All of us look for ways to improve our lives everyday. The reasons for this may vary from wanting to advance in our careers or to be a better parent, spouse or friend or simply to live a life that makes us feel better about ourselves.
I have listed below a few practices that can help you to improve your life and help you lead a more balanced and productive life. Many of these practices are simple and uncomplicated, and can be adopted in to your daily lives without any difficulty.
1. Eat healthy, Meditate and Exercise
I list this as the first point as your health and mental well-being is the most important aspect when it comes to improving your quality of life. Your health must be the number one priority. You cannot enjoy your life to the fullest if you don't have a healthy lifestyle. Also if you are constantly stressed or anxious and you can’t focus on the task at hand, you will suffer both in your personal and professional lives. It will also negatively affect your family members as well. (as they say put the oxygen mask on yourself before you try to help others). Therefore, eating a healthy diet, meditating to increase your focus and to reduce anxiety or stress and exercising to keep your body fit must become one of the most important tasks in your life.
2. Be Positive
Being positive not only helps you to see the solution in every problem, but being an optimist has proven health benefits such as reducing blood pressure, depression and anxiety. Positive Thoughts will attract Positive Outcomes in to your life. Studies have shown Optimists tend to live longer than their negative counterparts, suffer less from chronic illnesses, make more friends and have better and successful relationships. A few ways that you can be more positive are,
- Keep a gratitude journal
- Surround yourself with positive people
-Smile
-Identify and stop negative self-talk
3. Live in the moment –Be present
I feel that with the constant ability, and need to be connected and/or validated by social media and so called “friends” has a drastic impact on personal relationships and the ability to focus on one thing at a time. Turn off your phone when you are at dinner with a friend or your spouse, Give your full attention to the person in front of you, Enjoy the moment, Read a book in peace, look at the rainbow in the sky, look at the hummingbirds and enjoy your delicious and expensive coffee without scrolling through social media.
4. Be efficient and productive
It is important to work well in an organized and productive manner. Incorporate ways of increasing your productivity without spending hours on a task that can be completed in 10 minutes if it done is in an effective manner. Learning to work smarter will help you advance in your career, and it will also give you some free time to focus on new and exciting projects or a new venture in your life.
5. Focus only on what you can control and Stop worrying
Most things that happen in our lives are beyond our control. Worrying about them is simply a futile endeavor and a waste of time. It is better to focus on what you can control and use that time for something more functional, practical and constructive. It is also important to stop worrying about the outcome. Once you have done anything to the best of your ability, whether it is an exam, an interview or a business venture. Stop worrying about the result.
6. Hard work is more important than good luck
This is one of the most important things my parents taught me. They did it, not by preaching about hard work, but by setting a strong example. I am lucky to see firsthand that Hand Work is the way to achieve success in life. You can overcome any hardship as long as you are willing to put in the work to deal with your troubles. This ideal must be instilled in all children from a young age, and they will benefit from it throughout their lives. Work hard so that even if you fail you know in your heart that you have done the best you can.