day.
It is the simplicity. I think it is also the amount of time that it takes to make your bed. It doesn't take an hour to do, and yet you get this sense of accomplishment. The difference between going out for a 30-minute or an hour run or doing an hour's worth of weight training or going off and doing an hour of meditation — this takes you a couple of minutes. Some things are hard to do in the morning, and I think those are important, too. I mean, if you can get up every morning and do your run or do your PT that's great as well, but if you're not one of those persons still it's good to start off with a simple task that moves you forward.
So go ahead and start your day with a simple task of making your bed.
First step to success is to make your bed daily. It really takes only a few moments and the result is immediate gratification. This simple act sets up a chain reaction of other productive habits. You set yourself up for success for the rest of your day. I urge my children and my clients to do the same.
In the book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg notes that "making your bed every morning is correlated with better productivity, a greater sense of well-being, and stronger skills at sticking with a budget." Making your bed is what he calls a "keystone habit," an event that fuels a day long pattern of other good behaviors.
In case this is not convincing enough, Admiral William McRaven, author of "Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life... And Maybe The World," explains how making your bed every morning can have a positive impact on your well-being and behavior throughout the rest of the day. This is a transcript of his online video.
Admiral McRaven: A normal part of a day for a Navy SEAL was we would arrive at about 7:30 in the morning. From 7:30 to 9 o'clock we did physical training every single morning of most of my career when I was assigned to SEAL teams. That's not an easy thing to do every morning. And of course some people get up, they run or they do whatever their routine is. The idea of making the bed is it's the same sense of discipline. It's the same sense that you're going to get up and do something, but it's an easy task to undertake. You roll out of bed, you just put your bed, you make it straight. Again, you get it right, too. It's not just about kind of throwing the covers over the pillow. It's about making your bed right and walking away and going, "OK, that's good. That looks good. I'm, as simple as it sounds, I'm proud of this little task I did." And that is really what I think sets the tone for the rest of the day.
It is the simplicity. I think it is also the amount of time that it takes to make your bed. It doesn't take an hour to do, and yet you get this sense of accomplishment. The difference between going out for a 30-minute or an hour run or doing an hour's worth of weight training or going off and doing an hour of meditation — this takes you a couple of minutes. Some things are hard to do in the morning, and I think those are important, too. I mean, if you can get up every morning and do your run or do your PT that's great as well, but if you're not one of those persons still it's good to start off with a simple task that moves you forward.
So go ahead and start your day with a simple task of making your bed.
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