How To Turn Your Life Around in 7 Practical Steps!
Hello everyone!
Today we are talking about how to turn your life around in 7 practical steps. We all get into a rut sometimes and it may feel like there’s no way out. Especially near the end of the year, we can start reflecting on our progress toward our goals, the decisions we made, and the long-term plans we made. If you’re feeling regretful or not proud of yourself- stop right now! You may not be exactly where you envisioned yourself to be but that’s no means to worry. Turning your life around and working towards attaining your dream life is something you can start right now!
So let’s get into it!
1. Identify Areas You Want to Change
The first thing you want to do is identify the general areas of your life you want to see change. This is just a super abstract domain you have goals. For example, the areas can include academics, personal relationships, fitness, hobbies, etc. Don’t go overboard because you will be going into specifics in the later steps and too much can be overwhelming! We recommend keeping it from 2-4 general areas.
2. Identify Your Goals and Timeline
Next, you’ll want to write down your specific goals underneath each area you’ve identified in step 1. Make sure your goals are SMART. This is an acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely (time-based). Specific goals are narrowed down to a singular action or plan. Measurable goals can provide evidence of their success. Attainable goals are realistic to your situation and your abilities. Relevant goals are aligned with the area in your life you desire to change and contribute to life-long or long-term goals. Timely goals have an attainable and realistic end date. When writing specific goals, try to ensure you encompass all the aspects of SMART goals to increase your chances of success!
3. Change Your Mindset
Before you even start working towards your goals, you’ll need to change your entire mindset. The mind is our most powerful and most important tool. If you don’t believe in yourself or your future success, how do you expect to achieve your goals? You need to work on your confidence, your perseverance, and your mental fortitude.
We recommend combatting negative self-talk and doubts with daily positive affirmations. Use tools such as motivational videos, podcasts, or music. Watch movies and TV shows with stories about hard work and hard times. More than believing in yourself, you also need to be able to understand that failure may also be a part of the process and to not let negativity, failure, and doubts knock you down. Working on your mental fortitude is not an easy task but it is an essential one. Feeling unmotivated or sad is a natural part of life but you never want to wallow in these feelings. Find a way to comfort yourself when you’re feeling down and how to pick yourself up and go again! This means different things for different people, so learn the healthy ways you can do it for yourself.
4. Build Practical Steps
Now, you have your goals, your timeline, and your winning mindset, it’s time to build your steps! This means how you will achieve your goals. How will you work on your goals daily/ weekly/ monthly? Write down actions that you will be able to do consistently over your pre-determined timeline.
5. Create a Routine and Discipline
Next, you’ll want to build a fleshed-out routine with your practical steps and your timeline. You can be general about it or super-specific- do what works for you! We personally love using a physical daily planner to keep things on track.
For example, if you’re trying to improve your mile time, you can build a running schedule that you incorporate with other parts of your life.
Example:
Monday
6 am – Run 5 miles at x pace
9 am to 5 pm – Work
7 pm – Full body stretch for 15 minutes
Tuesday
6 am – Run 1 mile at x pace
9 am – 5 pm – Work
7 pm – Sauna for 30 minutes and yoga for 1 hour
…
With all this in mind, you need to ensure you’re disciplined with yourself. A lot of people say motivation is temporary and discipline is forever which holds some truth. You can’t just be in the work when you feel like it because absolutely no one is motivated 24/7/365. On the other hand, if your routine becomes a habit and almost second nature to you, it will become almost effortless to stay on track. Many people think it takes around 3 weeks/ 21 days of true consistency to build a habit! So just try to commit for a month and see where your dedication can take you!
6. Milestones and Rewards
It is VERY important to learn to pat yourself on the back and enjoy the journey! Many people want to change major parts of their lives which is fine but you can not hate yourself to a place of love. This means you need to learn self-love and self-acceptance! Identify some major milestones within your goals and reward yourself when you reach them. Enjoying the process of change is essential in ensuring you’ll actually be happy when you reach your goals.
7. Motivational Tools
Lastly, make sure you have some fun motivation tools at your disposal when you’re having a hard time. This can be a vision board, a certain episode of a TV show, a movie, a playlist you made, affirmations, etc. Try out different things and see what you gravitate to!
Do you have any major goals you’re working on at the moment? Let us know in the comments below!
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