The 7 Step Process to Making Better and Lasting Lifestyle Choices
Being happy in life is about two things, making the right decisions and luck. Given the fact that we can’t change our luck and it is what it is, the best thing to do is to focus on the choices we make in our lives and do whatever we can to “change our luck” ourselves. The first thing you should do is focus on the things that you can do something about and don’t waste energy on things that are out of your control.
There is a lot of advice out there on what you can do to make your life better. Unfortunately, in most cases you will find advertisers trying to get you to hire their services or buy their products. If not, there are others that want to make people members of their organizations.
The advice that we’ll share with you today, however, is about becoming happier and nothing else.
Be Honest with Yourself
We all have inner dialogues. You might think that they don’t matter that much, but they are really important when it comes to our happiness. If your inner voice is telling you negative things and that you should be unhappy, chances are that you are doing something wrong.
In most cases, this means being dishonest with yourself. You have to understand who you are, what flaws and advantages you have, what your goals are and embrace all of those things before you can work with them, change them or build on them.
If you are lying to yourself, you will never know what needs to be changed in your life, it’s as simple as that. The first step towards changing your life for the better is to recognize problems that you might be having and you can’t do this if you are lying to yourself and ignoring the bad things in your life.
Use Cold Facts and Clear Data to Make Assessments
You can’t act if you don’t have facts that can point you in the right direction. For example, if you want to make more money or work on your career, look at how much time you invest each day towards achieving this goal.
Don’t rely on your feelings but look at data and facts. Set an amount of time that you will spend working on your goal each day, then look at the factors that are against you and try to improve them.
For example, if you need better education to get the job you want, find a course that fits the purpose and works on improving your practical skills to achieve your goal. You need to be analytical when you start to make changes, and if you base your decisions on facts and data you can move in the right direction.
Understand Your Abilities and Limitations
Knowing what you can and cannot do is essential for making serious life changes. If you have a talent for something that you want to pursue, do it. If you don’t have the necessary talent or skills, work on developing them and improve yourself before you can change your life.
Let me digress and talk about career aspirations once again. Start with yourself. Do you have the necessary skills for a job you want? Are there similar jobs near you? Can you learn more about that position? How much time will it take you to get the necessary skills for that job?
Reach Out to Experts and Listen to their Advice
Most people are scared of asking someone for advice. Others are simply too proud and think that they know what’s best for them. If you listened to the number 1 advice I gave you, then you will know that this is simply not true.
Talking to people who have the education, knowledge and experience in something can really help you a lot. Regardless of whether you are having personal issues, career problems, or any other problem, understand that you are not alone and that many others have experienced similar troubles in their lives.
Seek counsel or advice from people who are either experts in a certain field or those who have went through the same things that you are going through.
Don’t Procrastinate, Start Making Changes Right Away
Most of the problems for people that want to make changes in their lives are caused by procrastination. They start lying to themselves that they will start working on things tomorrow and they never do. Others simply start to overthink their choices, lose confidence because of it or simply make the clearly wrong ones.
If you want something done, start working on it right away. No matter how long and difficult it might seem, making progress each day will build up your confidence and give you the necessary morale boost that you need to keep going forward.
Find the Most Time-efficient Solutions
Once you’ve determined what your choices are and how you can achieve something, try to compare all of the options you have and choose the one that will take the least time. Simply put, the option that gives you the most progress for the amount of time you invest is the right one. You might have to write down all of your options with pros and cons to determine which one is the best.
Learn to Prioritize, You Can’t Do Everything at Once
For most people, there is no middle ground. Most of us either procrastinate and do nothing or we want to do everything at once. Although having enthusiasm is great, you simply need to be realistic and try not to stress out and overwork yourself.
It might work for you for a while, but sooner or later you will start slacking on all fields and you won’t be able to focus. This is why you need to prioritize the life changes that you will make. This is how you will be fresh, focused, and make progress.
When trying to achieve multiple things at once, you won’t be productive with any of them and simply get lost with all of the things you “need” to do. Set priorities and tackle one change after another.
In the end, remember that life changes are processes, they cannot happen overnight. If you read something like that somewhere, give up on that idea and be realistic. When you change your mindset and start making changes gradually, you will feel better and motivate yourself to keep going forward.