Making a Huge Change in One's Life

There are many various ways to look upon the meaning of life, but one of the best views that I have accepted as the most paramount is that life is about learning and growing. Everyone has, at one time or another, made very large mistakes. When I look at my own life, I realize that there are primarily two different kinds of mistakes.

Mistakes born out of bad habits:
These mistakes are caused by poor habits. A bad habit could encompass many different possibilities but the root of many of my own mistakes have been from habitual laziness and procrastination. The two aren't necessarily the same thing. Laziness is an attitude that one adapts when time seems eternal and that things can be put off until another day. Unfortunately, laziness breeds more laziness until one's entire lifestyle in filled with nothing but excuses for why something wasn't done earlier. Laziness is just one example of a poor habit that has caused me to make many mistakes in my life.

Mistakes from Ignorance:
If one does not honestly understand or know something and proceeds to make a mistake because of this lack of knowledge, this is a mistake caused solely by ignorance. This is the crux of what it means in life to learn from one's mistakes. I've made mistakes while in relationships with women because I was ignorant of their feelings or ignorant of my own feelings and how to interpret them. Everyone will make mistakes born out of ignorance because nobody has yet come into this life with a manual and a map that perfectly lays out all of life's little innuendos.

This brings us to the next point:

The Beautiful Road Ahead -- Changing Old Bad Habits:

The first step in changing a bad habit (or learning to adopt a good habit) is to accept that you are not perfect and have a habit of doing something that should not be done *OR* you have a habit of not doing something that should be done. The first step in making a radical change in one's life is to do the following.

1) First, clean up your surroundings. If your place is messy, clean it up and organize things. This sets the tone for your mind to get into a more organized and stream-lined mode of thinking. Excess clutter around you does not help in allowing you to easily sort out your feelings. It also adds a small level of stress that generally goes unnoticed.

2) Sit down at your favorite table, desk, etc. with a pad of paper and a pencil. Make a list of all the things that you have been putting off and need to get done as soon as possible. Focus your thoughts on the future and organize them into a coherent stream so that things get done.

3) Do step 2 each day for 30 days. Every night (or in the morning), give yourself 15-20 minutes of "me time" and make this a habit. List things that you need to accomplish. Sort out your feelings from the previous day and move on from things that you can not control.

Everyone has their own unique style to living and their own habits, but I believe that some habits should be universal for everyone. Everyone should want to educate themselves throughout their life. Everyone should want to help another person and contribute to their community. Everyone should learn to "let go" of things that he or she is powerless to change while, at the same time, learning to forgive oneself for mistakes made in the past.

The nice thing that I have noticed about life is that when I make constructive changes in my own life, the rewards are always much greater than I anticipated. Also, no matter what mistakes one has made in the past, pick a day (hopefully today) and choose to make that the first day of a glorious and exciting rest of your life.