I think it’s best to head into this summer in the right state of mind. What is the right state of mind? Well, one that will have your best interest at heart.

I thought about a new approach and breaking down the summer a little better in order to make it more healthier and productive than the last.

1. Check in on yourself.

I once woke up out of a 3-month depression which I didn’t know I was in until I snapped out of it with help from friends (they didn’t know they snapped me out of it). Sometimes you don’t realize that you are going through something until you find yourself deep in the hole. And sometimes you know and simply don’t take action to correct it. Stop overthinking, that’s the equivalent of spending all day surfing the net and react. Wake up if you have to! Shake it off!!

Check-in with yourself, you need to keep up to date on what you have been doing lately. Between the routine, the pandemic, and all the distractions on your screen, it’s easy for 3 months to pass without you doing something important and beneficial for your life and future self.

One easy way to check in with yourself is by seeing visually what you have been doing lately. Get a paper and write down what you have been spending your time on. You can use a calendar, you can draw it like a chart, or draw it creatively however you see fit. See it on paper, it truly helps.

If you are having difficulty getting out of your funk, then look for help, there is plenty of it, you are not alone.

2. Use Your Ears

If you have the blessing of hearing then I suggest you use it to listen well. Listening well can truly help you improve your character as well as your life. Listen to make yourself better.

Every day people are going to talk talk talk and talk and we go on with our daily lives however there arrive these moments when someone will test you or challenge your perspective. I suggest keeping an open mind and listening well, sometimes people will tell you amazing information that you need at the moment but you may be too into your own mind to pay attention.

It’s easy to be defensive when someone is saying something negative about your personality that may come across as an attack. Quite often, if you take a step back and listen, you may be receiving a message about something you have to fix, unfortunately, sometimes the messengers are crappy people, not always, and the messages are not always laid outright.

3. Play Defense

Guard your mental state with love and passion, since the pandemic, mental health issues, stress, sickness, and fear have been on the rise. Turn off your screen for a while, or disconnect from whatever drama that’s hindering your peace. It’s one life to live and the finish line is death, let’s aim for better.

Guard your mind from all the crap that’s out there. There is so much garbage out in the world, from words to videos to photos to actual people. The more you absorb all the garbage the worst it is for your brain. A lot of the garbage that you see on your screen can stick to your mind or thoughts when you least expect it and have you thinking about nonsense.

4. Roadmap

You don’t have to be the super planner to have a plan but you can look at the year and say “By the end of the year I want to be here” Simply look at the year in 4 blocks, or quarters. Make sure you have something going on in each quarter that pushes you to achieve whatever it is that you want to achieve.

Deadlines are good since it adds some pressure on yourself to make it happen. Overall, you want to focus on your goal when creating your roadmap. Calculate the math, measure the time, and see how realistic your plan is.

5. The Time Trap

Recently I read an article that said the earth is spinning one second faster, well then, if thats the case then maybe time is going by faster. Time is going by so fast that when you blink your eyes you are already 2 months away. but I’m not rushing to get to the finish line in this race called life, as you know what the finish line entails.

The point is to use your time wisely, enjoy all these moments because you won’t get them back and you will look back at life at your life one day, you want to be proud of yourself rather than saying “I should have done this or not done that”.

If you have children, enjoy them while they are the age they are because they will grow up so stop nitpicking and complaining about little things and enjoy the moment. If you still have your parents or grandparents alive, enjoy the blessing.

Overall, take care of yourself because if you don’t do it for yourself, nobody will.

Much love, peace, and blessings to you!

-Vlad