One piece of advice that I’ve come across in the writings of several life coaches is that we should act in our own best interests. My initial reaction to this is to feel uncomfortable – like most people, I worry that I’m being selfish if I put myself first.

But I’ve come to realize that acting in your own best interests, when done properly, isn’t a selfish act – it’s a way to ensure that you’re making the very best of your life, so that you can help those around you to make the very best of theirs.

So, what are your best interests? How do you base your actions, your goals, your time-management and your life on them – and how will this affect the people around you?

I would suggest that acting consistently in your own best interests involves four areas:

• Meeting your physical needs, such as getting enough sleep and exercise
• Meeting your emotional needs, such as asking for support when you need it
• Meeting your mental needs, such as having a stimulating job
• Meeting your spiritual needs, such as taking time to meditate or pray

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It seems like every sleep expert has reduced the fascinating topic of sleep to a boring set of rules:

• Keep your room dark.
• Take a warm bath.
• Keep the bedroom for sleep and sex only.
• Avoid caffeine x hours before bedtime (where x depends on who you ask).
• Don’t drink alcohol.

Et cetera, et cetera, yadda, yadda…

Sleep is much more interesting than that. Now don’t get me wrong, the above points are valid. Some of it is great advice.

But it isn’t the half of it.

Obtaining super-quality sleep has become a (somewhat nerdy) passion of mine, and I personally don’t think the standard set of rules like the ones listed above really do justice to the nuances of better sleep.

Sleep is no doubt a critical ingredient in a healthy lifestyle. If I sleep poorly, I feel like an irritable, unproductive, unmotivated, unhappy, sick, deprived zombie.

But if I have “10 out of 10″ sleep, I feel like superman. My consciousness becomes crystal-clear. I feel more self-aware. And I get more creative work done than I would as a sleep-impoverished drone.

In this article I will describe five “unusual” sleep tricks that can give you that “10 out of 10″ super-quality sleep.

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“I am an old man and I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened” -  Mark Twain

What Is worry? Worry is a very strong feeling of anxiety. It’s fear of the unknown – the thought that the worst will happen.

We may become overly concerned with future events. We may engage in repetitive negative self-talk with all the worst case scenarios. A lot of our thoughts will begin with …

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There’s plenty of advice on the web about what to eat and drink, and a lot of it can be more than a bit confusing. What exactly is a “superfood”? Should you be eating a meat-heavy caveman diet or a fruit-rich raw food diet for optimum health? Do you really need two liters of water every day?

Often, we mistrust the advice being peddled – and with good reason. But this shouldn’t lead us to stop caring about what we put into our mouths altogether. One of the best ways to cut through the hype, the fads and the ridiculous promises is to figure out what works for your body. That means being conscious as to how food, water, caffeine and alcohol make you feel – and adjusting what you consume accordingly.

Listening to your body about food

Try thinking through times when you’ve felt ill, lethargic or sluggish after eating. You might want to ask yourself questions like:

- How do I feel after a big meal?

Have you ever been stuck in a boring lecture or conference after a large lunch? Did you find yourself struggling to keep your eyelids open? Most people find that overeating at lunch-time has a poor effect on afternoon productivity: it’s hard to get on with work when you want to curl up and fall asleep.

Eating a big evening meal might help you to sleep – but eating too much near bedtime is likely to leave your stomach unpleasantly full and gurgling as you’re trying to drop off.

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It was the summer of 1998. I was 12 years old at the time and a frequent visitor to the local public swimming pool. Our family was doing well that year so each of my siblings and I had a Summer pass. Wow, a Summer pass! I felt on top of the world. I went to the pool religiously every day, right when they opened. I remember many of the teenage boys and men there had chiseled abs and washboard stomachs. I was just starting to like girls at the time and it seemed like all the boys with the muscular physiques were getting more attention from the ladies than I was. As soon as I realized this, that was the beginning of my quest to get ripped.

I started lifting some free weights that my dad had lying around the garage. That helped a little, but I was still self-conscious of my stomach. Keep in mind I wasn’t overweight. I was a lean kid. I wanted a chiseled stomach though, so every day at the pool I would constantly flex my stomach. When I flexed, it looked like I had more definition than I actually did, but who could tell right? So I flexed constantly. I flexed when I walked, I flexed in the pool, I flexed when I was laying down. I started doing it so much, I even flexed when my shirt was on. It just became a habit.

What I didn’t realize at the time was all this flexing had led to greater definition. Now even when I didn’t flex, you could see an outline of my abs. This may not seem like much, but for me it this was exciting.

As my obsessive flexing continued, more and more of the six pack under all those layers of skin started to come through.

I’m not suggesting you go around flexing your stomach all day long, but just think about all the time you’re not doing anything where you could take advantage of this:

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PickTheBrain has lead me to a new job with a company named PeopleJam (I’ll be sharing the story soon). As part of my duties as head of online marketing, I’ll be writing articles on PeopleJam and sharing them here when they’re relevant.

The first such article is all about maintaining a youthful body as you get older by eating right and getting the right kinds of exercise. Head over and check it out.

If you like the post, do me a favor and give the article a digg.

Many of us are carrying a few extra pounds. Perhaps they’ve crept on gradually over the years, perhaps they’re the “Freshman 15”, or perhaps they’ve been present since early childhood.

It is easy to get complacent. Okay, we know we could do with losing that extra weight, but the thought of dieting and exercise just seems like too much hard work – it’s not going to make much difference, is it?

Since my late teens, I’ve lost nearly a third of my body weight (50 lbs). The knock-on effect on the rest of my life has been dramatic, and if you’re carrying an extra 10, 20 or 50 lbs, you too could gain all of this by losing them:

Instant Confidence Boost

For those who are naturally shy or awkward in social situations, being overweight makes things far worse. Do you covertly glance around a group of friends or colleagues to see if you’re the largest person in the room? Do you struggle to find outfits that flatter your figure – and resort to shapeless clothes which hide as much of you as possible?

Whether you just want to blend in with the crowd, and not stand out as bigger than all your friends, or whether you’d like to be the center of attention for once, feeling good about your body is a direct shortcut to build your confidence.

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Everyone knows the benefits of cooking at home vs. eating out, but when it comes to preparing meals, people are never short on excuses. ‘I don’t have the time’ and ‘I don’t know how’ are the most popular. After reading this article you won’t be able to claim either.

Eating out takes a lot longer than you think. Between looking through menus, placing orders, and waiting for delivery, the process usually takes 30-45 minutes. If you follow these basic steps, you’ll be able to prepare healthy meals at home in 15-20 minutes.

Stocking Up on Food

I hate going to the grocery store, so when I do I load up for 2-3 weeks. Although I love eating fresh produce, it goes bad quickly. Buy as much fresh produce as you can eat in a week, along with a bunch of frozen and canned food.

Some types of canned or frozen food tastes terrible, while others are surprisingly good. I absolutely hate canned vegetables, but find frozen veggies taste great. Things I buy frozen include peas, broccoli, green beans, and other vegetables. Canned foods I eat include beans, lentils, and tuna.

With meat, I generally buy massive economy packs of chicken, beef, pork, or fish. When I get home, I open up the packages, separate the meat into single meal portions, place them in baggies, and put them in the freezer. This is a great way to save money and stock up for weeks.

Perfecting your grocery list takes a bit of practice, but it makes your shopping and cooking very efficient.

Food Preparation

Preparing meals efficiently depends on a few core principles:

• Routine – Eating the same meals on a regular basis will allow you to master the process.
• Simplicity – To cook quickly, you’ll need to eat simple meals that don’t require elaborate preparations.
• Multi-tasking – Having multiple cooking processes going on at once is the key to efficiency.

The Microwave is Your Friend

The fastest and easiest way to cook is popping something in the microwave. Most of the foods I’ve mentioned above (canned/frozen vegetables and grains) don’t need any other preparation. Note that this is much different than eating pre-made microwavable meals.

A Sample Meal Walk Through

To give you a concrete idea of the process, here is a step-by-step walk through of a typical meal.

1. Start by defrosting meat in the microwave. This takes approximately 5 minutes. While the meat is in the microwave, get everything ready for the next step by pulling out vegetables and beans and preparing them for the microwave. Also, turn on your Foreman Grill (a great way to minimize clean up time) or start heating a pan on the stove so it’s already hot when the meat is ready. If you’re cooking rice or pasta, you’ll want to start boiling water a bit earlier. Personally, I’ve been hooked on beans (and much leaner) ever since I tried the slow carb diet.
2. When the meat is done defrosting, start cooking it. Immediately place your frozen vegetables in the microwave (3 min). When the vegetables are done, throw in your beans (1.5 min), or take the next step in preparing your pasta or rice, since the water should be boiling. It’s easy to do this stuff while tending your meat at the same time.
3. Throw it on a plate. By the time the meat is done, all your vegetables, beans, or grains should be ready or close to it. Apply which ever seasonings you like and enjoy.

The total preparation time should be around 15 minutes, possibly a bit longer if you decide to make pasta or rice. The resulting meals are not only easy to cook, but they’re also remarkably nutritious and inexpensive. To cut down even more on prep time, cook the meat for multiple days at once and microwave it later.

If you can enjoy simple meals and don’t mind eating the same food most of the time, you can save tons of time and money by mastering a process, multi-tasking, and utilizing the speed of microwaving.

What are your healthy and efficient cooking tips?

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The greatest challenge in developing a permanent exercise habit is finding motivation that lasts. It’s easy to get to the gym when you’re preparing for that big beach vacation or want to look great for your high school reunion. But what about the rest of the time?

For much of my life I followed a pretty consistent pattern:

• Get a bit fat.
• Start to hate the way I look.
• Hit the gym with a vengeance for a few weeks.
• Start to look noticeably better.
• Smugly enjoy my new found vanity.
• Lose motivation and stop working out for a few weeks.
• Repeat from beginning.

Vanity, it turns out, isn’t a great longterm motivator for most people. It wasn’t until I associated exercise with rewards beyond physical appearance that I was able to get myself to the gym 5-6 times a week without any lapses.

To help you bring consistency and enthusiasm to your exercise schedule, here are some powerful reasons to work out that have nothing to do with looking good.

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Being able to acquire bigger and better things in life is not making us any happier. In fact, you may be surprised to hear that our happiness levels peaked in 1957. According to David Wann, co-author of Affluenza: The All Consuming Epidemic, the most affluent countries around the world are the same ones experiencing the most stress. Despite the fact we live in larger homes and have more gadgets than our parents ever dreamed of, depression and stress are very common problems.

Our addiction to consumption and getting the biggest, newest or trendiest thing is taking us further away from what really brings deep satisfaction to our lives. We have reached a place in our evolution where time is becoming a precious and valued commodity. Our souls are craving a simplicity with the underlying want of feeling less pressure and less stress in our lives.

If you are not yet convinced of the value in living a simple life, the following are 8 reasons why you should consider embracing a simpler life:

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