12-Step Program

I was talking to a friend the other day, and he asked me how life was going lately. I made the offhand remark of, "One day at a time."

He laughed in agreement, and said, "Life is like an AA meeting. You can only take one step at a time."

His comment got me to thinking about how there are steps for everything, and I began to wonder what steps I could take to improve my own life. Of course, when you google anything about taking steps, the first things you will find are The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, The 7 Stages of Grief, and Amazon.com selling any book & workbook ever created about self-improvement, step-by-step.

But, since I have very shallow pockets (and refuse to spend money on a self-improvement book), then I continued to dig deeper, and see what kind of free help I could find. Here's one that seemed interesting:

Life Coaching: Achieve Any goal With This 3-Step Process
1. Make sure you want it.
2. Make sure you know why you want it.
3. Make sure those closest to you know why you want it.

These seem like three very obvious steps, and I understand that the idea behind the questions is to get me really thinking about my own life (as if I need a list of questions to get me to do that!!). Maybe I haven't actually sat down and addressed each answer head-on in this way. Perhaps, if I consider each of these steps, I might have a more definitive idea of which direction my life is going.

*side note* Perhaps I should compile my own list and sell that through Amazon.com... that would solve a LOT of my problems!

Ok. Filing that one for future reference.

I did find something that may be imediately helpful... The situation that I find myself in lately has had me feeling down, and I'm not a huge fan of anti-depression medication. I've been on it before, and it's not something I want to do for the rest of my life, so I prefer alternative measures, but I've been neglecting myself lately. It's time I stopped doing that... so...

6 Steps for Beating Depression 

1. Omega-3 Fatty Acids - eat more fish (take a vitamin)

2. Engaged Activity - have conversations with people; keep the brain active (I'm alone in my office most of the day, and sit at the computer/watch TV at night)

3. Physical Exercise - start walking/running again

4. Sunlight Exposure - I do need more sunshine

5. Social Support - get in touch with friends and family more often (dial the phone!!)

6. Sleep - get plenty of rest (this one, I already do!)

Well, after all that research, I've decided to start my self-improvement with the 6 Steps for Beating Depression, but I'm also going to really address the questions under the 3-step process of Achieving Any Goal.... I already spend a lot of time thinking about my life, but I think it may help if I put it into a more organized perspective. It won't fix my problems, but maybe it will help me tackle them more easily. More to come!