From time to time, it’s natural to want to make a change in your life, to draw a line under whatever situation you might have been operating under before, and to get a “fresh start.”
New Year’s resolutions, for example, are largely so powerful because they give us an opportunity to take steps to make serious changes in our lives and to reinvent ourselves, in a sense, on an annual basis.
Of course, though, making a significant change in your life isn’t necessarily going to be particularly easy or straightforward. In fact, it’s very likely to be the opposite.
Keeping that in mind, here are a few points that it’s useful to consider when planning to make a change in your life.
-
Your environment has a lot to do with how you feel, and how you act
Generally speaking, we all like to think that we are in total control of our actions (and to a somewhat lesser extent, our feelings and outlooks), and that we aren’t likely to be swayed much by external factors.
In reality, though, there’s a lot of evidence that the environments we inhabit – and the people we surround ourselves with, too – have a major influence on how we think, feel, and act.
For that reason, whenever you want to make a change in life, you should seriously consider whether your environment is conducive to the new path you are trying to explore.
It might be that you need to find a more positively focused peer group to associate with. Or, maybe, moving into a rambler home in a different neighbourhood would really help to facilitate the attainment of your goals, by putting you in a much more relaxed and focused frame of mind.
-
It’s essential to work on your well-being alongside your goals
If you’ve got a set of goals that you passionately want to pursue, there’s a good chance that you might fall into the trap of neglecting your own well-being and health in the pursuit of those goals.
Ambitious people – entrepreneurs, for example – often burn themselves out because of their more or less monomaniacal devotion to their goals.
Keep in mind, though, that if you burn out on a personal level, not only will it be a very hard thing for you to endure, but it will also throw you off track with regards to whatever goals you might be chasing.
It’s essential to work on your own well-being alongside your goals. Take your health and happiness seriously.
-
You have a limited amount of time, energy, and focus to invest
When we are setting goals for ourselves, we are often inclined to be overly ambitious – meaning, it’s easy to overlook the fact that everyone has a limited amount of time, energy, and focus to invest.
What this means, among other things, is that when you want to make a significant change in your life, you’ve got to be selective, and you have to find the necessary time, energy, and focus from somewhere.
This might mean sacrificing some of your casual pastimes. At the very least, it will mean being strategic about the number of big goals you are trying to pursue at once.
Leave a Reply