As we roll into 2019, here are a few practical ways to improve your overall well-being.  Feel free to comment below, if you have others!

1. Improve your sleep schedule

Getting more sleep will allow you to be more motivated and driven to do more tasks during the day.  Better sleep lets you have a calmer and more awake presence. It helps your nutrition and your mental state in extremely positive ways along with how it affects the people around you.  People in your life will notice the more positive attitude change and motivation you are gaining. You will notice when it improves many other parts in your life that you didn’t think of in the first place, like your skin, ability to absorb more information and sleep makes you overall a happier and more accomplished person.

2. Use your mornings to get more done

I know it must be a pain to wake up early just to get things done when you could be doing it throughout the day, but why not just get it all out of the way? Wouldn’t you much rather have the rest of the day to spend time with your family and friends or engage with your hobbies? Waking up earlier, or even taking a cold shower to help you wake up, will give you a fresher mindset and more motivation to get your tasks done earlier so that you have more time to yourself. I know for me personally when I get things done before noon on weekends it gives me a feeling of accomplishment and now I try to do that as much as I can, when I can.

3. A to-do list

It might seem a bit much at first and you probably think that you’ll just remember to do everything in your head.  Personal experience has taught me that I’d much rather not take the risk of forgetting when I don’t have to. All you have to do is write down or type in your device a list of tasks to get done throughout your day, it could just be on a sticky note, it’s not all that complicated.  By starting off your day with the simple goal of crossing out the things on your list, you will see a great change in how fast you can finish things if you just don’t hold off on them. Get them done before they become a burden and you will no longer always have the weight on your shoulders to get so many tasks done at once.

4. Healthy eating

Having  well balanced nutrition will not only improve your energy but your mood and how you see yourself as a  person. Start by cutting out sugars, then carbs and keep going from there. Instead of picking out potato chips, maybe try apple chips. Simple things like not skipping breakfast and prepping healthy meals will go such a long way. You most likely won’t  even realise it. This good mood will soon be your regular mood if you keep up with having a healthier lifestyle. This lifestyle will help you gain energy and motivation to do the things you love. Feeling good about yourself can subconsciously urge you to work out and spend more time in nature.  For a long time I never thought I needed breakfast so I never spent an extra 5 minutes of my day to eat it. I noticed I became more grumpy and tired and was always hungry. Now I eat breakfast and all I can say is, do it, you need it.

5. Avoid ‘Negative Nelly’s’

A huge component of holding back on the new you is the people keeping you from improving for their own selfish reasons. Having negative  people around who are a bad influence on you is one of the main things that can keep people stuck in their old selves. Cutting out people who make you feel like a follower, ignore you, keep you left out and make you feel worthless when they’re around you are people you shouldn’t allow to affect how you feel about yourself. Yes , we will always have people like that around us occasionally but why not help it if you can. Avoid and stop interacting with people who aren’t good for you when you should be finding people that make you a better person and make you happy when you’re around them.

6. Put the phone away

Using your device less and seeing the world through your eyes and not your phone will open you up to so many more possibilities. Social media for example, too many people that use social media use it to compare themselves to others. They will see advertisements and famous people they follow and feel guilty and disappointed that they don’t look like them or aren’t as successful as them. This causes so much low self esteem for young people especially, thinking they aren’t good enough and need to change everything about themselves isn’t the truth and isn’t what they should be gathering from their devices. Taking large breaks off of your phone and using it for more interactive activities will make you more aware about what’s really happening around you without your phone. Don’t charge it right next to your bed, put it out of sight when your at dinner or with your friends and loved ones. Small things go a long way.

7. Be kind to those around you

Burying the hatchet with old friends, making new friends, meeting new people  are all apart of becoming a better you. Surrounding yourself with different and dynamic people will help you understand people better and it’s always good to meet new people weather you’re super close to them or just friendly peers. Even if you’re just doing 1 or 2 good deeds a day or starting a conversation with someone sitting alone it all goes a long way. Having a positive attitude towards others and yourself especially will be good for everyone. Having a positive impact on others and your own life will make your living routine better too. The negative things in the world cause more problems, being positive and open-minded can solve them and find better solutions. Being the good change you want to see in the world only holds good things for you.

8. Create time for you and your loved ones

Sometimes we are too busy we forget about our family and friends. We are too ashamed to admit we don’t make enough time to spend together but we know. Some have school and/or work holding us back and keeping our mind busy and we don’t realise that we spend more time working on something than taking a break. We all need breaks, weather it’s time for ourselves or time to spend with friends and family. Either way, taking a break and forgetting about some of our responsibilities to have fun and wind down will help us keep relationships intacted and it will make us feel so much more whole knowing that we can still find ourselves and not get lost in all of the work we can get surrounded with.

9. Commit to the challenge

I know it looks like a lot and you might not know where to start but that’s the good thing about this, you can start anywhere you want at any pace you want. It doesn’t have to take up all your time, maybe you just look back at it every once in a while to remind yourself that you need to be taking care of your mental states and rewind from everything every now and then. Commit to improving yourself for the better, also don’t feel the pressure to improve for others or someone else and improve because you want to, do it for a better life or a fresh slate. Each one of these tips will add up and make you feel so much happier even if it’s just small things like eating breakfast, or petting dogs on the sidewalk.