11 Things You Can Do Today to Make Your Life Noticeably Better
Practical lessons on relationships, movement, ambition, patience, and taking ownership of what happens next.
I created this list this afternoon while thinking about the things that have genuinely improved the quality of my life over the last few years.
There is no grand framework here, and these are not 11 habits I have perfectly mastered. They are simply ideas I have picked up through relationships, athletic career, writing, work, mentors, mistakes, and paying attention to what seems to make life better.
Some are actions you can take immediately. Others are perspectives that may take years to fully understand.
You do not need to reinvent your entire life overnight. Sometimes, improving it simply means taking better care of what is already in front of you.
Here are 11 places to begin.
1. Invest in Your Relationships
The people around you will influence the quality of your life more than almost anything else. Relationships do not maintain themselves, especially in adulthood, so spending time with people you love has to become something you actively protect.
Try this today: Call someone you care about and make an actual plan to see them.
Related: The Currency of Your Life
2. Always Be Stepping
Keep your body moving in whatever way feels sustainable: walking, lifting, running, climbing, stretching, or simply spending less time sitting still. Movement improves far more than your physical health; it can shift your mood, sharpen your thinking, and create momentum when you feel stuck.
Shoutout to TJ Schnoor
Try this today: Take a 20-minute walk without your phone.
Related: 10 Things That Make Me 1% Happier
3. Find “Your Thing”
Find an activity that gives you an outsized return in meaning, energy, or fulfillment without requiring much money. It might be writing, photography, drawing, trail running, cooking, or anything else that feels valuable even when nobody is watching.
Try this today: Spend 20 minutes doing something you enjoy creating or practicing, not just consuming.
Related: 414,000 Words Nobody Asked Me to Write
4. Find a Few Good Mentors
You do not need one person to guide every part of your life. Find different people who can sharpen your thinking around work, money, health, relationships, creativity, and character, whether you know them personally or learn from them through books.
Try this today: Identify one area where you need guidance and reach out to someone you respect—or choose one book that can mentor you from a distance.
Related: 5 Reasons Why You Should Read More Books
5. Define What “Enough” Means to You
Ambition can improve your life, but without a boundary, every achievement becomes another temporary checkpoint. You can keep growing while still deciding what enough looks like in terms of money, work, time, relationships, and the life you want to enjoy along the way.
Try this today: Write down what “enough” would look like in one area where you constantly feel pressure to want more.
Related: The Scoreboard Is Lying to You
6. Practice Supreme Acceptance
People will act irrationally, plans will fall apart, and life will occasionally refuse to cooperate with what you had in mind. Acceptance does not mean approving of everything; it means seeing reality clearly without allowing your frustration with it to create even more suffering.
Try this today: When something irritates you, pause and ask what is actually within your control before reacting.
Related: People Are Dumb, But It’s Complicated.
7. Plant Seeds Before You Need Them
Build relationships with different kinds of people before you need a favor, introduction, or opportunity. Some connections will grow into friendships, collaborations, or career-changing opportunities, while others will fade, but you rarely know which seed will become an oak.
Try this today: Reach out to one person you admire, follow up with someone you recently met, or introduce two people who should know each other.
Related: Increase Your Surface Area for Luck
8. Learn to Delay Gratification
Most worthwhile things take longer than you want and improve more slowly than you can see. Rowing taught me that years of training may only produce incremental gains, but eventually the process becomes the point and the patience carries into everything else.
Try this today: Choose one long-term goal and commit to the smallest action you can repeat without needing immediate results.
Related: The Contracts You Make With Yourself
9. Stop Demanding That You Have It All Figured Out
You should work hard, make plans, and take responsibility for your direction, but life will still change in ways you cannot predict. You do not need the entire map; you usually just need enough clarity to take the next meaningful step.
Try this today: Replace “What am I doing with my life?” with “What is the next experiment worth trying?”
Related: Your 20s Are for Testing, Not Perfecting
10. Be the Initiator
Do not always wait for someone else to make the plan, start the conversation, or bring the group together. Host the dinner, organize the outing, make the introduction, and become someone who helps other people feel included and energized.
Try this today: Invite a few people to do something simple and put an actual date on the calendar.
Related: 6 Hard Truths About Growing Up
11. Don’t Become the Victim of Your Own Story
The same setback can become proof that life is against you or a lesson that helps you move forward. You may not control what happened, but you have far more control over the meaning you give it and what you choose to do next.
Try this today: Take one current frustration and ask, “What is this teaching me, and what is still within my control?”
Related: You Are What You Say You Are
You do not need to tackle all 11 of these at once. In fact, trying to overhaul every part of your life overnight would probably make things worse.
Pick the one that feels most neglected right now.
Call the person. Take the walk. Reach out to the mentor. Make the plan. Start the practice. Let go of the thing you cannot control.
A better life is rarely built through one dramatic reinvention. More often, it comes from small decisions repeated long enough to change the way you live, think, and relate to the people around you.
Take better care of what is already in front of you.
See you next week.
Thanks for this! Started the day with the mentality of " Treat every Monday like it's a New Year". First time giving it a go, an this hit my inbox. You gave me some great ideas for my first Monday New Year!
“Do not always wait for someone else to make the plan, start the conversation, or bring the group together. Host the dinner, organize the outing, make the introduction, and become someone who helps other people feel included and energized.”
So true on this one!