🌻25 Simple Actions That Will Transform Your Life Forever

It’s just that simple.

Read on for the most powerful actions that helped me completely rebuild my life.

I went from shy, hopeless, and scrubbing toilets to running a successful business, traveling the world, working with major magazines, and more.

You don’t have to do all of them at once. You don’t even have to do all of them. Disregard whatever doesn’t make sense for your situation.

Read also: You’ll never fear rejection again if you can adopt this mindset

But I promise, if you give it an honest try, you will make a huge impact.

Strength Training

Everyone should strength train—regardless of age, gender, or injury history.

It’s not about looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger; it’s about building basic strength in your muscles, joints, bones, tendons, and more to handle life. It’s about building self-confidence and learning discipline. (It’s also to withstand the natural decline as you age.)

Bodyweight, barbells, kettlebells, resistance bands—doesn’t matter. Do something and do it consistently.

Reading

“If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you.”

—General Jim Mattis

Yeah, what he said.

Articles are great, but nothing beats a book where the author(s) can really elaborate and explain their concepts. Read like your life depends on it.

Because it does.

Meditating

Did meditation change my life?

No, not really.

But as the founder of Headspace said in one meditation: It’s not how you feel after meditating; it’s how you feel when you don’t meditate.

Having that moment of stillness is huge. And during a self-improvement journey, being able to watch your thoughts and patterns is a great start to break a cycle and replace it with something better.

Creating a Morning Routine

You don’t have to wake up at 5 AM. (Hell, in the country I’m currently in, people would think you’re crazy if you woke up at 5 AM.)

When you do wake up, find a routine that works for you that helps you get in the right mood, mindset, to have a great day. Maybe that’s exercise, reading, praying, or listening to a book—whatever it is, it works for you.

That way, you start the day on your terms and feel like there’s some stability and consistency.

Creating a Nighttime Routine

You spend one-third of your life sleeping.

To sleep better, try a nighttime routine to close the chapter on the day and wind down.

It doesn’t have to be long; just take a moment to relax. Maybe that’s a quick meditation, reading a book, writing in a journal, listening to some music, having an herbal tea—use your imagination. Do what feels right for you.

Talking to Strangers

Over the past decade, I’ve talked to at least 1000 different strangers.

I’m not joking.

It’s been a practice that changed my life. Similar to Jim Matthis’s quote above, if you only talk to people you know, your breadth will be so limited. Only by talking to people from all walks of life will you start to understand all walks of life.

If you’re shy or “socially awkward,” don’t rationalize it and say, “Well, that’s just who I am.” You can change; it’s worth it.

Do Fewer Things At Once

Many people try to do way too many things at once. For example, they’re eating, talking on the phone, and driving at the same time. They have 20 tabs open on their browser while listening to music and trying to do work.

Rather than multitasking, try singletasking. Do fewer things at once and fully focus on each thing. In my experience, I do each task better and finish faster than trying to juggle 8 things at once.

Slow Down

In many circles, being crushingly busy is a badge of honor. Ask them how they’ve been and they’ll say, “Oh man, busy, so busy… busy, busy, busy!”

But that doesn’t actually sound… healthy.

Slow down. Rest and recovery are what allow you to perform your best.

By the way, same with eating. Many people don’t chew their food well enough. Be in the moment and enjoy each bite.

Traveling

Let’s stop making “travel” inaccessible. It’s not only going to exotic destinations and collecting stamps in your passport.

You can “travel” within your own city, state, region, province, etc.

When I was broke, I would take the subway to some random place and walk around. When I was doing better, I would drive to a random city an hour away to have coffee and explore.

Travel is an attitude. It’s a state of mind. It’s an openness to see and have new experiences.

Stretch

It’s as simple as it sounds. Take a few moments throughout the week to stretch your muscles to maintain (or even increase) muscle length. We work them pretty hard so give them the love and care they deserve.

Trust me, your mind and body will thank you.

Rehydrate In The Morning

When you first wake up, you haven’t had fluids for a long time.

By drinking a big glass of water right after getting up, you’ll quickly rehydrate yourself and get the body working.

Also, drink more water throughout the day. I’m stunned by how little people drink. As long as your urine is a very light yellow, you’re good.

Unplug The News

The news is terrible.

Not only does it showcase negativity and chaos, but these for-profit outlets also control the narrative and subtly manipulate how you think.

The more drama, the more ad revenue. It’s in their best interest to make things sound as bad as possible.

Please, for the love of God, cut back. Life really is beautiful, no matter what those channels and newspapers say.

Cut Back on Sugar

As a former fitness coach, I’ll tell you straight up: People eat and drink way too much sugar.

They have sugary beverages, put sugar in their coffee or tea, have sugary snacks, and then eat food that often has sugar in it!

I love sweets too, but if you consume a lot, I strongly encourage you to cut back to a few times a week. Also, try healthier substitutes like fruit for candy or homemade soda for Coca-Cola.

Limit Social Media

The research is clear that the more time you spend on social media, the more depressed, anxious, and unhappy you become. (Google it.)

Maybe you’re immune to this phenomenon—more power to you.

But if you’re mortal, it’ll happen to you too.

If you mindlessly scroll through your feeds, cut back on social media and spend more time in reality.

Watch Your Friends

You might not like hearing this, but if you find yourself stuck in life, take a hard look at your social circle.

As Jim Rohn famously explained: You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

If you don’t like what they’re doing, where they are in life, how they live, etc., it’s time to make some hard choices.

Journal

It’s the grown-up version of keeping a diary as a kid. Except rather than talking about girls or your parents, you can talk about… uh… girls and your parents.

Well, you know what I mean.

Journaling your thoughts, feelings, frustrations, etc. is cathartic and healing. When you’re working through things in life, pull out a journal or computer and get going.

Gratitude

Gratitude is a powerful emotion.

Spend more time being grateful every single day. An easy way to do this is to keep a gratitude journal to write down things you’re thankful for daily.

For those who don’t want a journal, just think about those things. Or when someone is nice to you, make a special effort to thank them.

Speak Well

I, uh, want to show you, ahh, the importance of, like, speaking well, you know? Soooo… yeah.

Bravo.

Speak clearly and cut out fillers. You’ll sound intelligent and people will actually listen to you. One thing that helped me was to use the dictation feature to write because it forced me to speak well and avoid fillers.

Avoiding Negative People

A lot of people are negative, combative, unhappy, unambitious, etc. They’re not bad people—they probably had experiences that caused those behaviors—but you have to protect your own mind and emotions.

Why spend your time around people like that? They’ll only drag you down.

Stand Up For Yourself

I wrote previously (before Medium writers plagiarized me, lolz) that the only thing regret in life is that I didn’t stand up for myself when people were disrespecting me.

I used to rationalize that I was being “the better person,” but I wasn’t.

I was afraid. I had low self-worth. I thought I somehow deserved it.

Say something. Don’t insult them or swear (which would be mirroring the disrespect). Just say you don’t like it and tell them to stop.

Apologize Correctly

Don’t apologize like a politician.

When you do something wrong or someone calls you out, don’t make fucking excuses, don’t change the subject, don’t resort to whataboutism, don’t gaslight them and tell them they should stop being so sensitive, etc.

Just be sincere, say your sorry, and most importantly, don’t do it again.

It’s never too late.

Don’t Carry a Grudge

I’ve seen first-hand how carrying a grudge—i.e. not being able to let go of any past wrong—can destroy a family.

For this, meditation can help as well as journaling. If you struggle with this, you can even seek professional help.

Learn from my mistakes.

Dress Better

Some people will hate on me for this. You might think I’m wrong—fine. Disregard it.

But how you dress says a lot about how you feel about yourself.

The good news? You don’t need to spend a lot of money — there are countless YouTube videos about dressing well on a budget.

Wear clothes that fit. Dress for the occasion or even a little better. Don’t dress like a teenager when you’re 45. Groom yourself.

Read also: 11 self-taught life lessons that gave me a major advantage

Give it an honest and you’ll see. I’ll be shocked if you don’t feel different and other people don’t treat you better either.

Have Less

I pack light and travel light. I don’t own many possessions.

When I leave my pad, I only have a small money clip, keys, phone, and lip balm (for any impromptu smooching, duh).

It’s incredibly liberating.

The more possessions we have, the more our possessions possess us.

Say “Yes” More

Successful people talk about the importance of saying “no.”

Well, yeah, when you have an 8-figure business, countless interview requests, and 3 book deals, you need to say no. But if you’re a regular human, start saying “yes” more.

Why? Because “yes” opens you to more activities, experiences, foods, people, cultures, careers, etc.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

Don’t limit yourself in the beginning.

Hope it helps.

🟢Contributed by Anthony J. Yeung

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