Sometimes you’ll be absorbed in your thoughts. Other times you just won’t feel connected to those around you. Of course you may simply be exhausted and uninterested in engaging.
Regardless, if the feeling isn’t there and the timing isn’t right, you can simply retire to your room, home, office, whatever.
Don’t force it. You don’t need to be on every second of every day.
It can be tough but try it.
Step into the shoes of someone with the opposite viewpoint to you and try to argue their perspective. Understand why they have that view and what they are trying to get from it.
Do try to recognise the bias you have and try to remove it from your thoughts.
Life gets a lot easier if you are looking for common ground.
Oh, and if you don’t feel the need to blame anyone.
How you interpret things is how you see them. It is how you experience them. You react based on your learning and life experience. If you consider other options, it will help you respond.
The thing may not be what you interpret. It will be what it is, without your interpretation. Be mindful of this difference.
How to know and what to do? Pause. Consider how other people that are different to you might experience the same thing. Their way may not be better than your way, but it’s good to consider what they got from it.
Every day in January, spend 1 hour clearing out a drawer, the left side of a cupboard or a shelf.
Donate, toss or use it. Clear out your life. Why do you have all this stuff? If it doesn’t bring you tremendous joy, make room for something that does – and that could just be uncluttered space.
If 1 hour every day doesn’t work for you, try to do it all across two separate, 8 hour days. Or, two hours, every other day. Make a firm and specific plan that works for you and then stick to it.
The decluttered space will be a joy to be in every day for the 11 remaining months of the year.
Some people will agree with you and others won’t. At times you will see eye to eye on a matter with your best friend yet other times you will not.
And that’s ok. Carry on.
There’ll be bumps on the road. Unforeseen issues will arise. Deal with them and carry on.
Supposedly, the Devil is in the details. So if you don’t pay close attention to the details, you could be misled. deceived or fooled.
For the next 7 days, remove 5 things from your house each day. Find 5 things each day that do not bring you joy and get them out of the house. Take them to a charity shop, bin them or sell them online. Just get them out of the house in the next 7 days.
Be mindful that you don’t discard someone else’s favourite item. If it is not 100% yours, do ask the other person first to see if they are ok with letting it go.
Secondly, really limit what you bring in to the house. Leave it out front for recycling or in the trash bin if necessary. The less you bring into the house, the less you need to throw away later on.
If you do this every day for three months, you’ll have gotten rid of 450 items and your house will be nearly free of clutter and feel very cozy and calm.
People have an infinite capacity to change for the better and for the worse. However, people usually change only once they decide to. Hence the saying about the horse, the water, and drinking.
Most people will do anything but change, even if the path is clear and the outcome almost certain. They would rather not change and then wait until it becomes a disaster.
Don’t be that person. Make the tough, uncomfortable changes today.
