Do you feel like your life lacks meaning? This may be because you don't really have any attainable goals for yourself. Many people have found that if they stop learning and growing they stop living. If you think this may be a problem for you, read on for some ideas on how to improve your life.
First, sit down and make a list of things you would change about yourself. At first, don't worry about things that you can't really change. You want to get everything out there. Once you have your list take some time to look at what you put down. Cross out things you have no control over, and decide if these things that you really want to change about yourself. You might be surprised as some of the things you dislike most about yourself might also be some of your biggest strengths. Finally, choose one or two that will be relatively simple to change.
Now that you know what you will be working on, develop a plan of action. Decide exactly how you are going to achieve your goal, as well as a reasonable time period to achieve each step. The more complicated your plan and the more hectic your life the more time you will need for each step. Also remember that there will be failures, so you will need to be somewhat flexible with whatever you come up with. After one or two attempts you'll have a pretty good idea of how much time you need to push yourself without being overwhelming.
Putting the plan in action is the most important part of this process. This is probably the first time you've done this sort of thing before, so flexibility is going to be huge. You may find that you are having an easy time adjusting to your new way of life, or, more than likely, you are finding it difficult to change. While there are some things you may just need to accept about yourself, if you keep at it you can definitely develop skills to minimize these issues.
Celebrate the small successes. You really need to stay positive throughout the entire process and these small rewards will help you with that. You are also giving yourself positive re-enforcement which your brain is hard wired to respond to. You may wish to even plan these rewards into your initial plan of action. This can help you from straying too far. Learning to spend less frivolously, for example, is not going to be solved by going on a shopping binge every month or so. Buying one item at a predetermined dollar amount can help to relieve the stress from the change. You may even find that the hunt to find that perfect item replaces or even exceeds the thrill you previously felt from spending many times more money.
Setting and attaining goals can help you enrich your life. Making big changes all at once is extremely stressful and sets most people up for failure. You have your whole life ahead of you to become the person you want to be– don't feel like you have to do everything today.
