Four Steps To Stop Drifting Through Life

A lot of times you can feel like you’re just drifting along in life.  Before you know it, you’ve arrived at a destination you didn’t realize.  This sense of drifting along in your comfort zone can feel easy and safe.  But, years down the road you’ll find yourself in a place that you didn’t think you’d ever choose.  Change can be difficult and scary when you step outside your comfort zone.  It’s so much easier to just drift along in the I’m fine coma of life.  However, if you want to live your best, most fulfilling life to your full potential, you’re going to have to step outside your comfort zone and take back control of your life instead of drifting aimlessly through it.  Here are four steps to stop drifting through life.

Acknowledge The Drift

Drifting along in the wrong direction in life happens.  However, you do have the power to stop it.  The first step is to realize that you are in fact drifting.  Take a look at your life and ask yourself if you’re just living within your safe comfort zone.  Review the past few years and seriously consider if you’ve made progress or if it’s just been more of the same.  Check in with how you feel and if you’ve been living life to your full potential.  Think about if you’re learning and growing by gaining new knowledge.  Ask yourself if you have a goal that you’re working towards.  These important questions will help you assess if you’re living life to your full potential or if you’re simply drifting within your comfort zone.

Commit To Stop The Drift

The second important step is to make the decision to commit to stop drifting by taking back control of the direction your life is headed.  This can be done by making daily conscious decisions to pull against the drifting rip tide and steer your life into the direction of your choosing.  One question to start with, is how do you want to be remembered?  When it’s all said and done think about what you want to accomplish in your lifetime.  That could be making a big mark in the world or making an impacting the lives of others around you on a smaller scale.  Think about what would make you feel good and most proud of yourself for the life you’ve lived.

Intentional Brave Actions

Next, each day be intentional about what steps you’re taking to move your life forward.  Most of the time these steps are scary and outside your comfort zone.  That’s why it’s important to take brave action, even when you don’t want to.  Often times you’ll find yourself procrastinating about doing things that are scary and outside your comfort zone.  But, if you don’t want to get stuck in the drift, you’ll have to force yourself to take these brave actions.  Each day, be intentional and think about what single brave action you can take to keep yourself out of the drift.

Set Priorities

External forces can be a huge cause in the reason for your drift.  Making commitments to others can pull you away from what’s truly important in your life.  For example, the demands of your job can pull you away from time with your family.  One day you wake up realizing you missed so much because you were focused on your busy career instead of being present with those you love.  To ensure that external forces don’t cause you to drift in a direction that you don’t want to go, set your priorities.  Make a list of what what’s most important to you and rank each item.  When you’re given an opportunity, make the decision after seeing if it would take you away from your top priorities.  Sometimes these opportunities may be a big boost for your ego, but they don’t align with your priorities.  That’s why it’s essential to have these priorities established if you want to avoid drifting off in the wrong direction.

You might be drifting through life whether you realize it or not.  This is why you must first acknowledge the drift.  Then, commit to stop drifting.  Next, be intentional and take brave actions each day that will move you outside your comfort zone.  Lastly, set your priorities so that external forces don’t cause you to drift away from what matters most to you in your life.  These four steps will help you to stop drifting through life and take back control so that you can live the life you’ve always imagined.