It’s officially been a week since starting my mission and there have been some wins, some breakthroughs, some setbacks, and lots of challenges. A genuine roller coaster of emotions and feelings that is interesting and eye opening, such as admitting i do have a problem giving into simple instant gratifications that are more detrimental then positive but also realizing this is a common problem.  If you don’t agree please tell me the last time you turned down a free beer or candy or told your best friend that you’d rather work out then binge watch the new season of house of cards with them. Don’t worry, i’ll wait.  I’m also not saying those are even bad things but there are alternatives that can lead to feeling more healthy, positive and energetic, or lead towards a more fulfilling career with less stress.  Making that realization was one of my main breakthroughs this week and progressing to make those changes I feel will be very satisfying.

Now for this reversing the aging process let me tell you why I bring that up.  Every year I find myself forgetting things more frequently which is a little troublesome.  On doing some research on that (article here )  I found that living a more stressful and unhealthy lifestyle can not only can kill brain-cells from general aging, or unused pathways from not using old knowledge, lack of oxygen from being out of shape, or chemical substances but can also prevent new brain cells from living after creation. And since new neuron creation is such a slow process, why do we do things that harm this and ourselves? This is a hypothetical question but the short answer in my opinion is our desire for instant gratification.  But back to the article; it also states that learning improves gains in this “neurogenesis”, or brain cell generation in simpler terms. Knowing this, now we should ask how can we use this to our advantage?  My biggest breakthrough was that I can re-frame my attitude toward work challenges. In application,  I am a person that enjoys learning things for himself most of the time when I’m not lost in a new game or tv show (Both not the best habits) but when I’m told to learn something and come up with an innovative solution it tends to cause me work stress and lose focus.  But by acknowledging the cognitive gains associated with learning and challenging myself and by avoiding the stress associated with procrastination not only can I be more productive to my team, I can also be more productive to my mental health and mood.

This feeling sharper and less stressed at work will have a ripple effect across other aspects of your life and goals you may set yourself.  Also it will make us a lot more likely to win those chess matches against other people in the retirement community when we’re 80-110.

As for my other goals I set in my first article, Three months to a new me: Day 1 , I’ve lost 1.5 lbs which may not sound like cause to celebrate but lets consider 1.5 lbs after 12 weeks is 18lbs so that’s a win in my book.  I’ve also decided to swap out soda for green tea, which has been pretty hard but still a work in progress.  I’ve also decided to start throwing in the following healthier food options into my diet; more walnuts, small amounts of dark chocolate, avocados, more fish and less red meat, more natural ingredients and less processed foods, less gluten (mock me for being a hipster but I do have an intolerance that for 31 years I’ve been ignoring), and lastly more fiber rich vegetables.  I know it may sound horrible but we are what we eat and the american diet is abundantly set up to make money for other food providing companies and the best way to break the bonds of financial indentured servitude is to quit giving into the consumer economy and focus on mutual benefit.  And lastly I am six hours deep in MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom which so far seems to lend to the idea of use a financial fiduciary, avoid high fee funds that claim to beat the index, look for “have your cake and eat it to investments” where you can participate in upside and minimize downside.  If you’ve made it this far remember to share, like, and follow (in that order)

Until next time,

Stefan