How to make life better seems like a difficult question to answer, but it’s not as complicated as it looks. When you feel dissatisfied with your life, it’s clear that there is some form of conflict in how you’re spending your time that’s preventing you from feeling happy – regardless of whether the things eating up your time are a conscious decision or not.
How to Make Life Better: Finding Out What Matters
The first step to find out how to make life better is to find your core values. This means determining what you value most in life right now. Then, you find where each of these currently rank.
From there, you can find out the conflict in where you’re investing your time instead.
“If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.”
To rank your values in life, write out which ones seem most important to you. I’ll provide an example list for you of some common values:
- Loving your Family
- Earning money
- Health and Fitness
- Volunteering
- Self-Improvement
Next, determine which ones you consistently spend the most time on throughout your week.
You may have “Giving love to my Family” at the top of your list, yet your relationship with your spouse suffers from chronic arguing. Maybe you feel that your children are more emotionally distant than they should be.
Another common problem I see is, when it comes to feeling good about YOU, that could be where you’re falling short. “Health and Fitness” is up there, too, but you might struggle to balance your day-to-day tasks with making time to take care of yourself.
Grab a new piece of paper. Write all of your day-to-day tasks in order, and approximately how long they each should take, not including distractions. Now, add up all of the hours that you’ve spent so far on just the necessities.
How to Make Life Better: Where Does the Time Go?
When you’ve reached your total, determine how many more hours you’re still awake. Every client that I do this exercise with is always shocked to see how much time simply slips through the cracks!
Determine what you can do with the rest of the time left to give energy to the other areas of your life that need it. If some of your values are low on the list, they may not need to be addressed more than one or two days a week.
That leaves you with more time to invest in the things that ARE high on your list, and you won’t feel as pressed for time to do it all. You don’t want to go from feeling unfulfilled by not doing enough to feeling unfulfilled because you’re doing too much.
You can find efficient ways to use the time that you’re already busy, like calling family on the phone when you’re on break at work, or listening to self-improvement audio books during your commute.
Wherever you’re spending the most time and energy in your life, that is the area that will be doing best. Only by learning where to invest this time will you ever be able to have a fulfilling life!
As I’ve discussed in a previous blog post, feeling stuck in life is a telltale sign that you need to grow. To start finding out how to make life better, I’ve compiled some of my favorite articles below.
Here, you’ll find a variety of important topics, like finding balance, effective goal setting, and how to start growing and moving forward!
Recommended Reading for Learning How to Make Life Better
Learn The Keys to Personal Development: Slow and steady wins the race
Finding Balance for Those You Love: Passion for Life Series #2
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