You can create the life you want

15 life lessons that can change your life

“If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.” — Oprah Winfrey, an American talk show host, TV producer, actress, and author

You can make the life you want.

The change you want in your life begins with you. If you can change your inside, the outside will fall into place.

Remember, your most significant obstacle to success is you. It’s not time, money, or your situation.

Life is a learning experience, and you’ll learn some essential life lessons along the way.

Some of these lessons come from your own experience, some from watching others, and some from reading books and articles like this one.

Here are 15 life lessons that can change your life and help you live it the way you want. Let’s dive in.

Read also: How to creat a life full of abundance

1. Develop Good Habits

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” — Jim Rohn, an American entrepreneur, author, and speaker

The key to success in life is building tiny habits that can significantly impact your life. Little things, such as good habits, add up over time. Good habits can help you live a more fulfilled and happy life, while bad habits can cause you to burn out at work.

Success lies in what you do every day. You may surprise yourself with the power of good habits. They can create a significant change in your behavior.

Most of us are not aware of our bad and good habits because we live on autopilot

If you want to succeed in life, your good habits must outweigh your bad habits. If you think you have some toxic habits in your life, you still have time to unlearn them and change your negative tendencies.

2. Make Today Count

“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” — Robert Breault, an American operatic tenor

Make every moment and day count. Be mindful of where you are in the here and now. You savor each second, minute, hour, and day you are alive.

Life goes by faster than you think. Practice mindfulness so you can live in the present and savor the moment. Don’t dwell in the past or worry about the future. Focus on what you are doing right now and give it your full attention.

Live each day to the fullest. The good news is that happiness is a state of mind. Make today count because life is short, and you don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

3. Compromise

Compromise is critical to your relationships. It would help if you stood your ground but also know which battles are worth fighting with your colleagues, friends, family, and significant other. You can’t have good relationships without compromising at times.

The power dynamic in relationships can’t be one-sided because those won’t last. You must learn how to give and take. Compromise is a tool to ensure a peaceful environment and create balance in your relationships. It can smooth over conflicts and promote collaboration.

4. Show Your Value

“Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.” — Albert Einstein, a theoretical physicist

Prove your worth every day and show your colleagues, friends, and family that you are worth the time they have invested in you. To succeed in life, you must tell stories about yourself in an authentic, humble, and business-focused way.

Subtle self-promotion is the key to success. Do more than is asked of you, develop new ideas, and implement them. Show up early and stay late. Be prepared for meetings and master the art of public speaking.

5. Stay Professional

When you show professionalism at work, you’ll earn the trust of your colleagues, and you’ll gain their respect. Listening to and respecting other people’s opinions and ideas is an excellent way to foster a good work culture.

It would help if you avoided common phrases that make you sound unprofessional: your words, tone, and intention matter at work. We spend more than a third of our lives at work, so you must strengthen relationships at work by choosing your words wisely.

Take the high road and act professionally even when others are acting unprofessionally around you at work

Professionalism is about how you carry yourself, your attitude, and your communication with others. Being professional can ensure you give a positive first impression and earn a good reputation in your company and industry. Remain professional even if challenges frustrate you and may cause you to lose your cool.

6. Build Deep Relationships

Our lives are built around our relationships. Our interpersonal skills are the keys to your success. You must improve and deepen your relationships through interpersonal intelligence and your ability to understand and interact effectively with others.

For better or worse, our relationships drive our lives

When you can gracefully navigate social settings with good verbal and non-verbal communication, you build strong connections with all types of people and show them you value them. Developing solid relationships with others is about becoming a better conversationalist.

“Deep conversations with the right people are priceless.” — Anonymous

Read also: How to make the most of life and live life to the fullest

7. Sharing is Caring

It’s essential not to forget the lessons you learned in Kindergarten. Being older doesn’t mean we shouldn’t play nicely with others in the “sandbox.”

One of those lessons we learned when we were little that matters later is that sharing is caring. Sharing is crucial because it’s how you make new friends, negotiate, and deal with disappointment.

When you share, you compromise and promote fairness. Sharing is an essential social skill for building deep and healthy relationships with others.

When you share, you learn patience, empathy, and emotional intelligence. Sharing feels good because you show the other person you care and want them to enjoy what you are doing.

8. Manners Matter

Manners is how you behave toward others. How others perceive you is based on your manners. Good communication requires manners.

Manners help you succeed in your professional and personal life. They are a way to show respect, appreciation, and care for others.

Good manners make other people feel good and put people at ease with you

You show good manners when you stay “please” and “thank you” and hold the door for someone else. Furthermore, good manners are about taking turns and cleaning up after yourself. These are examples of manners that people love and notice.

9. Don’t Try to Please Everyone

“But one of the big lessons I have learned from my journey is you can’t please everyone, so don’t try.” — Chris Colfer, an American actor, singer, and author

It’s impossible to please everyone in your life. Not everyone will agree with you or even like you. You don’t need to get the approval of others, especially if you strive for excellence over perfection.

Stay true to who you are and accept the fact that you can’t please everyone. If you try to do this, you’ll go crazy. Find people who believe in you, and you believe in them. Find your tribe and stick beside them.

10. Character Matters

A person’s character is about their value systems and defines their behavior. Your behavior can be traced back to your values and beliefs. Your view of the world influences your behavior. Having good character helps you make good choices and decisions.

Good character is the foundation for good decisions

When you have good character of honesty, loyalty, and perseverance, you’ll feel good about yourself while earning the trust and gaining the respect of others. People with solid moral character find happiness and success in their life and grow their relationships with others because of honesty, transparency, and mutual respect.

11. Stop Complaining

“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain, and most do.” — Dale Carnegie, an American author

You oversee building the life you want. Don’t complain; be the change you want from others. Complaining can cause stress and lead to health problems.

Complaining is like a virus — it can be contagious

A negative perception of the world is unsuitable for you and everyone else. There are many things we can complain about every day. If you become a constant complainer, people will avoid spending time with you and won’t want to associate with you.

Complainers feel there’s a gap between expectations and reality. They want to fix an injustice. Some complaining is healthy, while too much is toxic. When you view complaining correctly, you are more thankful and pay attention to what is around you.

12. Listen More Than You Talk

We all love to hear our voices. However, you’ll learn more by listening than talking. When you listen more, you’ll gain more knowledge and information. When you do speak, people will listen to you.

Most people go through life wishing to be listened to more so be that person who listens more than you talk

Remember that listening is more than hearing; it’s a critical part of good communication. Listening builds trust, shows compassion, and helps you gain valuable information that can help you grow in your professional and personal life.

When you listen more than you talk, you can reframe the conversation as more about learning than preaching. Listening with curiosity helps you better connect and understand what is being said. This information helps you frame your response in a way that helps you have deeper and more meaningful conversations with others.

13. Be Flexible and Adaptable

“A bad plan is better than no plan, and the most important quality of any plan is the flexibility to change.” — Judson L Moore, author and travel addict

When you are flexible and adaptable, you can change your mind. You adapt to your environment to accomplish your goals. You find ways to cope and succeed when circumstances are not in your favor.

The key is to be flexible, so you bend without breaking. You should develop a plan that can be tweaked and respond to different circumstances. Break down your plan into smaller chunks that you can realistically achieve.

Adaptability helps you handle and embrace change. You’ll be able to thrive in whatever situation life throws at you when you are flexible. Develop a plan, and then adapt to the changes in your life.

Read also: 7 pillars of self care

14. Good Things in Life Don’t Come Easy

“The best things in life don’t come easy, but those things are the ones worth the sacrifice.” — Adriana Locke, an author

A good life is hard work. The amount of effort you put in every day, the ability for you to learn from your mistakes, and how you cultivate a trustworthy network of colleagues and friends are up to you.

Your life is all about effort, pain, and difficulty. Nothing in this world is worth having if you don’t have to go through hard times. The key is to have an endurance mindset.

When you have this mindset, you view failure as an opportunity to improve yourself, you are unafraid to take risks, and you make sure you continue to have a positive outlook on life.

15. Make Your Own Path

We like to judge others. Our survival instincts cause us to judge because we need to know if a person or group of people is trustworthy or poses a threat. Peer pressure may push you down a path you really don’t want or thought you wanted but realize you don’t.

Don’t let other people determine your goals and dreams. It’s your path, and you decide where it takes you. You decide what your goals, dreams, and your version of life should be.

Bringing It All Together

There are 15 life lessons that can change your life and enable you to have the life you want. Develop good habits, make today count, compromise, show your value, stay professional, and build deep relationships. Know that sharing is caring, manners matter, don’t try to please everyone, character matters, stop complaining, listen more than you talk, be flexible and adaptable, good things in life don’t come easy, and make your own path.

You won’t learn these life lessons at one time. Be mindful that change takes time and allow yourself the time you need to grow. The key is to be aware of life lessons and apply them to your life. The change you want in life begins and ends with you.

“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you; they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” — Bernice Johnson Reagon, a song leader, composer, scholar, and social activist

CONTRIBUTED BY Matthew Royse

For more information and updates join our WhatsApp group HERE

Like our page on Facebook HERE