STILLNESS IS THE KEY

This is the title of one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors, Ryan Holiday. I highly recommend reading any of Holidays work, but especially this one. This idea of stillness being the ability for an individual to be steady, focused, and calm in an always busy world. Holiday argues that this quality is more important now than it has ever been, with the introduction of the internet and social media. I agree with him whole heartedly. He takes a look at incredible leaders, artists, and athletes who did amazing things by prioritizing this key ingredient to success: stillness. 

As you are reading this today, I'm on vacation with my fiance's family. We took a cruise ship around the Caribbean and I'm currently in Grand Cayman. Enjoying stillness. Nature. Time unplugged to recharge and refresh and reset. I encourage you to find time to explore stillness this week. Here are some ways you can find it:

1. Journaling: This was a practice of nearly every world changer. Time to sit and think with your own thoughts. This allows you to process your emotions and think deeply. It's also been proven to improve mood, productivity, and mental health. 
2. Reading: All leaders are readers. There is so much knowledge out there just waiting to be consumed. If you want to learn and grow, often the first step is to open a book 
3. Reduce Clutter: This has been a tough one for me because I've never been the most neat or organized person, and I'm still not, but I feel so much lighter when things around me are clean and organized. Science backs this up, too. 
4. Social Media Fasting: or you can just delete you social media all together. I only have mine for business and set restrictions for when I'm on. I'm always creating, never consuming. This week, my vacation week, is dark on social media. All my posts are pre-planned out. It's incredible how drastically this lowers my anxiety.
5. Go to Sleep: you are not a machine. You need time to rest, recover, and recharge. 8 hours of sleep is critical to our emotional well-being, productivity, mood, and mental health. Sleep is the free performance enhancing drug, if only we had the discipline to commit to it. 

Slow Down. Pace Yourself. Run your Race. Trust the Process. 

Have a great week! 

--Halo