How to Change Your Life For Good This Time

Change is hard. I know because over the years I’ve made huge changes in my life. I went from hoarder to minimalist, and I started training in counselling after over a decade of stagnation.

It wasn’t until my early thirties when I finally took the reins and started making powerful, meaningful changes in my life.

It’s hard to stop following the well-beaten path that everyone else is walking, and to venture down the path that was meant for you. Often, these less-trodden paths are countercultural and require a complete mindset change, a powerful why, and a willingness to make sacrifices.

Initially, going down this fresh, new path can feel exciting. You feel motivated and ready for anything.

The real challenge is to stay on that path, especially when the initial motivation wears off and things start getting real.

Perhaps you’ve quit drinking, and now the euphoria has worn off, you’re having to deal with the life problems the alcohol was masking. Maybe you were making progress in decluttering your home, but now you’ve hit a sentimental roadblock, or your friends and family are ridiculing you. Or, if you’re pursuing a new career, you’re struggling to find time to do the learning and recoiling from the shock of leaving your comfort zone.

Despite what influencers would have you believe, there’s no sugarcoating it and no shortcuts. All the self help books and courses in the world won’t change your life if you don’t act. At the end of the day, books and articles are simply tools and knowledge to help you on your journey. A journey that the author is already familiar with.

But here’s the thing; they’re not you.

The challenge of change

The only person that can change your life is you. Only you can take action. Only you can change your mindset.

For lasting, meaningful change you must put in the work. Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Often, sitting down to do the work is harder than the work itself.

You will get tempted by old habits and distractions, or by life hacks on the internet. You will be challenged by friends and family who might feel threatened by the new you. “What’s happened to you? You used to be fun”, they might say. Or “I miss when you used to (insert bad habit or activity here)”. Naysayers will tell you that what you’re doing is impossible or a waste of time. Keep your head down, don’t rock the boat, don’t make them feel uncomfortable.

Don’t fall for it.

When the path gets hard

If you want to change your life and follow the path that’s true to you, you can’t make yourself smaller so that others feel better. Stay the path and be an inspiration to others. Don’t let the other crabs pull you back down into the bucket.

Once you start persevering, however, the universe will start throwing you real challenges. Things will mysteriously start to go wrong and make you wonder why you even started in the first place. The easy and automatic response will be to give up. To believe that perhaps you weren’t meant to do this after all. Life was safer and comfier where you were.

At this point, you need to remember your why. Why did you want to make the change? Why is it important to you? What will your future look like years from now if you give up? Alternatively, what could it look like if you keep going?

When you see these things as the tests that they are and relentlessly get back up again and again, you will come out on top and you will see that all of it was worth-it.

Even if you stray from your path, your why is the thing that’s going to guide you when things seem impossible.

Your why is what’s going to make you a success.

Keep going and eventually you will start to notice that the right people seem to show up in your life at the perfect time, or an eerily perfect opportunity will pop up out of nowhere.

But it takes dedication and unwavering belief on your part.

Change starts with you. Are you ready?