5 Tiny Life Upgrades That Cost $0
Living a life of quality doesn’t have to cost anything
#1. YouTube
Don’t quote me on this, but probably 99% of the people use YouTube as a platform for their entertainment. Some use it for knowledge or tutorials on matters they don’t understand. But even fewer use it to benefit themselves.
I’m talking about replacing your gym subscription with Youtube videos.
This trend started during the pandemic. And now, there are so damn many home workout videos on YouTube now that you can’t even finish all of them if you just do one a day. What’s even better is that most of them don’t require you to have any equipment at all. Maybe just a dumbbell and an exercise mat. But that’s it. You can train whenever and from wherever you want.
You don’t need sets of iron to be strong or get in shape or reach hypertrophy. Your body is a weight itself. Your muscles are dumb. They can’t tell if it’s iron or your bodyweight. Use that to your advantage. There’s no need to remind you of the benefits of exercising every day. So no more excuses.
#2. Google Keep
The most frequent lie I tell is, “Ah, it’s okay. I don’t have to write it down. I’ll remember it.” And then of course I proceed to forget all about it right next second. I’m sure I’m not alone in this.
Truthfully, it’s not our fault. We have over 6,000 thoughts per day. That’s over four thoughts each minute, on average. Though most of it may be made up of replaying memories or analysing situations, sometimes, the cosmos aligns and hits us with brilliant ideas.
Having an app like Google Keep or just a piece of plain ol’ paper by my side helps me catch them whenever they come. And eases the pressure to remember everything. Knowing that I’ve jotted down these ideas is like closing the tabs on my brain.
In return, it’s helped me sleep better and worry less.
#3. The Blue Light Filter Button
Toggle that!
You simply cannot perform at your best without sufficient sleep and blue light is proven to affect our sleep more than any colour on the spectrum. It messes with your body’s ability to secrete a chemical called melatonin.
This blue light filter button is built into almost every phone on the market right now. Google how to toggle it. Automate it so that it only turns on at night (this light has some benefits during the day).
Alternatives:
- Not free, but it wouldn’t cost that much to get a blue light screen protector.
- Don’t look at any screens at all for an hour before you sleep. Pick up a book or an instrument instead.
#4. Saying it’s Okay
Each morning, you wake up thinking about how you’re going to tackle the issue at hand and how good you’ll feel after accomplishing them. You start the day with a cup of coffee and spend the rest in front of that blue light-emitting screen.
One task after another, you’re feeling great, but the moment your eyes are off the screens, the sun wasn’t there anymore. And you hear that grumbling sound resonating from your belly. You’re famished.
The Reality
It’s 7 pm and you haven’t left your table since that 8 am cup of instant coffee. No food or water went into your body since. You had no idea how this time went by and question if you had gotten kidnapped by some time-bending aliens.
You do this almost every single day because you’re on a semester break and you have nothing better to do, anyway. You pride yourself on working until you physically can’t anymore every day, thinking you’re progressing in life while your peers are Netflix-ing and doom scrolling.
The Burnout
Just after a few weeks of 14-hour days, you get your first burnout. You tell yourself you just needed a break. Just take it a little slower and it’ll be fine.
Surprise! You were back on track in just two days of taking it slower than usual. The 14-hour days live! Back to conquering the world.
The Cycle
A few more weeks and you get your second burnout. This one took a few more days to recover. But then you got back on your foot just as soon as you physically can. Well, as long as your eyes are not burning, you still have it in you to keep going, right?
The semester starts, but you wanted to keep up with your previous pace because it would mean that you “became lazy” if you didn’t. So you ended up working even more hours than usual. You’ve sacrificed your friends and family so that you could work on “your dreams” as you call it. You’re on a quest.
Four years later, you’re still on this quest. Lost for directions and completely drained of motivation to keep going. But you don’t want to give up. That would mean all those burnouts, sleepless nights, and sacrifices you made were for nothing.
Deep down, you know this road has led you to a dead end. And really, the only thing left for you to do is to let go.
The Solution — Release What You Can’t Control
The pain, the anger, the disappointment, they were all real. But you simply cannot force or hold on to something that isn’t meant for you. The “hustle culture” is toxic when not implemented appropriately. You need to rest, have enough sleep, and sharpen your saw once in a while.
The slow burn will hurt you much more than facing the truth ever will. Your effort hasn’t gone to waste at all. The skills you learned along the way will become the tools for another battle.
Letting go doesn’t mean giving up.
It means that you accept the fact that some things just aren’t meant to be or that maybe the time is not right. Letting go of what you wanted to have happened takes courage. You’re surrendering control to the universe. You have to, for yourself.
Because if you don’t, it’s going to become baggage. The more items you don’t let go of, the heavier the baggage. Before you know it, you’d find yourself anchored to the ground with no strength left to take another step forward.
It’s okay. Severe ties and burn bridges if you have to. Nothing too bad is going to happen and you’ll figure it out. I promise.
Free yourself from both the past and the future.
It’s okay to take a break sometimes. It’s okay if things just didn’t work out like you thought they would. It’s okay if a career path didn’t pan out. It’s okay if a relationship didn’t work. It’s okay to leave that grudge behind. It’s okay to not be in control once in a while. It’s okay to take a break. It’s okay to not be perfect. It’s okay to want more. It’s okay to let go. You’ve given it your everything, and that’s everything we can do, really.
The world is intertwined among billions of threads of effects and causes. Just because something went wrong, doesn’t mean it’s your fault. Have faith that every story has a happy ending. That the universe has better plans for you. If you haven’t had yours yet, that simply means that it’s just a plot twist.
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
#5. Switch Off the News
Keep yourself updated on what’s going on in the world. But you definitely don’t need to hear another story about the side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccines.
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