The newsletter which curates & delivers the best mind hacks, mental health tips & high performance strategies to you every single week.

🧠 MIND HACK

‘90 Second Rule’ (Or… How To Develop Greater Emotional Control & Change How You Feel In Seconds)

The brain scientist & author of the book, "My Stroke Of Insight" Jill Bolte Taylor coined the '90 second rule', which simply states:

In other words… what emotions do is they build, they peak, & then they should (at least in theory) begin to decline naturally.... all in as little as 90 seconds!

As you can see visually demonstrated here:

If this doesn’t happen, then it’s worth looking into…

For instance, the reason that they don't start to decline naturally for most people is that they start rethinking the same thoughts which trigger the same chemicals in the brain & body (e.g. dopamine, norepinephrine, cortisol, adrenalin, etc)…

Leading to staying in the same emotional state much, much longer than that...

(even for hours, days or months - as in the case of anxiety disorders or depression.)

So, what's the practical advice here?

Well, the next time you feel a strong emotion that you want to change, all you have to do is allow it for 90 seconds…

Don't fight it.

Don't resist it (that will only make it worse).

Just feel it fully - in your mind & in your body - for 90 seconds without judgment & it'll start to dissipate naturally...

At which point you can consciously choose to think about something else sparking a new (more desirable) emotional state…

Apply the ‘90 Second Rule’ in your life!

‎‍💼 PRODUCTIVITY HACK

‘Pareto Principle’ (a.k.a. 80/20 Rule)

Another great rule for work & life is the Pareto Principle (or 80/20 Rule), which states that in most situations…

Based on this & whether you realize it or not... these are some things in your life that you do (for example, in your work) which are producing exponential results on the investment of time, energy, effort as well as money (the top 20% that produce 80% of all the progress & results)...

And there are also lots of other things which you spend a lot of time on but offer very little return on investment back in return.

The key is to identify these things & look to improve them… to spend more time on your highest value, highest priority activities & to stop wasting time on the things which offer little back in return…

(including avoiding them altogether, delegating them, or outsourcing them to others.)

And if you’d like to learn more frameworks, methods & mental models (just like the ‘Pareto Principle’) to improve your decision-making, productivity & results… check out our other, companion newsletter, titled:

‘Frameworks For Life’

We do the heavy lifting & grunt work of meticulously researching, studying & curating the best insights, concepts & frameworks to help you make more intelligent decisions & get ahead in life... & delivering those to you (in simple terms, easy to implement) every single week…

…ultimately, helping you to achieve more of the results, the success, happiness & wellbeing you truly deserve in this life!

👉 Click here to claim your V.I.P. access for free »

‎‍💭 QUOTE WORTH PONDERING

Why People Get Wildly Different Results?

After spending his life studying human behavior, psychologist, researcher & godfather of flow psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, concluded that:

Put simply, it's not our psychological or emotional needs, or brains, that are so different... rather, what separates people (& their results) is how they learn to fulfill their needs & use their brain ('neural pathways'.)

⚡ ENERGY HACK

Using Light / Darkness... (For Maximum Energy, Focus & Productivity During The Day + Easy Sleep At Night!)

When light (whether it's from the sun, or from a light bulb indoors) enters your eyes, what it does is it signals to your brain to be more awake & alert...

More brightness = more signal to be awake.

The same applies in reverse...

The absence of light (a.k.a. darkness) is essentially a signal for lower energy, greater relaxation & sleep.

That's the basic understanding, but when you look at most people's lives, they are not applying this properly at all...

We wake up in darkness, spend our days in dark/dimly lit homes & offices… we don't get anywhere near enough sunlight (or any of it!) during the day…

…& then wonder why we're tired, fatigued or experience brain fog/poor alertness during the day (no matter how many cups of coffee we've had today!)

Sure, many things affect your energy from your diet to exercise to stress & other more long-term factors that we'll cover in the next video of this module, but day-to-day, perhaps the biggest factor is this, light (or, in this case, the lack of it!)

But, it gets worse...

Then, in the evening, we spend our evenings on our smartphones, or sitting in front of big screen TV's (which emit blue light - which goes straight into your eyes & signals to our brain to be awake!)...

...just as we're unwinding to go to bed.

And again, we wonder… this time why we can't fall sleep easily (with millions of people now requiring melatonin supplements, sleeping pills, or aids just to fall asleep nowadays!)

What you want to do is the exact opposite of what most people in society are doing; you want to use this understanding consciously & correctly...

And you want to start using light (as well as everything else) as another level to also regulate your mood...

Don't want to feel groggy in the morning & feel like a zombie during the first few hours of the day? 

Then, open the blinds while you sleep so that sunlight starts hitting you as you begin to wake up...

Or, if there is no sunlight (like in winter where you wake up at 6am & it's still pitch black outside & will be for a number of hours), you can get some artificial light (or an alarm clock that omits this artificial light, called a ‘Sunrise Alarm Clock’). 

That will wake you up ^

Once the sun does come up, go out onto the balcony, or go for a walk & get sunlight as soon as possible...

(you can also do this during lunchtime to help overcome the afternoon crash & declining productivity most people experience in the afternoon...)

In the office, turn on (or turn up) the lights...

Meanwhile, at night... before going to bed... do the exact opposite...

Turn the lights off... get into darkness... & avoid blue light from electronic devices (or get a pair of blue-light-blocking glasses, or a screen protector) that blocks this blue light...

That's a super simple, easy hack for more energy (+ focus & productivity) during the day & easy sleep at night!

And if you’d like to learn more hacks for supercharging your energy levels, elevating your morning routine & improving your life, check out our newly-released training series, called:

‘Energetic Advantage’

Inside you’ll learn 6 energy-boosting, focus-enhancing, motivation-activating & productivity-multiplying habits you can use to transform your work & life…

👉 Get access to this training series for free »

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