I woke up this morning, and realized I had slept through my alarm. It wasn’t terribly late, but my morning ritual includes taking the dog for a 30 minute walk, getting breakfast ready for the kids, emptying the dishwasher, and if time permits, a little bit of personal time for myself to exercise and meditate. Well, I woke up late enough that all of the personal time got used up, and then to compound things, I looked at my to-do list. Well, it had 20+ items I “wanted” to get done today. Now, for me, most of the items on the list aren’t critical. I won’t go to jail, get fired or lose my family if they don’t get done, but the more things get put off, the bigger the list gets. To top it off, I’m probably slightly OCD in respect to lists. I have this overwhelming NEED to check items off. At least I know how to motivate myself to get things done. ha ha ha.
Well, all of these things made me extremely anxious. Not the way to start my day, and to make things worse, I usually look forward to time with my little girl (who always seems to wake up before the rest of the family). But today, I had the jitters, butterflies in my stomach, whatever you want to call it. That list and waking up late just knocked me off balance. So instead of enjoying my morning with the family, I couldn’t sit down… I had to try to cross a few items off the list. Instead, I checked my inbox and added a few more items to the list making it even worse. Like my usual morning routine, the family eventually headed out the door and I went up to my office to start my day. Normally, I would try to knock off a few of the easy items on my list, just to make the number look better. But today (I’ve been doing this for a couple weeks now), I spent ten minutes with the headspace app. It’s very easy, guided “meditation”. I used to think this was some sort of hokey thing that only hippies and granola people did. Damn, was I wrong about that.
Since listening to Tim Ferriss, I’ve realized just how many successful people include some form of meditation in their daily life. So, I decided to try it. Well, today after just 10 minutes, I’m far less anxious and I feel far less stressed. In fact, it’s prompted me to write this post now to further help me work through this stress. Amazing how small things, just 10 minutes can make a huge difference. Anyway, if you don’t currently do this, I encourage you to try it. Just do it for 10 days. (Sorry, don’t mean to sound like a commercial), but it might be worth it. I was for me.
Thanks for reading,
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike