HABITUALLY, I spend an hour a day daily listening to spiritual and motivational audios while doing my workout. It pans out well for me as I would have covered my targeted physical activity and planted some good seeds in my brain for the day.
I notice a striking similarity in all advocates on the subject which screams loud enough. The single common mantra is, “keep away from news and your digital gadgets, at least for the first hour of your day”.
As much as we are drawn to and hung up on our gadgets for work, recreation and everything else revolving around our existence, the call to build resilience to reject the “toxic” lure from the digital contraptions coming from varied sources is something we need to consider.
For each of us, we begin our day with the digital gadgets and end with one too and we may have reasons or excuses for indulging in them but let’s experiment life without them for the first and last hour of the day, and this is a challenge thrown to us by many gurus.
As your day starts, it’s easy to get lost in the habit of checking messages, replying to emails, checking the news and your favourite blogs, but these become distractions and don’t add value to the day or your life, according to life coaches.
Hence, the remedy is to put a lot of emphasis on the first hour of the day which is instrumental in setting the stage for the rest of the day and works as a pathfinder for the life you desire.
Noted speaker and writer Robin Sharma discovered his antidote and says, “I’ve found, putting a little emphasis on making the first hour of your day the most powerful hour working miraculously. Treating that first hour as sacred, not to be wasted on trivial things, but to be filled with only the most essential, life-changing actions can be a game-changer for most of us”.
He explains that sacred actions might include meditation, journaling, reading, studying, working out and planning the day.
Try the regime, experiment and see how it goes but give it sufficient time to simmer and seep into your system and studies have shown that one becomes more productive and focused through the day. For a small change in habit if we are reaping big benefits, why not ?
Incidentally, the amount of time it takes for something to become a habit varies, according to experts and depending on who you ask, you can get answers anywhere from a week to a year.
However, the most popular answer appears to be 21 days as postulated in the 1960s by Maxwell Maltz, a cosmetic surgeon. But that number was taken as scientific maxim without being tested until recently.
Researchers at University College London think they have uncovered how long on average it takes for something to become habitual. They do not think it takes 21 days to form a habit. They believe it takes an average of 66 days to create a habit. This number trumps the conventional 21 days by more than six weeks, so the idea that it takes an average of 66 days may be a surprise to many.
The disclaimer, of course, is that none of these motivational philosophies and notions are built on hard science or from brain research. It comes tried and tested on people who have followed the “command” and have made it in life.
Of late, the abhorrence for news is increasing as we see nothing but filth, page after page rooted in politics. I am disgustingly disappointed with the kind of politicians we are breeding and harbouring these days. They are devoid of decorum, ethics and conscience and are willing to go the last mile, whatever it takes, to achieve their political ambition.
A video, which gives me a violent shudder even at its mere mention and reeks of crudeness and has taken the Malaysian political scene to a new low giving the politicians a stigma that will remain etched in shame for a long time.
The sickening culture of politics may mutate and may be the new paradigm of things, as they say, money and sex scandals somehow find their way into our memory longer and the conjectures we see on social media and online news keep us fatally glued with time whiled away in perpetuity and into nothing.
The video is a howler and this episode should not be repeated. The politicians from both sides of the divide must leave a clean legacy. But oops! That sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?
Hey, Malaysia Baru, we have countless issues, with our economy spiralling downwards topping the list, needing immediate measures and attention. Please leave politics to after office hours.
Every salaried politician must devote his or her time and energy towards the nation and its people. Remember, for every political scandal that surfaces, the key government agencies are burdened with more work and less time for planning and developing the country.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
