I’ve often heard the saying, “an old dog can’t learn new tricks”, and it is one of the things I disagree with most strongly. How can one be too old to learn something new when the evidence of the opposite is all around us. My seventy-one-year-old father was born in the 1940s. Yet he figured out how to operate smartphones and apps very easily. He can even use his Cox Internet Preferred to stream classic movies on Netflix. What this means is that humans are much more capable than we give them credit for. And they can learn new lifestyles at any age.
Start Improving Your Lifestyle
It is one thing to say that people can adapt and change their lifestyles. But it is another to discuss the difficulty that comes with changing things you are used to. Modifications and improvements in one’s lifestyle don’t come easy. But certain things can help streamline the process. You will obviously need to make a conscious effort. But it also helps if you have a desire to be better and can endure the hardships that come with it. If you’re truly ready to make changes in your life, you shouldn’t let force of habit or laziness hold you back.
If you want to start enhancing your lifestyle, these are good places to start:
- Get More Exercise
- Don’t Take Offense Easily
- Minimize Distractions
- Live With Intensity
- Confront Your Insecurities
- Adopt Principles and Stick to Them
- Don’t Be Afraid to Change Directions
- Set Better Life Goals
- Have Faith in Yourself
Let’s take a closer look at these below.
Get More Exercise
A healthy mind and a healthy body are essential if you want to take up the task of changing your lifestyle. Many people don’t get enough exercise, if at all. This not only affects your physique but it also deprives your brain of endorphins. Exercise releases the feel-good hormone that helps you elevate your mood and feel upbeat. Exercising regularly is a simple change to make to your lifestyle, but one with a lot of benefits.
Don’t Take Offense Easily
If you want to start crafting a healthy thinking process, you need to stop taking things too personally. Let’s say someone gives you some advice you didn’t ask for. Or someone treats you unfairly. Or passes comments that make you uncomfortable. None of these reflect on you but on the person doing these things. When you take offense at them, you disrupt your own peace of mind. This will hamper your efforts to improve, and can even discourage you after some time. Try taking the high road wherever possible and conveying displeasure constructively.
Minimize Distractions
Focus is a key factor when you’re making active efforts to improve your lifestyle. That means you have to stick to the plan and not deviate from it. Removing or reducing the distractions in your life is a good way forward. With fewer or no distractions, you will find yourself accomplishing more and doing things more productively. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. Just not when you’re working on important things.
Live With Intensity
There is nobody more invested in your life goals than you are. So don’t be afraid to kick the intensity up a notch. Live smarter and stronger, without letting other people hold you back. Give it everything you have to reach the goals you have set for yourself.
Confront Your Insecurities
We are our own worst enemy too often. Almost everyone has some form of insecurities. These can be based on trauma or circumstances or life experience. But they are still very real and can hold back an otherwise capable human being. The best way to get over one’s insecurities is to confront them, and that is what you must do as well. Don’t be afraid to consult a professional therapist or life coach or even a friend for the support you need.
Adopt Principles and Stick to Them
Having a set of guiding principles in your life is very important. They add direction to your life and help you stay on track. When you know something is in accordance with your principles fight for it. When something goes against your principles, fight against it. A principled human being is one who holds himself or herself accountable at all times. Understand the rights and wrongs, and don’t try to define gray areas between them.
Don’t Be Afraid to Change Directions
If there’s one thing people should always remember it is that they should never be afraid to change directions. Don’t think that just because you have invested years in your job, it is too late to make a career change. When something isn’t working out for you, be honest to yourself about it. Have the courage to take new and more challenging directions in your life.
Set Better Life Goals
You likely have some life goals, but more often than not, they are nebulous at best. You want a new car. You want a house. You want to be rich. These are goals, but they aren’t refined enough to achieve. If you really need to change your life, set clear, specific, and time-sensitive goals. Instead of aiming for a new car, aim to save enough money every month to help you get enough to buy it. The goals are just as important as the journey to them.
Have Faith in Yourself
The final piece of suggestions we have for you is to believe in yourself. This might sound like a corny clichéd line, but it is important. Most people have a severe problem with underestimating their abilities. Or they feel like they don’t see the whole picture – it’s not that there are any hidden problems just like there are no big Cox hidden fees I keep telling my father. This is what leads to fear of change, and will inhibit your efforts for a better lifestyle. An unshakeable belief in yourself can help you endure anything. Don’t be afraid to rely on yourself instead of other people.