How I Changed My Outlook On Everything
A few weeks ago I decided it was time for change, change with almost every aspect of my life. I just wanted to start fresh and I wanted to do something again with my life. Move onto a new stage, new experiences, new opinions, new everything. I didn’t feel as content with most things as I wanted to, there was a dichotomy between what I wanted out of life and what I was actually doing with my life. Don’t get me wrong things were going great, friends, family, school, life was good. But just because things are good doesn’t mean that’s the way you want them, right? So I started thinking just about who I was, what I wanted, and how to get there.
First thing I wanted to figure out was the external, is this how I want to look right now, is this what I’m happy with? How can I change things arounds to make myself happier, where am I right now as compared to my self image in my mind. My approach to changing the way you look is to have major things you know that you like, but then just experiment with the smaller aspects. Examples. I wanted a new haircut, but what? Now the key to changing your views is right there, in the ‘but what?’ Why does it matter? I went to the barbers, and just told the girl to give me something shorter and messier. That was it, I knew I wanted a new haircut, but didn’t specify anything else. Keep an open mind and an open wallet and see where it takes you. Eventually I walked out with a shorter haircut that I loved and hated, cut it a bit myself, and was pleased with the outcome. I knew I liked hats, so the next time I was walking around I bought the first one that caught my eye, I’m now the proud owner of a neon orange beanie, and I love it. I realized there were a lot of clothes I didn’t wear. That’s a problem people have, not knowing what to do with clothes they don’t wear. I decided to pair them up with clothes I absolutely love, you get a new style, something your still happy with, and a whole bunch of new combinations using clothes you never would have worn before. How did I change my outlook on how I look? I figured out what I liked, but didn’t specify it, then I just opened my mind and let change happen, and you walk out with someone new, fresh, and you’re happy with it. Simple.
Next was internal mostly. Was I happy with my health, energy, body, daily routine? So I approached this by just going through my day and asking what was good, bad, and what I really thought I wanted to do. I realized I wasn’t as ‘clear’ as I wanted to be, I couldn’t focus, study, or sleep easily. So right then and there, I started looking up proper ways of meditation. Two times a day, waking up and before bed, 10 minutes of meditation, and my whole life seems to just be in order. You’re goals for the day are focused, your energy is stable, and you see things in a totally different light. Problem solved. Next I wasn’t happy with my diet. Diet is a hard thing to tackle, especially when living in a student house or in university. What I decided to do was force myself to eat healthier things, and I don’t mean forcing myself to grab an apple when looking through the fridge, I mean making my only available food options healthy. Firstly, I started by changing the time I eat to 3pm, when only the ‘express’ lunch is available in the caf. This means only the salad, pasta, and grill stations are open. So now when I go for lunch, my options are salad, pasta, or some sort of panini thing. All healthy. Grab a juice and an apple, good to go. Healthy and good. Secondly, I shoved an apple or fruit, and a water bottle in my backpack and got right out of the house. When you’re sitting in the library hungry and thirsty, and you have food and drink in your backpack, well you’re gonna eat it. So I made sure those were healthy. And just like that, my diet completely turned around. Problem solved.
Then came my school work. I’ve never been the smartest, but by no means am I dumb. Like I said yesterday I can get 80s without trying … in high school. I can now get 70s in university without effort, but maybe I wanted a bit more. So how do you put more effort into school work when no one ever wants to do that? Just put yourself in the location. Getting there is over half the battle. I changed my day to be spending about 4+ hours a day in the library. Sure that seems like a lot, but I only do about a strong 2 hours of work there. If you allow yourself to make interruptions like writing blog posts, sided projects, or texting, those 45 minute bursts of productivity don’t seem like such a hassle, and you’re still getting work done. I’ll do some notes on some slides, then send out some personal emails. I’ll brainstorm ideas for my final project, then fool around on social media for a while. Giving yourself gaps of personal use gives you more motivation to buckle down and do some work. That’s how I opened my outlooks to start doing some work. Make it not a chore, make it just a setback before something else, so it becomes easier to do.
Then I starts prioritizing my life. Not in the sense of what work had to be done first, but in a much larger scale. What things were most important to me, should I cut down sleep to get a few more pages of notes done? We’re my marks more important then my health and comfort? Was a friend in minor need a sufficient reason to cram for a presentation later? Just figuring out what comes before what, and what should get the most time. After I figured that out, everything mentioned above just fell in line. I knew how long to be at the library, when was a good time to go hang out with friends, what I was eating, and when to drop everything and help out people.
Life isn’t very hard to organize, or figure out. You just have to stop moving for once. Sit down, close your eyes and think about what’s going on, and how you can best deal with it. Everything can be fixed, there are no problems that you just have to ‘deal with,’ that’s a fucking terrible attitude to go through life with. If something’s bothering you, if you’re not happy with an aspect of who you are, fix it! Figure things out, you’ll be happy you did. Change your outlooks, and everything smaller will fall right into their proper place.
