How I completely changed my life in just 2 months.
Practical steps to change yourself in just two months.
It was the 31st of March, 2020. I woke up feeling the same as I have been feeling from a couple of days or maybe months. I was depressed and uncertain about my future. I had failed twice in my class 12th exam and my 3rd and last attempt was coming in 10 days. I haven’t even started preparing for it, similar to what I had been doing from the last two attempts. I was lazy and unmotivated and porn addiction made things worse for me. I was fed up with myself and I seriously wanted to change myself.
Now after a month or so, I am motivated, I wake up every day with a purpose, and this time my exam went well too. I am no longer addicted to porn, which was a harmful addiction. So, I can proudly say that I changed a lot from who I was a month or two ago.
You can do it too. If you apply everything that I am going share with you below, then I am sure it will make you a better person and will also improve your life.
1. Making a decision to change things.
Changing things start by making a decision. You have to decide to change before you can start changing yourself.
Whatever you are not choosing is basically choosing. If you are not deciding to change yourself then, that’s a decision to be as you are. So, to start changing yourself you have to decide first. And that decision should be taken now, at the very present moment. It has to be taken today.
Ask yourself these questions before making a decision:-
- Do you really want to change yourself ? Are you really unhappy with you are and how your life is currently?
- Are you willing to do whatever it takes to change yourself for better ?
- Are you willing to take 100% responsibility for your life and your actions ?
If the answer to these questions is 'Yes' then you are ready for a change.
More than anything else , I believe it’s our decisions, not the condition of our lives that determine our destiny.
2. Starting slow and small.
It’s really important to take things slowly at first and to focus on making small changes. When you start something, at first you feel motivated, so you try to change everything at once and that’s the biggest reason why most people fail to continue with what they decide. They get tired and everything feels like a burden to them. You have got to understand that things take time, change takes time. It’s a long process.
Drastic changes will lead you towards a drastic failure. So, it’s important for you to start slowly at first, changing one small thing at a time.
You have to remember that it’s a step by step process. It’s important to go at your speed. Think of it as a marathon, not a sprint. What matters is that you keep going, fast, or sometimes slow. You have to keep moving forward with the speed that’s comfortable for you.
Always remember that slow and steady is what wins you the race. You always have a choice to increase your speed as you get more comfortable with the process.
3. Writing things down.
Writing down things that you want to apply in your life will give you a kind of direction or a blueprint of changing things, which will let you know, where you are moving in life.
First of all, start by analysing your current self and your current life.
- Write about your current routine or basically what you do throughout the day from the moment you wake and till you go to your bed at night. By doing this, you will get a clear view of how you are spending your time which basically tells you about where your life is going, forward or backward or maybe it is not moving at all.
- Write down your current habits, they may be good or bad, it doesn’t matter just right it down.
Don’t feel discouraged, if you have more bad habits than good ones. It’s completely okay, you are now trying to change things for better, and being aware of your current habits is important to start with. Your habits define who you are, so the first step towards change is changing your habits.
Take one good habit and include it in your schedule and practice or follow it daily. Now, take one bad habit and exclude it from your schedule. Stop doing it or maybe try to reduce it day by day. It will feel uncomfortable in the beginning but you will get used to it as you practice it day by day.
Work on including or excluding one habit only for a month. As i told you, it is really important to start slow in the beginning and as you move forward, you can start adding or substracting more habits from your routine.
Some good habits that I follow, which might help you are :-
1. Exercise.
- Exercising daily will improve you not only physically but mentally too.
- Exercising will improve your overall physique and help in your muscle growth which makes your personality better, so you start looking much better.
- It will also make you more disciplined as you push your body outside of its comfort zone by exercising daily. Doing this will increase your confidence too.
- It will help you in fighting stress too which is beneficial for your mental health too. As you improve your mental health, your thinking skills will get better.
- It will obviously make you healthy. It will also make your immune system soo much better.
You don’t have to purchase those expensive equipment or gym memberships to start exercising. Bodyweight exercises such as push-ups, sit-ups, squats, etc. are the best way to increase muscle and strength in your body at home. By spending just 15–20 minutes daily, you will start noticing it’s effects.
2. Reading books
- Reading books will change your perspective towards your life. It will give you a different view of life.
- It will also help you in increasing your focus and concentration.
- It will improve your decision making as you will get to know about different experiences that people have experienced, which might help you in making the right decision.
- It will improve stress and by letting you feel about completely different experiences and lives.
- It will make you creative while also improving your imagination.
Reading books might require you to invest some money to purchase books but in my opinion, it is the best investment you can make for yourself and for your future.
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
4. Choosing Action over Perfection.
We waste a lot of our time in search of a perfect time or place for taking action. But the thing is, time will never be perfect. The most perfect time is now, so it is best for you to start taking action as early as possible.
Our brain is basically fooling us to get away from putting in the work. This is what causes procrastination. You have to understand that, our work will never be perfect. It will always seem imperfect to you. So, the best thing you can do is completing your task instantly, even if it may seem imperfect to you. To choose action over perfection, you must:-
- Complete your work as early as possible.
- Always choose completion over perfection.
- Become comfortable with what may seem imperfect to you.
Just do it.
5. Consistency , The magical tool to change yourself.
You cannot change yourself in one day. Things take time, change take time. The only way to change yourself and your life is through consistent effort.
People underestimate consistency and its power. They overestimate the amount of work that can be done in one day while underestimating the number of things that can be achieved in a week or a month. It’s all about compound effect. Small changes add up to produce big things. In order to stay consistent:-
- You have to practice staying consistent. Just like anything, it requires practice to get comfortable with it.
- You have to do less in order to be consistent. Write down the things you need to do on a particular day and do it as much as you can at first but do it daily.
- Having an accountability partner might help you with consistency. Holding yourself accountable to another person will force you to stay consistent. Share your goal with your friend or partner and do it together. This will make things more enjoyable and will also make you more consistent.
5. Ignore your feelings by focusing on your 'why'.
Knowing your 'why' is really important if you want a change in your life.
You must ask yourself, why is it that you want to change things, what's the reason behind it, what's your motivation behind it. This will not only provide you a clear vision but it will also keep you committed throughout the whole journey or process.
Your 'why' can be anything as long as it is motivating you daily , to keep working towards your goal. Changing or improving yourself is a long and hard journey but knowing your 'why' will make it easy for you to face anything that comes in your way.
But there will still be some days, when you might feel anxious, sad, or maybe confused and you might feel like giving up , but you must understand that these feelings are nothing but temporary and so, knowing your 'why' will help you to ignore these feelings.
Changing yourself in anyway can feel hard as you begin but if you stay committed and dedicated towards this journey , then there is nothing that can stop you.
I remember when I started this journey, everything seemed impossible, everything seemed tough, but I did it because it was a do or die situation for me. I had to change, I just hated who I was. If u really want to change yourself then it must become a do or die situation for you otherwise you will give up at some point when things get hard.
If I can do this then you too can. Just believe in yourself. You can do this. Keep going.
Keep going and always remember why you started.
