30 days: Change your habits, Change your life

Questions:

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1) What problems do you have in your life right now that you haven’t
found a solution for yet?
2) Make a list of your problems.
3) What would change if you see these problems as challenges or
even opportunities? How would it make you feel?

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88
Take time off
There is more to life than increasing its speed.
—MAHATMA GANDHI
With the stressful, fast-paced life that we are living, it becomes even
more important to slow down our pace of life and take a break! Take
some time off. Recharge your batteries by being around nature. You
can start by scheduling some relaxation time into your weekly
planner, which by now you are hopefully making time for (see
Chapter 22).
If you dare, start with weekends in which you are completely
disconnected from the Internet, TV and your electronic games. One
of my best vacations ever—if not the best—was being on a
houseboat in the Midi Channel in the south of France. No mobile
phone, no Internet, no TV. Only ducks. The boat’s top speed was 8
km/hr (= 5 miles/hr), so we were literally “forced” to slow down. It is
also due to the fact that when you are floating on the channel,
children on their bikes overtake you on one side of the channel. The
villages you pass through are sometimes so small, that they don’t
even have a supermarket. So the whole trip comes down to the
question, “Where will we get food?” No worries! There is always a
restaurant close by, but the charming thing is to cook your own
meals on the boat and have dinner at the harbor watching the sunset
or just being around nature. Once, we had dinner in the middle of a
vineyard! Priceless! So is to walk into a tiny French village in the
morning and get your baguette for breakfast from the only bakery in
town. We got up at sunrise and went to bed two chess matches after

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sunset. Or as we described it afterwards, “We got up with the ducks
and went to sleep with the ducks.”
Take time off and connect with nature! It doesn’t have to be a long
trip. Walk in the woods, on the beach or in a park whenever you get
the chance and observe how you feel afterwards. Or just lie down on
a bench or in the grass and contemplate the blue sky. When was the
last time you walked barefoot on grass or on a beach? Did you get
the idea of how important, relaxing and reenergizing taking some
time off is for you? I hope so!