1. The Day That Changed My Life...

At 3:18 p.m., with the pandemic now official and stocks cratering, President Donald Trump sent out a tweet: "I am fully prepared to use the full power of the Federal Government to deal with our current challenge of the CoronaVirus!" He said he would address the nation from the Oval Office that evening.

1. The day that changed my life...

At 9:02 p.m., Trump began his remarks: "My fellow Americans: Tonight, I want to speak with you about our nation's unprecedented response to the coronavirus outbreak that started in China and is now spreading throughout the world."

"This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history," he continued. "I am confident that by counting and continuing to take these tough measures, we will significantly reduce the threat to our citizens, and we will ultimately and expeditiously defeat this virus," he said.

"We felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went. Slight fevers too," he wrote. The two were in Australia for preproduction on a film starring Hanks.

"Well, now. What to do next?" Hanks continued. "The Medical Officials have protocols that must be followed. We Hanks' will be tested, observed, and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires. Not much more to it than a one-day-at-a-time approach, no?"

He reacted in shock: His jaw dropped, and he leaned way back in his chair. "Now it's much more personal. You've seen what's happening in other countries," he told a reporter a few minutes later. "But just the whole idea that it's come this close, potentially a couple players have it ... just stunning isn't the right word. It's crazy."

We pack our schedules full, hoping that will keep us from stopping long enough to notice our inner lives are in great need of attention. The essence of simplifying your life is recognizing you have intrinsic value by simply being.

Benjamin Hardy compares this concept to compounding interest, and how, given the choice, most people would take $1,000,000 in their bank account right now as opposed to a penny that doubles in value over the course of the month.

Whether you have a book you've always dreamt of authoring, a business plan that's been in the back of your mind for a while, or even just a blog you want to start, write just a few sentences each day. The momentum will build on its own and you'll find yourself effortlessly writing more and more... but commit to just beginning with one paragraph.

Make it a habit to check in on all of your accounts at least once a day. If that sounds like a lot, it's because it is. But what's important is that you're keeping yourself aware of exactly what you have, and where it's going. Getting a better grip on your finances begins with having a consistently accurate mental layout of your accounts.

Aspirational tropes want you to believe that living your best life is like running a victory lap every day. In reality, it is more like being willing to tend to the unglamorous maintenance of things, like chores, cleaning, healthy cooking, staying current on bills and work assignments, or making time for exercise.

The quality of your life will be directly and drastically improved if you can incorporate necessary maintenance into your daily routine, and learn to see it as something that helps you rather than hinders you from having a great time.

If you want to change your life, you need to start considering the needs and wants of your future self over the ones you have right now. Prioritizing how you feel and what you want in the moment is what lead you here. Instead, commit to making choices for the benefit of your future self. The idea that "being present" means disregarding anything but your most base instincts and desires is not enlightenment, it is self-destruction.

If someone sends a text, answer it when you see it. As often as you are able, respond to important emails as they come in. This will ensure that you aren't left with a backlog of work that needs to be tended to.

When you see or hear something that immediately enrages you or upsets you (even if it's just a negative thought that crops up in your head) before reacting to it and pouring your energy into it, question it. Figure out where it came from, and ask yourself whom your reaction to it would serve. Learning to take that micro-pause between a stimulus and your response will change the way you look at everything.

You are not a machine, but in some ways, your body and life does require that you fuel it in certain ways to keep it running. Eat when you are hungry. Sleep when you are tired. Trying to deny the importance of your most basic requirements for functioning does not mean you are busy and important, it means you are ignorant and setting yourself up for a breakdown or burnout.

But do you also realize that what you are surrounding yourself with and putting into your head is having just as much, if not even more, of an effect on you? Take a serious look at who you follow online and what their presence on your newsfeed does for you, or perhaps how cluttered your home or office space is. This is your environment, and it is having a silent, and often subconscious, impact on you at all times.

In Mel Robbin's The 5 Second Rule, she explains that a lot of what holds people back is those few seconds between when you have an amazing idea, and when your brain interferes. She says that to really move your life forward, you need to act on your ideas before you convince yourself not to.

If you aren't someone who can get through a book, that's okay. But it's not an excuse to stop learning, growing and developing yourself. Follow people on social media that post or share interesting articles and ideas. Read a news story in the morning. Listen to an audiobook on your commute. How much you read is directly related to your self-growth, and your self-growth is directly related to your external success.

Whereas sifting through TV channels was once the mindless past time of years past, now it's scrolling through news feeds. Train yourself to limit your "scroll" time each day. Try one of those browser installations that give you a set amount of time you can spend on a website in a day before it blocks access to the site, or apps that counts how many times you open social media apps. You don't have to delete them entirely, but you should be mindful that you're not spending multiple hours a day effectively doing nothing.

When you have a self-defeating thought, the solution isn't usually to mull on it until you arrive at a different conclusion. The solution is usually to distract yourself with something productive. Get better at diverting your attention to something that helps you, not negative thoughts that can lead to a spiral.

The next time you have the urge to go pick up dinner or a new outfit for the weekend, challenge yourself just once to wear what's in your closet, or eat what's in your pantry, even if you don't want to that much.

Don't worry about trying to completely overhaul your diet and perfect every single thing that crosses your lips. Focus only on foregoing one single unhealthy choice that you'd make on any given day. Just one.

Make sure that you are consistently making your information available to those who may want to reach out to you. Your personal website and online presence is the new résumé, so make sure you are consistently updating and improving it, and making it easy for others to understand what you do and how to reach you.

Get out of the mindset that you have to "get through" the day and get into the mindset that the coming hours are filled with open-ended potential for you to take action that will change your life forever. The only difference is your willingness to see things differently, and your effort in trying to make them better.

MeiMei Fox is a New York Times bestselling author, coauthor and ghostwriter of over a dozen non-fiction books and thousands of articles for publications including Huffington Post, Self, Stanford magazine, and MindBodyGreen. She specializes in health, psychology, self-help and finding your life purpose. Fox graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors and distinction from Stanford University with an MA and BA in psychology. She has worked as a life coach since 2009, assisting clients in developing careers that have meaning and impact. At present, she lives in Hawaii with her twin boys and the love of her life, husband Kiran Ramchandran. Follow @MeiMeiFox

Maggie McGrath is the editor of ForbesWomen, the Forbes vertical dedicated to covering all angles of female entrepreneurship, and the author of the ForbesWomen newsletter. She loves a good Forbes list: she is the editor of the 50 Over 50 and the World's 100 Most Powerful Women, and previously edited the 30 Under 30 Food & Drink list and the Just 100. She's worked at Forbes since 2013 and in that time has written on everything from the student debt crisis to Triple Crown-contending (and winning) horses. Before coming to Forbes, Maggie worked with TODAY show financial editor Jean Chatzky.

I'm Megan, a therapist, executive coach, writer, and podcast host. After years of perfectionism-fueled depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, I discovered how to like myself, take risks, and find success without beating myself up to get there. This game-changing shift allowed me to leave my \"golden handcuffs\" job at a college counseling center in Vancouver, and move to New York City to pursue my dreams. I write about how you, too, can develop a relationship to yourself where you motivate from love rather than fear, experience authentic happiness, and have the courage to do the sh*t that scares you. 041b061a72