Do the Best You Can With What You Have

Life is like a puzzle that we have to put together to be able to live our best lives. You have all the pieces already, it is just a matter of putting them together to make a picture that is complete.

You might not think that it is easy to change your life, but it can be. It all starts with building tiny habits, and then making them bigger.

Create your vision

Personally, I always like to start with goal setting because it helps you figure out where you want to go in life. Before you set your goals, set your vision. That is the compass that points the direction to where you want to go.

You can make a vision board, either on paper or on Pinterest. You can journal about what you want your life to look like. You can look at people you think are successful, happy or whatever you want to be and see what they have that you want to have.

All of these will allow you to envision what you want your perfect life to look like.

Set SMART Goals

Once you have your vision, you want to start setting goals that will get you there. One of the best frameworks that you can use for this is the SMART framework.

Smart stands for:

• Specific

• Measurable/ Meaningful

• Achievable/ As If Now

• Realistic

• Time Bound

Specific goals are important so that you will have a clear path to take you forward. This allows you to know exactly what you want to do to make your vision come into reality.

Measurable is important, because if a goal isn’t measurable then you won’t know if you have achieved it.

Meaningful goals are important too, because this means your goal really will motivate you to go forward. If a goal isn’t meaningful, you aren’t going to care enough to pursue it.

Having a goal that is achievable means that it is possible. It isn’t too difficult. Instead of saying you want to lose 30 pounds in 5 days, say you want to lose 3 pounds. That is more achievable.

As if now means that your goals are written in the present tense. This allows you to hack your subconscious to believe that the goal is already complete, so you will start to act as if it is.

Realistic is similar to achievable. It means, that the goal is something that is possible. If you want to be the first person on Mars, don’t say that you are going to do it by tomorrow. That is going to take a lot of studying, research and practice.

Finally, a goal should be time bound. This means, you say that you will say when the goal will be complete.

So an example of a SMART goal would be: On September 1, 2023 I weigh 135 pounds. This fulfills all of the SMART criteria.

Use the resources at your disposal

You always have resources at your disposal to learn and grow. In this age of the internet, you can find free tutorials for almost anything on YouTube or sites like Medium or other blogs. You can also find free trainings or webinars to attend.

You can also get books to teach you about anything that you want to know, so that you can get a good understanding of what it will take to reach your goals.

If you have a goal that requires training, see what you can do right away for free. Otherwise, you may want to look into going back to school to get a degree or certificate program. Certificate programs are a great way to go, because they are shorter, more focused programs that don’t require a bunch of prerequisite classes.

If you have fitness goals, most of those can be done at home too. You can find exercise videos on YouTube (that is how I do my daily yoga!) or you can go for walks, do body weight exercises, or go jogging. All of those require little to no equipment, and you can start at home right away.

You can also find meal planning guides online, or in books that you can get for a low cost. All it takes is some dedication to doing something small every day towards your goals. When time passes you will be amazed at the progress that you have made.

Conclusion

If there is something that you want to do to change your life, you can learn to do it right now, from the comforts of your home in many cases.

You can start off with setting goals, and setting your vision. Then, once you have done that, you can start working on them every day.

By the time you have reached 60 or 90 days working on your new goals, you will be amazed with the amount of progress that you have made! You can really change your life for the better even in a short amount of time.