Place To Do List on Punching Bag. Punch it with every ounce of strength you have.

We fall into little patterns.  Wake up, check our email, eat a bowl of cereal, go to work or school, come home, do the rest of the things that you do every single day or work on the same goal every day - trying to get your new business plan launched, creating the best senior rep program possible for your photography business, working on the perfect cupcake recipe for your dream bakery, etc.  Great, you should be doing these things!  Kudos to you!  

However, you have to be able to recognize when it's time to hustle, meaning you work hard, sweat dripping off your forehead mind crunching hard, but then also be able to recognize the time to PLAY.  

When was the last time that the random thought has popped into your head, a little comment to yourself saying...

"If this isn't perfect, then I don't know what is." 

Read that for a moment.  When was the last time you truly thought and believed that while you were doing something?    

The truth is...you need to be working hard.  You need to have goals.  You need to hustle, because otherwise you won't ever get anything done and your goals just wont happen.  

You just have to remember you can't be hustling 100% of the time.  Don't think "the happiness will come once I finish working my butt off to reach my goal."  It's true - you will be happy once you reach your goal, I mean, you better be ecstatic after all that work!  I would be disappointed for you if you weren't!  However, It won't take long before that happiness wears off and you start chasing after another goal.  

When you start spending more time playing, you will start having more and more "if this isn't perfect, then I don't know what is" moments!  

Play a little bit.  I'm going to yell it so that you don't forget.  STOP WORKING AND PLAY.

Playing is healthy.  It will make you work better.  It will make you happier.  It can cure anxiety, it did for Charlie Hoehn.  

Here's some ideas to play everyday so you can reach your "If this isn't perfect, then I don't know what is" moments:

1) Take a walk if the weather is perfect, and when I say perfect I don't mean the weatherman's version of perfect or the neighbors version of perfect...I mean your version of perfect...if perfect means pouring rain - so do it!  

2) Sit by the river and read a book.  

3) Take more than just a few minutes to do yoga.  

4) Spend the extra money on treating yourself to your favorite place to eat out. 

5) Buy fresh flowers!

Today I caught myself feeling utterly content and happy when I decided to randomly take a walk down to a shaded area by a beautiful waterfall and reading the ever fabulous "Purple Cow " book by Seth Godin...which is brilliant btw and if you want to learn how to differentiate yourself from all the other big shot photog, web design, etc. etc. businesses out there it's a must read.