Right now is the perfect time to make positive changes in your life. We know it may seem daunting, as humans, we actually fear change which is why we struggle to kick our bad habits and create positive ones! But, there are ways of bringing meaningful and lasting changes to your life, it just takes little time and dedication. We’ve brought five of our favorite approaches together to help you make steps towards a more positive, happier, and healthier lifestyle.
Self-actualization, or at least the desire for it, is a shared human necessity. The goals you set for yourself are a way to motivate you to become your best self and fulfill your natural need to grow. However, for them to work, it’s important to start by integrating small positive adjustments to your daily habits. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking to save some money, eat more healthily or finish that project you’ve been working on for days. Any personal or professional changes start by modifying your behavior. You might not see results overnight, but incremental lifestyle changes provide a greater chance of creating real improvement. So how can you begin making a positive transformation in your life?
1. Focus on What Matters the Most To You
This works on anything from life in general to your career. Best-selling author Leo Babauta, creator of Zen Habits, writes in the simplicity cycle: returning to paring down to find your true needs about his experience and knowledge on this topic. As we go through life, we welcome new passions and possessions. But according to Babauta, it’s important to figure out which hobbies and objects are essential to us. Get rid of everything that is clutter and doesn’t fall into that category. It’s not a project you achieve in one day, he says, but rather a cycle that repeats over time. This is a great piece of advice to generate a positive change in your life!
2. Discover Your Strengths
Discovering your strengths it’s not always easy, but it’s worth the time to know what you’re good at if you want to be the best version of yourself and live a positive life. Adam Grant, the author of Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success, has an interesting approach when it comes to assessing our own talents. In Grant’s article, a better way to discover your strengths, it’s not enough to just take a self-assessment quiz. Ask others to hold up a mirror for you by asking them of a time you were at your best. When you see your reflection through the eyes of others, you’re going to see a clearer picture of your unique talents.
📚 Interested in bringing more positive change into your life? Here’s our list of 8 books to read anytime in your career, they’ll certainly give you food for thought.
3. Understand Who You Are
Why do you do what you do? What is your purpose? In this article, finding your why: how to discover your professional purpose, Mel Carson, founder of Delightful Communications, shares his own story on how he discovered his and gives advice on how to find yours. What makes you tick? What thrills you about what you do? Those are questions he wants you to ask yourself. Singling out the qualities that have always been important to you is the best way of identifying your current professional purpose and is one of the first of many positive steps.
4. Build Positive Habits
Research shows that creating new routines is the best way to bring positive change to your life. In how to build a new habit: this is your strategy guide, writer and entrepreneur, James Clear, maps out a simple guide to help you get started. What’s important, he says, is to begin with small habit changes that are easy enough to do, and then gradually improve from there. This way your motivation increases along the way, as well as your willpower to stick to your new habits. Be consistent and patient. If you slip, make sure you get back on track quickly.
5. Incorporate The Right Routines
There’s nowhere better to look for people that have simple and consistent habits that help them thrive (under a lot of pressure) than at the top of the hospitality industry. The habits of successful hospitality leaders show that by doing five basic things, you can make huge changes to your lifestyle. From thinking positively to questioning your amygdala (that’s the almond-shaped piece in the middle of your brain in charge of keeping you safe).
Remember, each day is a chance for a new beginning, an opportunity to allow yourself to reset your habits and to make positive changes.
