Julia Dellitt - Get Your Life Together(ish): A No-Pressure Guide for Real-Life Self-Growth

To my husband, Jared, for always believing in me.

On a perfect day, I wake up around 5 a.m., meditate, and then sip on a glass of cold brew coffee while reading peacefully on the couch. I make it to work on time. I meet all my deadlines, pick up a happy toddler from daycare, and then practice yoga for an hour before breezily putting together a healthy dinner for the family. Before bed I floss, fold a load of laundry, and look at the number in my bank account with a satisfied smile. I fall asleep with every item on my to-do list checked off, ready to take on tomorrow.

KIDDING. I kid.

What life really looks like: I hit snooze on my alarm three times in a row before taking a rushed shower. I put on mascara while bargaining with my son to eat his waffle, then arrive five minutes late to a meeting. I delete the text appointment reminder from my dentist, rewrite an errand from two months ago in a messy planner, scramble to give the dog a walk after work, eat leftovers for dinner, and lay awake until 2 a.m. wondering if my student loan debt will follow me to the grave.

Im willing to bet that you experience this type of disconnect toothis feeling of being a few steps behind the type of person you always wanted to be. Heres what you need to know: your life isnt an all-or-nothing problem to solve or thing to fix. You already know what is important, whats somewhat important, and whats not important to you at all. But you may want to make a few adjustments, and thats where Get Your Life Together(ish) can help.

In this book youll find practical strategies to troubleshoot common lifestyle, health, relationship, finance, and career challenges. Each is broken down by difficulty level so you can experiment to figure out what works best for you based on what you need.

So if youre curious about cultivating a smidgen of self-improvement in your days, weeks, and months, and you want a permission slip to be authentically imperfect on the journey, this book is for you. So if youre ready, flip the page and lets start to get your life togetherish.

Using this book is easy and straightforward, and you can even customize it to fit your life and schedule. Pick a challenge, select a commitment level, and then implement it. For each challenge youll find three difficulty levelsbecause, lets face it, on some days you may just want to make a small improvement, and on others you might be ready to grab the reins and make a lifestyle change. You can also use the Try This exercises as a way to implement each challenge, whether through an activity, a reflection, or a journal exercise.

Each difficulty level requires a different level of commitment:

Easy: These challenges need almost no preparation, take very little time, and can be done as often as you like. If you have time to scroll through Instagram , you have time for this option.

Medium: These challenges require a bit more preparation, and they may require you to commit to several days worth of action to implement them fully, but overall they wont be too taxing on your everyday life. Try this type of challenge when you want to address a specific habit but also need some time to adjust and reflect before truly sticking with it for the long haul.

Hard: These challenges will take the biggest commitment of your time and effort. They will require planning and forethought to implement, and are meant to be done when you are ready to make a new habit and incorporate it into your everyday life. With this one youre all in, and youre ready and willing to make a serious change. These challenges will also set you up to carry habits into the long term in order to potentially make a true change in your life.

This book will also highlight familiar roadblocks that may rise up as you begin each challenge and offer ways to push past the excuses that could get in your way. Like when you start and your brain immediately says, Well, Id love to do this, buuuut Trust me, its going to happen, and Im here to cheer you on as well as remind you to keep going.

Part 1

Lifestyle

This first part is intended to switch up certain elements of your lifestyle where you might be feeling a bit stuck. People often talk about making their life better, and while that word is incredibly subjective, you can indeed find ways to make your life a little bit better using some of these strategies.

In this part youll learn how to become more of a morning person, get shit done, start journaling, and walk into the week with a positive attitude. It will discuss why repairing your possessions can lead to a sense of pride and ownership, why you need to avoid the busy trap at all costs, and why you absolutely have time to read a book. Youll also find tips for controlling your screen time addiction, making fun a regular part of your existence, and finding peace with what you like and dislikeso you can focus on being who you are and living a life youre proud of.

CHALLENGE #1:

Wake Up Earlier

As a kid I l-o-v-e-d sleeping in. Nothing beat the feeling of snuggling up under the covers, surrounded by pillows, with the satisfaction of knowing I could lie around and rest to my hearts content. Well, until my dad walked into my bedroom, flipped on the lights, and yanked the sheets off my body while singing his Good morning, good morning, to you, to you song at full volume. I would complain; hed tell me that I could sleep when Im dead.

Now, as an adult, I can understand where hes coming fromnot the whole dying part, but the fact that mornings are completely underutilized. While working full-time after the birth of my first child, I swiftly realized how much I could accomplish in the wee hours of daylight, before the rest of the family woke up. I started tweaking my routine every week to figure out how to roll out of bed with a semi-decent attitude and the motivation to stay upright. Its true youll have to ignore all those things that will try to lure you back to the coziness of your bed: the Just five more minutes mentality, a soft pillow, a dark room, your partner or anyone else (including pets) still sleeping soundly in that same bed, a quiet house, your pajamas, realizing you dont really have to get up quite yet, feeling tired, closing your eyes, any hesitation whatsoever.

But if I can do it, anybody can. Heres how.

DIFFICULTY LEVEL:

EASY

The first part of this challenge requires you to wake up just fifteen minutes earlier than your normal time. It may seem like a huge feat if you are not usually a morning person, but I promise it will be worth it. How? You are going to bribe yourself. Thats right, Im serious; bribe your poor tired self.

For me, getting up and staying up when my alarm went off required one reward: buying coffee at my favorite little shop on the way to work. I even wrote it down on a piece of paper next to my phone so I would see it when the Alarm Gods called. For you, it might be something else, but pick something that you really enjoy, that would be a delight on a weekday, and use that as your motivation.