1. Spend time with your family

Family puts things in perspective. They won’t be there forever and neither will you.

Spending time with family helps you see what’s important and that’s a crucial first step to drastically changing your life. What’s important for most of us?

• Family
• Our health
• How we think about ourselves

Again, knowing what’s important is free. It’s a conversation with yourself and it won’t be charged by the hour like a lawyer.

When you know what’s important, you can prioritize what you need to do to drastically change your life while keeping these important factors front and center.

2. Go to a park that’s far away

A clear head is a must for drastically changing your life, not a new Gucci Watch.

Parks are a place to sit and contemplate life. Being out in nature and away from artificial light, polluted indoor air, your computer/iPad/phone is an environment where clear thinking can take place.

Clear thoughts need nature to help bring them out. Choose a park that’s far away. Go to one that has a view or a mountain or a beautiful lake. These are the places where the life-changing thoughts happen.

I drastically changed my life a few years ago when I was out walking through a park and listening to an audio tape. It was the combination of clear skies, clean air, nature, some wise words from a man named Tony coming out of my earphones and pure silence that helped me have that one thought that would drastically change my life.

That one thought was this:

“What if everything you thought about life was wrong and you could actually do whatever you put your mind to? What if nothing was impossible?”

All of this came from parks and nature. Try it.

3. Take a week off

This tip is free assuming you use annual leave or sick leave. If you have to use some of your savings money, then that’s okay.

“I spent one part of my career working for seven years straight with not a single holiday”

I was always stuck in the daily grind and I couldn’t see beyond it. I too thought I had to work harder so I could buy that one thing that would drastically change my life. None of the purchases this lifestyle gave me changed my life or anyone else’s.

Taking a week off and creating space is where you can do more of that delicious, chocolate coated thinking I spoke about earlier. It’s thinking, reflection and nothingness that brings about all the drastic change.

If I were to give you one hack it would be this:

“Do whatever creates the perfect environment for thinking to occur”

A week off will definitely be one of the ingredients. Some hot showers, reading, meditation and yoga could all be used as tools during this week to cultivate crystal clear thoughts.

Being out of the madness is how you find your way through it.

Transformational change can only follow clear thinking.

4. Write down what you’ve achieved in the last 12 months

Also free and a way to cultivate change.

It can feel at times like you’re a complete failure and you’ve achieved nothing. That’s until you book an appointment with yourself and write down what you’ve achieved. I wrote down what I’d achieved in the form of a list of fears I’d overcome.

In a two year period, I had more than 100 examples of fears I’d overcame.

I thought at the time I’d achieved nothing and that’s because my million-year-old brain had flat out forgotten all the good stuff. It was by writing down what I’d achieved through crushing fears that I was reunited with my inner strength and my ability to make difficult decisions.

When you look back, you’ve done some awesome things. Take the time to do this exercise and remember that. Once you know what you can do, you can then have the strength to make drastic changes in your life and turn things around.

5. Make friends with one new person

Making friends is free although it can be uncomfortable. Drastically changing your life is uncomfortable too so starting the process by making one new friend is a good omen.

Making a new friend usually involves putting yourself in a different environment. Attend a public speaking event, go to work drinks, attend a business event or go to a sporting event.

Every friendship I’ve ever had has started out by me saying hello and smiling. New friends allow you to hear different stories, witness different cultures and hear new ideas or beliefs.

When I drastically changed my life I made one new friend at an event I attended. We were both sitting next to each other at a seminar and I started out by saying “What do you do for work?”

At the time we were both working in banking, so our friendship quickly grew. He became a coach for me during a very difficult time of uncertainty and radical change. I’d ring him up once a week and talk to him about what I was facing into. He’d do the same with me.

It was only a few minutes a week and the friendship came about over the course of about 60 minutes. Not complicated, it cost nothing and it happened quickly.

This one new friend challenged me to overcome one fear: walking on fire.

Being burned as a kid made me scared to touch anything hot. We both faced this fear together one night and overcame it. This one night became the catalyst for everything that happened later.

Adding one new friend can drastically improve your life.

Final Thought.

Change or radical shifts do not need money.

Thinking you need money to solve every problem in your life is what’s holding you back. Don’t let money stop you from making drastic changes.

All change begins with you and that’s free.