21 Small Changes for Your Life!
Did you ever wonder how your life would change if you eliminated one small disturbance in your life?
Change something tiny in your life and you could make big changes to your happiness. If you stopped drinking soda, would you lose 5 lbs? If you went to bed 1 hour earlier would you feel more rested and happy?
I used to commute back and forth to work with my father when I was younger. My father would sometimes get stressed on the drive. “Look at this blankety blank guy.” Beeping at someone who cut us off. Telling them they were number one with a “selective” finger choice. We have all been there.
We used to drive to work taking the freeway. Same thing everyday. Stop and get Dad’s coffee. Wait in line to get on the exit. Sit in traffic for 45 minutes. Same thing on the way home. Rinse and repeat. Pretty boring stuff.
My father loved looking at houses on the weekends and one day we were out looking and my father realized there was a different way we could take to work where we never had to get on the freeway. On this new route it was kind of a winding country road. There was this town we used to drive through that was a little rural and there were a couple of small farms.
One of the homes had a few horses and my father and I would occasionally pull over and watch the horses. One day my father saw a lot of commotion going on and he pulled the car in. We walked up and a colt had just been born. We watched it trying to get to stand for the very first time. It was a pretty magical morning.
Seemed like after that day we never took the freeway again. We would pull over once and a while and watch this colt and its mother. Pretty soon the colt was running around the corral. It was pretty special.
Taking this different route to work took us about 10 minutes longer, but those 10 minutes were a small price to pay for the immense joy my father found in taking our country road home. I noticed that my father was a lot less stressed after that. I think the country road home was calming for him. He mentioned many times how he loved this drive.
What changes in your life could you make that would lower your stress levels and maybe make you a little happier? Is there someone at work who bugs you? Maybe you could ask to have your desk moved away from this person. Maybe going for a walk during your lunch hour would relieve some stress. Maybe you could start reading and discover a new favorite author.
You would be surprised how that one little thing can make your whole life seem a little better. What change will you make?
Here are some great places to start. Put together by the people here at kind nice happy.
1. Just decide to be happy. We think this is the most powerful thing you can do to change your life. Be determined to find the good in life. Try it for a day. Then for 3 days. Then for a week. You will be shocked at how changing your outlook changes everything and how everyone around will respond.
2. Don’t react quickly. If someone says something that upsets you, wait a moment and first ask yourself if it is true. Then think how you want to respond. Will my response benefit me? Very often the best response is silence.
3. Exercise for 30 minutes. Try and do this 5 times a week. You will feel a little better. You will sleep a little better. Your clothes may even fit a little better.
4. Stretch. Even stretching for 5 minutes a day can benefit you. Your back will feel better. Your hips feel loose. Your hamstring doesn’t hurt anymore. Not bad for 5 minutes.
5. Respond immediately. Putting off responding to e-mail, phone calls or text just gives you something that you have to do later. Handle it now and you are finished with that task. Now you can move on to your next project without something hanging over your head.
6. Sleep. Treat your sleep as one of the most important things in your life,because it is. Nobody feels 100% when they are not properly rested. Sleep is when your body heals itself. Getting proper sleep is paramount to living a healthy happy life.
7. Eliminate toxic things. Really look at your life. Is drinking every weekend benefitting you? Is getting high everyday making you as productive you want? These are harsh realities for many to face.
8. Eliminate toxic people. Get toxic people out of your life. This one thing could be the thing that really changes your life. Sometimes it is difficult. It could be a family member. If they can’t be eliminated from your life they can certainly be minimized
9. Watch less tv. It is fine to take a night to watch a movie or to watch your favorite show. If you are watching 4-5 hours of tv a day, maybe you could be doing something more productive.
10. Put down your phone. Social media can be fun, but it is no different than television for wasting your time. What could you be doing with that time that would benefit you.? Learn a new language? Learn an instrument? Start a new hobby?
11. Drink more water. This one thing could benefit your health more than anything else.
12. Meal Prep. Preparing your meals ahead of time keeps you from coming home and eating junk. Meal prepping 2 times a week can really keep you on track with a healthy diet.
13. Eliminate soda from your diet. Soda is just completely empty calories. The best thing you can drink for your health? water.
14. Eat more vegetables. We all need to do this. They aren’t my favorite either. Look for a few new recipes. I squeeze lemon over asparagus or broccoli with a little salt. I don’t hate it as much as I used to.
15. Be determined to start something new. Make a quilt. Start writing that book. Build your daughter or granddaughter a doll house. Knit your son or grandson a blanket.
16. Spend more time in nature. There are multiple studies showing that spending time in nature improves your immune system, raises the amount of vitamin D, boosts happiness and productivity, reduces stress and increases happiness. More than that it is just fun!
17. Declutter and get rid of things you do not use. It is amazing how liberating it is to walk into a room that has been decluttered. Take one room at a time. If you have to take one closet at a time.
18. Clean it up, pick it up, put it away and do it now. Putting off small tasks until later is counterproductive. Get the small things completed now and it won’t be hanging over your head the rest of the day.
19. Meditate. Meditation will calm you, it will help you focus, it will help you reduce stress. There is a reason it is estimated that between 200-500 million people meditate.
20. Have gratitude. Being grateful for everything you have changes your outlook on everything. Try replacing complaining with being thankful and your entire life will alter. It is easy to take things like running water for granted. Your health. Your friends and family. There are people all over the world that don’t have any of these things. At the end of the day before you fall asleep think of three things your are grateful for.
21. Take a daily inventory. Right after you think of the 3 things you are grateful for, ask yourself what you did well today? Then think about what you could do better tomorrow. You will feel good about what you accomplished and you will wake up tomorrow ready to start your day and be better than yesterday!
Any of these small changes can really make a difference in your life. Don’t try and tackle them all at once. Pick one and run with it. Then add another when you are ready. You will notice a difference almost immediately.
