Image Credit Pixabay.com License CC0
Do you ever feel as though you have lost control over your life? You’re not alone. Losing control of aspects of your life is something that happens to many people. Often, when you lose control of one area of your life, it can have a knock-on effect on the rest of your life. For instance, money problems may have a knock-on effect on your relationship which may affect your career. Often, the areas of our lives are all linked in a complex way.
So, how do you regain control? There are many different steps that you can take to bring your life back under control. You need to look at each area of your life and find ways to improve your position. It’ll only work if you work at each of the pieces.
Here are some suggestions for changes that you can make in your life to give yourself more control.
1. Make a To-Do List
If you start each day by sitting down and writing a to-do list, you’ll be more focused and you’ll get more done. Create a to-do list that prioritizes your most important tasks. By getting these out of the way first, you’ll feel less stressed and better able to tackle the rest of the to-do list.
If all of the tasks on your to-do list are of equal importance, start with a job that you would otherwise put off doing. By getting your least favorite task out of the way, you can get on with enjoying the rest of the tasks later.
If you have too many tasks, make sure you spread them over more than one day. Be realistic about how much you can do and don’t overwhelm yourself by loading yourself up with too many tasks.
2. Make Small Changes
When we want to make changes in our lives it can be very easy to look at the bigger picture and wonder why nothing is changing when we’re putting in so much effort. Instead, focus your attention on making smaller changes. By setting small and accomplishable goals you’ll be less likely to get overwhelmed when looking at what you’re facing. Start small and build up. All of these smaller changes will make up the whole.
3. Look For Inspiration in the People You Admire
Everyone has someone that they admire. There will be qualities in people that you admire. Think about the people that you admire and try and find out how they got to where they are now. While you may not have the same opportunities to be able to emulate their lives, you will be able to learn from the way that they live.
4. Get Your Paperwork in Order
Important paperwork can be a source of great stress, particularly if you can’t find what you need. Get your paperwork in order by sorting out a thorough filing system. Make sure that important documents and paperwork are sorted by type and then by date.
If you have any paperwork or documents that you no longer need, you should shred these.
5. Sort Out Practical Matters
There are a considerable amount of practical matters that we all tend to put off in our lives. For instance, it is easy to put off sorting out things like home or life insurance, but these are important things that could cause stress.
Having insurance in place for your home and your life will mean that if anything goes wrong, you’ll be covered.
Make a list of all of the things that need doing and start shopping around for the products that you need. For example, TrueCoverage has affordable life insurance.
6. Tidy Your Home
Having a cluttered and messy home can be a source of considerable stress. By tidying your home and reducing the amount of clutter that you have, you’ll free yourself up a lot of space and reduce the stress that you feel when you are at home.
When tidying your home, make sure that you get rid of any items that you no longer want or have any need for. You can either sell these items online or donate them to charity.
7. Create a Meal Plan
Are mealtimes getting you down? When you’re feeling overwhelmed by life, one of the areas that might suffer is your diet. You may find that you are eating unhealthy or lackluster meals that are neither good for you or enjoyable. Often, when you are unable to plan your meals properly, it can be easy to get stuck in a rut.
By creating a meal plan you can give yourself nice meals to look forward to. Plan a week or more at a time and create a shopping list as you create the meal plan.
This will not only give you great meals that are healthy to enjoy, but it will also save you the stress of having to plan a meal on the day.
8. Batch Cook Your Meals
Another great way of reducing the stress around preparing meals is to batch cook as much as you possibly can.
Batch cooking means making extra portions of a meal that you are cooking and saving the rest for a later date. These can either be refrigerated or frozen depending on when you plan to eat them.
Many people who batch cook will cook several different meals at once so that they have a selection of pre-made meals in their freezer. This will not only save you time when it comes to preparing your meals each day, but it will also mean that you get a healthy good-quality meal.
9. Buy Only What You Need
When you head to the supermarket do you find that you end up filling up your shopping cart with all of the offers that catch your eyes? Supermarkets love to give us eyecatching offers because they know that we’ll fall for them. But instead of going to the supermarket without a plan and just buying what you see, have a strict shopping list. This might mean that you won’t be buying anything that is on special offer, but, because you are not impulse buying, you are likely to spend much less.
10. Eat Fresh Fruit and Veg
There is no denying the fact that fresh fruit and vegetables are good for you and that you should be eating more of them in your diet. Fresh fruit and vegetables will give you natural energy which in turn will help you to get on with the tasks that need to be done.
11. Take Supplements
Vitamins and minerals are essential to keep you healthy. They serve a wide range of purposes and you should try and get a good selection in your diet.
While, if you eat a fully balanced diet, you should get all of your vital vitamins and minerals, the chances are that you’ll be missing some of them somewhere along the way. One of the best ways to avoid missing out on getting vitamins in your diet is to take supplements.
Find a good multivitamin that gives you everything that you need and take one every day.
12. Exercise Often
One of the best stress-busting activities is exercise. Exercising daily will reduce your stress and make you feel better about yourself. This is because exercising produces endorphins which is a hormone that makes you feel good.
If you are someone that doesn’t already exercise, then you should start off gently. Pick an activity that you know that you will be able to do easily. There is no point starting off with an activity that requires you to push yourself too hard from the start or you will end up getting disheartened if you don’t achieve what you set out to do.
Start to build-up the frequency and the amount that you exercise. You may also want to increase the intensity of the activity that you are doing. For example, instead of walking, you may wish to start gentle jogging after a period of time.
13. Take a Career Test
Is your current job or career right for you? If you are in the career doldrums and you’re looking for something new to do, then you should take a career test to find out what you are best suited to.
You may be surprised to learn that you would be suited to a career that you have never even thought of before.
14. Take Up a New Hobby
If you want to feel good about life again, find a new passion. Taking up a new hobby will give you something to get inspired over. Find something that you can get enthusiastic about and that you have always wanted to do.
15. Talk About Your Feelings
Finally, if you’re feeling stressed or down about your life, talk about it with friends and family. By talking things through, you may come to some new understandings about your current position and you may get some invaluable advice.
