Do you ever get the feeling that your life is spinning out of control and there’s no way to grab the reigns again and set things straight? I’ve been there, and it’s not a good place to be. Weeks and months go by while you almost feel like a prisoner of yourself, sitting on the sidelines while you watch the world buzzing around you while at the same time you seem to be in slow motion.

If you’re feeling like your career, relationships and social life are spiraling out of your control it’s time to get back into the driver’s seat and set things back on course. It’s not as difficult as it seems, and starting is the hardest part. Once you have some momentum you’ll start to find the peace of mind that you’ve been longing for.
Here are some tips to help you get started:

1. Improve your Health
Get back to the gym and start making headway towards improving your body. Eat healthy and make sure that you’re getting enough water and rest each day. Make this one of your highest priorities as you will immediately start to feel better and have the increased energy and motivation to tackle some of the bigger obstacles ahead.

2. Be Consciously Grateful for what you Have
In the morning take a few minutes to remind yourself of everything that you have. There are people out there with far less who would give almost anything to have what you have and take for granted every day. Appreciating what you have today will help set your mind at east to realize that your situation likely isn’t as bad as you may think it is. Once you’ve freed your mind of these negative thoughts, you’ll be able to harness that brain power towards more positive and productive goals.

3. Speak Up!
If something is bothering you, it’s time to stop thinking about it and take action. Speak up and ask questions to those around you. Getting up the courage to speak is the biggest challenge – rarely will there be a situation that comes from your assertiveness that is scarier than first asking the question in the first place. Like tip #2, once you do this it will free your mind from worrying about invented fears and let you get back to being focused on the things that really matter.

4. Remember Few Things are ‘Always or Never’
Ever had a thought like any of the following: ‘ He’s always late,’ ‘It’s never fast enough,’ or ‘Why does this always happen to me?’ The truth of the matter is that few things in life are ‘Always or Never,’ but when you repeatedly think this way, the world reflects your belief and it may really seem like things are ‘Always or Never’. When you find yourself thinking like this remember that it’s not the case and you should look forward to the situation surprising you with a more positive outcome.

5. Release Your Negative Thoughts
If you find yourself with a negative thought, do your best to release it or plant an opposing positive thought in its place. An example of this would be to think ‘I’m so fat’ when you look in the mirror; as you’re thinking this, your mouth will likely form into a frown to mirror your inner thinking with your outward appearance which compounds the problem. Instead of this negative thought, when you look at the mirror say to yourself ‘I’m healthy and vibrant’ and smile at yourself as you think this thought.

Remember to smile at yourself, even if you have to fake it in the beginning. It won’t be long before you naturally feel good looking in the mirror, even if you do have a few pounds that you haven’t yet worked off, and the more you keep this thought the sooner your inner thoughts of healthy and vibrant will match your outward physical appearance.

6. Not Everything is About You!
When you hear a group of people laughing, don’t automatically assume that they’re laughing about you. You’re not so special! Most people are too busy worrying about themselves the same way that you worry about yourself to spend any time thinking about you.

When you notice yourself projecting your negative thoughts of fear and rejection into the minds of other people realize that it’s your own imagination that’s creating this anxiety and then release those thoughts so you can get back to thinking about more positive and important things.

7. Reach out and Touch Someone
Improve the relationships with those around you with a little old fashioned human contact. Shake hands when greeting or leaving friends and give a hug to those close to you. If your relationship is on the rocks you will be amazed at the responsiveness that some additional and unexpected human contact will have. Try it out today!

8. Join a Special Interest Group
Take a hobby or new skill that you are interested in learning and then find a group of likeminded people to join and share ideas with. There are so many benefits to doing this, but I think the biggest one is that you will enrich your life by adding more people into it who will expose you to many different and amazing possibilities that you would never have been possible on your own.

9. Offer your Experience and Time to Others.
The term ‘volunteer’ must have some negative connotation as I know very few people who do traditional ‘volunteer work,’ however the amount of people that I know who help people is enormous.

If you’ve been keeping your personal experience and expertise to yourself it’s time to give back to those around you – and this doesn’t mean spending time in a soup kitchen if that’s not your style. Host an information night, help someone advance in their career, or start a blog to share your ideas and insights to those who do not yet possess the knowledge that you do. These are just a few examples, but helping other will help you to feel good about yourself as well as expose you to new people who will in turn help and enrich your life.

10. Change your Location to Break Through Mental Blocks.
It’s possible to focus so much on a problem that it really is possible to make a mountain out of a mole hill. A good way to combat this is to suddenly and unexpectedly change your routine or environment. Let’s say you have some piece of writing like an essay or report that you need to finish, but have been struggling with. Instead of staring at your computer and watching the clock tick down to the deadline, grab your notes and head out to a coffee shop or park.

After several days of struggling with an article, I took my laptop to a coffee shop and was able to write not only one article, but three in about an hour and a half. The coffee shop environment got me away from my house and all the mini-distractions that come with working from home and allowed me to focus like a laser beam on the task at hand.

That’s it for now. I sincerely hope that this helps you get back on track as much as it did me.