“Americans are the unhappiest they’ve been in 50 years”- this was the headline of an article published on NBC on June 16, 2020.
The major highlight of the article was that just 14% of the American population says they’re very happy with their life, according to a study conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago.
Covid was obviously a reason behind such low numbers, but it’s unlikely that the situation or numbers will drastically improve even after the pandemic is over.
Because according to a Pew Research survey, over half of Americans believe that their lives will remain changed in major ways after the Covid-19 is over.
The question is, why? Why so many people, especially after the pandemic, are unhappy and unsatisfied with their lives?
And the more important question is, how can you since you’re reading this blog on how to change your life, can pivot, and actually change your life for the better?
Our guest for this blog is Adam Markel, the best-selling author of Pivot: The Art and Science of Reinventing Your Career and Life.
Today, Adam is going to share his secrets to reinventing his life after hitting a mid-life crisis. And also going to show you how to change your life as well with his simple techniques.
When You Need to Reinvent
Not every time you feel bad is a time to reinvent or pivot in your life. Pain is not bad if it’s training you for what is to come.
It’s important to understand when your body and mind are both asking you for a change. You have to identify the signs and signals to know when a change is actually required. Because if you’re pivoting every other week, then that’s just called task juggling.
Small signs you will notice when something is not right include a downfall in your enthusiasm when you wake up in the morning, anxiety before going to work or doing something, trouble getting sleep at night.
Basically, a general feeling and symptoms that something is off. Even though you’re still healthy, earning the same amount, have the same relationships, but still, you just can’t enjoy it anymore.
These subtle signs cause noticeable changes in your behavior. You become less energetic, you get more aggressive, and you’re easily agitated. These noticeable behavioral changes then cause you to be angrier and more dissatisfied, creating a vicious loop.
The only way out of the loop is to catch these signs and symptoms as soon as you notice them and figure out what is exactly wrong.
It’s crucial to find out the source of your discomfort because that is what you’ll change. You can’t just reinvent your whole life because that would include going to a different country, starting a new life there with a new name, new relationships, and everything.
It’s not hard to find the cause of your discomfort because chances are that you already know it. If you don’t, pay attention to what makes you the most anxious. Which part of your day do you always want to skip?
How to Change Your Life
We tend to believe that if we want to have a different outcome and change something, then the change in input has to be really significant at the beginning. It is far from the truth.
The tiniest little change in the input will always change the output. It’s like if you change the direction of a line even by one degree, over time, it goes far away from its original trajectory.
So, if you’re in a career right now that you don’t love, it’s an opportunity to look around and evaluate what makes your heart sing? What gives you the enthusiasm to wake up cheerfully every day?
Also, what would provide you opportunities financially because that’s an important and inevitable part of choosing a career.
If you’re in a relationship that you want a way out of, then that’s an opportunity to look inside you and find what do you want from a healthy relationship.
Bringing a significant change is not a quick fix, and it takes a lot of time and work. It is the biggest hurdle for many people because with shortening attention spans, when people don’t get what they want immediately, they quickly fall back to the old ways.
The old ways are so familiar and so habitual that even if they’re painful, people tend to fall back to them easily.
Here, what you have to remind yourself if you’re falling back to the old habits is that you’re doing this for a reason. The reason is to move in a direction that’s going to make your life much better.
Everything Happens For a Reason
While it might sound cliche, it is a powerful thing to keep in mind. An even more powerful statement to remember is: “Everything happens for a reason, and that reason is there to serve.”
The statement is your answer to questions like “why is it happening to me,” or “what could possibly be the reason behind what’s happening.”
The statement helps you to understand better that whatever is happening, even if you can’t understand it, even if it’s unfair, even if it makes you angry, even if it seems like it’s just the most awful thing that’s ever happened, it’s happening because it will help you serve other people better.
If you keep this statement in mind, then you won’t have to figure everything in detail. It’s for a higher source to understand how all this is happening for the greater good.
All you need to know is that this will help you, as an individual or community, to serve the world better, and all you need to do is the work coming at you.
Also, whatever is happening, you’re not the only one going through it. There are always people facing worse, people doing just like you, and people doing better.
There will also be people who will go through what you’re going through in the future. So whatever you’re doing right now, your story can serve as an example and lesson to them. It is also a powerful thing to remember.
Also Read: How to Save Money Fast as a Family
Be Resilient
If there’s one message Adam would like to give to everyone who has read this far, it is to be resilient. There’s also a whole chapter about being resilient in his book, Pivot.
Resilience is not just about endurance or working harder. Many people work hard and they’re working even harder right now because of all that’s happening.
In fact, people working harder right now will see consequences in the form of exhaustion and high levels of mental stress.
Resilience is not how do I endure this situation, but how do I create systems and processes for myself for my life to help me to thrive.
So, it’s not about endurance. It’s about recovery. Resilience is not only physical but mental, emotional, and spiritual as well.
For all the readers who would love to figure out where they are in terms of their own personal resilience, they can go to your.resilienceculture.com and take a free three-minute test consisting of about 16 easy questions.
The test will provide you with your resilience score in all four areas of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual resilience, along with a thirty-page guide to help you uplevel your resilience level.
The guide will tell you how to create new habits, and more importantly, sustain those habits so that you can change your life for the better.
