25 Surprisingly Effective Ways to Improve Your Life

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If someone tells you they have a list of things that will transform your life, be very wary. I’m giving you a list like that, so view it with caution!

Whether it will transform your life is up to you. Each and every one of the points below has the potential to improve your life quite dramatically. If you put just a few of them into action, they might not transform your life but they’ll certainly improve it.

Focus on one thing at a time

focus

This whole multitasking thing isn’t a great idea. The truth is, if you want to achieve something, you have to put your heart and soul into it. You have to focus your attention and your energy on that single thing. You can still do other things of course, but you must maintain your primary focus on your main goal. If you don’t, you needn’t be surprised if you fail to achieve it.

Declutter … one little baby step at a time

If you let your living space become cluttered, you are actively working against yourself. You owe it to yourself to keep your space neat and clean. Don’t depend on anybody else to do it for you.

clutter

If a room becomes messy, tackle just a small part of it today. Maybe clean one surface, a messy table, for example, or clear out one drawer that’s become a refuge for everything without a specific home. Don’t feel that you have to clean the entire house in a day or two. That’s not only difficult and unreasonable, it’s enough to put you off the whole idea before you start!

Tackle the whole thing in stages, and keep the stages manageable. Just focus on that one little step. Remember, all progress is progress, even if it’s very small progress!

Don’t shirk challenges, actively look for them

If you keep opting for the easy way forward, you’ll never get very far. If you want to make something of your life, you have to accept that it takes work and commitment. Stop seeing these as bad things. They are part of getting from where you are now to where you want to be. Welcome them!

See your house as a submarine 🙂

submarine bunk storageIf it helps, see your house as a submarine. A submarine has very, very limited space and each crew member is assigned a small and very specific area for his belongings. He has to quickly learn to put things away in their correct place and to keep everything tidy. Good lessons for all of us!

Clean up as you work

Clean used pots and pans while you’re cooking. If something needs to be taken upstairs, remember to take it next time you go up, no need to make a separate trip. Look for any little ways to streamline your workday and you’ll trim valuable seconds and minutes wasted here and there. Make a game of it and see how efficient and effective you can become!

Start to see your duties as a game

Your attitude is everything! If you see things as hard work, they become tiresome. Life starts to taste miserable. See them as all part of the fun of life and your life will take on a quite different taste; it will start to taste interesting and worthwhile again.

Don’t cheat yourself of sleep

We all need a good night’s sleep. We also want to stretch the days out a bit longer, but this comes at a price. Good sleep is vital to your health. Have a regular time to go to bed, and keep your bedroom as neat and tidy as possible, and conducive to relaxation.

Don’t watch TV in bed, or use a tablet. Or a phone! Leave those things outside the bedroom, and the temptation to use them will dwindle.

Your life is like a garden, and like a garden, it sometimes needs work

You have to nourish the plants in your garden, and you have to do away with the weeds. Same goes for your life. You need to pay more attention to the people in your life who deserve your attention. And, just as importantly, you have to prune or weed out those that are troublesome to you. They will leech the goodness out of your life, just like weeds. And their negative words will strangle the positivity that you’re trying to develop. Do away with them!

Be a healer!

healing handsYour thoughts have energy; in fact, your thoughts are energy. Spend a few minutes each day, preferably very relaxed and with your eyes closed, just thinking good thoughts about those you love. If they have ailments, recognise them for what they are and then project healing to them. Visualise this any way that works for you. You might like to see it as a beam of sparkling white or silvery light. You might like to see them stepping into a healing chamber and being flooded with healing energy. Maybe you will see the energy projecting from the palms of your hands, or from your heart. Be creative! Use whatever works for you.

Then see them, in your mind’s eye, healed and healthy. And be grateful you’ve been able to help. This is nothing to do with religion. It’s just using your innate powers for good.

We all make mistakes. Don’t let them crush you

Mistakes are just the stepping stones to success. Accept them as a natural and necessary part of your journey. Don’t take them too seriously! If you do, there’s a danger you’ll let them block off any success you might have been closing in on.

View it more like this: ah, a mistake … this gives me the opportunity to take stock, and to tackle this thing from a different angle … this is great, I can keep making progress now!

Cancel negative or repetitive thoughts

cancelCatch yourself thinking the same dull things, and cancel them, once and for all. If you find you are thinking in a negative way about something, mentally press the ‘cancel’ button and move on. Imagine that once that button is pressed, the thought is dealt with cancelled, deleted forever. It will help to stop the miserable situation of trying to cope with negative thoughts, and pointlessly repetitive thoughts.

Remember that your first duty is to yourself

You want to save the world. I understand, really. You want to do the right thing for everyone. You want to give to every charity. You want to take in every stray dog you see. You want to help. I understand. But if you’re not in great shape yourself, you won’t be much use to anyone else.

You need to pay attention to yourself, first and foremost. Get yourself in good shape, both physically and mentally. Get your goals clear in your mind, and set yourself achievable tasks to reach those goals.

Only when you feel you have taken control of your life can you be really useful to others. Any time you feel you want to help others, remember that you need to help yourself first. That way, you are in a better position to really help

Be happy now!

This is the simplest thing of all; just be happy now. Don’t put off being happy until …

People say “I’ll be happy when I get a better job”. They say they’ll be happy when the kids have left home and they’ve got a bit more me-time. They say they’ll be happy when they can retire early because they’ll be earning so much with their profitable little sideline. What they’re actually saying is this: “I’m NOT happy right now, but one of these days I will be”.

Does this make sense?

The whole point of getting the new job, or retiring early, or buying the new car, or whatever it might be … is to be happy. So cut out the middleman, just BE HAPPY NOW!