How to Get Your Life Together: 10 Surprisingly Simple Steps

At certain points in your life, you’ll find yourself standing at the threshold of a brand new chapter. 

Where one door has firmly shut and you feel drawn to another.

This is the time to turn the spotlight on yourself, to recalibrate your life so that it’s aligned towards achieving exactly what you want.

But where do you even begin? What’s the first step towards closing the gap between who you are now and who you’re destined to be?

Allow me to guide you.

Below, I’ll show you 10 ways to get your life together and reach your potential as the most true version of you.

When I coach, I use strategies just like this to facilitate transformation — so I know these steps can help you start a new chapter, or imagine a whole new book!

Your best self and your best year begin here. 

1. Reflect and Assess

Before you start writing down a bunch of arbitrary goals like “exercise more” or “go on my phone less”, I encourage you to take stock of how you feel.

It might sound like a tall order, but it’s quite easy to get clearer on what you want through self-reflection. 

The practical way of doing this is by conducting a life audit of your last year.

With this exercise, you’ll divide your life into categories (such as family, career, health, and so on) and then evaluate how successful and happy you feel in each area. 

By looking through the results, you’ll gain clearer insight into areas where you’re out of alignment.

2. Understand Your Core Values

Don’t be disappointed if a few of your life’s categories from the first step haven’t scored as high as you would like them to. This gap is an opportunity to rediscover your true identity and the essence of what makes you, you – your core values.

Understanding your values is crucial to living an extraordinary life. 

When you know who you are and what you stand for, you can live a life that flows more naturally with your unique identity. This allows you to make decisions that align with who you are, set meaningful long-term goals that nourish your soul, and enjoy the world around you in a richer, more magnificent way. 

Reflect on the moments where you feel most like yourself, the qualities you admire in other people, and the causes and activities that light a warm fire in your belly. 

Within these answers lies a bounty of clues to help you clarify your unique list of core values, whether that’s creativity, wisdom, altruism, or leadership.

3. Envision Future You 

Now that you know your core values, I want you to spend a week or so pondering the answers to the following questions: 

• If I could wish for the impossible, what would I want?
• What adventures and activities intrigue me?
• If I had all the time, all the resources and I knew I couldn’t fail, what would I want to happen?

The answer to these questions will help you uncover the dreams of your heart, connect you to the power of your aspirations, and bring you one step closer to getting your life together.

Discovering your aspirations will make you feel alive, excited, and hopeful. But aspirations alone are just the first part of the equation – to catapult them into reality, you’ll need to transform them into goals.

4. Plan Your Entire Year

Planning your entire year might seem like a big ask. But don’t worry, I’m not asking you to play every single day right now. 

As you craft these goals, be courageous, be authentic, and be true. Even if the goal seems too extraordinary and out of reach at first, with time, effort, and planning, you can achieve it – and that’s where planning your year becomes invaluable.

At the start of each week, make a promise to yourself to reflect on your goals, and set tangible, measurable targets that will help you stay on the right track. 

Be sure to break the goal down into small, manageable steps. This process of goal setting allows you to feel like you’re consistently making progress while maintaining enough motivation to hit the next goal.

5. Nourish Your Unique Personal Needs

It’s all too easy to get burnt out as you pour yourself into getting your life together, but loving and looking after yourself is just as important to your happiness as chasing your goals.

While nourishing your body with healthy food, water, exercise, and sleep is crucial, it’s also pivotal to pay attention to your soul hunger – to your unique personal needs (UPNs).

To reveal what your UPNs are, spend some time figuring out the “why” behind your core values. For example, say creativity is a core value for you. This could mean that one of your UPNs means having plenty of room to use your imagination and read, write, or paint. 

Or, if community is a core value, this might indicate you need to be part of a team and have an active social life to feel fulfilled and happy. 

Whatever you discover is important for you, build regular time for it into your schedule each week. It’s a surefire way to boost your happiness and motivation and add color to your life. 

6. Build Your Own Support System

Stepping into your truth and achieving your goals requires hard work, grit, and discipline. 

The results won’t happen overnight, and when the road gets bumpy, or nothing seems to fall into place, it’s easy to get frustrated and lose motivation. 

That’s precisely why building a support system is essential!

Meet with these people regularly to boost your motivation and help you find the positive when you hit a dip. 

The same goes for distancing yourself from the naysayers in your life who dim your light and only offer negative comments. Don’t give them the gift of your time. Set boundaries so that you’re not exposed to their limited thinking and doomsday advice – otherwise, it will only bring you down.

7. Develop a Routine

Research from Duke University found that a whopping 40% percent of our actions each day come down to habits, not decisions. That means that, if you want to get your life together and be who you’ve always wanted to be, you’re going to need to develop the mental, physical, and emotional routines to flourish. 

An excellent way to find inspiration for new habits is to study the habits of highly successful people. 

Whether that means developing morning and evening rituals, exercising four times a week, or building your courage muscle, decoding the practices of extraordinary people will provide you with actionable tips to energize your routine.

8. Hold Yourself Accountable (Or Hire a Coach)

To be part of the 8% who truly take control of their lives and reach the successful outcomes they desire, you’re going to need to hold yourself accountable. That means following through on your promises to yourself and learning how to nip self-sabotaging behaviors in the bud. 

Setting goals and measuring your success is a powerful way to keep yourself accountable – but it can also be helpful to enlist the support of a professional coach, like myself.

I’ll act as your accountability partner and guide you through the winding journey of self-transformation, helping you discover your core values, build a winning structure, remain motivated, and, ultimately, get your life together. 

If you’d like to read more about how I can help you stay accountable, you can find more information on my coaching page.

9. Practice Mindfulness and Gratitude

Speaking of self-sabotage, one of the most common assailants that stop people from stepping into authenticity is their own self-limiting beliefs – thoughts like “I’m not good enough”, “I’m going to fail” or “I’m too afraid to try.” 

While we can’t control the thoughts that enter our minds, we can choose how we respond, and that’s where the power of mindfulness and gratitude comes into play. 

To practice mindfulness, all you need is a couple of minutes and a quiet room. Sit comfortably and pay attention to your breathing. Notice the thoughts that breeze through your mind, bringing your attention back to your breath whenever your mind starts to wander. 

If you need some help with this, apps like Headspace are great for guiding you through the meditation process.

I also recommend practicing daily gratitude to support your well being and foster a positive mindset. As studies from UCLA show, people who regularly practice gratitude are proven to be happier, calmer, and healthier. 

I’ve written about this in a lot of detail. So if you want some really effective, science-backed gratitude exercises, start there.

10. Regularly Assess and Adjust

Part of the beauty of being human is that we are constantly becoming. We are always growing, evolving, and learning. Bearing this in mind, know that it’s more than okay if your dreams and ambitions change as you move toward your truest self. 

After all, it’s only by embracing adventure and moving beyond our comfort zones that we learn who we are and what we need. 

So, make time at least once a month to check in with yourself and your emotions, asking questions like: 

• Am I becoming the most bold, fearless version of myself?
• What does success look like according to who I am at this moment? 
• Do I need to add, strike, or adapt any of my goals based on these answers? 

By regularly assessing and adjusting your goals, you’ll ensure you remain on the road towards your authentic self.

You Have One Life. Make It Extraordinary!

Audacious goals, dreams, and transformations are exhilarating but difficult to achieve. 

The strategic expertise, accountability, and encouragement of a trained coach can make all the difference. 

So, schedule a coaching session today to kickstart the journey towards your best year – and best self – yet.

When you’re ready, I’m here to help!