Get help to make life better
We used to wait for it, now we're screaming sing the chorus again. - Arcade Fire
I used to write
I used to write letters, I used to sign my name
I used to sleep at night
Before the flashing light settled deep in my brainNow our lives are changing fast
Hope that something pure can lastWe used to wait for it
Now we're screaming sing the chorus again
Are you looking for peace of mind? You won't find it in your status line. - Allen Stone
Are you looking for peace of mind?
You won't find it in your status line
What are you trying to prove?
Whose mountain are you trying to move?Are you looking for security?
Validation or identity?
You won't find it in things
The more you got, oh, the less you seeWhatever keeps you occupied
Whatever gives you contact high
Whatever keeps you busy, baby
Will never make you satisfied
I'm always left of center and that's right where I belong. I'm the random minor note you hear in major songs. - Janelle Monae
Sometimes a mystery, sometimes I'm free
Depending on my mood or my attitude
Sometimes I wanna roll or stay at home
Walking contradiction, guess I’m factual and fictionA little crazy, little sexy, little cool
Little rough around the edges but I keep it smooth
I'm always left of center and that's right where I belong
I'm the random minor note you hear in major songs
Superman never made any money, savin' the world from Solomon Grundy. And sometimes I despair the world will never see another man like him. - Crash Test Dummies
Hey Bob, Supe had a straight job
Even though he could have smashed through any bank in the United States,
Well he had the strength, but he would notSuperman never made any money
For saving the world from Solomon Grundy
And sometimes I despair the world will never see another man like him- Crash Test Dummies
Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone? They paved paradise, put up a parking lot. - Joni Mitchell
They took all the trees
Put 'em in a tree museum
Then they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'emDon't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
Oh I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one. And I believe it could be, some day it's going to come. - Cat Stevens
Oh I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be, some day it's going to come
Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again
Now I've been smiling lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun
Choose to be happy with your current situation and life, as research has shown happiness may come down to your attitude and perception, not our faulty estimation of what we think we want, even big changes like getting a dream job, goal, partner, or money.
- Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, challenges the idea that we'll be miserable if we don't get what we want.
- Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things don't go as planned.
Take a quick break every hour to evaluate what you have done and refocus on what you should do next.
- STEP 2 (1 minute every hour) Refocus.
- Set your watch, phone, or computer to ring every hour.
- When it rings, take a deep breath, look at your list and ask yourself if you spent your last hour productively.
- Then look at your calendar and deliberately recommit to how you are going to use the next hour.
- Manage your day hour by hour.
- Don’t let the hours manage you.
An 18 minute plan for managing your day - Harvard Business Review
Turn your problems into challenges or goals that you can overcome or accomplish in order to be happier and improve your life.
- Happy people will see problems as challenges, as opportunities to explore new ways of doing things, expressing their gratitude for them, understanding that underneath them all lay many opportunities that will allow them to expand and to grow.
15 Powerful things happy people do differently - Purpose Fairy
Write down a list of your goals and dreams, because writing thoughts and ideas down is the first step to making them come to life.
- A list of your short and long-term goals can be a great motivator, as well as a trigger list to help generate new projects.
- I also like to have a list of areas of focus, the different roles that I play, each of which comes with a different set of tasks and goals.
"It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential." - Bruce Lee
- If you want to improve your life then it’s tempting to want to add more.
- One problem with this may be that you don’t really have the time or energy to do more though.
- And so your efforts to improve become short-lived.
- Adding more and more just creates more stress and anxiety.
- Removing clutter and activities, tasks and thoughts that are not so important frees up time and energy for you to do more of what you really want to do.
- And as the clutter in your outer world decreases the clutter in your inner world also has a tendency to decrease.
- This has the added benefit of making it easier to actually enjoy whatever you are doing even more while you are doing it.
Bruce Lee’s top 7 fundamentals for getting your life in shape - Positivity Blog
Live your life by being true to yourself and following your dreams and passions, in order to make your life and the lives of others better and happier, instead of only doing things that other people want or expect you to do.
- I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. This was the most common regret of all.
- When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled.
- Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.
- It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way.
- From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late.
- Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.
Have a growth mindset by believing that you can grow, learn new things, improve your skills and knowledge, and realizing that temporary and recurring failure are a necessary part of learning and growing.
- Dweck, like many adults, had learned to hide her frustration and anger, to politely say "I'm not sure I want to play this anymore" instead of knocking over the board.
- She figured the successful kids would be the same - they’d have tactics for coping with failure instead of getting beaten down by it.
- But what she found was radically different.
- The successful kids didn’t just live with failure, they loved it!
- When the going got tough, they didn’t start blaming themselves; they licked their lips and said "I love a challenge."
- They’d say stuff like "The harder it gets the harder I need to try."
Remember everyone is emotional and people are all going through the ups and downs of life, so try not to take it personally when people get angry, and try to comfort or support others when they are in a bad mood.
- Perhaps this is an exaggeration.
- But the core of the message is that people tend to have stronger feelings about something than they let on.
- People who regularly have outbursts of anger, depression or flamboyant enthusiasm are generally frowned upon in most cultures.
- This especially applies to men (for women trying to figure us out).
- The application of this rule is to not assume everything is fine just because someone isn’t having a nervous breakdown.
- We all have our individual problems, angst and upsets that are normally contained.
Give people sincere praise about something they have done well or that you appreciate about them before giving them negative feedback or an idea for something they could change or do differently.
- "Sandwich every bit of criticism between two heavy layers of praise."
- One well known strategy for feedback is the “criticism sandwich,” popularized by the above quote from cosmetics maven Mary Kay Ash.
- In the sandwich, you begin with praise, address the problem, and follow up with more praise.
- In fact, the more of the conversation you can frame positively, the more likely your recipient is to be in the right frame of mind to make the change you’re looking for.
How to Give and Receive Feedback at Work: The Psychology of Criticism - Buffer
Spend some time in solitude to think about and create ideas, make plans or goals, and come up with solutions to solve your problems.
- Like many inventors and creative types, Nikola Tesla was an advocate for solitude when creating and working.
- Most famously, he's quoted as saying "The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude.
- No big laboratory is needed in which to think.
- Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind.
- Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born."
Exercise every day because it improves your body, your mind, and makes you happier and more productive on the day in which you exercise.
- A recent study from Penn State university shed some light on the matter and the results are more than surprising.
- They found that to be more productive and happier on a given work day, it doesn’t matter so much, if you work-out regularly, if you haven’t worked out on that particular day.
- Think about starting small and then start even smaller: Here is a little secret.
- When I first started exercising, I did it with 5 minutes per day, 3 times a week.
- Can you imagine that? 5 minutes of timed exercise, 3 times a week?
- That’s nothing you might be thinking.
- And you are right, because the task is so easy and anyone can succeed with it, you can really start to make a habit out of it.
- Try no more than 5 or 10 minutes if you are getting started.
What happens to our brains when we exercise and how it makes us happier - Buffer
Cultivate a positive environment by reading and listening to more positive information and entertainment sources, and choosing to spend time around positive people.
- Who you choose to spend your time with and the input you get from further away like the TV, the internet and magazines will have a huge effect on your outlook.
- To be able to stay positive it is essential to have influences in your life that support you and lift you up instead of dragging you down.
- So carefully consider what you let into your mind.
Get started by doing something for just a couple of minutes, because just getting started can often be the hardest part of many habits, tasks, or things you want to work on or get done.
- If you have to write something, just write a sentence.
- Then get up, get some water, stretch.
- Pat yourself on the back for getting started!
- Now do a little more: write a few more sentences.
- Get up, take a mental break (don’t go to another website), do a few pushups.
- Go back, do a bit more.
- Pretty soon, you’re in the flow of it.
Keep a dated list of tasks and projects you have completed and random things you have done, because looking back on your achievements or even little events from your life may provide a sense of accomplishment and purpose.
- There's something to be said for seeing how much you've gotten done at the end of the day.
- You know how satisfying it is to cross out items on your to do list, and then look back at the list to see everything you completed?
- A "done" list, or "anti-to-do list" as Marc Andreessen calls it, works in a similar fashion: you simply take note of each thing you get done during the day.
- Start out with the date and just list your "done" items underneath.
- Not only will this help you review your productivity at the end of each day and make you feel better about what you got done, but it can be really useful to keep around as a work log.
- You might want to look back in weeks or months to come to see what you were working on or how long a project took to complete.
Clever uses for plain text files that can increase your productivity - Lifehacker