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Motivational Monday: 5 Resolutions YOU Should Adopt If You’re Serious About Changing Your Life

Now the generic new years resolution articles have been and gone, it’s the perfect time to chat about 5 tangible resolutions that you can actually do, and that will actually change your life.

I love getting emails from my readers every day, people who see me jetting around the world on my instagram or facebook page and think to themselves that they’d love to do the same on a permanent basis.

They want the lifestyle they dreamt about but don’t know how to go about sorting it out. This is how to do it. Do these 5 things within the next 12 months and the world will suddenly seem a lot more accessible. So this article is for you guys.

Take A TEFL

I graduated in International Economics, undertook a Masters in Education Management but my TEFL was the greatest qualification I ever received, and it’s much cheaper, quicker and (dare I say it) easier than all the others. It gives you true, true freedom. An ability to work in virtually any country in the world. It’s genuinely a license to be a global citizen, and that’s a beautiful thing.

TEFLs range from a $199 online weekend course to the sexy month long $1600 Cambridge University’s CELTA diploma. If you’re broke then without doubt the weekend course is better than nothing, but I’d recommend you save your pennies and take a month long course. The CELTA is the best TEFL course around, and you can study it in pretty much any country in the world (I did mine in a one month intensive in Chiang Mai, Thailand but you can study part time over 6 months too).

If you’re serious about traveling or living overseas but don’t know where to start, this is the best start you can make. Commit to it. Make it your resolution and be qualified by the end of 2024. I don’t use my TEFL at all anymore and I still love that I have it.

*If you’re wandering what is a TEFL course, I wrote about it here

SPREADSHEET: Work Out A Tight Budget

Money, money, money. You can hug as many tress as you want but like it or not, money equates to freedom. That’s life so deal with it. Now with that in mind, you gotta get your financial sh*t together. One year of living frugally, combined with these other resolutions and you’ll be well on the way to changing your life.

Don’t read this and move on. Get a dirty big excel spreadsheet, write down your earnings after tax each month, take out your phone bill, rent, misc expenses and what do you have left? Save that sh*t. And do it every month, for 12 months. No more takeaway pizzas, no more starbucks, no more designer jeans. You may slip now and again but get right back on the wagon.

Don’t fritter your money away, I don’t know what happened to us Generation Y’ers but we seem more committed to weekly boutique coffees, designer clothes and a couple of average all inclusive holidays than foregoing those for a while and truly having the money to realize our dreams with. Don’t be one of the numbers, be unique and excel. Start counting those pennies, do it religiously. It’s only 300 odd days. I did this for years before my online stuff kicked off – you know what it got me? 45 countries, living in 3 different continents and a hell of a lot more memories than feeding a starbucks addiction would have given me. All before I made one penny online.

Exercise AT LEAST 30 Mins Every Day

Yes you do have time. Wake up 30 mins earlier, go to bed 30 mins later, get off f*cking twitter. You do have time. 30 mins exercise is better than a month of googling about motivation. Personally I recommend running, I do my most positive thinking when I hit the roads.

Those 30-60 mins are the perfect time to get your life straight, dream about the future, work out how to make it a reality. I love it, and I’m sure you will too. After 3 months of this it’ll be a routine and the next 9 is a breeze. You’ll feel better about yourself, you’ll be a damn sight sexier and the positivity will be oozing through your body. Everything will suddenly become possible, which of course it always was, but now you’ll believe it too.

Find An Inspiration Buddy

This may actually be the most difficult thing to do. Depressingly, the world loves a bit of status quo so finding someone who is crazy enough to wanna do something bigger, more adventurous and crazier than a having a safe office job and a mortgage is tougher than you may think. But don’t let that put you off.

Whether it’s a close friend, your partner, a blogger, someone from a forum or facebook group – search hard and make that connection. Speak at least once a week about your goals, help each other with keeping the eyes on the prize. Promise that you’ll admit where you’ve slipped up, confess your sins and endeavor to put them right the next week. Then when you finally reach that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, you can rejoice together and who knows maybe even share a beer on a beach in Thailand.

Contact 3 People Who Are Where You Wanna Be At Different Stages

Think of where you are now – discontent? Is this it? Wasn’t life supposed to be big, bold and beautiful? Yes, it is and it can be. So you need to find 3 people who can truly convince you that’s it’s possible. The first person is your inspiration buddy, they’re in the same boat as you. You both know you want more, and you’re both committed to getting it.

The second person to connect with is someone who has taken that next step successfully. Maybe it’s someone teaching English in another country? Maybe it’s someone who is currently traveling around the world, having the time of their life. Find them and talk to them. Make a connection with them. They can show you that your next step is within touching distance. It’ll keep the dream realistic.

The third person is a tad more difficult. What’s your end game? You wanna be a millionaire? An internet marketer? A travel writer? A ski/scuba/rock-climbing instructor? Find the person who is living the life you wanna live at the age you wanna be living it. Make that connection again. It’s time to stop dreaming and start believing.

Only contact these people if you’re serious and 100% committed. It’s not good to waste people’s time, successful peeps love to mentor hungry dreamers. But they don’t wanna watch another person who has yet another fake epiphany, sends a couple of emails, realizes it’s not gonna be handed to them on a plate and then never hear from them again.

THOUGHTS?

Living your dream doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t come without committing to it. Follow these 5 resolutions and I promise you as 2014 comes to a close, you’ll be ready for a 2015 that you could write a book about. Good luck folks, see you on the road.