Have you ever had nights when you look at your life and ask, “How did I get here?” I know I have. Life gets busy and messy, which makes it easy to lose sight of yourself. The great thing about life is it’s never too late to start making changes. The greatest gift we have as humans is the ability to change and adapt, to make choices that will lead us somewhere great if we only know how to navigate to there. This post is about some tips I have on correcting the course of your life to work for you, not against you.

Figure out how you want your life to look and feel

It all starts with a vision. Where do you want to be, how do you want to feel? The key here is to start broad and narrow down how you are going to actualize your vision. Start with making a list. “I want to feel more energetic, I want enough money to go on vacations, etc…” Once you have our list, break it down.

Let’s go with the energy example. “I want to feel more energetic.” It’s a good goal, but there are so many ways of attaining that goal. You could up your caffeine intake, you could exercise more, you could eat healthier or get adequate sleep every night. Maybe some of those resonate and some don’t, so figure out which steps you are willing to take to achieve your goal. I recommend going slightly out of your comfort zone with these as change and growth are by nature not something that happens in your comfort zone. In my experience, too much change too fast leads to burnout and makes it unsustainable. So, pace yourself and make small changes, ideally one at a time!

The next trick is to be consistent! Get in the habit of making decisions that consistently line up with your goals. At first you will have to be mindful of your actions (which is why small changes are best – your brain shouldn’t be working overtime over these things to avoid fatigue.) Let’s say you made the decision to eat healthier to improve your energy levels. Changing your dietary habits can be a big deal for some people! Your instinct might be to reach for a donut at work or some cookies at a party, but those are the moments when you start to train your brain by saying, “No, that doesn’t align with my goals.” Eventually these moments of effort become effortless as they become habit. But again, the trick is small changes so you can have the willpower to change habits when you need it. Everyone knows it’s harder to say no to cookies if you’re feeling burnt out or overwhelmed, so see your willpower as a “finite resource” so you can keep it strong when you first make changes in your life.

Keep refining

If we continue with the energy example, let’s say you have healthy eating down and your energy levels are improving, but not quite where you want them to be yet. What’s the next step? Ask yourself, what else aligns with this goal that I can now train myself to incorporate into my routine? Perhaps exercising for 30 minutes a day is a great way to go! Now is the perfect time to keep up your momentum and growth by continuing to go outside your comfort zone. Now is the time to find that new habit that will bring you closer to your vision.

Keep going like this and you will see your life begin to transform. Weight loss will happen, car payments will be made, vacations purchased, businesses started. When you take on a growth mindset, everything begins to become about you and what you can control, and less about the stuff you cannot control. You will find resilience in your life and confidence in your ability to handle what life throws as you.

What if there are setbacks? The trick is to try and create environments that are conducive to you meeting your goals. If you are unable to control your environment, you have to rely on willpower and creativity. Ideally, though, you want to figure out ways in which you can find support from others or your environment to help you meet your goals if possible. If it’s not possible, then just remember to focus on what you can control. Let’s say in the energy scenario you are exposed to junk food daily and you find it’s wearing down your willpower to resist it all the time. You have a couple of options. You could give in and have just one bite or one cookie, or you could talk to somebody about having healthy options provided instead of just junk food. You could find a naturally sweetened low calorie drink to satiate your sweet tooth, or you could just avoid where the junk food is altogether. You could bring a junk food alternative that satisfies without being overly sweet. Get creative! Focus on what you can do that will bring you closer to your vision.

In conclusion, I have made a few changes myself that have brought me closer to my vision, but it had to start with a vision. I asked myself, “What would my dream life look like?” If this is something you struggle with figuring out, that’s ok. But I’m sure there’s at least one thing on your mind that you’re already aware of that needs changing, so start with that. Just start, and as you do so, you will find more things popping out of the woodwork that you can improve. They will come to you not as just another thing to add to the list, but things that truly will bring you joy. You will find motivation and strength from within as you take on a mentality of “What do I want?”. So recenter, refocus and stay consistent. You deserve the life of your dreams, we all do, so be relentless in pursuing yourself and what you know you are meant to achieve. There’s no better use of your time. Being able to reap the rewards of your hard work is a true gift that only you can give yourself, so don’t give up!

Thanks for reading,

Jazmine <3