7 Steps to Change Your Life for the Better
It's a natural thing for anyone to seek a better life for themselves. Many of us seem to spend our entire life looking at the "greener grass" on the other side of the fence; but rarely climbing over the fence to get there. Others keep climbing fences only to find it looked greener, but it really isn't!
Some people make new year resolutions; others adopt a new religion or philosophy, and some quit their job, buy a property away from the city and try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle.
You can make your life better; but achieving a happier, more satisfying life may be more about changing your mindset than changing the physical place where you reside, or the physical things that you own. When you start thinking about yourself and your life in a different way, the things you do and the places you go will probably start changing -but your thinking needs to change first.
7 Practical Things You Can Do:
1. Have Purpose in Your Life
Examine what you do each hour of the day. If it doesn't have a purpose that is important to you, don't do it.
2. Don't be Dominated by Worrying about what might be
Many people spend so much of their life avoiding the possibility of failure that they never give themselves opportunities to succeed. If one in ten businesses succeed, maybe you need to start nine before you will have a success. If only 20% of students finish a course, maybe you need to try doing five courses before you find something that excites you enough to complete it.
3. Cultivate Communication Skills
Many of life's problems result from poor communication. Good communication involves both telling your story to others in a way they understand you; and hearing what others tell you in a way that you understand them. Many people become very good at talking; but forget to become good at listening. You need both, or miscommunication happens, and that leads to problems.
4. Build Positive Relationships
Man is a naturally social animal. We all need relationships, in our family, our social life and at work. Some people (eg. with Asperger traits) may have an tendency to be overwhelmed by too many people around them; but even they, still need relationships. The important thing is not the number of relationships you have, but the quality. If you are surrounded by positive people, and your interactions with others are predominantly positive; you will be a happier and more positive person. Learn to know when to let go of relationships that are no good for you (or the other person)
6. Focus on Others
People who are inward looking are very often less happy. If you are always thinking about helping others, you won't have time to think about what is wrong in your own life.
7. Learn to Maintain Your Body
A healthy body and mind will always function better. Every body is different though. The ideal food and exercise for one person's body is not the same as the next person's. Some people are allergic or intolerant to some foods; others are not. Some people need more sleep than others. Some have physical conditions that limit what they can do.
We all need to be active, eat well, minimize disease risks and manage our psychological state of mind. Sometimes doing what you know needs doing is a hurdle that is hard to get over- but life will always be so much happier and easier, once you cross that hurdle.
