They say that inspiration can come from the most unlikely sources… well, today it came from the “LinkedIn Today” digest email.  This is generally the plague of my inbox, because I swear I’ve changed my preferences like eight hundred times and and I keep getting it, but today the subject line grabbed my attention before I hit delete: Six Simple Rituals to Reach Your Potential Every Day.

I know, that sounds kind of cheesy and there are a million of those articles floating around the web right now, but whatever.  I clicked on it.  Plus there was a pretty picture of sunflowers.

You can read the article to get the full story, but the six rituals are as follows:

1. Drink a glass of water when you wake up.
2. Move and sweat daily.
3. Define your top 3 (the most important tasks you must complete each day).
4. The 50/10 rule (work on an important task for 50 minutes with a 10-minute break).
5. Express gratitude.
6. Reflect daily.

I changed the order because I noticed as I was reading about them that the six rituals fell into three distinct categories: the ones in red relate to physical health, those in blue are about work/efficiency/accomplishment, and the last two in purple have to do with mental wellbeing.

I know they’re kind of generic.  I’m sure eighty-seven people this week have told you to drink more water and your life will be magically improved by one million percent.  But the thing I liked about this collection of six rituals was that the author of the article didn’t just pull them out of thin air as things that generally sound like good ideas; she drew them from the daily habits of one of her most successful, balanced, and energetic friends.  For me, hearing “I actually drink a glass of water every morning and feel better because of it,” is more of an encouragement to adopt this behavior than “Just do it… because of science.”

These rituals also reminded me of The Happiness Project in their simplicity.  My favorite thing about that book was how it focused on relatable, real-life behaviors instead of grand, sweeping, philosophical gestures.  As the author says, “The very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference.”  Conveniently enough, look what I have!

My dearest friend Meg sent me this for my birthday this year (thanks, MM!), and I kept up with it really well for a while but have sort of neglected it the past month or so.  In the vein of revisiting my favorite Happiness Project tips, and adopting the rituals of expressing gratitude and reflecting daily (and very appropriately on Meg’s birthday!), I think it’s time to crack this bad boy open again.  And by that I mean keep it next to my bed.  It’s a great place to record daily memories, thoughts, and things I’m grateful for, and it’s also chock full of happiness quotes!

Make sure you take your birthday advice, Meg

What are your rituals for making the most of your day?

Actually, I really don’t.  It happens maybe a couple of times a week.  But if you tally up the number of shows that I continually proclaim that I’m “obsessed with,” it gives the impression that I watch rather a lot.

Regardless of whether you have all the time in the world, or just like to daydream about having all the time in the world while you run from job to babysitting gig to second job and realize you’ve just eaten yogurt for your past four meals (oops), this is what you should be checking out.

Duck Dynasty

This is hands down the most excellent thing on television.  It’s a diamond in the rough of all these insane pointless reality shows they’re coming out with nowadays.  I feel that very few people will agree with me on this one, and actually I’m not quite sure why I’ve developed such an affinity for this show, but I love it.

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It is about a family who owns a wildly successful duck call whistle business.  Need I say more?  Phil is the pater familias and also my hero and inspiration.

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Unfortunately, I do not actually know what channel or what day of the week or time of day it’s on, so I’ve only seen it a few times when Sarah’s boyfriend, Ryan, has been channel-surfing and stumbles upon it and I run into the living room and yell, “STOP it’s Duck Dynasty!” and then we watch four episodes in a row.  I only find it when I’m not looking for it.  Like a portal to Narnia.

Sherlock

How did I just find out today that season two has been added to Netflix Instant?  Now Abby’s ahead of me, and I told her about this show in the first place.  Hmph.

It’s brilliant.  It’s British.  As if that weren’t enough, the actor who plays Sherlock is like Stephen Fry status in terms of talking crazy fast and being constantly snarky and using witty wordplay.  Oh, and he’s named Benedict Cumberbatch.

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BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH.  That is his REAL NAME.  Not his character’s name.  I’m not kidding about this.  Alright?  And you KNOW something has got to be good for me to give it any credit at all when there’s another version out there involving RDJ.

Accurate.

The Office

It got good again!

I was mentally prepared to start phasing this show out this season.  It just hasn’t been the same since Michael Scott left, and I still sort of think the show should’ve ended when his storyline did.  I don’t love the new characters and there’s not nearly enough Dwight-and-Jim prankster stuff going on anymore.

However, the season premiere last week was really good!  I was actually laughing out loud at the part where Dwight was trying to slack line:

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Speaking of having all the time in the world and using it to watch TV, I sometimes secretly wish I’d get mono or break both my legs or encounter some situation that requires me to be on bed rest for a couple weeks so I could rewatch LOST from the beginning.  Is that bad?

Also, I’ve thought that if I ever sent in a PostSecret, that would be it.  My life is not very scandalous.