20 Ways To Improve Your Life

Did you think I was going to give you the list?  You might know by now that is not my style.  What I will do is assist you to find your own 20 ways to improve your life and it's simple and easy.


I live my life out of spiral notebooks.  I use them every morning and write my schedules, budgets, thoughts, goals, plans and ideas.  I even write letters to Jesus where I tell him all my problems and troubles in great detail and emotion.  Many times I repeat the same thoughts day after day.  Amidst what may seem to be the randomness I have certain tools that I have picked up over the years of business training, time management books, and life assessment articles. 

Writing something down makes it much more organized and concrete than letting things swirl around in your brain.  Especially when you are in a state of transition or worry the simple act of writing it down can empty the worry by a simple release valve being opened. 

20 Ways To Improve Your Life

That is the heading on the page.  It deals with the right now, down the road, and everywhere in between.  The method is to make a list. It doesn't matter how big or impossible or how small and trivial the item might be.  The key is to let you mind be creative.  Most of the time the first 10 things come easy and are the actions you have already been contemplating.  It is farther down the list that the new ideas are usually generated.

Okay.  Here we go.  A Sample of what a list might look like:

1. Get a job
2. Clean the house
3. Sell the Mazda
4. Start an exercise program
5. Call Tammy and ask for advice about...
6. Plant a garden 
7. Wash the cars
8. Contact bank about service charges
9. Have a night out with the girls (or guys)
10. Take a class on XYZ
11. Study Real Estate Investing  (I'm at 11 now and it's getting tougher)
12. Clean out my closet and get rid of all unused items
13. Have a garage sale
14. Go horseback riding
15. Call Angie to go to lunch
16. Make comparison calls to see if I can save money on my car insurance
17. Quit watching so much TV
18. Apply for a job at ABC Company
19. Take a trip to Hawaii (yeah, that sounds good)
20. Get rid of that stack of newspapers

Yes, some of it might seem like crazy random stuff.  That's okay.  It doesn't have to have a rhyme or reason right now.  What next?  Nothing.  Until tomorrow.

Now, without looking at your list start all over and do the same thing.  Don't worry that some of the items might have been repeated.  Do this for five days.  Monday through Friday would be good and it should only take about 15 minutes a day. 

Have you figured out why we are doing this?  Many of the ways we can improve our lives are simple, easy, and cost nothing.  Many are merely tasks that we have procrastinated at doing or have taken a back burner while we continue to stew over the weightier of problems.  We begin to get discouraged and feel like happiness is outside our grasp when really it is sometimes a phone call away.  We can become moody, disheartened, and start blaming things we cannot control for our own misery.

On the weekend go back and review the lists. What showed up over and over? What costs no money? What can you do right now? What will you have to set as an ongoing or future goal due to the amount of time or money needed? Make your TO DO list and get busy. Knock out some of the easy stuff and remind yourself that you are a very successful person. You are able to tackle and accomplish your goals.

20 Ways To Improve Your Life will assist you to refocus, re-energize, and most of all keep you moving forward regardless of the challenges you may now be facing.

Oh, and by the way, Walmart has spiral notebooks on sale for 15 cents each!  Now that's something to get happy about!

Other posts you may like from In The Trenches:

http://inthetrenches2009.blogspot.com/2010/03/between-friends.html
http://inthetrenches2009.blogspot.com/2010/04/in-trenches-brainstorming-ideas-input.html
http://inthetrenches2009.blogspot.com/2009/11/keep-your-integrity.html