If You Do These 7 Things Today, Your Future Self Will Thank You
Self-improvement tips for the ambitious soul.
Self-improvement tips for the ambitious soul.
The biggest regret you’ll have when you look back in time is not giving it your best shot in whatever assignment you were working on.
In this post, we’ll discuss seven things you can do right now that your future self will thank you for later.
Before we begin, let me state clearly that all of these tips and insights are not only based on my personal experience but are also backed by science. And believe me, I won’t give you any generic advice like working out every day, waking up at 5:00 a.m., or going to the gym for five hours. Instead, the tips mentioned in this piece will be easy to practice and incorporate into your daily routine.
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1. Working out intuitively
As I mentioned at the start of this article, I won’t promote a toxic gym or diet culture, nor will I urge you to go to the gym every day.
But it’s critical to include some sort of exercise regime in your daily routine. Science has confirmed that movement of any sort is medicine, and your body needs to do it as much as possible.
Nevertheless, you don’t require to follow a strict HIIT workout or a weightlifting plan. Instead, learn to make your daily movements more intuitive and you’ll notice that your workouts become intuitive too.
What you need to do is figure out what kind of movements (exercises) feels best for your body and do them on a regular basis. As a result, they will no longer seem like a tedious task, and exercise becomes second nature to you.
I know this is achievable because I began my fitness journey in 2020 with HIIT workouts. It involved some intense and tiring sessions that helped me drop more than 10 kgs in 2 months. But since I never really enjoyed doing it, I tried pilates, weightlifting, etc, and eventually settled on yoga as it made my body feel the healthiest and improved my mood for good.
The takeaway here is that you need to discover the type of workout that fits into your body type the best and have fun working out.
2. Reading for 30 minutes every day
I know this sounds like a piece of cliche advice, but reading anything for at least 30 minutes a day, whether it’s an article, a blog post, or a book, is a really underrated habit. Several research papers have shown that it stimulates the brain, and promotes creative thinking and unique ideas.
If you make reading a regular habit, you can increase the quality of your life by coming up with better ideas and having more inspiration and drive to act on them.
Additionally, reading for 30 minutes each day equals 30 minutes less spent on social media. And we all know that no matter what we do, social media is never beneficial for our health, and your future self will thank you for developing a reading habit.
3. Replacing your phone with an alarm clock
I recently watched a video in which three people undertook an experiment of replacing their phone with an alarm clock every night before bed. The results were spectacular. This seemingly trivial task increased their productivity and helped them stick to their morning routines. They didn’t feel as drained or fatigued as usual at the end of the day before going to bed.
I tried replacing my phone with an alarm clock, and am already in love!
If you do the same, you won’t reach for your phone as soon as you wake up. Thus, you won’t end up spending two or three hours in bed just scrolling through Instagram. Similarly, before going to bed, you won’t waste half an hour scrolling through your Instagram feed while waiting for sleep to come.
Rest assured this can be a life-changing experience. All it takes is one little purchase of an alarm clock. Try this for at least seven days and let me know your experience on the same.
4. Building an online personal brand
Again, you might think you don’t require a social media presence. But given how the world is evolving and the way big companies are investing in data, the metaverse, and the internet in general, trust me when I say that the world wide web will become an important part of our lives as the years pass.
If you have a personal brand or your community online, it can always help you no matter what you do.
For example, if you enjoy composing music but are now employed in a corporate position, you may decide to leave your job and pursue music full-time in five years. At that time, if you already have an established presence online, would be much easier to make your first sales.
When it comes to building a personal brand, think about where you want to get in five years rather than who you are today, and then carefully curate your content to reflect this vision whilst building a community
If you are looking to utilize LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking site to build a personal brand online, then I have a very special surprise for you. I’ve put together a checklist of everything you need to know about optimizing your LinkedIn profile and building a great personal brand.
5. Eating intuitively
Again, I’m not a big supporter of the diet culture or being too rigorous with yourself and solely sticking to a certain diet.
However, I can vouch for the fact that intuitive eating has the potential to transform your life in ways you’ve never thought. All you have to do is consume whole foods that are cooked from scratch. Gravitate towards foods that aren’t too processed or include large amounts of sugar.
When I say intuitive, I don’t imply that you should follow any diet regulations.
Instead, eat whatever you want as long as it stays within certain limits. I know it’s very difficult to give up your favorite burger and fries, but it’s more important to educate and keep yourselves from becoming obese and having to face health problems in your thirties and forties.
So, if you want to stay young and strong even at 60, eating properly is critical. I’m not a nutrition expert, I can’t tell you what you need to eat, but it’s always a good idea to conduct your own research and only eat foods that are compatible with your body, and with respect to environmental conditions at the place you reside.
Regardless of your constraints, having a healthy food plan and sticking to it is possible. If you have been following a healthy diet plan and have discovered the foods that help you keep in shape and feel active all day, please do feel free to share them in the comments section.
6. Having at least seven to eight hours of sleep
We live in a world where hustle culture is looked upon as an achievement. People frequently discuss how they work 12 hours a day. Exhaustion is seen as a badge of honor, but trust me when I say that no one will look back on their past and say, “Wow, I worked so hard. I’m overjoyed.”
Instead, you’ll recall all the small moments when you were truly joyful, laughing, enjoying life, and having a good time.
For this, it’s critical you take some time off of your hectic schedule to sleep. This simple joy in life will be much appreciated by you.
Aside from that, we all know how important sleep is for brain repair, improving our ideas, and boosting our metabolism. So, no matter how much work you have on your desk, it’s vital that you take your daily dose of sleep. As a result, when you wake up the next day, you’ll be refreshed and ready to tackle your tasks.
7. Curating your online feed
In the age of the internet, it’s easy to access information. The news we see on the internet is almost always full of negativity, toxicity, and hatred. To avoid falling into the trap of constantly feeding your brain negative information, it’s critical to filter and curate your feed such that you only see content that makes you feel energized and excited.
If it needs you to quit viewing the news, then so be it.
In fact, at the peak of the pandemic in 2020, I was so disturbed by reading the newspaper that I made the decision to stop reading the news because everything was distressing irrespective of the page I flipped to.
And since then I have had such a peaceful life.
Of course, there are other ways to stay informed and up to date on current events. However, this is dependent on the type of person you are and the types of news that interest you. And it’s critical to do so by deliberately curating your newsfeed rather than reading every poisonous or unpleasant thing that appears on your phone.
Conclusion
These are the seven things that I believe your future self will be grateful for if you do them today.
Please let me know if you have anything else to contribute to this list. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter. Please share this article with your friends whom you believe can benefit from reading this!
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