Ever wondered how you might create the life you want? We'll be the first to admit that the answer isn't one-size-fits-all, but the conversation in this episode of The Real Brian Show can help refocus the path to that life. When I choose to adopt these methodologies in my own life, I am surprised to find that the life I want while I'm living selflessly is very different from what I want when I'm living for myself. How does living differently change what we want? Perspective.
In this Episode
- Tired of the negativity...
- Developing a new morning routine!
- New Music. Check out Danger Silent
- Ostrich meat, Apple Cider Vinegar, Cinnamon Cubano
- Welcome Kate Erickson!
- Attitude and how it can change the world.
Keep the Bedroom Sacred
I know where your mind went with that header! Reel it back in so that I can expound on this sacredness I speak of. Brian explains his new morning routine in this episode and it involves not keeping his cellphone in his bedroom. No more with the cellphone alarm clock! no more with the social media wake up ritual! What do you think you'd do instead when you wake up in the morning without technology within reach?
If the routine itself isn't appealing to you, maybe science will change your mind. Several years ago, when smart phones really began to explode, we began to see a lot of fundamental aspects of our culture change. In addition to texting while driving, looking at your phone while crossing the street, and Googling (or asking Siri about) everything you don't know, the physical side effects of LCD screens began to emerge.
According to many scientists, LCD screens have a legitimate negative effect on our health. Eye strain (including blinking less and what is called "Near Point Stress Syndrome"), headaches, sleepless nights... they are not just things Mom said to get us to put down our phones. 
Articles in everyday publications, such as Forbes, brought up the excellent point of LCD being non-existent throughout human history up until the last thirty years. Until the last ten years or so, the human body has never been exposed to the degree of exposure to LCD screens that we force on them now. Some scientists would posit that these screens go so far as to trick our bodies into thinking it's daylight when it may be the middle of the night. Have you ever crawled in bed, tired and exhausted, feeling like you could fall asleep within seconds... but then you pull out your phone, maybe for something as innocent as turning it to silent mode or setting the alarm, only to find a half-hour has passed and you've thoroughly perused Facebook? And at that point you're not even tired anymore?
We have a problem! Bringing that distracting nonsense into the bedroom is not necessary. Try keeping the bedroom sacred, remove LCD screens from the bedroom for a couple weeks and see what changes.
Create the Life You Want
What an incredible conversation with Kate this week. I've heard Kate interviewed many times, not just by Brian too (she was a guest on Profitcast), and I'm always thrilled to hear her articulate aspects of herself that I am unable to put into words about myself. Early in this episode she talks about her behavior when entering a party or a group of people, and her approach deeply resonates with me.
I followed up Brian's discussion of standing up for ourselves last week with a little commentary of my own and basically tried to get across that what finally clicked for me was understanding the connection I had to a group of people that enabled me to do what I was good at confidently. Not unlike Kate's own realization of, "What am I doing?" when carefully evaluating her approach to mingling, I realized, as far as networking and socializing is concerned, that what was missing for me, to be bold in the midst of strangers, was a lack of connection. I didn't know how I connected to all these people. Instead of it being a point of fear, I used it as a challenge. I rose up out of my introverted, I'd-rather-be-home-with-a-good-book nature and created the atmosphere I wanted.
The entire interview with Kate is filled with so much excellent material that I don't even want to approach a recap of it all here. They talk about paying it forward, being nice to people and saying hello, and how that can fundamentally change your own day as well as perfect strangers. They talk about how attitude is the front-runner to perspective, how without a good attitude everything that happens results in a perspective with a murky lens. The picture they paint for us, the conversation as a whole, sets up this model of what it means to create the life you want. The life we want is full of choices; and that's not just, 'What do I want to do for a living?' or 'Should I get married?' But daily asking ourselves, 'What attitude am I going to wear today?' and 'How can I treat those around me with the respect they deserve?'
Links
- Fighting Back Against the Health Menace of LCD Screens (Forbes)
- Kate Erickson: EOFire Audio Blog
- @KateLErickson
- Find Another Way to Live by Danger Silent