Dragons are powerful. When trained right, they have the power to soar to new heights, to dominate obstacles in their paths — and to conquer the world.

But I’m not talking just about any old dragon — I’m talking about the one in your life. The one that comes out to play when you’re stressed, over capacity, and feeling down about yourself.

And if this dragon ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.

Let me explain.

Do you ever feel like if one more thing happens, you’ll explode?

It happens to the best of us.

You start out feeling calm, but then something triggers you. And little by little, the pressure creeps up. You feel the heat in your chest, and before you know it, you’re over the top. There’s steam coming out your ears and fire flying out of your mouth. You cry. You scream. And you feel like you just can’t take it anymore.

But I have good news for you: It’s not your fault. You may just not know how to handle your dragon correctly.

We are in a society that glorifies “busy-ness.” From a young age, we were taught how to stay “busy” — how to balance school, piano, soccer, gymnastics, karate, and more.

And so we grew up to always want to stay “busy,” and throw ourselves into our work and other “things.” But somewhere along the way, we lost sight of what our priorities should be. We forgot to focus on our relationship with God, our personal well-being, and our relationships with our families. And so we kept feeding the dragon — which now has impeccably awful manners.

Are you ready to learn how to train your dragon?

Here are 5 simple things you can do to live a life that you design, rather than one that “life” designs for you.

1. Wake up early and watch the sun rise. This is such a perfect quiet time to meditate, journal, practice gratitude, and really get a pulse on where your heart is. Then, you can start psyching yourself up for an awesome day.
2. Start a bullet journal. This isn’t a new idea, but it has certainly been a trend in the last few years. Pinterest has some particularly cool page ideas, but the main thing here is to express yourself. Plan your goals. What do you want to get better at? This is your one stop shop to really figure out how you are spending your time, what you want to do instead of what you are doing, and what direction your life is going in.
3. Take a walk. This is something super simple that you can do instead of coming home and watching TV after work. Put some ear-buds in and some good music, or even make it learning time! Use your walk time to learn a new skill that will empower you and help you hit your goals even faster. It’s also a really cool time to pray and meditate.
4. Learn to be alone, but not lonely. If you don’t like being alone, do you really like yourself? This is prime time to dig into what makes you, you. And if you don’t like being alone with your thoughts, is there something in your life or self image that needs to change? Learn what you like, what you don’t like, and what gifts you have to offer the world! Heck, take an awesome bubble bath too.
5. Be grateful. If things are seeming like they are leading to a downward spiral, it could be that you are not focusing enough time on celebrating your wins and being grateful for what is going right. You are a human being, and nothing is ever going to be completely perfect. But if you are celebrating how you are progressing towards your goals, or the things that are really good in your life… suddenly you start to feel so much better than you did before. Write down 10-20 things you are grateful for before you go to bed, and see how you feel the next morning.