While everyone else is doing a ‘New Year New You’ program (there are thousands of them), we offer you a different path. One often less taken. We present to you the 12 Week Self Remodel. Each Monday for 12 weeks we’ll post one thing you can change in your life, easily, to help create the life you really want. Each one is a small adjustment to your existing life, small stepping stones to a better you. As such, they take little effort or time to accomplish. Each one will be posted later in the day, intentionally. Your work week may start on Monday, but the Reclaimed week starts on Tuesday. Less competition for your time, and less stress (also something to look forward to on your Monday commute). So, let’s begin.

Week 5 – Find Your Chill

Let’s face it, you don’t have a lot of time to yourself. Not really. Sure, you may have plenty of time alone to watch TV or get some work done, but that’s not the same. If you’re like the vast majority of men, you take little or no time for yourself just to sit, relax, and be yourself.

Taking time out for yourself is possibly one of the most important things you can do, not only for yourself, but for others. You need that time to sit, be yourself, and unwind. Your ancestors did it, you can too. The current 40 hour work week is a relatively modern invention. Only a few generations back, your great grandfather or possibly your great great grandfather worked far less. Not that long ago the average man worked around 20 hours a week. Yes, even the farmers. And it does make sense. We can put in the long hours and stay up late into the night because we have rather new inventions that make our nights as bright as daytime, if not more so. The light bulb was invented in 1879. Even then, most houses didn’t have them until much later, some not until the mid 1900s.

You can’t really work if you can’t see what you’re doing. This means that for much of the time you are active, your ancestors would have been using candles and lamps, which do not produce the greatest light, and had to often be replaced. Don’t take my word for it, pick up any book written in that era. You will soon realize that they had far more leisure time back then.

And it’s time you had some, yourself. Block out an hour of your day this week where you can be alone, without distraction. Turn off your phone and computer, leave the TV off. Set aside all your electronic shackles for one hour (seriously, nothing going on is so important it can’t wait an hour). Fix up that cocktail you started perfecting last week, have a seat in a quiet room and turn on some jazz or smooth R&B, and chill.

Just, chill.

Take a moment to yourself, to be yourself, and let the world handle itself for an hour. Savor your drink and the smooth sounds around you.

If you’re like me you may not drink much, if any, alcohol, and that’s fine. I chill with a tea instead, while listening to the sounds of Boys II Men or Marvin Gaye. Find the drink and the sounds that work best for you. Then, set yourself up with a weekly appointment for you to find and reclaim your chill.

Let us know how you’re doing on the Self Remodel in the comments below.

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