At certain points in our lives, we strongly feel the need to make some changes. What would you like to change in your life right now? What would make a significant difference for you? What would improve your lifestyle? Maybe, getting a great new job. Or, a change in your career. Perhaps, falling in love or losing 20kg or 45lb. Maybe, overcoming anxiety or depression.

Whatever it is for you, I’m going to share with you a process that will help you significantly change your life in 100 days or less.

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How I Have Changed My Life in 100 Days

Reflecting on my life, I’ve noticed that I am pretty good at making significant life changes in 100 days or less. My first life change happened when I went to university. At school, I was a quiet, shy kid. I had a couple of friends. I didn’t do the social things that most people my age were doing.

Then, the time came to go to university. Since it was located in another city, I had to move. I saw that as a wonderful opportunity! I was going to be in a different place with entirely new people. So, I decided to change my life. I was determined to become a more confident, extrovert, and sociable person. During my first 100 days at university, I changed a lot as a person. I really came out of my shell.

Then in my late 20s, I went from being single with no dates to regular dating and meeting my wife. Then from a boring job at London Underground to becoming a software trainer in a top 10 law firm.

A few years later, I moved from London to Sydney and achieved this in 100 days as well.

More recently, setting up my hypnotherapy practice was part of a 100-day challenge. In another 100-day challenge, I launched my Self Help for Life website, YouTube channel and Podcast.

Intense Desire and a Plan

In all of these significant life changes that I did in 100 days or less, there were always two things present. First of all, an intense desire. I really wanted that change to happen. And secondly, a plan. I had a detailed and worked out plan.

So, do you want to change your life in 100 days or less but don’t know where to start? If so, keep reading.  I will lead you through a process that will help you achieve your goals in 100 days or less.

The Initial Steps – Setting Yourself Up for Success

1. Set Clear Goals

Get clear on what you’re aiming for. Is it a change of career or an increase in income? Is it falling in love or losing weight?

Ensure that you set a SMART Goal.  SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound.  Click here to learn more about setting SMART goals.

My Change of Career Challenge

Here is an example from my own life. Back in 2000, I wanted to change my career and become an IT trainer. I didn’t have any training qualifications at the time, just a little bit of experience. I could get a qualification, but that required time and money. My goal was to get a job as an IT trainer within 3 months without getting a qualification. It was a very specific goal.

Within 3 months, I did get a job as an IT trainer in one of the top 10 law firms. I had to take a bit of a salary drop, but I didn’t mind. Enjoyment, fulfillment, and satisfaction were much more important to me. Because I enjoyed the job, I got very good at it. So within 3 years, I moved to another law firm, and I got a better salary.

When you change your career to start doing something you enjoy, you get enthusiastic. That enthusiasm helps you provide a lot more value. Consequently, you get rewarded financially for that.

Phrase Your Goals as Affirmations

I find it very helpful to phrase my goals as affirmations. For example, I will easily lose 20kg or 45lb, I will easily increase my confidence, or I will easily find a new job. Repeat them every day. If you want to learn more about goal setting, check my article on how to set and achieve your goals.

2. Set Specific Non-negotiable Deadlines

To change your life in 100 days, you need to know what your goal is and then decide when you’re going to achieve it. In this case, its within 100 days.

You might also want to set some deadlines for smaller tasks you need to do to achieve that goal. Deadlines are very important because they spur you into action. Think back to the exams and assignments at school and how they motivated you to study. We also have deadlines at work. We do our best to achieve those deadlines because we don’t want to let people down. So, it’s essential to set your own non-negotiable deadlines.

Deadlines Spur You into Action

Here is an example of how a deadline spurred me into action. In 2009, my wife and I decided to move from London, UK to Sydney, Australia. I resigned from my job in London. I had to give 3-month’s notice, so that kicked off the process.

Then there were other things to do. I wanted to get a job in Sydney before we got there. We had to get rid of all the things that we didn’t want to take to Australia. We also had the ultimate deadline – the flight we booked for Sydney.

We set a date to move out of our apartment in London that we linked to that ultimate deadline. We had to have everything shipped by that time. When I look back, it’s just amazing how much we got done. Those deadlines spurred us into action.

3. Know Your Why

Get clear on your Why. Why do you want to achieve that goal? What’s the benefit? Having more money? Finding love? Or, maybe gaining confidence?

When I changed my job and became an IT trainer, my Why was clear. I wanted a job that would be satisfying, fulfilling, and enjoyable. Think about the reasons you want to achieve your goals.

4. Create an Action Plan

We know the What, the When, and the Why. Now let’s focus on the How.

Brainstorm!

First of all, brainstorm all the different things you can do to achieve this goal. Write everything down, however bizarre or weird it seems to be. Once you’ve done that, decide on the action steps that look realistic. Then work out which steps to do when.

What action steps can you complete in the first 20 days, then 40, 60, 80, and finally – 100 days. This will be your roadmap of what you need to do to change your life in 100 days.

Brainstorming My Hypnotherapy Business

My first brainstorming for my hypnotherapy business was during my hypnotherapy training. I did this together with my group. We all jotted down the things that we would need to do to get our business off the ground. After that, we worked out the most important things. I realized I needed to find a consulting room and get a business bank account. I also had to get my professional membership with the Australian Hypnotherapists Association. And I needed to create a website and do some advertising. For all these goals, I set up deadlines or final dates to achieve them.

I now had my road map. Apart from making my 100-day challenge easier, it also helped me check my progress. I could easily see whether I was on or off track.

5. Decide and Commit

The next initial step is to decide when you’re going to work on achieving your goals. Set aside time and stick to it. Maybe, early in the morning before you do anything else. Perhaps a couple of hours in the evening. I have personally always found mornings to be the best time. I love the feeling of getting things done before breakfast or before going to work.

The important thing is that you’re consistent. You should work on your goal 6 days a week for at least 30 minutes. Ideally, it should be more if you want to get the very best results. Remember that this is a life-changing goal. So you want to make it a priority in your life.

6. Accountability

Find a Mentor

It’s much harder to miss a goal when someone else knows about it. It could be a professional, like a coach, mentor, or a personal trainer. Professionals know how to motivate you and inspire you. They can see your blind spots and teach you crucial things. Most importantly, they can hold you accountable.

If you’d like me to be your coach or mentor, then go here to find further details.

Find an Accountability Buddy

The other option is to find a friend that you can be accountable to. Pick the right friend, someone who believes in you. But who can also hold you accountable, follow up on you and make sure you’re making progress.

Post on Social Media

You can also put your goals and your action plans on social media. Then, they’re out there for the whole world or your followers to check up on you and make sure you’re accountable.

Let’s recap. We’ve set a clear goal, we’ve set our non-negotiable deadlines, we’ve created an action plan. We decided when we’re going to commit and take action on this goal, and we’ve got some accountability. Let’s move on to the weekly steps.

Your Weekly Steps To Success

1. Create a List of Weekly Tasks

What are the things you need to do this week to get closer to achieving your goal? Create weekly tasks that will help you change your life in 100 days. These tasks should be things that are under your control. For example, if you’re looking for a new job, it could be to send off your CV or resume to 10 companies. It could be to run or walk for 30 minutes, 5 times a week, if you’re trying to lose weight.

I usually set these weekly tasks on a Sunday. I keep it really simple. I make a to-do list in Evernote. One of my current 100-day challenge goals has been to have a greater balance in life. So some of my weekly tasks have included getting in touch and meeting up with 1 friend per week. The other is doing weight training 3 times a week. Also, doing some self-development or a morning ritual, 4 times a week, for 30 minutes.

2. After-Action Review

The next weekly task is to do an after-action review. The first part of this review is to score yourself. 1 is not productive, 2 is poor, 3 is average, 4 is good, and 5 is exceptional. It’s a bit like doing a school report, except you are both the teacher and the student.

Next, write down all the things that you achieved that week. Write down your actions, strategies, and lucky breaks that led you to success. Then identify the actions, attitudes, and obstacles that negatively affected your progress. Once you’ve done that, come up with your future actions. You now know what didn’t go so well last week. What are you going to do next week to get back on track based on that?

I believe that the weekly after-action review is crucial to your success in changing your life in 100 days. It will prevent you from going down a rabbit hole, which is doing a task for far longer than you need to. Or even worse, doing a task that is not helping you towards your goal. The after-action review enables you to identify what’s working and what’s not working.

I do this religiously every week now. After recent weekly after-action reviews, I have identified that I’m super consistent and focused on creating content for Self Help for Life. But also that I’m spending very little time on my own self-development.

3. Check-in with Your Accountability Buddy or on Social Media

If you have an accountability buddy, a mentor, or a coach, send them your after-action review. Ask for their input. Or, post it on social media. It’s important for two reasons.

Firstly, it makes sure you do the after-action review in the first place. You’re accountable for doing that. And secondly, it allows you to explain to someone else where you came up short and how you’re going to change that.

4. Celebrate Your Wins!

Your final weekly task is to celebrate. Remember that what gets rewarded gets repeated. So, celebrate what you did well and give yourself a little treat. That will inspire and motivate you to achieve even bigger things in the next week.

Your Daily Steps to Success

There are some things you will want to do every day to change your life in 100 days. The first thing, ideally as soon as you get out of bed, is to spend 15 minutes getting inspired, motivated, and educated. Watch a motivating video, listen to a motivating podcast, or read a few pages of a self-help book. You need to feel motivated. You need the inspiration to take action. You also need education to know what to do. It’s essential to have a success mindset. Remember that if you want to achieve something amazing in 100 days or less, you can no longer do what you used to do. You’ll need to develop different attitudes, skills, and behaviors to what you normally do.

1. Review the 100-day Challenge Goal

One of the initial steps you did right at the start was to set a SMART goal. You need to review that goal, read it out, read it out loud if you can, maybe even write it down. Make sure to review it every day. Also, examine the tasks and actions you did the day before. Think about what you achieved yesterday and what you didn’t achieve?

2. Review Your Weekly Action Plan

The action plan consists of tasks that you set after you did your after-action review. Decide what you’re going to do today. Write it down as a to-do list. I usually do this in Evernote. You’re going to end up with a list of things that you will commit to doing today. That’s very important. Don’t write too much down on that list. You want to be confident that you can do all those things today.

3. Take Action!

Make sure that you accomplish all the tasks that you set yourself for the day. Dedicate at least 30 minutes every day to these tasks, ideally a lot more. But if you can commit to a minimum of 30 minutes, that will keep the goal in your mind. There will be days when you won’t feel like taking action. I have days like that. I’m sure you do, too. The key here is – to just do it, to get the work done. That will lead to the feeling that you want it. Remember that the alignment with your goals is much more important than how you feel at the moment.

Ready to Make a Change in Your Life in 100 days?

These are the most important steps you have to do to change your life in 100 days. If you are determined to make a huge change in the next 100 days, check out the 100-day challenge. I’ve been doing the 100-day challenge now for the fourth time. This time I doubled the number of hypnotherapy clients that I see weekly. I highly recommend and really believe in this program!

I hope you are now ready to change your life in 100 days. Follow the steps, be determined, and keep going! If you need any help, feel free to reach out to me. Good luck!

Thank you for reading this article.  If you enjoyed it and found it useful, then please share it with other people, or on social media.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Paul