Ep 20. 20 Ways to Improve Your Life

I am Kym Showers, and this is Reinvented After 40, episode number 20: 20 Ways to Improve Your Life.

Hey, friends. Welcome to Reinvented After 40, a podcast for all you women in the second half of life who are ready to take responsibility for your own wellbeing and create a life you love living.

I’m your host, Kym Showers, and after spending the first 40 years of my life people-pleasing and following all the rules, I was exhausted and ready for a change. I reinvented myself. I stopped outsourcing my happiness. And I’ve been brave enough to live a different kind of life.

I’ll be here each week to help you do the same thing. It’s gonna be fun. Let’s go.

Hello podcast people. I love people who listen to podcasts. I’m celebrating today because this podcast has hit almost 5,000 downloads. You guys, that’s so fun for me. At just 20 episodes it’s been downloaded and listened to 5,000 times. I mean, come on, I’m so happy, proud of myself. So thank you so much for listening and sharing with your family and friends. I have got so much momentum going and I love it so very much. And I owe so much of it to you guys.

I decided for my 20th episode to compose a list of 20 ways that you can improve your life. I am obsessed with lists. Every night before I go to bed I make a list of everything I want to accomplish the next day. So I’m kind of working ahead of time and setting myself up. I like ticking lists off as I go. Lists keep my mind organized and free. I don’t worry that I’ll forget because I’m in the habit of writing it down on my list. I absolutely never go to the store without my list because I will forget it if I don’t have it with me. If it’s not written down on my list I absolutely will not remember it.

So lists is important and very valuable to me and probably to you too. So today I offer you my magical list of 20 ways you can improve your life. These are all tried, and true, and practiced by me. They are not hard. The more you practice the better your life gets. They’re kind of in order of importance but really not really. Many of them go hand in hand. When you get good at one of them the next one kind of comes along automatically. So here you go, my 20 ways to improve your life.

Number 1. Be responsible. Own your life experience, know that it’s always up to you and don’t give your power away by blaming it on someone or something outside of you. If you love your life, own it, celebrate it, and keep moving in that direction. If you don’t love your life then change your life. Be responsible.

Number 2. Be clear about your values. Think, feel and act according to your values every single day. Know what you value most and don’t betray your values. Pay attention. Do only things that align with your values.

Number 3. Be focused, eliminate distractions, say no to things that don’t get you where you want to go. Be the boss of your thoughts and your habits and be focused.

Number 4. Make quick decisions. Don’t overthink. Get really good at making decisions. Make it and move on. Trust it. Don’t second guess it. Don’t circle back to it. Get good at making quick decisions and trust yourself.

Number 5. Have a plan and stick to it. Calendar your days, calendar your weeks, calendar your months according to your goals. Have a plan.

Number 6. Stop gossiping. I’m not kidding, be done with it. You’ve spent enough of your precious time in your precious life offering negative opinions about other people. Decide right now that you’re finished doing that. Stop gossiping.

Number 7. Be you and do things your way. Don’t go along with the crowd. Be unique. Be creative. There isn’t a right way to do things or a wrong way. My way isn’t better than your way. Your friends’ way isn’t better than your way. There are an infinite number of ways to do things, so do it your way. Take care of yourself first, make you your priority. You will be so much more effective and supporting the people you love the most when you take care of yourself first.

Number 9. Know what you’re thinking. Take care of your mental health. Observe your thoughts every single day. Think on purpose, not on default. Be extra compassionate with yourself in your mind, know what you’re thinking.

Number 10. Go to bed early. Organize your evenings in a way that makes it easy for you. Get in the habit of going to bed early and getting at least eight hours of sleep every single night.

Number 11. Get up early. Establish a beautiful morning routine that you love and can’t wait to get up for. Be deliberate. I’m going to give you an example right now of this because I just got a new espresso machine. And if you’ve been listening for a while, or following along on Instagram, or know me, you know that I love my mornings. Mornings are so beautiful to me.

And so over the holidays, well, actually I made a decision to get an espresso machine because for New Year’s when we went up to Lake Tahoe the house we stayed in was just a beautiful house and it seemed like a really cool family, it’s a vacation house, not the house they live in. But just the vibe of the house and the way it was set up, we all decided this is a cool family that lives here. But they had this really neat espresso machine and none of us really knew how to use it, so we didn’t. I brought my Keurig with me.

But I decided then that I was going to get me an espresso machine and be that kind of cool woman who knows how to make herself a good cappuccino in the mornings. And so I ordered this beautiful espresso machine from Williams & Sonoma, and it just came a few days ago. And I set it up and now I get up in the mornings and I’m learning the art of crafting this lovely cappuccino in the mornings. And it’s just added so much fun to my mornings which I’m already obsessed with. So I just keep kind of up-leveling my mornings because they’re my favorite.

So now I am a woman who makes herself a beautiful cappuccino in the mornings. And that helps me to just add to the love of my mornings. So get up early. Make your mornings beautiful for you. Get yourself in a routine that you absolutely love and that you’re not in a rush about.

Number 12. Schedule your day the night before. Make your schedule for the next day before you go to sleep. Take it off your mind, write it down, clean your kitchen, set up your coffee maker or your espresso machine, lay out your workout clothes. Set yourself up ahead of time so that the next morning runs really smoothly, and you can’t wait to get up to get going with your day. Schedule your day the night before.

Number 13. Stay motivated, get your work finished first. When you’re not motivated don’t use that as an excuse because motivation will find you once you start working. Your brain will try and talk you out of it. Always work first and then play and rest second. Your brain will want you to play and rest first. But that never works out well because that’s actually what creates anxiety in us when we don’t get our work first because when we’re resting and playing first we have this anxiety that we still have work to do. So it’s not true rest or true play.

So that’s why I like to get all my work done first and then I can just have some true rest and true play afterwards. And don’t use your lack of motivation as an excuse, just get started and keep going until a job is finished. My brain is fresh and full of ideas, and energy first thing in the morning so I take advantage of that. And motivation and momentum always shows up in the middle of the work. So always just start the work first and the momentum and the motivation will find you and then you can play and rest second.

Number 14. Eat delicious food. Take your time planning, preparing, and eating it, wholefood, fresh food, delicious food. Treat your body with the utmost respect. Pay attention to what you are feeding your body, it matters so much. Eat delicious food.

Number 15. Drink less alcohol. If you like to drink alcohol, drink it respectfully, be intentional, have a plan. Drink only what you’ve decided ahead of time to drink. Drink only good wine that you absolutely love if you’re a wine drinker and say no to anything else. Or drink a fresh crafted cocktail made from fresh citrus and high end ingredients. Never drink something that gives you a headache and doesn’t taste delicious or makes you feel bad the next morning. Have one glass or two at the most once or twice a week.

Treat yourself and your body well. Set your future self up for success. Improve your life, drink less alcohol.

Number 16. Exercise regularly, every day, get in the habit. Do it in the morning because a powerful way to shift your energy all day is to move your body in the morning. You will create momentum that will serve you the whole entire day. It doesn’t even have to be a big deal. Just maybe 20 minutes a day is totally fine and will make a remarkable difference. Exercise regularly.

Number 17. Don’t rush. We’re never in a hurry. Love the process more than the result because you guys, there is no there. It’s your daily life that matters the most. And there’s never a need to rush through your daily life. So practice loving the process of your daily habits that are getting you to your dream.

If your dream for instance is to be a certain body size, if you’re trying to lose weight right now, just know that when you lose the weight and get your body in the shape that you want it to be. You’ll only love being you then if you’ve learned to love being you right now the exact weight body size you are right now. You don’t have to be in a rush to get there. It’s the process, it’s learning how to love the process. And so we can just slow down and learn to enjoy the whole path. The path to the goal will be the most fun if you slow down and learn how to not rush to the there.

Number 18. Learn something new. Never stop reading and being curious about people, and life, and the way things work. Stay open. Decide right now that you will be a lifelong learner. Listen to a podcast. Read a good book. Listen to an audiobook. Learn more ways about yourself. Learn how your brain works. Learn more about your people. Learn what they like and what their goals are, what they’re interested in. Learn more about money. Learn more about your energy, where it comes from, how to create more of it. Learn more about the universe and about spirituality.

Life is much more fun when you’re a lifelong learner. We never know it all. And I say this all the time, in the second half of life we’re just scratching the surface. I remember, I thought I knew it all at 20. I knew nothing and I probably know even less now. So it’s just so much more fun to have decided that I’m going to just learn something new every day and just be a lifelong learner.

Number 19. Simplify. Simplify your life. Simplify your days. Keep everything as simple as possible. Have lots of white space on your calendar. Quit something every week. Don’t pile on activities to stay busy. Keep editing, be an editor. Make it a habit. Simplify your life, keep it as simple as possible.

And number 20. Don’t save things for a special occasion. You know how we used to just, when we got married way back in the day we had China, we registered for China that we would save for a special occasion. Or we had the special occasion room, or the special occasion lotion, or shampoo. All of that stuff is for today. Today is the special occasion. Let’s use it all up today. Use your favorite dishes, eat your favorite foods, wear your favorite clothes, use your favorite shampoo, and make-up, and lotions, and perfumes.

Spend each day in the flow of all your favorite things, all your favorite people. Do what you love every single day. Surround yourself with things that feel luxurious to you, that feel like it’s your birthday every day. Every day is your birthday. I like thinking like that. Just celebrate life every day with all of your most favorite things. Don’t wait, don’t put it off. Ordinary days add up like the compound effect to an extraordinary life.

So there you go. I could go on, and on, and on but I’ve limited it today to 20 ways to improve your life. A quick recap. Number 1, be responsible. Number 2, be clear about your values. Number 3, be focused. Number 4, make quick decisions. Number 5, have a plan and stick to it. Number 6, stop gossiping. Number 7, be you and do things your way. Number 8, take care of yourself first. Number 9, know what you’re thinking. Number 10, go to bed early. Number 11, get up early. Number 12, schedule your day the night before. Number 13, get your work finished first.

Number 14, eat delicious food. Number 15, drink less alcohol. Number 16, exercise regularly. Number 17 don’t rush. Number 18, learn something new. Number 19, simplify your life. And number 20, don’t save things for a special occasion.

It was so hard for me to stop at 20 once I got going and I could have probably gone to 100 because there is 100 ways to improve our life. There’s an infinite number of ways, thoughts, ideas that we can improve our lives, always. I’m always, always, always brainstorming and very interested. It’s just a really fun way to live, to stay motivated and build momentum. I like trying new things, my life is an experiment and so is yours. We never have to be stuck. That’s the beauty of experimenting.

We keep playing around with different formulas, and ideas, and thoughts, and practices. Just because you have been doing something a certain way for a while doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it that way. Stay aware, stay awake, keep on your toes, change your style whenever you want to. And don’t let other people’s opinions slow you down. All this to say that there is no downside to living an intentional life that you love. There is only an upside to living like this.

I am always improving my life, even when it seems like it couldn’t be possible to be better than it is, suddenly it gets better. I want that kind of life experience for you too. So come be my next new client. Hire me to be your life coach. I’ll teach you how to improve your life and we’ll have so much fun together doing it. Everyone needs a life coach. Coaching will 100% improve your life in ways that right now you can’t even imagine. The instant you commit to coaching, your life improves. You’ll take everything you’re learning from this podcast and much more to a deeper level and make big changes.

So, okay friends, that’s what I have for you all today, 20 ways to improve your life. Thanks so much for showing up. I adore you for being here today. Have the happiest week ever and I will see you next Thursday.

Thanks for listening to Reinvented After 40. If you want more information or resources from the podcast, please visit KymShowersLifeCoach.com.