Getting Your Life Back On Track
Sometimes in life, you have to stop what you are doing, take a step back, and take an objective look at your life. It sounds easier than it really is. Most people will not like the direction their life is heading in, but get either too overwhelmed or just ignore the seriousness of their circumstances.
The problem is that most people just don’t know what to do differently? All of their decisions in life, the choices that they felt were right, lead them to these circumstances. It’s all that they know, and it’s not only difficult to admit that you have been wrong, but what to do to fix things? The truth is that we have a natural tendency to surround ourselves with people who are either at the same level in life as we are, or less, in other words, people who are in the exact same situations, if not worse. It is no wonder so many people are confused and feel helpless about improving their lives.
There are three steps that a person can to do start objectively seeing their lives, but one major life change that a person must do.
- Put your life on Paper: I like to purchase a big white poster board and make a giant mind map of my life. I start with my name in the middle and then branch off with the categories below. After I’ve got the categories, I dive in deeper, and then dive in deeper again, as far down as I can possibly go. When people are concerned, for example, Family, I break it down into positive and negative.
- Spiritual & Health: Not religion, but your personal habits and philosophies. Your body and how you take care of it.
- Professional: Your occupation, investments, financial goals, expenses, etc.
- Personal: Family, friends, the circle of influence, co-workers, physically (ex where you keep all your stuff- Car, house, work, etc.)
- Find patterns: Now that you have your life on paper, try to find patterns that emerge. For example, if you have a lot of close friends, but they are all negative, maybe it’s time to make new friends? If you have little money saved up, but more material stuff than you know what to do with, you should cut back spending and try to sell your stuff. The deeper you go, the easier it will be to see the patterns.
- Write down and Implement Changes: This is a crucial step. You have to write down on paper the patters you saw and what you must do to change. Don’t just think about it and keep it in your head, you must write it down. And then most importantly, implement those changes. If you have two jobs but spend little time for family, look for another job. If you don’t implement the changes, nothing in your life will change, everything will stay the same. Implement!
I like to do this process once a year and see how I’ve moved forward. The most difficult pattern that emerged for me was how negative my “friends” were. Now don’t get me wrong, these are all amazing people, but they lived in the past and never worked on creating their futures. It was easy for me to do the same because all of my friends were doing it. But when I did this exercise, I realized I wanted to take charge and create my future, and not let it happen to me. Good luck with this powerful exercise and I encourage you to do this once every 3 months at first so you can easily see your progress.