We all have situations in our lives where we feel that things are spiralling out of control. This can stem from things not going the way we had planned, life throwing something unexpected at us like death or just a feeling of not having any control over life as it goes along.
Too many times you may find yourself a passenger of your own life, without having any positive impact on how to actually navigate your life where you have some control over how things pan out. We will be looking at practical ways to take control of your life in this article. It is important to note that in order to implement these tips you will need to have patience and discipline, it is not something that will work over night.
1. Keep Your house tidy
This may seem like a strange one, but if you cannot keep your bedroom or your house organised how do you plan to organise your life? Believe it or not once your start to clean your room, things around you start to become more clearer as well. You will feel a sense of pride and accomplishment in it which helps to take control of your life.
2. Sleep at regular schedule
Getting 7-8 hours of sleep is so important to having control on your life. Sleeping and waking up at the same time each day makes a huge difference as it offers structure and order to your life.
3. Get rid of Social Media
This one is the one that tends to be the hardest to do as you have the world at your fingertips and you will struggle to want to give this up. But giving up social media is one sure-fire way of getting control of your life. If you find it difficult to get rid of all the social media accounts start by removing the one that you use the most. However, going cold turkey is the best way forward as suddenly yo will everything a lot more clearly. You will have more time to enjoy things, for example spending time with family, doing activities that you enjoy etc. Social media engrosses us in other people’s lives so that we do not have time for our own lives. It also leads us to become depressed as we are always comparing ourselves to others. Getting rid of social media is one of the best ways to regaining control of your life.
4. Meditation
Practicing meditation even for 10 minutes a day will help you to feel more in control of your life. Meditating helps you to focus on the present moment. At first, it will be difficult but gradually it becomes easier to do and you have more clarity in life and also you will feel that you have control over your life. Start by sitting in a quiet room and just focusing on your breath. When thoughts come into your head do not try to control them. Just notice how it feels to have air pass in and out of your nose, slowly begin to count your breath up to ten. Once this is done, start again. This will help you to focus.
If any thoughts enter your mind let them come, do not beat yourself up about them. Just gently bring the focus back to your breath. Wandering thoughts occur with everyone. Rather than focusing on then let them just come and go. Just redirect yourself to your breath. If you find 10 minutes hard, you even start with 5-minute mediation and then slowly work yourself up to 30 minutes mediation. As time goes on you will see a massive difference in how you are able to control your thoughts through focus.
5. Start focusing on your goals
Start with something that you might have wanted to do for a long time. Maybe it was going to the gym, doing yoga, learning to sew, learning a new language. Start with a small goal and then break it down to smaller realistic goals. I will go to the gym 2 times a week and stick to doing this for a few weeks. Once you have gone 3-4 weeks of consistently hitting your goal try and increase it or introduce a new goal. As you progress you will see how this is helping you to take control of your life.
6. Stop waiting for other people to do things
Believe it or not, a lot of times we feel out of control because we are constantly relying on other people to do things for us. When this does not happen, we feel that there is a lack of control in our life. It can make you frustrated, feel helpless. One of way to do this is to take back control by making decisions for your life. If you have a partner that never gets his end of the things done, revaluate and begin to do things that will help you control your life in a way that makes you comfortable of happy. If at work a colleague is not doing their share of the work then tackle it head on. If things are not improving look at changing positions in a different company or even changing the jobs. Maybe you have been in it too long! This will help you to regain control of your life rather than putting your trust in other people. The more decisions you take out of other people’s hands, and take those decisions into your own hands, the more you can control what happens next.
7. Practice prevention
This cannot be used in every area of your life but can help in a lot of places. Practicing prevention basically means preparing for eventualities that you know can happen. This helps you to keep in control of your life. For example, you have a car, you know there is the possibility of it breaking down, so how can you prevent this from happening? You can take out breakdown insurance. This means when and if you do break down you have taken measures to control how badly the impact of the breakdown will affect you. In the same way you can also have it serviced every year to prevent it from breaking down. It won’t completely stop the problem from happening but it definitely keeps you in control.