At some point or another, we have always wanted to upgrade our lifestyle right? Everybody feels like they could do with a bit more money. Thing is, making positive changes should always become the priority above money. Changing your habits is not necessarily about getting more money, but about changing your attitude towards life. Simple changes will lead you to upgrade your lifestyle without money. What frugal changes do we make?
Upgrade your life with these 3 frugal habits
Changing Your Standards
Start to upgrade your life by upgrading your standards. You may have a belief that you are defined by the items you own. You’ve got to demand more of yourself by raising your expectations. Let’s be honest, if you want a luxury Land Rover, you will need to earn a certain amount of money in order to pay for it. Changing your standards is building a mentality where you want better things. Whether material or immaterial, the point is to be driven by different ends. This changing of mentality doesn’t cost a penny, yet it changes the way you behave over time.
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This is not exclusive to you pushing yourself, but about making sure that you are surrounding yourself with the right people. People who want the same thing. People who are driven and like-minded. Also, people who will help you to get to the place you want to be. That help and motivation are just enough to keep going on the route of self-improvement. This is something that can seem almost heartless (especially when considering cutting people out) but if you want to demand more of yourself, surround yourself with the right people. I have done it – people who I do not have a similar mindset, or as our life paths have changed over time have been lost along the way. There is nothing wrong with it, just acknowledging differences if enough.
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Changing Your Beliefs
When you are upgrading your life, you’ve got to make sure that the beliefs you have are tangible. If you do not believe what you’re going for, you will not achieve it. Set goals and motivations, and work towards them.
I started upgrading my lifestyle by renovating my home on the cheap. Through this, I decided what I wanted the final product to look like, the levels of warmth and comfort I wanted to portray and where this slots in with my goals and ambitions. If the goal was to add £30,000 to the asking price, I knew I had to put in £2,000 myself (and a lot of elbow grease). 12 months later, 9 rooms later – the house is the way I want it and I have begun to upgrade my life. Through something tangible, I have instilled a belief that I want to better myself. The skills and motivation I have learned through this are priceless.
It’s about the Law of Attraction: visualising what we want and going for it! And when you have that sense of certainty – when you know you can do it, this is what will give you the motivation. If you want something in life, you’ve got to visualise it and believe that you can get there. When you visualise exactly what the final product looks like, you have a better idea of how to plan your steps to get there. By upgrading your beliefs, you will start to put strategies in place to guarantee that you are taking steps in the right direction.
Finding the Right Strategies
If you start to upgrade your standards make changes to your belief system and try something new, you also need to figure out the strategies to achieve the outcome you want. We have all had that moment – how the hell do we do this?! Set a two-year plan, a five-year plan. Whatever it may be, you need to know how you are going to do it. If you are looking to become financially savvy, save money or looking to invest in a credit card, for example, you need a strategy to get there. Same as when you are on the path to upgrade your lifestyle, especially on a budget.
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You need to know what you can afford; what you are willing to put in; and how long it will take you to get to the end goal. Are your plans short term or long term? Do you want to upgrade your lifestyle for yourself or to portray an image (e.g. Instagram influencers)?
In all honesty, strategies are only so good without this three-step approach. You upgrade your standards in life by raising your expectations, upgrade your beliefs by understanding what slows down the progress, and you then upgrade your strategy by modelling your behaviour on certain people which produces effective results. When we are trying to make big changes to our lives, it is our responsibility. Very little input comes from others, the success required and executed is your doing. We can spend so long in life blaming others for our misgivings, but one thing is for certain. We are solely responsible. If you want to be rich and successful, or just have a nicer house, it’s about upgrading your lifestyle, and nobody else’s.
