How To Change Your Life

Change your life. Why would you want to do that?

Maybe you want to be healthier, nicer, live more in-the-moment, be happier, reconcile with a family member or just achieve more.

I’m all for positive change and making lives better. If it’s what will make you happy, do it!

It may seem pretty ambitious (or foolish) to even attempt to tell you how to change your life in one little post.

And I agree.

I also don’t think there is one simple recipe that will work for everyone. Changing your life sounds pretty epic and it depends on a lot of things such as: your desire, motivation, current circumstances and stage of life. But don’t let that discourage you, you can still make positive changes and it’s easier than you may be making it out to be.

Start small. Making an epic change, such as changing your life, isn’t something that can be done all at once, and indeed shouldn’t be done all at once. If you try to change too much too soon you’ll become overwhelmed and once the initial momentum has worn off you’ll likely get frustrated, demotivated and give up all together.

Be clear of what you want. “Changing my life” is a very broad statement. If you start this broad you may flounder with all the choices you have as to what you want to change. Reel yourself in and choose one specific thing to start with. Try something simple like saying hi to people in your neighborhood, writing in a gratitude journal, or walking around the block everyday. Whatever you choose to focus on do that and be successful at it.

You must have patience. This is my downfall. When I set out to do something I expect immediate results or results in a very short period of time. This isn’t realistic for a lot of things or a lot of people. Expecting immediate results will only deflate you and make you more likely to abandon your change no matter how likely it is that you’d eventually achieve it.   Change isn’t immediate, it takes work and it takes time to make it permanent.

Complete one and then move onto the next. It’s not a new theory that things feed into each other, momentum builds and what you’re doing becomes easier. Imagine how overwhelming it would be to be overweight, out of shape or just plain lazy and decide that you were going to run a marathon. Now imagine you’ve started at the same place but you’ve now made several small changes (substituted a salad for one of your meals each day, walked around the block once each day, reduced your pop intake to 1 can a week, etc etc) with time these small changes will result in you weighing a bit less, feeling more fit and being less lazy. Gradually that goal of running a marathon won’t seem so unrealistic.

While there’s no quick fix, magic pill, or magic wand to get you to your ideal life, small and steady really does win the race.

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Read more about living the life you love and getting to where you want to be in Sherri’s book, Your Life: Live it. Love it.

Photo courtesy of: xavier donat