Every day should have one element of challenging yourself. Try making something new to eat or saying hello to someone.
The boys and I swam across the bay on this lake and swam back. Great challenge. Great achievement. Pick something every day that is outside your comfort zone and give it a go.
If you want cheers, adulation and support, this is your strategy. If you want the easy route to happiness, play to your crowd.
It is so much easier to play to your cheering, adoring fans. You can bring them along and know what they like. You know their trigger points. Getting them to cheer you on and encourage your commentary happens with ease.
However, this often means they hold an opposing view on the topic compared to many others. So rather than rile people up into some agitated mob, you could use your power for good.
You could weave in elements of the topic which could bring some closer together. Not going for the dramatic in tone and vocabulary could take some of the emotion and heat out of the topic. Adding some useful and balanced information would help people understand the issue better.
The challenge is, this takes a very brave person to do it. Many people prefer the limelight and the euphoria. Few want to do what is better for society for fear of being cast out of their tribe.
When considering what is better, be clear if it is better for you or the greater good. You could help mend fences and build a better future.
Try to inform and influence rather than simply play to your crowd.
I would do things differently. Have you ever heard someone say this? Maybe you’ve even said it. If I had his money I would do x,y,z.
Now it could be his or hers, but the idea behind the phrase strikes me as the speaker thinks they would do better with it. In my experience, hearing people say this, it tends to involve the speaker spending more cash on luxury items. Holidays, clothes, better meals out and cars seem to high on the list of improvements.
The irony seems to be, once again, that those who develop good cash management habits have more cash to manage. And those that don’t put effort into good cash management habits, don’t tend to have much money to manage. Though they are not short of observational skills and have a fine knowledge of how to improve the millionaire’s suboptimal lifestyle.
With just a few flourishes of a debit or credit card, the speaker can resolve your unfortunate circumstances.
This may be one of the reasons why the speaker might not have enough money of their own to mess about with. With their unique money mindset and a propensity to spend rather than save, we can better understand why the speaker is in this predicament.
The good news is that great money management habits can be learned. Then you can turn, if I had his money, on its head.
Every word, thought or situation can send you down a different track so start your day in a positive way. You may as well choose a good track to start on.
When you wake up, you could smile. Then remember to be grateful for being allowed to play the game for another day.
You could get out of bed, and seize the day – carpe diem style.
Take six minutes to go through the six minute miracle morning. This will help start your day in a positive way.
You could also try to be the most positive and enthusiastic person you know for the rest of the day. What would that look like? Try it. You might enjoy it. It is a good personal challenge to try to develop a few days a week.
If a word, thought or situation triggers you and starts to send you down a less positive detour, recognise it and restart from there.
One way to keep a cheery disposition, and save yourself some precious time every day, is to not read, watch or listen to any news stories. They are the best negative programming if you want to be less happy rapidly.
Try swapping news (radio, tv, paper, online, etc) for something positive like an inspiring podcast, an uplifting book, or some motivating YouTube videos.
Try one or all of these ideas above at least once. You never know what might set you on a different, more positive path.
