How's Your HAPPINESS FLOW?

How's Your HAPPINESS FLOW?

Do you ever find yourself so completely immersed with WHAT you're doing that you tend to lose track of time?  All of a sudden you look up the time and realize that hours have passed and you missed your meal?  Let's pause and think a minute about this.  WHEN does this loss of time and total engagement typically occur for you?  True, this loss of consciousness that happens WHEN you are completely absorbed in an activity has been coined by psychologists as that STATE OF FLOW.  And in order for a FLOW STATE to occur, you must see the activity as voluntary, enjoyable, and it must require skill and be challenging with clear goals towards success.  Hobbies such as chess are a great example of implementing and experiencing that STATE OF FLOW.  Yes, I admit I spend on average, an hour for my chess games on my smartphone as this dovetails to our HAPPINESS FLOW???

So, How's Your HAPPINESS FLOW?  A growing body of scientific evidence indicates that flow is highly correlated with HAPPINESS.  Studies also show that people WHO experience a lot of FLOW regularly also develop other positive behavioral traits like increased concentration, self-esteem and performance.  With today's age of growing distractions, frustrations and uncertainties, let's admit it's difficult to attain genuine HAPPINESS💦💦💦

BUT there is hope though.  And psychologist advise us to start by lowering our stress levels as studies show, that leads to one's improved resilience in the face of adversity.  And we're advised that on the surface, let us be incisive to detect when our mind starts to be 'WANDERING' because at worst, it could lead to a spiral of despair.  Hurdling it could give you a head start going into that 'HAPPY ZONE' when we're expected to be completely engaged and absorbed, WHERE time flies happily by and WHERE toxic thoughts are banished from our mind❌❌❌

Moreover, we are advised to identify and build our personal HAPPINESS-boosting inner strengths to make us even stronger.  A recent study showed that people WHO identified their key strength and used it in a new way each week did significantly increase HAPPINESS and conversely reduce depression.  BUT the challenge for us is to discover within yourself how to better deal with adversity [WHEN it hits us hard] and taking the next step of building strong relationships with our family and friends.  At the end of that path, we should reap the benefits of developing gratitude with an unbridled optimism of our future😀😀😀

Our takeaway:  Barring outliers that can be attributed to 'Acts of God' [AOG], psychologists assure us that we have that human capability to enhance our ability to recognize and celebrate the simple pleasures in our daily life as they occur.  And without veering our careers towards psychology, we are encouraged to increase our awareness as regards POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY for us to focus to strengthening our character to enable us to build a life of meaning and purpose [and move BEYOND just surviving and flourish instead.  So, HOW'S YOUR HAPPINESS FLOW, dude?  That's NOT a long shot to achieve❗❗❗

Tough Times DON'T Last. Tough People DO.

Tough Times DON'T Last.  Tough People DO.

At some points [and probably many times more for some] in our life, financial discouragement plagues all of us from time to time.  So, IF you're discouraged by your situation today, there are some things you can do to counter those feelings and even ramifications arising from your situation.  BUT over and above, the most important thing to consider is that Tough Times DON'T Last.  Tough People DO.  This may be an oft-quoted one-liner but this says a mouthful.  One day your next-door neighbor came home with a brand new SUV and you end up overwhelmed with those feelings of desire and even envy.  WHEREAS before you could buy a new car, times could have changed, things are 'different' now📗📙📘

BUT WHEN things change, please DON'T take it NEGATIVELY.  Maybe things changed now because you DON'T make financial-related decisions impulsively [as in the past WHEN you even seem to live a life of a one-day millionaire].  By that time, the car you amortized is now fully paid and it meets your family's current needs.  BUT still those feelings are bubbling up [unfortunately].  And just as soon as you recognize them, WHAT should we do?  Start ERASING those destructive attitudes that seem to be creeping back [to life].  BUT HOW?  Immediately and instantly replace those thoughts of your 'financial freedom' you're enjoying now.  NOT paying those cut-throat bank interest rates.  NOT getting tied to the atrocious insurance premiums rammed through your throat as a condition by your banker/creditor.  In short, try to instantly replace NEGATIVITIES with POSITIVE ones💧💧💧

BUT here's the catch.  NO one else can become your surrogate counsellor WHO can help you fight off those NEGATIVITIES.  BUT regardless of the tough circumstances we face in life, the fact is there is always HOPE even in the worst situation.  Over four years ago WHEN I started my personal blogsite, I never had the slightest intention of turning this into more or less a permanent venture [non-profit, BTW] nor did I realize that this will carry me this long and this far because honestly, I would give credit to the Covid-19 pandemic for triggering me to exploit to the hilt my blogging capabilities.  BUT it does and here I am.  Though, NOT without challenges.  And certainly NOT without some levels of appreciation with me sometimes hitting the LOWs, and sometimes hitting the HIGHs.  And a few times, I am squeezed between my passion for blogging versus those times when I need to go offline [for days] to go on a holiday💥💥💥

Looking back, me thinks that perhaps it was that eternal optimism that has gotten me this far in the first place. And the prospect of eventual success worthy of the sacrifices made by pursuing writing like a pseudo full-time commitment and even entertaining the thoughts of pursuing my blogging and foregoing that uncontested security of a full time job.  BUT the truth is, there are days WHEN I feel I am tested and challenged to 'stay the course' and NOT to 'jump ship'.  BUT lest we forget, challenges do persist from time to time.  BTW, challenges can't be stricken off permanently.  So, WHAT we need to do is to develop that character to handle that success 'WAITING' to reward our perseverance down the road😊😊😊

Our takeaway:  Truth is, one's character is never developed by those WHO are handed or born into success [ like those fortunate scions WHO were born with a silver spoon].  Instead, we need to develop that character to give us that needed depth and achieve a brighter perspective WHEN we do make it, because by then, we would have 'earned' that level of success we have hungered for so long.  In a nutshell, just like the seasons that change and the clouds that give way to the sun, we must remember that so do our circumstances.  NO challenge, regardless of HOW intense, is permanent.  TOUGH TIMES DON'T LAST.  TOUGH PEOPLE DO!!!

Have You Unlocked Your Potential YET?

Have You Unlocked Your Potential YET?

The past years, I had the honor to cross paths with senior executives in the industries WHERE I worked, people who have established their niche.  BUT I often asked myself, Have You Unlocked Your Potential YET?  Ambitious professionals often spend a substantial amount of time thinking about strategies that will help them achieve greater levels of success.  They strive for a more impressive job title, higher compensation, and responsibility for more sizable revenues📗📙📘

NOW, a bit of alignment makes sense because we always hear UNLOCKING POTENTIALS but famous American coach and writer Tony Robbins argues that everyone has the POTENTIAL already and WHAT's needed instead is for us to UNLOCK our capacity on the basis that our brains already have that capacity in place📌📌📌

In the field of psychology, they coined the term 'ACQUIRED SAVANT SYNDROME' where it involves some people who got into a major accident and WHEN he wakes up, he's speaking another language OR suddenly, he's playing the piano but that is a rarefied few.  WHAT this tells us though is that our brains may actively suppress certain functions in order to help us focus on our primary needs💥💥💥

HOW we can unlock our potential is no simple formula though BUT that long arduous journey starts with a small step in our own BELIEF.  As they say, for you to have an extraordinary life, you must have that unstoppable BELIEF in yourself, that burning desire for unlocking your own potential and seeing + believing WHERE and HOW far it can take you.  I'll give credit to my own BELIEF in myself long time back WHEN no one flies in as a tourist for a week yet he has secured confirmed week-long interviews with prospective employers.  YES I did that BTW💧💧💧

Our takeaway:  WHEN you believe in something deep enough, it will come into your life.  They call it LAW OF ATTRACTION and it's the key to unlocking potential.  BUT experts counsel us that for it to make it work for you, we have to dump out in the window all forms of NEGATIVE thinking.  True, DOUBT BREEDS DOUBT BUT hey dude, do you believe that SUCCESS does breed SUCCESS?  YES dude, you can UNLOCK YOUR POTENTIAL yet😁😁😁

Does DISCIPLINE Top It All?

I think everyone will agree that for the longest time, we were always shaped and influenced by the discipline-centric approach our parents, teachers and mentors always inculcated in us [as part of our progressive growth].  And as we get into adulthood, we would hear left, right and center, everyone talks PRODUCTIVITY and as a confluence of events, PRODUCTIVITY and DISCIPLINE get tied-up and mapped.  How often do we hear: I FAILED TO BE PRODUCTIVE BECAUSE OF MY DISCIPLINE but Does DISCIPLINE Top It All???

In the end, we would harp and tell ourselves that we want to be DISCIPLINED in WHAT we're working on, WHETHER it's being at work OR as trivial as waking up early OR performing our other daily routines.  So, I did think that to be consistent and productive, the key was DISCIPLINE, DISCIPLINE and DISCIPLINE and simply doing my thing.  In the past, I have to admit that I ended up forcing myself to just keep working HARD by using and pushing my WILLPOWER to deal with intermittent procrastination and frankly, sometimes even laziness WHEN it creeps.  And frankly, that was a despicable situation for me when sometimes I did procrastinate, finding myself getting dragged into my old despicable old habits, WHICH sometimes I realized things were getting worse💥💥💥

End result?  I got stressed no end until it reached a point WHEN it seemed that I DIDN'T enjoy my work [at that time, and that was quite a donkey years ago].  And WHAT followed next was the dominos began to fall one by one.  I started to sleep late, even struggling to wake up come next morning.  And even after I would wake up, I would end up scrolling my Blackberry mails until I feel 'READY' to start my day.  Then the burnout comes in.  Then, I end up telling myself that I'm burned out.  Unfortunately, I started getting confused because I was doing a balancing act handling my concurrent projects.  Even so, I failed to get back on track and by then I realized that I f*cked up❎❎❎

To deal with my dilemma, I thought I needed to find my inner self again and as an aftermath of my soul searching, the lesson I learned is that being DISCIPLINED, consistent OR even productive in our daily work is actually more about LOVING the work than merely working HARD!  And that reinforced my belief that if you LOVE YOUR WORK, you will mostly do the HARD WORK WITH EASE, OR even if you DON'T notice it, by then you already have WORKED HARD ENOUGH.  So, I reckoned that this boils around on loving WHAT we do and that egged me to even plan HOW to make my work FUN by making my favorite coffee blend with a mix of music before I work😌😌😌

Our takeaway:  Let's dice and drill here.  WHAT are the pressing reasons to do WHAT WE LOVE?  Enjoying your career should be a priority over earning a high salary OR a flashy title BUT that may NOT have been the case WHEN you first considered WHAT you wanted to do for a career.  NOW, WHAT do we expect if we will LOVE the work we do?  Topping the list is, we are almost assured that we will feel more FULFILLED.  As the lines between working life and personal life blur, a job is as much about personal fulfillment and growth as it is about a paycheck, right?  YES, I can assure you HOW I felt when I started loving my work then.  I felt MORE productive.  NOT because I worked less then BUT because I started loving WHAT I was doing.  Bottomline here is that the main reason to do WHAT we love is our HAPPINESS.  Finding that place will NOT only provide contentment BUT also make us more motivated and yes, more productive.  Word of caution though.  We're NOT dumping the need for DISCIPLINE, dude!!!

NO Sirrrrs, Life Is NOT A Rehearsal!

NO Sirrrrs, Life Is NOT A Rehearsal!

Each of us is born, spending all our days searching for peace, success, love, happiness, freedom, name it [until one day, we die].  Some people leave a positive legacy behind WHILE others leave a 'NOT SO' positive one.  Some people contribute to the lives of their fellow men WHILE others only take from society.  And some people have a positive impact on the world WHILE others end up creating a negative impact. Oh NO Sirrrrs, Life Is NOT A Rehearsal!!!

WHAT befuddles me is the very huge difference between those two kinds of people BUT frankly, we CAN'T end up defending people WHO end up creating MORE negativity than ever.  Instead, let's admit it that each one of us has a unique gift of a new day, a new chance and even a new responsibility to serve if we are blessed enough to see another sunrise.  YES dude, LIFE IS NOT A REHEARSAL or something later OR better💥💥💥

Instead, each day is the FIRST & LAST ACT of your personal performance in our respective lives.  Some people seem to live with the illusion that life will be better WHEN they are older, wiser, richer, happier, busier, better looking.  NOT SO.  Life is either good OR NOT good now, regardless of your circumstances.  TRUE, you may be richer later BUT WHO is to say you will need OR even want the wealth later WHEN the truth is, you may be wiser later in life BUT WHO is to say you're NOT wise now?  YES, you may be more famous later BUT WHAT does real fame mean???

NOW, let's call a spade a spade.  So many people do chase the illusions of life with that rigorous zeal hoping that somehow, life will be better in some way BUT there CAN'T any guarantees that they will work OR we will be able to enjoy OR benefit from them.  So, let's bask in the shadow of sunshine OR the shade, WHICHEVER you prefer now, be happy now, have fun NOW, love NOW, spend money NOW, save for the rainy days NOW and feel gratitude for the life you have, NOW it's all that is guaranteed.  It DOESN'T really get better [and this depends on HOW each of us chooses to define 'BETTER'] later, just different.  IF you're NOT happy WHERE you are now, it's unlikely you will be even happier WHERE you AREN'T yet or will be because life is NOT about tomorrow OR yesterday because this is all about NOW.  So, if you forgot about the lines, today is NOT the rehearsal.  Today it's SHOWTIME, dude!!!

Our takeaway:  HOW many times we personally someone causing OR doing a fumbling act and retorts that he'll retry the same thing 'NEXT TIME'.  Alas, UNKNOWNST to some of us, frankly in life, there is NO 'NEXT TIME'.  Your time is 'UP' right now and it will NOT repeat tomorrow because come next hour, next day, next time, it will be a totally different time expecting you to perform that will be appropriate enough for that day and time.  So, let's keep in mind that everyone WHO excels in any area of life, and that includes athletes, actors, parents, teachers and even students, they hone their skills, they get prepared to be ready for that NEXT ACT [WHICH IS NOT A REHEARSAL].  So, WHAT'S your life routine for getting better every day?  WHAT was the last book you read, the last seminar you voluntarily attended?  IF it's NEITHER OF THE ABOVE, DON'T be surprised if failure OR disappointment happens next.  Good luck, dude!!!

When was your GREATEST COMEBACK in your life?

 

When was your GREATEST COMEBACK in your life?  Surely you had a handful at the very least.  Yes, I had tons of it and I would always leverage on my GREATEST COMEBACKS.  You might wonder, WHAT makes me leverage on those GREATEST COMEBACKS WHEN many would claim that the PAST IS PAST?  Yes dude, for very insightful reasons, from time to time, we need to go back down memory lane and leverage on our GREATEST COMEBACKS?  BUT you might challenge me that by then, the luster is gone. BUT hey, if you got knocked down in your life [WHETHER it's about your job, your health, your finances OR your relationships with your loved ones], WON'T you agree that that luster will continue to shine for the longest time☝☝☝

SO HOW?  Let's leverage on those COMEBACKS as our inspiration IF and WHEN we get knocked down again.  We never know, right, IF and WHEN lightning will hit us again [as I DON'T buy WHAT they claim that lightning strikes once only].  Here's the thing.  Success AIN'T about avoiding another fall.  Success is about getting back up after life takes the best [or the worst] out of us.  YES very true, sometimes life will hit us hard BIG TIME and lead you to question everything about life💥💥💥

And based on the bruises and multiple knockdowns I had to endure in the past, trust me, WHEN you get hit hard, sometimes you end up questioning everything you thought you knew about yourself.  And YES, it's irrelevant as to how much monies [OR wealth] you've got OR WHAT car you drive OR HOW good-looking you are WHEN wearing a suit.  Life's gonna humble you BUT those KNOCKDOWNS are necessary❗❗❗

YES please, DON'T whack me for bluntly stating that those knockdowns are necessary.  WHO can claim that your resilience and fortitude got reinforced WHEN you had those multiple streaks of successes?  NO sirrrrrrrrs.  You can count all your successes in life BUT you pick up lessons from those KNOCKDOWNS, period.  Very true, I got stories for days about being down and out.  And those times shaped me, prepared me for more ordeals to come [NOT to scare, sometimes, you can get hit with a streak of KNOCKDOWNS too, whew] and I have to admit, the pain you'll go through may seem unprecedented❌❌❌

Oh Oh, I love this poster.  I CAN'T agree less.  Because the GREATEST COMEBACKS in life will likely NOT pertain to cars or material things BUT simply being HAPPY, period.  You can have all the material things in life BUT if you're NOT HAPPY, that's it, that's the worst KNOCKDOWN we can have in our life.  WHY?  Because material things CAN'T buy us that genuine, enduring and lasting HAPPINESS in life.  Living life and breathing life with a deep exhilaration of thankfulness and gratefulness because we walk up again to another bright day ahead.  YES dude, we do live on borrowed time.  WHO thought that so suddenly, the life of famous Taiwanese celebrity Barbie Hsu will be snapped [even WHEN she was in the midst of her Japan holidays?]  YES PLEASE, let us NOT forget those GREATEST COMEBACKs in our life because at the end of the day, we are the ultimate beneficiary💚💛💜

Are You An Interrupter? OR Overlapper?

Are You An Interrupter?  OR Overlapper?

Are You An Interrupter?  OR Overlapper? OR either one from time to time?  So, HOW is it in conversations, do you have that tendency to jump in before the other person is done speaking?  If so, you might be one we'll call as INTERRUPTER, OR in the most diplomatic way, you may be WHAT linguists call as 'COOPERATIVE OVERLAPPER'.  Unfortunately, either way does NOT absolve us for some very minor wrongdoing because like INTERRUPTING, COOPERATIVE OVERLAPPING can be perceived as rude OR dismissive in certain settings or even amongst people📗📙📘

To reference recent researches, COOPERATIVE OVERLAPPING occurs WHEN the listener starts talking along with the speaker, NOT to cut them off BUT rather to validate OR show they're engaged in WHAT the other person is talking about.  This is WHERE a gray area creeps in because when COOPERATIVE OVERLAPPING happens, somehow it encourages the speaker to keep going💥💥💥

Sometimes the cultural aspect creeps in as well just as a recent viral TikTok of a Jewish person WHO defended herself that to interject before the other person is done speaking is actually part of the Jewish style of conversation.  Luckily to most of us, in good conversations, there AREN'T any pauses BUT if there is one, that may be because someone DOESN'T want to be speaking anymore UNLESS they're visibly thinking OR chewing OR something.  BUT to many others, that is NOT the case though😌😌😌

Good enough, for people WHO share the same conversational style, COOPERATIVE OVERLAPPING often has the positive effect of 'greasing rather than gumming up conversations'.  BUT here's the catch.  Amongst those WHO DON'T have such similar conversational styles, it tends to have the opposite effect.  it can fluster the speaker, disrupt the flow of the conversation and may even be viewed as a sign of disrespect❌❌❌

Our takeaway:  There was this reawakening WHEN we got caught with that Covid-19 Pandemic.  Suddenly, Zoom meetings became the norm, the default.  And frankly, many of us were NOT calibrated enough as to HOW to get engaged in those Zoom calls.  BUT that was an outlier because everyday in our life, we got to be consciously aware of the other person's conversational style, lest we end up offending or even ruffling feathers that were seemingly unnecessary.  So, dude, ARE YOU AN INTERRUPTER?  OR OVERLAPPER???

Are You PRODUCTIVE Enough? Or Simply BUSY!@#$%?

NOT too long ago, leisure was seen and perceived to be prestigious enough.  Going out for your tennis, badminton OR zumba schedules after work meant you just ended a long day at work.  Today, that perception has been turned on its head and BUSYNESS has even become as the new status symbol.  With mixed feelings, BUSY people are considered important and impressive and many of us tend to be rewarded BUT Are You PRODUCTIVE Enough?  Or Simply BUSY!@#$%?

There's that anecdote of a new immigrant in the U.S. WHO was busy grappling to learn English fast enough.  So, WHEN he often heard people to be BUSY, he thought BUSY meant GOOD, so he was impressed that there were many GOOD people in America.  Researches were also made and by all counts, nearly eight out of 10 would reply that they were BUSY.  Those researches further bolstered the fact that these times around, our days are becoming increasingly jampacked, literally and figuratively speaking.  And shockingly, researchers often heard "NEVER HAD ENOUGH TIME' for close to 90% as recent as this year.  NOT to blame technology but BUSYNESS has even been likened to the multitasking of a Bluetooth device who seems to be in that multi-tasking cycle no end💧💧💧

Shockingly, recent studies in the United States, France and South Korea showed that people WHO exerted 'high effort' were considered 'MORALLY ADMIRABLE' regardless of their output, whew.  Alas, in the business world, BUSYNESS is NOT a virtue anymore and it is long past time that organizations have stopped lionizing it.  Evaluating employees on HOW busy they are is a terrible way to identify the most creative and productive talent💥💥💥

Ironically, studies showed that WHEN some organizations [fortunately, our company is NOT one of them] tend to overload employees and base their incentives primarily on the amount of time they work, and excessively monitor their activities, productivity and even efficiency really dropped. Exhaustion among employees can even contribute to attrition, so in the end, this misplaced metrics will backfire to the organization❌❌❌

Our takeaway:  Another insightful research did hit me hard WHEN I remember one of their statements that 'SCARCITY, WHY HAVING TOO LITTLE MEANS SO MUCH' and the analogy is with a person whose car has problems and the repairs mean he has to fork out $1,500 [BUT alas, he does not even food on the table, so to speak].  So, WHAT happens next is that he ends up with decisions that are dumber than ever and this analogy carries over to the person constrained with TIME.  The lesson learnt here is that WHEN we have too little of something that is important to us, we tend to become a little dumber, and even less disciplined and we end up with poor choices.  This helps explain, among many other things as to WHY poor people end up with 'greedy loan sharks'  WHEN they should know for a fact that they just end up deeper in that hole.  Final question dude.  ARE YOU PRODUCTIVE ENOUGH?  OR SIMPLY BUSY???

Should Temptations Be Avoided Rather Than Resisted?

For the longest time, our parents, teachers and mentors kept teaching us to RESIST TEMPTATIONS, right?  And to give credit WHERE credit is due, most of us did 'toe the line',  BUT alas, that was the old school of thought.  Fast forward to today, Should Temptations Be Avoided Rather Than Resisted?  I remember sharing this personal info to some of my friends that WHEN 2024 clocked-in, I started a daily early morning walking habit.  My goal ISN'T to be in tip-top shape BUT at least, to be responsible enough with my health and wellness.  And I'm confident that the benefits [from the sun and air] of exercise will do wonders for me and will likely compound over time📗📘📙

Frankly, it can take anywhere between a few weeks to several months to form a new habit [depending on the habit though].  To borrow a technical jargon from scientists, they call this 'self-directed neuroplasticity' because we're intentionally creating a new set of cues, actions, and even rewards for ourselves.  And psychologists claim that WHO can effectively build and break HABITS usually have higher levels of baseline self-control.   The interesting part is HOW these 'SELF-CONTROLLERS' deal with temptations💦💦💦

Along these lines, I came across this quotable quote:  PEOPLE WITH HIGH-LEVEL OF SELF-CONTROL ARE GOOD AT AVOIDING TEMPTATION [AND NOT RESISTING IT].  On the other hand, there are studies which point that people with the highest levels of self-control are actually more likely to be tempted by everything they're trying to resist.  So, perhaps without realizing WHY, they intentionally set up their lives in such a way that they'll avoid things that tempt them❎❎❎

Before I get suspected as a hypocrite, I'll be the first to admit that it's HARD to resist temptations.  Picture the gap between wanting something and having it.  We can imagine a rubber band stretched between you and another thing you want, pulling on you, drawing you toward that thing.  Thing is, we have a HARD time staying in that tension and resisting the pull.  So, we do things [like eating, buying, speaking to release the tension😖😖😖

Our takeaway:  This got me thinking.  Maybe getting the object of our desire ISN'T WHAT we really desire.  Maybe it's the desire itself WHICH we desire.  In other words, maybe it's more pleasurable to want things than to have them.  Think about a good movie you recently watched.  I bet the first few minutes introduced a problem and the rest of the movie was devoted to the tension of a protagonist WHO wants something, then he/she does NOT get it.  So, those good movies follow that formula to keep an audience engaged once the tension dissipates.  So, SHOULD TEMPTATIONS BE AVOIDED RATHER THAN RESISTED?  Absolutely dude, if you can!!!

 

Forcing A Task Upon Yourself

Forcing A Task Upon Yourself

The old school of thought always taught us that forcing yourself to do a TASK that you're procrastinating on doing ISN'T an enduring solution.  It is even argued that forcing yourself ignores the underlying FEAR of FAILURE, which then needs to be addressed if procrastination is to be endured, if at all.  So, should we still be Forcing A Task Upon Yourself📘📙📗

As studies showed, procrastinators usually will choose one marshmallow now rather than two later.  So, experts claim that key is to build the frustration tolerance of procrastinators.  Just for today, I wasn't in the mood to write our thread for today.  So, I procrastinated for a few hours, ending up doing less and instead, I grabbed on those 'pleasant' tasks.  I was finally able to get myself started by asking myself, WHAT do I need to do to get things done?  And then, I tasked myself to save the word document ASAP.  Then, I tasked myself to identify WHAT's the next sentence. At that point , I was hooked in writing our piece for today💦💦💦

Now, the other point at WHICH people tend to be procrastinating is WHEN reaching the 'HARD PART'.  Sounds familiar?  Oh Oh, I've been there, done that quite a few times in the past.  BUT if you ask me, WHAT happened next?  NADA, NICHTS, NOTHING.  Generally, UNLESS you've made progress in a minute, you're UNLIKELY to.  And you're most likely to NOT only give up on that task BUT you will even end up creating ab unpleasant memory of doing such tasks that it increases the tendency to procrastinate💧💧💧

Swinging back to myself, the HARDEST part when writing is to crystallize your thoughts and translate it into compressed statements WHICH later I'll craft into structured sentences.  YES, I'll admit that I do struggle along the way NOT because of compromised focus, NOT because of less drive BUT simply because I failed to hurdle the 'HARD' part.  Ultimately, I did progress after I kept thinking and trying out wordings.  Ultimately, procrastination is most likely to be cured by a factor that is not so obvious on the surface, and that's a person's unflinching deep sense of responsibility and that consistency to commit oneself to be even uncomfortable for the larger long-term benefit❌❌❌

Our takeaway:  People often think , WHEN they're tired OR DON'T feel performing a task, they believe their choices are either, #1 to force oneself to do the task anyway OR #2 let yourself 'off the hook'.  And WHILE there is nothing wrong with either of these choices, those are NOT the only choices at hand.  So, WHAT else can we do?  You can opt to take care of yourself and then COME BACK to the task WHEN you're ready for it.  OR, find a reason to do the task that inspires you to do it, even if you're tired, for example, if you knew that doing a task would save a million lives, you WON'T say that you're tired, right?  OR opt to find a creative approach that has you bringing play to the task WHILE also respective your fatigue for that ask.  So, dude, it's NOT FORCING A TASK UPON YOURSELF but EMBRACING it instead😊😊😊