Pillow (Self) Talk

Every day, we make choices, big and small. Mostly, they are small- like 99% small. Those small choices add up. They compound and, over time, determine what kind of life we will live. 

• Will you be healthy? 
• Will you be happy? 
• Will you be successful?
• Will you have to worry about money?
• Will you have meaningful friendships?
• Is your house a mess?
• Are you in a relationship?
• How is that going?

It's easy to consistently make the wrong choices, as they tend to be more pleasant in the short term. 

Bratwursts taste better than salads. Duh.

Picking up after yourself uses the time you could spend doing something fun. 

Spending money is more fun than saving it. 

Looking at your screen releases more dopamine than reading a book. 

There are two paths. 

1. Some days, I make all the wrong choices. And once I've made one bad choice, I tend to give up on the day and make many more bad decisions. Because what the heck, this day is already lost. That is the wrong way to approach this. This is a minus day. 
2. Interestingly, the same happens when you stack good decisions upon good ones. Momentum builds. Willpower builds. You feel good. Before you know it, you're posting shirtless pics on your Instagram. This is a plus day. 

I have to remind myself that the latter part is better than the former. And the way I do that is through pillow (self) talk.  

When my head hits the pillow at 930pm, I ask myself whether today was a minus day (I got worse) or a plus day (I got better). 

Interestingly, yet unsurprisingly enough, stacking a couple of plus days on top of each other creates some serious momentum - similar to those individual decisions.

None of this stuff is rocket science, or I wouldn't be the one writing about it. Also, no blog post about rocket science would be about pillow talk. 

But knowing that at the end of the day, I will ask myself whether today was a plus or a minus day provides me with some level of accountability.  

Try it if you'd like. 

Ps. Don't attempt to be perfect. Life is too short only to make good decisions.