This simple and effective technique for staying focused and being productive while staying refreshed has helped many people get things done, including me. I am going to break down the technique into it’s core components and help you understand how to apply it effectively.

While this method is not for everybody, I recommend reading on to see if its the right fit for you. Now before diving into what the technique is and how it works, here are the main benefits of this technique.

Benefits

• It’s easy
• It’s free
• Increased productivity
• Maximised effectiveness and efficiency during your work time
• Increased self-discipline
• Reward based system making work enjoyable
• Adaptable to your needs
• Sustainable over long periods of time

What you’ll need

• A timer

You need a timer. That’s it. Use the one on your watch, the one in your kitchen or your computer (here’s a free timer you can use). I strongly advise against using your phone as a timer due to the distractions it can cause. It is better to use something that is meant only for the purpose of tracking time.

The Principle

• Set timer for 25 min of work
• Keep out distractions
• Mark your session with an X on a sheet of paper upon completion
• Take a 5 min break to refresh and recharge
• Repeat the above instructions
• After 4 iterations take a longer break 15 – 30 minutes

A pomodoro is an indivisible 25-minute work period. It’s named after the Italian word for tomato, because Francesco Cirillo used a kitchen timer in the shape of a tomato when he came up with this concept.

Basically, you work 25 min, have a 5 min break and at the end of 4 work sessions you get a 15 minute refreshing break.

Now that you have a feel for the idea lets get into some detail. We’ll go over the importance of planning your work, protecting it, focusing on it, and recording it. Then we’ll see some of the variations you can use.

Before beginning your session you must prepare your environment with proper planning.

Plan

So you want to work. Very good. What are you going to work on? How much time is it going to take? Prioritise your tasks. If you have a to-do list, determine the most important tasks and estimate the time it will take to accomplish them.  You can only eat an elephant one bite at a time. The same applies to your tasks, you must take them one step at a time and break down difficult tasks into smaller more manageable ones. Once you have small mangeable tasks, you must estimate how much time it will take you to complete the individual tasks. If the task is over 4 pomodoros long, break it down into smaller parts. This will help increase your productivity because you get a real sense of time.

Once you have planned your work you must protect your work time.

Protect

During your pomodoro you must cut out all distractions, to create a favorable working environment. Turn off you phone or put it in silent mode and in a place where you can’t access it easily. If you’re working on your computer exit all distracting sites (Social media, instant messaging, email, your web browser if you aren’t using it) If you have a hard time keeping away from such sites there are many online ressources for that purpose.

If you have a distracting thought that comes up, write it down to get it out of your head. Then get back to what you were doing. Every time you have an impulse to procrastinate, make a note of it. As you do this you will find that the number of distractions that arise decrease. This is a very effective way of staying concentrated as writing your thoughts down allows you to forget these thoughts – instead of keeping them in your head and being constantly distracted – while being sure you can come back to them if need be once you are done with your work.

If you are in a work environnement with other people you will have to develop strategies to put off unimportant tasks and distractions. Keep in mind that a pomodoro is an indivisible amount of time. If you stop before the timer goes off, you don’t put an X on your tracking sheet. This can be frustrating because because you don’t validate your session and you loose your concentration. You will be interrupted, and occasionally you will have to deal with it right away. However you will find that interruptions are rarely urgent and important, and that you can very often deal with the interruption very effectively.

Ok now that you understand that you must proctect your pomodoro and have a couple ways of doing so, lets see how you go about implementing the principle.

Focus

During your work time you must focus on one task and one task only. This is very important point. The main idea behind the Pomodoro Technique is that you are maximizing your work time by being as effective as possible. So you concentrate on the one task you have given yourself and you do it. You continue until you either finish the task at hand or you hear the end of your session. If you complete your task. Move on to the next one you planned and don’t bother looking at the time that is left. Just keep working until the timer goes off.

DRRRIIIINNNNNGGGGGGG !

Times up! Stooooop! Put down your pen, book, notes, remove your hands from your keyboard, step away from the work. I repeat, step away from the work, yeah thats rights, gently, put your hand behind your head and move away calmly, if you touch the work you will be shot. No just kidding you won’t be shot. But you had better act as if you were. It is best if you actually get up and change your location, thus creating a clearer division between work and rest. This is key!

During your break you must absolutely stop working! This is very important. You do not finish that little thing that you just have to do. Yeah, but it only takes 1 minute. No ! You stop ! times up ! Nada ! I’ve been there. It’s not fun. But you have to stop. This is were this strengthens your self-discipline. Think about it, could you have been more effective on your pomodoro to complete that 1-minute task? On your next pomodoro keep that in mind and try to get as much done as possible in those 25 minutes. It’s now time for your reward: the 5 min break. Set the timer to 5 min and off you go! Oh and congratulate yourself because you just worked 25 minutes straight without interruption and if there were interruptions you dealt with them effectively.

You must do something for five minutes that has nothing at all to do with work. Personally I would solve my rubix’s cube a couple times, or watch a video on Youtube, or do a couple chores around my place. You would be surprised at the amount of stuff you can do in 5 min intervals. To watch a 30 min video it only takes you 4 pomodoro sessions to view during your pause. (5 + 5+ 5 +15 = 30)

You can actually get a lot done during those 5 min breaks. But it must not be work related and it’s better if it’s fun for you. What’s the point of a reward if you don’t like it. Have a snack. Exercise a little. Do something you enjoy.

Once the timer rings, it’s time to stop what your doing and start another pomodoro. You must be strict with your time. It forces you to grow and improve. To further improve it is important to record your progress.

Record

Keep track of how much work you do. Every time you complete a pomodoro, make note of it, mark a pomodoro with an X or a line or anything you want. Also I recommend putting the date so you can review your progress later and compare it with certain events. Here’s a list of what my pomodoro count looked like when I was studying for an exam.

Keeping a record also gives you a sense of accomplishment because you know exactly how much you worked. It helps with self-observations and future improvement.

You are better able to assess the amount of work you do and you can review what days are good ones and what days are bad. It helps you better assess the time it takes to complete specific tasks. It will help you plan your future pomodoro sessions.

For instance in the above photo the red lines separate the different weeks you can clearly see that the first days weren’t very productive but that as the days went by I was able to work more. You can also see the relative regularity of the number of pomodoros you can have in a day. Not every day will be the same. You can clearly see that around the 12th of the month I worked a lot less than the previous week.

Adapt freely

Keep in mind that this is simply a productivity method. It is flexible to your needs. Feel free to change and play with the different time intervals. After about 5 months of daily pomodoro sessions I began to feel I could concentrate easily for 25 minutes so I decided to move to 30-minute sessions then 50-minute sessions with 10-minute pauses. I found that best suited my need. Keep in mind that I only increased the amount after I was comfortable enough with 25 minutes of concentration. You can do 3 sessions instead of 4 before your big pause. This you can adapt according to your needs.

Also, in the above sections I was quite strict about stopping when the timer goes off. If you really want to do the thing that only takes one more minute to do you can. I know I certainly did occasionally. When you stop what you are doing and force yourself to stop it strengthens your discipline. Constant timing minimizes procrastination and keeps you accountable for your work. If your in the “flow” though, you can keep going. In that case it is quite possible that 25 minutes is too short for you and that a longer pomodoro is probably what you need. This method isn’t for everybody. You can try it out, it’s free and you already have everything you need to get started. If you don’t like it, thats fine, you can always go back to what you were doing before.

If you would like additional information on the technique you can visit the official site. You can get as much information as you want, but at the end of the day the only way you will truly know if it’s a good fit is when you try it and see for yourself.

 

Why are some starting? Why do others not follow through? What makes you take action? How can you get better results? I’m stuck in a rut, how do I get out?

What makes you take action? Certainty ! Certainty that you will get what you want. Where does that certainty come form? It comes from your past experience and your beliefs.

 

The cycle

This cycle I call the Action Loop. This is no new concept. I am simply readapting it and explaining it. This four step cycle allows you to understand how action is created, and how it affects the results you get. As with everything, lets begin at the beginning.

For you to take action you must first see some benefit to taking the action. What is it’s potential?

Potential

If you see no potential you’re not going to take action. If you see a delicious looking, saliva inducing meal, you see potential for tasting a very nice meal. It’s going to taste good, you tell yourself. When you see this kind of potential you take action. You eat that meal and savour it.

If on the contrary you see a piece of meat in a plate with flies all over it and white worms and eggs on it, you probably see very little potential for a savoury meal. You might rather see a potential for a disgusting meal full of squishy bugs and bad taste. Therefore that potential you perceive leads you to take action. The action you take is not eating it. You can say it’s inaction, because you aren’t eating it, but that in and of itself is an action.

Potential leads naturally to Action.

Action

What is action?

Action is the act of doing something.

Note that this does not discriminate between good or bad actions. In either case it remains an action. That is why inaction is an action. However when we refer to taking action usually we refer to taking the right action. The right action is the one that gives you the desired outcome and gets you closer to your goals.

This something that you do is going to have consequences. It’s the law of cause and effect. If I do something I am sure to have a result. It may not be the outcome I want but I will assuredly have a result.

Results

Whatever action you take you will have results based on that something you did. I think by now you understand Action and Results. This is something I think we all understand intuitively. Here’s an example for the sake of clarity. If you exercise (action) you will sweat, burn calories, make your muscles fatigue and over the long term grow (results). Exercise leads to physical fitness.

The results you get will influence the way you act in the future, the way you think and thus what you believe.

Belief

Your beliefs are the collections of thoughts that you have integrated and are part of you thinking habits. This constitutes your Belief System. This system uses many patterns of thought we have acquired over time. It also includes a bunch of Limiting Beliefs that limit your ability to take the right action in certain situations.

Very rarely do we question those beliefs. They are our defaults we use them automatically and systematically. Of those beliefs, many have been acquired in childhood experiences. Note when we are born we do not have any beliefs. We are a blank slate. As we grow up and learn to adapt to our environments we integrate new beliefs. Most young children believe there parents know everything, they are their all important reference point. This reference is very important to their development.

Our beliefs can be challenged – by circumstances or surrounding environments that may bring new perspectives or insights. When this occurs one of two things may happen. Either we change our belief by taking on a new one or adapting the one we already hold or we simply maintain our belief and reinforce it.

During adolescence, when you begin to seek independence and discover new things a common change is that teenagers begin to question authority and the beliefs that they were brought up with. This is natural and normal. It is how we grow. It hurts to have you’re beliefs challenged, especially if it’s one you have held for a big portion of your life. Admitting you could be wrong is tough. Imagining that you were wrong for a long time can be even tougher. This explains why some people don’t want to change their beliefs although they can see there is a problem. They simply ignore the problem. This can be very destructive.

Adapting your beliefs can be very rewarding though. It develops the individuals mind, and his ability to think for himself. You gain new perspective and insight and can adapt you current beliefs into more empowering ones.

Here is the complete cycle:

If you believe there is little potential, you will take little action, you will get little results and then you brain will tell you: See! I told you this was going to happen! And this in turn strengthens that belief that there is tiny potential, which will lead to tiny action, tiny results, and your brain telling you: See! I told you this was going to happen! once again strengthening that belief.

It’s a vicious cycle. It explains in part why the poor get poorer.

Hey ! Wait a second. We also say that the rich get richer. In fact, we do. The cycle is a vicious one but it can also be a virtuous one.

Vicious or Virtuous?

The cycle is both at the same time. Yet you can only be in one at a time. In fact this is so important that I’m going to restate that at the risk of sounding redundant. This cycle is both vicious and virtuous but you can only be in one at a time. Once you’re in the cycle it is self-sustaining. If you believe there is a lot of potential, you will take massive action and get massive results at which point your brain will say: See! I told you there was a lot of potential! Thus reinforcing your belief, that will lead you to take even more massive action, and on and on it goes.

The next logical question is how do you choose which cycle you are in?

Or are we doomed to stay in a cycle all our life? Certainly there must be a way to choose the cycle you want, for there are many stories of poor men getting rich and rich men getting poor. Although the latter is often less talked about.

It’s quite simple actually. Not to be confused with being easy. Although it can be easy depending on how you do it. You simply have to change or affect a part in the cycle.

So how do you get in the cycle and influence it?

Influencing the Cycle

You have four entry points into the cycle. You can either use Potential, Action, Result or Belief.

One thing to note is that all entries are not created equal.

Potential depends a lot on exterior factors and your Belief System, your view of the world. It depends on circumstances.

Results change if the action is changed. The definition of insanity is people doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Therefore we can’t affect the results without changing the action. An important thing here is that Results are what we perceive them to be.

Action depends a lot on the potential you see, which is in turn influenced by your beliefs.

What about Beliefs? Beliefs are influenced by results. But they are in our control. Beliefs are collections of thoughts and patterns you use habitually. See the above section on belief for further info.

Beliefs are the cornerstone to your actions that will give you the desired results. Thus you must nourish and be selective of the beliefs you hold. You must test them to see if they withhold to storms.

How do you change a belief? You change the results. As said previously results are what we perceive them to be. You’re mind has a very hard time distinguishing real events from events you vividly imagine in you head. To strengthen a belief you must feed it the right results. If you want to be successful you have to instil the belief that you are successful. That means you’re results must be successful. You must perceive them as successful. If something happens, view it as a success. Put a positive twist on it. If you fail, see it as an opportunity. Make a habit out of it. Develop rituals to feed the right results to your beliefs.

 

Just getting into the cycle is not enough to develop success through right actions. You have to strengthen the belief that drives the cycle. That means you have to go through the cycle enough times to strength your belief until it reaches a self-sustaining size. Self-conditioning and repetition are very powerful tools if you want to instil a new belief that you think might be helpful.

For some insight as to how the new is affecting your beliefs, check out my article on why I don’t watch the news.

You want to live a less stressed life? Have more time? and be happier? Read on to see how the news is affecting you.

 

An indian I met recently, lets call her Eva for sake of discretion,  inspired me for this weeks post. She asked me her favorite question to ask people outside of India:

What comes to your mind when you think of india?

I answered dancing, you know, the kind you see in Bollywood.

She then asked me to continue and say what else came to mind.

I added spicy food, colors, cricket, buddhism, cows, Gandhi, Mumbai, slumdog millionaire.

I dropped all the stereotypes I could come up within a limited time.

After I couldn’t come up with anything new off the top of my head in a few seconds, Eva told me usual responses she got.

Indians don’t eat beef, India’s overpopulated, there are too many slums, they have poor living conditions, there are always massacres.

Basically, most of what the news outlets feed us and what you might learn in school.

Now for the interesting part. She then proceeded telling me what she never got as answers.

That India is one of the fastest growing emerging countries.

That India controls a huge part of the American economy since many companies are in India or work with Indian based services like decentralised virtual assistants.

That the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) managed to launch a rocket to Mars and back on the first attempt for a fraction of the cost it took NASA to try the same thing after many failed attempts.

After having had this conversation it reminded me why I don’t read or watch the new. This simple question she asked reveals a lot about stereotypes and shows that the media influence our perspectives and view of the world based on what it decides to feed you. 

What the media is feeding you

We usually come up with the negatives far easier than the positives. That is a natural tendency in everyone. It’s how we survived for thousands of years. We want to avoid what is uncomfortable or painful so we pay attention to the negatives and stay clear of them.

The media industry knows this. And they use it abundantly. Fear sells. Scandals sell. Death and big accidents sell. That’s why they’re regularly on the front page of the news.

It you turn on the news on your TV or look at the front page of a newspaper you can be assured it will almost always be along the same line. Accidents, violence, terrorism, catastrophic events, death, political scandals, all this between the weather forecast and occasionally an interview where the interviewer tries to move on to the next subject quickly because time is money.

In fact, here is the screenshot of the top stories on three consecutive days. I went through and emphasised some key words. Have a look at them.

Now that you’ve read through those words, can you imagine what decades of exposure to this type of content, every single day will do to you?

How positive do you think your thoughts will be throughout the day when you wake up and the first thing you do is look at the news? When you see there’s been another shooting that there’s more death,  more political assaults and debates and scandals?

How good are your stress levels going to be? How happy are you likely to feel?

Trust me, if you don’t know what you’re day will be like, I can tell you it’s not going to be very positive or encouraging. It’ll likely be very stressful and uncomfortable.

On the first page shown above, what I emphasised on the bottom right made me laugh. “Get your morning update with FIRST READ delivered to your inbox every weekday.”

Seriously ! do you think you want to have this kind of “update” to downgrade the quality of your day? How about that for downgrading the quality of your life?

That is some serious mental conditioning you’re being exposed to. How about conditioning yourself to some more positive thoughts. What if you chose not to be exposed to such thoughts. As it has been said many times and many different ways, our thoughts have a tremendous impact on us every day.

Put shortly the news is a constant feed of violence, plane crashes, terrorist attacks, gun shootings, trivial political scandals designed to grab your attention and shock you.

So Is the world this negative?

When all you see all the time is violence, earthquakes, scandals, celebrity lives, negative words… you end up thinking that is the way things are and that the world is mostly what is showed to you.

It simply isn’t.

There are many beautiful thing out there. Beautiful landscapes, people, places, experiences. How often do you see it in the news?

If you see plane crashes every month or two on the news you begin to think that planes are suddenly starting to fall out of the sky more and more often. Therefore making you fearful. But the fact is, there have always been plane crashes, and planes are virtually the safest transportation available as of today.

In the US alone in 2015 there were more than 30,000 fatal crashes on roadways due to motor vehicles. Thats over 80 deaths per day. You don’t hear about all those deaths in the news. They’re too many and they aren’t considered shocking enough. Occasionally you might see an accident on the news but only if it involves someone famous or is sufficiently dreadful.

Now I am probably making you feel uncomfortable. It’s okay. It’s a normal response.

Remember, the world has many beautiful things in it. It’s not because you are shown negative things that it’s the way things are. Now some of you are thinking you want to stop watching the news. Others are probably thinking it isn’t feasible.

Ok … but you can’t just cut off the news !

But if I don’t get the news, I’m going to be cut off from the world ! I’m going to be ignorant !

No you’re not. You won’t even notice a difference. Actually you will, you’re quality of life will be greatly improved.

If you’re sceptical, try going a week without the news and see how it goes. Are you more stupid? Has you’re life changed a lot? Are you unaware of the latest important news?

If there is something worth knowing about on the news, you’ll hear about it. People talk a lot. You’d be surprised all you can learn just by listening.  Plus it becomes another subject for small talk. Just ask someone what’s new in the world.

Cultivate selective ignorance. Chose what you don’t need to know. Be honest. Do you really need to know what Leonardo DiCaprio is doing in his spare time? Or that there is still bad stuff in the world?

There are definitely things that are worth not knowing.

After a while being “off the hook” you realise that things are about the same as they were going before you stopped. Plus you have more time for other activities.

What now?

My challenge to you is to go a couple days without checking the news and see how it works out. If you don’t like it after a week or feel you absolutely need your news feed you can always go back to what you were doing before. Just try it out.

However, if you  notice any change in you attitude or thoughts when you aren’t being exposed constantly to the news, or if you realise that the news wasn’t bringing you any real value, I’d suggest you quit.

Note that the longer you have been regularly exposed to the news the longer it takes to have more positive thoughts and feel better.

So go ahead, take on the challenge. Go a week without checking the news and see how it goes.

 

 

 

What Can’t You Do?

Well you probably think you can’t do plenty of things. Think about it for a moment.

What are the top three things that come to your mind? Take 30 seconds to write them down on some paper or simply think of them in your mind. It just takes 30 seconds. I can’t                 (fill in the blank)

Ok. So what are those things you can’t do?

Perhaps you can’t have the money you want. You can’t have that relationship you want. Or is it that you can’t have that great looking body you’ve always wanted? Perhaps you think you can come up with a list of a million things you can’t do.

Even if it’s none of the aforementioned, you’re wrong !

Why?

Well that’s an excellent question. Let me answer by asking you another question.

What do you not know how to do?

You don’t have to write it down this time. I bet you could think plenty of different things you don’t know how to do.

I don’t know how to pilot a plane. I don’t know how to cook fugu-fish. I don’t know how to speak Chinese, or even use twitter ! But hey, I’m not here to tell you what I don’t know how to do.

My point is, you might not be able to do it, but isn’t it possible that you can learn to do it?

The answer is absolutely YES! Everything can be learned. You can go take a course, buy a book, ask someone, or simply take the time to figure it out by trial and error. 

You can’t know everything but you can do anything you set you mind to do!

You might say, Yeah, but now I’m 18, I can’t enlist in a class for little five-year-olds. Of course you can’t! That simply isn’t possible because you are no longer a five-year-old. Don’t try to fit something into a category, that by definition is exterior to the category you are trying to put it in. But what’s stopping you from enlisting in a class to learn what they teach in those five-year-old classes.

You can do anything ! The only thing stopping you at the moment is the fact that you don’t yet know how to do what you want to do. You need knowledge.

When you have acquired it, you can no longer say: I don’t know. You do, and therefore you can do what you want.

There is then nothing you can’t do.

Now if you want to do what you thought you couldn’t do you need to put in place the right stuff to make it work. You now have to actually do it. Take a simple action that gets you a step closer to what you want to accomplish.

Therefore, now, when asked what you can’t do, your answer must be: “nothing”. You are constantly evolving, moving, breathing. Even if you suppose you could do nothing, you would still be doing something, you would be doing nothing.

This is something that I have found to be very powerful. Just a simple change of language will forever change the way you see things and it will affect your limiting beliefs and the story you tell yourself

Don’t limit yourself unnecessarily, keep your doors open.

If you want to do something, you can do it. There is nothing you can’t do

You need to acquire basic knowledge. If you don’t know where to acquire the knowledge you want, do some research, ask around and you will find knowledge is always there for those who search for it. 

The next critical step after having gathered the knowledge is, wait for it, this is really common knowledge, but it’s worth repeating, it is taking action. I know, quite obvious right. Yet most of us struggle with this basic idea everyone understands intuitively yet few people actually undertake. In future post I intend to dive deep into the science of how we take action.

All that is left is doing it. Finding the motivation and courage as well as strong reasons to do something will help you achieve what you first thought you couldn’t do.

 

If you liked this post, feel free to share it. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

 

 

 

You must be crazy ! Cold showers ! That’s impossible ! I can’t do that !

If that’s what’s you’re thinking, read on, let’s see what they can teach you by going through what I learned.

First, a little history. How did I come across cold showers? Via Joel Runyon’s great TedTalk. It got me thinking. What if I did this. Since I’m curious I had to find out for myself. So I did. I started the 30 day cold shower challenge, found it amazing and decided to integrated it into my morning routine and did it for 4 months straight every single day. Now almost every single shower I take is cold. It feel so much better. I still enjoy a warm shower once in awhile, but cold water is my default now. 

Here’s what I learned, and what you will discover should you take on this challenge. And you definitely should take on this challenge.

Overcoming the uncomfortable

Becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable completely changes your approach to life. I now enjoy more being uncomfortable because I learned it was during moments of discomfort that you progress and grow the most. Don’t get me wrong, being uncomfortable is by definition uncomfortable, so I still feel the discomfort. However the approach I have when I apprehend this discomfort is what has changed. I accept it and embrace it more easily, whereas I used to constantly fear and avoid it. Now for instance, I actually enjoy taking cold showers. It isn’t a problem anymore. I’m grateful for it. This is what you get for being comfortable with the uncomfortable, you start enjoying it and having fun with it.

As Joel said:

“If you aren’t willing to be uncomfortable for five minutes, when you’re alone in the shower, and the only negative outcome is you feeling cold for five minutes, then how do you expect you will have the strength and courage to choose to be uncomfortable in a situation where outcomes are more important and the people affected far outnumber yourself?”

What excuses are and aren’t

Excuses are the things we tell ourselves to rationalise our fears and avoid discomfort. They can either convince you you are right – you will then take no action – or, you can decide they don’t matter and act despite their existence. Excuses aren’t barriers that stop you. They are simply thoughts. And as with all thoughts, they can be replaced. Excuses aren’t the things that stop you from acting. You are.

The insurmountable becomes trivial

Usually, I have found, we vastly overestimate the difficulty of a task before it’s completion. And then, once finished, we see how foolish we were at the beginning in overthinking and having so much apprehension over something that was so simple.

I once actually laughed at myself while taking a shower for thinking how easy it was now, when reflecting on how hard it had first seemed as an outsider looking in.

This is a wonderful way to admire the simplicity of things while recognizing how we humans tend to overcomplicate everything.

Taking action is the only solution

Despite all the excuses I could come up with or the thinking I did in my head. The only way to take the cold shower is to take the cold shower. As the quote goes:

“Do the thing and you shall have the power”, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing wakes you up quicker in the morning

This is, in my opinion, one of the best benefits I find to taking cold showers.

The burst of energy you get is incredible! Once you overcome the anxiety, pain, and coldness of it all, I’m telling you the state in which you find yourself after the shower I amazing! Your whole body goes on high alert. Your blood vessels constrict, your heart pumps the blood to your brain and muscles. You’re senses are more acute. You feel alive. You feel like you can do anything. It’s such an empowering state to be in. 

I start of my days like this. Get up, exercise, cold shower. And just like that I’m up and ready to take on the rest of my day and be the best I can.

Conclusion

In short, cold showers are an excellent way to get comfortable with uncomfortable things, learning to break through excuses with action, admiring simplicity, and waking up in the morning.

To experience this, simply commit to get started tomorrow, you can even start today ! Go ahead, turn the water to cold, and see what happens. Just 5 minutes of discomfort for some real long-term benefits. I dare you to try.

 

Tell me about your experiences in the comments below.

Adrien

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