Excel

When is it the time to change?
Is your life not all it could be? Do you feel that you are not fulfilling your potentials? More than often a person comes to the stage where they halt and recall their life’s achievements and failures. What have we succeeded with so far? Have we done the things we have always wanted to do? Surely there is more to life than this mechanical, programmed, repetitious life style one may have? As mortals, we naturally only live once. So we only get one chance to live life. Why waste it in idleness and negativity? Why let opportunities pass one by until one grows old and wails, “If only I had…”

If these worries have sprinted across your mind, it is a most likely time to change. Seeking a better quality of life is something that has become a recent craze, as people retire to an exotic country and live the life they had always dreamed of, or spend more time with their family by cutting back on a few work hours, or travelling the world.

Life is indeed a rollercoaster ride, especially since the last hundred years from the beginning of the industrial evolution, when the quality of people’s lives changed and life became easier, faster and more advanced. Since then, people haven’t had the time to pause and take a few moments to breathe and reflect. We are all running with the time, and often enough, we don’t know where we would like to run to.

That is why it is vital to have goals and objectives- a plan that will define the structure of your life and where you want it to lead to. This might be easier said than done. However, take a step back from your life, sit down and think deeply about what you want to change in your life. If you are unhappy about something in your life, you hold the key to change it! It just takes will, determination and bravery to make a change, three characteristics which are installed in the average human being.

The Difficulties of Change
It can be quite difficult to break free from the cycle of life that you have become accustomed to for so long. You might fail in the beginning and return to the quality of life you so desperately wish to change out of. However, persevere in your steps to change, form friendships with people who will encourage you to change, ask your family for support, take up a sport- all of these factors will make it easier to change, since you are pro-actively taking the steps to reach your destination, with the prospect of change not just a mere an idea in your mind.

Of course no one expects you to change overnight, however, gradual and steady change will build a concrete foundation to your eventual success.

How can we change?
The most important thing is to include a few of the following steps in your schedule to change your quality of life and lead a more satisfying and successful life:

Master basic skills: 
Build a solid foundation for your life by:
• Setting your goals and objectives.
• Managing your time well (time management).
• Having creativity and life tracking workbooks (recording your goals, action plan, and successful achievements in your workbook). By doing this, you will be bringing more control and focus into your life.

Empower your personality:
Understand yourself and how life works. Build self esteem, self worth, mental discipline and inner power with methods such as:
• Owning a journal where you can express yourself freely (jotting down your feelings in a diary to understand yourself better and release repressed emotions and thoughts).
• Discover yourself, write your life so you can identify key phases and achievements in your past and therefore accept your past and move on to build a stable, brighter future.
• Positive thinking and personal growth awareness techniques will help you reach your goals and change the quality of your life for the better.

Open to a higher power:
Find more meaning, purpose and joy in life through connecting with your Creator. Spirituality plays a significant role in discovering your fullest potentials and succeeding in your life. Pray to Allaah, invoke your supplications to Him alone, and ask Him to help you change for a better and happier life style. Always be content with what you have, always look on the good side of life, don’t sink into self-pity and negativity. You have the power to change without having these negative traits.

Of course, everyone has their own techniques and methods to change their quality of life and live as happier and healthier individuals.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that to make a change, one must start with the first step, and that is identifying that a change must take place soon. Once the identification process is completed- knowing what must be changed- a person can then plan how to change their lives for the better.

We only live once, so we all deserve to live life to our fullest potentials and achieve all our dreams, after all, what is the point of having dreams if you won’t even try to make them come true.

Remember, you deserve a happy life, you deserve to change, so think positively and make that change starting from today!

“Live every day as if it were your last. Do every job as if you were the boss. Drive as if all other vehicles were police cars. Treat everybody else as if he were you.”
– Phoenix Flame