Life is really hard. Being able to find those changes that you can make in your everyday life to make things even just a bit easier is always welcome.
So when Reddit user u/Charming_Kale_8912 asked the question, "What is one thing you changed in your life that has given you drastic returns in the long run?" In r/AskReddit, I knew it would be full of some helpful life advice:
1. "Started stretching my back every morning. Bro."
2. "I changed my job to a local one, sold the car, walked to work for two years, lost a lot of weight, and feel really good. I saved a bloody fortune and still have a camper for weekends."
3. "Stopped being reactive. I used to let people or situations get to me; I would get angry at those situations. Now, I stop to process what is going on and calmly deal with the situation."
4. "Doing the same thing every day for 30 days. Whenever I want to build a new habit, I just force myself to do it for 30 days. I fix a present I can offer myself after these 30 days to keep motivated. This is how I built all my habits, and it has literally changed my life."
5. "Being consistent instead of waiting to feel motivated. That alone changed everything over time."
6. "Making time and saving money for international travel. Best thing ever. Good reminder of what a grift the American Dream is, meeting new people, trying new foods, and exposure to different cultures and languages."
7. "I stopped giving immediate answers when people asked me for favors or invitations. I started defaulting to, 'Let me check my schedule and get back to you.' It sounds like a tiny shift, but it completely eliminated my chronic burnout. It gave me a buffer to figure out if I actually had the time and energy to commit, rather than just people-pleasing in the moment. My relationships actually improved because I stopped showing up to things feeling resentful and exhausted."
8. "For me it was getting outside every day, if even just for a short walk. The fresh air has very much lifted my mood and helped me try to stay fit."
9. "Started treating my social life like something that needs maintenance instead of something that just happens. I used to wait for people to reach out, get frustrated when plans fell through, and slowly drift apart from friends. Now I just pick one person a week and send them something specific."
10. "Started drinking a full glass of water before my morning coffee. Lost 15 pounds in a year, skin cleared up, and my therapist says I'm 'less unhinged.' Pretty sure it was just the water."
11. Giving up the victim mindset, and I say that with full compassion for my past self because it genuinely felt protective at the time. But there's a point where the story you tell about why life is hard becomes the very thing keeping you there. The moment I stopped asking, 'Why does this keep happening to me?' and started asking, 'What am I going to do about it?' things started moving in ways they hadn't in years."
12. "I started treating sleep like a non-negotiable investment, and suddenly everything from focus to mood to income got better."
13. "I deleted all social media apps from my phone and only check them on a desktop. It sounds small, but it killed the 'doom-scrolling' habit instantly. My attention span went from about 30 seconds to being able to read an entire book in a weekend again."
14. "Learning to say no without guilt and focusing on growth, not perfection."
15. "Stopped explaining myself to people who weren't asking questions. Half the exhaustion in my twenties was from defending decisions to people who had already made up their minds about me. The moment I stopped, I had all this energy I didn't know I was spending. Turns out silence is a complete sentence, and most people respect it more than the essay you were about to write."
16. "Stopped drinking. Started thinking clearly and realized that we could get out of the rat race and retire early. Three years later we retired, moved to the EU, built a beach house on the Mediterranean, and traveled around Europe."
And finally, here's a change that can really have such a huge impact in your life:
17. "My mindset used to be very passive when I was younger in my early 20s, not caring much about things except immediate dopamine. Then I don't know what happened; there was a switch moment where I realized if I don't do something, nothing will happen. It sounds easy enough of a concept to grasp, but this didn't fully print in my brain at the time. Then I started being very proactive. My life completely changed, like, crazily, in a good way."
Do you want to share the changes you've made in your life that have greatly impacted you in the long run? Let me know your thoughts in the comments, or if you'd like to remain anonymous, you can fill out this form.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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