Have you ever been one foot in front of the other mindlessly strolling through the seasons of your life when you all paused and thought about having a list of universally good ideas? You know, just a list of good ideas that you could stand behind and use in any given situation? Is that you or is that me? I’m guessing it’s probably me, but hey, it’s just a guess.

Real Talk

I’m someone who has thrown themselves on the quest for personal development. Like I really dig the idea of self improvement, it’s hopeful in a way. You can start at the bottom and rise to the top if you put fourth the effort. Some real coffee-creamer type shit.

Now this quest I’m on is not nearly as cool as quest in say, “Harry Potter, or Lord of The Rings” But hey, it’s 2019 baby, I wasn’t born in a time with huge magical orc problem, I’ve got 21 century problems my love!

Anyways, in my drawn out attempt to open up this article, I’m realizing that I’ll segue here. I’m not an expert and I don’t claim to be, but below are a list of universally good ideas that I came up with for myself.

Be Optimistic.

In a world where quite frankly, it’s easy to compare your dick size on how bad you got it, and believe me, that whore misery truly does love company, I firmly believe it’s far better to think optimistically. Think about it, do you really want to go around and think your day is going to be shitty? Like do you want to think that when you walk outside a giant bird is going to crap in your mouth and your car is going to be towed by some belt-popping, tobacco-spitting tow truck man? How can thinking negatively possibly benefit you? Wouldn’t the day take on a bit more flare if you thought that anything can happen and you can achieve your dreams? Wouldn’t the day feel seemingly better if you thought each day was a gift and all your dreams have a chance to work out as long as you work. Wouldn’t this simple, controllable switch of thinking optimistically make you happier and make you work a smidgen harder towards your goals? All joking aside, what’s the competitive advantage of thinking your day is going to be terrible? There isn’t any, if you’re stuck in that mindset, perhaps you’ve been hurt in the past and you’re afraid to open up. But to be straightforward, that’s a losers mentality and it doesn’t serve you. Make peace with your past and focus on the present as that’s how you change your story. Dare yourself to think optimistically, who knows, perhaps what you think about is what you become.

Give Your Best Effort

As a gifted & self-titled “Lazy bastard” I’ve found that giving my best effort has fittingly enough, taken effort. Please believe me, there is a part of me that would love nothing more than to sit on a couch and watch Netflix and eat sushi until I shit myself. That part of me is real and not the kind you see getting likes on social media. You know those dishes in the sink? The lazy me will walk right past that and into another distraction. But the truth I’ve come to find is when you don’t give your best effort, you live with regrets. Seeing the pain in the eyes of someone who has regrets is the warning that I needed to snap out of my lazy haze. When you give your best effort, you have nothing to be ashamed about. You gave it your all and you can live with the results. You need to be intentional and force yourself to work hard. The crazy thing is, when you give your best effort, you feel good. You actually feel like you accomplished something, and that my friend is momentum building.

Pray

Now I won’t tell you what to believe or who you should believe as I think religion is your own journey but I’ll tell you almost every religion has something to say about prayer. With that in mind, prayer has helped me and maybe it will for you too.
Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Bottom line: It doesn’t hurt, it can only help.

Have Gratitude

It only takes a short drive to the bad side of town, or a quick glance on your local news station to realize that you’re doing alright. Have you ever thought that there is someone, somewhere who would love to trade places with you? Someone who would gladly accept all your problems, all your bullshit and view your life as it is right now as a gift. Having gratitude for what you have is great way to stay centered and give yourself a present everyday. It’s easier to focus on what you don’t have than what you do, but it’s more empowering to appreciate what you have. In life, you often won’t realize how you good you’ve got it into you don’t. So slow down and be mindful of the gift that is everyday.

Stay Organized

As someone who’s room at times looks like it’s been hit by a Tornado, and by the way my “room” can be subbed out for the word “life”, I can tell you that staying organized certainly reduces stress and helps you well… stay organized. Staying organized is an effort thing, that even I, the-messy-room-guy can do. If you know where things are, and if you live in a clean environment, everything is seemingly much easier and more productive. There isn’t any downsides of being organized, be the little train that can.

Bring your Passion

Everyone wants to find your passion, but how about this? Fuck finding your passion but rather bring your passion to whatever you do. Wouldn’t acting with passion unintentionally force you to work harder, stay happy and certainly be more productive? You be the judge, I’ll just be the guy typing this sentence.

Be Kind

As someone who is known for grinding their teeth whenever I have to make small talk, you know, early morning in a crowded elevator, the real shit, it’s been hard for me to remember to be kind and open at all times especially when I’m tired. However, whenever I’m kind to strangers, I feel good about myself and the stranger feels good too. Kindness is free gift that you can give to anyone that might make a world of difference to someone you least expect. That’s your real super power that you can use to positively affect the masses, use it wisely.

Take Care of Your Body

Has anyone ever filled their body with fast food and felt amazing? You know spent a whole night diving head first into a bag of chips, boxing with a box of doughnuts, drowning in lakes if soda then woke up and said, “let’s do that again”. Fuck no. As your probably know, we only get one body and fittingly enough, it works better when you take care of it, so you know, it’s probably a good idea to take care of it. But what the Hell do I know?

Set Goals

If you don’t know where you’re going, how can you possibly get there? When navigating the course of your life, realize that it’s far too easy to get swept up in the needless drama of daily living and get intoxicated by the routine and comforts of day to day life. If you’re not careful, your life will pass you by and you’ll look back wondering where time has went. Please know that comfort isn’t always your friend, sometimes it keeps you in the same place and never moving forward, that said, comfort is a real two-timing bastard if you ask me. It’s remembering to set goals on what you want to accomplish is how you can know if you’re on the right path or not. Big or small, setting goals will allow you to design your own road map of your very own life.

Be Present

Now more than ever with a tidal wave of technology crashing down and distractions running ramped on your mind’s shore, it’s far too easy to get swept up and sleepwalk through the currents of your life and never live in the present. The past can hold you hostage and the future is unpredictable; it’s only living in the present is how you change things. I find that taking a deep breath and consciously reminding myself that life is happening right now is how I remember to stay present.

Positive Self Talk

It’s pretty crazy how we can praise a complete strangers who have made far worse mistakes than us and then turn around and beat ourselves up over the most asinine of complaints. At times we’re our own worst critic when we should be our biggest supporter. Seeing as *** short of a pending miracle in medicine***, you must live with yourself, wouldn’t it be better if you truly became your own biggest fan? Yeah it probably would.

Do one thing at a time

As someone who has had at times what felt like about 1000 projects going on at once and then realized that I wasn’t making that much progress in any of them, (Hence the reason I don’t post as much as I should) let me tell you, life is a whole Hell of a lot more productive when you’re focused on one thing at once. You know the adage “The man who chases two rabbits catches none”? Well instead of being a cynical prick like myself and think “that guy is a lazy pussy because I can catch three” instead stop and pay attention to the advice. If you’re chasing two things at once, you can’t focus on either because you’re always looking over your shoulder. There are truly only so many productive hours in a day, if you live life on the surface of each task, you will never allow yourself to fully dive deep into the task at hand. Focusing on one thing at a time truly is work for me. It’s hard, during this paragraph, I’m currently fighting the urge to youtube a video about publishing, and then go on a run, then call my parents, then work on this, then work on that. But it’s reminding myself to just do one thing at a time has dramatically accelerated my results.