Along with New Year's Day, our birthdays are a time that makes us ponder our accomplishments, motivations, direction, and general how's-it-goingness of life.
Even though it can bring on some stress and confusion—usually brought on by comparing ourselves to our peers and colleagues—it's a great opportunity for setting some goals.
This year, reflecting on life around my birthday made me ask myself, Why don't I think like like it's my birthday every day?
Lie to yourself more
Lying is wrong, right? That's what parents and authority figures tend to tell us.
Could it be that they were actually lying when they said that? Could it be that there is a hidden hack that we can leverage by lying to ourselves?
No, no. I'm not talking about the kind of lying to yourself that is like telling yourself you are going to be a millionaire when you are flipping burgers at a fast food joint or marrying that hottie that is so far out of your league that she sees through you.
In fact, that type of lying to yourself is going to lead to extreme delusion. It's dangerous.
The kind of lying to yourself I'm talking about is far from that. It's positive and brings a positive result.
What I'm talking about is lying to yourself to think of every day, every single day, like your birthday.
The idea behind this little mind hack is to evaluate yourself constantly Remember that you want the best life you can possibly have and need to regularly check yourself if you are going to make it happen.
Twice a year isn't enough
Who in the hell ever said that we should only self-evaluate 2 times a year?
Fact is, no one. It's just a cultural tendency that comes from the passing through cycles.
Years are natural cycles because they repeat themselves, and all the variations of cycles are based on the year format. Businesses think of quarters as cycles and schools think of semesters as cycles, but both of those are based on the year cycle.
A year is the most basic cyclical unit we can analyze without feeling overwhelmed. The problem with that is we end up thinking about things so generally to make objective evaluations.
I mean, do you seriously remember with clarity what you were doing in January when December rolls around? Probably not, and it likely takes time to distinguish between neighboring months, like March and April.
Your likely thinking, Why don't we evaluate the smaller cycles, like months, weeks, or days? Great question.
Every day is your birthday
This year, as I was reflecting, I made a decision. Upon realizing that this kind of self-reflection is valuable and motivating, I made the decision to do it daily.
I'm convinced that including a small reflection period of reflection into my morning routine will bring massive value to my life. Every day I'll have the opportunity to find areas to improve or understand better.
Every day I'll get the chance to know myself deeper, find solutions, get to know obstacles, find the nooks nestled in my mind, and much more.
The benefits of telling myself that every day is my birthday go on and on. But nothing matters unless I take action. Sure, realizations are great, but they are worthless without action.
Now, if only I could convince everyone else to believe it was my birthday every day. I could at least be happy knowing that there would be cake. 🎂
No comments:
Post a Comment
Share your thoughts below