4 Important Life Lessons I Learned the Hard Way (So That You Don’t Have To)

Want to know the 4 important life lessons that can make your life 10X better? 

No matter what is happening to you, life is trying to teach you something. In this episode, Mel unpacks the 4 most important lessons life tries to teach everyone, and the sooner you learn them, the faster your life will change for the better.

The companion workbook to this episode can be found at melrobbins.com/bestyear.

In this episode, Mel covers:

• Why you need to slow down if you want to make your life better
• The only way to make lasting and meaningful change
• How to be more creative and inspired at work 
• The 6 questions you must ask yourself before the new year
• How to create opportunities for success in your life 
• The one question to ask yourself if you don’t know what to do next
• How to feel more fulfilled without achieving, buying, or earning more
• How to determine the biggest lesson you need to learn from the past year
• Mel’s favorite practical tool for happiness called “drop the sword” 
• How “bracing” yourself through life blocks your happiness 
• Why seeking balance is not always a good thing 
• How to create boundaries you can actually keep 
• The boundary Mel set this year that changed her life
• What feeling frustrated actually means 
• What to do if you are in a process that isn’t working for you anymore
• Why change takes a FULL year 

This episode comes with a 29-page companion workbook. This workbook is designed using the latest research to help you get clear about what you want and empower you to take the next step forward in your life. And the cool part? It takes less than a minute for you to get your hands on it.

Just sign up at melrobbins.com/bestyear. 

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In this episode, you'll learn:

• 01:42: Why you need to slow down if you want to make your life better
• 03:08: The only way to make lasting and meaningful changes
• 04:19: How to be more creative and inspired at work 
• 05:25: The 6 questions you must ask yourself before you enter the new year
• 07:51: How to create opportunity for success in your life 
• 09:09: How to feel more fulfilled without achieving, buying, or earning more
• 10:42: What it means to “drop the sword” 
• 12:50: Why “bracing” through life blocks happiness 
• 15:47: Why seeking balance is not always a good thing 
• 18:09: How to create boundaries that you can actually keep 
• 23:04: The boundary Mel set this year that changed her life
• 25:47: What feeling frustrated actually means 
• 34:12: What to do if you are in a process that isn’t working for you anymore
• 38:34: Why all change takes a FULL year

Resources and go deeper:

• Harvard Business Review: Need speed? Slow down
• New York Times: The best path to long-term change 
• Harvard Business Review: Don’t fall into the urgency trap
• New York Times: Want to make a change? Conjure your possible selves
• Forbes: 16 ways to live a happier more fulfilling life
• Harvard: Research reveals the #1 key to living longer
• Harvard Business Review: A guide to setting better boundaries 
• National Library of Medicine: Increased screen time impacts on physical, psychological health, and sleep patterns
• Harvard Business Review: What does it really take to build a new habit 
• National Library of Medicine: The psychology of habit-formation