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Whatever stage of life you are at, and whatever your circumstances, there are most probably times when you wish things were different? Especially if you reflect back on past decisions and wonder “what if?”. What if you had made different choices and taken your life in another direction very far from where it is now? What would that have been like? And is it something you should have done?
Nothing can change the past, and you will never know how different decisions years ago would have worked out long term. In many ways you could be a lot worse off than you are now.
But the good news is that it’s never too late to change your life. And we’re not talking about a huge overnight change such as a massive lottery win which, let’s face it, is very unlikely ever to happen. But there are still many changes that you can make to your life. Some are very small, some more significant, but they are all completely under your control, so it is up to you if you want to make them happen.
In this article we take a look at five areas of your life in which you can make positive changes. Starting from today!
If you look up from reading this article and glance round your home, how does it make you feel? If you like what you see, and feel cosy and comfortable, that’s great. But if you immediately notice lots of things that need doing and start to feel irritated, it’s time to take action. If you take two very simple steps – decluttering and refreshing – you will quickly see the difference:
Clutter and mess can have a significant negative impact on how you feel. This may not seem important – and it’s easy to get into the mindset of just putting up with it – but it’s something that can easily be fixed. Spending a weekend decluttering and cleaning up your home will make a huge difference to how it looks and feels. You will also feel more relaxed and less stressed. And you may even be able to make a bit of extra money by selling your unwanted goods.
Once your home is decluttered you may be able to see other improvements you can make. These don’t need to cost a small fortune. For example, repainting a room can really brighten things up and give your home a new lease of life. As can repositioning furniture, and adding a few new accessories such as rugs, throws, cushions and wall art. Taking a few steps to add more light, space, and colour into each room will improve the overall ambience of your home and make it a nicer place to be.
How do you feel about your job? Perhaps you are lucky enough to enjoy going into work, like what you do, and feel that you are being paid and treated fairly. But if any of those things is not the case, why not consider a change? Many of us get stuck in a rut when it comes to our job, and feel that we can’t do anything about it, but it is often possible to make a change.
Here are three things to try:
The first thing to think about is whether you could move to a different job in the same organisation. You would then have the familiarity of staying where you are, but the challenge – and perhaps increased salary – of a new role. If this isn’t an option, are there other employers where you could do something similar to what you are doing now, only in better circumstances? If you’re unhappy where you are, it’s definitely worth starting to look around.
Another option is to consider a complete career change. Even if this is not possible straight away, you could start planning ahead and also work out what additional skills and experience you would need to be able to change jobs. There are many free online courses that you could start to do to begin to prepare you for change. For example, check out skills courses such as computing, business, finance and marketing on the National Careers Service Skills Toolkit or a range of vocational courses on Reed UK.
As a halfway house in the career change process are there any skills you could offer on a freelance basis? For example, any kind of domestic service – such as childcare, pet sitting, cooking, cleaning, DIY, gardening – or perhaps something online such as web design, graphic design, social media marketing, copywriting or translating. There are many opportunities out there to start earning extra money by using existing skills and talents, and it’s always possible that this could gradually grow into an alternative career for you.
If you feel that it might be time to broaden your friendship circle and make a few new friends, here are three ways to go about this:
The traditional advice about how to meet new people is to join a club, but it does work! So find something that you are interested in and get involved. It may be a gym or other sporting activity, a local music or drama group, a book club or evening class, but there are people out there that you would enjoy meeting. It may feel a bit daunting, but the best way to meet new people is to take a deep breath and put yourself out there.
Both when you join new things and in your existing friendship circles, you will make friends more quickly if you are proactive. For example if you go along to an event, don’t speak to anyone, and rush off straight afterwards you may not really meet anyone. But if you make the effort to talk to people, and perhaps suggest getting together for coffee, it will gradually start to happen. And in your existing friendship groups, if you usually wait for someone else to organise something, why not do that yourself this time?
And at the same time as making a few new friends, remember not to neglect your old ones. You probably have a lot of old friends you just keep in touch with on social media, and even though you always promise to get together you never do. So why not make that happen? You are still friends for a reason, and a face to face get-together could be a great opportunity to do something different.
But, whilst you are re-evaluating your friendship circle, it’s also a good opportunity to filter out any toxic friendships. If there are friends that always seem to bring you down, and also always rely on you to get in touch and do all the running, do you really want to keep spending time and effort on them? Perhaps not cut them off completely but unless you are also benefiting from the relationship it may be time to gradually reduce their role in your life.
If you always have a hankering to be fitter than you currently are, there is no time like the present. The key thing is to find some kind of exercise that you like doing then just get on with it. There is no point trying to set yourself ambitious fitness goals that either include exercise you don’t like or impractical time slots for exercise. You most probably won’t do it, and will then feel even worse about how unfit you are.
Here are two easy ways to start getting fitter:
Government guidelines are for adults to have at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a week. Examples of this kind of activity include:
So this in itself may be enough to get you started. Or if you want to pick up the pace, you could also use this time to work through the excellent Couch to 5K running programme.
Another good way is to do a short fitness challenge, for example a 30 day challenge. This timescale is not too daunting : the end is in sight as soon as you start. But it’s also a long enough time to help you to get into the habit of daily exercise, which will then hopefully continue after the challenge. A few examples of 30 day fitness challenges are:
Another major way to change your life for the better is to start to get on top of your finances. With the high cost of living at the moment, many of us are struggling in this area. There is no magic wand here, but there are three things that, over time, could really help to get your finances back on track:
It really is worth spending time creating a budget for a typical month in your life. You could do this either in a notebook, on a computer spreadsheet or by using an App such as Money Dashboard. Make a complete list of all your income and all your expenditure. Income is the money you know you have coming in : salaries, wages, allowances, benefits etc. Expenditure is everything you might spend money on, such as rent/mortgage, bills, food, travel, childcare, pets, and all other expenses. Once you have a budget you can see where your money is going and where you might need to cut back your spending.
When you create a budget, it helps you to see how much of your money is going towards repaying debts. Imagine if those debts were gone and you had the money to spend instead! Again, you will not get rid of debts overnight, but the sooner you can pay them off, the better it will be. So do all that you can to make paying off debts a number one priority.
Take a look at our article How can you clear your financial backlog? for more ideas and information on how to tackle debt.
It is not easy to save money in these difficult economic times, but the good news is that if you do manage to save you should be able to benefit from higher interest rates. So look around at banks and building societies for a savings account that will provide this, and start putting a little bit of money into it every month. Even if this is only a few pounds, every little helps, and you will be starting to future proof your finances. Having savings will enable you to deal with emergencies – and celebrate good times – without getting into debt.
We hope that the ideas in this article will inspire you to start making small changes to your life. As the old saying goes, Rome was not built in a day. But even if you just use a few of the above ideas – perhaps try one each month – you will gradually make a significant and positive difference to your life.
If you need any help in sorting out the financial side of life, remember that Loans 2 Go offer online loans that may be able to help.
Do visit us here again soon for more helpful lifestyle tips from Loans 2 Go.
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