Ten little life hacks that will instantly turn frustration into excitement

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There’s no better teacher than bouncing around like a wet poodle in the washing machine of life for several decades.

None of what I’m about to share with you was learned in a book, or a $599 online course.

Pain, regret, anger and a sprinkling of crippling shame brought me here.

Let’s go:

1. The ugliest setbacks present the most glorious opportunities.

Every single challenge you face in life presents two options for you:

1) Take it seriously and cry like a baby.

2) Find the opportunity hidden within it. It’s always there if you have the courage to find it, see it and nurture it.

2. The subtle power of not being a little bitch.

In a world where the prevailing advice from kindly online gurus is to find a place in your heart for ‘self-love,’ I’d also add this:

I’m most energised when I’ve dropped the idea that I’m a poor victim.

You are stronger than you know, right here the fuck now. Quit sulking, stand up tall, and raise hell.

3. Stop being realistic.

97% of humans are in a brutal struggle against most others on a flat-playing field.

The kings among us found some courage, peeled away from the herd, and took the winding path to a small enclave where the air is a little thinner.

Up here, it may at first be dizzying, but we’re not grinding to compete.

We’re no longer living for mediocre - we’re instead committed to the ‘unrealistic.’ Our friends may snigger, but we laugh last.

4. Every stress is a signal to slow down.

Most people do something verging on the comical when they’re stressed, frustrated, triggered, or anxious.

They speed up.

They compensate for their discomfort in the wrong direction, and try to remedy things by chewing on their thoughts harder.

Slow down, cowboy.

This starts in the body. Slow your breath and your movements. The mind will follow, and so too will the solutions.

5. Realise that happiness can never be found elsewhere.

What if you were already whole and happy right here, right now sitting there?

What if you didn’t need life to change in any way to find ‘happiness?’

When you operate from the understanding that happiness, and all its forms, is your default setting, life becomes a simpler, fun game - and because you’re not so tense anymore, you will do better.

6. Forget yourself, and lift another.

You need to stop obsessing about yourself.

It just makes you self-conscious and more inclined to want to hide at home and watch Game of Thrones re-runs.

The most powerful thing you can do is drop the illusion that you’re an island. See yourself in another human.

Find just one person today to lift up, and you will be lifted twice as high.

7. If in doubt, shake your hips.

Most of our woes are felt in the mind, when they were stuck in your hips all along.

You’ve been scrolling your phone on your fat ass all day. Of course you’re miserable. Do as I do, and perform moves in your room so filthy they’d make Mick Jagger blush.

You’re not ‘Nathan from Accounts.’

You’re a wild, degenerate ape. Unlock the pain in your head via your hips, and thank me later.

8. Stop looking for passion.

Here’s a cheeky little secret that will change your life: passion, or energy, or creativity - whatever you want to call it - is not a noun.

It’s a verb - a habit. You’re sitting at your desk waiting for passion to show up in order to write. Don’t make me laugh.

The passion will come, but only when you start writing. And give it a few minutes, jeez.

You will feel energy when you start walking. Passion is a verb. You don’t wait for it or find it. You create it at 8am sharp every morning.

9. Accept that no one is coming to save you.

I hate to say it, but there’s no mentor waiting in the wings, no perfect opportunity about to land in your inbox, and no moment when the stars will align and everything will finally feel easy.

This is actually liberating, though. Because, when you stop waiting to be rescued, you realise it’s just you, and you start moving.

And movement creates the reward.

10. Drop the idea you have of ‘you.’

We all create an image of who we think we are in the context of other people. This tendency is the source of much of our suffering.

Why? Because we fear perceived loss and abandonment.

But an image is just an image. It isn’t real.

We’re living according to an ever-changing freaking illusion of who we think we are. We will have far fewer problems when we can drop the idea that we need protecting.

This is the path to truly not giving a shit about what other people think. We are not our identities, nor our memories.

We’re just flesh and bones, and we can handle more shit than we think.

Take a breath.

Drop your shoulders.

Be willing to look a fool at every step.

You will have the world at your feet.

If you’d like to lift your vitality by significantly reducing your stress (regardless of your life situation) in the next couple of days, you might like my Untethered Mind course.

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