Have you ever felt like things were going great, and you finally mastered the rhythm of life and then boom, something unexpected happens and it knocks you off your game? As much as you think about getting back on track, the reality is that it’s hard.
Not resonating yet? Think of it this way, you start crushing your new diet and then get invited to a birthday party where you indulge in the most delicious piece of Chocolate cake you have ever tasted. Once the few minutes of chocolatey bliss dissipate, you’re left with a feeling of guilt. Then you might feel like you already blew your diet, so you might as well eat some chips. Before you know it, the weight you lost is back and you can’t seem to find a way to get back on track.
What if you had a reliable process, you could revisit each time you got off track in any area of your life? After a lifetime of repeating the same frustrating cycles, I finally started creating repeatable processes that have reduced stress and helped get me back on track faster.
Today, I’m going to share my proven process and teach you how to get your life back on track starting 10 simple steps.
- Reflect on the Past
- Set the Vision
- Outline the Plan
- Layout Your Ideal Week
- Create Healthy Habits
- Start Small
- Track Your Habits
- Talk about it
- Get Inspired
- Celebrate
Reflect on the Past
Before you can jump into getting back on track with things like your health, career, finances, and a goal you’ve been working towards. I find that taking a beat to reflect on your current situation will serve as the strong foundation needed to support all other steps in the “How to Get Your Life Back on Track Process”. Think of this practice as your hard reset button. Ask yourself these questions.
- What happened that go me to this place?
- Who or what am I blaming?
- Am I open to letting go of the blame and past mistakes to start with a clean slate?
- What was I doing right when I felt like I was succeeding?
- What’s holding me back from starting again?
- Why is now the time for me to get back on track?
- Why do I want to get back on track?
For this exercise to truly serve you, you must be open to taking responsibility for what got you off track and commit to stop blaming and be mentally ready to act.
Set the Vision
Once the hard reset button has been pushed, its time to Set the Vision. There are multiple effective ways to do they practice like writing down what you want, creating a vision board, setting SMART goals and the lists go on.
Personally, I am a visual person. I need to physically see what I’m working towards. This serves as a constant reminder and helps me to stay on track. I also believe that there is serious power in “putting your goals out in the universe”.
Oftentimes, we focus on what we DON’T want, but when you spend more time focused on what you DO want, you’ll be like a human magnet and can easily manifest your desires.
Outline Your Desires
Start by writing down all the things you want on the left side of a page in a notebook or journal. Then write down why you want it. Followed it up with why you deserve to have your desire.
Creating Visual Aids
Design a “Yes” list
- Start with a blank sheet of paper
- In the middle write “I’m saying yes to” and the write your goal or goals.
- Surround the goal with things you are committed to doing to support you in the process.
Create a Vision Board:
First decide if you want to make a traditional or digital vision board. If creating a traditional vision board, to prepare you’ll need posterboard or paper, glue, scissors, and magazines. Carve out time to do this project. You certainly do not want to rush the process.
Start by revisiting what you want and cut out pictures from magazines that will serve as your visual aids. If creating a digital vision board, personally I use Canva to create mine. Canva is a free, easy to use graphic design tool. There are loads of free templates to get you started.
Once you have your finished Vision Board put it somewhere you can see it every day. The treat to manifesting is as simple as Dream It, See It, Believe It, Achieve It.
Outline the Plan
So many times, when people are trying to get back on track, they stop after creating the visual aid. Though Setting the Vision is a mega important, the following steps are just as important. Research shows that people that start with a thoughtful plan, before jumping into action are 42% more likely to achieve their goals.
Start by writing down your plan of action. What inspired actions you can take to get you one step closer to what you want? When will you do these things? What does it look like?
Layout Your Ideal Week
Years ago, when I was trying every planner known to man to see which one was right for me, I stumbled upon Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner. Though, the planner didn’t work out for me, I discovered the powerful practice of creating your Ideal Week.
After creating your plan, the Ideal Week serves as another strong visual aid to see what your perfect week would look like. Carve out time during your week for the actions that will help you get back on track. I take this a step further by creating an ideal week digital calendar, then I overlay my real calendar on top to see how close I can get to my perfect schedule.
Create Healthy Habits
Perhaps you’ve heard that you can create any habit in 21 days. That’s partly true with the disclaimer that * results may vary. On average it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes a habit says James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits. The reality is that we can do and accomplish almost anything with a plan, and it becomes easier when doing things to support your goal become a part of who you are.
Start Small
Historically, I’ve had a very “all or nothing” type of personality. I’m all in on a diet, or I’m eating candy after dinner. I’m all in on our monthly budget, or I spend money like I’m a multi-millionaire. To break this unhealthy habit, remind yourself that doing just a bite-sized action Can be just what you need to get back on track quicker. Remember, Slow and Steady wins the race.
An example if you want to lose some weight, maybe start by deciding when you are going to start, buy some healthy groceries next time you go to store, find some healthy recipes on Pinterest, print those recipes, and then cook. Focus on the small actions and not the immediate outcome. The opposite would be starving yourself, obsessively checking the scale and then quitting because you are hungry, stressed, and tired. What sounds better to you?
Track Your Habits
The quickest way for me to get back on track has always been by tracking my habits daily. This quick practice holds you accountable and allows you to clearly see when you start going astray.
Like anything these days, there are tons of apps to track your tasks and send you reminders. Personally, I like the pen to paper action of tracking my habits in a notebook. I do it every morning for the day before. This practice also helps me reflect on how I did yesterday and serves as a reminder to make good choices today. PS It’s fun to fill in the boxes or add check marks to everything you accomplished.
Talk About It
This one might not make sense at first, remember when I said there is serious power in “putting it out in the universe”. Yep, talking about desires and what you’re working on serves the same purpose. Tell you friends and family about what you’re working on, your successes and your ultimate goals. The more you talk about it, the more you will believe that soon you desire will become your reality.
Get Inspired
Nothing beats the feeling of getting really excited about what you want. The excitement and inspiration are like putting fuel in your engine that will drive you to getting back on track. I recommend listening or reading books on the area of your life that you are trying to improve. For a bonus shot of inspiration watch YouTube videos or Follow People on social media.
By doing this, you’ll pick up some ideas that may help you along the way and there is tremendous power seeing and hearing from the people that are already living the life that you want. Stop doom scrolling and fill your brain with inspiring content.
Celebrate
We live in a busy, always connected world. It’s so easy to finally get back on track and never slow down to celebrate your successes. STOP. Seriously, just stop and smell the roses for a second. Bask in what you accomplished so far and get excited about what’s to come.
To ensure adequate time for celebration, schedule time on your calendar to reflect. Talk to your friends or family about what you’re doing. Don’t downplay your success, you never know it might inspire someone else to get started. When you hit key milestones, reward yourself with a special treat that you can get excited enough to keep going.
Whether it’s a new year, some unexpected life event happened, or you simply got off track, don’t beat yourself up. It happens to the best of us. The trick is having a repeatable process that you can always rely on that will help you get back on track quicker.
Bookmark this page, print it out, or make yourself an easily accessible cheat sheet. We all get off track sometimes, but now you know how to get back on track using these 10 simple steps.
Remember, Dream It, See It, Believe It and Achieve It! You got this!