Today, was the restart of a healthy exercise I used to practice. Many of you who have known me for sometime remember that I used to write. A LOT.

I making a commitment over the next month to reading a personal development article each day. A few times a week I will write a reflection of the article. My hope is this exercise helps you and me become more present and successful beings.

To kick this exercise off, I read "The Busy Person's Guide to Reducing Stress" by Leo Babauta. 

I hope you find use in my writing and it inspires even a small positive change in your world. Have a happy hump day. A weekend full of adventure is not too far away.

As demands in life change and grow, our stress often follows. This is not healthy and means it is time for a change. Some small shift needs to occur. But what? Something must drive our stress to a lower level, because it is one of the biggest causes of disease (dis-ease); an uncomfortable life.

Here are some things we can start doing today to better manage the demands life throws at us. Each of these were inspired by Leo, but include my own piece of authenticity.

• Be Present with One Task: I use Asana to manage my work and day-to-day demands. This helps me organize the thousands of moving parts involved in each project. It also means that I, like you have an ever-growing to-do list. We can start each day by focusing on one important task, then moving to the next one, rather than getting frustrated with task switching and deadlines, that are often unrealistic. Be present when you want to be happier and healthier.
• Let Go Of The Need to Control: The need to control things is a constant battle. We, humans, want to control our little worlds. Our friends, family, work, how much money we earn, what we eat, how we feel, what we do with our time and our lives. What if we let go of the need and desire to control things and just let the world be? Embrace the chaos of life with open arms and believe that everything will work out as it should. Everything always has and I believe it always will.
• Smile and Stay Positive: We can change our happiness one smile at a time. We cannot control the outcome of events or emotions that other people are feeling, but we can choose to stay positive and maintain a smile in some of the worst of situations. This is hard, sometimes impossible, but I guarantee that sharing a smile with another human being will make us feel better. It activates neural intelligence messaging systems in our minds that make our whole body feel better. Try it for 30 days. I did and the results were nothing short from amazing.
• Practice Gratitude: While not all days are beautiful, there is beauty in each day. We can find something to appreciate in our lives each day, whether it is the shoes on our feet, roof over our head or something much more. Start a gratitude journal like I did years ago. If anything it is a great tool to look back on during your darker days.
• Create Healthy Habits as We Flow Through Each Day: Change your life with one healthy habit at a time. Writing, running, hiking, skiing, sleeping more, drinking tea, practicing yoga.... you see where I am going. Healthy habits are hard to build especially when we are stressed. The sad thing, many of us resort to unhealthy habits for stress management; drinking, drug use, oversleeping, overeating. This just results in more stress, disease and unhappiness.

I hope one of these ideas helps make your day a little better than it would have been had you not read this article.

If you found this article useful please like it, share it and send me a comment. It may sound ridiculous, but your kudos help inspire my path and desire to continue helping others live better lives. Thanks for reading.

Summit as friends!
Scott

Wow! It is already March and I have another monthly challenge under my belt. In February I committed to meditation for at least 5 minutes a day. I wanted to learn what it really takes to meditate and calm the mind from an ever increasingly noisy world. 

Step one was to get a meditation book at the library, which would prove to be a simple and peaceful guide through my edventure of meditation. The book is called 5 Mindful Minutes in the Evening and that is exactly what it provided me; mindfulness.

Each evening before closing my eyes I would read one exercise in my meditation book and consciously think about the topics listed within the exercise. The topics varied from love to letting go and all yielded a positive result.

If you are having sleeping problems, late night anxiety or just want to find a great sense of peace at the end of a busy day then I highly suggest adopting meditation. You do not have to make it complicated and in fact it can be simpler than getting a book that has different exercises. Your meditation practice could be as simple as following these five easy steps:

1. Silence your mind and consciously listen to your breath for two minutes
   
2. Set a positive intention. For example - May this practice bring me a sense of peace and clarity.
   
3. Let go of your thoughts.
   
4. When you sense your mind wandering then come back to your conscious focused on your breath.
   
5. Tune in to how your mind and body are connected.
   

Practicing this for five minutes a day will bring more peace, clarity and focus to your sleep and induce energy when practiced upon the waking moments of a new day.

I asked myself for quite some time why people meditate and why should I consider adopting this healthy habit? The answer did not really become clear to me until I completed this last challenge. 

Meditation is a practice that brings focused mindfulness to my mind and soul. It empowers me to think and act on clear thoughts that do not cause stress and anxiety. It is a habit that I will continue in my daily life.

Meditation is a tool that helps calm the mind and enables you to focus on what is really important. For example, I may spend five minutes meditation before my next task. During the session I will simply focus on clearing my mind from all the pollution that has been filled into today. I will set the intention to find what is most important now and then set out to conquer that task with true mindfulness.

This underused tool is available to us all and beholds more power than I could have ever imagined. 

Give it a try! Spend a few minutes each day looking like Buddha on your living room floor, listen to some music that brings peace and clarity to you.

This month I am committing to writing 500 words per day. This challenge will be hard, but I know that it will be worth my investment. Why am I doing this challenge? Simple reason really! 

I want to become a better writer, speaker and story teller. Writing will surely allow me to do that.



Summit as friends!
Scott Rowley

Our ability to create positive change without willingness is effectively pointless. We are forcing an unnatural and undesirable change that could otherwise be simplified and made much more enjoyable. Willingness is your level of preparedness and desire to change.

I would have never stopped drinking alcohol had it not been for my willingness to create a better way of life and find a way to live without drinking on a daily basis. I did not want to become willing to live without the use of this potentially deadly (if abused) substance let alone commit to working a program that would transform every aspect of my life.

The good news is that I did become willing to listen to others, take direction and so can you. You can become willing at any moment of any day for any reason. This small change can open the door to making the once impossible now possible.

“If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” - Jim Rohn

Steps to Become Willing for Change

1. Reflect: Are the actions you are currently taking moving you closer to your goals? Have you been able to successfully break your habits without the help of others that have done so in the past?
   
2. Identify Pain in Not Changing: What situations has your habit created that could have been avoided? How does your habit make you feel? Is your habit serving you?
   
3. Identify the Pleasure in Changing: What will be the benefits of taking direction and being truly willing to implement this change in your life?
   
4. Get Comfortable with the Uncomfortable: Change is often times easier to talk about than it is to walk about. What I mean is that we find it easier to say we are going to change at some point in the future before we are actually willing to make the change.
   
5. Share Your Desire to Change With Someone: Creating accountability is one of the most powerful tools for becoming willing to go to any lengths to reach your desired outcome. Yes! Sharing your thoughts and desires with others can be uncomfortable, but it is certain to allow you to succeed much faster than otherwise.
   

Prepare yourself for your new way of life by emptying your mind of your limiting thoughts. These are thoughts that disempower you and make you feel as though change is not something you are capable of. Again, if I can make positive change so can you.

Do not spend too much time worrying about what could go wrong if you do change. Focus on what will go right and you will likely create that as an actual outcome.

“If you want something you have never had, then you must be willing to do things you have never done.” - Thomas Jefferson

If you really want to change then you will be willing to go to any measures to make a change. A lack of willingness is a lack of ability to truly change. After you have have become will then you are ready to break your habits that are no longer serving you.

Summit as friends!
Scott Rowley

Here are three easy things you can do now to create a happier and healthier lifestyle. If I can do this so can you.

In the past six months I have started sleeping more, running marathons, feeding my body healthy food, meditating, reading and writing unlike ever before. These daily rituals have allowed me to start creating the life I am striving towards. One full of abundance, success, happiness and inspiration. There is nothing stopping you from making the same changes to your life.

Making the following three changes in your life may have a huge impact as long as you are consistent.

Drink More Water And Earlier
Nothing starts my day better than a glass of water. I feel my body come to life as the water flows through it. Before your coffee or breakfast try having a glass of water. Place a glass next to your bathroom sink as a reminder to drink your morning glass.

“We never know the worth of water until the well is dry.” - Thomas Fuller

Before each meal have a glass of water. Before you go to sleep have some water. And, before each workout have some water. See where this is going? There are tons of articles that simply say we need to drink more water and less of everything else (coffee, soda, teas, energy drinks, beer, alcohol etc.) Try replacing one of your habitual drinks with a glass of water and I guarantee you will feel more lively.

Make Exercise Fun
I have made exercise a part of my lifestyle. It creates an atmosphere of zen, peace and clarity where I can just be myself. I enjoy the feelings I get from even a simple workout and the sense of accomplishment.

Many of us have lives that we perceive as being too busy for exercise and it becomes more of a chore rather than something for enjoyment. The key is to find something you enjoy doing for at least 30 minutes a day that you look forward to. I understand you may not have a burning passion for running, skiing and rock climbing like myself, but I am sure you can find a way to work in a few of the activities I have listed below in an effort to make exercise enjoyable and less of a chore.

• Commute to Work on Your Bike
  
• Walk to the Park for Lunch
  
• 20 Push Ups, Leg Raises, Calf Raises and Crunches Right When you Wake Up
  
• Walk to the Park for Lunch
  
• Take the Stairs
  
• Hike In The Mountains
  
• Climb Mountains
  
• Ski During the Week
  
• Go to Yoga

Helpguide.Org wrote a wonderful article about making excercise a fun part of your everday life and it is worth a read. The key integrating exercise with something that you already enjoy doing.

Eat More Often And Earlier
I did not say eat more. Simply eat more often! Enjoy snack time and eat smaller meals. I like to have a solid breakfast early in the morning, a late morning snack, lunch, late afternoon snack and dinner. Not eating after 7PM would go very far in boosting my energy level and increasing quality of sleep, but for now I settle for my 30 day challenge of not eating after 8PM. This has proven to be quite an endeavor, but the benefits are clear in my level of happiness, energy levels and quality of sleep.

Create the lifestyle that makes you a happy, healthy and a thriving person. You will find this to be an ongoing balance act. No one day is the same and we must continue to refine our mix. If none of these are a part of your current lifestyle then try taking one and making it into a 30 day challenge. Test yourself to see if you can do one or many of them for 30 days, write them down and track the results. If you do not like the result after 30 days then do not continue with the habit. I am willing to bet you will love the result :)

If you enjoyed this post then please subscribe to my blog.


Summit as friends!
Scott Rowley

Many people including myself are in constant pursuit of happiness. Too often we are pursuing the wrong things that we think will make us happy. For the longest time I thought I could become happier if I got a better job, made more money, had more material assets and accomplished my grandest goals. I was wrong.

We need to be happy with the process of achieving our goals in order to reach the destination in a desirable manner. 

“Happiness is a journey.. not a destination.” - Ben Sweetland

I read a book a few months ago called The Happiness Advantage that literally flipped the happiness formula for me. This book reverses modern day thinking by presenting a new model for success. The common belief is that we will become successful ie; get a high paying job and then as a result be happy.

It turns out the reverse is actually true. Your level of happiness will help boost your motivational drive to work harder and as a result produce more success in your life. After reading this I drew a positive energy model on a sticky note and I have been looking at it each day at work ever since. The result? More energy, productivity and success. 

So just how do we go about boosting our happiness and reversing this formula that has been ingrained in our minds?

First, rid of some of your unhealthy habits.

Second, adopt some healthy habits and practice them on a daily basis.

Five Simple Habits to Create A Positive Boost in Your Happiness

1. Gratitude: Create a gratitude journal and write down three things that you are grateful for each day. I am calling this 30 Days of Appreciation and it is my challenge for December. So far the results are very positive. Here is my appreciation framework:
2. Journaling: Write about your thoughts, feelings, goals, values, mission, purpose and anything else of importance. Check in with yourself on a daily basis. Are you in alignment? There is something magical about putting pen to paper and visualizing your feelings.
3. Exercise: A short 15 minute daily exercise routine may be all you have the time for, but this 15 minutes could become the most valuable time you dedicate to yourself each day. Exercise before work will boost your mood, energy level and set you up with an accomplishment before even walking into the office.
4. Meditation: I am still very new to the practice of meditation, but have found that time spent consciously focusing on little things like your breathing, first smells and sounds in the morning and reading positive literature help keep me grounded in the present.
5. Random Acts of Kindness: Conscious acts of kindness to other human beings is one of the most amazing things we can share. These need not be glorifying. They can be as simple as taking on household chores that we do not normally manage, holding the door for someone else entering a restaurant behind you, telling someone you appreciate them, buying someone elses lunch for no reason, picking up your neighbors trash can after it blew over in the wind, picking up a piece of garbage while walking to work and so on.

During my Monday morning spin at home before breakfast I was watching Shawn Anchor’s Ted Talk - The Happy Secret to Better Work for the second time and it dawned on me that I integrated his top five suggestions for boosting your happiness as i’ve written about above. The results have been astounding. I suggest you try for yourself :)

Summit as friends!
Scott Rowley

Begin taking full advantage of your time by creating healthy work break habits.

Many people use their lunch hour as just that. A lunch hour! While it is important to nourish your body it is equally important to take full advantage of this time.

There are many things you can use this time for that will allow you to grow and create your ideal life balance. The lunch hour is a perfect time to cultivate new healthy habits in your lifestyle.



“We are not limited by who we rather by our unwillingness to change.”

Mornings and evenings are often consumed by family time and preparing for the work day. We miss out on important habits like exercise, reading, meditation, planning, reflection and personal activities that we desire to do with our lives.

The lunch hour is a perfect time to get away from your desk and embrace the opportunity to take on these healthy habits. Successful people often use their break as a time to reboot and revitalize the mind and body. Become one of them today by overcoming your unhealthy habits.

Ten Healthy Work Break Habits That Will Energize You

1. Exercise: As little as 20 minutes of medium intensity exercise can really boost your mood, productivity and happiness. This will help you build a more successful career and live a more healthy abundant life.
   
2. Read a Book: Challenge your thinking, expand your knowledge, experience the library. Continual self learning is one of the greatest things with can provide ourselves.
   
3. Write: Writing expands our mind and opens our thoughts to experiences we have never thought of. It is a creative outlet where we are free to be our true authentic selves.
   
4. Meditate: Spend 60 seconds counting your breaths. Sit in peace and quiet for 5 minutes doing nothing at all. Clear your mind and boost your energy.
   
5. Go On a Walk: Walking is guaranteed to increase blood flow to your brain which is very important after hours of sedentary work and it will certainly boost your energy level.
   
6. Skip Down the Street: Skipping is great exercise, boosts your mood and makes others laugh. You will feel a bit ridiculous while engaging in this childish act but it is sure to give you a healthy result.
   
7. Plan Your Week: I often use my Monday lunch break to finish planning my week and do some reading.
   
8. Catch Up with Friends and Family: A five minute phone call is often all you need to strengthen your relationship with a loved one. Why continue putting these calls off?
   
9. Community Goodwill: Help out your community. Use your lunch break once a month to volunteer your time in an area that you truly care about. You will feel better about life and your community will benefit.
   
10. Nourish Your Body: Of course, I am not suggesting you take up a habit to improve your life and in turn skip out on nourishing your body with the energy it needs. A great way to improve your productivity and function is to eat small portions every few hours. Your brain actually needs a protein boost every few hours and not one huge indulging meal at lunch time.
    

“Unless we stop now to redesign our working norms, we are at risk of moving toward an ever less thoughtful and creative professional reality.” -  Derek Dean

Too often, I see people disregarding this valuable time. You can start benefiting today by implementing one of the healthy work break habits listed above or something you may find more desirable. I am not suggesting you jump right in and commit to a full hour of these, but taking a small amount of time for you will certainly boost your productivity, happiness and well being.

How are you going to spend your lunch break today? Has this article helped you re-think how you use this precious time?

Summit as friends!
Scott Rowley

Many of us express sincere appreciation during holidays, times of great success, trials and tribulations. What happened to being appreciative every day? And, not just for the big things, but the small things too.

We often trudge through our daily tasks without taking time to appreciate the process, people and little things that make each moment beautiful. Too often the focus is placed on where we are headed or what is next and we fail to appreciate where we are. This is vital because we never really know what the outcome might be or who will truly appreciate us in return. By fully appreciating the process while things are happening we get to enjoy each moment.

Appreciating what we already have rather than focusing on what we have not yet received will create a mind state of peace that allows us to flow more freely through our daily tasks.

“It’s not happy people who are thankful; it is thankful people who are happy.”

What is appreciation?
Appreciations is simply showing respect and gratitude to someone including yourself for the positive energy put forth in achieving something. It is one of the highest emotional states you may experience and helps create a life of abundance and happiness.

Looking For Appreciation
By focusing on the good in people and situations you will begin to find the miracle of appreciation. Once opening our mind and spirit to the concept of appreciation we need not look far for opportunities to express it. Each person and healthy activity that has a positive touch on our lives each day deserves some form of appreciation.

“Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that it is necessary.” - Margaret Cousins

Making a Habit of Appreciation

1. Appreciate Others: “I appreciate you for __________.” Even the gas tenant deserves these simple yet powerful words. Take an extra moment to let people know of your appreciation. These words have the power to bring a frowning person to a happy one in an instant.
   
2. Write An Appreciation List: “I appreciate ______ in my life.” What do you appreciate now? You do not have to wait until you get the next big job promotion, attain the career / lifestyle of your dreams, have an amazing relationship with a significant other etc.
   
3. Look For Good: “Look for the good in a person and you will find it” Each day we are faced with a lot of positive and negative experience. Take the time to appreciate both and make you will be more conscious of what you wish to attract more of.
   
4. Self Appreciation: “I appreciate my _______ because it has provided me __________.” Look around right now! I am certain there is something you can be appreciative for. Since you are reading this you have access to technology that allows you to do so and you have the ability to read. Many people have neither. You likely ate breakfast this morning and have a job. The fact is we have a many things to appreciate in life in our lives right now.
   

“It is too often that we do not appreciate what we have until it is something that we had.”

I have lost relationships, spiritual, physical strength, mental strength, passion and material belongings with having never truly taken the time to appreciate them for what they are. I am no longer living like this.

I am making appreciation a healthy habit in my lifestyle and therefore am committing myself to a 30 day challenge of appreciation. During these 30 days I will apply each of the four principles above. I will write about how I feel before the 30 days and after. The result is sure to be a boost in happiness, positive energy and quality of relationships.

Summit as friends!
Scott

Monday Can Be Awesome
We need to get over the habit of downplaying the value of Monday’s. The first day of the week is where we create momentum that will carry us through the days that follow. For many people Monday means walking back into a job they do not enjoy, waking up earlier than desired and perceptually doing things they do not enjoy.

We can come to love Mondays by simply changing our frame of mind and looking at all of the opportunities that lay in front of a new week. Great things can be done with the days ahead, we can start becoming who we really want to be and taking action that will move us closer to our personal goals.

Setting Your Frame of Mind
I sit down each Monday morning and spend a healthy amount of time on me; exercising for a short period of time, enjoying breakfast, reflecting on my last week, gazing ahead to what I have in front of me, seeking ways to help others and setting a positive intention. This time is vital to the success of my week and Monday morning happiness.


A Monday Routine That Rocks
1) Exercise: Get your blood flowing. I wake up at 5AM on Monday mornings, drink a glass of water and jump into my 30 minutes of Yoga, resistance training or some time on my stationary bike. 30 minutes is enough to really get my mind and body flowing on Monday morning.

2) Healthy Energy: Eat some food that tastes good and powers you up. I really enjoy oatmeal, peanut butter, fruit and milk.

3) Planning: Do you know what you have in store for the week ahead and what you accomplished last week? It is fun to look back the following Monday and see how much was accomplished in the prior week. This activity truly sets me up for a week full of excitement, prosperity and direction.

Questions to set your week up for success:

• What did I learn last week that I can apply to this weeks success?
  
• What am I proud to have achieved last week?
  
• What are my top priorities this week and when am I going to get them done?
  
• Who can I help this week?
  
• Who can help me achieve my goals this week?
  
• What financial decisions can I make this week that will move me closer to my goals? Remember small things add up.
  
• What did not happen last week? Did it not happen because it is unimportant and it can wait or was I procrastinating?
  
• What am I going to do this week to make myself happy?
  
• What I am going to do this week to make sure that my family is happy?
  
• What am I really looking forward to this week?
  
  

4) Practice Random Acts of Kindness: Helping others is something many of us often overlook. We race through our day thinking there is just not enough time to help others, let alone ourselves. What we fail to realize is that in helping others we are also helping ourselves. The act of helping another person without expectation of anything in return results in a feeling of happiness, fulfillment and peace of mind. Often when I am feeling down about things my mentors tell me to go help someone. This forces me to get out of my own head and into the life of another person that may be going through harder times than I. Here is a list of random things I have recently done to help others -

• Last Monday I picked up the neighbors trash that tipped over for no reason except to make sure that it was in the can for the dump truck.
  
• Hugged a co worker when they were feeling down.
  
• Cooked dinner for my gf for a whole week. Just  because! Well I love cooking too :)
  
• Shared smiles with people who were not smiling. They do not all like this, but owell.
  
• And, tomorrow I am going to do something new.
  

5) Positive Intention: Set yourself into a positive direction with an intention that aligns with your values and goals for the day. Make this positive and dedicate yourself to success. Tell other people that you are having an awesome day and not just an ok, good or crappy day. You will feel better.

Some examples of positive intentions that I use on a regular basis -

• This day will be the best I have had all week. I will set out to accomplish key tasks to move me closer to my goals.
  
• Today is going to be positive and productive. I am going to have the courage to face my fears, desire to take action and passion to live life.
  
• Today is going to be powerful, inspiring and full of happiness. I have the freedom to choose my attitude. I choose to be happy.
  

Most Importantly
The most important thing you do with your Monday is have some fun. I do not care if you are 10 years old or 60; we need to keep having fun with Monday’s. Start something new, do what you love, skip down the street or even jump in some rain puddles. Your Monday does not have to be the miserable day that so many others intend on having. Experience a positive, productive and happy day. Your mind and body will thank you for it :)