How to Level Up in Life: 19 Easy Steps for Leveling up This Year
Have you been craving a major shift in your life, but feel like you don’t even know how to start? I was in your same position. This is why I’m writing this post, which is all about how to level up in your life the right way.
We are constantly distracted, discouraged, and drained in our day to day. It can be very frustrating to even think about the steps you need to make to begin a new chapter in your life.
But what if I told you that everything you want and more is within your reach? What if I told you that I would break down the steps that will make you a more consistent and productive person? What if I told you that you CAN be the boss babe that has her sh*t together?
I know it seems far out of reach sometimes. But there’s no better time to make the change that will transform your outlook on life, forever.
What is leveling up in life?
Did you know that bears hibernate from 4-7 months? Before hibernating, they enjoy long days in the sun and eat around 20,000 calories a day. When the days get shorter and the weather gets colder, this signals to the bear that their hibernation period will soon begin.
To me, humans have a similar signaling period but in a slightly different way. When we are enjoying nights out, spending the majority of our free time on social media, and neglecting our self-care, this signals to us that it’s time for a hibernation period.
It is a period where we are completely disconnected from others and the internet. We take only the essential things. And we prepare ourselves to wake up to a new mindset, reality, and season of our life. This is when we use our “hibernation months” to get ahead of everyone else.
To level up means to upgrade your life positively and healthily. Some of the skills you will learn in your hibernation period are discipline, consistency, and positivity. Leveling up should be broken down into sections, so I’ve detailed step-by-step instructions on what to do when you want to level up your life.
Simple Steps On How To Level Up
Step One: Life Audit
What is a life audit? This is when you account for your overall satisfaction in different areas of your life. The different areas that you want to focus on primarily are:
- Mental Health
- Physical Health
- Career
- Finances
- Social Life
- Family & Friends
- Environment
- Physical Appearance
Typically a wheel of the different areas of your life is used to aesthetically display how you are feeling about each area of your life.
I have a free version of the life audit I made for viewers of my blog.
Step two: Time Frame
Step two is giving an ideal deadline and actionable steps that will get you level up!
I have a workbook to take a “deep dive” into your life and plan out where you want to be. In this printable workbook, you can pinpoint what you are changing in your life and the individual steps you need to take to accomplish them.
Step three: Visualization
I use a vision board when I want to plan my goals. This method is powerful and proven to help you achieve your dreams. I have a vision board on a poster board and one for my phone wallpaper.
19 Steps for Leveling Up in Life
Now let’s get into some super useful life hacks on how to level up in your life this year.
1. Understand what leveling Up Means to You / Creating Your Vision
After doing your life audit, you’re able to take a step back from the day-to-day priorities and figure out what areas you want to improve on in your life. Take time to write about what leveling up means to you. What do you want to get out of this period of rebirth?
Be as optimistic as you can be and align your thoughts with what YOU want for your life, not what other people want for you.
2. Set Clear Goals
At the bottom of the Life Audit worksheet, there’s a section on the top 3 areas you want to focus on.
One way to set clear goals is a FOCUS Board (aka a vision board). Here is what my focus board looks like I keep on my phone wallpaper:
Each image should have a meaning that is specific to you! It’s super fun to make vision boards so give yourself a lot of time to plan out what your future will look like!
3. Take Charge of Your Thoughts
Your thoughts control your reality. What you think will likely come true. So to begin any major transformation, you need to refocus your attention on where you want to be in life.
Please don’t focus on the negatives, which I KNOW is easier said than done. But something one of the many businesswomen that I admire, Leilah Hormozi, said is, “We all know [adversity] exists, and I’m not denying it exists, but I just have realized in no way are [negative thoughts and beliefs] useful for me.”
Believing negative thoughts DOES NOT SERVE YOU. Again, believing negative thoughts DOES NOT SERVE YOU. Studies have shown that the majority of our daily thoughts are negative repetitive thoughts.
So let’s take control back in our lives by acknowledging what we are believing about ourselves that’s negative, then redirect those thoughts. It will take time, but it’s the only way you can believe you are a better and leveled-up version of yourself. It starts with your thoughts.
4. Build Healthy Habits and Routine
Building healthy habits and routines is another important way to level up your life. The staple in the productivity community, Atomic Habits by James Clear goes into full detail on how small habits can bring about monumental changes in your life.
5. Embrace Continuous Learning and Invest in Knowledge
After you get your mind right, you need to invest in learning. I recommend picking one topic and searching for free material through
6. Hunt Your Goals
After you do your life audit and pick your top three priorities, you need to set some goals.
7. Become Self Aware
Be realistic and self-aware in this leveling-up process.
8. Practice Time Management
You would be amazed to find out the majority of your problems could be mitigated by using your time wisely. I have an entire tutorial on how time blocking with Google Calendar can help you take control of your life. I highly recommend checking it out!
Wouldn’t you rather plan your own time than Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok plan it for you?
We get so easily distracted and apps as we know are engineered to keep you on for a long period of time. So give yourself grace and try to time-block your time today using your planner or your Google Calendar.
Let me know if you want more posts in the time management realm by leaving a comment below 💬.
9. Be Grateful for Every Step
More likely than not, you prayed for a time that you accomplished what you have. For me, it was wins like graduating college, finding a career I liked, and starting my own business.
For you, it doesn’t have to be those things, but take a moment to acknowledge that you are still here and thriving. It may not be at the pace you want or you may not have done everything you wanted to accomplish this year but you have come a looooong way.
Ways you can practice gratitude include using a journal to have 5-10 minutes every week to talk about what you are grateful for currently. And what you have done in the past that’s made you happy and proud of yourself.
Here are my top journals to practice gratitude!
10. Get A Hobby
To me, a well-rounded, hardworking individual, who enjoys their life doesn’t live to work. They also have things that they are passionate about. Start something that you enjoy and has nothing to do with your career.
It could be running (like it is for me), knitting, singing, watching movies, hanging with friends, learning a language, and many other things to fill your time!
11. Take Ownership and Responsibilities
This goes back to what I said in #3. Take ownership of your life and responsibilities. At the end of the day, no one is going to save you from the bills you have to pay, the time you need to manage better, the work you have to wake up to go to. Only YOU can change your life.
Realizing this honestly puts the pressure off of you. Does it make everything easier? No. I can’t say it does.
But what it does do is allow you to level up your mindset to win in life! Problems can’t just disappear without you putting in some work to solve ‘em!
12. Embrace Failure and Challenges
To level up, and get rid of the negative mindset we all sometimes carry, you have to acknowledge that failure is a part of your comeback story!
We are all going to fall and make mistakes along the way. But that’s what makes us who we are!
I challenge you to think of someone successful. It could be a movie star, a public figure, an influencer, or even someone in your life who is a badass. I challenge you to research them and see their life story. If it’s someone you know, ask them how they got to where they are today. Did they face challenges? How did they overcome them?
You’ll realize it’s kind of the hazing process of success is to fail and fail and fail but continue to get back up and try again.
13. Build Healthy Networks and Relationships
So much of life is who you know. It’s not the easiest thing to network, trust me, I know it can be scary and intimidating. However, leveling up can also mean leveling up the company you keep.
This doesn’t mean getting rid of your current circle of friends, but be mindful of who fills your cup and mindful of those who spill your cup all over the floor like an upset toddler spilling out all the energy you have.
If meeting new people frightens you, start with starting simple conversations when you go places. With the lady checking out your items at Target, with the guy waiting in line behind you, with the girl you always see at the coffee shop.
If you want to connect with people online on places like LinkedIn or social media, start with a compliment and a question when you connect. It can help form some type of connection to begin a fruitful conversation. Then you can ask them to meet you for coffee and hear about their journey.
14. Step Out of your Comfort Zone
Successful people take a chance. Unsuccessful people are afraid of failure.
When you think about how many lives have been lived before us and how many lives will live after us and how finite our lives truly are in the grand scheme of things, you give yourself grace, you put yourself out there, and you work to create the most fulfilling life you can for yourself and your family.
15. Prioritize Self Care and Love
Leveling up means taking care of yourself. With everything you’re working on, create time to work on self-care.
Some self-care options can be:
- Taking a bath
- Working out
- Drinking tea before bed
- Stretching
- Watching a show you love
- Wearing a perfume that you’re currently obsessed with
- And many more…
Make time for you daily or weekly to check in with how you’re feeling and treat yourself to something that soothes your soul.
16. Journal Daily and Track your Progress
Journaling is an excellent way to level up your life! My favorite journal is what I use to write down what I’m grateful for and a few things I’m looking forward to each day.
If you’re super busy or feel rushed in your morning routine, make it a nightly practice before you go to bed.
I also think tracking your goals is super important to see how far you’ve come… and how far you still gotta go. I have a printable for this exact purpose where you write out your goal, answer a few questions to prepare you to start, and a tracker to keep up with what you’ve done!
17. Move on from the past
This goes into #11 a little. To move forward you must acknowledge the past, but avoid letting the past ruin your future.
It’s crazy how many incredible things have happened in my life, but I still manage to find time to stress about that one time a boy in middle school talked about my appearance or not making it to the collegiate level of basketball because of an injury!
Like C’MON!
Why do we trauma dump our minds with polluted thoughts that simply never served us in the first place? Instead of continuing to cry or get upset by things that were said or done, why don’t we take that power back and show OURSELVES how badass we really are?!
18. Be Patient and Kind to Yourself
Yes, we are badasses, but we are also badasses with a heart. Always put God first, then yourself. At times when I’m hanging out too much and giving my energy to friends, I have to create space between us and just renew my energy for myself.
Am I getting things done that I need to before hanging out with friends? Have I been consistent with my self-care? Do I make time to learn new skills that help me level up?
Check-in with you and make sure you’re good before helping others. An empty cup cannot fill anyone else’s. Make sure your cup is full first.
19 . Observe and Address Repeating Patterns
In this process of leveling up, you have to do check-ins. That’s why I highly recommend having a habit tracker of some kind whether it be what I have in my printable shop or your planner, to keep tabs on your progress.
Identifying things that went wrong in your habit tracker helps you avoid repeating those same errors.
Giving yourself grace and an opportunity to readjust will be immensely helpful in reaching your goals and leveling up!
I hope you found this guide on how to level up, useful! There’s room for everyone to win, you just gotta get started!
