#1 Smile
Everyone is so god damn cranky lately. Can't you just be happy for a change? Just yesterday I was ordering a juice at the local juice bar. It was coming up to 6pm. The girl behind the counter was tired, cranky and definitely didn't want to be dealing with the four young girls screaming at her with their thick Limerick accents. She had a grim look about her and if I didn't know any better I'd say smacking those kids was still on the cards. I noticed her name tag; Monica. I thought to myself Monica could do with ending her day on a good note. I smiled, laughed at what the kids had just said and drew all the attention towards me. In the meantime I glanced up and smirked at Monica, as if to say 'why in the name of God did I do this?'. She smiled; from cheek to cheek. Job done I thought to myself. I ordered from her with a huge smile on my face (smiling is infectious by the way) and to top it off I left a juicy €1 tip for her. Big spender right?
The point of this story is to make yourself or even other people happy you need to smile more often. Walk around all day with a glum face and you'll hate your job, your life and anything else you can think of. Smile more; it makes like a hell of a lot easier for everyone involved. I smile all the time around my clients. They might not like it at times but it sure as hell brightens up the room a bit.
#2 Get Up Earlier
Getting out of bed early is a slightly contentious topic nowadays. How could I possibly get up earlier. I'll be exhausted. I work all day. Please, you're just making excuses. We can all get out of bed a little earlier. What if I told you I get more work done between the hours of 5.30am and 8.30am than I would between 9pm and 5pm? Sounds crazy right? It's not. Think about it for a minute; what else is happening at that time of the day? Is the rest of your family in bed catching zzzz's? And guess where else lies dormant at that time of the morning? Social media.
You won't believe how much more productive you're going to be by getting out of bed early.
Find it too hard to get out of bed? No problem. Here are some solutions for you;
1.Get to bed earlier the night before. No need for that extra hour of pointless television, it's just clogging your brain with other people's pointless drama filled lives.
2.Get better quality sleep. Is your room pitch black? Have you turned out ALL the shining LED's? Have you turned your phone off? Have you relaxed and unwound, perhaps with a book before bed? Have you kept sugar low in the hours leading up to sleep?
These are all things that contribute to your sleep quality. You might sleep soundly for 8 hours, BUT it's the quality of that sleep that's important. Do you wake up refreshed? No? Then it's highly likely your sleep quality need improvement.
#3 Help More People
I've made it a point over the past 1-2 months to help more and more people. You don't have to get paid for this. You don't have to expect something in return. As we speak I'm in the process of taking 40 self-conscious college girls through a 6 week body transformation program and I'm helping 17 others get in shape before Christmas for absolutely nothing. There are two reasons I did this. Firstly, I firmly believe that the more you help others the more you will get what you want. Not only will you get what you want in the long run but you'll feel better about yourself happy in the knowledge that you're working hard to make other people's lives more enjoyable. I am fully convinced this good will is going to come back at me in the next 60-90 days.
Ask yourself, what is it you can do to help the lives of others today?
Remember, by helping others you're inadvertently helping yourself.
#4 Read More
When I say read more I mean you should read books that will either educate or inspire you in some way. Stop wasting your time with BS books that have no impact on your life whatsoever. Ask yourself after you read each book; what have I learned here that can improve my life some way? If you've learned nothing or had no enlightenment whatsoever from a book then it's of no use to you. Here are seven books I've read in the past month. All of which have had a profound impact on my outlook on life, my productivity and my happiness. You're probably thinking quietly to yourself that you don't have time to read one book let alone seven of them. Make better use of your time. When you're waiting in the doctor's office, parked outside the train station to pick up your girlfriend, sitting in a coffee shop waiting 30 minutes for your friends; use these times to read or listen to something educational. You have so much more time that you realise. Put your phone away, Facebook can wait, email can wait. Get educated.
Each one of these books has helped with progress, develop and create the life that I'm after. Oh, and by the way, reading makes you happy too.
#5 Have Planned Downtime
I try to meet at least one of my friends each weekend. It doesn't have to be for long, even just an hour once each week. Most of the time we don't even do much but what we do get to do is talk. That's right, we talk. Talking with like-minded people, laughing and joking with your friends, these both make a huge difference to the quality of your life. Interaction with people makes for a happy life. You might think, but I interact all day at work. It's not the same. A relaxed environment with people you aren't paid to be around is key. Here's what I did this past weekend. It was a bit more than an hour. Actually, it was pretty much the entire weekend but it was awesome.
Friday evening: I hung out with a lovely girl.
Saturday: I got up and headed to work from 7-11. I got back, had breakfast and went out with that same girl from last night until 5pm. At about 6.30pm I went for dinner with a good friend of mine who lives out of town. We went to a quiet bar, met another pal, had two hot whiskeys and headed for home.
Sunday: I worked first thing in the morning, headed to the gym, got breakfast on my own (I'm not a hypocrite, I had my book), had dinner with my parents and grandparents. From there I came back to the house and read for the rest of the evening.
What a great weekend. I didn't get up to much but nonetheless I got my work done and relaxed with family and friends for the rest. These things make a huge difference to your mood, and of course my productivity this week is back up to an all-time high.
Closing Thoughts
These are just 5 Tips to Boost Your Mood and Productivity that you can incorporate into your life today to change it for the better. It's time you stopped being unhappy and unproductive. Smile, work smart. Things are already looking better I'll wager.
"When I'm sad, I stop being sad and be Awesome Instead" (Barney Stinson)
If you don't know who Barney Stinson is then shame on you. This is the only time you're allowed to watch TV.
Stay Healthy,
Andrew Beatty.