A user recently asked a question on AskReddit, “What is that one simple change in your life that gave incredibly great results?” and 12,000 comments offering advice was the response. It’s a fascinating read, but who has time to read 12,000 comments, right?
Apparently me. Well, I didn’t actually read all 12,000, but I did read enough fantastic advice to bring you a stack-load of simple changes that could potentially change everything. We’re talking life philosophy, parenting values, even the way we feel about ourselves.
A remarkable number of the thousands of comments mentioned the exact same three simple changes, summed up as:
• Stop drinking soft drink
• Exercise every day
• Stop being nice to toxic people
So, there’s three things that if you’re currently doing, you should probably stop or start doing because literally hundreds of people have said that it’s the best thing they ever did. Ever.
This might help too: 21+ tips from teachers to get organised at high school
Here are more than 20 more simple changes that could actually change everything.
1. Remember that No is a complete sentence.
“My dad gave me the advise that 9/10 times you don’t need to give an explanation with your no’s. So many times people feel they need to give one. “Oh no I can’t go out tonight, my wife is having friends over tomorrow so we have to clean the house” blah blah blah. You make yourself feel guilty or even feel like you need to lie. He said it was incredibly liberating to just say “No I can’t tonight, but thanks.” or “No thank you, I’m ok.” – Nitemarephantom
2. Do everything that can be done in 2 minutes immediately.
I do dishes while waiting for my water to boil in the morning for tea. – bellebrita
I race the microwave timer on my food by loading dishes. – Jebbediahh
Don’t put it down, put it away – 13Deth13
3. Activate yourself.
Realizing I’m never going to be in the mood to do anything. I would literally live the life of a cat if left to my own instincts and someone would feed me. Getting things done is ignoring my instincts and getting out of my mind. Activate yourself. – exmormonphoenix
Substituting “thank you” instead of apologizing. It’s changed everything. – jsillybug
4. Say yes more often.
“I started forcing myself to say yes whenever asked for something. I was extremely depressed so anytime someone asked me for help or to go out I would immediately say no and just stay at home alone. Now I say yes, within reason, and have found that helping others gives me so much satisfaction and has helped pull me out of my depression. – magnatood
5. Assume people aren’t intentionally being assholes.
“Just changing the dialogue in my head from “rage, etc” to something like “oh look at this guy, he’s got somewhere to go, we’ll just let him get there” helped a lot.” – luckygiraffe
6. Be accomplished, every day.
My old roommate used to ask me “what did you accomplish today?” everyday when she got home from work. She wasn’t trying to ride my ass, but it had the effect of ensuring that every day, I would work to have something to report to her. – Un4tunately
7. Write things down.
If it’s not in writing then you don’t have a plan. Write things out, every time. – MacChuck234
8. Stop seeing the differences and look for the similarities.
I try to imagine that everyone in this world is me, only living a different life. Helps! – ZenJen23
Keeping in check wants vs needs. – newnemo
9. Do the crazy thing you’ve always wanted to do.
I colored my hair neon purple two days ago. The confidence boost has been amazing!
I’m disabled. My whole life, people have looked at me and smiled. I’m the kind of person who always thinks the best of people, so I never saw them as pitying smiles til now.
The smiles have changed. People arent looking down at my wheelchair and smiling sadly, they’re looking up at my hair and grinning widely. I walk into stores and want to pull my hood down. I smile wider—and I find myself looking at shiny things in the stores with more confidence. I feel more able to be myself.
Seriously, if you’ve always wanted crazy hair, go do it. Hundred and eighty bucks including the color-stay shampoo, but 100% worth it. – Ticklish_Kink_Wife
10. Make space to care about what you really care about.
Keeping up with the Joneses was pointless. I stopped wanting things for the sake of having stuff, stopped worrying about things I didn’t really care about and stopped pretending to be someone I am not. It’s great because I have so much more mental energy to care about what I really care about and much more money than I would if I was buying pointless junk to impress people. – pajamakitten
11. Be honest with yourself.
Once I started loving myself and realizing that my opinion has the highest priority in my life did I stop worrying about others. Being honest with myself about any shortcomings and fears and consciously working towards resolving whatever I wasn’t happy about is so liberating. You come to realize that you are always working towards becoming a better version of you.
Once you overcome your issues with self worth, the opinions of others start to matter less. – tapanojum
Your free time is the most valuable thing in your life – tapanojum
12. Be brave in accepting what is out of your control.
Just ask yourself the question “will worrying right now make it any better?” Most of the times, the answer is no. – relativelyaswin
13. Greet the world proudly and with a smile.
One day, I decided to make an on-going conscious effort to (not to sound cliche) hold my head up whenever I went walking, and to try to smile, even if I didn’t feel like it. That simple change ultimately made a world of difference on my mood and my outlook on life. – MomoTheFarmer
If I have the means to help someone, however small, I will. – nionvox
14. Assume things are a misunderstanding, rather than an attack.
Every time I feel like someone is being aggressive or suddenly angry at me, I ask “what is making you feel that way?” instead of getting defensive. A lot of the time it’s just a misunderstanding that I can apologize for and learn from, like using different wording. – starbird123
15. You’re not really too busy for the things you want to do.
If I want to do X, I’ll make time for it. If I find myself not making time for X, or for person Y, or for activity Z, that means those aren’t important enough to me. – bullevard
Always encourage happiness even if it’s not for you. – DeadEcosystem
16. Assume people are trying to do the best they can.
As a supervisor I try to remember that people don’t try to do a bad job. So there is probably a reason they are doing something you perceive as being wrong (like they were never given expectations, never explained what was actually needed, etc). – paulornothing
17. You don’t have be something, you just have to be.
Realizing that I don’t have to be anything, I just have to BE. Everything else that comes is icing on the cake and is my choice, whether it be what path to take or how I respond to events. It’s been so liberating and has removed lots of stress from my life while helping me highlight the things I actually want to do and how I can live a satisfying life without fear of regret. – QP_TR3Y
Putting extra hooks on the walls in my home. So much less clutter. – houndofhell96
18. Success is only successful if it’s shared.
I decided one day that my success was only real and meaningful if the people around me were successful too. I began working more for the group than for myself, and the positive results were immediate and have been long lasting. I’ve found myself leading my team, we’re doing better than ever and I keep getting accolades for the job that’s being done. – houseofmatt
19. Overcome the fear of making decisions.
Sometimes it’s the indecisiveness that sets you back. Just make a decision, and if it turns out well, good. If it turned out bad, you’ll know better in the future. – patestore
20. Simplify bill paying.
Called all my credit card companies and utilities so that my bills are all due on the same day of the month. – flash42
What simple changes have given you incredible results?
Image by Thought Catalog
Darlene Livingston
Saturday 2nd of June 2018
I have all my bills on bill pay. All funds come in direct deposit and use one credit card so I never overdraw or make a late payment or worry about forgetting a bill. I’m also paperless and stopped all spam mail with post office. It makes life so much more pleasant and frees up Sunday night from paying bills. Try it it works. I still have trouble with clutter any ideas?