Simplicity is the key to empowerment. Do less to achieve more. If you’re looking at your circus, counting your monkeys, and thinking there’s no way to get an ax, read on.
Research is giving us more insight into our human experience, and one thing we now know is that laziness is more than just an unwillingness to be productive. Our nervous systems are not designed for the fast-paced modern life, to shift gears and divide so many parts. Reluctance, procrastination, indifference, numbness and “laziness” are signs that your nervous system is overloaded and blocked. A bit like a computer that overheats. The best answer? Self-awareness instead of self-regulation. Dr. Devon Price is a social psychologist, author, and professor at Loyola University Chicago. She holds a PhD in psychology and focuses on areas such as neurodivergence, trauma, personality, and social behavior. For him, “Man is not designed to create constantly. When one does not do something, it is not a moral failure – it is an unmet need.”
Diminished interest and lack of motivation? Lean on it. Rest. Note that it only counts as a rest if it is without a screen. Taking a break can come at the expense of other commitments, but you’ll find it easier to set boundaries in this space and take breaks when needed, even if you feel guilty at first.
1. Learn to work less
It is safer to force yourself to perform than to relax. Social conditioning teaches us that persistence equals success. Overcoming this social conditioning feels dangerous and counterintuitive, but it’s important to understand that feelings are not facts.
• Feeling like you can’t cross things off your schedule doesn’t mean you can’t.
• Feeling that no matter how hard it is, you need to show up and your life will be better for it, it’s not a fact.
When you think logically, you can understand what needs to be cut, but if you let your emotions go, it’s over. Guilt, stress, and FOMO will keep you out of it. If logic says he can go, let him. It will feel hard, awkward, and even wrong at first, you’ll feel like a bad friend if you say you can’t go to that party, a bad sister if you say you can’t make the event, a bad parent if you say you can’t volunteer for the next school activity, but your brain will work it out. Do this a few times, it will get easier. You teach it to feel safe with less.
2. Starvation is not a strategy
The most powerful way for someone to get from where they are to where they want to be in life is to apply the handbrake. Like a car. Hand brakes are more about the things you don’t do, the little habits that put fuel in the proverbial tank, and you probably don’t get fuel by all accounts.
Food is the first handbrake habit to correct. Here’s what you need to do:
• Complex meal plans
• Counting calories
• He is hungry all day, then at night
Keep it simple, eat regularly, and eat what fuels you. Eat dinner earlier and breakfast a little later, but do not skip meals. Protein is the gold standard here. If you can just have a protein shake on the go, so be it, but fill your day with plenty of protein. If you skip meals, you’re setting yourself up for cravings, low energy, poor choices throughout the day, and disrupting your basic metabolic rate.
3. Motion snacks: better than the gym?
Did you know that jumping jacks every 45 minutes to an hour is more powerful for your metabolism, heart health, stress levels, insulin resistance, and mental health than an hour at the gym?
• Your body responds better to adaptation, even if it’s a small adaptation.
• How does it stack up against other popular gym workouts like high-intensity interval training (HIIT)?
• Let’s look at the effect of accumulating 10 jumps per hour (10 hours per day) compared to a HIIT workout in the gym for 30 minutes three times a week:
• After a month, you were doing about 3,600 kcal, which equates to about 9,000 calories burned, and it took about 390 minutes, while only burning 4,222 calories at the gym.
• In six months, you would burn 21,600 kcal, which is about 54,000 calories burned, while working out in the gym would burn about 25,331 calories.
• In 12 months, you were doing 43,200 kcal and eating about 108,000 calories while jumping, while the sports activities gave you about 50,661 calories burned.
Can’t jump jump? Just do star jumps (jumps), climb stairs or anything else to get your blood pumped for one minute every hour.
4. The science of sleep
Good sleep patterns are not magic. It takes weeks for your brain to adjust to the change in routine and for sleep to become predictable and truly restful.
This handbrake habit will improve your focus throughout the day, as well as increase your motivation and ability to persevere through challenges. Then there’s this little fact: your brain only releases leptin (the hormone that signals when you’ve had enough to eat) after six consecutive hours of deep sleep. Quality sleep eliminates cravings and increases satiety.
Decision fatigue reduces impulse control and self-regulation, so this can be the hardest habit to break.
You need to ax:
• Late night movement (put your phone away at least two hours before bed)
• Use of wine for colds
• Allow yourself to get a “second wind”.
Simplify:
• A simple relaxation habit (shower, book, meditation)
• Same sleeping time, same waking time
• Go to bed an hour before you intend to go to bed
Drink more water
Wait until you are thirsty to drink water. Stop relying on coffee. Drinking water seems simple, but why is it so difficult? If you are not a natural water drinker, you know what I mean. Drink only one glass of water every time you pour yourself a cup of tea or coffee. Aim for 1L before lunch and another after lunch. Here are the facts to get you involved:
• Drinking 500 ml of water increases metabolic rate within 10 minutes and peaks at about 30 minutes.
• Even mild dehydration (one to two percent) causes brain tissue to shrink, which impairs short-term memory, concentration, and decision-making.
• Dehydration raises cortisol, your stress hormone, even if you don’t feel “thirsty.”
• Back pain in the afternoon? Spinal discs dry out throughout the day and need to be replenished.
Keep everything simple
No one is more invested in your well-being than you, so invest. When you start putting boundaries around your time and don’t choose your routine over your hydration, sleep, and nutrition, other people will respect you and your boundaries. You teach people how to interact with you by setting the tone.
By spending the extra time and energy to lift those hand brakes in your life, you’re actually increasing your stamina. Your emotional, physical and mental capacity will increase over time.
Stop over-extending yourself, over-planning and under-doing and relying on impulse. You need to create a framework that supports success, and missing even one stick in the framework will undermine the structural integrity of the success you are building. These handbrake habits are the frame. They are the foundation.
It starts with one day at a time, one habit at a time. It’s important to change your mindset so that your well-being becomes your priority, rather than schedules, commitments, or people-pleasing.
This article is in Journal of Wellbeing 222
