You might believe that turning your life around involves some kind of grand gesture or huge upheaval. In fact, there are many things you can do to make positive changes in your life right away. More often than not, big changes in life have to start with the accumulation of smaller changes on the personal level, anyway.
1. Admit That You Need Help
Whatever problem it is you’re going through, be it addiction, the need for major weight loss, anger management, or something else, your positive changes begin when you admit to yourself and those around you that you need help. That help might come as you book a clinical psychologist in Perth, or joining a community group, or even just getting help from friends and family.
How the help comes to you can vary in myriad ways, but the common factor of all of them is that you need to reach out and ask for it.
2. Establish a Sleep Routine
It doesn’t take long to feel the benefits of a proper sleep routine. Pushing yourself to sleep at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning brings reassuring structure and soundness into your life. It encourages you to be more productive and to procrastinate less because you set real boundaries on what can and will be done during the day. Over time you’ll find this helps you get more things done and that you have the energy and capacity to reach more of your goals. This brings us neatly to the next item…
3. Set Realistic Goals
So much of life is marred by our disappointment that we didn’t achieve the lofty dreams we had when we were young. The problem isn’t that we didn’t achieve those goals, but that the goals themselves were likely unattainable or just plain unreasonable. Building a habit of setting realistic goals and then achieving them has a positive psychological effect on us, encouraging us to grow our goal lists and work harder to achieve them.
Keeping goals realistic allows for more to be achieved, which lays a foundation for those loftier goals to be accomplished further down the road. Look at your everyday life as it is and start simple before you begin your great climb.
4. Face Your Fears
As well as asking for help on things that are holding you back, another great thing you can do is to face up to anything that makes you nervous. This kind of self-guided exposure therapy is based in real science so it really can work wonders. Whatever it is that scares you, be it speaking in public, being seen in a swimsuit, talking about your work situation with your boss…you have to take the brave step of facing up to it.
As with the goal setting, start smaller and work up to the big fears. The confidence you accumulate by facing the smaller stuff will help you face the bigger challenges later on.
5. Cut Down on Processed Sugar
Some people can’t believe how much sugar they’re consuming until they take the time to investigate the contents of their favourite food and drinks. Sugar is in so many things, but especially in processed foods where over-refinement has taken any semblance of goodness or benefit from the sugar and turned into something wholly negative and detrimental. Cutting down on your sugar intake will help you sleep better, concentrate on your work better, and generally feel more energetic and healthy.
It may involve fighting through some craving and withdrawal stages, but each day with less sugar is one that your body is getting into a better state.