If you want to change your life, you have to make the decision to move forward. Here are 5 steps that lead to real life change.

I think there’s a truth I’ve discovered, although I haven’t heard it anywhere just yet:

The older you get, the harder it is to change your life.

I wish it weren’t true. But I’m living proof, and having talked to many women like me, I can attest that many have shared my struggle to make real life change the older they’ve gotten.

Maybe it’s that we are overwhelmed with responsibilities. Our children take up too much of our time, for sure, but we’ve also taken on more difficult workloads and aren’t great at divvying up tasks.

Or it could be that we don’t know how to turn off the technology. When we could be doing something to change, we’re on our phones instead.

Also, physically, we’re just not the same the older we get. It’s harder to climb out of bed, and we can’t shove 2500 calories per day into our mouths.

Around 40 years old, the desire to fix some life issues becomes more pressing.

We realize that life is passing us by, and we’re ready to make some changes so that we’ll be around to enjoy it.

But how do we change?

How do we fix life when we’re old and tired and our brain is growing foggier by the day, our body wearing out by the minute?

We have to have a plan.

And I’m here to help, because around the age of 37, I hit a midlife crisis, and decided it was time for change.

It took years for me to finally make the solid decision to get going, but I’m glad I did. Once I had my plan for life change, I began to implement it, and am now seeing the positive fruits ripen.

Here are my 5 steps to life change:

1.Decide what success looks like to you– before you can even have success, you have to first decide what that success would be. How will you know you’ve reached it if you don’t even know how to define it? In comes #2.

2. See the success by creating a visual board– vision boards are the BEST step to take in order to envision this successful life you’d like to achieve. What does success look like to you? It might look differently to me, so make sure your successful vision is what you really want it to be, not what you think you should want it to be. Clip pictures from magazines, draw, journal–the board is all yours.

3. Make a commitment to work– once you’ve defined success and visualized it, now you have to set a plan into motion to make it happen. Keep a planner close at hand and be reading to set a schedule to create this new life change. Every day renew your commitment. At the end of the day if you’ve failed at something, let it remain with that day and start fresh in the morning.

4. Start small because it will lead to big– the WORST way you could start this life change is by trying to do too many things at once. I remember doing that once. I was trying to lose weight and eat better and start my business and work my current job, and my life imploded. I simply could not do too much. Start with one task and become a “pro” at it before moving on. You’ll thank me for this one, trust me.

5. Be consistent every day– consistency is by far the single most important habit you can build for success. As Angela Duckworth, author of the book Grit, writes:

Consistency of effort over the long run is everything.

Angela Duckworth

Consistency is so important because it teaches you to trust yourself. And when you’re changing your life, trusting that you can do it is half the battle.

Changing your life can be difficult in midlife, but it’s not impossible.

When you define success, visualize it, commit to it, start small, and keep up consistently, you will change your life no matter what age you are.

See you soon,

Toni