7 Things Happy, Healthy People Do Every Morning When you get up in the morning, think of what a priceless privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to learn, to love – and then make the day count! The morning is extremely important. It is the foundation from which the day is built. How you choose to spend your morning can be used to predict what kind of day you are going to have, and thus, what kind of life you are going to live. Each morning truly is a brand new opportunity. Each day is another chance to get it right. The happiest, healthiest people I know embrace this truth and use it to their advantage. 1. In other words, they start the day with love in their hearts and minds, and are truly appreciative of their life and all of its priceless idiosyncrasies. From the research and coaching Angel and I have done over the years, we’ve found that the more a person is inclined to gratitude, the less likely he or she is to be depressed, anxious, lonely, envious, or neurotic. 2. Inhabit your morning completely. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Neil Gaiman’s 8 Rules of Writing By Maria Popova In the winter of 2010, inspired by Elmore Leonard’s 10 rules of writing published in The New York Times nearly a decade earlier, The Guardian reached out to some of today’s most celebrated authors and asked them to each offer his or her commandments. After Zadie Smith’s 10 rules of writing, here come 8 from the one and only Neil Gaiman: WritePut one word after another. For more timeless wisdom on writing, see Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 rules for a great story, David Ogilvy’s 10 no-bullshit tips, Henry Miller’s 11 commandments, Jack Kerouac’s 30 beliefs and techniques, John Steinbeck’s 6 pointers, and Susan Sontag’s synthesized learnings. Image by Kimberly Butler
Inspiring Morning Routines What I’ve Learned as a Writer By Leo Babauta I’ve been a professional writer since I was 17: so nearly 24 years now. I’ve made my living with words, and have written a lot of them — more than 10 million (though many of them were duplicates). That means I’ve made a ton of errors. Being a writer means I’ve failed a lot, and learned a few things in the process. Now, some of you may be aspiring writers (or writers looking for inspiration from a colleague). So for anyone interested in writing, I’d love to share what I’ve learned so far. Write every damn day. And one thing I’ve learned, above all, is this: the life that my writing has changed more than any other is my own.
9 Things You Should Do Every Day Before 9 A.M. The morning is enormously important. It’s the foundation from which the day is built. How you choose to spend your morning can be used to predict the kind of day you’re going to have. When I awake in the morning, my mind gradually gathers, and I begin to move as the early morning light is just starting to seep through the windows. My family is still sleeping. I stretch, have a glass of water, start the tea kettle, and practice a gratitude meditation for ten minutes. Once my family awakes, I pause to join them for a short time and we follow some simple morning rituals together too. This is just a rough sketch of my mornings, and they make me happy. It wasn’t always this way though. I’ve changed my mornings, so they work for me and not against me, with just a few simple rituals. 1. If your mornings are chaotic, the simple solution is to get up a little earlier than the chaos. 2. Begin each day with love, grace and gratitude. 3. 4. Another obvious practice that goes by the wayside… 5. 6. 7.
Anne Lamott’s Timeless Advice on Writing and Why Perfectionism Kills Creativity by Maria Popova “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life.” Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (public library) is among my 10 favorite books on writing — a treasure trove of insight both practical and profound, timelessly revisitable and yielding deeper resonance each time. One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. What makes Lamott so compelling is that all of her advice comes not from the ivory tower of the pantheon but from an honest place of exquisite vulnerability and hard-earned life-wisdom. I started writing when I was seven or eight. So she found refuge in books, searching for “some sort of creative or spiritual or aesthetic way of seeing the world and organizing it in [her] head.” I still encourage anyone who feels at all compelled to write to do so. But, one might wonder, why? Donating = Loving
8 Things Every Person Should Do Before 8 A.M. 8 Things Every Person Should Do Before 8 A.M. Life is busy. It can feel impossible to move toward your dreams. If you have a full-time job and kids, it’s even harder. How do you move forward? If you don’t purposefully carve time out every day to progress and improve — without question, your time will get lost in the vacuum of our increasingly crowded lives. As Professor Harold Hill has said — “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.” Rethinking Your Life and Getting Out of Survival Mode This article is intended to challenge you to rethink your entire approach to life. Sadly, most people’s lives are filled to the brim with the nonessential and trivial. They are in survival mode. Like Bilbo, most of us are like butter scraped over too much bread. It was social and cultural to live our lives on other people’s terms just one generation ago. You are the designer of your destiny. You are responsible. You get to decide. Let’s begin: 1.
Writer as Coder: The Iterative Way to Write a Book By Leo Babauta The traditional way of writing a book is like the old Microsoft model of developing software: you write it in isolation for a year or two, and then put it out as a fully-formed product. The problem with that method is that it’s never been tested in the real world. You don’t know if readers (or users) will want it, you don’t know where you’ve made huge mistakes, you don’t know how it will work in the wild. That “Microsoft” model of making programs has been replaced in the last decade or so by iterative programming, where you make a Minimum Viable Product as soon as possible, and let a small group of people (alpha or beta testers) use it and give you feedback and report bugs. Then a new version is made, more testing and feedback, and so on, making the product better and better each iteration. Unfortunately, we authors are still stuck in the Microsoft model when we’re writing a non-fiction book. The process is one of the best things I’ve ever done as a writer.
Creating a Lovely Morning ‘When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.’ ~Marcus Aurelius By Leo Babauta When I wake in the morning, my mind slowly gathers, and I begin to move, the early morning light just starting to seep in. I have a glass of water, start the coffee, then meditate. This is my Lovely Morning, and I get an inordinate amount of pleasure from it. It wasn’t always this way: I used to wake later, rush through a grumpy routine before diving into email and work and errands and meetings. I was wrong. I’ll share them with you here, and if you begin to enjoy the peace of your mornings more, send a smile in my general direction. Wake a little earlier. A Lovely Morning isn’t something that just falls into your lap — it’s created consciously. ‘Waking up this morning, I smile. Creating the Wake Early Habit It’s a slow, gradual habit change, which is what works best.
Masters of Habit: The Wisdom and Writing of Maya Angelou Sadly, Maya Angelou, the great American author and poet, has passed away. She was known for her award-winning autobiographies as well as for her numerous plays, scripts, poems, and essays. Her most famous work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, has sold millions upon millions of copies. Angelou is widely known as a voice for women, especially black women, and her works have courageously covered themes of identity, racism, and family. Maya Angelou’s Writing Routine As you may expect, Angelou’s creative genius didn’t expose itself without hard work. Here’s how she described her writing habits in 1983 interview with Claudia Tate (as covered in Mason Currey’s book Daily Rituals), I usually get up at about 5:30, and I’m ready to have coffee by 6, usually with my husband. Angelou’s routine and her willingness to sit down and do the work for at least five hours each day — even when it was going poorly — is just another indication that great artists don’t wait for inspiration. On identity…
The 7 Step Morning Ritual That Will Make You Happy All Day We read a lot about this or that morning ritual that will make you productive. But what about one that makes you happy? Research shows that being happy actually makes you more productive. What’s the first step? 1) Have Something To Look Forward To Happy mornings start the night before. Research shows anticipation is a powerful happiness booster. Got nothing you’re looking forward to? Via The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want: People prone to joyful anticipation, skilled at obtaining pleasure from looking forward and imagining future happy events, are especially likely to be optimistic and to experience intense emotions. (To learn how to be happier and more successful, click here.) Okay, you’ve got something you’re anticipating planned for the next day. 2) Manage Your Mood Research shows your mood in the morning affects your mood for the rest of the day: What makes you happy early in the day? Are you often stressed in the morning? And don’t check email first thing.
How to Write with Style: Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Keys to the Power of the Written Word – Brain Pickings Find a Subject You Care About Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style. I am not urging you to write a novel, by the way — although I would not be sorry if you wrote one, provided you genuinely cared about something. Do Not Ramble, Though I won’t ramble on about that. Keep It Simple As for your use of language: Remember that two great masters of language, William Shakespeare and James Joyce, wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound. Simplicity of language is not only reputable, but perhaps even sacred. Have the Guts to Cut It may be that you, too, are capable of making necklaces for Cleopatra, so to speak. Sound like Yourself The writing style which is most natural for you is bound to echo the speech you heard when a child. Say What You Mean to Say Pity the Readers