You've emptied your wardrobe. You've
ditched your #fakefriends. You went to the gym and didn't hate it and now
you're ready to go.
These are my final tips (for now) on how to kickstart your life, best implemented over the space of a month. One very intense month where you ball so
hard that at the end of it easing into your new life will feel like a holiday.
Let's go.
Pull a houdini
This is the term I use to describe
basically disappearing from social media and becoming a hermit for a little
while. It's essentially pushing the reset button on your life, and this break
gives you a chance to reinvent yourself in peace and then come bursting back
onto the scene as your new and improved self.
Tech detox
This conveniently works very well in
conjunction with pulling a houdini, but serves a different purpose. The aim of
the technology detox is to regain perspective. I find that whenever I tear
myself away from my various Apple products and survive the initial stage of
withdrawal I end up feeling a really energising sense of clarity. If nothing
else this will give you some time without distractions to actually think about
what matters and get things done.
Note that this one is not for the whole month. Good god no. Just do it at some point.
Declutter
We've been here. We've discussed this. You
guys know how I feel about the importance of a clean environment.
Exercise as a habit
This month is crucial in terms of
setting a precedent for how you're going to carry on. Putting particular
emphasis on introducing exercise as a part of your regular routine during the
kickstart phase should establish being active as a part of your everyday life
and set a precedent that will feel much easier and more natural to continue.
Additionally being active has all kinds of benefits that I'm sure we're all
well aware of, and these are never a bad thing to have in your arsenal when
sorting out your life. Side note I like how I always overlook the fact that there are people who are already very functional and active without having to force themselves into this. It is not a reality with which I am familiar.
Order groceries
Whether you want to eat more healthily or
just start cooking more meals yourself at home, sit down and plan out what it
is that you're going to need. I don't think you really need to fully meal plan,
because honestly who knows what they're going to feel like eating for lunch
next Thursday, but at least come up with some ideas of things you want to be
able to make and then work from there. Over time you'll figure out what you do
and don't need to keep rebuying, but for now just get some food that matches
your new lifestyle. And also maybe cupcakes or something as a reward because I
always get sad if my groceries come and I haven't ordered cupcakes. But live
your life. Make your own decisions.
Set strict, achievable goals
As much as I love New Year's resolutions,
they're very easy to lose track of, and if you're not used to setting and
sticking to goals it is going to take a little bit of work to get into the
habit. I would suggest starting with a list of very clear, achievable goals for
a day or a week at a time and making sure that you accomplish everything on
that list. This isn't about being a superhuman and achieving all your dreams in
the space of two weeks, it's about creating a habit of setting realistic goals
and actually sticking to them once they're set. If you're still feeling a bit
overwhelmed by weekly goals, write your list for the week and then split that
up and allocate each item to a specific day. Like I said, at the beginning this
is about teaching yourself to set and accomplish goals, not trying to get
everything done at once.
Change your routine
Nothing's gonna change if nothing changes,
lads. If there are things you've been wanting to do already then this is the
time to implement those. Otherwise pick one thing, like the time you wake up or
what you do before bed, and have a bit of a switcheroo. Doesn't have to be a
huge change, but it does need to be big enough to make you feel a noticeable
difference. I'd recommend coming up with a solid morning
and night routine and trying to stick to those.
Mindset is everything
In kickstarts as in the rest of life, if
you think you're going to fail then you probably will. So stop that. The times
in my life when I've done things that in retrospect I genuinely can't believe I
did have almost all been times that I've made the conscious decision to be 100%
positive that things would work out and not take no for an answer. Everyone
doubts themselves occasionally and there's nothing wrong with that, but try and
catch yourself when you start thinking negatively and shut that thought down.
There is genuinely no reason why you shouldn't be able to do the things you
want to (within reason), and if no one else has done things you want to do the
way you want to do them then GREAT. Because no one else has ever been born with
your exact DNA before* and you've already done that so you can do this too.
Positivity is everything. I'm sure I'll have plenty of posts up on this topic
in the future.
Daily challenges
This goes hand in hand with setting goals,
but since this is an intensive kickstarter month we are also going to be
setting one specific goal for each day. Whether it's starting a blog or
finishing a book or going to an audition, all that matters is that it's
important to you. Imagine how capable and ready you'll feel to take on the rest
of your life at the end of the month if you can look back and see 30
significant things you've already accomplished.
Keep yourself accountable
None of these things are going to work if
you let yourself make excuses and don't actually get anything done.
Have a meeting about your strengths and
weaknesses
I mentioned this in my last post. Grab a
friend or a sibling or anyone else who you trust and that knows you well and
sit down for a nice little honest chat about things you need to improve,
things you need to take advantage of and how you can move forward in the best
possible way. This is really important in terms of seeing yourself in an
accurate light and not getting caught up in your own preconceptions. Also life
meetings are fun.
Meditate
I am a huge advocate of meditation.
Everyone is different, but for me it's amazing for clearing my head, dealing
with anxiety, forcing myself to actually take time out and about fiddy other
things. I mainly use the Headspace app, which I've mentioned quite a lot and
would definitely suggest trying, but there are a lot of other methods you can
look into. Some days it works better than others, and sometimes it take a while
to really get the hang of but I would definitely recommend trying to
incorporate it into your life.
New bedding
This is a very specific one, but honestly
getting my new bedding at the start of 2015 was like a weirdly significant turning point. If
you're like me and spend a lot of time in your room then changing your bed will
make a lot more of a difference than you might think.
Flowers
Flowers, plants, a terrarium of
succulents, whatever. Just get something green and alive (or that used to be
alive but is now beautifully arranged in a vase), put it in your room and enjoy
the sense of wholesome peace and oneness with the world that it will bring unto you.
Until you forget to water the plant or the flowers die but that's why there are
stores and bins.
Catch up with people you haven't in a while
This is a good thing to do anyway, but for the purpose of this exercise seeing someone who knows you but might not be completely familiar with your current life means that they can give you a fresh perspective on things whilst still having enough background information to know what they're talking about. Additionally, sometimes seeing someone you haven't in ages can remind you of parts of yourself that you might have neglected or forgotten about. This also acts as a little example of breaking bad habits and whether consciously or not will probably make you feel less guilty about not having seen each other in so long.
Do one major thing you've been putting off
out of fear
Similar to the daily goals, pick one Big
Daddy Goal and get that done at some point during the month. But this one need
to be something that you have been putting off specifically because it is
something that scares you. I'm not saying jump into a paddling pool of piranhas
like Jeremy Wade off River Monsters, we're talking identifying something that
is so important to you that you're terrified of it not working out and just
taking the plunge. But not into the aforementioned paddling pool. A lot of the
time the things that are most important to us, especially in creative areas
like music or writing, are things we end up making excuses not to do. You're
going to stop that. I'm going to stop that. We are all going to stop that and
just take risks and do things that are important to us. Even if it doesn't go
how you wanted it to, just getting through that experience will make you
less scared to try again.
So those are my final tips on how to
kickstart your life, and the end of this series! I have so many more ideas of
things I want to write, so let me know here or on twitter what you've thought of these and if you're going to be trying any of it yourself.
Happy new year, team. Make good choices.
x0
*Unless you're an identical twin but I
don't really know the science behind that and I also don't care plus once
you're born your brains are gonna be at least a bit different so even if you're
an identical twin I still believe in ur dreams go get 'em
