Each new day is a blank canvas to create. How will you organize your day to get the most out of it?
CAN ONLY OPTIMIZE FOR ONE THING AT A TIME
There’s a theory in neurology that you can only optimize for ONE thing at a time. The brain, at least the conscious brain, can only hold one thought at a time. So getting clear on what your going to optimize will put your mind to work on that one thing for as long as you concentrate on it.
That’s the key point – as many people find themselves distracted – which is putting your attention on things that you don’t really care to optimize for example: scrolling on social media or going down a rabbit whole and watching a bunch of random videos, or reading through all the negative news in a day. These things might optimize your curiosity and need to satisfy it. But that’s about it.
USING THE 7 MAJOR LIFE AREAS AS A STARTING PLACE FOR OPTIMIZATION
One way to think about your life is in major life areas that you want to optimize: Physical Health, Mental Health, Spiritual Health, Social Health, Emotional Health, Financial Health and Environmental Health. Come up with a number on a 1 – 10 of where you are right now and a vision of what a 10 would look like. And then come up with a theory on what it would take to move from where you are now to where you want to be – closer to a level 10. How could you test that theory out? This becomes what you concentrate on in the day and if you’re successful, you’ll be optimizing an area you really care about !
TURN WHAT WORKS IN A DAILY ROUTINE
As you discover what works, you can add it to a daily routine and then just track that daily routine with habit tracking apps, Chipits or even just a simple google sheet. The important thing is remember Cue, Response and Reward. The habit tracker is your cue, the action is your response and the reward is what you’ve just optimized by carrying out that action.
Today I write because this action helps me optimize my sense of adding value to people’s lives which makes me feel good. I’m optimizing the positive impact I want to leave on this world. That would be a kind of Social Health / Environmental Health optimization that I’m doing that also improves my Mental Health. In short, writing this article optimizes multiple areas at once.
SEE LIFE IS AN EXPERIMENT TO EXPERIENCE GREATER HAPPINESS
When you start thinking about the day as a blank canvas to optimize the things you truly care about, you realize the possibilities are limitless. Life is really just one big experiment to see how much juice you can get out of it. With the endless possibilities comes great responsibility for awareness, discernment and discipline. Making the right choices can be confusing at times but as more of your day becomes routine and you create templates for the things you want to do repeatedly.. including creating enough VARIETY and FLEXIBILITY in your day so you don’t get bored doing the same things over and over again – eventually you’ll find a formula that works for you and this will be your unique and personal happiness formula.
DISCOVERING YOUR OWN HAPPINESS FORMULA
I can only share my version of this formula but I can’t prescribe it. Personal happiness is more about having a menu of actions that you can choose from and choosing the things that you feel inspired to do at any given time. Not always forcing yourself even when there’s resistance, as that’s not fun and won’t bring you happiness. The same actions done in resistance can produce a very different experience. If it were as easy as discovering which actions create happiness and repeating them over and over again, it would be far easier thing to navigate. But in reality, we like the variance, we like the different flavors. We don’t want to do the exact same things every day. And the changing flow of life itself ensures we don’t get stuck in a rut even if we wanted to!
By tuning in, listening to your intuition, adapting to the changing tides of time and still having a structure around a daily routine or at least a MENU of daily things you can choose from to keep you on track and optimizing the areas you truly care about.. you’ll experience greater degrees of happiness and personal control over your day and life.
Have at it! Life is waiting.
Vision: To create a self-sustaining paradise on earth where individuals and communities thrive in interconnected eco-villages, transcending the ‘monkey mind’ and connecting deeply with their true selves and the environment. Through the power of optimization, we aim to elevate every facet of life, ensuring a prosperous, fulfilling, and harmonious existence for all.
