RUOK day has a really important message about checking in with your family, friends and work colleagues, but sometimes we forget to check in with ourselves and ask ourselves “Am I OK?” Sometimes we need the courage to not only answer the hard question, but also to take action if we find that we aren’t doing OK.

Here are some key tips:

Be ok to be Real and Honest with yourself

Regardless of how hard the truth may seem; this is the first step to move towards feeling better.  We, as people, are good at avoiding hard conversations with ourselves. It’s good to keep in mind “Hard conversation, Easy life; Easy conversation, Hard life.”

Keep it Simple

Start by looking at your life and asking yourself ‘what areas of my life am I unhappy with?’

People are usually able to accept that they are unhappy in certain areas of their life, but not necessarily willing to label themselves as depressed. That’s a good thing! Tackle the hard question, break down the reasons into small bite size areas and then map out a plan of action.

Audit the areas of your life

Lots of people don’t get specific about what they are asking themselves. Questions like ‘why am I unhappy or sad?’ can seem too broad. Take time to get specific and find a much better awareness of where some of the pain points maybe coming from. For this next section, you will need a pen and a pad. Look at your life like a pie and cut it into 10 slices.

Score the following areas of your life between 1 and 10 (1 being the unhappiest you could ever be and 10 being the best/could not get any better.): Health, Career, Finances, Attitude, Social Life, Family/ friends, Love, Personal growth, Self-image.

Interesting?

Remember that “awareness precedes change,” and now that you have more awareness around the areas that maybe causing you pain or stress, we can take action on where we would like to improve.

You have had a hard conversation with yourself about your happiness and you have done a miniature life audit, so what’s the next step?

Action Plan!

“Success in our lives comes down to the moments of our decisions,” which means taking note of what choices we make when we are not feeling great and what actions we are taking to move towards feeling better. Break down your bigger goals like ‘get healthy’ into actionable steps such as ‘go to the gym twice a week’ or ‘cut out sugar from my diet.’ The smaller the steps the better. Don’t overwhelm yourself with tasks either. Give yourself a smooth path to follow so that it’s easy to stay on track.

Remember, a little progress each day adds up to big results. In the long run, these little improvements will cause large, long lasting effects on your health and happiness.

We believe everyone deserves to be happy, so why not you?

If you want to learn more about yourself and how you can improve your happiness, check out our website www.happinessco.org for more information and access to our programs.