Yeah, hard work and dedication are great and all that…but do you know what is even better? Instant gratification!
As someone who has never kept a New Years resolution in her life, I know that quick fixes don’t always work…but these sixteen people on Reddit opened up about the fastest way they’ve seen someone turn their life around that actually stuck. You may want to steal their secrets.
1. Reddit is usually a distraction, but it helped pbwarren2001 to focus.
Last year in school I was making really, really shit grades. Wouldn’t have passed if not for the mercy of my teachers. I posted on Reddit about my aversion to work and the intense sense of dread I get just knowing I have to do something for school. Some redditors suggested I might have ADHD.
I got prescribed Vyvanse almost immediately after going to the doctors and I am now in my junior year of high school doing great. Last year’s GPA was a 2.6. This year’s is a 4.2.
2. FrostedChunks saw the value of a good night’s sleep.
A guy I know constantly looked so tired and napped all the time during the day. He would nap so hard that you would have to shake him to wake him up, and he could fall asleep anywhere super fast. I asked him about it and he told me he felt tired all the time because he couldn’t sleep at night, he figured he just had insomnia or something but refused to go to a doctor about it. One day he had a legit mental breakdown after a few drinks, we basically had to babysit him all night and I’m convinced it was because of his constantly exhausted state.
Not long after that incident, he went to the doctor about his sleep and it turns out he had been living with [severe] sleep apnea for years. The doctor told him he was basically on the verge of a heart attack or stroke because of it. Now he sleeps with a special mask at night and he has completely changed for the better. He visibly has way more energy and his performance in school went through the roof.
3. llamaspirit‘s friend’s LSD trip led them on a better path. Seriously.
Friend had an intense LSD trip where he said he learned to take accountability for everything he created in his life. He got a job, found a grant for college, got his own place, started his own company in programming.
4. SaddestClown spoke about the value of a good education.
Worked with a guy at AutoZone that had two set of kids and two sets of child support payments. He worked 40 hours with us and then 30-40 at a grocery store just killing himself to survive. Turns out that he was like 9 hours away from a degree he had begun a decade earlier and he just randomly mentioned it to a coworker while they were stocking things. The managers at both stores knew his situation and worked his schedule together to get him the hours he needed. They started a tuition fund that anyone could donate to and both sat him down to say he needed to finish his school. The school put together a pre-req class for him, which he made an A in, and off he went one class at a time. One year later he walked the stage with a marketing degree and turned his whole life around at 41 or 42.
5. whistledick‘s powerful story is only one sentence long.
My brother picked up the phone and called me instead of ending his life.
6. Willbo saw a friend turn a traumatic event into a life-changing turning point.
I had a friend that had an addictive personality. He was incredibly smart but liked to party too much. During junior year of high school he got in a car accident, broke some bones, and got addicted to the pills he was prescribed. He spiraled downwards after that and barely made it out of high school. Most people lost contact with him and thought he would just be another lowlife.
A few years after high school one of our mutual friends committed suicide and he took it very harshly, but it was enough to change his attitude. He took up an interest in investments and decided to move away from his burnout friends to attend a college. He graduated in less than 4 years and ended up working for a reputable bank earning six figures, and now he’s always posting his luxurious vacations on facebook, it was a crazy turn around for him.
7. Wizard_of_Ozymandias helped someone get out of debt. Do us next, please?
About 10 years ago, a guy walked in to my credit union, sat down at my desk and said, “I need help.”
He sure did. Dude had thousands and thousands of dollars in high interest, unsecured debt. This debt was costing him over a thousand dollars a month in payments. He and I got to work. We consolidated, we refinanced, and we had a fun little credit card execution ceremony.
All said and done, we saved him about $500 a month in payments. We put together a plan to use half the savings to continue putting toward the debt for a snowball effect, and to save the other half in an account I would lock up for him.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, I saw him at a community event. He told me he is completely debt free (including his house), and has savings for his children to go to college. We hugged and chatted. he never did give me a secret gold coin or grant me three wishes, but I was beaming like a motherfucker, so that’s good.
8. Saell hit rock bottom before they turned it all around.
I failed my suicide attempt and it all went uphill from there. (:
9. roketmanp turned everyone’s least-favorite chore into a life-changing habit.
Not someone else, but a personal habit I picked up. I’m not sure how much this helps other people, but I just started making my bed every morning. I was pleasantly surprised at how much more productive in the mornings I became. Now making my bed is almost like hitting the “I’m not tired anymore” switch in my brain. I know it’s all mental conditioning, but I think it really works. Takes like 30 seconds once you get the hang of it.
10. BourbonInAJuiceCup has a life hack you can do right now!
Cutting out toxic friendships or people who encourage you to do things that harm you (excessive drug use/drinking/spending money/excessive gaming/tv binging)
11. slingshot451 helped someone get their life on track.
I met a girl 3 years ago at a strip club. She was strung out on drugs and had been living out of her car for several months just trying to make ends meet. She had recently lost everything including her apartment and pets, and lost custody of her son. She ended up getting an apartment 90 minutes away from her work because that’s all she could afford, but paid $200 a week in gas. Her phone was constantly blowing up with creditors calling her for delinquent debt. She drove a pickup truck with 250K miles and was paying $700 in interest per month (I found out the loan was at 26% interest) and unable to make headway on her loan. As a kid her dad had abandoned her at 16 to foster care, and she ran away and lived on the streets for 3 years. I decided to try to help her — refocus. She was mistrustful and had $40 on a throw-away Visa card to her name.
She quit drugs and quit stripping 2 months later, got a job as a server. She quit smoking (cold turkey — pure willpower). We filed for personal bankruptcy and eliminated all of the creditors. She handed over to the loan company the keys to the truck and her grandmother helped her get a sensible used car with good gas mileage but she still was making payments on it. She then got a math tutor and got her GED which she never thought that she would accomplish having dropped out of high school at 16. She enrolled in the local community college, while working at the same time, and is Dean’s List with a 3.8 GPA after 47 credits. She was selected for a national honor society and currently serves as their vice president. She applied for an international study scholarship last spring through the US State Department Scholarship and won, and studied in Ireland at the University of Limerick last May and June. She now works at a local non-profit in environmental sustainability and will finish her community college degree in the spring of 2018 with a guaranteed transfer to a top-tier four year state university to study English Literature. Her FICO credit score is now over 700 and Capital One just tripled her credit limit to $5,500 because of her strong credit history. She says she is very happy, she runs every day, has a cat named Fat Kitty, and just paid off her car. Total turnaround in life. It can be done…never give up.
12. DaLagavulin‘s classmate did what we all should have done back in 2011.
Kid I knew in high school purchased Bitcoin back around 2011. Just sold for over $20 million.
13. RVBY1997‘s tenant had one big slip-up that started a chain reaction of good.
Managed an apartment community where one insanely obese man splintered the bottom of his shower from simply standing on it. We replaced it at no charge, but the embarrassment got to him. Within a week he found a dietician and started walking around the community. Within a few months he bought a bike and started riding around the neighborhood. Within a year he dropped what seemed to be at least 100 lbs. Within 2 years he weighed less than I do now.
Casey, if you happen to see this (and I know you’re a redditor), you’re a freaking inspiration! Keep at it!
14. Things got lit once Liphar stopped smoking weed.
I have recently stopped smoking weed.
Not because I have anything against it, but I realised my personal use was unhealthy and stopping me and my partner from moving forward.
We were trying to save for a house and limiting spending on everything, except I was sending $250 every two weeks literally up in smoke.
I realised it was our house deposit I was smoking and decided to make a change, after ~7 years of habitual use it was an intimidating prospect but I decided enough was enough.
Since then I have saved every dollar I would have spent on green and all of a sudden our dream of our own house is becoming a reality.
This has already improved my quality of life dramatically and I look forward to seeing if this trend continues.
15. MidYouthCrisis96 gave up the only thing harder to quit than weed…Facebook.
I deleted Facebook and drastically changed the way I use other social media. God knows how long I spent every day just scrolling through facebook but I didn’t realise how unhappy it was making me until I stopped using it. I thought I would miss it but I haven’t for one second, and I’ve seen massive improvements in my mood, anxiety and overall happiness. It’s weirdly freeing.
16. And stu8018 may have the most simple solution of all:
Filing for divorce
This article was first published by our partners at Someecards.
