The decision to make a difference in your life starts with you. When taking the initiative to make your goals and dreams a reality, you should push to prioritize actions. To do this, you need to accept and take full responsibility for your life.
Taking responsibility means you’re not waiting for something to come to you. Instead, you are a doer or someone going to get what they want. Such persons are persistent in their actions willing to face challenges to do whatever it takes to make it happen.
There may be things that come up in life you can’t do anything about, but how you respond to such circumstances is a choice you do have. It means you decide when something is worth fighting for when you feel pushed to the ground.
You can be free to do what you want as long as you accept responsibility. It comes with opportunities that can open doors for you, but you can create doors leading to where you want to be. Here are 28 things you can do in your life to start taking initiative:
1. Explore different ways to try new things. Try something new once a week, twice a month, or every day for a week.
2. Understand what drives you by asking questions. Dig deep inside yourself to learn what motivates you. What are you passionate about? It is something to ponder when considering personal potential.
3. Find ways to make boring tasks more interesting to complete. Get help from others if possible or break them up into easier actions you can finish.
4. Learn more about you through personality tests, journal writing, and self-awareness exercises. Take note of weaknesses to work on and strengths to hone.
5. Make a to-do list of things you’ve always wanted to accomplish. Items can be big or small. Actions can be anything you want to get done such as cleaning your home, establishing a savings account, getting out of debt, or writing a book. Get started accomplishing these items as soon as the list is made.
6. Get a life coach, mentor, or someone you can look up to as a form of motivation.
7. Establish a writing journal for lessons you’ve learned from mistakes. Acknowledge what you did wrong. Accept it and learn from it. There could be hidden lessons you could put into use right now.
8. Set goals for yourself on what you want to improve in your life. Get started accomplishing your goals by taking realistic actions. As time moves on, review and assess progress made toward achieving them and make necessary adjustments.
9. Take part in group activities and discussions; take advantage of opportunities that let you speak your mind.
10. Define most significant values about yourself. Think about personal values that help define your character and what you want in life.
11. Push for persistence. When you want something you know you are worthy of keep at it and don’t let rejection or fear get in the way.
12. Learn more about the power of influencing skills by learning how to influence people.
13. Someone who is good at something you need to improve in can be a great mentor or someone you can look up to; ask them to help you make the improvement or consider helping them in an area they want to improve in exchange.
14. Practice being thankful and praise others. If someone did something for you tell them thank you with a hand-written note. If someone did something significant for you or for someone else (especially if they went out of their way to do it) praise them for their efforts. It helps to give praise in front of others to set an example.
15. Be a leader by example. When you want others to do something you know that is helpful set the tone by doing it; inspire others to follow.
16. When someone needs help; do it without expecting something in return. Help others when you know it is the right thing to do.
17. Practice ways to improve how you communicate to others (communication skills).
18. Offer solutions to problems. People don’t like to see others whining or complaining about something unless a solution is presented at the same time. It is great to be able to point out a problem but offer a constructive way to deal with it when mentioning the issue.
19. Do something that needs to be done without being told or asked. Consider doing an action you know that will need to be completed. You can practice this at home, work, or with friends.
20. Assess your strengths and weaknesses by asking others their opinion. People that know you best can offer an opinion you can value if they care about you.
21. Be original. Be yourself. It is easier to achieve success when you don’t have to fake being something you’re not. If you are not true to yourself, you’ll be wasting time striving for something that may never come to pass.
22. Stand up for yourself and be your #1 supporter. When you stand firmly behind what you believe in, it is easier to be positive when presenting thoughts and ideas to others about what you want to do in your life.
23. Volunteer to complete tasks people usually wouldn’t do, even if it is something weird or out of the ordinary.
24. Work on increasing positive thoughts; it will help you reduce negativity from coming out of your mouth.
25. Give what you want in return. If you want respect give it to others. It’s the old saying of do to others what you want done to you.
26. Cut people from your life who are negative influences. Just like at home when you do spring cleaning to get rid of things you don’t need, you need to clear those who create drama and conflict from your inner circle. Include more supportive people in your life that can motivate and inspire you to be better.
27. Where do you see yourself in five years? Create a plan that will get you there.
28. Always look for and implement ways to keep your life simple.