The Six Skills of Turning Your Life Around
The Six Skills of Turning Your Life Around
It is easy to just go through life and never think about where you are headed. Every now and then, you get this feeling of wanting to turn your life around. Often times, as you get frustrated with where you are, you begin to contemplate about a better life. But sadly, many of us just allow life to pass right before us, with no sense of purpose. We eventually find ourselves going in circles. Then suddenly out of nowhere, a desire to turn our life around begins to appear.
Before we start, we need to ask ourselves an important question: How sick and tired are you of where you are right now that you are willing to do whatever it takes to change?
The reason why this question is so vital is because, “unless the pain of not changing is greater than the pain of changing, we will never change.” You need to be resolved in doing whatever you can to facilitate the change; but change is painful and difficult. Therefore, without the commitment and the resolve, it will be nearly impossible to see the change that you want to see.
But there’s hope. In order to see a turn around in your life, you have to just get started. Therefore, here are 6 skills (SWITCH) to implement so that you can flip the script of your future:
1. S — STATE your purpose. If you don’t know your “why” in life, then we end up just settling. Therefore, you need to know why you exist and why do you what you do. Once some of these basic questions are figured out, then you can build your future off it. We have been taught to believe that our passion fuels our purpose, but we need to realize that purpose is a better indicator of our motivation than passion. With clarity in our purpose, then we can take some risks and go against the status quo.
Next Steps: Take some time to reflect and write down 2–3 moments where you felt really motivated. It helps to answer these questions: What were you doing? Who were the people that were involved? How were you encouraged/energized? These questions help to point to our purpose.
2. W — WATCH your mindset. The mind is a powerful thing. A lot of your battles will be in the mind. People who have a hard time turning their lives around usually have a weak mind. It is filled with negativity, self-defeating thoughts, and reoccurring lies. It doesn’t take long for us to start believing in the negative thoughts and we sabotage our own pathway for a turnaround. The way we view ourselves is a pretty good indicator of where we will be or the heights we will reach. From our mindset will come our emotions and then the volition of our will. This is why you have to win the battle for your mind.
Next Steps: Practice repeating positive words and phrases every morning as you start the day. Also, set up reminders to go off on your phone several times throughout the day to help you think of something positive.
3. I — INSPECT your life. Socrates famously stated, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Many people go through life without taking time for self-examination. Sometimes we don’t want to face the harsh reality of who we are. Sometimes we are just unaware that something is wrong. Sometimes we don’t have people who care enough about us to bring things up. But regardless, it is critical that we examine our life. By examining your life, consider it as a tune-up and keeping your life clear of unnecessary things. This helps us to focus and take the necessary steps towards change.
Next Steps: Take regular inventory of your life in order to ensure that you are headed in the right direction. It helps to do it once a week, once a month, and once a year.
4. T — TAKE some risks. Life is too short to just live in your comfort zone. When we settle for the status quo and do what is expected of us, we end up getting lulled into a life that is not only predictable, but it is overly controlled. You must understand that your fears of the unknown and the negative consequences force you into a mundane life, which will cause you to feel stuck. If you were to think about some of your greatest memories or moments in life, it usually deals with something that required some risks. It is the very fact that you were faced with a challenge and responded positively, which cause you to turn things around. Be courageous and bold. Don’t lose sight of the greater purpose. You are trying to move towards a better imagined reality.
Next Steps: Set up some goals. Just make sure that a few of them are “stretch goals” so that you can challenge yourself to go beyond the boundaries of what is comfortable.
5. C — COMMIT to good habits. The habits that you instill in your life will make you or break you. People who are successful usually have good habits built into their daily routine. Habits not only help with consistency, but they are the building blocks for accomplishing our dreams and goals. You must not forget that goals are not always achieved in one shot, but rather, they are a series of smaller habits that we repeat over and over again. With each step, it leads us closer to our end goal. Remember change and turning our lives around do not come automatically or instantaneously. The greater the commitment to smaller habits, the greater the results you will see. Keep in mind that it is the small and steadfast steps that bring change.
Next Steps: Write down a schedule of the habits that you want to implement into your life. Connect it to other habits so that it is easier to remember and to accomplish. For example, before you eat breakfast make sure that you exercise.
6. H — HANG out with the right people. Your circle of friends can determine where your life is at the moment. If you hang out with people who are not very ambitious or living for something greater, guess what? You will most likely be the same way. If you hang out with people who are successful and enjoy learning and growing, guess what? You will most likely be influenced in a positive way. You need to surround yourself with people who can ignite a fire in you, as well as people who are headed in the same desired direction. Remember that there is power in relational influence. Make sure that you have people who can challenge you and inspire you.
Next Steps: Examine your friendship. If they are not helping you, then you only have two choices — either reestablish expectations or you need to find some new friends.
Sometimes in life, you get to a point where you know that you have to turn our life around. You just don’t like where you are and the direction that it is headed. But then what do you do? The bigger question is: How badly do you want to turn your life around? If are willing to pay the price for change, then that is just the beginning. The six skills that you can try to implement to SWITCH your life around will help you.
- STATE your purpose
- WATCH your mindset
- INSPECT your life
- TAKE some risks
- COMMIT to good habits
- HANG out with the right people
Originally published at http://www.thesixskills.com on January 14, 2021.
