Change your life in 30 days (or less) with 7 easy steps.
It seems to me that we all have these ideas floating around in our heads — things we would like to do, things we would like to change, but they tend to just stay there: elusive ideas that just float around in the thoughtspace, but never come to fruition. Well, if we never capture them, take realistic action on them, of course they never will. But if we take a little time and put in the work, we can achieve the things we want, or at least be well on our way to achieving the things we want, in 30 days or less. Here’s a simple blueprint how:
Big to small.
1. Endstate. Goals. What does your desired outcome look like? Put everything else aside. Put this down in writing. I prefer writing goals on paper — something about physically writing imprints the concepts in the brain. I’m no psychiatrist, I don’t know why this works, but it does. Typing is a great way to get ideas out — many of us can type much faster than we can hand-write — but writing is much more of a two-way street; the words have life and magical properties of their own. In the dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell, notebooks are illegal. There’s a reason for this; independent thought and reflection carry immense power. Write your goals out. Read them out loud to yourself. Revise and edit.
2. Hierarchy. Priorities. Many goals may have arisen out of this reflection process. Many people don’t even spend the time thinking about what they actually want, for whatever reasons. (If just getting the goals out is difficult, you might need to take a step back and do some self-work prior, which I will be addressing in another article.) The goals might be big, small, long, short-term, life-changing or minorly enhancing. These need to be organized appropriately so that focus, attention and energy expenditure are not misdirected. I like to think of goals in terms of timeline and effort required (work). If something cannot be accomplished relatively easily in short time, it doesn’t make sense to think of it as a short-term goal, and vice versa. Be as realistic as you can. Buying a new house is not something you can accomplish today, but going to the gym is. Keep this in mind when prioritizing in order to set yourself up for success.
3. Actions. What actions need to be taken in order to accomplish these goals? Maybe there’s an obstacle in the way. Maybe there’s 10 obstacles. Whatever the goal and situation, each individual’s road to success will probably look slightly different. Maybe you want to work out and be healthier, but you don’t have a gym membership. Okay, so you can’t simply go to the gym, you either need to sign up for one, or find an alternative means of exercising that doesn’t require a gym. Maybe you’re considering a membership, but not sure you will really use it because you prefer to be outside. Great. Ask some local gyms if they offer a trial membership (they usually do) or ask a friend if you can go with for a day or two. Alternatively, if looking to buy a house, many smaller goals and decisions need to be in line before this can be accomplished. Where do I want my house to be? Do I have sufficient income to support this mortgage? Do I need to change jobs? Or schools that the kids are enrolled in? Larger, life-changing goals require more attention. Plan your actions accordingly.
4. Routines and daily habits. These also fall under ‘actions’ but on a smaller scale. What day to day actions (routines) do I need to put in place in order to achieve this goal? How can I combine activities to get more efficiency out of my day (task stacking)? Which tasks can I delegate to subordinates, for instance in a business environment, to free me up to focus on larger items? What sacrifices do I have to make in order to create room in my life for these new goals to prosper? Is that a worthy sacrifice — a sacrifice I am willing to make? For instance, you want to work out and be healthier, but don’t have much time. Well you will have to start waking up earlier, which means you will have to go to sleep earlier, which means you don’t get to stay up all night watching Netflix. That seems like a no brainer to me. But — say for instance you want to drive your company to hit a new revenue goal, which means you will be working extra long hours and spending less time with your family. Is that sacrifice worth it? You must decide for yourself. Maybe the goal needs slight revising so that a compromise can be achieved. Figure out the micro routines of day to day activity that need to take place in order for each goal to be accomplished. If a change in activity seems too drastic, you might need to adjust the goal a little bit so that it’s not so taxing on other areas in your life.
5. Preparation. Lay the ground-work. Sometimes, preliminary steps need to be taken before acting on these goals. Which actions do I need to take in order to prepare myself for this new goal? What steps can I take that will set me up for success? For instance, you might want to eat healthier, but have a bad habit of keeping cookies in your pantry. How much healthier are you going to be eating if junk food is laying around your home, tempting you at every pass? Not so great, right? (Trust me, I am guilty of this too.) Get the junk food out of your home, don’t even walk down that aisle in the grocery store, you will find that not eating junk food just became a lot easier. Maybe you want to take a new career path, but don’t know how or where to start. This is the time where you dig in start doing some research about your new chosen profession: what classes do I need to take? What books do I need to read? Do I need to attend a specified training course to become an electrician? This might bump you back a couple steps if you realize this goal requires a different time frame than you had originally anticipated. And that’s okay. They’re your goals: you are setting them for yourself. Think of preparation as preliminary actions — actions taken prior to beginning a certain goal. These may or may not be directly related to the goal, but they are more about setting yourself up for success than anything else. Lay the ground-work. Set yourself up for success from the start.
6. Eliminate white noise. This one is bigger than most people might think: There are distractions and negativity fighting for our attention from all sides. Once the goals are set, eliminate opportunities for noise or people to take you off that path. Perhaps you want to drink less, but your one good old buddy always needs to be drinking alcohol. Even on Tuesdays. What’s with this guy? Well he’s fun, but is hanging out with this friend going to help you drink less? Unfortunately not. Now, not everyone is going to be 100% supportive of your goals, which is okay, but don’t let that get to you. If your buddy constantly wants to drink, despite you not wanting to, you can politely inform them that it’s better for you if you don’t spend time together with this person for a while. Not always just friends, or family or coworkers, but your smart phone, television, social media, whatever is getting in the way, you have to find a way to neutralize or eliminate these distractions, things that take you away from the goals you have set for yourself.
7. Set a start date and make it happen. Give yourself a timeline and get started. Again, this comes down to the scale of the goal, but be realistic. Make it reasonable. Of course, you can’t buy a new house by tomorrow, but you can set a realistic plan for how you’re going to get a new home by the end of the year. Take everything into consideration so that you’re not setting unrealistic expectations and beating yourself up for it later. Studies show even just setting goals and working towards them helps people feel better about themselves and their lives, so there’s no need to berate yourself if you slip. Just get back up, dust yourself off and keep going. Take the lessons learned in stride. And make no mistake: there will be lessons learned, but life wouldn’t even be fun if everything were too easy, now would it.
