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How to Take Control of Your Life: 7 Simple Ways to Empower Your Finances and Future

Attention has now turned to the year ahead and many of us are making resolutions to become better people over the next few months. Interestingly money related goals make almost 42.1% of total New Year resolutions and making better financial decisions is one of the top ten New Year resolutions for 2017.

​While most people want to do something about their relationships or health, money experts suggest that by making a few small changes in your financial habits, you can make your bank balance healthier.

At the start of every New Year, many people set goals and even you would have thought about how to take control of your life. Well, how to take control of your life is something only a few people go on to achieve.

Philip Clarke, a Psychology professor at the University of Derby Online Learning reveals that many people identify what they want to achieve, but they do not think about how to do it. It is seen that people who develop strong action plans are more confident about achieving their goals and they are more likely to succeed.

So how should you manage your life and your finances?​

how to take control of your life

"It is seen that people who develop strong action plans are more confident about achieving their goals and they are more likely to succeed..."

How to Take Control of Your Life: Slay the Dragon that Stands Between You and Your Best Life

We often resolve to make changes related to every aspect of our life. However, a good majority of people settle back into their old habits even without trying.

Have you figured out what you really want? 

How to take control of your life starts with finding out what you really want to achieve in life.

Do you want to get a promotion and exciting raise every quarter?

Do you want to lose weight? Do you want your relationships to become healthier?

To create the life you want, you need to have a plan. So place your ultimate life goal at the top followed by your biggest goals in the order of importance.

Your next step will be to focus on nurturing and flourishing your efforts and move closer to the goals you have set for yourself.​

Give Yourself Good Credit

So you haven’t been good with credit card transactions and are now dealing with lots of financial damage. Well, the good news is that you can still repair the damage.

Your credit score or report serves a major rating of your financial reputation and you need to keep it in good shape.

Figure out ways you can cut down on credit card debt and rebuild your credit history.

Budgeting isn’t Bad, In FACT, it's a Good DISCIPLINE for You

Pretty shoes, fabulous gadgets and fine dining sounds great, but stressing out about how you’ll live on your credit card for the next three weeks isn’t so much fun.

Instead of spending money without thought, work out what you need to spend money on, how much you need to save and how much you need to put in emergency funds.

Most of you didn’t expect the last part, did you?

Well, if you have a closer look through your bank account and credit card transaction history, you’ll be surprised to see how much extra you’ve spent on shopping, clothes, coffee, and gadgets.​

To drive down debt and take control of your life, start budgeting and make payments to keep your financial life on track.

This video By Brian Tracy will help you create a budget and reach your financial goals pretty easily:​

Attitude is Everything

How to take control of your life may seem intimidating a phrase, but it’s not hard. It just requires some effort to learn good financial habits, create a long-term plan and most importantly, stick to it.

Whether it is saving more money, finding a better job, improving your relationship, give the thing you are doing your full attention and do them to the best of your abilities.

Also, if you’re working on a short-term or even a long-term goal, don’t rush it or try to get it done quickly.

Remember, the more you focus on your task, the better results you can get.

That said, when you’ve given your best shot, you are more likely to get outstanding results.​

Stop Making and Accepting Excuses

We all have enough excuses for making poor financial decision and life choices. Sadly, we know these bad habits are unhealthy, but instead of addressing them, we stand firm with our excuses and let them happen again and again.

New survey data reveals that one in three Australians is living from pay cheque to pay cheque and they won’t be able to cover a major financial emergency.

56% of the participants also said that they are unable to save as much money as they would want to.​

Life is never easy or predictable.

You may get unexpected medical emergency or an unexpected bill one month so make sure you put enough funds in place so that you are able to take control of your life.

Now that we are talking about emergency funds, it’s time to look at how you can trim the financial fat.​

That’s right. There is always a chance to cut back on expenses and one way you will be able to cut costs and take control of your life is to differentiate between your needs and wants.

In fact, differentiating expenses as needs, wants, or ‘sometime nice haves’ can help with budgeting and give you the push you need to secure your financial future.

Stop Taking Your Life So Seriously

We all are busy, stressed and there are times we are not happy with our lives. When was the last time you had a nice chat with your partner or close friend?

Think about the message you are conveying before blaming the other person.

If you have people in your life who support you, you should thank them. It is also recommended that you don’t engage in negative conversations or gossips.

Yes, some of you might laugh at this but negativity in life will only bring you down.​

No one gets a perfect adulthood without having to deal with negative thoughts or negative people and negative issues such as fears and jealousy.

Blaming others for your unhappiness is the best way to hand over control of your life to someone else.

Remember, you just cannot allow negative thoughts and emotions to impact your life, your financial decisions, your work and even your relationships.​

Take a proactive approach and be prepared to take control of your life.

Knowing that you are not controlled by your thoughts, emotions, and people around you, you will feel a great sense of peace and freedom.

Don’t beat Yourself if You Don’t Achieve Your Goals

Finally, if you do come across some challenges and fail to meet a few of your financial or life goals, it is not the end of the world. Instead of stressing out, try to learn from the situation and figure out how you can overcome the barriers and challenges to your goals.

Remember that evaluating yourself realistically can make your life easier and you should be able to move closer to goals.

What do you think?

Written by Terrence Kennedy

Terrence Kennedy is the man’s man on a journey to self-discovery. A traveler, extreme sports aficionado, an observant wanderer, a DIY-Know-How, an ultimate outsider and a documentarist of culture, sex, dating, relationship, fashion, style and gentleman's etiquette. He has learned a lot through his escapades, and is happy to pass that knowledge on to you.