It’s true that sometimes you’re just in a rhythm, your energy is upbeat, everything is going your way, you have a great day just happen; but underneath all of that there is something that caused it. We do it unintentionally some days and we enjoy a nice surprise. You can enjoy that same “Great Day Feeling” everyday! Every week! Or at least have that feeling the majority of the days.
You have to create them, you have to cause them. You can’t control everything, but you can prepare yourself as best as you can, so the odds are in your favor.
“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything”
I can tell you a million reasons why planning is key, instead I’ll assume you know why and just want to hear how we can cause & create great days. Things like, “Prior Planning prevents poor performance.” Or “If you fail to plan, you planned to fail”. To make it hard to fail you’ll need certain things in order to give you your best opportunity.
- Sleep
- Nutrition/ Hydration
- Movement
- Mental Clarity
- Be Still
Sleep
First and foremost, you need good sleep if you want any chance to operate optimally and be able to make good judgments throughout your day. I’ve been known to skip sleep, or sleep 4-6hrs; when I do so, I feel fine for a day or so. After 2-3 days of doing so, my energy and performance drops dramatically.
You’re body, your mind can’t get in a full rhythm with operating on a minimal sleep for multiple days, then crashing and sleeping 9+ hours to regroup, only for a the cycle to repeat itself. Long-term, this pattern will affect your mood, performance and energy negatively.
The key is to find a good, consistent sleeping pattern and habit. As far as how many hours of sleep, I can tell you the “recommended” amount, but I prefer to recommend you to sleep the same consistent amount of hours that helps you feel rested and energized mentally & physically.
It’s not be about how many hours you sleep, but how well you sleep. Quality over quantity. You pick the amount for you, and do it consistently, get your body in rhythm and let it maximize your energy by knowing when you want it to wake up and when you want it to shut down and recover.
Nutrition & hydration
Next up, once you got your sleep on, second thing to address is fueling to support your energy levels. There are a million different “diets”, a bunch of people telling you everyday what to eat, what not to eat, “this is good for you”, “that’s bad for you”. I’ll keep it simple here as well, in order to not add to the confusion.
Foods you want to focus on eating consistently to optimize your energy are fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and lentils, nuts, seeds and some delicious water to wash that down. That simple.
In the end, I’m not here to tell you whether you should be a vegetarian, a vegan, a fruitarian, going on the paleo diet, I’m only here to communicate with you about maximizing your energy and your health, your vitality will be improved if you consistently and habitually eat nutrient-rich, whole foods and less processed, fried & sugary foods. It’s really that simple.
We get in great debates about foods all the time and “defend” foods we like, believe in or are culturally drawn to. If you focus on being healthy, not skinny or “swolle”, it’ll lead you to prioritize your energy and improve your vitality; those priorities will lead you towards foods that are nutrient-rich. Foods that get your energy up!
If you look up the definition of “drugs”, it applies to the narcotic, illegal drug definition that typically comes to mind when you hear the word; but it also applies to food. Food is a drug, it will alter your mind and body; it can affect you positively or negatively, sometimes we use it to help with sickness and illnesses, sometimes they create sicknesses and illnesses themselves. Food is a drug. What are you taking? How is it effecting your body & your mind? How does your brain look in food/drugs?
The type of food & quality of foods you eat has a direct correlation to the quality of your thoughts, body, mood and cravings. Your body is a beautiful machine with a bunch of connections and when you fuel it well, you will see it’s super powers.
Hydrating yourself consistently will also give you tremendous energy and mental clarity. You also have to take note of when you think you’re hungry, or if you have a headache, you may just be thirst or dehydrated. Drinking more water throughout your day may mean more bathroom breaks, but one rule of thumb I like is, whenever you do use the restroom, your urine should be light colored to clear. If not, drink more water throughout your day.
I also highly recommend taking a food allergy test. They have testing kits you can even order online, that are mailed to your house, which will should you sensitivity to ~96 most common food types. It’s important to remember that just because something is “good for you” doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for you specifically. You may be eating nutrient-rich foods, but at this current moment and the state your body is, you may be getting a negative reaction to it; So take a food sensitivity test to help differentiate which “health options” are actually good for you.
Movement
The key to not being tired, stiff, or aching may at times seem counterintuitive, but it’s actually pretty simple, move more!
I went through a period of time where my work was to be with people all day long, standing, moving for 10-14 hours/day everyday. Then I moved to a different career and daily patterns when I moved across the country, where I would be sitting for ~8hrs/day in front of a computer. Now even though my career was not as physically tiring as my old one, I’d find myself tired after work and I would sit down at home for another 3-4hrs/day after being seated all day; only to be even more fatigued and to go into the same pattern the following day.
Truth is, only way to energize yourself and brake this cycle is to exert more energy and workout! Move! Run, walk, bike, swim, lift, play a sport, sprint, the more energy you put out the more you get back.
When it comes to exercising and movement, I will again aim to keep it simple and in order to maximize your health & vitality you want to do 5 types of movements, raise your heart rate and stretch to stay flexible and nimble. As a functioning human that I am assuming you are, all of your movements fall into these simple categories, pushing, pulling, bending at the knees, bending at the hips and stabilizing with your core. You do a combination of these movements in different planes of motions every day, but all in all these are all the basic functions & motions that you do daily, flexing and extending your muscles.
Without going too in depth and still speaking English, you simply need to create a movement / exercising routine that you consistently do and includes a total body combination of those 5 movements paired with something that will raise your heart rate followed by some stretching. That simple. That could be a yoga routine, a weight lifting routine, a body weight circuit, swimming, you name it, let your creativity come out to play with this, don’t let anyone tell you differently. Learn proper movements and range of motions, do your homework then get to work.
My preference is a total body routine, either a bodyweight, weight lifting, swimming, running, sprinting or rowing. I’ll do these 5 exercises back to back plus a conditioning exercise, then repeat. I am a fan of Mike Boyle, who’s a world-class strength & conditioning coach and an example of my favorite workout routine which came from his work, goes as like this, (give it a try & tell me what you think):
Template | Example: 2 Sets
1. Knee-Dominate Movement | Dumbbell Rear-Foot Elevated Split Squat 12 reps/Each leg
2. Hip Dominate Movement | Dumbbell RDL + Row 12 Reps/ Each Leg
3. Push Movement | DB Chest Press + Leg Lift 12 Reps
4. Pull Movement | Pull up 12 reps
5. Core | Plank + Bird Dog combo (15s-15s-15s / Each Side)
6. Conditioning | Row 1,000m
(*After 1st set of all 6 exercises, Go back to exercise #1 for 2nd set.)
7. Stretching | Resistance Band Stretching
The workout is that simple. We hit all the functional movements, got our heart rate up to conditioning ourselves, came back from a second round, and I am currently not in the shape I was once in so, in order to set myself up for the long-term game this is my workout & the key with this is to do this consistently.
The variety is up to you, simply remember the key is to get your whole body moving, conditioning your heart & stretching those muscles out as well. You can do it consistently, you can afford to invest 30-60mins/ day to exercise every day!
The only way to stay physically strong and vibrant is to keep moving. You move like that every day and your energy levels skyrocket, you attention is sharper, your mind is sharper, confidence is higher, you’re a different person, in a different state of being, being your best self to place the odds in your favor and to cause a great day!
Mental Clarity
Another pillar that is important and a major key to help you win and create a great day is clarity. Mental clarity. You have to constantly seek clarity in order to keep the path and correct the direction you’re going towards.
This is one of the most important things to me; I feel people always believe they know or believe they can remember what they’re doing or why they’re doing it, however most times that’s not the case. The human memory is far from perfect so in order to stay on track its important to set yourself and your environment up to help you focus and clarify what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Clarify your wants, clarify your purpose.
How do you do that? You have to consistently take time, energy and effort to view your life, your routine, relationships and actions from a high-top. You have to pause and get an overview. You have to spend time in prayer, spend time in meditation, spend time listening. You have to learn to be still.
Quiet your mind, be as present as you can possibly be. Spend more time there. More time in the present, (It’s a gift). Listen and understand what is being taught to you. God speaks to you; you simply have to be still enough to hear it.
The beautiful thing about this is that you have to do it consistently to truly experience it. Just like anything else. In a moment you may have clarity of what you want or must do; the next you’re lost. In order to stay in a state of clarity, in a state of awareness you must constantly be feeding that, feeding it by seeking it.
Just like your faith, you must constantly be seeking God, be active, do it consistently and reap the blessings of living an intentional, faithful life. The more consistent you are with your faith, the strong it becomes.
The Same Message: Consistency
In the end, I believe living on purpose is what this life is all about. We know our limitation, we know somethings we must surrender to; and at the same time we don’t know our limits until we strive to past them. I want to remind you of how much power you possess. How beautifully made you are by God. How he blesses you with so much right here, right now.
That power doesn’t come when you use it once-in-a-while. The power isn’t in using just one of the blessings; the power is in CONSTANTLY using all of the blessings God’s give you. Being aware of all of the power he’s put in your hands. Everyday you have the power and opportunity to sleep and wake up rested. Wake up eat foods that are nourishing the temple we call our bodies. You have the power to drink fresh water, move and strengthen that body, clarify your thoughts, the power to pray, plan, prepare and be still.
Everyday you wake up, do your best to take on the day and set yourself up for a great day. “Great days don’t just happen, they’re caused.” Clarify that vision of yours more and more everyday so you’re moving towards your vision, your purpose, towards God’s plans for you. You get to define yourself in every new season, every new year, every new chapter of your life. You have all of these tools at your disposal, your superpower is consistency.
The repeated theme in all of these is consistency. Day-in and day-out do those little actions and get those wins. Week-in and week-out, earn those small, tough, powerful victories and build your momentum. Eventually you’ll look back and see you haven’t just cause many great day, but many great works with all the blessings and opportunities God presented to you throughout your life. You consistently make the most of those opportunities one by one.
One of my favorite analogies of this come from Will Smith, he said “You don’t go out and say I’m gonna build a wall. You say I’m gonna lay this one brick as perfectly as a brick can possibly be placed and you do that every day; until you have a wall”. He did speak about this figuratively, but literally had to do it with his brother growing up, his father had them building “Brick by brick” every day after school for a year in a half until they built a wall.
Your bricks are your days. You don’t say you’re gonna go out and live a great life, you say today I’m gonna have the best day I can possibly have, and you do that every single day, year after year until you’ve created a great life. A life that has blessed not only you, but everyone around you. Everyday strive to live a life to honor everyone who’s come before you, bless those who are with you and inspire those who are to come. Great lives don’t just happen, they’re caused.
תגובות