It’s that time of the year again when everything seems to be a bit hectic and out of control. The middle of the year is usually when people start to feel very overwhelmed and all over the place. The New Year’s resolutions have slowly died out, everyone’s trying to get work done and book holidays to get a break from everything and it feels like you’ve kinda lost your way in this crazy world, right? Well, this is when I love to take the time to sit down with myself and just really think about what it is that I want in life and whether I’m heading in the right direction or not. Sometimes I am and sometimes I’m not, but either way I like to have what I call a ‘Fresh Start day’ (or week, depending on how much of a mess my life is at that point). In this post I’m going to tell you about the 5 easy steps I take in order to get that ‘Fresh Start’ feeling and just completely refresh and reset your life back to how it should be!

Clean space = Clean Mind

The first thing I always have to do when I’m getting my life together is tidy my room and sometimes my whole house. I truly believe that if you are constantly around a messy environment, your mind will start to get messy as well. You know when your mind just feels cluttered with random thoughts and it’s filled with the tasks that you need to do and this and that and it’s just the worst thing ever? Yeah, you need to sort that out. So first things first, if you want to start fresh and really get your sh!t together you need to de clutter and tidy the space you spend the most time in. Whether that be your office, bedroom, kitchen or living room.

Going through your clothes and either selling or donating the ones that you don’t wear anymore is also something I like to do to feel like i’m starting over again. It also means you will now have an excuse to go shopping and treat yourself to a new wardrobe! And once the space you’ve cleaned is spotless, try as hard as you can to keep it that way! I know how hard it can be to not just chuck some stuff in the drawers or on the floor when you’ve had a long day but all these little things add up and if you keep doing that you’re just gonna end up restarting again in a months time!

Organise your phone & Laptop

I’ve found that organising my phone and laptop also helps me feel like i’m keeping on top of things. I like to go through all of the pictures I have on my phone and laptop and delete anything that I don’t need. I also like to go through my apps and, again, delete any ones that aren’t being used. It’s also nice to set a new wallpaper and desktop picture to create the feeling of having a new phone or laptop and it also gives you a chance to find something that fits your new vibe and makes you feel happy or motivated every time you look at the screen.

Another thing you can do is go through your Spotify or whatever music app you use and make new playlists! This is so therapeutic to me and having new music to listen to can really boost your mood throughout the day.

Also, if you’re someone who tends to have hundreds of unread emails or if most of your emails are spam that you don’t read, it’s a good idea to take the time to go through your emails and unsubscribe from anything that you don’t want to hear from anymore. This is something i’ve always hated doing because it seems so time consuming but it’s always worth it in the end!

Create new routines

I’m someone who absolutely loves morning and night routines. I always like to have a set list of things to do at each of these times of the day and I try to make them as enjoyable as possible. For example, at night I like to focus on self-care by doing things such as face masks or painting my nails etc. It’s good to switch up your routines every once in a while though so that you don’t get bored of doing the same things over and over again.

Small things like incorporating something new in your routine such as meditation or some fitness can have a huge positive impact on your life. You could even switch up your breakfast, challenge yourself to get up earlier and get more done in the morning or try to read a few pages of a book before you go to sleep. It’s a good idea to watch other people’s morning and night routines on Youtube to give you some ideas of what you could do to make your routine a lil bit different than the usual.

If you’re a fitness freak like me and you also have set gym routines for specific days, why don’t you switch them up too! Look for some new exercises that you could try out or even make up a completely new fitness schedule. You could try targeting some different muscles, or finally use that machine at the gym which looks terrifying… Again, looking on Youtube for some fitness routine inspo is a great idea and a great way to get you out of your comfort zone and trying new things.

Visualise your ideal self and set SMART goals

An exercise that I love to do when i’m feeling like i’ve lost my way or even if i’m just feeling a bit overwhelmed or unhappy with myself is to take my journal or a bit of paper and draw my ideal self. I draw out how I’d like to look physically and around the mini drawing of me I write all of the things that I would like to feel and what kind of vibes my ideal self would give out. For example, ‘positive’, ‘goal driven” and ‘inspired’. It’s also great to write down the kind of things that you see your ideal self doing.

For example, if it was me I would write ‘traveler’, ‘blogger’, ‘inspiring people’ etc. It’s important to not hold back when you’re doing this activity as it can be a lot of fun but if you aren’t true to yourself and your wishes then it won’t work! When you’ve finished this, you should take a moment to really take it all in and make sure that you keep the drawing so that you can look back at it in the future and marvel at all that you’ve become.

The 2nd step to this activity is to set SMART goals so that you can actually become the best version of you. SMART goals are goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant & time-based. If you set your goals following this principle you are way more likely to actually achieve them. SMART goals can apply to any goals in life such as personal, professional, health or fitness goals.

An example of a SMART goal could be – I want to save £500 this month.

This goal is specific and measurable, since you have a specific amount of money that you want to save, and you also have the ability to measure how much you actually end up saving. It’s also time-bound as you have given yourself a specific time for when you want to have saved up this money. Whether the goals is attainable obviously depends on your financial situation but you get what I mean! Setting these types of goals will motivate you to become your ideal version of yourself and I believe that setting new goals is the best way to start fresh again.

So, there you have it! 5 easy ways that you can completely reset and refresh your life and I wouldn’t say that any of these steps are particularly hard or time consuming. If you dedicate a full day, say a Sunday, or a full week, to completing these steps, I can guarantee that you will be back on track to living your best life!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Clara Simpson is a lifestyle, travel and beauty blogger who is maybe a little bit too obsessed with self-care.

She writes about her take on how to live life to the fullest and her blog is dedicated to helping people live a more balanced and enjoyable life, with a few beauty and fashion tips along the way, of course.

Clara hates discussing herself in third person but sometimes she gotta do what she gotta do! You can find out what she’s up to on Instagram here.