50 Ideas For A Better Life
It doesn’t take much to change your life. Whether you want to improve your mind, your body, your outlook, or your home, here are 50 simple things you can do today to make your life better.
Improve Your Health
Your life will be much better when your body is healthy and capable. Taking care of yourself starts by tending to your body each day. Here are several simple things you can do today to improve your health and help make your life better.
1. Stay hydrated!
It may sound simple but drinking plenty of water is a simple thing you can do to improve your health and make your better today. Your body needs a lot of water to be healthy and run properly, and when you don’t drink enough of this vital, life-giving fluid, you will suffer. Drinking enough water helps your body heal and rejuvenate, prevents headaches, keeps your digestive system running smoothly, and even gives you more energy.
2. Exercise right when you wake up.
exercising early in the morning provides your metabolism with a jump start, and it sets the tone for the rest of your day. You will start burning calories right away, and exercise releases some feel-good endorphins that get you in the right mindset to tackle the day ahead.
Even exercising for just 20 minutes first thing in the morning is beneficial to your health. Plus, when you get your activity in first, you won’t have any excuses about being too tired or busy later in the day to prevent you from accomplishing this important goal.
3. Get up at every day at the same time.
Even on your days off, you should try to go to bed and get up at the same time each day. This will ensure your circadian rhythms, which are your body’s natural sleep-wake cycles, are not interrupted, giving you a better night’s sleep each day. Resist hitting the snooze button, too, as this interferes with your ability to sleep soundly and feel rested when you get up. Consistently waking up at the same time helps you feel more alert, less stressed in the mornings, and provides you with a reliable schedule for your days.
4. Get enough sleep.
Staying awake late each night and depriving yourself of sleep is not healthy. Lack of sleep contributes to depression, anxiety, premature aging, forgetfulness, and weight gain. Be sure you are allowing yourself to get at least seven hours of restful sleep every night to make your life better starting today.
5. Cook for yourself.
Packing your lunch, bringing your own coffee, and making dinner for yourself will not only save you money, but it’s better for your health, too. You’ll be putting money in the bank each day by not going out for meals, and you can control the ingredients in your food, allowing you to make healthier choices.
6. Eat a healthy breakfast.
Get your day started off well by eating a breakfast high in protein. Not only does eating protein early in the day help you feel full longer, but it also provides you with the needed energy to have a successful, productive morning. Rev up your metabolism with a healthy, protein-rich breakfast.
7. Give yourself a break.
Make sure you are allowing yourself enough down time every day. Your brain and body need time to refuel and re-energize. Stop thinking you have to be moving and doing something every second of the day and start enjoying time to replenish your mind and body.
Improve Your Mind
Just as taking care of your body and health is important, so is making your sure brain is growing and staying strong. Be sure to dedicate some time each day to keeping your brain active and engaged. Here are some ways to improve your mind, which are easy and simple strategies for improving your life today.
8. Prioritize your tasks each day.
Before you start each day, identify the top three most important goals you have to accomplish. Each of these should be moving you toward attaining a long-term goal. Write them down first thing in the morning, and this will help you focus and stay on track. Reminding yourself of your priorities is necessary for using your time productively. Even if you accomplish nothing else on your to-do list, checking off your three most important tasks will feel like a real accomplishment each day.
9. Stop complaining.
When you talk negatively, even in your own head, it creates more negative thoughts, which can produce even more negative results. When you catch yourself starting to complain about something, remind yourself to focus on those things for which you are grateful. If something isn’t working, look for solutions rather than just griping. Creating less negativity in your mental state will produce a chain reaction of positivity.
10. Write in a journal every day.
Find ten to fifteen minutes each day to write in a journal. You can document your thoughts, record your musings, or focus on what you learned each day. Don’t worry about judging your writing, as no one will see it. Hand-written notes are more powerful and reflective than typing. Journals are a way to get thoughts out of your mind, so you can clear space for more productive ideas, too.
11. Use music to boost your concentration.
If you have trouble focusing, try low-level music or even a white noise machine to block out distractions and help you stay engaged. These strategies can improve your creativity, lower your stress level, and allow you to concentrate for more sustained periods.
12. Use a timer to keep you on task.
If you want to be more productive, use a timer to designate specific work periods and period breaks. Some people like the 60/10 rule, which involves 60 minutes of work, then a 10-minute break.
Others prefer a 30/5 ratio. Whatever your balance, the timer will provide you the signal, so you don’t have to worry about how much longer you have, and the short but frequent breaks can help you stay energized and focused. Make sure your short breaks involve some movement, such as stretching or walking.
13. Learn something new today.
A great way to keep your brain productive and healthy is to provide it with new stimulus. Make it a point to learn something new every day. It can be the name of the beautiful plant you always admire in your co-worker’s office, how to say a particular word in a foreign language, or the meaning of that phrase everyone keeps using but you don’t actually understand.
It doesn’t really matter the content, just that you are committing something new to memory. As you lay down each night, reflect on what you learned today and try to connect it with something you already knew, which is a way to place your new learning into long-term memory.
14. Put down your phone and read.
Whether it’s a book or magazine, reading for just a few minutes each day is a great way to improve your mind. Skip the daily scrawl through social media and instead read a few chapters or an article on an interesting topic. Focus on one story or topic for a sustained period rather than jumping from idea to idea. This is a great way to train your brain for focus as well as keep you calm.
15. Find someone to help with accountability.
Whether you are looking for incentives to keep you from procrastinating at work today or to help you reach a long-term goal, being accountable to someone else can be tremendously helpful.
Making your commitments public and being forced to live with consequences when you don’t reach your goals are important learning tools. If you don’t have a friend or partner who can help you be accountable, look at online sources. Some are even set up to provide financial incentives for following through.
16. Stop multi-tasking.
When you try to focus on more than one thing at a time, you don’t actually do a very good job with either one of them. Multi-tasking usually results in poorer results and higher levels of stress. If you are engaged in something and find yourself thinking or worrying about something else, take a minute to refocus.
Eliminate as many distractions as you can, turn off notifications that vie for your attention, and stick with one task until it is fully completed. You’ll find you are able to do more and at a higher level of quality when you just focus on one thing at a time.
17. Get creative.
Whether your creative outlet is writing, poetry, drawing, painting, building something, sewing, or something else, be sure you are allowing your creative side opportunities to shine. Even if you have to put it on your schedule, you should be doing something creative regularly.
This keeps your brain engaged, builds stronger neural connections, and strengthens the connections that already exist.
18. Try doing the hardest thing first.
After you have prioritized your tasks each day, don’t start with the easiest or smallest job. Tackle the most difficult or least appealing task first. Not only will you have more energy and focus earlier in the day, but the longer you wait, the more filled with dread you will become.
Just do it and get it over with, so that it’s not hanging over you for the rest of the day. Once you’ve finished the job, you’ll feel so much better and more accomplished for the rest of the day, so this strategy can give you energy and motivation to accomplish even more.
19. Write down your long-term goals.
If you want to improve your life today, make sure you are on the path that is going to make you happy. Write down your long-term goals and the beliefs that guide your life. Look at your daily activities and determine if any are not really getting you where you want to be.
How can you cut back on those? Where do you need to make changes? If you want to be sure you are on the right path, make sure you are clear about your destination.
20. Capture your ideas.
If you are working on something but keep getting distracted by other ideas, take a moment to stop and write those thoughts down. Your brain will know they have been captured, so you won’t lose them later. This will allow you to refocus on what you were doing, and you can return to this new idea later when you have more time.
Writing down ideas when they occur is a great little strategy, so keep a notebook with you or have an app on your phone that you use for this purpose. You’ll soon find your brain flowing more easily because you’ve developed a habit of capturing and nurturing those new thoughts.
21. Learn a new word.
You will enjoy many benefits when you expand your vocabulary. First, you’ll improve your communication abilities, which allows people to understand you better.
Secondly, you are stimulating your mind and building new neural connections, which will keep your brain strong and active for many years. Finally, learning new words can help you feel more confident around others and give you something interesting to talk about in social situations.
Improve Your Attitude
Your mindset plays an important role in your happiness and success. When you improve your attitude, you can improve the outcome of your day and lead to greater accomplishments in the future. Here are some simple things you can do when your attitude needs an adjustment.
22. Change your clothes.
One of the simplest things you can do to change your mood is to change the colors of your clothes. Colors impact your conscious and subconscious mind, and they play a major role in your mood. Whether you want to invoke a more powerful emotion or calm your energy, color plays a significant role in how you feel.
When you wear clothes that make you feel good about yourself, you will also be more confident. Get energized with colors like red or yellow and settle your energy with blue or green.
23. Practice daily meditation.
Learning to meditate can not only lower your stress level but it also can change the way your brain works. Meditation teaches you to concentrate, improves focus, and allows you to block out distractions that can interfere with your happiness.
Meditation teaches you to notice how you are feeling, how life is affecting your mood and overall well-being, and is a good tool for bringing clarity and focus to your day. Meditation is effective for enhancing your sense of purpose and reducing depression, too.
There are many helpful guided meditation tools available today, and once you learn the basic techniques, you can practice meditation just about anywhere where you are comfortable.
24. Practice forgiveness.
More important than forgiving anyone else in your life is the act of forgiving yourself. Holding on to past regrets and mistakes drains you, affects your self-confidence, and can lead to feelings of anger, shame, and guilt. Forgive yourself for whatever past mistakes or issues you have and move on to making your dreams come true today.
25. Learn from your mental chatter.
For the next few days, keep notes about how you talk to yourself in your mind. Record when you are beating yourself up or being critical of your actions, and document when you are praising yourself and acknowledging your accomplishments.
How are you feeling at the time, and what triggered the chatter? You can learn a lot about your mental state, your emotional responses, and how to be kinder to yourself when you pay attention to the thoughts that you express to yourself.
26. Laugh.
Learning to laugh regularly is an important step toward improving your life. Make sure you are engaging in activities and with people who genuinely make you laugh. Laughter lowers stress, improves your mood, and changes your outlook almost instantly. Even if you have to seek out funny things, make sure you get in a good laugh each day.
27. Stop comparing yourself to other people.
When you compare yourself to others, you negatively impact your own self-esteem. While others’ lives may look great from the outside, everyone has problems, struggles, and challenges, just like you.
Don’t waste your energy today focusing on anyone else, and instead concentrate on how you are going to take another step toward becoming the best version of yourself. Your energy and engagement are limited and focusing on anyone but yourself is a waste of that valuable resources. So, stop worrying about anyone else and focus today on you.
28. Play your favorite song.
A surefire way to put yourself in a good mood is to listen to your favorite tune. Music influences your mind as well as your body, so playing music isn’t only good for your outlook. Play your favorite happy song to get you motivated or listen to your favorite sad tune for a cathartic release. Just a few minutes with your best tunes, though, can completely change your attitude.
29. Get outside.
Spend time outdoors every day. Take a walk, sit in the sun, stroll through the trees. Fresh air lowers your stress level, and sunshine helps your body make Vitamin D, which has a huge influence on your mind and body. Spend some quality time outside each day to lift your spirits and improve your mental health.
30. Give yourself daily affirmations.
When you speak positive words, you think positive thoughts. Just a few words of affirmation can change how you are feeling today and give you the confidence you need to achieve your goals today. When you say positive things about yourself consistently, you begin to believe they are true, which means you can manifest those characteristics in your daily actions, as well.
31. Get rid of negative people.
You don’t need people who drag you down in your life. Surrounding yourself with positive people is the quickest way to become a positive person. Cut ties with people who only serve to make you feel bad or bring you down. You will start feeling better when you aren’t surrounded by their negative words and energy.
32. Cultivate curiosity.
Instead of focusing on the mistakes you made or opportunities you lost, instead ask more questions. What can you learn from this situation? What will you do differently next time? What can you do to enhance your knowledge and skills, so something similar doesn’t happen in the future? Become curious, and mistakes turn into learning opportunities.
33. Praise other people.
What you send out returns back to you. When you provide positive reinforcement to other people, you will start to notice that the world is sending you compliments, too. When you appreciate others, you will start to notice more ways that others appreciate you. Being generous with your praise leaves you open to accepting compliments from others as well as changing your attitude for the better.
Improve Your Environment
The space around you influences your emotions, motivation, and outlook. Improve them all with these simple ideas for improving your environment, which can make your life better today.
34. Spend five minutes cleaning up the kitchen.
Five minutes is all it takes to throw away trash, wipe off the counters and tables, put dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and toss any food that’s past its prime.
A tidy kitchen is much more conducive to wanting to cook, and when your kitchen is clean, you feel less stress. Spending just five minutes a day saves you from spending a whole day deep-cleaning, too.
35. Get organized.
When things have a place, it makes it easier to locate what you need. Being organized helps you feel more confident and lowers your stress levels, too. When you are organized, you can spend more time focused on what’s really important instead of trying to find what you need.
36. Put things away.
Once you’ve found a place for everything, it’s important that you remember to put everything back in its place. When you take things out, put them away. When you take clothes off, hang them up or put them in the hamper.
When you are done with something, throw it away or put it back where it goes. Taking a few seconds to do these things regularly means you won’t have to clean for hours at a time.
37. Declutter your space.
When your environment is cluttered, your mind feels cluttered, too. Walk around each room. Identify five things in each area that doesn’t serve a purpose or bring you joy. Put those things in a box. If you find, after 30 days, that you have not thought about or needed that item, get rid of it. Continue this process religiously until you have eliminated the unnecessary from your space.
38. Stop getting junk mail.
Catalogs and junk mail just add more work to your daily routine. Unsubscribe from mailing lists, catalogs, and other promotions that just add more work and clutter to your space. Do the same with digital subscriptions. If your inbox is cluttered with junk, it detracts from what’s important to your life. Get rid of it.
39. Fix something each day.
Identify all the nagging projects in your house. Every day fix one thing that’s been bugging you. Replace broken items, replace burnt out bulbs, sew on the button you’ve been missing for months. It could also be finding new homes for things that are always in your way. Find a small project each day and tackle them one at a time. You’ll soon have a fully functional home and no added stress.
Improve Your Relationships
Having strong, healthy relationships are essential for a happy life. These simple tips can help you have a stronger bond with those you love and allow you to live a better life today.
40. Remind your partner why you love them.
It’s easy to take the ones closest to us for granted. Don’t allow your closeness with your mate to become a crutch. Be sure to thank them regularly for all the things they do for you and be sure you are reciprocating with acts of kindness and love.
41. Be more empathetic.
When you try to see things from others’ perspectives or acknowledge that someone else’s experience is very different from your own, you are practicing empathy. Instead of judging others for their differences, be curious about their experiences and beliefs.
Seek to understand rather than condemn, and you will find not only that you are more tolerant but that others are more open to sharing with you.
42. Make plans with those you love.
Whether it’s your partner or a cherished friend, make plans to spend time with loved ones. If you lack a partner, share your feelings with friends and talk about the kind of person you want in your life. The more you share the details of your ideal mate, the more likely you are to meet someone with those qualities.
43. Work on your relationships.
Strong bonds don’t just happen, and they won’t stay strong without some attention. Spend time every day strengthening one of the relationships in your life. Whether it’s to talk with someone on the phone, send someone a message, tell someone you love them, or give someone you love a hug, these simple acts take hardly any time but mean so much when it comes to your bond with others.
44. Presume positive intentions.
Whenever you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts about someone else, presume the very best about their intentions. When you start from a place where you assume they have a positive heart and their actions come from a place of kindness, your reaction can be dramatically informed.
Presume that others have the same good intentions you have in your heart, and you’ll soon see your reaction to the world changes, too.
45. Seek out those whom you admire.
Surround yourself with positive people and seek out the advice and friendship of people who have attained goals similar to yours. When you surround yourself with people who have happy outlooks and behave in positive ways, this has a dramatic effect on you. When you have mentors and friends who have similar goals as you, your motivation and determination are positively impacted, as well.
46. Ask for help.
There isn’t a person on earth who is able to achieve happiness or success on their own. Don’t ever be afraid to ask for help. Questions are how we learn more, and having guides and teachers allows us to grow and achieve.
47. Talk to someone new.
It’s easy to get stuck in a social rut. Make an effort to talk to new people regularly. Greet your neighbors, talk with people online who share common interests, or engage with coworkers who you haven’t gotten to know.
Expanding your social networks allows you to learn more about others, experience other viewpoints, and connect with those from different backgrounds.
48. Schedule social time.
For many people who are busy, if it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t get done. Schedule time with your friends on a regular basis. Make plans for fun nights out, work out together, or create a monthly or weekly event, but make time in your life to spend time with your friends.
49. Actively listen.
Learning to be an active listener can help you be a better partner and friend. Active listening involves focus on the speaker, hearing what they have to say without thinking about your response, and making eye contact when they are talking. Put your phone down when others are trying to talk to you and ask more questions instead of just talking about yourself.
50. Be present.
Whether you are with others or alone, focus on living in the present moment. Push away thoughts about the past or worries about the future. Don’t compare yourself to others or worry about what others may think. Just be here, in the moment, and enjoy the experiences of your life.
