How to Create Daily Habits as Consistent as Brushing your Teeth

Think of any positive daily habit you would like to acquire. Daily exercise. Daily meditation. Spending more time with your kids. Now imagine two potential versions of yourself- one has acquired that daily habit for the long-term, the other has not. Which version of yourself would you prefer to be? If you chose the one with the positive daily habit, then why haven’t you already acquired it? What is stopping you? Most likely, accountability, acceptance, and 21 days.

We first make our habits and then our habits make us.
-John Dryden

You have already acquired the daily habit of brush your teeth each morning. When you were a kid, your parents probably got after you if you didn’t brush them. This habit is now so deeply ingrained in you, that if you accidentally forgot to brush them one day, you might feel a bit grossed out, and your mouth wouldn’t feel clean.

As an adult, when you try to acquire a new habit for the long-term, it may seem more difficult. For example, exercise routines can be tough to maintain. Most of us can easily start a work-out routine for a short period of time. It feels very good to work out at first. But what happens? Excuses. You get too tired. You have no time. You enjoyed working out at first, but it became boring.

Sustaining a positive daily habit, such as a daily workout routine, can be difficult in the long-term

The problem with only acquiring positive habits in the short-run is that you put in a lot of time and effort, but you don’t get to keep the results. It’s like giving up on the last leg of the race. You are so close, but you let excuses get in the way. Why did you even start in the first place if you don’t get to keep the results?

Instead of focusing on cultivating self-discipline, introduce rituals similar to brushing your teeth. Incremental change is better than ambitious failure. Success feeds off of itself.
-Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier

Take a moment to think about a positive habit you tried to acquire for the long-term in the past, but only kept for the short-term. What stopped you? Chances are, the habit never became a ritual.

Tips to Creating Daily Habits for the Long-Term

Here are three tips to creating a new daily habit for the long-term:

1) You must practice your new habit each day consistently for the first 21 days

You’ve probably heard this one before, but scientifically, it has been proven as true. If you don’t perform your new daily habit every single day for 21 days, chances are, you won’t keep it. It will never become as ingrained as something like brushing your teeth. It is easier to stay consistent during the first 21 days if you perform the habit at the same time each day.

2) To succeed, you must be accountable to yourself

You aren’t always going to have someone else to be accountable to. So be accountable to yourself! I’ve found it is easiest to do this by keeping a daily log tracking my progress in maintaining positive habits.

3) To succeed, you must accept yourself

Should you give up the first day you don’t perform your positive habit? Of course not- you are only human. Accept yourself in your present moment, while understanding that your future self will be better-able to maintain the positive habit. Then move on without looking back.

That’s it. Now you get to keep the results of your positive habit for the long-term. I’ve tried this, and it works. After 21 days of practicing the new daily habit, if you keep yourself accountable, and are accepting of your mistakes, you will succeed. It’s best to try it with one habit at a time. Your daily habit will then become so ingrained in your daily schedule that not performing it will be like not brushing your teeth.

Source: http://www.lifeevolver.com/create-daily-habits-consistent-21-days/

¿Las personas inteligentes oyen rock y heavy metal?

 

Todos hemos visto alguna vez a un ‘melenudo' embutido en unos pantalones elásticos, llevando una camiseta de Metallica y escuchando música en su mp3. Le observamos mientras menea su cabeza suavemente, suponemos que al ritmo de alguna canción de Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath o alguna otra banda de heavy metal. Sin darnos cuenta, nos vienen a la mente todos esos estudios clásicos que dicen que las personas que escuchan este tipo de música tienen más tendencia a ser agresivos, o que incluso tienen un mayor riesgo de suicidarse.

Y sin embargo, más allá de los estereotipos, podríamos estar frente a un superdotado que intenta deshacerse de todas las tensiones y relajarse. Al menos así lo cuenta un estudio de la Universidad de Warwick. Tras preguntar a más de mil estudiantes con altas capacidades intelectuales, encontraron que el rock era el estilo musical preferido por estos chavales de entre 11 y 18 años. Aquellos estudiantes comentaron que utilizaban el heavy metal para alcanzar una catarsis, como una forma de superar sus emociones negativas y afrontar la presión académica a la que estaban sometidos.

¿Escuchar heavy metal es propio de personas inteligentes?

Un trabajo presentado en la 18th Annual Conference of the Association for Psychological Science en Nueva York, mostraba que las personas que preferían la música alternativa, el rock y el heavy metal obtuvieron puntuaciones más altas en una medida objetiva de inteligencia. Eran particularmente mejores en la capacidad de abstracción. Los autores del trabajo plantearon la posibilidad de que esto se debiera a la mayor frecuencia de metáforas y lenguaje abstracto que existe en las canciones propias de este estilo, al que están expuestos de forma recurrente los fans. 

¿Cómo son los ‘rockeros' y los ‘metal heads'? El rock, la música alternativa y el heavy metal fueron definidos en otra investigación como música ‘intensa y rebelde'. Según este estudio, preferir este tipo de música se asocia con frecuencia a ciertos rasgos de personalidad como estar abierto a experiencias nuevas, disfrutar con el riesgo y ser físicamente activo. Sin embargo, no encontraron relación con el neuroticismo, como sería esperable según los estereotipos que asocian este estilo musical con las emociones negativas.

En definitiva, lo que está claro es que las apariencias engañan.

Marisa Fernández, Neuropsicóloga Senior, Unobrain

Fuente: http://www.muyinteresante.es/psicologia-del-heavy-metal

Una música para cada actividad

Daniel J. Levitin, exproductor musical de grandes figuras como Stevie Wonder o Carlos Santana, neurocientífico y actual director del Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise de la Universidad McGill, en Montreal (Canadá), confeccionó no hace mucho una exhaustiva lista de recomendaciones sobre qué género musical es más apropiado para realizar cada actividad cotidiana. Así, asegura que mientras leemos o estudiamos asignaturas como Historia o Literatura, la música clásica, el jazz, el blues y el tecno favorecen la concentración.

Si lo que queremos es aumentar el rendimiento mientras hacemos ejercicio, una buena opción sería oír I Feel Good de James Brown, con 146 bpm (pulsos por minuto), casi el mismo ritmo que el single de Madonna titulado Hung up, también recomendado por Levitin. Antes de ir a dormir conviene bajar a 60-70 bpm, con piezas como la Canción de cuna de Brahms. La música de Beethoven, sin embargo, no es una buena opción cuando pretendemos relajarnos.

Fuente: http://www.muyinteresante.es/una-musica-para-cada-actividad

¿La música que escuchamos dice mucho de nuestra personalidad?

Los psicólogos Peter J. Rentfrow y Samuel D. Gosling, de la Universidad de Texas han demostrado científicamente que las preferencias musicales de cada individuo definen su personalidad. Hace unos años idearon el “Test Corto de las Preferencias Musicales” (STOMP, por sus siglas inglesas) y sometieron a varios centenares de jóvenes a sus preguntas.

Según se deduce de sus resultados, publicados en la revista Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, si usted es amante del blues o del jazz probablemente será una persona lista, imaginativa, tolerante y liberal, además de abierta a nuevas experiencias. Los consumidores de heavy metal coinciden en su elevada inteligencia, pero son además especialmente curiosos, atléticos y habituales “cabecillas” sociales. Extroversión, locuacidad, energía y una elevada autoestima son los rasgos que predominan entre los fans del hip-hop y el funky. Y quienes escuchan las canciones de la popular Madonna, o la banda sonora de Bailando con Lobos, suelen ser sujetos conservadores, adinerados, felices, agradables y, con frecuencia, emocionalmente inestables.

Fuente: http://www.muyinteresante.es/ila-musica-que-escuchamos-dice-mucho-de-nuestra-personalidad

How to Prevent Burnout from Stress: Live like a Sprinter, not a Long Distance Runner

When we expend energy, we draw down our reservoir. When we recover energy, we fill it back up. Too much energy expenditure without sufficient recovery eventually leads to burnout and breakdown (Overuse it and lose it). Too much recovery without sufficient stress leads to atrophy and weakness (Use it or lose it).
-Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement

There needs to be an equal balance between stress and recovery- too much of either one has negative consequences

 

Nature is constantly oscillating- think of tides moving in and out, the seasons changing, or the sun rising and setting. We as human beings naturally follow a similar rhythm with our energy levels. Our natural state is to oscillate between rest and activity, similar to a sprinter. Unfortunately, our society of technological innovation socially sanctions living like a long distance runner- we ignore rest and fail to recognize its necessity for preventing burnout and sustaining high performance.

 

Ignoring recovery for too long causes burnout- symptoms of being burned out include emotional exhaustion, loss of motivation, detachment, isolation, and irritability.

Are your addicted to living like a long distance runner?

Living in a state of stress produces an adrenaline rush, and over time, this becomes addictive, and we lose the ability to relax. Common sense would tell us we need to take breaks and rest, but instead we overindulge in work, and face the consequences. Researchers have found that self-described workaholics have a significantly higher than average incidence of stress-related illnesses, divorce, and alcohol abuse.

Are you creating artificial relaxation and alertness?

If you regularly rely on alcohol, marijuana or sleeping pills to calm down, you may be trying to create relaxation (artificially). Similarly, if you rely on stimulants such as caffeine or amphetamines, you are trying to create alertness (artificially). Both of these artificial means of oscillation are masking the bigger problem- you are still living life like a long distance runner.

Are you creating artificial importance?

Do you like the feeling of importance when you become busier? Even when it means being unavailable to your friends and family? This artificial importance will only create artificial success, as you are still living life like a long distance runner.

Are your work habits putting you at risk to karoshi?

Karoshi is the term in Japan which means “death from overwork”. This is apparently a fairly common occurrence. In fact, I just read about a Toyota engineer who worked himself to death today (he died of heart disease). Additionally, I have known several people in the workforce who have had heart attacks after working extreme long hours under high pressure.

Research shows that these five key factors contribute to karoshi:

• Extreme long hours that interferes with normal rest patterns
• Night work that interferes with normal rest patterns
• Working without holidays or breaks
• High pressure work without breaks
• Extremely demanding physical labor and continuously stressful work

Here are some tips for preventing burnout (or karoshi!), and living like a sprinter:

Tips for Preventing Burnout from Stress and Living like a Sprinter

1) Balance stress and recovery to achieve your best performance

Push yourself beyond your ordinary limits, and regularly seek recovery, and you will grow. This is similar to lifting weights at the gym. The problem with people who live like long distance runners is that they don’t allow themselves to recover, and get burned out as a consequence. This brings us to the topic of tip 2.

2) Create a ritual of disconnecting

New technologies such as Blackberries/PDA’s, and social networking tools (ex. Facebook, Twitter), make it easy for us to never truly disconnect. Several people I work with will bring their work phones/laptops with them on vacation, and check e-mail/take phone calls the entire time. This is faulty, socially-sanctioned “live life as a long distance runner” logic.

It is a very good plan every now and then to go away and have a little relaxation… When you come back to the work your judgement will be surer, since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose the power of judgement.
-Leonardo Da Vinci

Da Vinci’s advice still applies to us today. To prevent work burnout, create a daily ritual (read my post on creating consistent daily habits) of completely disconnecting- have a daily stopping point. For example, if you are a business traveler, make a habit of not working during your commute, and instead, relax and read books/magazines. If you are on vacation, completely disconnect from your work- don’t bring your PDA or laptop.

Another option for preventing work burnout is to disconnect during your lunch. A lot of people fall into the habit of eating at their desk, or eating with coworkers and discussing work-related topics. To truly disconnect and use your lunch break to recover, you may need to eat by yourself.

3) Create healthy breathing, eating, sleeping, and exercising habits

Breathing: This is an easy way to relax and prevent burnout- throughout your day, make a habit of breathing in to a count of three and out to a count of six, for several minutes. This will help you relax deeply.

Eating: Eat small meals at regular intervals (five to six times a day is recommended), in amounts that are satisfying (not over or under filling). Try to eat primarily foods that are low on the glycemic index, as these will provide a steadier source of energy. And don’t forget to drink plenty of water!

Sleeping: Get 7-8 hours of sleep. If you are able to, take at catnap in the afternoon. Winston Churchill was a proponent of this, explaining that a catnap helps you get two days in one, as you wake up more alert and sustaining energy.

 

Exercising: Work out 3-5 times per week, and add some form of strength training to your routine (read my post on losing weight by gaining muscle). Strength training is just as important as cardiovascular training, especially as we age- on average, we lose one-half pound of muscle mass each year after the age of forty in absence of exercise.

Source: http://www.lifeevolver.com/prevent-stress-burnout-live-sprinter-long-distance-runner/