7 Simple Habits That Can Change Your Life Surprisingly

The key to self-development is creating long-lasting healthy habits that can change your life. To really change and improve your mindset, you need to take actions that will make a long-lasting difference.

Self-improvement isn’t achieved overnight, it’s something that takes time and commitment. As boring as a routine might sound, repetition is where growth happens. It doesn’t have to be difficult though.

You can incorporate small habits into your daily life that will make a big impact. Let’s go through some healthy habits that can help you to reach your goals and improve your life and mindset.

7 Habits that can Change Your Life Actually

1. Practicing Gratitude

One area of self-improvement is becoming more positive and content with life. To create a positive mindset, you need to first start with finding things to be positive about and genuinely be positive about them.

Being more grateful for your life and what you have will help you find happiness in the world around you as it is. Negativity can sometimes be born out of feeling a need for something else or never feeling like you have what you want or need.

There are different ways you can find gratitude in your life and start to foster a positive mindset. Daily gratitude is one way to do this.

As an example, each morning or night you should write 3 to 5 things you are grateful for. This can be anything from the morning coffee you loved, your health or your family and friends. The more you do this the easier it becomes to find things to be grateful for.

Of course, you will still have bad days but by continually practicing your gratitude you will still find areas to be grateful for which will help improve your overall mood and mindset.

2. Goal Setting

To reach your goals and be successful you need to get into the habit of setting goals and reviewing them. This isn’t something that needs to happen every day but you can set different goals with different timeframes.

You could set goals for things you want to achieve in the month, 6 months or a year. Having goals is really important because it creates milestones to get to where you want to be.

Without setting yourself goals, how can you get anywhere? It’s really important that you set attainable goals. Think of what you can actually achieve and the amount of time you have to dedicate to reaching that goal.

Start off small and work your way up. Longer-term goals can be bigger but break them down into smaller shorter goals. For example, if you wanted to learn a language and your goal was to be fluent in 6 months, that probably isn’t realistic if you aren’t living in the country and taking lots of lessons.

Start small with a goal to go to 4 language lessons in the month then work your way up.

Achieve

These goals all depend on you and what you want to achieve.

Another important aspect of goal setting is to work out what you actually want to achieve. There is no point in setting goals for something you don’t really want or feel passionate about.

There are many ways to understand what you really want to achieve and it can be difficult. You need to take time and care thinking about your goals and why you want to do whatever it is you want to achieve.

A good way to do this is through journaling or writing down what you want. Putting your thoughts to paper is a great way to get clarity with your thinking. Once you have thought through exactly what you want you can start creating small goals to work towards that.

3. Affirmations

One thing that can help with achieving your goals and improving your overall mindset is affirmations. Affirmations are when you write down or say something to affirm them.

Say for example you want to be more confident, your affirmation is to say ‘I am confident. Although this might not be completely true this is a good way to start to make it happen and make yourself believe it is true.

The more you affirm these things the more they become your reality. If you tell yourself you are confident you will start to do things and act in a way a confident person would. You say these affirmations to really strengthen your own belief in them.

Of course, you need to take action to achieve anything but these affirmations act as a little motivator pushing you along. If you always say to yourself ‘I’m not confident you will start to believe that too and hinder any action you might have taken because you doubt your capabilities.

You can write down or say 3 to 5 affirmations daily as you can do with your gratitude. Combining these two techniques can be a great start or end to your day.

4. Meditation and Mindfulness

Mindfulness is synonymous with meditation and it’s a popular choice for self-development.

Meditation is when you simply sit with your thoughts without distraction. You can clear your mind as a way of relaxing. By practising meditation you learn to notice when your thoughts distract you or what you might be thinking about.

This act of noticing where your mind is at is a great tool to help control your thoughts more. When you meditate frequently you get used to sitting with your thoughts and you can steer them in the way you need them to go.

This is really beneficial whenever in life when you are distracted or your mind isn’t focused when you need to be.

Whenever you have a negative thought in your mind you will be more able to notice that and then question why you feel that way. Once you notice you can react and do something to improve your thoughts.

Meditation is also really great as a way of switching off from the outside world and putting your worries and stresses aside for a few moments, which can ultimately help improve your mood.

To start meditating, start small. A few minutes is a good starting point because it can be more difficult than you initially anticipate. You can even try a guided meditation to help.

You can do this whenever you feel it is needed, some people find it daily to be a great part of their routine.

5. Taking Timeout

Like relaxing with meditation, taking time out is very important for your mindset and self-improvement.

There are many ways you can take time out for reading a book each evening to wind down or setting times to stay off your phone. Set boundaries in your life so you always have time to rest and rejuvenate.

You should also set boundaries for work, friends and family to always make sure you have enough time for yourself. Make sure you treat your time to rest as a priority because otherwise, it could fall behind which could result in extra stress.

A good night’s sleep is also very important for rest. When you sleep your body is repairing and healing so you need to make sure you get enough of it to make sure it can do the job correctly. It’s also a myth that you can catch up on sleep so don’t think that if you don’t get enough hours one night you can simply catch up the next.

Every night sleep is important so try your best to always get what you need.

6. Movement

Movement is incredibly important for self-improvement and the mind. You might not think your mind has much to do with the movement of the body but the two interconnect more than you might realize.

Movement can help the mind release stress. The endorphins from exercise are also proven to create a positive reaction. Movement is inclusive of anything that moves your body.

As important as it is to move, it’s important to listen to your body and find the right type of movement for you. Yoga is a great option to move your body and be mindful as it uses breathing techniques to help the movement.

Similarly to meditation, this works as a way to focus your thoughts on what you’re doing but also clear your mind of any daily stresses. Another movement such as walking is a great way to clear the mind or give you time to think.

A short walk alone with your thoughts is a great way to get clarity or think things through more deeply. Daily movement is great if you can do a small amount each day but the important thing is that you find something you have enough and can do it consistently.

You can do different forms of movement too so don’t feel restricted by one thing.

7. Healthy Eating

Eating healthy is also important for self-development and your mind. If your body is healthy and getting the right nutrients and fuel, it helps your mind to function correctly too.

There are many studies that indicate gut health can have a massive impact on your overall health. Make sure you are eating foods that fuel you and make you feel good.

A balanced diet is a great way to improve your overall well-being. Drinking water is also incredibly important to keep your body hydrated. Since our bodies are mostly made up of water, it’s important we drink a lot of it.