Schedule Of Events How Can We Help You Middle School: Fill & Download for Free

I would think of it this way:Happiness is not becoming (it’s not a finite state of being), but it is a process of getting happier with each new day.If you think of it this way, you’re much more likely to treat happiness not as an end goal but as a habit.The good news? Everyone can develop habits, even this one. It’s not anything out of reach. It’s not just for the chosen few, for people who belong to a “happy club” or for those who are somehow advanced in feeling elated and carefree their whole lives. Not even close.But it is a skill, and like with any other skill, you can work on it. You can build it, day by day, to make it stronger, so that it can serve you to lead a better, more fulfilling and certainly a more enjoyable life.So make a commitment to becoming happier, starting today.Becoming happier means:Starting small (much easier than setting huge expectations: “I have to snap out of this unhappiness right now!”)Making progress (so that you're doing something to improve your mood today compared to yesterday: “Today I will do ___ differently!”)Being proactive (showing that you’re committed to making a positive change in your life: “I want to work on being happier so that I can start feeling better!”)Here are 5 small habits that you can practice daily to become happier:Be kind to yourself.Maybe you’re getting over a difficult and traumatic event, or maybe you’re still in the middle of it. It’s not an easy feeling, not knowing what to do next. Maybe you don’t necessarily have to do anything right now. You can just be patient with yourself, which can take the edge off things a bit. Use this time to reflect on what happened, and find out whatever you can learn from the situation. Try to avoid self-blame or blaming others. Use the time to practice a little self-compassion, be kind to yourself, give yourself some time to heal and get better.Say thank you.Practicing gratitude rewires our brain to think about positive things, the things that we have going for us, instead of the things we do not have and that can leave us feeling frustrated and unhappy. Everyone has at least something going for them, it’s just that these things are often neglected or taken for granted. Create a gratitude journal and write in it for 5 minutes each morning; list 3 things you are grateful for. It can be the simplest of things, such as having a warm bed to sleep in, a roof over your head, a family that loves you, a career or a job that improves the quality of life to people around you, food in your fridge, a dog or cat that you have as your pet, having an education that allows you to read and write, etc.Visualize having a good day.This is a simple technique that helps to train your brain to anticipate what happens next and to focus on a positive outcome to your day. All you need is 5 minutes. Think about the work you need to do, and picture yourself accomplishing what’s on your list and having enough time to do it. Make an estimate of how much time you’ll need for the important things, and plan what you’ll do if you run into a problem (have a plan B). Finally, imagine doing an activity that will make you happy: running into a friend, having an interesting conversation, watching a soccer game, making the time to play guitar, going on a bike ride, or eating an ice cream cone.Find any excuse to smile and laugh.When you smile and laugh, you give yourself an endorphin boost. Endorphins (also known as happy hormones) have many benefits, from reducing stress levels to making you feel happier and acting as a natural painkiller. You can even make yourself smile for no specific reason, and still get the same benefits. According to a facial feedback hypothesis, our brain doesn’t differentiate between real or fake smiles, and it interprets the position of your facial muscles in the same way, which helps it release more endorphins.Do something that really makes you feel good.If you're an avid reader, make the time to read a novel for 30 minutes before going to sleep. If you like to be physically active, schedule in a bike ride or a run in the late afternoon when you're done with work. If you love music, learn how to play guitar or drums or a harmonica. If you love to write, make it a priority to write one page every single day, either early in the morning before getting ready or later at night when everyone's asleep, it's quiet and you have the time to organize your thoughts while enjoying a cup of tea and listening to some relaxing music.Here are 2 book recommendations for more ideas on becoming happier:Choose the Life You Want: The Way To Lasting Happiness Moment by Moment by Tal Ben-Shahar: practical suggestions on how to implement positive psychology in your daily life, for example in school, the workplace, and in your personal relationships.Even Happier: A Gratitude Journal for Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment by Tal Ben-Shahar: this is a guided journal (think of it as a happiness workbook) with exercises to inspire happiness, gratitude, and positivity in your daily life.

I think I’m somewhat productive. I help run a few businesses. I’ve written a book or two a year for the past 11 years. I speak a lot. I write articles. I’ve also had more than enough time to ruin a marriage, find a new marriage, lose a house, and…other stuff.But I also feel lazy a lot. Like, sometimes I’m tired so I take a nap in the middle of the day. Or sometimes I get writer’s block. A lot of people say “writer’s block” is a myth but I get it. Then I feel very unproductive.About six years ago I would say I was 100% unproductive. Everything I did would cost me in either well-being or money. People say “money isn’t everything” and they are right. But money helps you pay bills. I’m divorced with two kids so I have bills to pay.So what is “productive”? Things that either increase my well-being: my feeling of growth or competence in a field I love (for instance, writing), my relationships with others, and my sense of freedom (which could (but not always) involve money).Freedom can also come from needing less, so then you need less money.Important to note that these three items of well-being are not goals. I will never be “competent." A day is productive if I GROW in competence. If I grow in my relationships. If I grow in my feeling of “choosing myself” – my freedom to make my own decisions in life instead of catering to the decisions and tastes of others.My six things (please help me and add to my list):READINGReading is maybe the most productive thing you can ever do. Here’s what happens: when you die at the age of 100, you’ve just lived one 100 year life. When I read a book in a few days time, I just absorbed an entire life, curated, of someone I admire or respect.It’s like every book I read is a mentor. How many mentors do I have? 1000s. Thank god I have a podcast. Because after I read a good book I try to get the author on my podcast with the excuse that I want to give him or her more exposure. But the reality is I just want to ask questions like a little kid to someone I admire.SLEEPINGI used to admire people who say, “I only need 3 hours of sleep a day”. Only later do I find out that most of these people are borderline mentally ill. Think about it the people in your life who say they only need 3 hours of sleep. I’m not going to accuse them of anything since I don’t know them.But be honest. Maybe they are a little..Why is sleeping productive? There’s brain science about rejuvenating neurons, etc. I read that somewhere. There’s all sorts of studies that people who sleep more get sick less, have more willpower, are less at risk for cancer, etc.But there’s something else. Dan Ariely, a guest on my podcast, says that the brain’s peak performance happens 2-4 hours after you wake up. Meaning: if you wake up at 5am, then from 7am to 9am, your brain is at it’s most productive.So here’s what I do. I wake up at 5. I’ll read (or take a walk), until 7am, and then I’ll start writing. Writing is the activity I love most. I’m a little kid again when I write. So I want my brain to be at it’s peak. So from 7 – 9am I’ll write.THEN, I do a trick. Many days (when I can) I’ll take a 1-2 hour nap around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Then I know that two hours later my brain AGAIN will be peaking. Maybe not as much as before. But enough. So I’ll write again. This is why I do my Twitter Q&As at 3:30 (every Thursday). Because I know my brain is supercharged then.I know that if I do the activity I love most when my brain and body have the most energy then that will create the most value, create the most opportunities for me, improve my competence and improve my freedom (because of the opportunities generated).EAT AT HOMEI don’t like to eat out. It takes so long. And then you have to wait for the bill. And I always feel bloated and I hate salads in restaurants. So I make simple meals (been super inspired by Rich Roll and his wife Julia Platt so lately all the things I eat come from their book Plantpower) and I am done in about 10 minutes, two meals a day. So I probably save an hour or two by not eating out or not eating junk that will bloat me and make me less productive.THROW STUFF OUTA few months ago, I threw out almost everything I owned. What do we really need? I like reading on the kindle. How many sheets do we need? I never have guests. How many clothes do I need? I was carrying around clothes I hadn’t worn in forever.My house was totally empty. It was really nice. I felt like a breath of fresh air was going through my head. Einstein says (as an insult), “if a cluttered desk means a cluttered mind, then what does an empty desk mean?” I’m okay with that, Albert! I don’t mind having an empty mind.It makes room for new things, new connections between my memories, new things for me to enjoy. Less things to obsess on. Cleaning the outside and cleaning the inside reduce stress. Every day I try to throw things out. It makes me feel good. It also make me feel like I need less. Throwing things out tells my brain, “you don’t need this anymore” so my brain stops wanting things.NO NEWSSomeone asked me a few weeks ago to comment on “the situation in Greece”. Is Greece still a country? I had to look it up. I guess they are going to default on their debt. So what? This gives TV people something to argue about. I’m happy for them.People are wired to notice lions much faster than they notice apple trees. That’s why we are alive. Because our ancestors knew to RUN and the people who don’t exist would have had ancestors who never ran.Since there’s no more lions chasing us down Main Street, the news tries to find other ways to trigger that fight or flight reflex.I don’t need to fight or flight in order to improve competence, improve relationships with people, or improve my freedom. So no TV. No news. No web surfing. No books about current events. No talking to people about current events. No conferences about what’s going on in the world.NO MEETINGSI never went to a meeting where someone gave me a check at the end. I’ve never traveled to a meeting where it resulted in me making money or being happier.Most meetings can be summarized in a two line email.I’ll go to a meeting if it’s with my friends. That’s fun and improves my relationships. But I never go to any other meetings.What if you are an employee and you have to go to a meeting? Try to get out of it. Or go for part of it. Or insist you only go if there are no chairs at the meeting (meetings will be faster then). Or find a job where there’s less meetings. Or show your boss there’s evidence that company’s with fewer meetings make more money.NO PHONEI talk on the phone maybe once every other day. Again, the two line email thing works in most cases.EMAILI like Neil Strauss’s approach. He has one hour a day scheduled for emails. His wife has his password so he can’t even log on to email before that hour.I don’t email for an hour. My emails are mostly to readers with quick questions or to people I am inviting onto my podcast. I don’t email anyone else.I DO use texts though. Because they are faster. And I can text answers to people’s questions in my spare time while riding a cab or waiting for my kids or whatever. My phone number is 203-512-2161. Sometimes I answer questions via text and sometimes on my podcast.Again, if you’re an employee somewhere you might be in the habit of responding quickly to email from, say, a boss. But try to cut it down to end-of-day when your brain is moving a bit slower and you don’t need it as much.ONLY do the thing you love most during your peak productive hours.Hmmm, I just realized I gave eight ways to increase productivity. Since I’ve broken the rules (nothing wrong with that) I’ll add a ninth.EXPERIENCESWe’re the sum of our experiences and not our material things. Experiences stay with us forever and build us into who we become. Material things get lost or thrown out or lose their usefulness.A good experience for me is: where I meet friends, where I learn something new, where it’s material I can write about. These experiences last with me forever and I carry them around in a little closet in my heart. If an experience doesn’t belong there, then I don’t do it.What if you have to? Like if your brother or sister is getting married. Well, if it’s in one of the categories above, then ok. But it’s almost never in the categories above so I don’t go.What if your boss sends you to a conference.Then I have a trick you can use. Instead of being depressed and saying, “Ugh, I have to go to this conference” I change “I have to” to “I get to”. Like, “I get to meet a lot of new friends.” And then I actively try to meet new friends.I can’t always do the above things. And then my gut reaction is saying “Ugh, I have to…”. But If I always change “I have to” to “I get to” then I can usually turn the experience into something productive.Today I have to take my kids to dance recital rehearsals.But then I get to see them dance.---Read More:Do You Make Fear Decisions or Growth Decisions?The Zen Master of Entrepreneurship

(Very very deep, maybe not as per the question asked and obviously unlike my other answers, this is also gonna be too boring)I wrote this article in my notebook a couple months ago for self-motivation which helped me to leave pubg and focus on exams so I thought maybe others can also relate it to their life.I'm a born gamer, I was very famous for being the best at playing games 'only' every moment in my school, coachings, college, office and obviously at my home. But due to playing excessive PUBG one day a thought came into my mind like a blue moon and I've uninstalled (erased) my google play games account.In this answer, I'm involving CAT'19 exam which is scheduled on 24th November 2019 as everyone's target. Map= ErangelIn the beginning, there are 100 people in the lobby. Time is ticking on the screen some of them are wasting their time in moving here and there, some are punching team members, some are asking others for their outfits.Here the game starts and 100 people are being seated on the plane, it is going towards primorsk & beginning from over the stalber mountain. Now everyone have their own choices to jump anywhere as everyone's target is Winning one bucket of chicken dinner and everyone have the capacity to survive for at max 35 minutes.There are people of every type, some are planning to drop at the regular hotspots like pochinki, Military base, School, Mylta power, Novo, gorgopol. Some of them have business minds i.e. they're taking the risk to jump early and go to the spawn island, some people (like me) are planning to go to Zharki, Quarry, Hospital and boundaries' isolated buildings & compounds. Some of them are just procrastinating or disconnected from their goals and waiting for the pilot to kick their butts.(Now explanations of my points)The people who are going to hotspots are those who are either pro or noobs i.e they think they're better than others (unaware of what they really are). These hot drops are nothing else but the names of these big coaching institutions of MBA, SSC, IAS courses etc. They know that these places have high loots in terms of Material to study (guns, ammo, vests, helmet, etc), Transports so that easier to reach to far position of their current level of knowledge and studies ( finding a Uaz, Dacia, Buggy, etc. and going to far places like gorgopol or novo island), They know that there is huge competition at these places but they joins them without hesitation or without taking risk of losing time if not taking classes for one attempt and gets into depression when other lower level people (in terms of knowledge) getting higher marks in mock tests ( eventually lot of people comes and even the ones who are pro sometimes get killed by the noobs because they get guns earlier than them) among these people only one powerful and wise person survives and then goes to take tests of other institute's test series( one squad killed everyone in pochinki now going towards the school apartments to kill or getting killed.)Now comes the risk takers or over smart people generally thinks that these exams are their piece of bread and do not join the coaching but at the same time do not prepare by giving all their efforts into it. ( People going to the island, taking huge risk by finding a boat first and then go and loot the island and get back to other side irrespective of zones what if zone appears on the other side (military base area) or fuel ends in their boat in middle of nowhere, maybe a single person from squad goes there and even after getting awesome loot gets killed by a bot, can't get revival by any team member).Some people are like us - a little bit confused but serious for the exam gives their 100% and studies with full determination. Makes a master plan for the exam before a lot of time and timely checks where they're going wrong and corrects them. (#perfectionists) but sometimes gets angry on themselves because of not good results even after best plannings. (People going to the Zharki, Quarry, isolated compounds and little shacks and broken huts in search of just guns and little longer survival and survives till top 10 squads and then shows their true colors) the ones who don't get good marks in mocks but miracle happens in the final result. But sometimes obstacles arise when their fate is not in their favor. #Heartbreaks #Depression #EmptyPockets (bots arises when we just land and nowhere to go around, no vehicles available when zone is too far away, We have the best loot in the map compared to anyone else and suddenly bomb zone appears on us and we're standing near window but due to some glitch we get killed by bombs.)Now comes the last type of people who procrastinates a lot, they're not serious for their exams, just filled the forms because friends or family told them to. They keep saying that there are 300 days left for the exam and then 250,200,150,100… and realises too late that only 50 days are left and seeks for crash courses or something to get just average marks and convert a lower B-school ( don't get offended please) i.e. (they're confused where to jump either hotspot or isolated towns or just pinning mark again and again and finally gets kicked out of plane or they've followed their teammates to jump but he gets disconnected and everyone ends up jumping in the water (#BadCompany #BadHabits).At the end only they survive who are always aware of their surroundings and puts in all of their efforts without breaking discipline, Who learns to say NO to bad habits, bad company, those people for whom Time is more important than anything else and invests in the right place without worrying about returns. ( Only that person wins the chicken dinner who plays it according to his strategy, is always have plans for the next moves and unforeseen events.Life is too big, too hard everyone suffers from up and downs every day, everyone is different and every single person have their own different plans but the motive/destination/target/goal is same or similar unless they discover something new.Remember this line from The Karate Kid? ' Life knocks you down at every moment but it depends on you if you want to stand back again or not!!'Thank you very much for reading this answer, it was boring I know but maybe someone with his/her modifications can connect to his/her life and see where he/she is standing at that point of time.There is only one difference: In pubg we often do hard work along with smart work and gets our goal achieved and then again start another game but if by chance we get killed in the beginning then we just don't give up and play again keep playing BUT in Real life we either leave Giving mock tests because of bad marks or only one failure puts us into depression and we just give up and change our goal to some other exam, business, job, etc.Thank you and I hope you'll have a great future ahead. Best wishes from my side.– INFJ YJ(Please ignore or correct me at my grammatical mistakes it means a lot to me and if you like then do not hesitate to leave an upvote. :-D)Thankyou @Sarika Thakran for edit.Edit: Thankyou everyone for up voting my answer. 56 upvotes is a large amount to me. Have a fabulous day ahead. :-PEdit 2: (Monday, 01st June 2020) I got a notification that someone upvoted this answer and I read my answer again after too long, the last paragraph has motivated me now, I gave up on exams and studying a long time ago just because I was failed badly in two attempts but now I have realised that we can also give another attempts in life just like PUBG by ignoring ‘other people's thoughts'. Age criterion is altogether different point but still you know…?Stay safe and always be distanced!——INFJ YJ