Is it possible to transform your life and start living your dreams?
It is possible.
Right now, it probably doesn’t feel like you are capable of taking such radical action, but there’s nothing radical about the action you need to take. Like any process, it all begins with one step forward. Or you can liken it to eating an elephant one bite at a time. I personally prefer taking steps to eating elephants, but whatever works for you.
I’m not going to encourage you to make comparisons – but I am going to say we often look at others who are similar to us and wonder how they changed their life for the better. You see it’s possible but you don’t understand the how of it. It all begins with action to bring order to self. And that is easier said than done.
1| Make the Decision
This might sound a little too obvious, but the most difficult aspect of changing your life and bringing order to self is making the decision to do so. The reason most people never see the change they want is because they don’t take the plunge and decide to do it. It doesn’t matter what you’re planning, or how you want to transform things, you need to make a conscious decision to proceed. And you need to make that choice regularly.
2| Embrace Discomfort
You might think embracing discomfort is the opposite of bringing order to self, but how can you grow and develop as a person if you aren’t willing to sit in discomfort from time to time? The core of growth is moving beyond your lived experiences to break new ground.
You can’t change anything without first committing yourself to your dreams – and you have to be more committed to those than you are to your comfort zone. So, start small by changing your order every time you visit a restaurant or fast food outlet.
Change the radio station to a genre you don’t typically listen to, seek out documentaries different from what you’d normally choose, and embrace challenges when they crop up. Embrace every opportunity to change.
3| Identify Change
What do you class as bringing order to self? You need to sit down and work out what that looks like and determine what you do and do not want. Write out the areas of your life that you either dislike or see as disorder. Does your job bring disorder? Or is it your approach to your job that causes the disorder? Is your romantic life disorderly? Or maybe it’s your approach to that, too.
Maybe it’s your home that requires order. The more detail you have about what you view as disorder and what you think is driving it, the easier it will be to bring order to self. Just don’t get sucked into thinking too negatively about these things. It’s about making a detailed list and moving on to the next step which goes deeper.
4| Define Changes
You now have the list you made in the previous step, it’s time to define how you can transform it all.
5| Identify What’s Holding You Back
As you embark on the journey of bringing order to self, you need to identify what is currently holding you back and what could hold you back. Are you a procrastinator when it comes to cleaning your home? Are you the type of person who would rather tear yourself down with negative self-talk than create a workable schedule? What is stopping you?
6| Choose
You should start with one thing before moving on to another thing. The more you can focus on a single task, the more likely you are to win. This is a process and it will take time, but there are plenty of quick wins. For example, if your home feels chaotic, a quick win is scheduling ten to fifteen minutes a day for maintenance cleaning.
A quick dust, doing the dishes, keeping up with your laundry. All of that is a way to prevent things from building up and growing out of control. Now, if it’s already out of control, you will need to schedule a time to tackle each room at a time for a clear-out. Then you can schedule your maintenance cleans.
7| Set Goals
Be specific, ensure you can measure your goal(s), make them achievable, they should be relevant to bring order to self, and you need to have a timeframe to complete them.
8| Prepare
As with any journey, you will experience challenges and storms. So, do what you can to prepare. The more order you bring to self, the more equipped you will be to weather the storms. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t particularly challenging when these storms come at the start of your journey.
9| Gather Your Team
Everything feels better when you share it with others – it’s also helpful when those people can provide you support as you get your act together. Only you are capable of bringing order to self, but nobody is an island and our support systems are a necessary aspect of our success.
Don’t convince yourself that a) nobody cares or that b) you can do any of it on your own. You’re a social creature, embrace it. This is a long-haul process – and remember, your focus should be on the process rather than the results.
10| Keep Going
You can’t transform your life overnight; it isn’t even going to happen in a month. This is an ongoing process. Once you do bring order to self, you will need to continue the journey to maintain that order. Like gutting your house and then maintaining it with small cleans daily. If you gut the house and leave it at that, it will slowly build up until it’s in disorder again.
Ultimately, bringing order to self is the first step in improving your life overall and that step contains a multitude of steps. It’s a process, it’s a journey, and you have to enjoy it rather than being so focused on the final destination.
