Thriving Deliberately

Energy Excellence Excitement

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Build the three foundational components of a fulfilling life: energy, excellence, and enjoyment

Thriving Deliberately

These three interdependent components are the keys to making the most of your life.  No matter where you are today, the right habits and mindset can revolutionize your life experience.  Thriving Deliberately was created to help you do just that.  Create a life that gets you excited to get out of bed every day.

Energize

Energy is your generated physical and emotional well being.   We’ll work to provide you with tools to generate more energy for everythign in your life from work to relationships. Learn how to utilize sleep, nutrition, meditation and exercise to bring your best self to every day of your life.

Excel

Excelling and improving are a natural consequence of energy if it is focused properly and a major contributor to your enjoyment of live.  Everyone knows what it means to excel in certain contexts – if you’re an athlete or a businessperson for example.    Certain areas have clear measures of success –  wins and losses, profitability.    In other areas – marriage, parenthood, career, excellence can be more subjective.     Once you define what it means to excel for you, we can identify the tools and build the habits that will generate excellence in your life.

Enjoy

So much personal development literature focuses on performance.  We certainly don’t want to neglect performing at a high level in our approach to thriving, but what good is it if you are not getting fulfillmnent and joy from your life?   At the end of the day, this is the bottom line result we are all looking for.  .

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Why Multi-Tasking is Impossible and You Shouldn’t Try to do it.

In a world that prizes productivity, it’s tempting to think that doing multiple tasks simultaneously will help you accomplish more. Yet, research consistently shows that true multi-tasking is not just difficult – it’s impossible for the human brain. What we perceive as “multi-tasking” is actually task-switching, and it can have detrimental effects on both our productivity and mental health.

The brain is not wired to focus on multiple complex tasks at once. Instead, it handles tasks sequentially, rapidly switching from one to the other. This constant shift of attention, known as “context switching,” takes a toll on our cognitive resources. Studies by psychologists like Dr. David Meyer have shown that switching tasks can reduce productivity by up to 40%. Each time we shift our attention, it takes extra mental energy to refocus, which slows us down and increases the likelihood of making errors. Rather than saving time, task-switching often leads to a longer completion time for each task.

Additionally, attempting to multi-task has a negative impact on memory and creativity. When we’re constantly moving between tasks, our brains struggle to retain information, making it difficult to remember details and leading to a decrease in quality of work. Creative processes, which require a more prolonged focus, suffer particularly because they need deep thinking and synthesis. With scattered attention, it’s nearly impossible to reach the level of focus necessary to come up with innovative ideas or solutions.

Multi-tasking also takes a toll on mental health. The constant stimulation of switching between tasks contributes to stress, fatigue, and even burnout. This is particularly concerning as we become increasingly reliant on digital devices, which often encourage multi-tasking through constant notifications and alerts.

Instead of attempting to multi-task, focus on single-tasking: giving one task your full attention before moving on to the next. Studies have shown that single-tasking improves accuracy, efficiency, and satisfaction in work. Setting aside dedicated blocks of time for specific activities can help you accomplish more without the drawbacks associated with multi-tasking.

In sum, rather than spreading yourself thin by attempting to multi-task, focus on one task at a time. Your brain – and your productivity – will thank you.

https://thrivingdeliberately.com/multi-tasking-is-impossible-and-simulating-it-is-counter-productive/

Essential Books for Optimizing Your Life

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These are the five books that have the most practical tools I’ve found for increasing my energy, excitement, and excellence.

Click on an image below to shop at Amazon for one of these titles in any format. I like to support independent bookstores and encourage you to use the Bookshop.com link if time is not of the essence. Bookshop also has an Ereader (MyMustReads) that you can use on most computers, phones and non- Amazon tablets. Give it a try. https://bookshop.org/shop/thrivingdeliberately

Essentialism is a concept and way of life that dramatically level up both your productivity and your quality of life.

James Clear’s book is the best, easiest to implement tool for habit change.

Some of the resources in the Four Hour Work Week are a little dated, but Tim Ferris’ work really sparked not only my journey, but a mindset movement. If you haven’t read it, you really should.

Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s reasearch into happiness and the flow state that correlates with it is the foundation of modern positive psychology principles. These principles are at the core of what the ultimate goal really is= optimal experience, a.k.a. quality of life.

Dr. Carol Dweck’s research established the data underlying the importance and malleability of how you frame your experience. MIndset presents the results of her research and the implications in as readably as it is important.

7 Ways to Arrange Your Life to Improve Your Life Experience

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If you have huge goals, working on them here and there whenever it’s convenient will delay ever reaching those goals.

If you arrange your life in such a way that supports those goals, however, all aspects of your life will be working together – complementing each other – with the realization of your goals as the result!

Yes, arranging your life around your goals helps you create the exact life you want!

Use these strategies to make it happen:

  • Define your goals. Know your goals. This is always the first step. Success isn’t an accident. It requires a vision and intention.
    1. Clarify exactly what you want to happen, in such a detailed way that you can see, hear, smell, taste, and feel all aspects of that life.

  • People. Are the people in your life supportive of your goals? You have a choice to make. You can spend time with others that make you more likely to be able to live your purpose, or you can spend your time with those that make it less likely for you to live the life you truly want.

    Are there others you need to connect with in order to achieve your goals? Maybe it would help to have a banker or two in your life. Maybe a coach or a marketing expert would spur you on. Invite new people into your circle that will support your goals.

    You can only spend time with a certain number of people. As they say, you become like the people you spend the most time with. Are you spending time with the right people?
  • Diet. If you want to run a marathon, that’s a different diet than someone that wants to win a bodybuilding contest. Do you need a lot of energy, or do you need a lot of focus? What type of diet allows you to do your best work?
    1. Experiment with several diets and pay attention to how they impact you physically and mentally.

  • Sleep. What is the optimal amount of sleep for you? You might find that you can pursue your goal much more effectively if you get more sleep. Most people require 7-8 hours of sleep each night to be at their best.

  • Time. How are you spending your time each day? Are you wasting time on mere distractions or trivial pursuits? When you’re using your time to chase after your goals, are you choosing the most effective actions or the easiest?

    1. Track how you spend your time each day and see what you discover.
  • Home. Are you living in the right city, neighborhood, or home to best pursue your goals? For example, it would be very difficult to become the world’s greatest skier while living in Illinois. Where do you need to be to maximize the odds of your success?

    • Should you be living in the city or the country?
    • East coast or West?
    • Condo or farm?
    • Near the mountains or the ocean?
    • Alone or with others?

  • Career. Are you making enough money to pursue your goals? Is your career helping or hurting your efforts?

    1. For example, if you need to be free during the day to pursue your goals, then an evening job makes more sense than a day job.

    1. If your current job or career path doesn’t support the life you want, research one that will and make plans to pursue that path.

Big goals require the coordination of every aspect of your life. If you want to run a 10K, you can work that around your current schedule. If you want to become a billionaire, it’s going to take more than that.

How big are your goals? How serious are you about achieving them? Are you ready to arrange your life to support your goals? You can get started today!

ENERGY – THE FOUNDATION

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Energy

Energy is your generated physical and emotional well being.   We’ll work to provide you with tools to generate more energy for everythign in your life from work to relationships. Learn how to utilize sleep, nutrition, meditiation and exercise to bring your best self to every day of your life.

Excellence

Excelling and improving are a natural consequence of energy  if it is focused properly and a major contributor to your enjoyment of live.  Everyone knows what it means to excel in certain contexts – if you’re an athlete or a businessperson for example.    Certain areas have clear measures of success –  wins and losses, profitability.    In other areas – marriage, parenthood, career, excellence can be more subjective.     Once you define what it means to excel for you, we can identify the tools and build the habits that will generate excellence in your life.

Enjoyment

So much personal development literature focuses on performance.  We certainly don’t want to neglect performing at a high level in our approach to thriving, but what good is it if you are not getting fulfillmnent and joy from your life?   At the end of the day, this is the bottom line result we are all looking for.  .

Understanding the Benefits of Good Nutrition

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