You can improve your life today by committing to action, taking responsibility for your problems and building small controls over your space, food, time, money and goals. Good things happen to those who wait, but what if you do not want to wait? Is there anything with an immediate impact on the quality of your life? There is.
These 15 steps share one idea: control. Immediate does not mean easy, but each one starts to pay off the day you do it.
Watch the full video here, or skip to the breakdown below.
The 15 steps at a glance
- First, you need to execute (0:18)
- Stop expecting others to solve your life for you (1:04)
- Clean up your house (2:21)
- Cut the amount of bad food (2:58)
- Avoid the algorithm (4:35)
- Reach out to an old friend you haven’t spoken to in a while (5:44)
- Make a genuine effort to be optimistic (6:42)
- Make a plan for tomorrow (7:30)
- Wake up at the same hour every day (8:16)
- Set up a daily anchor task (9:18)
- Figure out where you are wasting money (10:40)
- Identify one way you can earn more (11:39)
- Identify what makes you happy and what doesn’t (13:10)
- Write 3 good things you can make happen for yourself by the end of the year (14:12)
- How you live your day is how you live your life (15:20)
- Bonus: do one thing you wanted to do as a kid
1. First, you need to execute
Everyone has felt that urge to change their life dramatically at 2 am. The question is whether it is still there in the morning, and that is where most people fall short.
Commitment is the first step, and without it the rest is pointless. You have to go through the motions and be uncomfortable for a while, because any improvement takes real effort. Immediate impact does not mean quick and easy. If that does not appeal, the list will give you only a false sense of hope.
2. Stop expecting others to solve your life for you
If your life is worrying, stressful or tiring in some way, you are in good company, and yet only some people choose to get off the couch. You probably put yourself in this mess, and even if you did not, nobody will drop from the heavens to fix it. Change only happens when you change.
Have an honest conversation with yourself. What are the biggest issues right now, and which can you realistically solve if you push? Make those a priority. Problems stack up and bleed into each other until you feel paralysed and hope they will go away. They do not. They grow. Start small, build momentum and clean up your life one domino at a time.
3. Clean up your house
Your environment directly affects your mood and quality of life. Hence you feel peaceful in a forest and distracted in Times Square.
Start with your desk, then your room, then the whole house. There is a feeling of pride when you look back at the order you put into chaos, and a sense of power from changing your environment for the better. Deep down we all prefer order to chaos, and cleaning is the first push in the right direction.
4. Cut the amount of bad food
You will not become the embodiment of healthy eating overnight, and you should not try, since that needs a kind of effort you are not used to and may set you up to lose. But if you are unhealthy, nine times out of ten you are eating too much of the wrong things.
Everyday food is dense in calories, cheap and easy to get, so you can eat a day’s calories without noticing. An espresso from Starbucks has 5 calories, and a tall frappuccino has 375. This is a whole breakfast in a cup of coffee. You may be hooked on processed sugar without knowing it, and fried food is probably too frequent.
You do not need extreme diets or pills, only moderation. You can eat a chocolate chip cookie and still feel great, as long as it is not dessert after a sugary frappuccino.
5. Avoid the algorithm
The internet runs on ads. Content needs to draw clicks so ads get viewed and corporations profit, which is about 99% of the internet, and about 99% of what is online is of no interest to you. It gets recommended to keep you on the platform longer, and it leaves you disoriented, anxious and angry at nothing in particular. Drama sells, outrage sells and misinformation sells best.
The best immediate thing for your peace of mind is to avoid what is recommended to you and choose content tied to your short- and long-term goals. Your new best friend is the not-interested button. Do this and you will find full hours of extra time each day. Resist the urge to fill them with more content, and use them to execute on this list.
6. Reach out to an old friend you haven’t spoken to in a while
Remember when you thought you would change the world together, and the world ended up changing you? Relationships fade without maintenance, not from bad blood, but because we drift into the trivialities and struggles of daily life.
One message or call can rekindle a fading relationship. Do it right now and see what they have been up to. No need to be fancy: say you were thinking about them. It shows you still value the friendship, and meeting up for food or drinks is a bonus. Reconnecting with someone you always vibed with feels amazing.
7. Make a genuine effort to be optimistic
How you view the world has a profound effect on how you live. Pessimism comes easily and think everything is going wrong, largely because much of the time it is. That does not help you. It makes you worse.
The wish to improve comes from belief that improvement is possible and attainable. If you look only for problems, you find problems, and if you look for solutions, you find opportunities. This is a major mentality shift. Optimistic people are happier because they are looking forward.
8. Make a plan for tomorrow
Then plan the day after, and the week after. Why do you not get more done? Because you have a vague idea of what you expect to happen at some point, not a plan. A plan forces wishful thinking into reality.
Start with tomorrow. Build a schedule and plan your day, be specific, and include things you have been postponing. The moment you plan your day, you take control of time. This is how very successful people get so much done in the same 24 hours as everyone else.
9. Wake up at the same hour every day
Going to bed earlier lets you wake sooner and tackle your plan before you normally would. The team once thought of themselves as night owls, but found that productivity dropped no matter how they justified it, which led to a better way of managing energy.
The claim: everyone is a morning person, and those who say they are not are just bad at sleeping. You have just woken up, your brain is rested and your energy is up, so it makes sense to use it. The day is won before 1 pm. Wake up around 7, handle important things until 1, and treat everything else as bonus points.
10. Set up a daily anchor task
This is something your whole day revolves around. A boat anchor stops the boat drifting at sea where waves are unpredictable. An anchor task keeps you grounded and focused. You do it every day, whatever happens and wherever you are.
It can be simple: a daily morning weigh-in so you know whether the diet works, since you cannot improve what you do not track. Five minutes in a gratitude journal before coffee. The first two hours after waking spent on one specific project. Or ten minutes of a coaching session each day.
The point is to keep days predictable and to know you will always do something good for yourself. Efficient people keep a whiteboard of what matters daily, and why others do not skip the gym when it storms. These tasks are the base of healthy habits.
An anchor task is the thing you do every day, no matter what.
11. Figure out where you are wasting money
If one idea governs this video, it is control, because control is power. Without it you are trapped going through the motions. Control comes from understanding what is happening, and the better you understand, the more power you have to change it.
Start with money. How much do you make and where does it go? Once you monitor your spending you will be shocked at how bad you are with money. You will quickly find ways to streamline, and for some people it is the first time they have excess capital. What you do with it makes all the difference.
12. Identify one way you can earn more
Whether you are an employee or a business owner, think about how to bring in more. Employees can ask for a raise. It has probably been a long time, and your workload has likely grown. Ask for 20%. Employers can often justify an increase of 10 to 20% a year for a good performer, because finding and training someone else takes more time. If you feel you do not deserve a raise, tell your boss you want to earn more and take on more responsibility, and they will jump at giving you more work.
Business owners usually have three options: upsell existing customers, market better to bring in new ones, or create a new offer for a different segment. Failing that, look for efficiencies and cost savings through automation and volume.
13. Identify what makes you happy and what doesn’t
Most people never take a minute to think about this. You may be the first in your family to sit down and think about how you experience life.
Make two lists: things you do that bring happiness and joy, and things that do not make you happy and that you wish happened less. The secret to winning at life is doing more of the first column and less of the second. Writing it down matters, and you will find it harder than it seems, because getting to the good stuff takes honesty and digging within. You end up with a reflection of what to aim for.
14. Write 3 good things you can make happen for yourself by the end of the year
How does it improve your life instantly? It gives you a sense of purpose, and with no reason to do anything, you will not do anything. Write three things you can make happen in the next six months that are easily achievable but highly valuable, such as hitting your ideal weight, improving things with your partner or making real progress on a side project.
Then create a few daily or weekly core tasks that keep you on the path, and stick to them. Here is the big secret: nothing you do tomorrow, next week or next year will improve your life. It all happens today, and what you do today shapes tomorrow.
15. How you live your day is how you live your life
Life does not begin after you get rich, married, shredded or promoted, or after you quit your job. Life happens every day, and the things you do every day define it.
Make today a great day and today you had a great life. It really is that simple.
Bonus: do one thing you wanted to do as a kid
You are no longer a child, but those desires are still somewhere within you. Dig around and recall what you wanted back then. You can now satisfy at least one of those desires.
Go and make the young you proud of who you have become, or at least remember when you wanted what you have now.
Start with today
Most of these steps take minutes: clear your desk, message a friend, write a plan, list what makes you happy. None needs money or special circumstances, only a decision.
Pick one and do it now, and let the rest follow one domino at a time.
FAQ
What can I do today to improve my life?
Take responsibility for your problems, clean up your space, plan tomorrow, track your spending and write three good things you can make happen by the end of the year. Small daily actions build momentum.
What is a daily anchor task?
It is a task you do every day regardless of circumstances, such as a morning weigh-in, a five-minute gratitude journal or ten minutes of coaching. It keeps you grounded and builds healthy habits.
How can I stop wasting time online?
Avoid what the algorithm recommends and pick content tied to your goals, using the not-interested button. You may free up full hours a day, which you should use to execute on your plans.
How do I ask for a raise?
Find the right time and ask for around 20%. Employers can often justify a 10 to 20% yearly increase for good performers, since replacing someone takes more time.
Why does the video say everyone is a morning person?
Its argument is that after waking your brain is rested and energy is high, so it makes sense to tackle important work then. The script suggests waking around 7 and finishing important things by 1 pm.
Keep reading
- 15 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Life
- 15 Habits to Improve Your Life
- 10 Ways To Instantly Improve Your Life
