Welcome back to our creation of the 30 step series of simple life-enhancing program. It’s time to get started with parts three and four of our Simple Life-Enhancing Habits series. If you missed the first 2 steps, you can find them in these two articles here – step one and step two. This article will discuss the following two simple steps.
Exercise For 5 Minutes Each Morning
There are many short-term health benefits that come from exercise, including improved sleep quality and weight control, reduced stress levels, better brain function, lower blood pressure, and decreased risk of heart attack or stroke. However, one of the most important reasons why you should make it a habit to exercise in the morning is because you won’t need willpower later on when already making healthy decisions throughout your day!
Short term high-intensity
Short Term High-Intensity Exercise offers multiple health benefits. The most common ones include improvement in oxygen and blood flow, lowers blood pressure and blood sugar, helps you lose weight, burn calories, and helps to build many muscle groups. When discussing a 5-minute exercise routine, it could be as simple as a 3-minute warm-up, and a 2-minute high-intensity program. There are ample websites and free apps where one can find simple, 5-minute exercise regimes.
Morning Exercise Eliminates the Need for Willpower
Most of us have good intentions to move more, but we often allow an entire day to go by without ever doing the intentional exercise we planned. This ends up backfiring and causing us to be less healthy and less productive due to increased fatigue and brain fog that happens when you’re sedentary.
Exercising in the morning is a great way to get it done. You’ll have more energy throughout your day, or you can just enjoy an extra boost of motivation knowing that you don’t need so much willpower later on. Developing this habit does take effort for several weeks before it becomes automatic.
Make It a Habit
From this day forward, right after you get up, as soon as you can move well, do a three-minute warm-up plus two minutes of high-intensity movements until it becomes a habit for you within thirty minutes of rising each day. Since it’s just five minutes, you don’t have to prepare as much as if you were going on a bike ride or a longer run. This is a perfect way to start your day. The benefits are immense and will help you feel better, look better, have more energy, think clearer, make smarter decisions, and reduce stress levels.
If you’re pressed for time or just don’t feel like doing the exercises in the morning, do them at night before settling down for the evening. The mornings are ultimately the ideal times, yet, we all know that life can get in the way. When creating the 30 step series of simple life-enhancing habits, the key is consistency. Morning exercise has ideal benefits, but if the evening is what you can muster, then evening it is.
Mix Up Your Movements or Just Do the Same Thing
Some ideas are jumping jacks, jump roping, pushups, jogging in place, jogging down your driveway, squats, running up and down your stairs. Whatever it is that you do, do it at full intensity for just two minutes. You can exercise more later, but this is just something you do upon rising each day before you have your coffee or get ready for the day.
The benefits of working out like this each morning are that you’ll feel more energetic all day long, you’ll be more alert, focus better, and due to all that, be a lot more effective in whatever you need to do. Making the workout only five minutes long, including warm-up and the high-intensity two-minute workout, helps eliminate any excuses because you don’t need any equipment, gym, or set up to do this fast workout. But, one thing is clear, it will set you up for a much more successful day.
Start Investing in Experiences
The fourth step in this series is thinking about investing in experiences. As we embark on careers to earn money, most of us don’t consider what really makes people happy or successful? Do things make people happy, or do experiences make people happy? According to science, experiences make people happier than possessions because experiences make us who we are. They broaden our perspective and give us fabulous memories that we can reflect on for the rest of our lives.
Think about it, when you’re older and looking back at your life, what would make you happier? A few new possessions or a lifetime of experiences with friends and family? I think the answer is quite clear. Experiences are how you can leave a legacy behind, while possessions only disappear with wear and tear.
Experiences are important because:
Your Experiences Make You Who You Are – The compilation of experiences you have throughout your life makes you who you are in terms of your personalities and perception of the world. We all see things from the lens of our own life experiences, and the more experiences you can have, the more open your world view will become and the more well-rounded you will become.
You’ll Broaden Your Perspective – Not only will you see things differently, but you’ll also start to understand different points of view. This is especially important when it comes to traveling, as you can learn about new cultures and customs. As you broaden your perspective, it becomes easier to relate to people from different backgrounds.
You’ll Build Fabulous Memories – Think about all the experiences that have made great memories for you in life: a trip with friends, a serendipitous meeting at a party, or even something as simple as a walk by yourself on vacation could be enough to elicit a warm, fuzzy feeling. When you have memories that are attached to great experiences it makes you feel good about yourself and your life in general.
One of the best ways to create more positive feelings is by engaging in activities that will give you something new to look back on with fondness or pleasure. This simple step is one of the most important in the 30 step series of simple life-enhancing habits.
You Can Learn New Skills – Being open-minded when looking for new experiences will help you learn more about yourself and how to spend your time. When you buy experiences, you can learn new things to draw on in other aspects of your life. For example, hiking Mt. Everest is more than a fitness challenge. It’s also a challenge to push yourself out of your comfort zone and work with others in a team. Make it a point to learn skills that you can use in the office, at home with your friends and family, or anywhere else. If there is something you are interested in learning about yourself, look for activities to help you do just that! For even greater tactics with developing new skills, read one of my favorite books Atomic Habits by James Clear.
Find Your Life Purpose – Take time to reflect on what you truly want out of life. Make a list of goals and ambitions that can help guide your decisions throughout the day. Not only will this make you happier, but it also helps when faced with smaller tasks such as mundane chores or deciding where to eat lunch. When it comes to finding your life purpose, there is no “right” or “wrong” answer. The important thing is that you take the time to reflect on what you want, how this will help you grow, and how you can make this happen.
That’s a Wrap
The first step to getting your life together is realizing that you are not alone. There are so many resources out there to help get you started on the right foot, and it doesn’t have to be daunting or overwhelming. This 30 step series of simple life-enhancing program will get you ready for a new you before you know it! So what’s stopping you? Let’s start today!
Please subscribe to this site so we can stay in touch with our progress along the way. I hope these tips helped make developing healthy habits seem doable; don’t forget they’re only one part of living a better life. You deserve more than average- follow your dreams- and make them a reality! Work hard, and I’ll see you back for more steps.