It is human to get caught up dwelling on past mistakes. You give power to issues that don’t truly matter anymore and you lose a part of you in the process. You’re wasting your time wishing you could go back to change things – but you can’t, so it’s time to stop wishing and start doing – in this you can stop living a life of regret and start living a happy and positive life that allows you to seize the day, every day.
When we embark at the start of a new year, we often slip into deep contemplation about life in general. If you make a list of goals, you will very likely have reviewed them and what lessons each may have brought you. You will look at what didn’t work and get a better idea of who you are as a person and who you could become.
You can look at what didn’t go well, what you didn’t do, what you did do and you can pat yourself on the back for a year well done. The truth is, not many of us do this – but it is a great way to take stock. You can see when sadness touched you and how you overcame it, remember the fun times you experienced and really question how you can make seizing the day a habit that you sustain, rather than a typical resolution that fades away after a month or two.
Everyone has dreams, but this goes beyond a dream – to truly make a dream come true you can’t give up at the first sight of difficulty. So many of us are guilty of throwing the towel in, convinced that the dream is too out there to make happen, it’s just too big.
A dream is a desire and a goal is what helps you find your way to it. The most important aspect of any journey is the map that guides you there, but a map is nothing if you don’t take action. You can’t accomplish anything without doing something. It’s what separates failure and success.
Being trapped in a daydream isn’t a life that anyone wants to live. So, how can you take that daydream and make it a reality?
23 Key Action Steps To Elevate Your Life
1| Make A Positive Start
The most important part of your day is the morning, so adapt a ritual that is high-energy and empowering to start your day right. You may need to take extra steps here if you aren’t traditionally a morning person. Start with meditation or yoga, a spot of exercise, and start with a nutritious breakfast. This is the point at which you can plan your day and having had such a positive start to the day will carry with you. You will be fed and energized to tackle any challenge that comes your way.
A great tip here is to start your day with the people you live with, whether it’s roommates or your family. It can set a positive tone for your day, especially if there’s a lot of laughter. Don’t rule out making time for repeating positive affirmations – you can do this on the way to work or during your yoga session, but standing in front of the mirror and delivering them while you make eye contact with yourself is the most powerful way to do so.
2| Face Your Fears
Do you wake up and dread a certain part of the day? There are a lot of things we do that we don’t feel comfortable with (or simply don’t care to do). Your subconscious kicks in and starts stressing you out causing serious discomfort for you. The problem is that we all have to do things we don’t want to do, and if it’s fear that is holding you back it’s time to take a deep breath and face it.
If it’s causing you to procrastinate then it is holding you back and you have to push through it. When you do you take back the control that you gave fear and it doesn’t take long to realize you had nothing to be afraid of in the first place. Facing your fear builds your confidence and makes you a better person.
3| Stop Thinking
Thinking and planning is great, but taking action is what really matters. Without action, there are no results.
4| Write A Mission Statement For Your Life
All corporations and many companies create a mission statement, the reason they do this is to organize a clear and concise goal for their company. You can do the same for your life. Write a mission statement and then live it
5| Live Your Passion
Passions fuel action, and without action, they are just unvisited ideas.
6| Live Your Abilities
Everyone is good at something, and your abilities are part of who you are. Taking action proves your abilities, puts them to good use, promotes your success, and allows you to make the most of all the gifts you have to offer to the world.
7| Believe In Yourself
When you believe in yourself, you can do anything, and guess what? You can! Only action can prove to yourself that you ‘can do it.’
8| Get Enthusiastic
Enthusiasm fuels you to act, chase your dreams, and work for what you want.
9| Dream Big, Act More
Act more than you dream, it’s the only way to see results. Success starts with a dream, but is only realized through action.
10| Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone
The “usual” is easy, but progress, success and results usually come from outside the box. All of us have a comfort zone, but that only keeps you where you are. Change is uncomfortable, but it can bring unlimited results.
11| Ditch The Past
We all do this, live in the past, dwelling on positive points of our life (or even obsessing over mistakes and lost opportunities). We do this because it elicits an emotional that we find comforting or supporting a specific assumption you hold about something. You are caught up in trying to shape a future that resembles a past that can never be. You can’t change it, so why are you stuck there?
There is nothing you do right now to change what has already occurred. The only thing you can change is how you perceive the past. You can’t create the future that you really want if you’re caught living in the past. You should be living for today and in doing so you will be helping to shape your tomorrows.
Not sure if you can let go of painful memories? Sit down with a pad and paper and write your feelings out about those memories. Then tear those pages up and drop them in the wastebasket or set them alight. The easiest way to move forward from past mistakes or painful memories is to process the emotion and then let them go.
12| Live In The Present
We all understand the importance of setting goals, can you survive without them? Yes, you can, but setting goals is going to help you progress at a much more efficient rate. You can use your goals to determine what you want and what it will take for you to get there.
You can make your dreams become a reality by changing how you live now.
Your present will dictate your future, so by living for the now, you are paving your own path. If you are too focused on the past or the future, it will be easy to get lost on the way.
Not convinced goals are for you? Just try it for the next month or two and see what a difference it makes to your focus, performance, and productivity.
13| Accept The Unchangeable
If you are focused on changing the unchangeable, you will quickly find yourself drowning in quicksand. Beyond that, though, you will start to feel helpless and it could result in depression. There are things that you cannot control and there are things that you cannot change – accepting that will bring you freedom and happiness. Keep your focus on what you can affect and influence.
There’s something to be said for The Serenity Prayer and the desire to be able to accept what you cannot change, for the courage to change what you are able to… as well as the wisdom it takes to be able to discern which is which. We often don’t realize what kind of anxiety we are creating in our lives by not understanding the latter.
14| Live With Purpose
You can do a lot with a plan, whether it’s your career or your life. Sure, you can choose to drift through life aimlessly waiting for things to happen or you can find focus and create a plan that will help you do it. Everyone needs a purpose and before you can plan, you need to discover what your purpose truly is. We all have a different purpose, but our contentment in life hinges on whether we are able to find ours and then live it out.
15| Quit Making Excuses
We all experience difficulty facing up to our shortcomings, and that may mean we blame other people for our problems. It was your co-worker’s fault that you missed a deadline, your ex is why your marriage failed; your boss doesn’t like you which is why you never got that promotion. While in some cases you may have a point, you are responsible for your life and rather than making excuses, you should be taking responsibility and being accountable for your life. You can overcome any obstacle life throws at you, you just need to stop making excuses and start believing in yourself.
16| Say Yes, But Don’t Be Afraid Of No
If something elicits an emphatic yes from you then it should top your priority list. If it’s a weak yes, then it isn’t a yes at all – don’t be afraid to say no to what is essentially clutter in your life. While those things could be urgent to other people, if it isn’t important to you then don’t waste your time with it. This, of course, doesn’t necessarily go for not doing your share of the carpool or going grocery shopping. Sorry.
17| Stop The Comparisons
It’s time to stop comparing yourself to everyone else – while they may seem happy, you don’t really know what is going on behind the scenes. So, don’t get caught up assuming that your life is worse off than others, remain focused on yourself. You won’t progress when you’re looking elsewhere; it is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in life. Your life’s path is unique to you so stick to yours.
You know that saying about the grass being greener on the other side? Even though we know it isn’t, we just can’t help ourselves from longing after that luscious green grass we have imagined is growing over the fence. It’s time to start working on growing your own grass and show gratitude for everything that you have.
18| Bring Your A-Game
No matter what you’re doing, always do your best. Part of seizing the day means putting your full effort in. The best way to gauge whether you are giving something your all is to ask yourself whether you are truly proud of yourself for your day’s performance. That doesn’t mean you should beat yourself up if the answer is no, it just means you need to stop settling.
19| Be There
No matter who you are with, where you are or what you are doing – give it your complete focus. The only way to truly experience life is to give your total attention to your current task or company. It’s something that we struggle with so much, though, whether we can’t stop looking at our phones or checking emails.
20| Show Your Emotions
When you are with the people that you love, don’t be afraid to let them see your emotions. Part of having relationships is maintaining them and it’s difficult to maintain a relationship if you don’t invest in it. So, tell your loved ones how much you love them and find ways to show them, too. We don’t live forever, you don’t want to regret bottling your emotions.
21| Don’t Play The Victim
It can be easy to claim victimhood when we get tangled in a web of mistakes. The only thing that it does is make you want to give up and walk away. This isn’t going to help, the best way to move forward and seize the day is by embracing your mistakes and taking a lesson from it. Forgive yourself for the mistakes and take the lessons with you as you move to achieve your goal. Feeling sorry for yourself is robbing you of your happiness and preventing you from living out your dreams.
22| Manage Negative Thoughts
We are often our own worst enemy and when our thoughts race through all the worst case scenarios and whether we have what it takes it makes a lasting impression. Take notice of those negative thoughts that you’re thinking and start replacing them with positive ones. A handy way to do this would be to make a list of your best traits or qualities and refer to it when you are particularly down on yourself. It might seem like an egocentric habit to start, but if someone you love were putting himself or herself down you would be quick to build them back up again. Don’t be afraid to build yourself back up like you would for anyone else that you love.
23| Take Action
Once you create a plan, you may find that you are too scared to follow through. Fear holds us back from doing a lot of the things that we want to do. The worst thing that can happen is that you fail and if you were to fail… you simply pick yourself up and go again. The outcome is never as bad as you imagine it will be. Yet, we put it off and put it off and promise that we’ll do it when the time is right. The time is right now.
Practical Tips For Self-Growth
Part of seizing the day comes from growing as a person, but where do you even start? Your first step is in understanding what you need to do before you can act. For example, if your plan is to go back to school and study a new course at the local community college then you need to first think about what it will take to get you there.
Yes, it will be amazing to go back to studying, it’s an opportunity to rebuild your life and change the things that you don’t like. However, how are you going to make it happen? A good start would be to track down the people who have been there and done it and pick their brains.
Share what you’re thinking with your close friend(s). Not only does it put your plans out there and solidify them in your mind, but it’s a great way to talk you through your ideas and get a true sense of your direction.
Don’t just talk to anyone, though, speak to the people that you trust to provide you with honest advice and encouragement.
- Discipline
One of the greatest virtues you can have as you chase your dreams and turn them into a reality is discipline. Once you have identified what you want and what you need to do to get it… you need to be disciplined enough to stick to the plan. A lot of people know what is expected of them, yet rather than making the necessary changes will fall into old habits and then hope it all falls into place. If that’s your plan then your dreams will never become a reality. Instead, it’s vital that you are passionate about your goals and dreams, so much so that you are willing to go to extreme lengths to avoid sabotaging yourself.
Any success comes at a price. For example, if you have a goal to lose weight but you love drinking cocktails, then you know you have to cut out those delicious, sugary beverages in order to lose the weight, right? So, you do it.
Unfortunately, a lot of us are guilty of being our own worst enemy and we take action that either hinders us or completely sabotages our efforts to succeed. Then we realize our mistake, but it’s too late. This is why discipline is a necessary part of doing everything it takes to seize the day.
- Find A Coach
A life coach, a mentor, or just someone who can help you drive your self-improvement. There are a lot of things that you just don’t understand and you don’t know how to do. That’s why you are where you are right now and it’s why a coach could help you change your path and guide your focus to achieving your dreams.
A coach can help you prioritize your time, and that doesn’t just mean managing your time, it means understanding what needs to be done first. It’s easy to waste time getting caught up doing things that aren’t really that important.
A coach can help you with that, with family problems, relationship issues, confidence problems, and a whole host of other things that you may feel are holding you back from truly seizing the day. That doesn’t mean any coach will do, so if you do reach out to a coach make sure it’s the right one for you. Understand who they are, what they offer, and how their personality fits with yours before you hire them. There are plenty of online resources that can help.
- Build Your Confidence
One of the biggest areas of growth you can experience is building your confidence. With confidence under your wings, you are unstoppable. So, go out of your way to repeat positive affirmations throughout the day and learn how to use your strengths to your advantage.
Celebrate every single win you have and write them down. When you feel discouraged or low go, back and look at all your wins again. There are small, but meaningful ways for you to build your confidence every single day.
Final Thoughts
There’s something truly amazing about the idea of living live to the full, isn’t there? It sounds romantic and unachievable, but isn’t that why we are all here? To live life fully? Carpe Diem literally means seize the day because you really do only live once and it’s happening to you right now. This very moment could be your only moment, and what are you doing with it?
Give life your all and be the best you that you can possibly be. That means letting go of whatever is holding you back, breaking down your resistance and self-doubt, and giving yourself the permission, you need to set yourself free from the constraints you have built for yourself. You have spent long enough wishing for change, it’s time to start making the changes happen for yourself.
After all, you want the best for the people around you, right? You would hate to see a loved one wasting their life doing something that they hate, a job that leaves them depressed, trapped in a loveless or toxic relationship. Why wouldn’t you want the same happiness, contentment, and joy for yourself? It’s time to stop wish
