I don’t know about you, but I’m generally pretty struggle prone. I don’t always wake up when I need to, or how I want to, and I always think about exercising but never quite get to it (unless it’s a spontaneous and lone act one random afternoon). Each day we each are striving to better ourselves and improve things about ourselves that we either don’t like or simply want to be better at. This never ending process can seem like a constant uphill battle but by breaking it up into small things each and every day we can make a lasting impact and continuously improve ourselves. Here are 13 small daily acts everyone can try out to work towards a better version of themselves.
1. Wake Up With The Right Attitude
Every morning we wake up either feeling ready to start the day…or not so much. Attitude is everything! Imagine what you can do with the right one! If you’re stuck on the wrong side of the bed maybe try meditation or journaling each night and/or morning to dispel any negative energy and help you to find a better attitude to start your days off with. If that still doesn’t help maybe try changing up your sleep schedule and going to bed earlier and waking up earlier, along with creating a bed time routine to get your brain ready for sleep.
2. Exercise Regularly
I don’t know about anyone else but for me, the hardest part about exercising is finding time and starting. My advice to get around this is to find a way of exercising that is fun for you (this might sound like an oxymoron to some but bear with me!). Whether that’s dancing, running, swimming, walking, biking, playing a sport, hiking, kickboxing. Whatever it is, if you’re having fun you won’t realize the pain as much, and not only that but you’ll get more out of your workout! Even if it’s just for 10 minutes each morning, stick to it every day. Start small, but make sure you start.
Side Note: This will also help with the attitude thing, exercising produces happy brain chemicals and makes you feel like your day is off to a good start!
3. Clean For 10 Minutes Each Morning
As a college student I definitely understand the Hydra conundrum of cleaning. You clean one thing and three other messes appear out of nowhere! It seems like a never-ending circle of cleaning and mess making. To break free of this cycle try cleaning each morning for just 10 minutes. What you clean is up to you. It can be your immediate work space, “The Chair” (aka chairdrobe), that mess that you’ve been side eyeing for the past week, or that load of laundry you forgot about from 3 days ago. If you can get it done in 10 minutes or less you can clean it!
4. Plan Ahead & Prioritize
While many things can be fun to do spontaneously, daily life surely isn’t one of them if you’re extremely busy or have many responsibilities to juggle all at once. Planning ahead for all of these responsibilities and prioritizing them can reduce the stress you might feel over being majorly busy. I use Google Calendar to plan all of my commitments and their times out each week. This allows me to keep track of what I’m doing when and where it’s at. I also use to-do list to keep a running tab on all the things I need to get done that day, it limits all the craziness in my brain so I can focus better on what I’m working on currently.
Other things you can plan ahead for are your outfits and meals for the week. By picking your outfit out the night before you can save time in the morning when it feels like there’s a big jumble of things you need to get done before starting your day. Planning meals out each week can help you keep tabs on your budget and intake of certain foods.
5. Limit The Tech
As a millennial and (most likely) a tech addict, I break this “rule” constantly. I’ve gotten better at watching less TV and Netflix but I definitely need to work on the amount of time I spend on my phone on social media and other time wasting sites. That said two things you can do to limit tech each day include not using any tech before bed, and by starting your day out with something other than the TV. Good ways to avoid both those tech habits could be to read a “real” book before bed instead and to start your day off with music instead of the TV. More encompassing is that of limiting the amount of time you’re using tech each day, but we all have to start somewhere.
6. Set Rotating Goals Each Week
We all have things we want to accomplish during the week, but if you’re like me you can never find the time or energy to put towards goal setting and follow through. A simple way to bust through this issue is to pick a couple small goals that you want to try your best to tackle that week. The best part of these goals is that they’re rotating, so if you don’t get something done one week and want to try again the next you can do that. Whatever amount of goals and time fits your schedule and energy levels is what you can work towards. I recommend picking a goal that makes you excited to wake up each morning and/or something that you’ve really wanted to, try or get done, for a while but just can’t seem to make the time for.
7. Take Some Me-Time
After a long day of busting your hump all you want to do is sit down and relax for a while but then you remember all the stuff you have to do and get stressed out again. Don’t fall into this trap!! Make sure you take regular breaks from anything you’re working on, even if it’s just 10 or 15 minutes when you get back from class or home from work, make sure you’re taking time to recharge and relax each day.
8. Set Aside Time Each Day to Work Towards A Big Goal/Dream
We all have that one dream that feels like the moon, we can see its beauty and exquisiteness, but it always seems just out of reach. By working towards that goal each day we can eliminate how far away it feels and start shrinking the distance between ourselves and our goals. We all need to feel like we have a purpose in life and we all crave that feeling of happiness, so do something that makes you happy each day.
9. Learn Something New About Yourself
Self-discovery can be super fun! Try to learn something new about yourself each day. Figure out when your best time is during the day to be productive, aka your biological prime time. Try new things to see what you like. Take a couple personality test like the MBTI and the Enneagram Test to learn more about your personality and what makes you tick. These are just a few ideas, feel free to be creative!
10. Change It Up
I get bored very easily, my attention span isn’t the greatest especially when surrounded by technology. To combat this boredom, I try and change up my day to day as much as I can so I don’t hit a plateau when working on projects. Whether it’s studying in a new spot or trying something new for lunch, try and keep it interesting and change your day up. Try leaving your comfort zone each day if given the opportunity, nothing amazing happens without change & leaving your comfort zone invites that potential into your life.
11. Trust Your Gut Instinct & Decide
We all experience that feeling we have when the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and something feels off or seems to be fishy. That’s your intuition trying to tell you something that it knows. Listen to that feeling, don’t ignore it. When we’re bogged down with a lot of responsibilities it can seem like the hardest task to simply make a decision on something. We constantly deliberate and question our decisions and sometimes this gets in the way of us actually deciding on something. If you think about it though, a lack of decision is still a decision; wouldn’t you rather make it yourself or have your inaction make it for you? Even if it’s the wrong decision, make it yourself! You’ll learn from it if it ends up being the wrong one, and not regret any inaction.
12. Acknowledge Your Accomplishments
Sometimes we get so caught up in getting things done that we don’t stop and take a minute to acknowledge all that we’ve accomplished. While it may not seem like it at times, even small accomplishments are accomplishments. Make sure you celebrate them along with the bigger feats of progress too, rather than quickly moving onto your next task. We can get burnt out without feeling like some sort of progress has been made, don’t forget what you’ve already done simply to go onto the next task.
13. Learn Something New Each Day
Many days we do this without realizing it, probably because of what we consider new information and learning to be. If you want to consciously learn something new each day here are some recommendations. Watch a TED Talk about a topic that interests you or that you want to learn more about, there are so many different topics so choose wisely! Read or listen to a book. Again, there are so many out there on many varying topics to choose from, have fun with it! If you want recommendations check out Buzzfeed and Pinterest. Listen to a podcast about a random or interesting topic. Take a course on something that you’ve always want to learn about. Last but not least talk to someone, we can learn so much from each other simply by talking, I think we forget this most of the time due to the wonders of texting and technology. Whatever method you choose to use to learn something new, remember the number one rule, have fun with it!
Now if I could only follow my own advice, and consistently at that, but that’s a whole other story. Just keep trying your best every day and remember, tomorrow is a new day, possibly a new way, and definitely a nice “hey.”
