Have you ever noticed that people’s worst problems typically are fixable? Recently, I met a friend for lunch. We get together every so often, and for as long as I can remember, she has always been broke. Her unstable financial situation is stressful for her. You can see it in her face.

What is illogical about the situation is that she doesn’t have to be broke. She is attractive, educated and has a very professional demeanor. Any company would be delighted to have her as an employee. But she wants to be self-employed and have the flexibility that comes with that.

The problem is that when you are self-employed, you typically don’t have a steady paycheck. You don’t have employer-provided health benefits. So, you have a feast or famine lifestyle, which is stressful. And for her, she prefers the stress of being broke half the time, instead of dealing with the limitations of a 9 to 5 job. She has a problem that she just doesn’t want to fix.

Of course, there are some problems that are out of our control. Many health problems can occur in spite of our best efforts to be healthy. And financial issues can arise due to an unanticipated layoff or a downturn in the economy.

However, most problems have a solution that is within our power to fix. The challenge is that while we may not like the problem, we like the solution even less. The solution may involve sacrifice. It may be inconvenient. It may not reflect the vision that we had for our lives.

But in order to fix your life, you have to be willing to make some sacrifices. The good news is that the momentary discomfort that you may feel by a lifestyle change or an ended relationship is minimal compared to the freedom that comes from improving your life. Consider adopting the following changes to fix your life and be truly happy.

Live Within Your Means: There are few things that are more stressful than being in debt, with bill collectors calling. The only way to avoid debt is to live within your means. That doesn’t mean living paycheck to paycheck. That means saving. That means that at the end of every month, 15% of your income isn’t touched. So, if you make $2000 per month in income, you should be saving $300 every month.

Living within our means is not easy. A large part of doing so involves giving up the frivolous shopping habit. I will admit that shopping is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. But if you are trying to live within your means, shopping cannot be your form of entertainment. Better to invest in a reasonably priced gym membership and spend your Saturday afternoons hitting the weights or using the elliptical rather than strolling around the mall.

The key to living within your means without feeling deprived is to find ways to regularly treat yourself that are not expensive but are satisfying. For example, I happen to love books.  So, when I was young and single, my special treat to myself was to buy a good book. It was an extravagance – I could have gone to the library. But I felt like I had treated myself by purchasing a book without spending excessive amounts of money.

Choose Your Inner Circle Carefully: The people who are closest to us can either make our lives beautiful or they can make our lives miserable. If you have friends and family who treat your poorly or are unkind to you, you need to kick them out of your inner circle.

Your inner circle should only be people of the highest quality.  They may or may not be people to whom you are related. In fact, very often the most reliable people in our lives are not related to us. Instead, they are the life-long friends who have stuck by us.

The key is to choose an inner circle who will not discourage you, but who instead will will inspire you. That means choosing people who are secure enough in themselves that they don’t have the need to insult you or put you down. You also want an inner circle of people who are ambitious and hold themselves to a high standard. If your inner circle has no greater aspirations than to shop and go to bars, you won’t be inspired to achieve much more. You want an inner circle who drives you to achieve your fullest potential.

You Only Have One Body – Treat It Well: Often, we forget that our bodies need to last us until we die. And, if we are lucky, that could be 80 or 90 years. That means that we want to treat our bodies well. Really well.

I spent time this week with some folks in their 80s. It was eye-opening. They had varying degrees of mobility and lucidity based on how well they had treated their bodies during the preceding 50 years.

The reality is that we can’t control when we die. However, we do have some say as to what our quality of life will be while we are alive. If we want a high quality of life, we need to do three simple things: Eat healthy. Exercise regularly. And avoid bad habits (like smoking, drinking and using drugs). If you do those three things, you will feel fairly good while you are alive. If you don’t, life will be hard.

Those are the three quick fixes to feel good physically. Yes, they may not be all that much fun. Ice cream sundaes are much tastier than fruit salad. But sweating while you walk due to being out of shape and overweight is not fun either. Do what is necessary to fix the one body that God gave you.

Aspire to Do Something Great: After we finish our education and get that first job, our professional lives can become boring. We get on a career trajectory and our days can end up being very much the same. That is discouraging.

To fix your career rut, you need to continually be aspiring professionally. You should always have a Big Goal in mind – one that seems just out of reach. That will keep you inspired.

Now your Big Goal may be one related to your current career. Or, it may be one that is completely unrelated. For instance, by day, you may work as a librarian, and by night, you may be a budding novelist. Or your day job may be in construction, but at night, you are working on an invention. The point is to spend your free time working toward a Big Goal. In doing so, you will feel professionally inspired, even if your job is not as satisfying as you may have hoped.

Set Aside Time for Your Spiritual Health: We tend to worry first about our physical health. We then worry about our mental health. But how often do we take time to consider our spiritual health? Probably never.

However, our spiritual health is incredibly important. When we feel depressed, like life is random, or that we are just unlucky, or that life has no meaning, we are spiritually unhealthy. That kind of malaise means that we need to fix our spiritual health.

You can fix your spiritual health in a variety of ways. Attending religious services on a regular basis is one approach. However, if that isn’t your cup of tea, you can read inspiring books and articles. Or you can listen to podcasts or YouTube videos by thoughtful speakers. I do all three in order to maintain my own spiritual health. There is no one perfect formula for everyone. Rather, you need to take the approach that makes you feel most comfortable.

Fixing what is wrong in your life is never an easy process. You have to be willing to make sacrifices for your ultimate happiness. You have to put in the hard work today for a future payoff tomorrow in terms of physical, financial and spiritual health. That takes discipline and willpower. But a life of greater happiness and peace of mind is well worth it.

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Email: yourmorningcupofinspiration@gmail.com

Books: “The Secrets to Success for the Working Mother” by Meerabelle Dey (https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Success-Working-Mother/dp/1546329544 )