How To Get Your Life Together: 10 Useful Steps

It is pretty impossible to go through life without any hurdles and challenges that take you off track. Due to this, there will indeed be times when you feel like your world is crumbling around you; you may be thinking how do you get your life together when you feel powerless to change your situation?

During the hard times, we often can’t see a way out but rest assured that there are plenty of things we can do to begin living our best life again.

1. Decide what you want to change

Perhaps you are unhappy in your current career and want to change it, or maybe you are participating in unhealthy activities affecting the quality of your life and making a change. Whatever your situation, to get your life together, you have to determine what it is we want to change. It may be worth writing about each area of your life and jotting down what you are happy with and unhappy with. This list may look like this:

• Career, work and education 
• Family/friends
• Finances
• Health
• Interests/hobbies
• Faith, religion and spirituality

It’s worth noting that this process will require 100% honesty with yourself. I say this because we can often trick ourselves into believing that we are okay or happy when we are not. It’s easier to convince ourselves of this because ignorance is bliss and means we don’t have to make changes.

2. Make a plan with specific goals

When you have decided what changes you want, you can begin to make a plan with specific goals that will help you get your life together. As the saying goes, ‘fail to plan, plan to fail’.

Having a plan in motion means that you will more likely get your life together and even help you to feel better as you will be able to see how you will get there.

It would be wise to set short-term and long-term goals to help you to break down your goal into achievable steps. This means you can celebrate small wins whilst taking the journey to achieve bigger goals. By setting goals, you are more than likely to achieve what you want because goal setting means you have to take action to achieve them.  Bluehost explains how setting goals push you forward, defines success and holds you accountable.

Don’t forget to celebrate your small wins when something goes according to plan, or you meet a deadline or target. You deserve a treat for your hard work!

3. Seek support, advice and guidance

If you are currently in a rut and confused about where your life is going, it can be a time of great uncertainty. This can leave you feeling anxious and stressed as you battle with what to do next. Perhaps you are also in a challenging situation and need specialist help, or you are unsure which road to take next. The critical thing to remember is that we do not have to do this alone, and support is available to us should we want to access it.

Seeking advice, support and guidance can be invaluable when trying to get your life together.  This will enable you to seek clarity in your current situation and assist you in making decisions about where you want your life to be; it will also provide you with help and support to better your life.

You can seek this from a professional such as a Coach, Mentor, Therapist or specialist organisation.   You can also seek support from family or friends. Either way, you be well equipped to make those changes needed to value your life.

4. Organisation is key

Think back to all the jobs you have applied for, and I bet every single one has required you to have good organisational skills, not matter how different the roles were.

This is because organisation is a key component to success as it can help you become more productive and proactive. Being organised also means that you are likely to meet the goals that you set yourself to get your life in order.

You don’t have to be the King or Queen of organising but just enough to ensure you are sticking to your deadlines and meeting your targets to get your life together.

5. Give up the need for control

Whilst we hold the power to get our lives together, and we can make choices and decisions that will lead us to a better life, it’s important to remember that we are always going to be faced with things that are beyond our control. Once we let go of our need for control, we are less likely to be hard on ourselves when something beyond our control happens and are more comfortable with what simply is.

6. Get motivated

To get your life in order, you have to be motivated to make the positive changes needed. Without the motivation to do the things necessary, it is unlikely that you will achieve what you set out to achieve.

It can be hard to get into a motivated mindset, especially if the task or journey seems far away or even unachievable, but most find that when they do find some motivation, it often multiplies.

Below are some tips on how you can motivate yourself to achieve

• Practicing positive affirmations/ motivational quotes daily
• Listen to a motivational podcast or speeches
• Getting enough sleep
• Follow social media accounts that inspire you to be the best version of yourself
• Network with others
• Mediate
• Exercise
• Celebrate the small wins
• Monitor your progress

7. Prioritise yourself

Okay, I will need you to put yourself first if you want to get your life in order! This is not a request; it’s a demand! (in the nicest way possible :D) When you put yourself first, you prioritise your happiness, wants and needs, meaning you are more likely to reach your desires because you are your main focus and everything else comes after.

Prioritising yourself does not mean that you are selfish and you certainly don’t have to disregard your loved ones to put yourself first; those that love and care about you will understand and support you in get your life together anyway!

8. Avoid complaining and take action

We are all guilty of loving a good moan from time to time, but I would try to avoid spending the majority of your time complaining about how your life is a mess whilst doing nothing to change it.

I remember a friend of mine had become very unhappy in her job, to the point where it was affecting her well-being and quality of life. I empathised with her situation and encouraged her to seek other employment, even offering help writing CVs and giving her the best sites to job hunt on. However, she always had an excuse as to why she hadn’t looked for alternative work, or why she hadn’t updated her CV but at any given opportunity she would spend hours complaining about her work environment, to the point it would be the focal point of all interactions with her. This went on for around two years.

The point of my example is that my friend focused a lot of her energy on complaining and no energy went into actively trying to change her situation. There is no point in complaining if you are not going to actively make a change. I am not saying that it is easy to change something you are unhappy with, but you have to start somewhere; small steps become significant.

If you are unhappy about something, then do something about it! – blunt, but it is as simple as that!

9. Change you mindset to a grateful and positive one

When your life isn’t together, you likely think that your life is sh**, a mess or hard. Changing your mindset can have such a positive impact and can turn your whole world around! We are what we think, and if we focus on everything that is going wrong, then we will attract more to it.

Instead of thinking that your life is a mess, begin believing that it is difficult, but it is temporary and you are actively changing it.

You should also practice gratitude during these times, as no matter how difficult things are there are always things you can be grateful for.

10. Pay attention to those around you

If your life is not in the best shape at present and you want to change that, then it is worth looking at the people you have around you. This is not because the people around may be the cause of all your problems but because sometimes some individuals in your life are not necessarily the healthiest for us or encourage toxic behaviours or environments and prevent you from levelling up.

You may also find that you begin to make positive changes in your life; some people may be resistant to this and try to pull you back into old habits or the old way of living.

When focusing on trying to get your life together, it is essential to be around positive people that will encourage and embrace the changes that you are trying to make.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you think your life sucks at the minute, then remember that nothing lasts forever and this too shall pass! There are plenty of things you can do to to get your life back on track and you decide where you want things to go, it starts and ends with you!

xox