Are you happy with the way your life’s unfolding? Are there some areas of your life that need improvement? Have you ever wondered how to change your life for the better and make those changes stick?
Changing one’s life isn’t a simple task. A lot of dedication, discipline, and devotion has to be put into a goal for it to be achieved. And even though we seem to have all the necessary ingredients, a lot of us still struggle when it comes to making substantial changes in our lives.
It doesn’t have to be that way. A lot of us make the mistake of thinking that to change our life we need to embark on a journey whose every single step has to be thoroughly planned and well prepared for. That leaves us petrified, which stops us from taking action. And that’s why we stay in the same, familiar, comfortable place. We stay in the comfort zone, from which nothing ever has, and nothing ever will change.
The answer itself to the age-old question of how to change your life is rather simple. Applying it to your life is where all hell breaks loose.
But, fortunately, familiarising yourself with some of the steps I’m about to present, which have helped me immensely on my journey of bettering myself, will help you take the first step, and stay on course. When combined, these easy steps truly bear the power to change your life for the better for good.
DO A THOROUGH SELF ASSESSMENT
The very first step one has to take is to do an honest self-assessment. Even though this step can be one of the most daunting things to do, it is paramount that we do it. Without having a clear picture of where we are, we can’t make a clear plan on how to move away from it.
Reevaluating the year behind is one of the first steps of an honest self-assessment. You can’t learn how to change your life in one year if you don’t do some troubleshooting first. It will show you where your mindset was a year ago. It will also show you how different your life is now compared to how it was back then.
Start the reevaluation by thinking about all the things that made you happy in the past year. Recall all the happy memories you made, all the nice things that happened to you.
Make a list of all the accomplishments you’re proud of, write down every single thing you’re happy you did, no matter how small or trivial you think it is.
Having trouble?
Here are some questions you can ask that’ll help you with getting the clear picture:
- Whose company did I enjoy the most?
- What is the happiest memory from the past year I can recall?
- If I had the chance to relive one exciting moment from the past year what would it be?
- Have I done anything for the first time?
- What is the most significant thing I achieved in the past year?
- Have I visited a place for the first time?
Now that your mind is in a positive place, spend some time thinking about how you can improve your life.
What areas of your life do you wish to see improved?
Try to remember some of the goals you wanted to achieve.
Which goals did you set for yourself a year ago? What were some of the most important things you wanted to see improved during the past year? How well did it go?
Making a list of some past goals can be helpful. Once you’ve written them down, look at the list.
Are those goals still important? Rewrite all the goals that are still relevant for you.
BE CLEAR ABOUT YOUR GOALS
When setting your yearly goals, being smart about what you actually choose is very important.
Don’t just write stuff down for the sake of it. Spend some time thinking about what is truly important to you.
CHANGE YOUR LIFE BY SETTING SMART GOALS
Your goals should be well thought out. Make sure all your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time–based. This will help you get a crystal clear picture of what it is that you’re chasing, and will also make it easier to think about a proper course of action.
Here are some questions that can help you get a clearer insight into what is it that you truly want:
- What is the reality of my situation? (hopefully, the self-reflection part gave you a clear answer)
- What do I want to accomplish this year?
- What do I most enjoy doing?
- If I can choose only one thing to change in the next year what would it be?
- Why?
- How would I do that?
Once you have a list of past, still relevant goals, as well as newly set goals, give it a rest.
Come back to it in a few hours and reevaluate. Read every single goal out loud and spend a few minutes visualizing it. Make sure it’s not just wishful thinking, you want to be able to see it clearly in your mind.
Ask yourself, AND BE HONEST, do I honestly think I’m able to achieve this?
If you don’t believe it’s achievable, it doesn’t belong on the list.
HOW MANY?
Although you can write as many goals as you want, I’d suggest you keep it simple. Don’t set 25 big goals, especially if you still don’t have your life quite figured out. It’s better to achieve 3/4 than 3/30 goals. Having 75% of your goals achieved at the end of the year is way better for your confidence than having only 10%. Not to mention the fact that concentrating on 30 big goals in one year is pretty much impossible.
So, select 4 SMART goals that are the most important to you and let them be your goals for the next year.
FOCUS ON ONE THING AT A TIME
Working on achieving multiple goals simultaneously will make the whole process a lot more burdensome than it needs to be, so to eliminate all the unnecessary distractions, we will work on only one goal at a time.
Each goal will get its 3 months, and if it’s not long enough to cross it off the list, it will be more than enough time to develop good habits that will allow you to do it while working on your other goals.
If one of your goals is to have a six-pack by the end of the year, getting into a habit of working out will take some time, but if you are consistent for the first three months then after that you can proudly say that you’ve achieved your goal. You’re free to work on other goals, and since working out is something that is now a part of your routine, you’ll be able to do it alongside other activities.
So, write down your goals, and decide in which order you wish to tackle them.
MAKE A CONCISE STRATEGY
Now that all our goals are written down, and our hopes are rapidly rising, it’s time to do some strategizing.
The goal of the strategy should be to break down each goal into smaller goals for each month and then break down each month into smaller weekly goals. The last step is to decide which actions do you need to take daily that’ll lead to the achievement of said goals.
By breaking down each goal, into smaller, “bite-sized” tasks you eliminate the wandering and banging your head against the wall thinking what the hell am I supposed to do. Thinking and prepping in advance, making a detailed strategy, writing down all the necessary tasks that need to be done, sets you up for success.
DESIGN YOUR TOMORROW EVERY NIGHT BEFORE BED
Making a detailed plan for the next day can be one of the most powerful tools of self-improvement.
That’s the reason why one after another, many successful people say that one of the most important skills that lead them to success is the skill of making a schedule and following through with its execution.
Trying to make some kind of a schedule is something, I’m sure, many of us have a lot of experience with. The following through part is what we struggle with.
In the last 3 years, I’ve been bullet journaling a lot (not as consistently as I’d like to think I was), and it’s been a hell of a ride. Through all the ups and downs, I’ve been able to eliminate a lot of unnecessary stuff, and only recently have I found what I think is the perfect way to plan your days. So, to help you eliminate all the trial and error that comes with scheduling time and making to-do lists, I’ll suggest a simple but powerful concept I stole from this YouTube video.
You don’t have to make the whole bullet journal, the only truly important part is the daily schedule which is broken down into 3 important tasks, 5 small tasks, and then the whole day is broken down by hours.
I believe this is a very effective way of structuring your day. And no matter whether you use a bullet journal or a blank piece of paper, it’s going to be a simple yet powerful way of time management.
HAVE THE PROPER MINDSET
If you know me, you know that somehow I always manage to find a way to mention the mindset part.
And this topic of how to change your life in a year isn’t any different.
The mindset is the one thing that matters the most, actually.
Being smart when it comes to making your goals, making sure that you don’t chase after something you don’t actually care about, writing them down precisely and specifically are just some on the list of necessary ingredients.
Your goals should be challenging. They need to take you out of your comfort zone, they need to be something you haven’t done before.
If you know exactly how to do something, because you’ve done it in the past, it’s not a good goal.
A goal should inspire you, it should make you feel a bit scared, but just a tiny bit. It should be somewhere just outside of your comfort zone.
The mistake a lot of people make is they write down a goal that is so far-fetched they don’t even see the possibility of reaching it. Make sure your goals are challenging but attainable, you don’t want to bite more than you can chew. Not when your goal is to find a sure way how to change your life for good.
IT’S NOT GOING TO BE EASY
It won’t be easy, I won’t lie. I’m in the same process right now. And it’s hard as hell. But it’s worth it.
To be honest, I’m tired of making new years resolutions and not doing anything to achieve them. I want to see my goals reached, and I’m sure you want the same. It won’t be easy, but it’s well worth it.
It’s unrealistic to expect that you’ll always be on time, that you’ll finish every task for every single day.
Let’s say you don’t cross anything off for 20 days. So what? Forget the past, make a plan for the next day and just carry on.
Do not beat yourself up.
Just concentrate on consistency.
TAKEAWAY
Finding a sustainable way and making sure that you actually enjoy the ride is one of the most important messages I want to convey with this post.
It’s not about how many tasks you set for today, it’s not even about how productive you were today versus how productive you were yesterday. It’s all about making the changes stick. To do that, you’ll need consistency and effort. Numbers and scorecards are only secondary.
Becoming a man who thinks in terms of achievement, in terms of making his dream life reality is what’s truly important. That’s primary. Only when combined do those two show their full power. And that, my friend, is how to change your life for good.