Do you like what you do? Do you like where you live? Do you like who you live with? Do you feel fulfilled by your life? Are you happy?… Too many negative answers mean you need big changes in your life. Clearly, the first thing you need in order to change your life is to be aware that change is needed, and change scares us. We already count on that.
See also: How to turn your life around completely
If you think your life is perfect right now, then of course the secret of your happiness will be to keep doing exactly what you are doing. But if, on the other hand, you don’t like the kind of life you lead and you feel you are wasting time while life passes you by, logically you will have to start doing things you have never done before.
The bad news is that to make a radical change in your life, changing parts of your life will not be enough. You will have to change as a person, and even change the way you think. And that’s where change gets complicated.
How do you change your life radically?
Almost everything is complicated unless we go about it with the right, appropriate steps. I hope this short tutorial, with some of the steps in order, is useful to you.
1. Retreat to a neutral corner to think
Life is like a boxing match, and you feel “battered”. So far you have only taken punches. And you are strong, because you have withstood them, but nobody wins a fight just by taking punches. We have to throw them too.
The personal side is much easier than the professional side. In other words, if you are not happy with your current partner, it’s as simple as leaving them. Things get complicated on the professional side.
Stop thinking about what you don’t want, about what you wouldn’t like to be
Knowing what you don’t want won’t get you anywhere. Plenty of people are sure they don’t want to be a waiter, an astronaut or a mountaineer. So…? Once we know the places we don’t want to travel to, the key to booking a trip is knowing which destination we do want to go to. Otherwise there is no trip.
What exactly do you want to do with your life?
I understand that most people, especially young people, have no idea what they want to do with their lives. And it isn’t easy to know, so there is a much better way to ask yourself the question.
Who would you like to be like? Who do you admire? What are your greatest skills?
Look around you: at your friends, acquaintances, business owners, civil servants… If you are over 22, don’t look at footballers. You are not going to be a footballer. Not professionally, anyway.
In our article “How to figure out what to do for a living” we said you should look within your passion for something you are very good at. Don’t take that too literally, because we can also learn to do other things in record time. In fact, what I do for a living today is something I would never have imagined as a teenager.
Even so, it is important to know what we want to do in the short term, what we want to achieve right away… to set an objective and go after it, even though in three years we will probably be doing something else.
(Read: How to succeed when you have no special talent.)
2. Start taking small steps
Every 1,000-kilometre journey begins with the first kilometre. Start taking steps that, even if they don’t lead you straight to the objective, at least lead you towards change.
Meet different kinds of people
Ideally, surround yourself with people who already are what we want to become. In other words, if you want to start a business, whatever it is, it will help to surround yourself with small business owners rather than stoners. If, on the other hand, you want to sell marijuana, surrounding yourself with stoners (the more the better) will get you your first customers.
Surround yourself with people whose points of view are very different from yours, people with other interests. We learn from everyone. Widen your circle of friends.
You will have to learn
Don’t be that motivated fool who thinks he can achieve something from ignorance. Once you are clear about where you want to go, you need to be very clear that you will have to learn what the people who are already there know.
If you want to make money investing in the stock market, you will have to learn about investing, or you will spend your whole life following the advice of people who are sometimes wrong and sometimes right. If you are sure you want to be an entrepreneur, you will have to learn everything about starting a business, and much more.
You should devour books by successful entrepreneurs: every one of them has something to tell you and something you can learn from.
Become a smarter person
There are things we can learn that we probably won’t find a use for today, but that knowledge may help us down the line. I’m talking about knowing how to sell, how to negotiate, how to influence people, how to speak in public, body language, and so on… Whatever you do in life, this kind of learning will help you.
(Read: An impressive motivational talk on achieving success, by Emilio Duró.)
But above all, set yourself a goal and fight for it
As we always say, goals should be long-term, big and ambitious, but objectives should be short-term, small and achievable.
Start taking steps towards that objective. If you want to start your own business, start that business while you are learning and reading. Look for your first customers, start selling, start laying the bricks of the building.
And it has to be today
Not next week, not when it’s cooler, not when it suits you. Once you are clear that you want to make a radical change in your life, you must start making those changes and taking those steps towards the objective today. Otherwise procrastination will end up getting the better of you.
Radical change, summed up in a few simple points
- Define a goal.
- Within that goal there should be objectives.
- The objectives should be as precise as possible.
- Start changing your lifestyle and habits.
- You will have to do the opposite of what you have done until now.
- Draw up a plan to reach the objectives.
- Take action on that plan.
- Take steps towards that objective every day.
If this little guide doesn’t work for you, you can always go back to the way things were.
Further reading
- Arnold Schwarzenegger’s keys to success for achieving whatever you set out to do
- 10 things to avoid doing in your first 30 years
- 16 things you should know about life, success and happiness
Featured image: Conrad Poirier, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
