Upgrade Your Life in 2025

It’s a brand new year and a wonderful opportunity to become a brand new you! The word upgrade can mean a lot of things: it can be better work/life harmony; it can be higher and better pay scale; it can be a new and better home; it can mean better lifestyle; and a better future for yourself. Whatever it is you might want to improve on in your life, upgrading is raising (something in your life) to a higher standard. It means leveling up! Do you currently feel stuck or in dire need of improvement in your life? 

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Well, you’re not alone! Personally, there are many areas in my life that I aim to upgrade this year. I aim to continually protect the peace I have in my life — I owe this to myself because I’m not so good when it comes to avoiding or blocking certain people in my life because I’m always hoping that they’ve changed and that I’ll be able to handle them but of course, that’s not always the case, per my own experience. I aim to be more physically active — because of my busy work schedule, I only really do the bare minimum when it comes to being more physically active. I aim to have a higher income — don’t we all want to aim for this? I aim to have a more outgoing personality — I’m actually so reserved and not as friendly as I would hope to be, I want to be less guarded, but then again, I only want to lower my guard just a tiny notch because maybe it’s not a bad thing to be guarded. Above all, I aim to have a much healthier mental and emotional wellbeing — yes, oh yes, this is my number one priority actually. Lastly, my husband and I aim to achieve all our personal and professional goals and dreams this year. 

I’d like to share nine different effective ways that I use as a guideline to help me achieve my goals in order to upgrade my life this 2025:

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AVOID NEGATIVITY AND STAY AWAY FROM NEGATIVE PEOPLE. Life is short. Live it positively. Choose to only surround yourself with positive energy and positive people. Stay away from those who badmouth others because people like that will also badmouth you once your back is turned. Besides, these negative people are downers — they only choose to see the negative in others. Stay away from people who are demanding, entitled and inconsiderate — people who expect you to drop everything for them and if you don’t, they kick up a fuss. 

Stay away from people who are manipulative and drama-laden — most of the time, manipulators and narcissists will pretend to be nice, kind, thoughtful, sweet and positive — beware! Narcissists and manipulators eventually show their true colours by seeing how they react to your successes — they pretend to be happy for you on the surface but they eventually slip and display a hint of envy by pointing out some negatives on your accomplishments or happiness; observe how they react to you when you are suffering — their facial expressions often reveal their true feelings; when they often exhibit an inflated view of themselves and their abilities — they like to constantly boast on how others perceive them; when they put others down behind their backs; when they are never happy for you; when they habitually lie to you without conscience; when they twist things; when they try to control you and isolate you; and when they gaslight you. 

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Stay away from those who continually criticize you and put you down (when you don’t even ask for their opinions). Stay away from people who are just bad for you. Block these people out of your life — I did this and I never regretted it, I just learned to prioritize my own happiness and peace in life. Stay away from narcissists — they will suck out the energy in you. Blocking and distancing myself are my answers to negative people, narcissists and manipulators. I no longer argue, I no longer react, I no longer take the bait of unnecessary drama, I simply remove my presence. It’s the only way to live a positive and peaceful life.

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CHALLENGE YOUR OWN NEGATIVE THOUGHTS. Just as you avoid negative people, more importantly, block all negative thoughts that you have. It is always better to turn that frown upside down! Identify the things that are weighing you down and once you have identified them, replace them with more hopeful and positive thoughts. For example, you learned that you have a health condition and instead of feeling and thinking beaten down, say this to yourself: “it may be challenging for me for sure but I can recover from it in due time, I will do my best to make my health better!” We always have the power to shift our thoughts and emotions from negative to positive. We are in control of our thoughts and emotions — never forget that! 

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LIVE AND PRACTICE THE ART OF GRATITUDE DAILY. This daily ritual truly works, I swear by it! Every day, as soon as I wake up, I say a prayer of gratitude. I tell myself: “thank you for the gift of life, the gift of health, thank you for surrounding me with positive energy and positive people, thank you for a peaceful life!” I also make it a point to write in my notes what I’m grateful for the day. When you live in gratitude, blessings tend to come your way more often. When you practice the art of gratitude, good things continue to happen in your life. This 2025, I will have an empty jar which I will call my gratitude jar and every week, I will write the things that my little family and I are grateful for. At the end of 2025, I’ll read all 52 weeks of why I was grateful for the whole year! 

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INJECT A SENSE OF HUMOUR TO YOUR DAILY LIFE! Laughter is indeed the best medicine — studies have shown that having a sense of humour can boost and improve your mental and physical wellbeing. Having a sense of humour is also a sign of high intelligence and is a sure way to help you upgrade your life. Learning to laugh at yourself and at others is a great way to relieve stress in your life. It is a great way to lessen anxiety and depression. We mustn’t take ourselves too seriously because no one gets out of this world alive anyway! 

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EAT WELL AND SLEEP WELL. Personally, I’m grateful that I’m able to get anywhere between 7-9 hours of sleep each night. I can’t stress enough how important it is to get a good sleep. Getting enough sleep helps you fight diseases and develop immunity. It helps your brain to remove toxins that develop while you’re awake. Getting enough sleep also helps you improve the health of your heart, lowers the risk of getting diabetes and high blood pressure. It also helps you maintain your weight. 

Eating well is also a key to upgrading your life. Eating healthily helps you live longer and lowers your risks of chronic diseases such as cancers, heart disease, and diabetes. Eating healthy such as a balanced diet of fruits and vegetables can help you maintain a desired weight and help you improve your moods. When we eat well, especially lots of fibre, it helps our body’s waste evacuation systems function properly. Try to avoid eating too much sugar, salt, industrially-produced and saturated trans fats. Apart from eating well, I’m also a strict follower of intermittent fasting — I start between 12pm to 8pm and fast from 8pm till 12pm the following day on weekdays and I adjust my fasting during weekends when my husband and I have our date nights and Sunday family dinners. Remember this: our health is our true wealth! 

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EXERCISE MORE! Health professionals highly recommend that we do at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical exercise at least 4 times a week. For me, I do cardio exercises from Mondays to Thursdays for half an hour before I get ready for work. It really prepares me better for my day and I noticed a huge improvement both in my mental health and physical health. Aside from keeping our bones and muscles stronger, daily exercise also lowers the risks of some cancers. 

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EMBRACE FAILURES AND SETBACKS. Life is full of ups and downs. We must learn to accept and embrace our failures and setbacks. By doing so, it helps us with the development of our growth mindset, helps us become more resilient, and teaches us to learn from our mistakes. When we embrace our failures, we are actually making it easier for ourselves to move forward positively in our lives. 

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CREATE A DAILY BUCKET LIST OF GOALS TO ACHIEVE. This is another key step in upgrading your life. For me, after I do my thirty minute cardio exercise in the morning, I write a daily bucket list of things I want to accomplish and I also write a timeline for each task or goal. In this way, you are actually getting more accountable for your goals. Creating a daily to-do list keeps you more organized, focused, and motivated. 

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LOVE YOURSELF AND BE KIND TO YOURSELF! Having self-compassion can help us build our self-worth and self-esteem which in turn can help us foster better relationships with others. Be your number one cheerleader — always use positive self-talk. You don’t need to please anyone. If you’re not in a position to help others, it’s okay to say no to others and you don’t need to feel guilty and feel bad about it. Learn to set boundaries. Be kind to yourself by prioritizing your needs. Be kind to yourself by not being too hard on yourself. Be kind to yourself by learning to protect and safeguard your personal space and time. Being kind to ourselves helps us deal with our daily stresses more effectively. Just like happiness, love and kindness should come from within.