Yes, you can change your life. There is no magic wand or wonder formula to do that, but you can follow some tips and ways to bring about a change in your life. You need to create goals, change habits, and identify the obstacles to your path of progress to change your life. Here is what and how to do to unleash more happiness in your life. ~ Ed.
Do you want to change your life? Are there those around you who tell you that you can’t change?
Your first step is an easy one – stop listening to those people. Anyone can make profound course recalibrations that change their life forever. Below are a few ideas to help you do it.
4 Tips to Change Your Life Starting Today
Change requires efforts. You may be a bit skeptical and apprehensive of a change in the beginning, but if you go with proper understanding, planning, and implementation, it turns out that positive change can bring happiness into your life.
Organize Your Finances
This one might sound boring, but it truly can be life changing. Getting control of your money instead of letting your money control you is the first step to true freedom.
There are two big things you need to do to get started. One is to get out of debt and the other is to start putting away some money in an emergency fund. You could dig down into whether starting an emergency fund before paying off high-interest debt is ideal financially, but the truth is that starting both of these is a good idea for psychological reasons.
When you have a little money in the bank to cushion you against emergencies, you feel better even if you still have a big chunk of debt to pay off. It also means that if an emergency does come along, you won’t have to reach for your credit card to pay for it. Your eventual plan should be to have enough in that fund to cover expenses for several months, but to start with, you’ll be surprised at how much better even just a few hundred dollars makes you feel.
As for your debts, you should focus most of your energy on one at a time while only paying the minimum on the others. Then, once that first debt is paid off, you should roll all the money you were paying on that plus the minimum on the next one and focus on that. In this way, you snowball your payments so that when you get to the last debt on your list; you are making substantial monthly payments. You should also look at ways to reduce those debts as you are paying them off, which can also lower your monthly expenses.
For example, if you have student loans, you may be able to refinance them into a new loan with a private lender, and the lower interest rate can help you get out of debt faster. You might also want to try to roll any credit card debt onto lower-interest cards. Once you have paid off debts and have some money in an emergency fund, you will be much more stable and able to take risks. Keep putting away money in savings and consider looking into investing.
Create Goals
Have you been drifting through life, reacting to things as they happen to you? If you have, you shouldn’t feel bad. You’re not that different from most people. However, setting goals can transform how you approach your life.
As important as setting goals can be, it’s often not a skill that is explicitly taught. Maybe you have some things you’ve always wanted to accomplish but you never really knew how to achieve them, or perhaps you aren’t sure what your goals are.
If you’re in the latter situation, you can do some brainstorming to think about what your goals are. They don’t necessarily have to be professional goals. They may be personal in nature. Try to come up with a mix of goals that are short, medium and long-term, but don’t have too many to start with. One or two in each category is enough. Then, write them down and think about what you need to do to reach each one. There may be a series of steps that you need to take to reach each one. Write those steps down as well. Now, you have a blueprint for success.
Change Your Daily Habits
You may not realize it, but some of your existing habits may be just the things keeping you from happiness in your life. There are two reasons you need to work on changing your daily habits.
One is that daily habits are the secret weapon in achieving your goals. When you write your ambitions down on paper, they can look like big things, but they are really only achieved by incremental progress day after day. You won’t wake up one morning and run a marathon. Instead, you need to put on your running shoes and get out there a few days each week for months beforehand.
The other reason to change daily habits is not necessarily connected with overarching goals. These are simply habits that improve your life. For example, if you struggle with insomnia, you can work on having better sleep hygiene. This might include making a habit of going to bed early instead of staying up watching TV or scrolling online. Don’t try to impose too many new habits at once. Just choose one or two, and after a few successful weeks, add another one.
Identify Your Obstacles
Changing your life might look easy when it is all laid out as above, but it is not always quite that simple. Everyone runs into obstacles sometimes. It can help to identify them. Sometimes, you might be getting in your own way. You may be keeping up a steady stream of negative self-talk that discourages you from trying.
Maybe you’re a procrastinator, or maybe there are people in your life who tell you that you can’t accomplish certain things. There could also be concrete obstacles. Maybe your days are just too full of your job and family responsibilities to take the steps you want to take.
When this is the case, you can scale back your expectations for yourself. You can still make progress. You’ll just have to take smaller steps. For many people, it can be a victory to just carve out 15 or 30 minutes for themselves in a day to work toward changing their life. You may be able to do this by getting up earlier or staying up later, by leaving the office on your lunch break, or by using your commute time to get things done.
However, make sure that what you have identified as a concrete obstacle is not just an excuse. Do not convince yourself that a challenge is insurmountable when it is really just your own reluctance holding you back.
Wrap Up
It’s possible to change your life for the better and you can start from today. You do not have to wait for any specific time or help.
Once your finances are organized, you’ll be able to take the next steps with confidence and intensity. Remember, you cannot reach a destination without any goals. And then you’ve to make a step-by-step plan to reach your goal. We all need to improvise on our daily habits; these can gradually help you achieve your goals and improve your life. And finally, you have to identify the obstacle to your path to progress. You have to work to remove them so you can experience a positive change in life.
Over to you
Do you believe you can change your life? If yes, then what are your thoughts about these tips. Do share some of your own tips in the comments to help others change their lives.
