5 Ingredients for A Great Day
The following applies to any day, whether it’s in your day-to-day life, or on vacation. One measure of a successful life is whether your vacation days are an amplification of most aspects of your daily life, just perhaps in a different setting like the beach. Making the choice to stay home for a vacation (when money isn’t the issue) is a great indicator that you have tailored your life well. The following is ordered roughly in the order of difficulty, the first being the easiest, so if you’re forming new practices, start there.
1) Get some exercise. You’ll feel better, you’ll look better, you’ll be healthier and you’ll sleep better. Unless you hurt yourself, and then you’ll feel worse, so don’t do that. Check your ego at the door, it keeps you from hearing what your body needs. Cardio at least once a week, if it’s not built into your circuit. Strongly consider interval training below your lactate threshold. Interval training includes a lot of rest, which I personally love, especially as I age. A 40 second fast run on the grass interrupted by 20 seconds of walking is much more enjoyable than a long plodding runs of 3-5 miles on the concrete or treadmill.
Don’t forget to stretch. As you get older, you get stiffer. If there’s a fountain of youth, it bathes you with the motivation to move, stretch at least every other day (hip flexors, hamstrings, and calves at a minimum!), and eat well.
2) Take in the right stuff in the right amount. Using the KISS principle, I subscribe to the Mediterranean diet. Lean meat, fish and veggies in a balanced fashion. If it comes in a bag, box, can or bottle, leave it at the store. You don’t need to change your diet for weight loss, but you will need to count the calories you consume and burn through exercise. As long as you burn more than you consume, you will lose weight. If you exercise consistently at a high intensity, you will need to consume the calories to power your workouts. Carbohydrates are the best for this purpose, just make them the highest quality you can, i.e. low glycemic index veggies are better than bread. Alcohol should be kept to 1 drink with or after dinner, or preferably one hour after dinner, otherwise it is a source of empty calories, inhibits self-control causing you to eat (and drink) more than you otherwise would, and increases the amount of calories stored as fat. Women should drink 3 liters of water/day, 4 if they exercise. Men should drink 4 liters/day, 5 if they exercise. There’s probably a study showing a positive correlation between adequate water intake and prevalence of hand-washing, which these days is a good thing.
3) Make choices based on your values. Sometimes we have to do things we don’t like or want to do throughout the day, and it’s very likely that we don’t value these things or actions. The extent to which you have to do this during the average day is another measure of a successful life. If you’re uncertain of your values, clarify them, and honor them as much as possible. They are your waypoints to a fulfilling, and therefore happy, life. Without them you will be lost. Living according to your values is not a zero/sum game. You can make fulfilling choices throughout the day, even if not all of them have that potential. Sometimes even seemingly meaningless actions are reflections of your most dearly held values. Choices such as showing up, giving the benefit of the doubt, contemplation before action, pitching in, checking in, double-checking, and being a little more present, are simple and easily over-looked sources of fulfillment. Coaching is the single-best way to dial into this crucial area of your life.
4) Balance your priorities. Knowing your values and reframing choices as fulfilling is important, but what happens when you have competing values, competing demands and reframing doesn’t cut it? Self-awareness, self-knowledge, self-trust and a willingness to fail are necessary ingredients here. As Nietzsche said, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Knowing how individual competing demands fit into the larger agenda of your life is crucial to maintaining a balance. You’re not looking for a fixed balance point, it’s more a balancing act, the complexity of which is dependent on you. Sometimes hard choices and sacrifices have to be made, but energy is always freed up and commitment has daring and boldness in it.
5) Love yourself. If you don’t fully appreciate your intrinsic worth, your brilliant and priceless and very temporary existence here will be much less enjoyable and effective than it should be. Just because the vast majority doesn’t appreciate it, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t either. No matter your spiritual or religious beliefs, you can still treat yourself as well as you would a trusted and valued friend. Catch the negative self-talk (the stuff you would NEVER say to a friend or loved one but feel fine saying to yourself), cut yourself a break, and forgive yourself. Empathize with yourself. Like the rest of us, you’re doing your best. Maybe on some days that’s not very good, but recognize that most days it is, and no matter what it’s still your best. Loving yourself unconditionally makes it much easier to love others unconditionally, and we all know we need more of that! Try it, and you’ll feel the tension go and the calm set in as you breathe a little easier. Look around, smile, lose your ego and pay it forward. The people in your life will thank you and love you a little bit more.