How to Conduct a Mental Workout - Part2

Connect your mind and body

Treating the mind and body separately isn’t the ideal way to live life. They are interlinked and cultivating habits that are beneficial for both helps in deriving a sense of satisfaction in our daily routine.

• What you eat – impacts energy levels

• How much you sleep – impacts overall mood and productivity

• Physical exercise – pumps body with positive chemicals, sharpens brain creativity,

• Strategic games – mind and body movements

• Content you consume – impacts decision making through consumerism

• Burnout and stress – lead to hair loss, sleep deprivation

Take control of your body by exercising regularly, spending time with friends and family, sitting idle, reflecting, meditating, playing sports, nutrition, water intake.

Never be stagnant at a desk for too long due to its numerous effects on the body like hunch back posture, continuous use of wrist and fingers and lack of movement for legs.

To ensure your neurons don’t age, they need to be put to work regularly. Thus, do tasks that are not too easy (causes boredom) and not too difficult (causes stress).

Do tasks that are just a little step ahead of your regular abilities to test your brain and find challenges.

Mindfulness for beginners - here’s a list of simple ways to practice mindfulness:

• Scan your body – pay attention to each body part from the tip of toes to the top of the head. Relax your muscles.

• Count to 100 – When your mind starts to wander, bring attention back to counting. Count slowly.

• Consciously observe items – whether it’s a pen, book, pillow, etc. Observe how it looks, feels, what it’s made of.

• Mindful eating – eat a small bite of food and explore as many senses as possible. Look at the texture, colour, flavour.

Furthermore, take calculated risks now and then. Why?

• Taking risks creates experiences which make you more knowledgeable and improve your intuition skills

• Boosts self-confidence

• The only way to create opportunities

• It’s the difference between living ordinary vs extraordinary lives.

• Makes you resilient to change

Calculated risk checklist:

1. What are the potential costs?

2. What are the potential benefits?

3. How will this help me achieve my goal?

4. What are the alternatives?

5. How good would it be if the best scenario came true?

6. What is the worst thing that can happen and how can I reduce that risk?

7. How much will this matter in 5 years?

To give our brain variety in work, create a running list of projects you want to do in your spare time and set aside time for it. We can’t work 24/7 on career, give time to hobbies and extra-curricular. Taking time to work on other things also allows one to draw inspiration from all angles in part of his life and to truly experience autonomy.

Documenting your learnings by journaling and/or other forms allows you to introspect and engage with your soul. Whether one does it visually or written, the aim remains the same which is to know oneself better and grow from experiences.

Taking proper care of one’s mind and body builds self-love which is critical for a human’s success.

Take care of both and you will go a long way!

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Work like a Craftsmanship

How often in our lives do we hear people complain about their job being unsatisfactory for them? While their complaints are fair enough, a handful of them fail to be proactive and persistent to rejuvenate their career.

I say embody the craftsmanship mindset. A craftsmanship mindset puts the focus on YOU. It focuses on the value you can foster in your job.

On the other hand, some individuals tune into what society already offers as exciting jobs. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with striving for those high paying, autonomy and creative jobs. The problem arises when one fails to realize that those jobs are exciting because of the rare value and skills the individual with that designation provides. It’s as simple, if you want a top-notch job then you have to offer something top-notch in return. Thus, to expect such a compelling career, we need to be good at something before expecting a good job.

Therefore, the pursuit of skill development and hours of honing our craft is critical. You take accountability for yourself and be proactive towards your goals rather than reactive to the job market.

To embody a craftsmanship work ethic is fantastic but how does one channelise that in their mental workout daily?

• Master the art of continuous improvement – the start is likely to be the toughest followed by the persistence required to keep going when results aren’t noticeable. A simple trick is to set performance indicators for skills we aim to achieve and gamify them.

• Take feedback consistently – speed is critical but so is direction. You need to know you are hitting your mark and thus make a routine to gain feedback on your work and be open to criticism.

Feedback evaluation is important to know which ones are right and wrong for us. Below are few checklist questions to ask to assess its reliability and validity.

Why ‘follow your passion’ isn’t enough

• It’s hard to predict what you will grow to love. Humans are complex beings and our lives are shaped by our experiences.

• Passions can change. While you may feel at the moment you have an inclination to certain things, there will be many more experiences where you may get to explore your career paths and that might cause shift in your passion. For instance, I know people who wanted to become athletes at a young age and now wish to become financial analyst after getting internship opportunity in that domain.

• Craftsmanship mentality sparks you to evaluate your skills regularly and to keep making progress without taking too much time to engage in wishful thinking.

• As you grind your way towards being mastery, there is a strong likelihood that passion might arise due to it becoming satisfactory after a point. As your enhanced capabilities and skills are noticed in the workplace, you start climbing the corporate ladder and eventually are provided with increased intrinsic motivation. Some common include increase autonomy, increased scope for creativity due to reduce constraints, scope for greater impact. Also, a sense of control. Thus, passion could itself be a side effect of mastery because your new work offers you excitement which you now possess.

If you are a young professional, I urge you to realise that you aren’t doing to get the best of jobs at times. You have to make it happen for you. While it is difficult, it’s good to enjoy what you do because someday your craftsmanship spirit will pay off and get noticed.

In a nutshell, the craftsman work philosophy stops you from focusing on what the work offers you, Thus, you can avoid any unnecessary negative thoughts on how you don’t like the job. It implicitly conveys the importance of upward movement. If you aren’t at the place you wish to be so might as well strive to achieve it by doing all in your means to make a dent in the world. Self-pity and high expectations from the world are for the weak. The strong let their efforts and persistence do the talking.

To know more about how to develop a craftsmanship work ethic, I suggest you to read: So Good they can't Ignore You by Cal Newport

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Conclusion

I would like to end by sharing an obvious fact which we overlook in our life. This would bring resilience in your quest to maximise your mental output and take actionable steps to make the most of your time.

Learn to be ok with the thought that someday everything you have can go away. Do this without being pessimistic about the same.

Thank you for taking time to read :)

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