6 Tiny Daily Rituals that Will Change the Rest of Your Life for the Better

If you want to get somewhere in life, you need a map, and your journal is that map. You can write down what you did today, what you tried to accomplish, where you made mistakes, and so much more. It’s a place to reflect. It’s a place to capture important thoughts. It’s a place to sort out where you’ve been and where you intend to go. And it’s one of the most underused, yet incredibly effective tools available to the masses.

If you hold a magnifying glass over a small pile of dry leaves as the sun shines bright on the hottest afternoon of the whole year, NOTHING will happen…

…so long as you keep moving the magnifying glass quickly from one leaf to the next.

But as soon as you hold the magnifying glass still and FOCUS the sun’s magnified rays on one single area of one single leaf, the whole pile of leaves will ignite into flames.

That’s the power of focusing on one thing at a time.

Your opportunity on a daily basis is to realize that you are the magnifying glass in your own life, and that you can intentionally focus the energy you get from the world on one single leaf at a time. When you do so, you will ignite incredible “flames” that move your projects, your dreams, your relationships, and even the world around you, forward.

Most of the things we desperately try to hold on to, as if they’re real, solid, everlasting fixtures in our lives, aren’t really there. Or if they are there in some form, they’re changing, fluid, impermanent, or simply imagined in our minds.

Life gets a lot easier to deal with when we understand this.

On a daily basis, I challenge you to consciously ask yourself:

• What are you desperately trying to hold on to in your life right now?
• How is it affecting you?
• Then imagine the thing you’re trying to hold on to doesn’t really exist.
• Envision yourself letting go… and floating.

“If you want to control the animals, give them a larger pasture.”

"The animals” and their “larger pasture” as a form of letting go and allowing things to be the way they are. Instead of trying to tightly control something, you’re loosening up, giving it more space — a larger pasture. The animals will be happier; they will roam around and do what they naturally do. And your needs will be met too; you will have more space to be at peace with the way the animals are.

Stepping back and allowing certain things to happen means these things will take care of themselves, and your needs will also be met.

Every evening before you go to bed, write down three things that went well during the day and their causes. Simply provide a short, causal explanation for each good thing.

Overlooking everything that’s wonderful is a tragedy, and a very debilitating one. When you get lost in worried thoughts about a life situation you think you “should” have, you end up missing the beauty of everything you do have. And you will never be happy if you aren’t consciously thankful for the good things in your life.