Life is stressful.
At least it's stressful if you're trying to improve any area of your life.
Although the end result may leave you in a position of greater comfort, the climb to the top is arduous. The bigger the reward, the greater the amount of work it takes to achieve it. The greater the amount of work, the greater the levels of stress you'll endure.
If you don't have a method for dealing with it, you will collapse under the pressure of your own work ethic.
I know this as well as anyone. For the better part of 4 years, I was simultaneously:
Just reading over that makes me wonder how I did it all. The good news is that it taught me a lot about what I'm capable of and--most importantly--how to manage a workload and relax at will. I'm not a medical professional, but this advice might save your life. At the very least, these tips for relaxation will DEFINITELY improve the quality of your life.
When you feel overwhelmed, it's natural to try and take care of everything that's on your plate. You feel like you should be doing everything, and you try to with half-assed multitasking. The problem with multitasking is that it does a lot of unimportant work in the shittiest way possible. You'd be better off if you did nothing at all.
Well, don't do that. Instead, zero in on a task and complete it.
Complete it to the best of your ability. It doesn't matter whether it's urgent or important. All that matters is that it's something that's been sitting on your mind. Do that task and nothing else, and you'll magically feel more in control. The added bonus is that one of the things that ways heavy on your mind will now be taken care of.
A few emails ago, I wrote about the magic of Google Keep. I love it because it allows me to create a checklist. Once I check something off, it's gone off the list. If I think of something that I need to do, I just add it to the list. I love technology. I wish I had something like this when I going through the most hellish parts of my self-improvement.
Lists allow you to get things out of your head and into the physical world without making an immediate commitment to them. Once it's out of your head, it can stop occupying space in your mind. When it's in your mind, it feels like a weight and it takes on a greater urgency that it deserves. Once it's out of your head, you're better able to assess it's actual importance and plan accordingly.
I have two stupid hobbies: I like going to the movies and I watch trashy television with my girlfriend. These hobbies allow me to completely shut my brain down and forget about all that I have going on. While it's important to be fired up, focused, and ready to put in work for the long haul, you need to be able to relax and enjoy life. Otherwise, what the hell is the point of working so hard?
An ideal hobby is something that you have zero desire or capacity to improve in. I can't get better at watching movies. I just sat back and enjoy the show. That's another part of the ideal hobby for those on the improvement path: it needs to be passive. If you spend most of your time making moves and conquering the world, you've earned the right to a little bullshit.
It doesn't have to be watching episodes of 90 Day Fiance, but if your hobby is exhausting, you're doing it all wrong.
It may seem like the easiest way to get extra time to get ahead on all of that work is to skip out on sleep, but don't do it. Any work you do in an exhausted state may as well have been work not done. Not only will it be low quality, but it will sap your enthusiasm, guaranteeing that you will produce garbage.
While my life isn't NEARLY as hectic as it was 3 years ago, I still have a lot on my plate. Sometimes I'm too fired up to sleep while other times I'm still anxious about the work on my plate. If you're one of those people who finds it difficult to sleep when they're worried about a project or they're too into it, try a sleep aid
I take 3-5mg of melatonin and a Good Vibes CBD. This combination makes it easy for me to sleep. The CBD removes the anxiety from my hectic work day while the melatonin helps me get into a deep sleep. Lately, I've increased the dose of CBD to their 4x concentration with some interesting results. It definitely makes me sleep deeper, as I've been lucid dreaming lately.
There's a sale until Valentines day if you want to try out this super concentrated version. For every bottle you pick up of the Super Vibes CBD, you get a free regular strength bottle. You can give it to someone special to help them relax or keep it as your own the nights when you don't need the help falling asleep.
This last tip is something that I only discovered at the tail end of my hellish self-improvement trials. When it feels like you don't have any energy or time left to focus on the essentials, it seems foolish to hit the gym or sit in silence. This seems counter-intuitive, but it's during the hectic moments in your life that you should be doing these things to keep you sane.
First, a clean mind and activated body gives your more energy. It better enables you to resist fatigue and illness. It also naturally makes you feel more motivated. A good workout always makes me feel like I can take on the world and 20 minutes in silence makes me feel like my mind can bend steel.
These five tips will help you stay on your game when you're busy taking on the world.
The rest is up to you.
