If you want to be fit, lift weights. You’ll re-engineer your body from the inside out, and staying fit will become easier the longer you do it. Weights will do for you what other forms of fitness cannot.
If you want to live longer, start fasting, eat more fiber, and go on daily walks. It’s just science, and not the kind involving rockets. Inputs and outputs, pun very much intended.
If you want to be happier, get better sleep. Sleep is foundational to our happiness, and if you optimize for sleep it means you’re removing things that inhibit said sleep, like booze and late nights.
If you want to control your mood, drink less. It’s emotionally depressing you. Being sober forces you to sit with your emotions, and when you do that you realize most of them aren’t as scary as they seemed.
If you want to raise kind kids, praise kindness when you see it. What is rewarded will be repeated. My daughter and I pick up trash any time we see it on the street, because we did it one time like 4 years ago.
If you want your kids to succeed in life, praise the process not the outcome. Growth comes from the process, and a growth mindset comes from focusing on the process. Again, what is rewarded will be repeated.
If your kid is mad or upset, be silly with them. Tickle them. Wrestle with them. Tell them a joke. Not everything has to be a lesson or learning moment. You’re teaching them to turn it around through play and lightheartedness.
If you want to control your stress, control your schedule. Take your time back, focus on the most important work, and stop giving your energy to things outside of your control.
If you want be present, focus on the space between. Literally. Turn off the persistent noise from the tv, radio, and computer. Listen to the sounds around you. Focus on the space between the sounds. If you do that, you’ll be present.
If you want to improve your relationship with others, be clear and consistent. Clear about what you need. Clear about what you expect. And consistent in how you show up.
If you want to improve your relationship with yourself, do what you say you’ll do. Self-hatred is built up from a thousand tiny cuts of letting ourselves down. If you a commit to a thing, do the thing, and self-respect will be the result.
If you want to love yourself, say it out loud. Seriously. I hate stuff like this as much as the next person, but it works. Look in the mirror. Tell the person you see that you love them. Give them a high five. It works.
Life is complicated, but not nearly as complicated as we make it. Most things, no matter how complex, have simple solutions.
We just have to be willing to do them.
If you find value in the things I publish here, it’d mean the world if you’d share it with someone else. It’s the only way this space and community continues to grow.
✌️ and ❤️,
Adam Griffin