13 Feb 6 Simple Habits to keep you Consistently Happy Every Day
by Joel Gascoigne from Fast Company
It’s a little over three years since I first had the idea for Buffer, and I’ve started to notice a few patterns amongst the ups and downs that come with building a startup.
One of the most important things I’ve learned during this time is that I perform the best when I’m happy. It really does change everything. If I’m happy then I’m more productive when hacking code, I’m better at answering support, and I find it easier to stay focused.
I’ve found that there are a few key habits which, for me, act as great rituals for enabling me to be consistently happy. They also act as anchor activities to bring my happiness level back up quickly whenever I have a period where I’m not feeling 100%. Here are six of the things I do:
1. WAKE UP EARLY
One of the things I love about running my own startup is that I have complete freedom to experiment with my daily routine.
Through experimentation, I’ve found that waking up early every day makes me feel most invigorated and happy. It gives me a great start to the day, and this almost always leads to a great rest of the day. Over time, I’ve found I crave that “early morning” feeling, a time I can do some great work and be super focused. Gretchen Rubin from The Happiness Project mentioned something similar a recent article:
“I get up at 6:00 a.m. every day, even on weekends and vacation, because I love it.”
Waking up early every day requires discipline, especially about what time I sleep. Right now, I have a sleep ritual of disengaging from the day at 9:30 p.m. and sleeping at 10 p.m. I now love all aspects of this ritual and with it in place I awake at 6 a.m. feeling fresh.
The power with your mornings is that you will have about 25,000 of them in your life, so there’s a lot of room to experiment.
2. EXERCISE DAILY
“We found that people who are more physically active have more pleasant-activated feelings than people who are less active”–Amanda Hyde
In the last three years, I’ve gone from dabbling with exercise to it becoming something I do every weekday without fail. At first I had no idea what to do at the gym, so I asked my brother, who’s a personal trainer. I then went a few times with a good friend and soon I was hooked.
Over time, I developed this into a daily ritual so strong that I feel a pull towards it, and by doing it consistently I feel fantastic and can more easily take on other challenges. I recently discovered that exercise is a keystone habit which paves the way for growth in all other areas. I’ve also found that it helps me to get high-quality sleep each night…
…keep reading HERE for more tips