Today I'm Growing

4 Steps to Change Your Life

• growingannanas

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Hey Team welcome back to my podcast Today I'm Growing. I'm so excited to have you here!

Happy new year 2025!

So, can you actually start transforming your life before the new year even begins? I think so—and in this episode, I’m sharing exactly how. We’re talking goal-setting, visualization, and the small, practical changes that can make a huge difference. Whether it’s waking up 15 minutes earlier or finally organizing that corner of your home, it’s often the little things that create the biggest shifts.

I’ll also share some personal strategies that have helped me make growth not only manageable but genuinely enjoyable. From setting up a space to move your body to finding online communities that inspire you, this episode is all about creating an environment that keeps you motivated. And let’s be real—balance is key. FOMO, missed plans, or just needing a day off? That’s life. Growth doesn’t have to mean all-or-nothing.

If you’re ready to step into this next chapter with curiosity, kindness, and a little more intention, this one’s for you. Let’s make self-improvement feel less like a chore and more like a lifestyle you actually love.

Speaker 0:

Hey, team, welcome back to my podcast Today. I'm growing. I am excited to have you here. The new year is coming and I don't know how you feel, but every single time at the end of the year, I feel like I have to make change, especially when I have those moments, when I have those weeks or months that I felt really stuck in life, I felt really unmotivated. Then, I don't know, at the end of the year, I have this little push and this little motivation and I feel inspired to finally take control, to finally take control again, to get my life together and to change Not just change physically, but also change mentally, change in all areas of life. If you feel the same, if you also want to change, then I hope this podcast really helps you. I hope at the end of this, if you feel the same, if you also want to change, then I hope this podcast really helps you. I hope, at the end of this podcast, you feel motivated, you feel inspired and I hope we all together can change, not just now, but also in 2025 and for the rest of our lives. So I would say let's get straight into this podcast episode. I've prepared four steps for you, four steps that will help you, I promise. They have helped me in the past and I hope to help you as well.

Speaker 0:

And without further ado, I would say let's get straight into this podcast episode. Let's get straight into step one, step number one if you want to change, I think you have to be clear and you really have to know what you want to change Like. You need to know what are your goals, who do you want to become, and to be really clear with those things. I think the most powerful thing that you can do is to design your new life, design your new person. Who do you want to be? Write it down, grab a piece of paper right now, right now. Pause the video or do it after watching this video, but please grab a piece of paper right now, right now. Pause the video or do it after watching this video, but please grab a piece of paper and grab a pen and start designing your future. I think it's the most powerful thing that you can do and I think doing it by hand, like actually writing it down with a pen on an empty piece of paper, to me it works the best. To me, this is such an effort and it's such a strong thing to do to get really clear with who you want to become.

Speaker 0:

I'm also a strong believer into vision boards and I think vision boards are so, so effective. I have a vision board in my bedroom. Actually, I have it in front of my bed. So every single morning when I wake up, I look at my vision board and I see my vision there, I see where I want to go. And there is a crazy thing with vision boards, like I'm doing this since a very, very long time. When I was a teenager, I started doing vision boarding and I tell that my friends sometimes that I think it's just so crazy because I write down things like let me share with you. I wrote down the vision of my apartment where I want to live. It was like 10 years ago and now I live in this apartment and the way I was drawing it down it's so crazy to me because it's the exact same place that I was visualizing like years ago. And it's so crazy and fascinating to me because it shows me that this really, really works. And also with my YouTube channel, I always wanted to have a YouTube channel and a big YouTube community. And on my other YouTube channel, on growing ananas, I wanted that so bad and it took a very, very long time to get there. But it shows me that you can have crazy goals and no goal is too big Like you can get there. Let me guarantee that If I can have a goal, a crazy goal, and no one believes in it, then you can have that too, and you can get there if you put in the work and if you're willing to change.

Speaker 0:

Change is hard, change is scary. Changing something is so out of comfort zone and it's so uncomfortable, and not just for you, but for me as well, for everyone, for all of us. Changing something is really, really hard and let's keep going with step number two on actually how to change. And let me tell you, this had been the biggest game changer to me it's making small and tiny little changes day by day, small and tiny little changes day after day. I'm a person that if I want to change something, I want to change from one day to another completely. I want to change my whole entire life. I want to move out, I want to travel to another country, I want a new job, I want to change everything. But that's not how it works. We can't always just change everything just because we are unhappy and we're frustrated and we want a whole new life. We need to make small, tiny little changes.

Speaker 0:

Let's say you want to change your body, you want to start your fitness journey, you want to jump into a new physical version of yourself. You can't do that in one day and you can't live a whole other lifestyle tomorrow. You have to make small, tiny little changes. As an example, I think if you want to start your fitness journey, for example, it could be so powerful if you implement one habit right now, like you could do it right now. You could say, okay, every single morning from today on, I want to wake up early in the morning, I want to wake up at 7am every single morning. This could be the start of your fitness journey or of your whole entire new life. It's one small, tiny little change.

Speaker 0:

And let me tell you, if you do this, if you say, okay, I'm going to wake up every single day at 7am in the morning, it will lead to so many other things. Day one you start waking up at 7am. Day two you do the same. Day three, you do the same. Maybe on day four, you already feel really comfortable to say, okay, I wake up at 7am, I have more time in the morning. I'm going to do a 10 minute workout and you can start with a 10minute workout and it's going to be enough. It's okay. It's amazing. Working out for 10 minutes a day is better than nothing and then it will lead to okay, I have more time. I'm going to work out for 20 minutes now. So it will add and add more habits and more changes throughout time.

Speaker 0:

But you have to start small. I think that's really really important. But you have to start small. I think that's really really important. Also, having this big, massive, crazy goal and you want to get there like really really soon, it feels so overwhelming and it feels like you're not making progress at all. And if you feel like that, it's really unmotivating, it's not fun and you have to make it fun. You have to make change fun because otherwise you won't stick to it and you won't be consistent. But being consistent and learning to be disciplined with certain things is really important.

Speaker 0:

Actually, how to learn to be disciplined? It's with waking up at 7 am every single morning. It's having this one little habit that you want to do every single day that you do over and over again. That will teach you how to be disciplined, and you have to do every single day that you do over and over again. That will teach you how to be disciplined and you have to learn that you have to be disciplined in order to change, in order to grow, in order to get something that you haven't had before and this is also something I've seen a quote the other day, and I'm sure you know this quote if you want something that you haven't had before, like if you want something that you haven't had before, like if you want something that you haven't had before, then you have to do something that you have never done before. I hope that makes sense, but it says, or it basically means, that you have to do things different, or you have to change in order to change your life or in order to get something that you haven't had before. You really have to make things different, something that you haven't had before. You really have to make things different.

Speaker 0:

Also, one thing that's very important to mention here like you have to do it, it's only you. You know how many times I was waiting for someone to kick my ass or to help me get out of something or to change. I was waiting so many times Could also be that I was just waiting for someone to text me, or I was waiting for someone to tell me on how to do it. Yes, I'm here right now. I can give you some motivation, but at the end of the day, you have to make the new choices and you have to be willing to change. It's you, it's your path, it's your journey and you are the only one, the only person who is responsible for your change and for your life and for the direction that you want to go. I also quickly want to throw it in here. Like I really believe in you. I really believe that you have everything that it takes, and I hope you know that. I hope you remind yourself that you have it within you. You have the power to change and I think it's also very, very important that you believe in yourself. I can believe in you, but it doesn't really matter if you don't believe in yourself. You have to be the first person, the first person on the list, that really believes in you. You have to believe in you, trust me.

Speaker 0:

I've uploaded the other day, I've uploaded a video about choices and it also blew my mind when I was recording this video. It's not the first day I've uploaded a video about choices and it also blew my mind when I was recording this video. It's not the first time that I recorded this video. I actually made two short form videos about that and it's two people next to each other and the message about this whole video is that the person on the left side and the person on the right side like they both wake up at the same time. They both have the alarm set at 7am, but the one person so the one person wakes up at 7am, she does her bed, she gets into her morning routine, she's doing her workout, she gets her work done, whereas the other person presses the snooze button, stays in bed and after falling asleep again, she's finally waking up, but she scrolls on her phone. She makes total different choices. So, even though both have the exact same day, there's a crazy difference between what kind of choices they make throughout the day.

Speaker 0:

And that's again the thing that I said before. Like you have the power to make the right choices, you have the power to change, but it's really up to you to make the right choices. And I don't want to say what's right and I don't want to say what's wrong, because that's different for everyone. But if you, for example, want to live a productive life, then you have to make the choices. To actually be productive, you have to put your phone away. You have to lock it away and not scroll on your phone, not procrastinate and not get distracted from like scrolling on social media and care what other people do, like don't care. Put your phone away and make that choice. Make the choice. Okay, today I'm not getting distracted. Today I want to get work done. I want to take care of my physical body. I want to take care of my mental health, so I want to take care of my physical body. I want to take of my mental health, so I want to take care of my physical health. I want to take care of my mental health. That is a choice that you have to make and, again, no one's making that choice for you. You have to make those choices. You have to make the right choices every single day. No one's going to do it for you. That was a big, big to me and I hope this also helps you right now and it opens up your eyes that hey, damn, yeah, we all have the same 24 hours. We all can use it wisely, or we all can go on our phones and scroll. I said it before and I'm going to say it again Change is hard.

Speaker 0:

Making small, tiny little changes, improvements, implementing different kinds of habits, it's hard. So I think it's very, very important. Step number three, to make your journey fun. You have to make change and growth fun and not just fun. I think what I what I mean by that and what I want to say is you have to make it easy, or let's say easier, because it's hard, I said it, but you can make it a little bit easier. Let's say you want to start drinking a little bit more of water. How can you make this tiny little habit a bit easier? To me, what made the biggest difference was getting a reusable water bottle with a straw. It makes staying hydrated and it makes drinking a little bit more water. It makes staying hydrated and it makes drinking a little bit more water easier.

Speaker 0:

To me, that was one thing. The same with workouts. So I'm not a gym person and I feel like I don't have the time to drive to a gym, do a workout in the gym and then drive back home. I don't have the time right now. So what works best for me is either go for a run or do my home workouts. Home workouts to me have been a game changer. I started doing lockdown and now I'm still in here doing my home workouts, and having a little space with my weights, with my workout mat, have been a game changer. I have my location, I have my spot where I do my workouts and all I have to do is show up I mean, here at home. I don't even need to wear a fancy outfit even though I do sometimes because it makes me feel cute and actually motivated. But I could also do it in my pajamas, and sometimes I do. There are no excuses, and I made my life a little bit easier by literally just getting some weights in here, having a workout mat and having my space. It's so easy to just show up there and get my workout done. That is just an example. Also, for work, I have my space where I have my laptop. That space is clean and organized and this is also a quick tip thrown in If you have a clean space and an organized space, it also helps you to be way more productive and to be way more clear with your thoughts, with your visions, with your ideas.

Speaker 0:

You need to have a clean space. At least that's how it works for me. I really need to have an organized space, especially when it comes to work. But anyways, I have my space ready. I know where I have to go to get my work done. I even have a walking pad underneath my desk. I don't know if you've ever seen that, but, for example, to me it's really important to get my steps in, to move my body. I also feel so much more creative when I'm walking. So I made my life a little bit easier. I got a walking pad here underneath my desk and I walk on it. So I get a lot of things done. I get my steps in, I move my body. I feel more productive because I'm moving throughout the whole work hours. So to me, this is very powerful, and I made my life just a tiny little bit easier by getting a gadget like the walking pad. All I want to say is like look out for gadgets, look out for things that you can do, things that you can build at home to make your life and make your change a little bit easier.

Speaker 0:

The same with people Make your life easier by surrounding yourself with the right people, and I know this is really hard, because sometimes we feel alone. We feel alone on our journeys, we feel stuck and we feel like there's no one who could help us right now. I have been there many, many times. I also felt that people don't really understand where I want to go, or I felt like they don't really understand my goals, my dreams, but I've always somehow found people who got it, either offline or online. Online, there are so many groups you can join. You can join a Facebook group, you can join a WhatsApp group. You can find your people online who can help you reach your goals. Let's say, being a YouTuber, for example. I grew up in Austria in a very small village. There weren't any other YouTubers, there weren't any other creators who could really help me, but I somehow connected with other people online via social media. I found them by doing courses and they also had been in those courses and then we were chatting. So there are so many ways these days on how to find the right people.

Speaker 0:

It's hard sometimes to also say no to people that you've spent a lot of time with before, but maybe they aren't good for you anymore. It's very hard. You don't want to harm anyone. You don't want to be like bad to anyone, I know that, but sometimes there are those people who drain your energy, if you know what I mean, and I think it's very important to surround yourself with people who are actually filling your cup up, like who give you energy and who inspire you and who make you feel good and powerful and who give you the hope that you can reach your goal and, in the best case, that you aren't alone on this journey, like they are with you. That's the kind of people you want to surround yourself with. Even now, watching this video, maybe, I am also kind of like a person for you that inspires you and that helps you reach your goal. That's also a form of surrounding yourself with the right people. Like, I watch so many motivational videos or videos on how to do something, how to get where I want to be, so I think this is also a form of surrounding yourself with the right people.

Speaker 0:

Let's quickly talk about content. Like surround yourself also with the right content. If you scroll on your phone like, you have the power. You have the choice what kind of content you consume, and there is a lot of good content out there. There's content where you can actually learn something from and you should consume this kind of content. You shouldn't consume, I don't know, like random bikini pictures from someone else, like don't do it, except it motivates you, I don't know. But don't look at anything that's kind of distracting you from your own goals and where you compare yourself to worst case. Not just bikini pictures.

Speaker 0:

But I'm also thinking sometimes I like not. Sometimes I love to spend time by myself, I love to be at home, I love to be here and watch a movie at night and just clean up my space, be in the comfort of my own home. But then I go on social media and then I scroll through and I see other people partying. I see other people having so much fun with their friends. Good for them, I also have that. But in that moment where I'm alone at home, I compare myself and I get this FOMO. I'm like I'm missing out on something. But that is so wrong. And you know what? Like we make the choice from now on to consume the content that feels good for us and the content that feels bad and us and the content that feels bad and does something bad to us, then yeah, we don't have to consume that kind of content. We don't have to consume that kind of content.

Speaker 0:

Last but not least, team the last step, something that I think you should implement for the rest of your whole entire life, something I think that's so important, important no matter how old you are, and that's actually a good thing to say. So the last step is keep learning. Please stay curious for the rest of your life and please keep learning and please keep growing, especially when we get older. I think sometimes we stop. We stop learning. I don't know why, because maybe I don't know, we all have trauma from school, where we had, where we had to learn. But then sometimes, as adults, I think we sometimes forget how powerful it is to keep learning.

Speaker 0:

And I've met a lot of older people, also my mom. She's a great example. She learns a new language now and she learns more about different kind of countries she's never been to. She learns so much. She keeps learning and it somehow keeps her really young and it keeps her motivated, and I know this also for me, when I have new things that I want to learn and when I'm actually really passionate about it. It does something with me. It gives my life, my days, a purpose, and I think you are never. You're never too old to learn something new. You're never too old to set new goals, to have new dreams. Never, never, never. And don't let society tell you that I don't know. Let's say, for example, you want to be a model and you're 30 now, or 40 now, you can become a model if you want to. If you want to become an actor or an actress, and you haven't done it before, you haven't done it in the last 30 years, but now you want to do it, hey, go for it, write it down. Write it down. That's the first step. Put it on your vision board and then keep learning, learn, learn. Whatever you want to learn, do it.

Speaker 0:

The best ways for me to learn new things is reading. I love to read, but also I love to listen to podcasts, I love to do online courses. I love to buy PDFs and then read and just learn. I love to learn new things. Actually, I noticed and that was when I talked to a friend, I think I'm a bit obsessed with that Like I love that I love to read self-improvement books, for example, and I don't know when the last time was that I was reading, let's say, in a romantic book or a drama book or like a story, if you know what I mean. I'm always into self-improvement books. I always want to learn something. I want to learn something about life, about new skills that I want to learn, or I just want to learn how to be better tomorrow and what kind of new habits can I do to be more productive, to feel better. So I really love those self-improvement books. I'm really obsessed with it.

Speaker 0:

These are my four steps team. I want to repeat it for you. So you actually have some homework to do. You should straight write those things down, those four steps down, and get straight into it. So the first step was to actually design your change, design your life, which means write down your goals, go and get up and make a vision board and bring it on a piece of paper or onto something where you see it every single day.

Speaker 0:

Step number two was to do tiny little steps. So don't try to change everything at once and don't overwhelm yourself. Make tiny little, small changes every single day, step by step. Step number three was to make it easier to make it fun, and what I mean by that is like build your environment and build your surroundings, your people, like the content that you consume and what can you do at home to make your life and your change a little bit easier. And, last but not least, stay curious and keep learning and keep growing. You are never too old to keep learning and that's really, really important. You are not too old, you are not too weak, you are not too lazy, like, definitely not. Like. You can get up and make the right choices right now to actually change your life. Last but not least, there are two things on my mind which actually have nothing to do with the steps that I was talking about, but of course they have something to do with it. But it's not a step.

Speaker 0:

But first of all, let me tell you that no matter how motivated and disciplined you are, you will fail sometimes. For example, I don't know, like when I stick to a workout plan, I'm always super motivated and I have a workout goal and I will do everything that I can to stick to my workout plan. I'm very disciplined and if I want something, I will do everything I can to get there. But sometimes there will be things happening that I didn't expect. So life just happens. Let's say, I get sick and I can't stick to my workout plan, then it's really important to be okay with it. Like if I'm sick, then I'm not going to work out. Like why should I? This would be pushing out of my comfort zone and beyond. This would be just stupid. I would do something against my body instead of working with my body and reaching my goal. So it's okay to sometimes fail, it's okay to sometimes not stick to your things because life happens.

Speaker 0:

But there's a big difference between something happens, you stop, you make a break, and then giving up because you feel like, okay, now I've lost all my progress. Now, this happened, and now everything is lost, everything that I've gained in the last couple of weeks or months, everything I've lost because now I have to make this break. There's a big difference between this, between this scenario and getting back into routine and being like, okay, this happened. I couldn't train now for weeks, but I'm back now and I'm going to start again. I'm going to repeat and this is not just with working out, but with every single goal that you have like, life happens and you will fail and you will make mistakes and life will just throw in like um how to call it? Like obstacles, and that is okay as long as you don't give up.

Speaker 0:

To me, failing is so okay, like it's so okay to fail. Sometimes it's so okay if things happen, but what's not okay is to give up, to be like, okay, this happened and now I'm going to give up because, yeah, I failed, I'm a failure. This is not okay and this is not how it works, and I want you to be okay with the things that just happen and the same with. I keep preaching it here on my YouTube channel and I keep preaching it across all my social media channels it's very cool to be super productive and to be disciplined and to be in our hustle mode era, but it's not okay to not live a balanced life anymore and to only focus on these things that we want so bad.

Speaker 0:

I know how it feels to have a goal and to want it so bad and be so damn ambitious, but be too ambitious to forget about so many other things, to forget about friends that are actually good for you, to forget about your family, to forget about your health, your mental health, your physical body, like even though, if you have a super cool, nice workout routine, if you go all in black and white and you are very strict with yourself and very strict with all the rules that you have created for yourself, then you lose balance, and balance is very, very important. No matter how many goals you have. Like at least try to have a little bit of balance and sometimes your life will have more balance and sometimes your life will have less balance. Also, balance for all of us it means something different, but you should feel good with what you're doing. You shouldn't go so extreme that you feel burned out at the end of the day and then you actually then you fail, because then you have to give up if you can't push through this anymore. That's not what we want here. We want to reach our goals, we want to find focus, motivation, we want to be disciplined and we want to change. Yes, that's what we want here on this channel, but we want to do it in a healthy, happy and balanced way.

Speaker 0:

Team, I don't know how you feel right now, but I enjoyed this podcast episode so much. I really feel much more motivated and inspired again and I feel like this is exactly what I needed at the end of the year. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for listening to Today in Growing, if you have any feedback or if you have any tips, let me know down in the comments. It's also possible here on Spotify. Now I would love to read from you, and I think, everyone from the community as well. Thank you so much for listening and then talk to you soon. Bye.