Ways To Improve Your Life With Grace

If you’re looking for simple ways to improve your life, here are things you can start implementing right away that will make you more productive and awesome!

Take power naps daily:                                 

Do you think napping is for lazy people? Think again. Many studies have reported that a nap as brief as 20 minutes can improve alertness, psychomotor performance, and mood. Here are some suggestions to make the most out of your power nap:

• Plan to take your nap at a good time in your daily sleep-wake cycle; for many people, sometime between noon and 4 p.m. is best.
• Don’t sleep too long; a 20- to 40-minute nap may refresh your day without keeping you up at night.
• Give yourself 10 to 15 minutes to wake up fully before you resume a demanding task.

Wake up at the same time every day:

Every single time I wake up early and have an active morning, I feel a lot better and I have a more productive day. The problem is that some days I hit the snooze button a little too much. Inevitably, I start those days with failure and a late start. Matt Galligan, CEO of Circa, trained himself to wake up at the same time every day by doing this small but effective experiment: Set an alarm for the same time every morning for 30 days and resist the snooze button.

I know it sounds hard, but the results are amazing. If you have a consistent waking time, you’ll be more alert, have stress-free mornings, and get to work in a calm and centered state. In today’s hectic world, that goes a long way!

Organize your life:

Organization provides a sense of control, reduces stress, and is a great confidence booster. It also allows you to concentrate on the things that really matter avoiding unnecessary clutter. Here are a few tips to help you stay organized:

• Write things down
• Give everything a place and put everything back in its place
• Declutter regularly and keep only what you need
• Use color coding

Dress up with vibrant colors:

One of the easiest ways to change your mood and mindset is simply by changing the colors you choose to wear. Many of our responses to color are subconscious—we don’t even realize the effect on our mood. But color is so powerful there’s an entire alternative medicine field dedicated to healing through hues. Red, orange and yellow have been shown to evoke a broad range of strong emotions, for example, while colors like blue, purple and green can have a calming effect.

Exercise for 20 minutes after you wake up: 

When you exercise early in the morning, it jump starts your metabolism and keeps it elevated for hours. That means you’re burning more calories all day long just because you exercised in the morning. If you commit to working out in the morning, you’re way less likely to have the excuse of things just popping up. Plus, you won’t be exhausted from a rough day at the office.

In fact, people who work out in the morning have shown to stick to their exercise plans better than people who plan to exercise after work. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Try something simple like going for a walk, jogging, stretching, or body-weight workouts.

Identify what’s keeping you stuck:

According to Deborah Serani, Psy.D, a clinical psychologist “This approach gets you to be both reflective and active, [which are] two steps necessary for change.”

Set a realistic and attainable goal: 

Impossibly sky-high aspirations can be problematic.

Thayer explained:
“Setting goals is a key step in accomplishments. However, I often see clients with lofty goals that may not even be realistic. Holding ourselves to goals that we cannot reach can damage our self-esteem and inhibit our interest in trying to reach these goals again”.

When setting your mind to reach a goal, ask yourself “Is this realistic and can I actually attain this goal?” If the answer is no, consider breaking the goal down into intermediate steps or modifying it altogether.

1) Stop and see what it is that’s keeping you stuck right now. Oftentimes it’s a blind spot you can’t see, so taking time to mull things over helps you see more clearly. Is it a decision you’re afraid to make? Are certain people bringing you down? Are you in a cycle of negative thinking?


2) Look around you to see how this blind spot is touching your life. Is it only at home? Or just at work [or] school? and finally


3) Listen to what your heart and mind tell you about what you need to do. Learning to reflect on your inner thoughts and feelings will help you trust putting them into action.

Admit to your mistakes:

Sometimes you have to admit them to others. Here's one of the best phrases in the English language: "I'm sorry." Those words could start a whole new relationship. They could start two people going in a whole new direction. Admit your mistakes to yourself. You don't have to babble about them to everyone in the neighborhood. But it doesn't hurt you to sit down and have a conversation with yourself and say I made a mistake and I’ll make sure that never happen again. Learning from your mistakes is what makes us human!