Podcast Episode 9 Show Notes- 36 Tips To Upgrade Your Life Pt3
(Listen to the full episode here)
Welcome back to the Eternal Crown Lifestyle, this is Episode 9 and the 3rd part of my 36 tips to upgrade your life. In the last 2 episodes I shared with you 20 of my best tips to help you upgrade your life. These have been very simple and very practical activities that you can include in your lifestyle. They are a mixture of suggestions that will help you grow mentally, physically and spiritually. You don’t want to be the same person today that you are in 6 months or even 1 year do you? You want to be growing and making progress right? These tips will help you to do just that, if you are willing to take the risk to break out of the ordinary. Hopefully you are excited and motivated for the new possibilities now. Let’s get back into the tips, starting with number 21.
Tip 21 is to help someone who is in need. Take the time to do something kind and unexpected for someone else. It’s not hard to show some compassion and appreciation for another person. This doesn’t always have to be meeting a financial need, like many people default to. Instead of just giving a homeless person a few dollars or some spare change, stop to talk with them, Engage them in a real conversation and get to know them. Instead of just trying to solve their problem, which won’t happen with money anyway,; find out why they are there. They most likely have a great life story to tell, but no one takes the time to stop and listen to it. Many of them have not had anyone care enough to have a real conversation with them in months and in some cases possibly years. You could change their whole day or even life by simply stopping and listening to them. You can also make a difference by reaching out a helping hand to an elderly person or neighbor that you know could use a little extra help. The idea is to just get your eyes off of yourself and look around to see the other people who are in need and could benefit by your kindness.
Tip 22 keeps with this theme of generosity and caring for others and is to donate your extra clothes. Find a way to take the things you are currently not using, that are still in great shape and let them become a blessing in someone else’s life. Find a place that will actually take the clothes and make sure they get to people who need them. Not somewhere that will just resell them or recycle them, but a place that actually meets peoples needs directly. That old sweat shirt that you have sitting in the back of your closet that you have not worn in several years, might be the very piece of clothing that could keep someone warm that is living out on the streets right now.
Let’s continue with this great theme of caring for others with tip 23. Go serve at a homeless shelter in your area. You may not have a lot of money, but your time is another valuable commodity that can be used to help others. Giving your time to someone is an excellent way to show them that they matter. While you are serving you can engage with them in healthy communication and allow them to share their stories with you. Many people are simply lacking good communication and connections. The right relationship, could be enough of a motivating factor to help them get their lives back on the right track and see breakthroughs.
Tip 24 is to give someone a compliment. It really doesn’t get much simpler than this one. Next time you see someone find a way to give them a nice genuine compliment. It can be about physical appearance. Hey I really like your hair or those are great shoes! Or you can compliment their character qualities. Thanks for always making me smile or I really respect the way you handled that situation today. This helps us to get into a habit of looking for good in people and gets us away from being negative or tiring people down all the time. Compliments are such an easy way to make someones day better, but we just don’t do it enough.
Tip 25 is one the older generations will be familiar with and the newer ones might not have as much or any experience with. This tip is to get back to eating dinner as a family at the dinner table. Turn off the TV and put down all the electronic devices for a while and just enjoy being a family. This will allow you as a family to stay aware of what is going on in each others lives. Parents you need to know what is happening in your children’s lives on a daily basis and they need to know they can talk to you about anything they are experiencing whether it’s good or bad. Also the children need to be a part of their parents lives and hear about what they are having to deal with too. Investing in one another as a family and becoming a strong cohesive unity is very important. I believe this is one of the biggest issues in our society right now, that is leading to a lot of our major problems. There is too much division in this world and most of the time it begins under our own roofs. The act of having a meal together each night, has the power to bring much needed unity and strength back into the world. You really want to improve the condition of the world, start at your own dinner table tonight.
Let’s continue talking about unity within the family with tip 26 which is to start a family game night. Why not bring your family together for some fun and laughter by playing games together. Games also teach valuable skills such as team work and creativity. There is far too much division and isolation within most households these days. Game nights get the family back in the same room and build relationships. It is also a good way to create a needed break from technology and screen watching. If done properly this activity can be something every member of the family looks forward to and is a real blessing to the family as a whole.
The next tip is number 27, which is to make some new friends. Get out of the house, find a new place and meet some new people. For me this looks like engaging different people at the gym and finding out about them. Human connection is vital to your success in life. You need many different healthy relationships in your life. This needs to be intentional on your part and can be done by visiting places where communication is possible. Drive to a park, community center, shopping mall, arcade, or other places where people gather to socialize and have fun. Making some new friends that are not just digital friends ,will really be of benefit to you and to others. They have great things to add to your life and you have lots of value to add to theirs as well. You need great people in your life to help you reach and fulfill your goals and dreams. We were made to be in relationships and communities. We do best when we have other people around us to interact with and learn from. Stop isolating yourself and get out there, this world needs what you bring to the table!
Tip 28 is another really simple one that makes a huge difference. Get yourself a pet. It is proven that people with pets just live more enjoyable and rewarding lives. Elderly people that have pets especially dogs tend to live longer and have more joy. Pets bring a lot of great things into your daily life. I have always been a dog lover, but have also had cats too. Right now I have 2 dogs and I have pretty much always had 2 dogs for the majority of my life. I have a Labor-doodle and a husky right now and I’m very grateful to have them in my life. They bring joy to me daily and keep a smile on my face. I really love them and they show their love for me back. Life is just truly better with pets, is all I can really tell you on this one. Especially if you are living alone right now, you need a pet in your life. Pets are great for families also and help teach kids responsibility and other valuable life skills.
This might be a challenging tip for a lot of you, but it is one that I highly encourage. Tip 29 is to stop watching the news! I’ll say it again, stop watching the news! Turn it off and remove this negative source from your life. The news use to be informative and helpful to let you know what was happening around you locally and globally. The news today has just been filled with negativity and fear. Most people consume more news in one or two days, then our grandparents would have consumed in a whole year! The news now has been designed to produce fear, worry, and division. These response allow for controlling us and getting us to consume things that supposedly help us address these emotions and feelings. You really don’t need this negative source of information pouring into your life and polluting your mind daily. We need to remove negativity from our lives and for the majority of people the news is your prime source for that negativity. Ask yourself this question, do you feel better or worse after watching the news? Do you feel safer or more afraid? Do you feel like people are more unified or divided after watching the news? Are you more at peace or more filled with anger? You are being programmed daily to think and view things from a certain perspective and it is not healthy or good for you. I’m not talking about a specific news source either. It could be CNN, FOX, MSNBC, CBS, or any other of the news stations, turn them all off! You may get one or two good or positive stories every now and then from well meaning reporters, but the agenda and direction of the news station as a whole will lean towards a negative theme. Just try this experiment for yourself. Stop watching or consuming any news for one whole week and evaluate how you felt that week as compared to previous needs filled weeks. If you notice a positive change then keep the news off and continue the new free life.
Tip number 30 is great, because you are actually doing it right now and so this tip is more of an encouragement to do it more and find more great sources. Tip 30 is to listen to educational podcasts. Listen to podcasts that will help you too grow in areas you are both very interested in and in areas you may just be curious about. Listen to content that is directly related to your biggest passions and goals, but don’t forget to step outside of your comfort zone and to learn new and interesting things as well. I hope this podcast is one of those podcasts that you would say is adding value to your life and helping you to grow daily. I listen to podcasts on a variety of topics, such as fitness, business, health, motivational and self improvement , interviews, Christianity, and other topics that fill me up and allow me to improve my life.
Speaking of things that help you to grow, improve, and increase it is now time for the introduction of the week 3 Eternal Crown Lifestyle Weekly Challenge ( #ECLWC ). I really hope you have been participating in the previous weeks challenges so far, but if not now is a great time to get started. These challenges are designed to get you out of your comfort zones and to also help you implement the information you are receiving on this podcast. Here are the 5 items for this week’s challenge list. Remember to complete all 5 items every single day this week.
1.) Spend 10 minutes visualizing yourself accomplishing one of your current goals- Visualization can be a really powerful tool for helping you achieve your goals and to prepare yourself to succeed. When you visualize try to use all of your senses to really focus on what it will be like when you achieve the goal.
2.) 3 sets of 20 jumping jacks- This is a simple exercise that will help get your heart rate elevated but will not be too difficult to perform. If you feel it is too easy for your fitness level then include a few extra sets or more repetitions per set.
3.) Write a letter to your future self in 1 year- Now for this one you can break it up and spend a few minutes writing this letter each day of the week or you can just knock out the whole letter in one day. If you complete the letter early then spend time reading it out loud each of the rest of the days of the week.
4.) 3 1 min plank holds- The plank exercise will help you to strengthen your core muscles. When you perform this exercise try to keep your back flat and do not allow your butt to be in the air or your back to sag. Look up proper form on the internet if necessary and to challenge yourself more increase the hold time each set.
5.) Give someone a hug- Each day this week find a person to hug. It can be the same person each day or it can be someone different. Physical touch is an important part of a healthy life. We need this type of connection and with everything going on in the world right now I feel this one activity is of even more importance. I know that when I give and receive hugs I feel much better and I believe you will experience the same result too!
There you have the 5 daily challenge items for this week’s Eternal Crown Lifestyle Weekly Challenge ( #ECLWC ). Enjoy your week and come back next week for the conclusion of my 36 tips to help you upgrade your life. Thanks again for listening!
