Not every day is a good day. Life is impermanent, life has ups and downs. Some days, you wake up with an instant boost of positive energy, you get out of bed before your alarm, you work out, you finish your job smoothly, you’re more confident, outgoing, and it’s just like the world is moving in your favor. Conversely, there are days when your energy is running low, you feel drained, you don’t want to do anything but lie on your bed all day, scrolling endlessly. You eat junk food instead of cooking a warm meal for your body. At the end of the day, you could feel like garbage for wasting a whole day. I bet everyone has been there.

However, you know you deserve to rest, right? We are not machines, we can’t work non-stop or follow a strict schedule without any day off. We’re human beings, we have our own cycle of being active and resting. But our brain is interesting, you can wire it to learn new things, as long as you give it time and repeat the task enough. Ironically, it takes weeks, months, or even years for our brain to learn a good habit, but it only takes 2 or 3 times for it to get used to a bad habit. We tend to seek comfort, safety, and familiarity. It’s easy for us to get into the rabbit hole and go downhill from there. Once you lose your grip, we start hating ourselves. It’s effortless to fall down, but it requires enormous strength to climb back up. So we better not let ourselves accidentally slip into that state.

1. Mitigating days when you feel low.

Your life is never standing still, it’s constantly on the move. Depending on your goal in life, it could go upward, downward, to the right, left, like every single direction in this multi-dimensional Universe. During that forward movement, it’s also fluctuating like a pendulum around a focal point, which is your state when you’re calm, meditative, or hyper-focused. You can be super excited or sad, but it revolves around your normal state with the same amplitude. Similarly, your body and your energy level also have a center point, where your days and mental state fluctuate around it. You can’t eliminate all the bad days, but you can raise your focal point so when the down days happen, it will be 6/10 instead of 3/10. A big difference, right?

Raising your center state is a lifelong work itself, you have to improve every aspect of your life, from work, health, relationships, to your spirit and purpose in life. We can start small, with something physical, where we can see the change in a short time. Your body is an easy starting point, nurture it, and your mind will follow. Eating healthy is important, drinking enough water, and learning how to build a balanced, nutritious meal. Move your body daily, lift weights if you can. Having a healthy body is always a good focal point. Then if you eat badly once in a while, you don’t feel so guilty about it. After all, you’re still in good shape, so it doesn’t hurt to have a treat sometimes.

When you embody good health, it’s time to focus more on your mental state. Your mind requires different kinds of nutrition. It needs books, good conversations, and educational podcasts. It also needs time to retreat, where you shut down all the noises from the outside world, so your mind can have space to digest and absorb the knowledge. In this calm state, you gain wisdom. Even if you waste a whole day scrolling social media, your mind still remembers the way to climb back up again.

Having a healthy, productive, and balanced life means having a high-level focal point overall. Normally, you feel good, you love your life, and you feel relatively happy. Bad days still come, but they’re not the worst, they’re not unbearable, and you know tomorrow will be a new day. The sun rises, and you will be energetic again.

Take control of your life, be consistent, and have discipline. When you’re in shape, you have savings, you do the job you love, you have hobbies, and you’re in a healthy relationship, then down days are more like a resting time than a punishment. You know you’ll be back in the game tomorrow.

2. The importance of having a “must do” list.

I am an extreme person. When I’m motivated, I can work non-stop for a week. When I feel drained, I let everything go and commit to all the bad habits until I can’t anymore. There is no in between. Then I realize that after a week of eating badly or not working, it’s incredibly hard to get back on track. Therefore, I create a “must do” list, activities that I won’t skip no matter what.

My level 1 “must do” list include:

• Waking up before 7am
• Exercising
• Skincare routine
• Protein each meal

These are four activities I never skip, regardless of how tired or depressed I feel. Then, if I start feeling good, I will add more things to do.

My level 2, “maybe do” list:

• 2 tweets a day
• Long walk
• Brainstorming for ideal
• Watch one Easy French video (I’m learning French)

That’s all. It’s not much. I call those level 1 activities “doing the minimum”. I never skip them, but I do adjust them to my energy level that day. Usually, I wake up at 5am or 5:30am, but if I partied the day before and have a hangover, then I will let myself sleep more but never past 7am. I work out first thing in the morning. Each session lasts 1 hour, but if my body doesn’t feel well, I could go for a 30 minute low-impact version combined with stretching. I have a full skincare routine with serum, treatment, and massage. However, if I come home late and exhausted, I will stick to the basics with cleanser and moisturizer. I consume around 80g of protein daily. It’s the amount to maintain my muscle and body weight, but if I travel or want to have a treat day, then 40g of protein still sounds like a win to me. These activities sound like a lot, but they’re actually easy to follow and don’t take much time or effort to complete.

It’s not about results, it’s about consistency. On the down days, if I can do at least one productive thing, I won’t feel like shit. I won’t feel like a loser for wasting a whole day doing absolutely nothing but sabotaging myself. Completing this “must do” list helps me feel like I am still in control. It’s not much, but it’s my effort, a little thing to be proud of.

Low days will be like that. Complete these tasks, and I can go out, have fun, or do nothing. At least I reach the bare minimum, and I’ll feel a little good about myself.

Furthermore, when you can still check the box on bad days, you gain more trust and confidence. You know that you won’t let yourself down no matter what. You gradually feel like nothing can stop you, nothing can hinder your journey. There are days when you push forward strongly and quickly, there are days when you slightly move forward, but you never stop, and you never go backward. You’re unstoppable. After a while, you’ll see any signs of self-doubt and self-sabotage disappear. You know you won’t fail, you know you can do it. You just know.

Time is precious. Do not let a day go to waste, or you will feel so bad about yourself. I know it’s hard to get out of bed and force yourself to do things. It’s hard to separate yourself from your phone, but at the end of the day, especially after 5pm, you will feel so drained. You’ll feel guilty, you’ll feel like a loser for doing nothing. So please do at least one productive activity. This varies. Some people have five bullet points on their “must do” list, while others are happy with just one. This could be brushing your teeth, cleaning the room, washing dishes, sending one email, making a phone call, running errands, you name it. Don’t expect too much by writing down ten bullet points; you will drive yourself crazy.

Take a deep breath and ask yourself this question: What is my identity? What is the dream version I strive for? Is this a hot girl, an educated one, a business owner, or the one who is always kind to people? Then, what is one task that helps you hold onto that identity? Is this working out daily, studying, working, or having a self-care ritual? Whatever it is, you commit to that task and embody its energy. Everyone is different. You know yourself the best, you know what works for you, just listen to your heart.

One step at a time. By doing the bare minimum, you gain trust in yourself. By completing one small task, you gain more energy and dopamine to do another task. If I successfully finish all the level 1 tasks and still feel energized, then I move to my level 2 list. This is on you.

However, I notice an interesting pattern. The more I do, the more motivated I feel to keep going. Sometimes, doing the bare minimum means only 5 or 10 minutes. But when I decide to sit down and do the job, I just feel so passionate, then I keep going for another one or two hours, totally forgetting about how lazy and tired I was. It’s just a feeling. It could come with negative emotions and overthinking, but it’s not true, and it’s not the real you. Your thoughts come and go, no need to be attached to them. Know what is important and keep pushing forward. You will be proud of yourself.

3. Learn your rhythm, flow with life

Life is about balancing. You’re not a robot, you weren’t set up to work 8 hours at the exact same time every day for the rest of your life. Nope, that’s the machine and computer’s job, not a human being’s. You can work for a full week and rest for the next one. You can work only in the morning and rest for the rest of the day. Listen to your body, find your cycle, don’t push too hard or you’ll be broken in the future.

It’s ok to rest, but you should rest in peace, not in rush.

What is something you must do every day, no negotiation? What is your list? Regardless of how tired or busy you are, stick to it. Don’t let yourself down. The power is in your hands. Doing something productive or something you love gives you energy to keep going. Just push through the feeling of laziness, of being unmotivated, and you will be fine.

Spoiling yourself and drowning in bad habits are easy. Eating badly is easy, scrolling is easy, partying is easy, but when you get used to those things, it’s hard to get back on track. I know it’s unfair. It takes forever to get in shape, but only a week of eating junk food and bam!!! you’re gaining weight. You’ve been sober for a year, it was a tough journey, but two days in a row of drinking and bam!!! you’re an alcoholic again. Be careful. Know your limit. Do not have too much fun or give up on yourself. You know what is important: long-term happiness or instant gratification. Make a choice and enjoy the life you create.

Don’t let yourself feel like a loser, it’s the worst feeling in the world. You’re better than that. You’re the creator of your life. Claim your power and go for that beautiful dream in your heart. You’re welcome.