Hack your AI for better health, relationships and happiness
Are you happy?
I mean, really happy….like..
- Do you jump out of bed like a child raring to go about your day?
- Do you dream of slaying dragons and scaling tall building like Desmond Miles (a.k.a Ezio, a.k.a Altair)? 😉
- Do you have hobbies to look forward to or friends to catch-up with on weekends?
- Are you satisfied with your health, weight and eating habits?
While being successful in our careers is awesome, that alone isn’t enough to make us truly happy. And really, what are we living life for if not to be happy and satisfied?
By applying our hacking skills to ourselves and our lives, we can not only get more successful in our careers, but also ace the game of life and be much more satisfied!
Proof of concept, you say? Me!
- I got promoted at work while cutting down my working hours by hacking my mindset.
- I lost 20 pounds while traveling two weeks every month, without dieting, exercise or relying on my willpower by hacking my brain. The best part was that I finally quit compulsive eating (a.k.a stuffing chips into my mouth while sadly binge-watching Netflix) and stopped having cravings.
- I got married, moved halfway across the world and started seriously pursuing my passions by hacking my behavior.
Bam! Proof of concept sold like a boss! Muhahaha.
What Should You Hack?
There are three main drivers of happiness that are usually missing from our career-driven ambitious lives.
#1 Health
Most of us usually want to be a little healthier, lose a little bit of weight and ditch the cravings.
- Sitting in front of the computer slowly piling on the pounds?
- Staying up all night eating too much junk food?
- Stuck on the yo-yo dieting treadmill and watching yourself getting more and more addicted to food?
While this can start quite innocuously and with the right intent, it can quickly escalate into having very unhealthy relationships with our bodies, constantly obsessing about what we eat and questioning our willpower and self-control.
Before we know it, we are looking at ourselves in the mirror wondering when our stomachs will pop back in, holding back on the beers at Friday drinks, and waking up depressed to see the scale not move an inch.
The unhappiness at being stuck in our health goals stops us from giving our 100% at work, from building meaningful relationships and from being happy.
If you resonate with any of this, then your HEALTH is what you need to hack.
#2 Self-Actualization (a.k.a having a higher purpose / loving what you do)
Some of us don’t fully love what we do — we wish we could find an idea that we are passionate about and get paid for.
We are always soul-searching, trying projects on the side and looking for our purpose in life.
We can get meta and depressed when we don’t find anything even after what seems like a zillion attempts. We wonder if this is all there is to life — going to work and spending the entire day like a zombie.
We might even like what we are doing but sometimes, we are just looking for a little bit more freedom, a little higher pay or a teensy-weensy bit more autonomy (looking at all the micromanaging bosses out there!).
If you identify with this, then your PASSION PROJECTS are what you need to hack.
#3 Relationships
Once we are happy with ourselves — our health and our careers — we start looking outward to fulfill our social and belonging needs.
- If you’re always thinking about dating,
- If you’re jealous about all the couples around you,
- If you’re wondering how you always end up as the third-wheel or friend-zoned,
Then your RELATIONSHIPS are what you need to hack.
How To Actually Hack?
Now that we know WHY we are not as happy and fulfilled as we’d like, let’s get down the mechanics of how to hack our lives for success.
1 PRIORITIZE
If you came away with just one aspect to hack from the previous step, congratulations!
If you came away with multiple aspects, then get it down to just one.
Always better to chase one dragon and beat it down than fight all three at once, perish and have to start over.
How to choose which one to pick?
- Default to finding happiness with yourself first before looking for relationships.
If you’re unhappy with your career or your health and are seeking external validation from your relationships, the sadness and desperation is obvious and a total turn off.
- Between health and passion, getting the foundations of health right has a snowball effect on generating new ideas, being more creative and feeling happier.
It’s the difference between working on a software with the most impeccably organized libraries versus one that is a hodgepodge mess (how many times have you been pissed at the person who built it?!?).
2 ENVISION YOUR OUTPUT
Get ultra-specific on what your end goal looks like.
Taking health as an example,
- “I want to lose weight” is not specific enough.
- “I want to lose 20 pounds so I can fit into my college jeans and attract the attention of the opposite sex” is ultra-specific.
How do you know if you’ve gotten specific enough?
Thinking of the end result makes you smile and want to get started right away. You LOVE it and you want it NOW.
3 PROGRAM THE PATH TO COMPILATION
Break down your output into a series of sub-programs or classes, i.e., what are the steps you’ll take to get to your goal?
Continuing from our health example, you’d say something like:
- I want to first stop snacking on junk food all the time, especially when I go home at night and watch Netflix with a box of Pringles next to me.
- I will order healthy meal boxes instead (or) I will cook food once a week and store it so I have something to eat as soon as I get home.
- I will start with going to the gym twice a week and gradually increase that to four times a week.
- I will stop obsessing over what I cannot eat and instead focus on all the healthy yummy things I can eat.
Each of these must be simple, actionable and something you can do straight away or schedule into your calendar. They must be realistic.
Please stay away from goals like “I will go running every day next week + maintain a 500 calorie deficit so I can get a hot date in 2 weeks”. Unrealistic much?
P.S.: if you suffer from cravings or stress eating, dieting or exercise won’t always help to lose weight and feel healthier. Here are some free resources to help you make progress without getting stuck doing it yourself.
4 IF…ELSE…YOUR THINKING
If you are not sure how to get to your goals, find a program or someone who’s done this before to help you.
Else, you are going to be stuck in the same place a week, a month, a year from now.
If you try something that’s not working, don’t just rely on willpower or motivation. Find a different way that’s easier for you to implement.
Else, you are going to be stuck in the same place a week, a month, a year from now.
If you have too much inertia or you’re feeling lost, join an accountability group or find a coach who can guide the way.
Else, you are going to be stuck in the same place a week, a month, a year from now.
Now go out there, slay the dragon, scale the wall of the palace and get the prince / princess of your dreams!