STEP 1: THE GAP STRATEGY

So the first thing that you need to do if you are going to do a life upgrade is that you need to get inspired. 

What I would suggest you do first, however, is start with a mini life audit. What in your life at the moment is not lighting you up? Or, what areas do you feel like you really want to improve? 

A lot of us sit around and look at social media, Pinterest, wherever we pull inspiration from and we’re like, I’d love to have that kind of life. But what we don’t often do is actually assess the gap between where we are and where we desire to be. One of the biggest things for me when I was upgrading my life was I got really, really clear on the vision that I had. I used Pinterest a lot to aesthetically get connected to exactly what I wanted my life to look like. I was able to take action towards that life because I knew the distance between where I was and where I wanted to be. 

For example, with my fitness, I knew very specifically how I wanted to look, the strength that I wanted to have, and the things that I wanted to achieve. And I knew exactly where I was. So I was really honest with myself about where I was and got really, really clear on where I wanted to be. 

The gap strategy is something that I teach in my cost, Clarity and Community it is a really, really simple exercise that you can do, which so many people unfortunately overlook. But it’s one of the fastest ways to get from where you are to where you want to be because you can ultimately map out the shortest distance between those two points. 

So really getting crystal clear on where you are and where you desire to be is the first step in doing a mini life upgrade. 

If you are someone who is struggling with figuring out what you want out of life, I do have my free How to Create an Extraordinary Life Workbook. This is just a simple series of exercises that you can go through to help you figure out exactly where you want to be. But then what I suggest you do after you use this workbook is getting really aesthetically connected to your vision as well. As I said, I use things like vision boards or I use Pinterest boards.

STEP 2. GET CLEAR & GET SPECIFIC

Once you’ve gotten crystal clear clarity on where you are and where you desire to be, you need to get really specific about what action steps you need to take to get there. 

If we go back to my weight loss example. I got really specific about what I needed to do. I needed to clean up my nutrition, I needed to challenge myself through running, and I needed to just do more push-ups. 

Usually, the methodology to get from where you are to where you decide to be is pretty simple. The thing that’s difficult is obviously the mindset behind that. Really the things that you need to do to close the gap between where you are and where you desire to be, are often not that difficult, but you make it a lot more difficult for yourself by not getting specific on those things. 

So here’s a really, really simple strategy that you can use:

1. Figure out exactly what you need to do. 

2. Make time in your calendar to do those things.

3. Hold yourself accountable in whichever way works for you. 

This is kind of key, figure out what you need to do to hold yourself accountable. For some, it’s really connecting to that vision every single day, for some, it’s getting an accountability buddy or a coach or a mentor or someone to actually check in with you along the way and make sure you’re taking those actions. For some, it’s getting inspired by incentives. So figure out your accountability style, so that when you do get specific with the action steps that you need to take, all you’ve then got to do is the third step, take action. 

STEP 3: TAKE ACTION

So many people sit around saying I want to change my life, I want to improve my habits, I want to lose weight, start a business become more spiritual, whatever it may be, that is this vision of this dream life that you have. But most people just don’t take the action. 

The actions are generally not that difficult themselves. It’s of course, the mindset behind those actions. Either we don’t believe that we are deserving to have this dream life that we’re creating. Or we identify ourselves to be lazy. Or we think that we don’t have the time when in reality, we just don’t have our priorities in check. 

There are so many different reasons why we don’t take action to close that gap between where we are and where we desire to be. But 99% of the time, it has something to do with our mindset. 

The reality is that you just need to take action. You just need to wake up each and every single day and ask yourself, what do I need to do today to close the gap from where I am, to where I desire to be.

STEP 4: GET REALISTIC

I’ve been changing my life over the past few months, but in reality, I have pretty much focused on one or two things at a time. So I’ve really been focusing on my health and my sense of self-love. Does that mean I haven’t been also doing my work and focusing on my business and focusing on my relationships and things of that nature? No, of course not. I still have time and space for everything in my life. 

But when it comes to changing habits, changing behaviours, and changing our lives in particular areas, I think what a lot of people do is try to change everything all at once. And this can get really overwhelming. 

I think that habit development should be an accumulative process, especially when you are trying new things. So I have a very successful business that kind of runs by itself at this stage. So I’m not really in the process of trying to grow or scale my business right now. 

Work on one habit first or two habits first. Yes, you need to hold yourself accountable and not make excuses. You just need to take action. But also the reality is you only have so many hours in a day. So go easy on yourself and give yourself some grace, as well. 

The most important thing is that you’re showing up each and every single day for yourself doing the things that you know are moving you closer to that dream life that you desire to have, doing everything you possibly can to close the gap between where you are and where you desire to be.