When you are busy working toward a long term goal do you find it difficult to maintain your sense of enjoyment? Does it seem like your life requires you to play so many different roles that it is almost impossible to stay focused on any one project for very long?
When our attention gets spread too thin it can be challenging to stay motivated over the long run. Projects that we are passionate about keep getting shoved into the background and end up taking much, much longer that we thought they would.
How can we maintain our enthusiasm and keep our focus with so many distractions? What steps can we take to regain some control of our schedule? How can we bring a greater sense of enjoyment into our daily routine?
11 tips for getting more enjoyment out of every day
1. Value simplicity. The simpler things are the less distracted we will be. This means we need to de-clutter our environment and our minds. For some reason we seem to accumulate physical, mental, and emotional clutter. So we end up rushing from one demanding situation to another with no real feeling of enjoyment or accomplishment. To quiet our minds and restore a sense of order to our lives we need to value simplicity.
2. Experience your activities. How often are you doing one thing and thinking about another? How can we find enjoyment in anything if our focus is somewhere else? If we never take the time to actually be in the moment then can we say that we are really living our life? Even the most mundane activities can be enjoyable if we stay centered on the actual experience. In this over stimulated, out of balance and hectic world, simple activities fully experienced can be enjoyable if we let them.
3. Savor the little things. The next time you eat a piece of fruit or enjoy a cup of coffee or tea, simply enjoy it. Wrap your senses around it and savor the experience. When we gulp down our food and rush off to whatever comes next, we are actually robbing ourselves of enjoyment. Our senses of smell and taste are connected to our brains pleasure center. When you savor what goes into your body you tend to eat less and enjoy it more.
4. Add variety to your routine. Don’t be afraid to try something new. It could be something as simple as taking a different route to get to work or as complex as learning to play a musical instrument. Instead of turning on the television after dinner, try going for a walk in the evening air. Right now is an excellent time to do something you’ve always wanted to do, but have never gotten around to because someday may never come.
5. Make time for what you love. If all we ever did was work on and attend to our obligations it could become difficult to find any sense of enjoyment in our day-to-day experience. It’s important to take care of our responsibilities, but we should also try to balance the “need to do” activities with a few things we really want to do. If we never make the time to do things we are excited about, we could easily start resenting our lives. That’s why it is important to make time every day for the things we really enjoy.
6. Drop unnecessary commitments. Just as we need to make time for doing things we love, we also need to work toward minimizing the things that just consume time and energy with no real payoff. Granted, some things simply aren’t negotiable, but other so-called obligations aren’t really necessary. For each commitment ask yourself if this is something that’s really adding to your life. Is it enhancing your life, or is it just adding more stress? If it doesn’t add any enjoyment or positive benefit, drop it.
7. Focus on what matters. There is productivity and there is busy work. Sometimes it can be difficult to recognize the difference because it varies for each of us. Here’s an example: For someone whose livelihood comes from social media marketing, spending time on sites like Twitter and Facebook might represent productivity. For others however, anything more than 5-10 minutes on those sites might just be a distraction from what really matters. It’s up to each of us to analyze our own situation and apportion our time accordingly.
8. Learn to just let go. When it comes to relaxation the body follows the mind. If your mind is busy obsessing over all the things that didn’t get done today, then you are not relaxed. Your body can only experience relaxation if your mind has let go of anything and everything that causes stress, worry, or anxiety. You will find more enjoyment in your life if you take some time every day to practice letting go.
9. Embrace generosity. There are almost endless opportunities to contribute to the lives of others. Any act of kindness is an act of generosity. Smile at strangers, hold the door open for the person behind you, listen while someone else is talking, and be respectful. These simple acts of kindness don’t cost you anything, but they add enjoyment to your life and the lives of those around you.
10. Do a daily gratitude review. Focusing on gratitude will change your life on every level. It is so easy to get caught up in selfish pursuits and forget how much there is to be grateful for. Gratitude is the antidote for selfishness. If you take a minute every morning and every evening to review your blessings, you will start to notice more and more things to be grateful for. Of all the ways to get more enjoyment out of every day, this is the simplest and the most powerful. If you only put one thing from this list into action in your life, this should be it.
11. Examine your priorities. Life is an ever changing experience and that means that we need to reevaluate our priorities on a regular basis. Make sure you know what is truly important to you, and why. Give your top priorities first place in your life or they will get swallowed up by everything else. Everyone you know probably has an opinion about what should be important to you. Keep in mind that this is your life and you need to set your own priorities. Choose wisely and you too will find enjoyment in your every day life.
