HERE ARE TIPS TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER

What are the best ways to make your life easier?

As you read through this list of simple living tips, I encourage you to think creatively about how you can apply these ideas to your own life. 

What works for me or others might not be appropriate in your life but I think most of the broader principles are universal tips to make life easier. 

Set Daily Goals: When you wake up every morning, try asking yourself “What do I need to do to have a good day today?” and then set your daily targets. 

It is very important that you ponder on this each morning, it is a powerful question for several reasons. 

First of all, it helps you to identify the priorities on your to-do list. Instead of beating yourself up, trying to get everything done, you can focus on what will really make a difference. This is key to having a productive day. 

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, this question reminds you to think about your wellbeing to avoid breaking down. 

I know, you’re busy and you need to do tough things, but you also need to make time for things that make you feel alive—even if it’s just something small. I know it feels counterintuitive but I promise that when you do, life will feel easier overall.

Don’t take things personally: This is very difficult for some, and something my wife is working on. It’s important to own your reality in life, not someone else's. If someone judges you it has more to do with them than you. Stop being a reactor person (bad temper), it is not every word/speech you must react to or respond to. 

Practice the PAUSE rule, one quick and easy tip that has made my life easier is learning to press pause. It helps me to slow down and make better decisions.

 

Relationships: When someone shows you who they really are, believe them the first time, but remember that once bitten, twice shy. Wasting time on toxic abusive people is mentally, and physically draining. Cultivate a healthy relationship with those who will have respect for each other. Help and Care for each other, Trust each other and to be honest and loyal with each other.

Someone that will take interest in one another's activities, Be in touch and spend time with each other regularly and those that will express themselves to one another without any fear.

Health: Taking care of general health, with proper nutrition is often overlooked. It sure can make life easier as you age. One vital thing that makes life more easier is not being tired and weigh down by sickness! 

Getting enough sleep is so important for your health and wellbeing but I know that eight hours a night on a regular basis is just not possible for me and for most people. I am not an early bird, my wife have tried to help me in this area. 

Having said that, I think getting eight hours of sleep at least once a week is possible if you commit to making it happen (occasionally I tried it and it worked for me). Make it a priority in your life—get a pizza that night or give yourself permission to leave the dishes in the sink if you need to.  Do whatever you can to get into bed early! 

I know this isn’t always possible for nursing mothers—my daughter nursed every two hours ALL NIGHT and it makes it difficult for my wife to sleep straight—but do the best you can. It really does make a huge difference. 

Solitude: Learn to be ok being alone. So many people have to be in a relationship. They have to be surround by tons of friends or somebody 24/7. You can learn a lot about yourself with some solitude. Don’t spend your whole life running from yourself. Never know who you are. Have a quiet time with youself and your Creator.

The benefits of being ALONE are numerous; It improve your Concentration and Memory. It help makes your interests a priority. It boost your creativity. It will also improves your relationships with your Creator and creation. You will be more Productive and lastly, You will be more empathetic.

Social Media: 95% of what you see or read on social media are fake. Everyone is just trying to portray an image to impress someone while underneath their life is nothing like they portray.

Social Media is categorize into two groups:

Group A, The Good

Social media and technology offer us greater convenience and connectivity:

For you staying connected with family and friends worldwide via email, text, FaceTime, etc.

There is quick access to information and research, banking and bill pay at our fingertips, online learning, job skills, content discovery (YouTube)

involvement in civic engagement (fundraising, social awareness, provides a voice)

great marketing tools.

There are opportunities for remote employment, Social media can be a good thing, but if  teens ever feel uncomfortable about something they see or read on social, they should trust their own feelings and talk to someone – a parent, a teacher, or another trusted adult. Bullying, threats and cruelty on social media are all signs that the person doing those things needs help.

Group B, The Bad and Ugly

Along with the good comes the bad and ugly. With all of its benefits, the nature of social media presents a range of potential issues.

Online vs Reality. Social media itself is not the problem. It is the way people use it in place of actual communication and in-person socializing. “Friends” on social media may not actually be friends, and may even be strangers.

Increased usage. The more time spent on social media can lead to cyberbullying, social anxiety, depression, and exposure to content that is not age appropriate.

Social Media is addicting. When you’re playing a game or accomplishing a task, you seek to do it as well as you can. Once you succeed, your brain will give you a dose of dopamine and other happiness hormones, making you happy. The same mechanism functions when you post a picture to Instagram or Facebook. Once you see all the notifications for likes and positive comments popping up on your screen, you’ll subconsciously register it as a reward. But that’s not all, social media is full of mood-modifying experiences.

Fear of Missing Out. FOMO has become a common theme, and often leads to continual checking of social media sites. The idea that you might miss out on something if you’re not online can affect your mental health.

Self-image Issues. Social media sites provide tools that allow people to earn others’ approval for their appearance and the possibility to compare themselves to others. It can be associated with body image concerns. The “selfieholics” and people who spend most of their time posting and scrolling are the ones most vulnerable to this. In fact, most college girls who use Facebook at least five times a day are likely to link their self-worth to their looks. That doesn’t mean that the main problem is social media; it only provides a medium for it, which further elevates the problem. It also promotes the same sort of behavior to others. 

Bullying. Sadly, there is an ugly side to all that technology offers. While bullying is not a new concept, social media and technology have brought bullying to a new level. It becomes a more constant, ever-present threat -- cyberbullying.

Life: Be easy on yourself, life can be tough sometimes. Negative self talk does no good, but a heightened sense of awareness does. Learn from the below quotes:

“The unpredictability of life

sucks. One minute you’re

riding high with the wind

whipping through your hair

and the next minute you’re

flat on your ass with a face

full of gravel.”

                            ― Alison G. Bailey, Present Perfect

“Let it rain on some days,

Let yourself shiver on some cold nights,

So when it's Spring you'll know why it was all worth going through.”

                                                       ― Sanhita Baruah

“Life is full of ups and downs, the only way to make the journey worthwhile is if you enjoy the good and learn from the bad.”

                                                          ― Natasha Potter

So, lastly, according to Debasish Mridha “Life has its ups and downs. When you are up, enjoy the scenery. When you are down, touch the soul of your being and feel the beauty.”

Gratitude List: Make a small list of 3 things you are grateful for each day.

Addiction: If you find yourself abusing alcohol, food or drugs address the issue. It won’t get better and there is a great life without the addiction.

SIMPLIFY YOUR FINANCES: Here are a few ways to simplify your finances.

Be realistic and create a plan that reflects your actual spending habits (not the ones you wish you had). Then with time, you can start making small changes to achieve your money goals. Whether you’re looking to create a personal budget spreadsheet or just get a better grasp on money management, start with these six steps.

Even if you don’t use a budget spreadsheet, you probably need some way of determining where your money is going each month. Creating a budget with a template can help you feel more in control of your finances and let you save money for your goals. The trick is to figure out a way to track your finances that works for you.

The following steps will help you to create a budget that will make your life easier:

Note your net income. The first step in creating a budget is to identify the amount of money you have coming in. Keep in mind, however, that it’s easy to overestimate what you can afford if you think of your total salary as what you have to spend.

Step 2: Track your spending. It’s helpful to keep track of and categorize your spending so you know where you can make adjustments. Doing so will help you identify what you are spending the most money on and where it might be easiest to cut back.

Step 3: Set your goals. Before you start sifting through the information you’ve tracked, make a list of all the financial goals you want to accomplish in the short-and long-term. Short-term goals should take no longer than a year to achieve. Long-term goals, such as saving for retirement or your child’s education, may take years to reach.

Step 4: Make a plan. Use the variable and fixed expenses you compiled to help you get a sense of what you’ll spend in the coming months. With your fixed expenses, you can predict fairly accurately how much you’ll have to budget for. Use your past spending habits as a guide when trying to predict your variable expenses. 

Step 5: Adjust your habits if necessary. Once you’ve done all this, you have what you need to complete your budget. Having documented your income and spending, you can start to see where you have money left over or where you can cut back so that you have money to put toward your goals. 

Step 6: Keep checking in. t’s important that you review your budget on a regular basis to be sure you are staying on track. You can also compare your monthly expenses to those of people similar to you. Few elements of your budget are set in stone: You may get a raise, your expenses may increase or you may have reached your goal and want to plan for a new one. Whatever the reason, keep checking in with your budget following the steps above.

Finally, don’t be afraid to use your money to make your life easier: hire a cleaner, take a class, invest in a therapist or whatever else YOU need. 

Differences: Don’t worry about being right or wrong. Don’t force your opinion on anyone. So much easier to “let it go” instead of wasting the energy, even if you know you are right.

Pain: Lastly, life is full of mental anguish. Learn to sit in that pain briefly, learn from it, and push through. The best way through a terrible situation is to keep moving, if you stop, life can seem unbearable. Do a pain point audit. 

Pay careful attention to all the pain points in your everyday life. Where is there friction? What is causing you stress? 

It could anything from the seemingly insignificant (you can never find your keys or your phone is always dead) to bigger hurdles (you really struggle with grocery shopping because you have three kids at home). 

They all matter; get specific about your pain points (even the tiny ones) and write them down. 

Next, get creative and look for the easiest possible way to remove the pain point. Buy a hook for your keys, put a phone charger in every room, or start ordering your groceries online. 

This might sound obvious but I promise you that when you intentionally do an audit like this, you see things—problems AND solutions—with new eyes. 

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