How to get your life together in 10 easy steps

The desire to get our life together is common to many of us, and it’s absolutely normal to have it, in fact, it’s a good thing.

To aspire to have more or achieve more and grow, instead of staying stuck in the same place our entire life, is a good thing.

However, it may not always be straightforward as a process, especially if you’ve never done it before or you haven’t seen people close to you doing it – trust me, I did this against all odds, so I know it’s possible.

In this post, I’m going to share with you how you can get your life together and spoiler alert, it’s not as difficult as you might think.

 

 

How to get your life back on track

 

Before I dive into my 10-steps process, I want to take a moment to acknowledge those who did start on this journey, but for whatever reason got interrupted and felt like they were back to square one.

 

What do you do in that case? How do you get your life back on track?

 

I believe that it’s always possible to start again, no matter how many times we fall. Life is a constant change and I think that holding onto things and plans too tight isn’t very healthy or productive.

 

I say this as a recovering control freak who had no flexibility whatsoever, and it didn’t help me when things didn’t go my way.

 

I would like to say that having a good balance is in making our plans and doing the best we can, whilst at the same time accepting that things might not go our way, and the earlier we accept this, the easier our life will be even in the midst of struggles.

 

So if you started on your journey, and life threw challenges at you and you went back or froze instead of going forward, you can follow the steps below and start again.

 

You might also like: how to be prepared for the unexpected

 

 

How can I motivate myself to get my life together? 

 

Another important aspect of getting your life together is your mindset. Before we go into the strategies and action plan, it’s important that you fix your mindset, otherwise, it will be pointless for you to try any sort of strategy.

 

If you wonder how you can motivate yourself, I think that you should just imagine what your life will look like if you never do anything to improve it.

 

Or maybe you’re already there, frustrated, dissatisfied with your life, wishing that something would change, and wishing that you were in a better place.

 

You have two options: you stay where you are, and continue to wish and dream and live in frustration, or you can roll up your sleeves, change your attitude, and get to work.

 

Just to be clear, nobody feels motivated all of the time, that’s just the reality of things. But the difference between those who make progress and succeed and those who stay stuck in the same place for the rest of their life is the fact that the first group pushes past their feelings and keeps their eyes on the end result.

 

If you want to read more about motivation, you can read this post.

 

Now that I’ve given you an introduction and some disclaimers, let’s dive into the 10 simple steps that will help you to get your life together.

 

 

 

 

How to get your life together in 10 easy steps

 

1. Stop complaining

 

I’m going to start going straight to the point with you, sorry not sorry! As I was mentioning earlier in the post, one of the key things of getting your life in order is to change your mindset.

 

If you’re someone that tends to complain a lot about the fact that your life isn’t how you wanted it to be and you’re frustrated and unhappy, my friend… stop that right now!

 

I don’t like sugar-coating things so I’ll tell you the truth as it is; complaining won’t take you anywhere, in fact, it will continue to spin your mind into this circle of negativity that won’t help you move forward.

 

So my first advice is that you stop complaining about the situation you’re in, and decide that it’s time for a change. How do you do that? Keep reading!

 

2. Learn how to know yourself

 

This is one of those steps that not many people are aware of, and it’s something that we’re generally not taught about growing up, but it’s one of the keys to achieving your goals and changing your life.

 

If you don’t know yourself, how can you get your life together? How can you change your life when you don’t know the person who’s living that life?

 

Developing self-awareness requires patience, learning, assessing, vulnerability, but it will unlock your potential like few things in life will do. 

 

If you don’t know where to start with this, you can first of all try to do some exercises to get to know yourself better, like the 7 levels deep exercise, or the test of 16 personalities.

 

I also recommend you set some time aside to journal and answer some (or all) of these questions:

 

• How do I see myself? (describe your best talents, your passions, your flaws)
• Do I recharge my batteries more in the company of others or on my own?
• What drives me in my decisions?
• What kind of life do I dream for myself?
• On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied am I right now with my life?
• Who do I look up to for where I’d like to be and what can I learn from them?
• What word do the people closest to me (that I trust and love) use to describe me?

 

 

3. Identify what your goals in life are

 

What is it really that you’re trying to achieve and why? If you do the 7 levels deep exercise should help you gain some clarity on that, and it’s important that you write things down.

 

I recommend that you start by setting your broad vision, what you imagine your life to look like if things go the way you wish. This doesn’t have to be too specific but ideally, you should cover all areas of your life and really think big, then you can work on reverse engineering after that.

 

After your big vision, I suggest that you break that down into the different areas of your life and start to plan how you can make that more of a reality in a year’s time. I know that many people talk about having a 5-10 year plan, and I’m not against that especially for certain goals.

 

However, thinking that far ahead can be overwhelming for some and because we’ve seen how rapidly things can change even in a year, I think starting with 12 months is a good base.

 

After you break the goals down for a 12-month period, then break them down even more for a quarter, and then for each month of the year. It’s important that you always assign action plans to your goals, otherwise, they’ll be harder to achieve because you won’t even know where to start.

 

4. Organize your life

 

If you’ve read this blog before, then you know that I’m a fan of organization and that I believe it has massive power to improve your life.

 

A messy place (and mind) become an obstacle towards achieving your goals and getting your life together, so you need to make an action plan for that.

 

I’m going to write down a list of things that need your attention to be organized, in no particular order:

 

• Your kitchen (pantry, fridge, other cupboards)
• Your wardrobe (clothes, shoes, bags, accessories)
• The rest of your house (take an inventory of everything you own and establish what you need, and what you need to get rid of)
• Your paperwork (bank statements, bills, letters, etc.)
• Your bags (ladies, you know what I mean! The point above was to declutter of bags you don’t use anymore, this point is to clear out the inside of your bags which is probably full of useless things)
• Your desk (receipts, notebooks, pens, more paperwork)
• Your laptop (the downloads folder, desktop, inbox, Google Drive, etc.)

 

A few tips to make this process easier…

 

• Use labels – for everything related to sorting your kitchen, office/desk, etc.
• Use binders – if you need to keep any loose papers, the best thing to do is to use binders and keep them all in one place
• Use a planner – if you want to get organized, you’ll need to have a planner that will help you to follow a schedule and have your life together
• Use colour coding – whether you’re organizing your books, bags, or work tasks, colour coding will make the process more streamlined and easier to keep up in the long term

 

5. Create a routine

 

Routines are absolute lifesavers, especially when it comes to getting your life together. I do recommend that you keep them flexible because things can always change, but starting out with the best possible intentions, I suggest you create routines that work for you and will help you to stay organized and productive.

 

You can read about my favourite routines here: morning routine, evening routine, daily routine.

 

6. Improve your time management

 

The days of wasting your time doing everything and anything are over! Keeping your life together without mastering your time won’t be possible. 

 

You need to learn how to manage your time efficiently so that you can achieve your goals, stay on track with the process, and move forward successfully. 

 

If you have no idea how to start with that, a good step to take is to learn how to prioritize, and you can learn more about it here.

 

7. Take care of yourself

 

I think this is a step that’s often overlooked but it’s actually essential, I’d dare to say it’s probably one of the most important ones.

 

The truth is that even if you’re good at setting goals, even if you have your 5-year plan if you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t be able to have your life together.

 

I also believe that taking care of yourself should be a holistic process, so you should take care of yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually. If you don’t know where to start, here are a few ideas for you:

 

• Eat healthy meals by meal planning+prepping
• Drink plenty of water
• Get 8+ hours of sleep every night
• Journal regularly
• Pray
• Go to therapy
• Call your loved ones
• Exercise regularly
• Spend time in nature
• Practice self-care
• Keep a positive mindset

 

8. Surround yourself with the right people

 

You’ve probably heard the saying that you’re the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with, and I couldn’t agree more with this.

 

Being surrounded by the right people will play a major role in the success of your life. Of course, it’s possible to still have your life together even if you don’t have the best circle around you, but it will be harder and you’ll need an extreme level of ambition, motivation, and self-discipline.

 

So I suggest you examine your inner circle and see who your closest people are. If they’re already on their own journeys to greatness, that’s fantastic.

 

But if you find yourself surrounded by people who lack ambition, don’t dream of anything for their life, and settle for everything, then that’s a red flag. 

 

You’ve gone so far to identify that you want a better life, now you need to change the environment around you if you want to make your dream a reality.

 

9. Take action

 

I can never highlight enough the importance of taking action. I know that many things will hinder you from doing that, like procrastination, perfectionism, fear of failure, but it’s important that you push past them and keep moving.

 

Think of it this way; if you take action, you might fail which is absolutely normal and it will become a lesson for you, or you can succeed, and if you stick to it long enough, you will.

 

If you choose to take action, no matter how many obstacles you’ll encounter, you’ll eventually reach your destination.

 

If you don’t take action, you’ll spend the rest of your life thinking about what could have been, what things would have looked like, and you’ll definitely live in regret. So choose to take action now, and your future self will thank you.

 

 10. Celebrate your wins

 

It’s absolutely essential that you celebrate yourself when you reach some milestones.

 

The time of being hard on yourself, feeling like a failure, or waiting to celebrate until you get to the destination are over.

 

It’s important that you learn to celebrate yourself because it will help you to stay consistent, increase your motivation and continue to work for your goals and dreams.

 

 

Related articles

• The benefits of self-discipline

• Best habits to start today

 

 

Final thoughts on 10 steps to get your life together

 

I hope this post will help you to see that getting your life together is possible and achievable. If you follow these steps you’ll be on your way to creating your dream life, where you’ll find fulfilment, satisfaction and happiness.