Page 18 - MyFaith Mag February 2017 PRINT

motivation
THESE HABITS WILL DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE YOUR LIFE
TRAVIS BRADBERRY
In Hans Christian Andersen’s fable The Red Shoes, a young girl
longs for a pair of pretty red shoes. She ultimately tricks the blind
woman who cares for her into buying her a pair. Her love for the
red shoes causes her to give them priority over the more important
things in her life, and, as often happens in fables, karma is not
on her side. The shoes become firmly stuck to her feet and force
her to dance non-stop, to the point where she almost dies from
exhaustion and starvation.
We can scoff at the little girl’s foolishness, but, in real life, we of- orker or person who makes your blood boil, practice being grate-
ten do the same thing—we chase after the things that we think
will make us happy and don’t realize that we’re heading down a
dangerous path.
One study found that the people who experience the greatest
job satisfaction aren’t the ones in the big, fancy offices; they’re the
ones who approach their work as a calling, even when that work
involves menial labor.
Another study found that simply seeing fast-food logos makes
people impatient. It’s not that there’s some intrinsic characteris-
tic of fast food that makes people impatient; it’s the habits we’ve
come to associate with fast food, such as always being on the
run, eating on the go, and never slowing down enough to enjoy a
healthy meal, that bring out our impatience.
We have to be very careful in choosing our pursuits, because our
habits make us. Cultivating the habits that follow will send you in
the right direction. They’ll help you to lead a more meaningful and
fulfilling life, whereby you cultivate the best within yourself.
Stay away from people who erode your quality of life. If merely
seeing a logo for a fast-food company can make you feel impa-
tient, just think how much more impact a toxic person can have
on your life. They might be unhappy about your decision to stay
away from them, and they might tell you very loudly just how un-
happy they are, but isn’t avoiding them worth the cumulative ef-
fects of years of their negative influence? There are always going
to be toxic people who have a way of getting under your skin and
staying there. Each time you find yourself thinking about a cow-
ful for someone else in your life instead. There are plenty of people
out there who deserve your attention, and the last thing you want
to do is think about the people who don’t matter.
No more phone, tablet, or computer in bed. This is a big one,
which most people don’t even realize harms their sleep and pro-
ductivity. Short-wavelength blue light plays an important role in
determining your mood, energy level, and sleep quality. In the
morning, sunlight contains high concentrations of this blue light.
When your eyes are exposed to it directly, it halts production of the
sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and makes you feel alert. In
the afternoon, the sun’s rays lose their blue light, which allows your
body to produce melatonin and this starts making you sleepy. By
the evening, your brain doesn’t expect any blue light exposure
and is very sensitive to it. Most of our favorite evening devices—
laptops, tablets, and mobile phones—emit short-wavelength blue
light brightly and right in your face. This exposure impairs mela-
tonin production and interferes with your ability to fall asleep, as
well as with the quality of your sleep once you do nod off. As
we’ve all experienced, poor nights’ sleep has disastrous effects.