What do we do when we feel we’re not making any headway in life, when we realize we’re treading water? It’s a very difficult moment to live through, because stagnation prevents us from feeling fully happy. So how do we go about it? Where do we start? Here are some powerful steps to get things moving in your life.

Taking stock of your life

Before we can make a difference in our lives, we need to take stock. In other words, to take stock. Because to move forward, we need to know where we’re starting from.

And that’s no easy task. In fact, taking stock is never pleasant, because instead of taking a curious and benevolent look, we take a negative and severe one.

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to take stock, taking care not to criticize yourself. Remember that you’ve done your best and you’ll continue to do your best. And, you may not realize it, but you’ve made progress on many issues over the last few years.

So take a deep breath and take stock. To do this, take something to write about and, for each area of your life (personal, professional, relationship, family, hobbies, health), ask yourself this question: where am I and what do I want to see change?

Allow yourself to dream in order to make things happen in your life.

Dreaming means putting no limits on yourself. In fact, imagine what kind of life you’d like to lead if you had all the intellectual, relational, physical and financial resources you need.

That’s dreaming, dreaming big! Because, all too often, we put limits on ourselves. That’s why we wake up years later in lives we don’t like. So dream big.

You may need time to do this exercise, and that’s normal.

That’s why I invite you to dream your life over the course of a week. This way, you can imagine each area of your life, imagine several scenarios and see which one appeals to you the most.

Above all, have fun! Because that’s the secret to living a happy, successful life.

Next, write down your dream life in a few lines on a piece of paper.

Prioritize what’s most important

Now, to get things moving in your life, you need to prioritize. It’s quite possible that you want to change things in every area of your life. And that’s perfectly normal.

The thing is, the more things you have to change at once, the more you’ll lack motivation and procrastinate. That’s why you need to prioritize what’s most important.

To do this, go back to your list of dreams and decide to start with just 2 or 3. No more than that.

And that can even be just 1 priority. In fact, it all depends on the investment you have to make. Trust yourself.

Because it’s better to have just one priority and move forward than to have too many and feel like you’re stagnating.

Remember: you need to feel like you’re moving forward to feel happy in your life.

Take small actions to make a difference in your life

Now that you’ve got your priority or priorities, have fun listing at least 10 ideas for small actions you could take to move forward and make things happen.

Because, understand, you’re not going to make progress by magic, you’re going to have to take action.

So, to motivate yourself, the secret is to take the smallest actions possible. But how do you do that?

Cut out the things you need to do. For example, let’s say you want to change jobs. If you write it like that: “change job”, it’s clear that you’re going to procrastinate, because it’s too much effort.

On the other hand, if we break it down into small actions like: call so-and-so who did a skills assessment last year to find out more. Send an e-mail to this organization asking them to send us a brochure. Do some research on the Internet on a particular profession that interests us.

Do you feel more motivated to make things happen?

That’s why it’s fun to break down your priorities, your projects, into tiny little actions.

Then get started. One action at a time. One day at a time.

Get support to make things happen in your life

The final step is to get someone to listen, encourage and motivate you. Because that’s often what we need most to get on with our lives.

That’s why I offer telephone appointments. If you’re interested, here’s the link to sign up: telephone coaching.

It’s really important to get help, because our inner voice is often pessimistic and harsh. What’s more, what we hear from those around us is often discouraging, even guilt-inducing. That’s why we need to find real listening, words of support and powerful, tailor-made strategies to really move forward. With joy and good humor. What do you think?

Find out more:

I invite you to read these 2 complementary articles:

Discover Feeling stuck in your life: 6 practical tips to get out of it
Discover How to influence your life: 4 powerful steps

I recommend this inspiring book:

The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

At first glance, the book sounds like another “do this and your life will be great” self-help book. However, this book avoids most of the simplistic approaches adopted by other books. It gives excellent, yet simple, advice on how to rebalance a professional life that is getting out of hand, or at least a little out of control. The simple advice given (which unfortunately requires some basic self-discipline – I prefer to avoid self-discipline) is both useful and effective if followed. The book is careful not to imply that applying its principles or introducing self-discipline is easy. The book includes numerous case studies of real people with whom the authors have worked. I think you’ll be able to relate to a number of these case studies.
They provide ideas and practices for maximizing physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy for peak performance.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, burnt out and/or lacking balance between work, home and free time, take a look at this book.

Thank you very much for reading this article.

If you liked it, let me know in the comments.

Take care of yourself