What if someone told you that they had some suggestions for you that might be hard to do at first, but they would vastly improve the quality of your life? You’d probably listen, even if reluctantly. Each of the suggestions below is not the easiest thing to accomplish, but taking them on can repay you in dividends.

Get a Better Job

If you already have a job you love in a field you dreamed of being in that compensates you handsomely or at least adequately, you can skip this one. Some people do have that job; your aim here is to become one of them. If you know exactly what you want to do but have always lacked the courage to pursue it, consider this your nudge. If you aren’t quite so sure, this will take some soul searching, digging into what kinds of environments and activities really make you happy and looking at how you could get fulfillment doing them in the workplace. 

Some people might be put off by the gap between where they are now and the credentials required to make a career change, but training can often be done on the job. If you need to go back to school and get a degree, don’t let the cost stop you. Many people take out a student loan to cover the costs of all or part of their education. Applying for a private student loan is fast and confidential, and you can look at the various options and repayment plans available to you. You can utilize an Earnest student loan calculator to estimate what your payments will be after graduation.

Rest

It sounds too simple to be true but getting enough sleep and making sure that you have some down time can be genuinely life changing. Most people struggle to get a good night’s sleep and are trying to cram too much into too few hours and poring over those last few text messages before drifting off. Or maybe you get to bed on time but later lie awake for hours. Getting a handle on your sleep, figuring out how much you really need and how to get it, and ensuring that you set aside some genuinely relaxing time during the day isn’t easy, but you’ll find that you’re happier, more energetic, and more productive.

Making sure you get enough rest is the result of an overall healthy sleep hygiene routine. Pay attention to the things that prevent you from being able to fall asleep or stay asleep. Many people find that adding things like blackout curtains to their room, refraining from using screens in the hour leading up to bedtime, and reducing overall caffeine intake throughout the day to be very helpful aids when it comes to sleep hygiene. Your mattress, pillows, and sheets also play a role. If you are not physically sleeping on, and in, something comfortable than proper rest is far-fetched. The temperature in your bedroom also plays a large role so consider that as well. 

The Quality of Your Days

An unfortunate quirk of human nature is that we can endlessly put off until tomorrow not just the things that would better our lives but the things that bring genuine enjoyment and purpose. There’s an exercise you can do in which you write down your values in one column and block out the actual things you do over the course of the day in another. 

It can be sobering to realize that you give little or no time at all to the things that mean the most to you, whether that’s your relationships, learning to play a musical instrument, or that marathon you always said you’d train for. Work on introducing more of the things that you value into your life as much as you can, replacing the things that you don’t. That might mean turning off your phone notifications, telling your volunteer gig that they’ll need to find someone else, or taking other paths that mean you’ll encounter resistance, but your life can improve in the long run as a result.

How You Treat Your Body

You probably already know that things like diet and exercise are important, but do you really know why? Furthermore, do you make either, or both, a true priority? You need to care about how you treat your body so that you are optimizing for your body to treat you well. Daily movement has tons of health benefits and eating nutrient dense meals that fuel your body is essential for overall health. You do not have to do a total overhaul of your current routines, and you probably shouldn’t just find and follow a diet and exercise regime just because it is supposedly the best. Instead figure out healthy meals you can make that align with your tastes and lifestyle and make it a priority to eat them more often. Same goes for exercise. You don’t need to sign up for a marathon if you are not a runner, but you should explore different exercise methods and find one you enjoy and can stick with.