One Small Step Can Change Your Life
Being whole and mastering your health in all forms seems like a big journey, but every journey begins with a small step. Some people choose to wait until they have everything in order to begin big life changes, but if you keep waiting, eventually you will not be able to start the journey at all. You need to start being whole with just one small change, no matter how small the step is. Remember that small steps are better than no steps, as long as you are heading in the right direction.
Stop Making Excuses
On your journey to being whole, you need to stop making excuses in order to start your first small step. One thing that drastically affects mental health in today’s society and culture is the use of social media. Social media does have some important uses though, such as keeping you connected to friends and family that might be living in different parts of the world.
However, if you constantly find yourself on social media comparing yourself to others, you might need to take a break for your mental health. It’s easy to make excuses when it comes to social media, but if you can’t get off the screens and become more productive, you are hindering yourself from being able to take that first small step to become whole.
Quitting excuses is one of the hardest things you might ever have to do because it involves changing parts of yourself that might be set in their ways. As adults, we get stuck in habits, and many of them are distracting us from being whole.
To stop making excuses, you need to force yourself. For example, if you want to begin exercising more as part of a physical fitness journey, you need to carve out time in your schedule to make it to the gym or the park. It can be easy to make excuses, but as soon you can force yourself out of the excuses, you will be one step closer to being whole.
Setting Reasonable Goals
Making the first step means having reasonable goals and plans. If you do not set clear expectations for yourself and your goals, you will have a very hard time accomplishing them. If you want to get a new job because your current one is not boding well for your mental and spiritual health, you need to start making reasonable goals to find a new job.
One of the best ways to do this is to set a goal to send out 3 or 4 applications a week. This is reasonable for most people’s timelines, but you can always adjust it to fit your schedule. While it might be tempting to tell yourself, you are going to send out 10 or 20 new applications a week, this is not usually practical for most people and you will only be setting yourself up for failure.
Not achieving your goals can be a huge setback when it comes to making small steps. That’s why it’s extremely important to make the goals clear and reasonable so that you give yourself room to accomplish them.
With reasonable goals, you can also make new habits and new lifestyles. Having goals allows you to be more productive because you are always working towards something, whether it be big or small.
Making Routines
Taking one small step also comes with creating structure and good habits for your life. You can’t make good life habits without a routine. Having a routine will also help you to take small steps towards being whole because you can engage in the same discipline every day.
If you have never had a routine or schedule before, make sure to start small. For example, if you want to spend time working on your spiritual health, you can make it a habit of spending the same time every day in spiritual practices.
Maybe you wake up every morning an hour earlier so you can read a spiritual book, the Bible, or a faith-based book that you want to read. Waking up earlier every day is a simple and practical approach you can take. It’s also a small step that doesn’t involve too much effort.
Accountability for your Step
Once you have a routine, a step, and reasonable goals, you need to make sure you are keeping yourself accountable. If you have a hard time with this, you might also want to engage someone else to help you stay on track. Many people share their steps with a coach or friends.
You need to make sure you are creating time for accountability. This could mean sitting down at the end of every week and going over your progress. Did you wake up early every day like you said you would? Did you send in the job applications that you said you would? If not, don’t be hard on yourself. But make sure you are ready for better the next week.
The Power of Small Steps
Taking a small step might seem like a big deal. You might be thinking you need to try harder or take a huge step to change your life, but most people will tell you this isn’t true. Taking steps that are too big can also set you up for failure if you don’t prepare correctly. It’s hard to fail with small steps.
Once you complete one small step, you can take another one and another one until you have reached your goal. Taking small steps can also save you from actions that might be too risky whether it be financially or mentally.