How to get your shit together

It’s something most of us say we need to do, but how do we achieve that life-style change?

For as long as I can remember, I have been telling myself “Self! You need to get your shit together.” and for as long as I can remember my friends have been telling me that they needed to get their shits together as well. The funny thing is no matter how many attempts I made, none of them ever lasted a day.

Now, after many years of failed attempts, I have finally figured out the code. The problem was that my life was exactly the opposite of what together presumably would be and I did not take that into consideration. I expected a change between day and night. I would write down a schedule for myself to follow, wake up the next day, fail at the first step and just give up. What I didn’t realize was that it is impossible to achieve complete change with in a day or a month. That drastic speed I set, made the goal hard to commit to as well and hard to begin. Because every time I thought “tomorrow is Day-1 of staying home and being productive” and I found out my friend’s were having a movie night, I took a rain-check on Day-1.

Finally I decided to take it step by step. Instead of eating healthy, first I stopped coffee, then I started using brown sugar instead of white and then I made sure I had a proper amount of vegetables. Instead of doing all the different exercises I needed, I started with sit ups once when they became a part of my routine I added squats. The point is; it may take me a year or two to get where I want to be, but at least now I know the journey is two steps shorter.

Now I realized that the key to life-style changes is knowing that the fastest way to permanent is gradual.