It can be so hard to think about changing things that we stay still, like a rabbit caught in headlights, even if we know things need to change to make life feel happier. Unfortunately, there rarely is a magic solution that will come along if we just wait patiently (although things are always changing even if this is hard to see moment by moment).

There are critical moments in people’s lives when they stop to take stock of things. Maybe something has happened to trigger a change; you’ve lost a relationship, suffered a setback at work or had a sudden moment of clarity when you have realised you are not happy with how things are. You may have noticed that the Covid-19 pandemic or other events have highlighted the need for change for you in these very unstable times In other cases, you might just be aware of a creeping sense that life is not how you want it to be and that you need to make a change. You might just not be sure how to take the first steps.

LIFE INVENTORY

We have a life inventory here which you can use to try and diagnose what might be going on and which areas of your life could benefit from an overhaul. It asks you to rate how satisfied you are with different areas of your life using five points (low, some, moderate, high, very high). You are not being asked to say why you are unsatisfied or who is responsible, just to decide how satisfied you feel (even if you blame yourself for things that are not going well). Fill this is as honest as you can. It can sometimes feel difficult to take stock of feeling unhappy, especially if you are not used to doing this. Still, it can be useful to help pin down where in life things are not feeling settled.

FLOURISHING IN YOUR LIFE

There is also a link here to a questionnaire designed to explore how far you think you are flourishing in some key areas (Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, D., Oishi, S., & Biswas-Diener, R., 2009). This does overlap with the life inventory, but you are rating yourself on statements about your life and how far you agree or disagree with them. Again, this gives another way to measure how you are feeling about your life right now and to tap into important values that you might have.

These tools are here to help you start to think about which areas of life are problematic, the first step to thinking about making a change.

If you have done your inventory and rated how far you are flourishing, you might decide that things need to change and that you are ready to do something about it now.

If so, we think you can choose any of the areas in the inventory as a way into thinking more about change overall and what might be holding you back in feeling happier and more at ease with your life. You’ve only got one life after all!

HOW WE CAN WORK WITH YOU AT YOU’VE ONLY GOT ONE LIFE...

You can book a consultation with either Martin Thompson or Kate Thompson depending on whether you would prefer to use health and fitness or emotional wellbeing as the way into thinking about loosening the stuck areas of life. Either one of us can connect with you online for an hour appointment to explore what is going on and see whether there are ways to initiate some changes. This is not therapy, personal training or any sort of intervention, but it could lead on to a referral to practitioners that we know in other areas (physical health, fitness and nutrition, psychological health, relationship counselling and linking on to other services for holistic support in all areas of life). This is a whole life approach and recognises the reality of how each of us can experience difficulties in multiple areas at once but use away into them all via one channel. It remains for you to think about whether your health and fitness or your emotional wellbeing is the way that you would like to take your thinking further.