Ideas for Life Improvements

Stretching and drinking tea are often good answers.

Stop holding yourself back from being what you want to be and start taking steps towards being that person sooner rather than later.

Try not to make something a problem until it is one. If it is one now, consider how long it may continue to be a problem. If the answers is only a short while, do your best to be kind to yourself while attempting to convince yourself it’s not worth the stress. (Admittedly, I’m not the best at this.)

Movement makes a difference. Get your body in motion.

Get in nature. See new sights. Experience unfamiliar stimuli.

Try new foods.

Break unhelpful routines and make them more exciting. Link an unpleasant or hard to get yourself to do activity with something that you look forward to (or feels valuable) such as listening a few favorite songs, listening to a fun/pleasurable podcast or audiobook, going to a favorite restaurant; *only* let yourself do one of these favorite activities when you are also taking care of something challenging. Over time, this should increase your desire to engage in the hard-to-get-yourself-to-do activity while also making it less unpleasant (and potentially even enjoyable).

Find a way to limit your screen time. Try almost anything.

Find ways to make your work more fun so that it’s more of a joy to be engaged. You’ll likely become more efficient, too. Gamification has a wide range of applications.  

Accept what you cannot change, as the saying goes. Work on what you actually have the power to change in your life.

If you’re having trouble accepting who you are… try to remember this is who you are right now based on previous experiences. There’s also likely a recency bias involved. Try to keep in mind that there’s no reason that in the future you will have the same issues. You can hold your future self to different standards and begin to devise a game plan for how to become a version of yourself that you like more.

Don’t put off simple tasks. If they can be done in under fifteen minutes, (maybe even under thirty minutes), get the task off your plate now while it’s on your mind. You don’t need internal pings showing up as reminders for things that are easily enough taken care of. Your focus and attention will improve.

Step back from fair-weather friends, negative relationships with energy vampires, and one-sided dynamics. Emotional and time investments should not be all on one person in a friendships and truly all forms of relationships. Work with the people you truly care about to understand where you stand in each other’s lives. Talk to friends about how they see your friendship, how they’d like to interact (IRL sometimes, IRL occasionally, occasional phone call or video chat, only emails, only texts, etc) and try to middle some middle ground that works for both of you. Decide which relationships you want to take the time to maintain. On average, people can keep about six close friends. Beyond that it becomes cumbersome and unrealistic for the majority of us.

Learn how to say “No.” Or, if you say “No” often, consider saying “Yes” a little more frequently. Learning to turn down asks is an essential part of making decisions that add joy and satisfaction to your life and don’t make you feel resentful.

Try to ride the wave of the moment. Don’t phub people when you’re with them.

***

What are some of your ideas for small or BIG life improvements?

I hope you’ll share in the comments :)