3 Life Events That You Can Use to Springboard Yourself to a Fresh Start
It would be nice if life always worked out the way we wanted it to, and rewarded our assorted efforts with endless victories and accolades along the way.
Of course, that’s not what actually happens. What actually happens is more like we stumble around in the direction of our goals, crashing into all kinds of obstacles on the way, and picking ourselves up when we fall.
Life is always “messy” by default. But, sometimes, things become so unproductive and turbulent, that what you really need in order to regain your sense of possibility and well-being, is a “fresh start.”
The most well-established “fresh start” occasion in the Western world today is New Year’s – a time when everyone, more or less, feels like a new leaf is being turned over, and a gym membership might actually be a good idea after all.
Psychologically speaking, it’s often important for us to have specific life events that we can use as a springboard to launch ourselves towards a fresh start.
So, here are a few life events that you can use for that purpose.
Moving to a new home
Moving to a new home is always a “fresh start” of sorts, and it’s a great opportunity to let go of clutter and excess belongings, to boot. As soon as you sign the contract at the estate agents, a journey unfolds.
When you move to a new home – and especially if you’re moving to a new area, as well – you can’t help but appreciate the fact that it’s the “start of something new.” With that realisation, you face a fork in the road.
One path sees you carrying all your unproductive old habits and behaviours with you, while the other calls for you to leave them behind, and become a “new you” in your new home environment.
One of the best things that you can do to help you create a new start for yourself is to sort through your clutter and get rid of any items that serve as mementos from the past. Sorting things into a ‘keep’ ‘donate’ and ‘throw away’ pile will help provide a spiritual cleanse that could help you let go of the past and head forward into your new life. An added bonus of doing this is that removing items from your inventory will also make a move a lot easier to do, as you’ll have fewer belongings to transport.
If you’re moving to a different town or city, or even state and country, this provides even more opportunity for a fresh start. The distance between your old and new locations can serve as a barrier between your new and old selves. If you want to cut off people within your life for various reasons, then do it. It might be difficult, but moving on from people holding you back can be the springboard you need.
If you’ve lived in a certain area for a long time, and the community around you has built up an image of who you are, it can almost feel that you’re acting at times to fit those preconceptions of what others think of you. You’ll find that if people around you think of you as a shy person, you’ll mold yourself to that description. Moving to a new location where no one there has any idea of the type of person you are can be very liberating, as for the first time in a while, you can rebuild your image and personality into something that is more representative of yourself. It can be hard to act boldly in an environment where everyone thinks you’re shy, but doing so in a new environment is a lot easier and can help you change your habits and lifestyle into the one that you want.
To help you feel like you’re being reborn in a house move, you can also opt not to bring any previous furniture and decorations with you, instead starting afresh with new fixtures and designs. This is a bit more of a pricey option, so only do it if it suits your financial situation. However, erasing everything and starting again in terms of your interior design can signify a big change in your life and mindset. Doing this might make your home feel like a hotel for a few days or weeks, but eventually, you’ll get comfortable with your new surroundings and hopefully more comfortable with your new self.
The loss of a job
People don’t often think of the loss of a job as an “opportunity” as such, but how many of us stay in jobs that we hate, instead of pursuing our dreams, just because of momentum and inertia?
If your job lets you go, that may as well serve as the catalyst for realising what you really want in life, and going out to pursue it.
There’s no denying it; the uncertainty and feeling of worthlessness surrounding being fired isn’t a nice thing to experience. However, how you react to this feeling can serve as a great catalyst for change. Some people might decide to wallow in the failure and adopt a self-destructive personality, using this one setback to validate their feelings of not being good enough.
You need to be strong to avoid this feeling and instead use it as inspiration to work on yourself and find a position that you enjoy and feel valued within.
Instead of diving straight back into another job that you absolutely hate, take a gamble, and try something else.
Even if you have to take another job in a hurry, to pay the bills, you should at least adjust your perspective and start working feverishly at a side venture in order to set the stage for a different future.
One of the best things that you can do to help you change your mindset and set yourself up for a change in circumstances is to gain a qualification. This qualification could open up more job opportunities for you, as it will make you a more desirable candidate in whatever field you want to go for, increasing your options. It’s understandable that not everyone will be in a position to drop everything and jump straight into full-time education; however, there are other options.
If you still need to find work to pay the bills, you can use your free time to work towards obtaining an online degree. Online degrees are extremely flexible, allowing you to study at a time that suits you, all from the comfort of your home or a coffee shop. They are also a cheaper option than on-campus education, making them more accessible. Online degrees have risen in popularity and pedigree in recent years, and now you can get courses in multiple industries and disciplines. So, if your recent job lose in finance has inspired you to go in a completely different direction in terms of career, you can retrain online to be a nurse through a Marymount DNP online degree, learn to be a lawyer with a specialist course, or get the skills you need to be a manager with leadership courses.
If you think that getting a whole new qualification is too much of a step to take for a fresh start, you could invest in yourself in different ways. One of the best things you can do is spend time learning a new skill that can help you obtain a new job. Be it vocational skills, practical skills, or more knowledge-based skills, you can make yourself more employable by gaining something new. The best way to learn these skills is through online classes and demonstrations, available on various websites such as Skillshare and Masterclass.
Using the disappointment of losing a job to motivate you to work on yourself and build your skills to enter a new role is a great way to help you start afresh in your life.
The beginning of a relationship
Relationships are one of the fundamental components of life itself, and every romantic relationship causes changes in both participants – for the better, ideally.
When you start a serious relationship, your life may well take on a different perspective. This is especially true if you’re in your mid-20s or so.
Suddenly, going on weekend-long party benders is no longer quite as appealing as it once was. Maybe it’s time to start making longer-term plans, instead – and maybe a trip to a museum or play would be a good alternative to clubbing.
The reason that relationships can change you so much is that now you’re adopting and learning from your partner’s personality. Their worldview is undoubtedly going to influence yours, meaning that your priorities will shift and that your desires will alter. This is why so many people grow and change after a long-term relationship.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you have to change for your partner, as bending to what they want you to be is unhealthy and isn’t the foundation of a good relationship. However, learning from them and adopting their good traits can help you develop as a person and provide a fresh start.
These changes can be really simple too. For example, before a relationship, you might not have taken much care about the cleanliness of your home. After entering one, you may find that you learned to be cleaner to create a better environment for the two of you. Another might be that you didn’t eat amazingly before a relationship, opting for takeaways and ready meals regularly. After committing to a partner, you might find that you’re taking more care of your food.
These small areas of growth and development might seem minuscule; however, over time and in conjunction with other changes, it will all add up to a significant alteration to how you used to live your life, providing a fresh start.
Then there are also the big changes in your life that a relationship will cause that might allow you to make a fresh start. One such change is now going from a single person with fewer responsibilities to now one with commitment. Another could be further on in your relationship when you decide to move in with another, which will create a huge life change.
If you let it, a relationship can really be a huge catalyst to change yourself and provide a fresh start, just make sure that you’re changing solely to please your partner. You should want to make these changes to become a better person.
Conclusion
Life can get you down sometimes. It can put you into situations that are difficult and challenging and leave you in a rut. However, life can also give you opportunities to get yourself out of this situation and push forward into what you really want to do. The only issue is that you need to seize these opportunities and work hard to make them positive experiences in your life.
The life events discussed in this article can all serve as opportunities to shift focus and work towards a better future and a fresh start. Some of these events aren’t overly positive; however, to make a change, you need to see the good from the bad and use any negative feelings to motivate you to a better situation.
There are far more life events that can be used to help you make a fresh start that wasn’t discussed in this article. Things like a significant death, a break-up, meeting a new friend, even something as simple as a holiday all have the power to ignite change. The only thing that makes an event a life-changing one is an intrinsic motivation you have within you to make that event one that kickstarts your life. Ultimately, making a fresh start is down to you, so if you really want to change something in your life, don’t wait for a significant event to do it. Simply waking up in the morning and opening your eyes could be the event that sees you change your life into something different.