Advice From My Friend’s Therapist

After going to an initial session with a new therapist my friend called me up to rave about what he had told her. She said that she had immediately felt better and that he had put a lot of things into perspective for her. The one thing that stood out the most for me was one piece of advice he gave her:

“You should be acting ten years younger than your age.”

I played around with the thought in my head for a few hours; i’m certain when he said that he didn’t mean for her to behave immaturely, but then what did behaving ten years younger mean, because the minute I picture myself behaving ten years younger than myself a wave of calmness and relief washes over me. Eventually, before I fell asleep, I figured that ten years meant more fun, caring less, not as much stress or as many responsibilities. If that was what he meant then that’s a plan I can get onboard with.

As an experiment, for the next week try to think, act and speak like you are ten years younger and then come back here and tell me what you think!

Benefits of Biotin

Biotin (sometimes referred to as Vitamin H) is a coenzyme and B vitamin (B7 to be more specific) and it changed my life! My friend first recommended it to me when I complained to her of how lazy I had become. For a while I suffered from lack of energy, hair loss, and just all around grumpiness (from lying around the house all day). My friend (who is very hyper and has the thickest hair ever) said that she got all her energy from Biotin supplements, so I headed to the closest pharmacy and picked up a pack for myself.

Six weeks later everyone, including myself, noticed a difference! I was up and energetic most of the day, my moods stabilized, I lost several pounds effortlessly, and most importantly my hair loss decreased significantly. Of the many supplements I’ve read about and tried only Biotin has shown me such significant improvement.

Here are a few benefits of Biotin:

1. Metabolism and Weightloss: Biotin processes almost everything you ingest and if your biotin levels are optimum then your metabolism will work faster, helping you lose undesired weight.
2. Energy: If you’ve read up on digestion and our modern diet then you probably know how much energy our body is wasting trying to digest the crap we’re eating today, which is why when you start taking Biotin and it assists your body in digesting everything (even the worst, most energy-draining one of them all, carbs) you’ll find yourself with a lot more energy than you used to have.
3. Hair, Skin, and Nails: You’ll see the difference. And you’re welcome.
4. Blood Sugar: Helps greatly in stabilizing blood sugar levels, especially for people with diabetes.

The 1% Improvement Strategy

Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.
—Jim Rohn

Yesterday I came across a very interesting article about how Dave Brailsford, General Manager of the British Professional Cyclist Team, faced the very difficult challenge of leading the team to its first Tour De France. He applied a seemingly simple strategy, which i’ll call the “One Percent Improvement Strategy” to do so. Instead of focusing on making major improvements in a few things, Brailsford decided to make a meager ONE PERCENT improvement in as many things as possible. He started with the obvious, athletes’ nutrition, work outs, and the bicycles mechanics; then he took it one step further by trying to improve everything he could think of. The best pillow for a good nights sleep (which began to travel with the athletes everywhere), finding the best way to wash their hands, and so on. Brailsford hoped that this strategy will help them win their first Tour De France in five years. Instead, Britain won it in three.

The One Percent Improvement Strategy is simple enough to start applying to your life or career today; whether it’s organizing your fridge by one percent to make getting ingredients out faster, organizing your desk supplies, or learning a few Gmail tricks to make the time you dedicate to your emails more efficient, the one percent strategy is sure to  help improve your life (even if it is just by one percent)!

Read the original article on Dave Brailsford and the Aggregation of Marginal Gains here

Tackle Anxiety (Tip #1)

Make a list of all your problems.

Literally.

To me stress is like a tornado, it starts out with a certain problem and suddenly it’s one emotion after the other, joining together and spinning into something bigger until days have passed and i’ve turned my small concern into a massive storm that’s going to destroy everything in its way.

What I found to be very helpful is to make a list of all your problems. Get a pen and paper and start numbering them; the first thing you’ll realize is that they’re a lot less than you imagined. In fact, it’s probably only one or two things that are causing you all the anxiety.

Next, under each problem make a list of all the bad outcomes you’re worried about and beside that, possible solutions or plans of actions to take if that “worst-case scenario” actually happens. Acknowledging your fears and creating a basic plan of action will help you in tackling your anxiety.