5 Easy Habits You Can Do To Significantly Improve Your Life

I’m normally not one to share quotes unless they really really really exercise what I’m trying to explain.

It’s sort of a pet peeve of mine that I try to avoid at all costs.

Anyway — I am now going to share with you all, a quote.

The great Aristotle once said,

“We are what we repeatedly do.”

A bit obvious, but powerful nonetheless.

No matter who you are, where you’re from, or what you’ve achieved, you are a result of your repeated actions.

You are made up of cells and tissues and muscles and bones as much as you’re made up of your habits.

You are absolutely, 100 percent a product of your environment and the habits — both good and bad — you’ve formed through constant repetition up to this point.

Happy?

If no, fear not.

Here are 5 easy habits everyone can do to significantly improve your life.

1. Become an early bird.

I’ve said this one a gazillion times before, but I’ll say it a gazillion times more:

Wake.

Up.

Early.

Even if you don’t like to, do it. Set your alarm. Make a promise to get up when it goes off. Follow through.

For one thing, waking up early gives you more daylight to work with (obviously). But what it really does, is proves that you have self-discipline.

Being able to put a checkmark next to the box that says ‘Wake up at 5:30AM’ on your To-Do list for the day is gratifying — not to mention, highly productive.

And that productivity is almost guaranteed to carry on throughout the day.

Have some tea or coffee to get you energized. Use the morning hours to set yourself up for success. Start with a little relaxing organization by mapping out your day.

If you’re worried about sufficient sleep, you can still get your full 8 hours — just go to bed at a responsible time.

And if you really, really can’t deal being tired, you can always give yourself a mid-afternoon siesta.

2. Chef it up.

In other words, learn to cook!

Like actually cook — not ramen, not PB&J’s, not grilled cheese.

Real food.

Everybody should learn to cook real, wholesome, hearty meals. It’s much healthier to cook your own food than eating out.

Plus, it’s cheaper.

And convenient.

Cooking is an extremely valuable — yet extremely undervalued — skill that seems less and less popular as time goes on. Trust me, it’s not as hard as it looks.

Learn to cook.

Get your Bobby Flay on.

3. Sweat.

Yep — sweat.

I don’t care what you do, just make sure you sweat every day.

Run.

Go to yoga.

Play basketball.

Do 50 backflips.

I don’t care — just sweat.

Exercise is a great way to de-stress. It releases endorphins and science says it makes you happy — trust science.

I like to get up early, max out on my work, then go work out. It’s is the perfect way to spend pent-up energy from a morning full of work.

Working out in any capacity is highly productive, healthy, and wonderfully rejuvenating.

Go sweat.

4. Rock out (frequently).

Whether it’s nailing the intro to “Dancing Queen” on the air piano, moonwalking like Michael across your kitchen floor, or rapping every lyric to “Lose Yourself” with Eminem in perfect sync, you need to frequently jam out.

I don’t mean like clean up the living room with some light Michael Bublé* playing off of your iPhone speaker at a moderate volume.

I’m talking full blown ROCK-THE-FRICK-out-of-those-air-drums-stand-on-top-of-the-counter-top-belt-it-like-Beyoncé-type jam sessions.

You know — like the ones you have alone in your car when you’re so lost in the music you don’t even bother to contain yourself at a busy stoplight.

Yeah, those jam sessions.

Music has the ability to strike any emotion.

It talks to us.

It speaks to us in a way that people simply can’t (even though music is made by people — weird concept, right?).

Take some time out of your day to listen to your favorite music. Or, listen to something new.

Either way, find time to rock out.

5. Go to bed happy.

The quickest way to a bad morning starts with your attitude the night before.

And with bad morning, comes an unproductive day.

Any morning I wake up in a bad mood, I think back to my attitude just before falling asleep the night before. Nine out of 10 times, I went to bed with a bad attitude.

When you fall asleep angry, sad, or stressed, you allow those thoughts to marinate in your subconscious while you sleep.

And those feelings carry over to the next day.

Take time to clear your mind at night.

Reflect on your day.

Meditate.

If that doesn’t work, read a picture book before bed — Shel Silverstein poems work like a charm.

Whatever you do, fall asleep happy.

It’ll make those early mornings easier ;)

*Nothing against Mr. Bublé; I think he’s incredibly talented and like a lot of his music.

Thanks for reading!