Let’s Talk is all about achieving an exciting, easier, and exceptional life or what I like to call, the “essential Es.” Now, in order to achieve those essential Es, you must observe the “requisite Rs.” Let’s talk.

Brigham Young had this down to a science when he figured out why God gave us 24 hours in a day. Brigham Young said a day should consist of eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep, and eight hours of recreation. To me, that’s exactly what the requisite Rs are: responsibility, rest, and recreation. In order to achieve an exciting, easier, and exceptional life, on a daily basis we must observe responsibility, rest, and recreation. Let’s break those down, starting with responsibility.

Responsibility—Winston Churchill said, “The price of greatness is responsibility.” And there’s no doubt that to achieve great things, we must be responsible. In this sense, I equate responsibility to discipline in our labors, in our work, and/or whatever our particular calling may be.

Of course, there’s also responsibility to your family, responsibility to your debts, responsibility to your tasks at work. To all that, you must be responsible to make a living for yourself and for your family. But also to achieve greatness, you must be responsible in your discipline in achieving your goals and having well-defined steps to get yourself to that greatness you’re seeking. For me, that’s what responsibility is all about.

So, we go back to Brigham Young—the first part of the day we have the eight hours of work. Responsibility equates to each of us putting in a good eight hours of work every day, except Sundays. Because you know how I feel about lazy Sundays.

About Saturdays—I like to work a little bit on Saturdays. Some people don’t, but you could, maybe, put in three or four hours of work. Frankly, I tend to get more done on a Saturday in half a day than I do Monday on a full day. But anyway, eight hours of work equates to the responsibility aspect of the requisite Rs.

Now, we turn to the second R—rest. Notice that I don’t talk about “rest and relaxation” as a combined unit here. That’s because “relaxation” for me is the third R, which is recreation. Rest, the second R, is in its own category, and it is about actual sleep, being in bed, resting your body. Or, as science-fiction writer, aeronautical engineer, and retired Naval officer Robert A. Heinlein said, “Happiness consists of getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more.”

When I talk about rest, I am talking precisely a solid eight hours of sleep—being in bed, resting your body, letting the body do what it needs to do to recuperate, to be able to regenerate, to rest from the day’s toils. So the requisite R, rest is very, very important.

So we come to the last requisite R, which is recreation. Miguel de Cervantes wrote, “The bow cannot always stand bent, nor can human frailty subsist without some lawful recreation.” Sometimes the inessential is essential.

There’s no doubt that in order for you to achieve that exciting, easier, and exceptional life, you must have recreation in your life. You must have fun. And Brigham Young advocated eight hours of recreation every day.

Please note that it works out perfectly: eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep, and eight hours of having fun. To return to the venerable Cervantes, this time paraphrasing his words, he pointed out that as long as it’s some sort of lawful recreation, the human body needs it. And if we don’t engage in fun, we become frail.

Recreation is what I talk about in Let’s Talk, Book One, as in—having fun; making sure that you’re enjoying life; being extra, but not extravagant; engaging in a regular weekday happy hour; enjoying the one wine lunch during the workweek; and taking your hundred hours of solitude a few times a year to take your mind (really, your whole self) away from your responsibilities. Whatever takes your mind away from work, that’s recreation.

Those are the joys of life that I talked about in Let’s Talk, Book One and how each of us must make it a priority to enjoy our life because, at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.

Quick recap: Brigham Young advised a daily eight hours work, eight hours sleep, and eight hours of recreation, which I call the requisite Rs, responsibility, rest, and recreation.

Responsibility equates to your work duties and how you generate your income, how you make a living.

Rest is flat-out rest, not just resting and relaxing. It’s flat-out lying in bed and sleeping, actually getting eight hours of solid sleep.

Recreation is eight hours of fun EVERY SINGLE DAY. Think about it. You know, you work for eight hours, but you can still have eight hours of solid hedonism having a great time in your life and still get in your eight hours of sleep.

So, my friends, there you have it—responsibility, rest, recreation—the requisite Rs. I hope you’ll follow these three requisite Rs, and it will get you to that great life that we all want to have. I can’t wait to hear what your thoughts are on the requisite Rs. Go ahead and share on this blog post. Let’s get a conversation going. You know—let’s talk!

If you’d rather, you can send me an email—art@riostalks.com. And visit the website for more information and engaging content: www.riostalks.com.

And until we talk again, stay happy and healthy, my friend.

Let's Talk... About Making Your Life Exciting, Easier, and Exceptional

Let’s Talk is about anything and everything. From happy hour to self-realization. From pursuing pleasures to decluttering your life. From gratitude and kindness to lazy Sundays. Whether you’re 18 or 80, you’re never too old, or too young, to have an exhilarating life.

Learn More

The post The Requisite Rs appeared first on Rios Talks.

Do you remember the movie Vacation where Chevy Chase packed his family into the brand-new station wagon and headed cross-country—and all the calamity that ensued? Hilarious, but it also might’ve turned off a lot of families from going on road trips. Unfairly so, or so I think. Let’s talk.

Driving from Florida to North Carolina to take our daughter to college got me thinking about road trips. On that trip, after dropping off our daughter, Sharon and I decided to take a drive up into the mountains in North Carolina. It was only about a four-hour drive, but it made me reminisce about the road trips that my family and I used to take when I was young.

My father had a great idea—rent an RV. A big RV for a bunch of us—my sister, my mom, me, my grandparents, and a couple of my aunts and uncles. Together we’d go on a road trip from St. Petersburg to New Orleans. However, the idea was not that we would all sleep in the RV because there were too many of us. The idea was that we could all be together, comfortable, and having fun on the drive itself in the big RV. We stopped to stay in hotels for the night. Then we’d get back in the RV the next day until we made it to New Orleans. The memories of that trip, plus a few more that we did in a similar way, are incredible. Great memories with all these different family members who I love dearly.

I was thinking about this as Sharon and I drove to the Half Mile Farm Inn, a gorgeous place. If you have a chance to visit it, do it. I’m not getting paid or anything to promote them. It’s a truly special place that I enjoyed a lot.

So I was thinking about these road trips from my childhood, and now that we’re in the middle of this pandemic and air travel has gotten dangerous, what better time to revive the road trip? To pack the family and go off to a place where you’ll feel comfortably safe as far as COVID-19 goes?

Especially if you have young kids, it’s a perfect time. If your kids are older and gone from the house, maybe they’d want to join. Or maybe not. If you have grandchildren, maybe you could take them with you for the road trip or take your kids and grandkids. If your parents are up to it, bring them along also. Or go off with your siblings and their families.

When on the road trip, it’s a great time to log off, as discussed in Talk #10, Let’s Talk, Book One. You know, go off the grid and not be stuck to technology all day. When you’re at restaurants, make a deal with your travel companions to leave all cell phones in the RV and sit down and enjoy each other’s company.

Also, you can practice the effective listening that I talked about in Talk #13, Two Ears, One Mouth, in Book One. What a better time than to make sure that you’re listening effectively than when you’re in a vehicle with somebody for several hours?

During our North Carolina drive, I was thinking about gratitude, the topic of Book One’s Talk #4. I was thinking of all the things that I’m grateful for—having two healthy daughters and being able to provide for them to go to good schools, which they worked very hard to get into, and I’m ridiculously proud of both of them for the amazing young women they’ve become.

I was grateful that even with the pandemic—which has affected us and everyone economically, no doubt—that at least we’re healthy and we’re in the fight. I was grateful for all the medical workers, doctors, nurses, paramedics that have helped people with COVID. Yes, we’ve lost a lot of people, and for those of you that have lost a family member or friend, I’m very sorry for your loss. But thanks to our incredible medical professionals, we’ve also saved a lot of lives.

Also, I got to thinking that I want to practice what I preach. I’m going to rent an RV. Once our daughters have a break in their college studies, maybe summer or winter break, we can rent an RV. Their boyfriends could join us. Maybe my parents too. Maybe my sister and her kids and husband as well. Together, we can go on a nice road trip like Dad used to do for us, packing us all in an RV.

Another important aspect is that everyone going gets in on the planning. The planning is actually just as fun as the trip itself. You lay out the map of where you’re going to be traveling, and then everyone in the travel group gets a chance to pick one place where they’d like to go. This makes everybody going really feel that they’re a part of the trip, and it makes the trip that much more exciting.

When the time comes, everyone packs into the RV to hang out together during the driving itself. Like I said, you don’t have to sleep in the RV. Everybody is together on the road and having fun for the hours that you are driving to your destination.

Think about it—reviving the road trip. If you have any memories of family road trips and you want to share them on this blog, please do. Or if you like this idea, and you’re thinking of planning a road trip like I’m recommending, tell me what you think and how you’re going to do it. It would be awesome to hear from everybody. If you don’t feel comfortable sharing publicly, that’s fine. You can always send me an email: art@riostalks.com. If you want to find out more about Let’s Talk, Book One or get other information and content, check out the webpage: www.riostalks.com.

Until I hear from you, stay happy and healthy, my friend.

Let's Talk... About Making Your Life Exciting, Easier, and Exceptional

Let’s Talk is about anything and everything. From happy hour to self-realization. From pursuing pleasures to decluttering your life. From gratitude and kindness to lazy Sundays. Whether you’re 18 or 80, you’re never too old, or too young, to have an exhilarating life.

Learn More

The post Reviving Road Trips appeared first on Rios Talks.

I’ve got to admit that some of the most brilliant moments in my life have been in bed. I have done some pretty amazing work in bed. No, no, no—I’m not talking about what you’re thinking. I’m talking about actual work. Let’s talk.

Please note that what I’m going to be sharing is not counter to Talk #6 from Let’s Talk, Book One about “keeping it simple.” In that talk, I mentioned that your bed should only be used for sleeping, reading, and the good old hanky-panky. Here, what I’m about to propose is different because it’s about what you do in bed in the morning—not what you do in bed at night.

I still hold true to my thoughts in Talk #6, that in the evenings the bed should only be used for those three things. Here, I propose that in the morning, you stay in bed, if work allows, and you do as much work as you can from bed.

If you google “Hugh Hefner,” founder of Playboy magazine, and check out images of him, you’ll notice that Mr. Hefner had a very peculiar habit of working from bed. He would do paperwork, he had phones all around him, he’d look at pictures for the magazine, whatever was required. His bed was his desk. Do a google image search of writer “Eudora Welty,” and you’ll find photos of this celebrated Southern fiction writer working away in her bed, typewriter, notes, and all. What does all this prove? That working from bed is nothing less than brilliant.

A lot of my colleagues that write personal development books discuss the importance of having a morning ritual—wake up early and exercise for an hour, meditate for half an hour, do some writing or journaling. In other words, many self-help gurus promote the idea of starting off your day with a ritual where you’re doing several activities.

Although I respect all of them, I disagree wholeheartedly. Why? Because I want to use all the energy accumulated during my sleeping hours and jump right into creativity. Get right to work. As French writer, poet, and translator Gérard de Nerval said, “I’ve had enough of chasing after poetry. I believe that poetry lies at one’s very door or perhaps in one’s very bed.” In a similar vein, Sanober Khan, a poet and writer from India, observed, “Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and find poetry splattered all over my bed.” What they are both saying is that all their energy, all their creativity, their muse, if you will, is as far away as their pillow and that that’s where they look to find inspiration and do their creative work. Yet another powerful plug for the bed as an ideal workspace!

What I’m proposing is that when you wake up in the morning, if it’s a possibility for you (for instance, if you can work from home)—instead of waking up and wasting energy by getting dressed and going to exercise, meditating, and all that stuff—I recommend that you wake up, stay in bed for a little bit, gather your thoughts. As you know, I’m a big proponent of gratitude, so say your prayers or show gratitude to God, the universe. After that, while still in bed, you start working. Have your laptop or whatever you need right there. You can get one of those desks that allow you to work with your computer on your lap or on your bed. Personally, I don’t even use a desk. I just grab a couple of pillows and put them on my lap, and it’s very comfortable. I go right to work.

As I’m writing this very blog, I’m doing it in bed. When I woke up about 20 minutes ago, I had this topic in my mind. My energy and ideas were, and still are, just ready to spew from me. So why would I want to drain that energy exercising in the morning? Why would I want to drain that energy, if I can avoid it, in a morning commute where heavy traffic could maybe get me in a slightly bad mood? Although I don’t let things like that get to me.

The point—all of that is energy expended that you can use staying in bed and getting right to work, applying all that energy, all that creativity, all that positivity right into your work. If you want, right there in your bed, go ahead and answer those emails, get it all out of the way. Organize your schedule or whatever you can. Work.

I’ve been doing this now for some time during the pandemic and I will tell you, there’ve been days where I get up, turn on my laptop while in bed, get to work, and before I know it, it’s close to lunchtime and the time has just passed. Usually when I follow this “brilliant in bed” routine, I get so much work done in the morning that by the time lunch comes around, all my work is done for the day. Then I can devote the afternoon to other creative activities.

Just consider it. Consider waking up—if it’s a possibility with your work schedule—and working from bed. As Tanya Masse, writer and digital illustrator, said, “My bed is the magical place where I love to overthink.”

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts about getting up and going right to work in bed. Let me know what you think about this idea. I hope to hear from you here in the blog, but if you feel more comfortable having a private conversation, go ahead and send me that email: art@riostalks.com. Also, I welcome you to visit www.riostalks.com. It’s chockfull of information about all the talks in Let’s Talk, Book One.

And until we talk again, stay happy and healthy, my friend.

Let's Talk... About Making Your Life Exciting, Easier, and Exceptional

Let’s Talk is about anything and everything. From happy hour to self-realization. From pursuing pleasures to decluttering your life. From gratitude and kindness to lazy Sundays. Whether you’re 18 or 80, you’re never too old, or too young, to have an exhilarating life.

Learn More

The post Brilliant in Bed appeared first on Rios Talks.