It’s easy to feel there’s no way to change your life for the better when you’re stuck in a rut. At various times throughout their lives, many people feel they are on the wrong course, but don’t know what they can do (if anything) to fix the problem.
There are many steps you can take if you’re having this experience. However, a very powerful one is to study the stories of successful people who pulled themselves out of difficult situations. Their stories don’t merely remind you that changing your life for the better is possible; they can also give you ideas for practical steps you can take in the right direction.
Consider these stories of how successful people changed their lives:
How I Changed My Life: Stories from the World’s Most Successful People
“[Jim Rohn] gave me a way of looking at life that allowed me to not ask life to be easier, but to ask that I be better. He got me to realize that the secret to life was to work harder on myself than my job or anything else, because then I’d have something to give people. And he really shaped me.”
-Tony Robbins
In this tribute to his mentor, Jim Rohn, successful personal development specialist Tony Robbins explains how he changed his life by adopting a new perspective. You need to think of yourself as a project, the kind someone might assign you at work.
You wouldn’t abandon a work project you were assigned. You’d complete it because you knew you had to (or you’d lose your job). If you think about improving yourself as a necessary task in this capacity, you’ll eventually make enough improvements that you can reap the rewards.
“I remember a specific moment, watching my grandmother hang the clothes on the line, and her saying to me, ‘you are going to have to learn to do this,’ and me being in that space of awareness and knowing that my life would not be the same as my grandmother’s life.”
-Oprah Winfrey
No one will possibly argue that Oprah Winfrey isn’t one of the most successful people in the entire world. However, her background didn’t set her up for success. She grew up impoverished and was often the victim of abuse and racism.
She changed this by realizing that she could only count on having one life to live. She decided she wasn’t going to spend it living a life that made her miserable. This gave her the courage, motivation, and resilience to continue pursuing the life of her dreams, knowing that failure simply wasn’t an option for her.
“For now, the Simple Daily Practice means doing ONE thing every day. Try any one of these things each day: A) Sleep eight hours. B) Eat two meals instead of three. C) No TV. D) No junk food. E) No complaining for one whole day…”
-James Altucher
James Altucher is a successful author, entrepreneur, and investor. However, there was a time in his life when he squandered his initial success, and even considered taking his own life.
Altucher got out of this dark period in part by deciding to take incremental steps. That’s an important point to remember. Some people feel they can’t change their lives because they believe doing so will involve far too much work. However, if you decide to change your life by making one small positive change every day, over time, these small steps will add up to major leaps.
Hopefully these “How I changed my life” stories from successful people inspired you. Remember, dramatic change is possible. These stories prove it.
