In this article on how to take back control of your life and create the life you’ve always dreamed of, I share with you some advice drawn from my own experience.
At different times in our lives, we all need to start afresh to regain balance in our personal or professional lives.
Sometimes it’s a painful event that motivates us to act, other times it’s just the realization that a given situation has reached a level that’s too difficult to live with.
I hope that at least one of them will help you to change your life for the better quickly.
Without further ado, let’s get to the tips.
8 tips on how to take control of your life
1 – Define your ideal situation
The first tip is to define the ideal situation you’d like to find yourself in, or, if you prefer, your goal.
You’re probably familiar with the smart method, which involves defining your objective as specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.
These principles are important, but they’re not enough to change your life for the better.
What will make the difference is your motivation to change.
There are different levels of motivation. For example, the first motivations that come to mind are the most superficial and may suffice if your goal is easy to achieve.
But very often, it’s necessary to go deeper into what motivates you by being honest with yourself and trying to access deeper levels of motivation.
You can do this on your own, or enlist the help of a life coach to help you identify what motivates you most, and take the necessary action to achieve your goal.
Let’s move on to the next tip, which is to create a new habit.
2 – Create a new habit
If you know what really motivates you, you’ll be able to feel much more motivated most days to take action.
On the other hand, that motivation won’t be enough every day. For various reasons, you’ll have days when you don’t feel like taking action, and you’ll tend to procrastinate by focusing on activities that bring you short-term satisfaction.
Taking time for yourself is very important and can be very beneficial to your well-being and productivity. In particular, it helps you to keep stress under control and be efficient at work.
But if you take too much time to relax, it can become a hindrance to your personal and professional fulfilment.
To counteract these behaviors, it’s a good idea to create new habits while eliminating those that take you away from the life you dream of.
You can use different strategies to create a new habit. For example, you can use implementation intentions in the form of “if…then”. For example, if it’s 4 p.m., I’ll get ready to go to the gym. It acts as a signal to encourage you to do something, even if you don’t feel like it.
You can also create a new habit by associating it with one or more sources of motivation and repeating it every day at more or less the same time. For a new behavior to become a habit, you need to repeat it for a sufficient length of time. This sufficient time is not the same for everyone.
That’s why I can’t give you a precise time. By the time you see that you’re doing your new routine effortlessly, it will have become a new habit and everything will be easier for you. It will have become part of your personality and therefore part of your lifestyle.
To go further on the subject of habits, I suggest you read my article on evening routines and how to change your habits.
Now, let’s move on to the next tip, which is to plan and execute the actions you need to succeed.
3 – Plan your actions and take action
Now you know what motivates you most, and you’ve created at least one new habit.
Now it’s time to plan those actions in your to-do list and take those same actions.
You may not be in the habit of writing down what you’re going to do the next day, and you already have everything in your head, but I’d advise you to plan your actions on paper or using a time management tool.
This is important for several reasons. First of all, the practice of time management has shown me time and again that anything scheduled has a greater probability of being executed.
But planning your day in advance is also important for your well-being, as scheduling your time will help reduce your mental load.
To find out more about how to plan your time, read the following two articles: how to plan your week and how to plan your time.
Once you’ve planned your actions, it’s time to act, and if you can’t, it’s essential to identify what’s preventing you from moving forward.
Among the most common obstacles are personal beliefs or a lack of clarity about your values.
If you don’t know your values, you can read my article on how to identify your values.
In other situations, you may also be blocked in implementing your actions because of some form of fear.
This could be fear of judgment by others, fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of success, and so on.
If you’re in this situation, I suggest you read my article on how to overcome the fear of taking action. Now, let’s move on to the next tip, which is to measure your results.
4 – Measure and optimize your results
By now you’ve got into the habit of planning and executing the actions that will enable you to achieve your goal.
It’s important to keep a written record of the results you achieve.
If you’re a man or woman of action, you may not like spending time tracking your actions.
On the other hand, regularly evaluating the effectiveness of what you’re doing is essential if you want to improve the performance of your actions.
Without monitoring your actions and their impact, you run the risk of wasting time on activities that don’t bring you anything productive.
To improve your efficiency, focus on the activities that give you maximum results. Ideally, use your talents to become even more efficient.
Next, delegate to others those activities in which you feel uncomfortable.
Then, eliminate tasks that aren’t productive, or find new strategies to make them so.
Keeping track of your progress is also essential to staying motivated, especially when results are slow in coming despite all the actions you’ve taken.
What’s more, keeping track of your progress is also an excellent way of developing a growth mindset.
Let’s move on to the next tip, which is to get out of your comfort zone.
5 – Get out of your comfort zone
The expression “getting out of your comfort zone” can be misleading. It’s not about getting out of a comfort situation, but rather about getting rid of the habit of doing things the same way all the time.
To get your life back on track, you need to think outside the box and try out new strategies.
On the other hand, to maximize your chances of success, you should stick to what’s comfortable for you, i.e. make more use of your innate talents and acquired abilities as much as you can.
In practice, test unusual ways of achieving the results you’re looking for, but use your full potential to succeed.
Doing so will enable you to deal better with the inevitable moments of doubt or fear, as you rely on what enables you to perform better than most.
So you understand that this way, it’s much easier to get out of your comfort zone and achieve better results.
The most important thing is to develop this new habit of testing new options. Try testing a new approach every day and you’ll see that you’ll get better results faster.
Now, let’s move on to the next tip, which is to take small actions on a regular basis.
6 – Take small, regular actions
Some people can’t get their act together because they’re focused on all the work they need to do to get their lives back in order.
As a result, they feel demotivated and decide to do nothing.
If you find yourself in this situation, my advice is to proceed as follows.
First, forget about the big picture and focus on the smallest action you can take to move towards your goal.
Then, don’t judge this action by telling yourself that there’s no point in doing it. Just do it, and then congratulate yourself!
Finally, move on to the next action, following the same procedure, and continue to perform as many tasks as you can.
In this way, you’ll be able to silence your critical mind or ego.
This, in turn, will boost your self-confidence and enable you to gradually improve every aspect of your life.
Perfectionism can be another obstacle you have to face. If you’re too much of a perfectionist, you won’t be able to take the right actions and therefore you’ll procrastinate.
Now let’s move on to the next tip, which is to stop putting pressure on yourself.
7 – Stop putting pressure on yourself
Sometimes we take action and do our best, but results are slow in coming and we can tend to put pressure on ourselves.
Without realizing it, our thoughts, the words we use and our internal language become a source of stress that reduces our well-being and our potential for success.
Working with a life coach enables us to become aware of such mental processes and to implement a tailor-made strategy to deal with them quickly and effectively.
If you realize that the way you communicate with yourself has become a source of stress, it’s time to understand what’s causing your behavior and what you can do to improve the quality of your life.
One way of overcoming this difficulty is to give yourself a more affordable goal that’s up to you.
What I propose is to give yourself the goal of doing your best. Whenever you find yourself criticizing yourself, not being kind to yourself or stressing out, stop and just do your best.
Doing your best is always up to you, and it’s always possible, whereas comparing yourself to others wastes precious energy.
In short, do your best and stop stressing yourself.
Now let’s move on to the next tip, which is to find people who support you.
8 – Find people who support you
Taking charge of your life is an individual process, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need the support of others from time to time.
As you know, life is full of ups and downs that put our motivation to the test. It’s essential to be able to count on the support of those around you.
At the same time, steer clear of people who only criticize you, and draw up a list of people who appreciate you and are ready to support you in all circumstances.
Explain to these people what you want to achieve, and meet with them regularly to benefit from their kind eyes and advice.
And do what you can to help them achieve their goals.
In short, develop win-win relationships based on reciprocity. Doing so will benefit both you and others.
Conclusion on how to take back control of your life
In this article on how to take charge of your life, I’ve given you 8 tips on how to regain control of your life.
Try applying at least one of these tips and let me know what results you’ve achieved.
To take advantage of a tailor-made coaching session with a life transition coach, write to us now using our contact form or call us by phone or WhatsApp on +33 6 69 46 03 79.
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Français : Comment reprendre sa vie en main : 8 conseils pour créer la vie dont vous rêvez
Italiano: Come riprendere il controllo della vostra vita: 8 consigli per riuscirci