6 keys to find new motivations and turn your life around

Several tips to make it easier for you to turn your life around and fulfill your plans.

During the first weeks of the year, it has become very common to create plans for the next 12 months; a stage of our lives that, although it may be defined in a somewhat arbitrary way, we want to dedicate to improve both personally and, on many occasions, professionally.

Taking advantage of the motivational push of New Year's resolutions is usually exciting, especially if we get down to work from day one and start to get involved in our transformation into that ideal "I". However, if we don't quite know how to approach the task, the chances of running into frustration are high, especially if our plans are ambitious.especially if our plans are ambitious.

If you are in the situation where you are not satisfied with your personal or professional situation and you want to do something about it, here you will find several key ideas that can make it easier for you to reach your goals and turn your life around. key ideas that can make it easier for you to reach your goals and turn your life around.. These are simple principles, some of which we psychologists use to help our patients and clients when they are challenged to make progress in aspects of their lives (not necessarily related to disorders).

Key ideas for turning your life around

Betting on pouring large amounts of effort into a project is counterproductive if we waste these attempts by not knowing how to measure our strengths or define our short-term objectives. This is part of the raison d'être of the psychological assistance offered by experts in human behavior: to prevent motivation from being wasted because we do not have a master plan with which we can set our progress. It is a bit like training the voice to sing: if when we try to use it we notice that we are always forcing it, something is wrong, and we must modify the technique.

Here you will find several tips to improve the technique with which you promote your personal or professional development, to reorient it towards what works. They are simple, but you must keep in mind that for them to work you must be consistent with them, and that depending on what your needs are, you will require the help of a psychologist to accompany you in this process, whether or not you have diagnosable disorders or syndromes.

1. Analyze the current situation

First of all, it is necessary to bet for the realism and to know how to describe the current situation, in order to be aware of what we can work from.. It is best to create a SWOT: a four-part table in which you can write down, in brief terms, what your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats/risks are, taking into account in which aspect of your life you want to progress.

2. Map out your desired situation

Now it is time to define your arrival point, the state in which you want to be in a few months. It is important that you try to delimit it by going to the concrete, without falling into the use of concepts.without falling into the use of very abstract concepts. For example, do not resort to "I want love", but "I want to spend more and better time with my friends, my family, meet new friends", etc.

3. Look for achievable short- and medium-term goals

It is important to have goals that are months away, but as long as you can sub-divide them into other short-term goals. Create a calendar in which these challenges are distributed with a certain periodicity (e.g., with at least one mini-objective every week). (for example, with at least one mini-goal every week) and that allows you to visualize your achievements following an ascending difficulty curve.

For example, if you want to learn the basics of a new language to expand your professional profile and you have study material, you can set yourself the goal of reaching Saturdays having studied a new chapter.

5. Establish an action plan

Now is the time to look at the totality of what you want to address as your plan to turn your life around, and add to it, subtract from it and make some corrections. To do this, you must you should make an estimate of the available time you will have and your energy level with which you will start week by week. week by week.

6. Take care of yourself

It is very important to be in good physical condition to perform well, since personal and professional development involves going through challenges. It is very important, above all, that you get enough sleep and eat well.It is very important, above all, to get enough sleep and eat well, because if this fails you may have problems of fatigue, lack of concentration, etc.

7. Create an environment without distractions and a routine of progress.

Finally, it is recommended that you create a workspace in which you will make your progress and in which you will be subject to few distractions.. If you want to create your own home-based business, set aside a corner of your home to be your studio, away from noise and TV screens. If you want to learn to play an instrument, do something similar, having at hand all the necessary material for training. Follow this philosophy of creating specialized workspaces so that nothing will take you away from your goals.

Need help?

Si notas que tienes dificultades para llegar a cumplir tus metas, te recomendamos ponerte en contacto con UPAD Psicología y Coaching, nuestro centro de asistencia psicológica en Madrid. Aquí, ya sea en formato presencial u online, te podemos guiar para que impulses tu cambio a mejor.

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• Lichstein, K.L.; Taylor, D. J.; McCrae, C.S.; Petrov, M. (2010). Insomnia: Epidemiology and Risk Factors. Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine: Fifth Edition: pp. 827 - 837.
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• Shrestha, Nipun; Pedisic, Zeljko; Neil-Sztramko, Sarah; Kukkonen-Harjula, Katriina T.; Hermans, Veerle (2016). The impact of obesity in the workplace: a review of contributing factors, consequences and potential solutions. Current Obesity Reports. 5 (3): pp. 344 - 360.