30 Tiny Changes for Health, Wealth and Happiness

Have you ever started off on some huge project to overhaul your entire life – only to give up after a couple of weeks?

Change doesn’t need to be dramatic or all-encompassing. Small, individual changes can lead to new habits, and – eventually – to a much-improved life. They might seem insignificant on their own, but they build up to a powerful force, just like raindrops working away at rocks.

Here are 30 tiny changes that you can start on today. If you made just one change every day, you’d be doing them all in a month’s time. How different could your life look in a year?

Health

We often take our health for granted, and only make changes when we get a real wake-up call. Maybe you’d like to be healthier, but it seems like too much effort. These ten changes are all tiny but significant:

1. Swap one of your daily coffees for a glass of water
2. Park further from work, and walk the last five minutes
3. Eat a piece of fruit with lunch, every day
4. Brush your teeth for two minutes twice a day
5. Switch from 2% to 1% milk
6. Use less salt when you cook – try herbs for flavoring instead
7. Go to bed half an hour earlier and aim for eight hours’ sleep
8. Cut back on alcohol by drinking a lower abv wine or beer
9. Get outside during your lunch hour for a twenty minute walk
10. Swap your regular-sized candy bar for a smaller one

Wealth

You’d probably like to have more money in the bank. Maybe it’s for a holiday, maybe for an emergency fund, maybe just to get out of debt. Whatever your current financial situation, you can improve it.

1. Set up an automated transfer to move $10 per week into savings
2. Avoid the shops during your lunch hour, or change your route home from work
3. If you buy a particular magazine every month, subscribe to it – you’ll save money
4. Take a thermos of coffee to work, and skip Starbucks
5. Buy books second-hand on Amazon, instead of buying new
6. Sign up for a cash-back scheme for your online purchases
7. Buy food in bulk, and cook batches to freeze
8. Try generic, instead of branded, products – can you really tell the difference?
9. Pack your lunch for work instead of buying sandwiches out
10. Use cash when shopping – and only take as much cash as you need

Happiness

We have so many opportunities and choices, but we often feel unhappy. Maybe you’re stressed at work or at home, maybe you feel too busy, or you just don’t seem to enjoy your life as much as you think you should. Becoming happier doesn’t have to mean ditching it all: you can make little changes to radically improve your life.

1. Keep your work space tidy
2. Don’t read emails before breakfast or after dinner
3. Spend five minutes in quiet thought, prayer or meditation every morning
4. Write a list of things that you’re thankful for at the end of each day
5. When your spouse/friend/child talks to you, make time to really listen
6. Say “no” to commitments which you don’t want to take on
7. Read a great book for half an hour
8. Send a message to a friend on Facebook or via email, just to catch up
9. Take a shower or a walk when you start feeling stressed
10. Do something kind for someone else, every day

What could you start doing today? And what would you add to these lists? Let us know in the comments…

Photo by Only Sequel