Have you ever resolved to make big changes in your life, only to drop the idea midway, thinking it’s not for you? We often tend to make a never-ending checklist of goals, try to power through every single one, and burn ourselves out before we achieve anything significant.
Most of us think that if we want to change our lives for good, we have to make big changes. However, all you need are some small tweaks that multiply in effect over time to elicit a noticeable change.
Make a Power List, Not a To-Do List
To-do lists can easily strip away your energy because you’re trying to do everything at once, and failing to complete it all by the end of the day. A better way to get through your goals is by acknowledging the ways you’ve already won.
Give it a try: today, don’t make a to-do list, but instead, a power list of everything you’ve achieved. It doesn’t have to detail all the shiny achievements our society standardizes as ‘accomplishments’. By achievements, we mean the mundane ones like:
You took a walk today - list it.
You ate organic instead of fried food - list it.
This may sound boring or like a waste of time, but according to psychological findings, writing small wins down gradually shifts your mindset from focusing on what’s absent in your life to being grateful for what you already have. The more little victories you notice, the more you start wanting to win in your life, with a positive attitude.
Plan Tomorrow, Today
Procrastination has become a plague for our generation. We postpone our tasks till there’s no time left. We must break out of that mindset and actively structure each day to live a meaningful life.
Start by planning what you want to do the next day, the night before. Sit in a quiet corner so nothing distracts you and think about what needs to get done tomorrow. Just make sure not to make a scary list of 20 tasks that you can't even complete in one day.
Don't rush it, take it very slow. Start with 3 tasks per day.
This is a simple habit and doesn't take much time or effort, but with time, it makes you more disciplined and gets rid of that urge to leave things for some other time.
Get an Alarm Clock
As soon as we wake up, we grab our phones and start scrolling like we have a billion-dollar deal to sign up for. But in fact, most of us are just reaching for our phones to ‘doom scroll’ through every app, wasting an hour or two before finally getting out of bed.
Instead of relying on your phone, get a genuine alarm clock.
We’ve become used to keeping our phones beside our pillows to the point that it feels empty if we don’t. Instead, try to leave your phone outside the walls of your bedroom whenever you go to bed. This will not only help you reduce blue light damage from nighttime screen time, but also encourage you to wake up to the warmth of the morning sun.
Make Healthy Choices Easier
We’ve complicated our lives much more than needed. We often think that if we need to stay healthy, we have to be extremely self-disciplined, but that’s not entirely necessary. If you can’t take care of your health actively, do it passively. Create a situation where you are forced or at least reminded of healthy choices.
Let’s try these today:
- Fill some water bottles and place them where you spend the most time in your home or office. You can put these on your coffee table, office desk, kitchen island, bedside table, or wherever you want.
- Make a small platter of fruits and healthy snacks to place beside each water bottle so you can munch on them whenever you see them.
- Take your pet out for a walk after your meals, so you can both benefit from regular movement.
Build Connections in Tiny Doses
Relationships are not built on grand gestures but on sincerity. If you randomly receive a text saying, ‘just thinking about you,’ it can make up your whole day. Right? So, practice it yourself.
React to that meme your brother sent in the evening.
Call your friend you haven’t contacted in a couple of days.
Give a hug to your mom or dad and tell them that you’re grateful to have them.
Such little moves don’t take much time, but their effect adds up much more than you may think.
Anchor the New to the Old
Adapting new habits from scratch doesn’t always work.
Psychological studies have shown that combining a new habit with a previous one is much easier than building a habit out of nowhere. For example, whenever you stand up from your office chair, do a few neck and shoulder stretches to release tension, or when you unlock your phone, take a deep breath.
American International College online emphasizes that this method is not only good for personal growth, but also for professional growth. Their programs, like their online EdD in educational leadership, often highlight the small but effective strategies for improvement and progress, which can motivate others to make similar changes in their own lives.
Power Down to Power Up
It may sound almost too obvious, yet digital chaos disgusts and stands in the way of change. Powering down your cell phones gives you the time and liberty to power yourself up.
Here’s a challenge: put your cell phone on airplane mode and place it out of sight for 1-2 hours each day. When you don’t hear those pings and beeps every other minute, it’ll become easier to focus on important things, and also help you clear up some headspace.
Manifest and Act Towards It
Manifestation has been used so casually that its real meaning has lost itself in the buzz. Many people think that to manifest is to be hopeful, but hey, that’s far from how powerful manifestation can be. Manifestation means to imagine how you want your life to be, how it’ll feel, and then make every move possible to achieve that life with small but consistent steps.
I like to put it this way, that manifestation brings out the confidence in you that you can achieve a life of your dreams, so you can inch forward towards making it possible.
There’s a misconception in our society that we need something noticeable to change our lives. But do we?
In truth, just a few small, healthy lifestyle changes can be enough to change your life completely. You just need to be consistent and watch the magic happen.
