Life is meant to be lived to the fullest, enjoying every minute and not taking things too seriously, overthinking or complicating them.
Each day can be fully experienced simply and happily, without the need to have regrets, hatred, jealousy, disappointment, suffering, insecurity, fears or doubts.
It’s all a matter of choice. We decide whether we’ll focus on the present moment and leave the past where it belongs, or we’ll keep going back to it and worrying about what tomorrow might bring.
This is only one little change we can make – being present, concentrating on the now as it’s all we have and the only place where we can do something about our future, it’s also where happiness, peace and contentment exist.
If you’re out of ideas but want to do something about your life and become a passionate, happy individual and embrace simplicity, here are small actions and steps to take that will help you achieve that:
50 Ways to Start Living a Happier and Simpler Life Today
Have a purpose – everything is so much easier and meaningful with a clear direction.
Have a simple communication with others – don’t lie, don’t be too wordy, be direct and say what you think.
Stop trying to control everything. You can’t. Accept it and let go of the things that will happen anyway.
Write a list of positive affirmations and read it out loud in the morning right after you wake up and before you go to bed.
Plan your day from the night before so that you never need to be in a rush.
The things you do during the day will be much simpler, possible and organized if you start getting up early and going to bed earlier than usual. Use the morning to do some work, to study, or for something personal without being disturbed.
Reflect on happiness. Define what exactly makes you happy and what in your life prevents you from being so.
Everything in your home must have its own place – your keys, documents, cell phone, things you use every day, once a week, or even once a year. And when you take it, put it back there. This small change will save you a lot of stress and troubles and you won’t be late anymore because you couldn’t find your keys, for example.
Learn to say no. We often agree with others just to please them or not to offend them. We agree to help and do favors even if we don’t have the time for that only because we can’t say no.
Take a long soothing bath with a lot of candles, foam and maybe a nice book or meditation music.
Declutter your desk.
See yourself from another point of view. Ask your relatives and close friends to list the 5 things they love about you the most and try to truly believe their words. See yourself through their eyes and have a more positive opinion of yourself.
Find your magical place and spend as much time as you can there.
Don’t buy stuff you don’t need.
If you want to know something, ask. If you didn’t understand the first time, ask again. There is no need to feel ashamed, awkward or in doubt.
Drink tea every day. It’s a simple act of contentment, something healthy you can please your body with. Drink it slowly and enjoy it.
Reduce the time you spend online. At first you will be wondering what else to do and will want to go back to the computer and never leave it again. But if you give it time, you’ll see that you can do activities that are way more enjoyable, rewarding and meaningful. After some time you will go online only when you have something important to do.
Write your soul out. Share all your secret desires, fears, doubts, bad past experiences and failures and burn the sheet. It’s a great therapy.
Cook your own meals instead of buying them.
Do the important things first. The rest is either pointless to do or can wait.
Meditate.
Be happy for no reason and eventually you’ll notice hundreds of reasons.
Start doing things at least a few days before the deadline, not in the last minute. That will save you so much stress.
Know how to spend your free time. Do what makes you smile, relax, enjoy life and be with people that make you happy. Don’t think about work, tasks or problems in your spare time.
Don’t analyze things too much. Almost every time it leads to no good.
Accept it when you are wrong.
You don’t need to be on every social media there is. Delete some of your profiles. Leave only Facebook, although life will be pretty simpler without it too.
Sell your car and buy a bike. Walk whenever you can. This will be a huge change for people who are used to driving every day, and probably a bit hard at the beginning.
By doing so you will have less expenses and unexpected problems (a broken part of the car, for example, or no fuel when in a hurry).
Be honest with yourself. That will save you years of self-delusion, living in lies and having fake relationships. The truth will come out eventually and the more open and honest you are, the happier you will be.
Delete all the negative words from your vocabulary.
Smile as many times as you can every day.
Have a long, deep conversation with someone you look up to, whose company you enjoy.
Finish what you’ve started (but decide whether it’s worth it, because we often spend time doing unnecessary activities).
Stop communicating with people who only waste your time, have a bad influence on you, and are always negative and depressed.
Read a good book.
When you buy something new, get rid of something old. This way you will keep the belongings in your home in balance and won’t end up in chaos.
Take a long walk in the nature and just notice everything around you.
Control your anger. Use the good old trick and count to 10 before you react.
Feel the act of creation – write something, invent, think of a new way to do something and share it with others, sing, play music, paint, design, build.
Keep in touch with good old friends that really matter to you.
Never forget that it’s never too late to become who you want, to achieve your goals and chase your dreams. So today may be the day to take a new direction, change yourself and start a better life.
Unsubscribe from all the sites that are emailing you all the time and don’t subscribe to new ones. Make things simpler and if you need something, just look it up now. Google it, find what you want and read it. But don’t let these sites control what gets in your head and give you the information they think you need.
Find an easier way to do something.
See the beauty in little things – your comfortable bed, nature, the sunrise, the rainbow, the rain, how something makes you laugh, a beautiful morning, the annoying habits of someone you love, a poem and so on.
Stop trying to please and impress everyone.
Start your day great by having a morning routine.
Learn to accept compliments. Don’t be too shy and modest. This way you complicate the whole process.
It’s simple. Someone likes you, tells it to you in the form of a compliment, you thank him, accept it, believe it and feel good.
Have a positive mantra and repeat it all the time.
Get used to change fast. The world won’t be waiting for you to realize what’s going on and even if it’s hard for you to accept it, it’s still a fact. So embrace change, be adaptive and look forward to the new wonderful things that lie in store.
Simplify your wardrobe. Donate/throw away the things you don’t wear, don’t like anymore or haven’t worn at all. Arrange the rest in such a way that it will take you little or no time to decide what to wear before you go out.
All these are simple and easy to implement right now, aren’t they?
Most often we fear change and think it’s too hard as we tend to focus on the big picture. But truth is we need to make just the first tiny step, then the second one on the next day. That’s the power of incremental change.
This way we won’t feel overwhelmed, will give our brain time to get used to the new thing in our life, and eventually get closer to the ideal lifestyle with no effort.