Engage in Transcendental Meditation by silently repeating a given mantra for 20 minutes, twice a day, as this practice can lead to noticeable benefits quickly. George Stephanopoulos found immediate benefits and hasn’t missed a day since learning it, experiencing rest, confidence, and groundedness.
During meditation, accept that your mind will race with thoughts. When it happens, acknowledge it without stress and gently bring your focus back to your mantra or breath, because this acceptance is a core tenet of effective meditation, ensuring that even on imperfect days, the practice still yields benefits like mental clarity and rest.
Cultivate the ability to pause and choose your response to situations rather than reacting impulsively, especially to annoying or challenging events. Meditation trains the mind to create a buffer between you and external stimuli, allowing for more deliberate and less ego-driven actions, improving patience and control over your life.
Approach happiness not as something contingent on external factors, but as a skill that can be developed and strengthened through mental exercise, similar to physical fitness. Science suggests that the mind can be trained like a body, allowing you to become the ‘fittest version of you’ mentally, with a high ceiling for improvement.
Actively practice virtuous habits and behaviors, even if you don’t initially feel virtuous, to gradually internalize them and improve your character. As Aristotle taught, consistent practice of virtuous habits can lead to becoming virtuous, and seeing how good actions feel can reinforce positive behavior.
If you struggle with insomnia, particularly waking up worried about sleep time, practice meditation first thing in the morning. George Stephanopoulos found that meditating at 2:30 AM provided better quality rest than the last hour of sleep, reducing panic upon waking and creating a sense of ‘bonus’ rest.
Actively filter out the vast majority of public criticism, such as comments on social media, Twitter, or other online platforms. George Stephanopoulos, as a long-time public figure, found this strategy essential for managing stress and focusing on his job and life, only addressing criticism when it’s egregious and requires action.
When engaging in practices like meditation or yoga, focus on the practical benefits and the practice itself, rather than getting caught up in the metaphysical or controversial origins of the tradition or its founders. Both George Stephanopoulos and Dan Harris find it effective to ignore the ‘out there’ aspects or problematic figures associated with TM or Bikram yoga, emphasizing that the practice’s usefulness stands on its own.
Avoid lecturing or unsolicited advice about meditation to others, even close family members, unless they explicitly ask about it. This approach prevents sounding ‘Pollyannish’ or ‘culty’ and respects individual autonomy, allowing others to discover the practice on their own terms.
In journalism, be willing to explicitly state objective facts, even if it means stepping outside the convention of simply presenting two opposing viewpoints as equally valid. The conventional approach can fail when one side presents information ‘at odds with the facts,’ requiring journalists to take more time to clarify what is actually happening and identify objective truths.
When covering complex or contentious issues, dedicate more time to thoroughly clarify facts, explain why satisfactory answers aren’t being given, and tease out the potential effects on the audience. The conventional, time-constrained broadcast format can fail to adequately address situations where politicians ‘bull through’ facts, necessitating a deeper commitment to factual reporting.
In an era where trust in media is low and people seek information bolstering existing beliefs, journalists should focus on ‘upping their game’ by reporting facts as evenly and accurately as possible, accepting inevitable blowback. While journalists cannot change societal trends like a ‘post-fact era,’ their primary role remains to report facts, and doing so with excellence is the most effective response.
On days anticipating an unusually long and demanding work schedule, consider sleeping in an hour later than your normal routine. This minor adjustment can help prepare for the extended hours ahead, as demonstrated by George Stephanopoulos’s strategy for Inauguration Day.