How To Get My Life Together
Some days life seems like a breeze, and others it seems like a ten-ton truck barreling towards you full-force. If your life has been feeling more like the truck lately, you’re not alone. Tons of people are facing thousands of choices every single day. From education, to jobs, to relationships, to becoming independent, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all of the options and choices we have to make. Often, it seems easier to ignore our responsibilities than to face them, so we drop the ball. Does that sound familiar? If so, don’t worry, there are definitely ways to pick the ball back up and get back in the game. If you’re asking yourself, “How do I get my life together?” Then you’re in the right place. Here are 15 practical steps you can start today.
1. Stop snoozing and start doing.
A few of you are too familiar with hitting the snooze button, and then you find yourself running out the door with a sugary pop-tart in your hand and uncombed hair. The easiest first step you can take to get your life together is to take control of your day in small simple steps. Getting up on time will set you up for a morning that is successful as opposed to being too hectic. As you start your day with focus, organize a to-do list. Start with only 3 things. They can be small, like sending an email you were putting off or making actual breakfast for yourself. What matters is that you set a purpose for your day that is achievable. Crossing things off of a list has been psychologically shown to increase further productivity and lead you to a positive mood when it’s accomplished. You’re killing two birds with one stone.
2. Make a schedule.
As you’re setting up your small to-do list for the day, think about when you will do them. Arrange a basic daily schedule that includes time for things you always have to do. This includes things like meal prepping, work or school, personal activities, exercise, or down-time. Yes, you can even include relaxing on your schedule – lowering stress is important too! Sticking to a timetable is a great way to establish routine, and you won’t get your life together if you don’t have some sort of daily routine. Great habits are built by repetition, so it’s important to stick to your agenda if you want good habits to stick to you.
3. Focus on YOU and not what’s around you.
Trying to get your life together is a big step for YOU, and will, therefore, require you to focus a lot more on YOU. Organizing and improving your life is about your choices, thoughts, and actions. It is not about what other people think. You are trying to better your situation, so you need to eliminate the background noise. Don’t ask for other peoples’ opinions about you, unless those other people are living lives that serve as a positive example. If you wouldn’t want to live a life like that person, then you don’t take their opinions.
Check out: How to love yourself and be confident
4. Set goals.
I would say it is darn near impossible to find successful people who have never set goals. They go hand in hand. Luckily, you already set a goal for yourself without knowing it — getting your life together is a goal in itself! Now, you have to get down to the details. Set one goal each month, and one for the year. If you are capable of handling more, start jotting them down! But, whatever you do, don’t go too crazy. A hundred goals are bound to overwhelm you and end up stuffed in a drawer, like those new year resolutions. Put your few, clear goals on a paper and hang them somewhere you can see them every day. This will serve as a daily reminder to take a small step towards your goals each day.
5. Get healthier.
If your body is in shambles, it will be hard to focus on any other part of your life. You don’t have to have washboard abs, but you should take small steps to make your body as efficient as it can be. You can start with things like drinking more water than soda, getting some exercise in, and balancing your diet. Think of your mind as a racecar driver, and your body as the car. You may be the best racecar driver in the world, but if your car breaks down after driving for 5 minutes, you’ll never win any races or make it to the finish line.
6. Start saving money.
Saving money is a tough gig for someone who has a minimum wage job or is just starting out in their new career. While it isn’t the easiest, giving up a few things now will benefit you in an insane way in the long run. Those expensive designer clothes will be worthless after wearing them for a month, and purchases like that is simply wasting money. Instead, take that extra money and put it towards something for your future. This can be a savings accounts with interest or investing it. There are tons of resources for saving and investing. Some of it is literally free money. Crunch some numbers and throw in the compounding interest effect, you’ll be amazed to see how much you’ll have when you get older.
7. Reconsider your social circle.
Psychologists say that you are the combination of your five closest friends. Think about that for a second. Would you be happy to be a combination of your closest 5 friends? Some friends are fun, but not always the best for us. People change and grow – or worse – some people never change and never grow. If you are trying to make improvements to your life, you’ll need the support of your social circle. Is there anyone you know that makes you feel worse instead of better every time you talk to them? Cutting ties with negative people is a big step, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. But make sure to add another one back in that can help you grow.
Check out: How to reconnect with someone
8. Cut out toxic habits.
In the same way that bad people will bring you down, so will bad habits. Maybe you have a habit that is always getting in the way of your success. This could be anything from always being late, to putting people down, to procrastinating. Start out by picking one bad habit and try to slowly cut it out. If it’s too hard to eliminate it all together at once. Try to catch yourself beforehand. Maybe you can get those bad habits occurring once every couple of weeks or so, until you can phase it out to once a month, once every six months, then once a year. You’ll reap the benefits as soon as you start cutting those bad habits out, trust me. Stick to it.
Check out: 10 signs you’re becoming toxic
9. Hold yourself accountable.
Once you have taken some steps to improve your life, the best way to stick to your decisions is by being held accountable for it. This is when you choose someone to help by checking in with you. Ask a close friend or family member to help. Knowing that someone will be asking you about your progress is motivation to keep working on yourself. This will heavily accelerate how fast you can get your life together, too, since it gives you an imaginary deadline.
10. Control your complaints.
Sometimes, things happen. Things suck, and we complain. It’s totally normal. The problem arises when your complaints becomes your #1 topic of conversation. If you’re focusing on everything that sucks, all that is doing is making your problems bigger. Sure, it sucks, but what are you going to do about it? There are ALWAYS options. You need to switch from being a complainer to being an action-taker. Be proactive instead of reactive. You can’t change what happened, so start taking control of what will happen by working on your future.
11. Move towards a positive mindset.
As you cut the complaining, you’ll be able to work on changing your mindset. For most people, this is much harder than changing our bodies or our habits. Mindset is everything. People say you are what you eat, but really, we are what we think. Even if it’s hard for you to believe it, try the fake-it-till-you-make-it method. Repeat to yourself, both out loud and in your mind, that you can accomplish anything. Enough repetition and you’ll be surprised at how much your actions begin to follow your thoughts. The brain is a muscle like any part of the body. Exercise it.
Check out: What is forgiveness and why is it important
12. Find your passion.
If your goals are to make more money and be the most popular person in the room, that’s great. But it isn’t going to make you feel any better if it isn’t related to your passions. Getting your life together includes making your life better for you so that you can be happier. Finding out what really brings you joy and gives you energy is key for this pursuit. What is something that you love doing? It doesn’t have to be your job, but it should be something you can somehow incorporate into your life. Dedicate some time to this passion and you will be recharged for the other things that life throws at you afterward.
13. Get a mentor.
The first step to knowing what we want is to have an idea of it. While famous athletes and celebrities are great, it’s much more helpful to find someone in your real life to be your example. Finding a mentor will give you someone for support, accountability, and to challenge you all at once. Start talking to people around you who seem to have a life that you would like to have. Ask them if they can grab a coffee with you, and see how you two connect. If it goes well, ask them to be your mentor but do provide some value to them as well. The right person will agree and will want the best for you. And be prepared to work for it because mentors don’t want to see you fail.
14. Don’t overthink things.
It’s safe to say that overthinking things is probably one of the reasons that your life doesn’t seem to be going in the direction that you want it to. We tend to try to organize our lives, but then we fall into the rabbit hole of the million problems that coulda-shoulda-woulda happened. Take a deep breath and chill. As I mentioned, the key is to start small. When you feel yourself getting overwhelmed, think back to the basic problem, list 2 or 3 possible solutions, and pick the best one. Don’t spend days trying to craft the perfect move. It’ll just drive you right back to where you started.
15. Be the genuine version of yourself.
As you’re trying to get your life together, the important thing is that you’re doing it for you. People around you will notice if you’re in a better space, but the only person it will affect daily is yourself. Make sure you’re making changes that will make you happier and that you’re proud to be who you are. Do it for yourself.
Also check out: How to be a nicer person with these 10 tips
Overall, the first step to getting your life together is to accept change. If you’ve watched this all the way to the end, you’ve just taken that small step to becoming better. And I want to thank you for sticking around for this long. You know there are some changes you should make and you want to make them. Take it one step at a time and be patient. Things aren’t just going to become perfect overnight, but by staying focused you will definitely develop the life, and happiness, that you desire!