There’s just no getting around it.

It’s a really humbling experience to look around at your life and realize that you aren’t when you want to be.

As children, all of us have pretty serious and powerful ambitions for our future lives. No one wants to be a dissatisfied store clerk. They want to be an explorer like Indiana Jones. They want to be an astronaut. Or they want to be the scientist who revolutionizes a new cure for a terrible affliction.

Somewhere down the line, though, it’s easy to get turned around and lose track of our dreams. Maybe your job isn’t quite what you’d like it to be. Or maybe it’s some other area of your life that seems to be letting you down. Well, there are things you can do to set the situation right.

Here are some tips that might help when you find yourself in a life position that you don’t much care for.

Consider a change of location.

Addiction and lifestyle experts often agree. A change of environment can be essential in helping people to move past self-destructive behavior patterns and towards a brighter future.

Humans are naturally creatures of habit. When we get into a particular behavioral routine, we tend to stick with it. Whether it’s good, or whether it’s bad.

Our home environments, the people we surround ourselves with on a social basis, and even the neighborhood itself? All can act as strong anchors and triggers for lifestyles and behaviors that do not benefit us.

These days, it’s possible to get a fast sale on a home, and to move on to greener pastures pretty quickly and easily. If you really feel like you need a fresh start in life, this might be perfect for you.

Realize that if you want a different life, you need to develop different habits and approaches to things.

One of the many quotes attributed to Albert Einstein goes “the definition of insanity is performing the same action again and again and expecting different results.”

Whether or not Einstein actually said that, it’s difficult to deny the truth of this simple statement.

Enormous, grandiose, one-off actions can sometimes completely transform your life forever, for better or for worse. More often, though, it will be the habits and routines that you act out every single day that will have the most striking impact.

If you want a different life, you need to be willing to let go of your past habits and behaviors. Find something new to take their place.

Get clear on your goals and be specific — then scare yourself with a nightmare scenario for failure to act.

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there.”

In life the odds are not much in your favor of achieving something meaningful if you don’t fix your sights on a worthwhile goal and strive towards it with all your might.

If you feel like you need to turn your life around, the first thing you should do is to get clear on your goals and be specific. The next thing you should do? Envision the worst-case nightmare-scenario if you failed to improve your life along those dimensions.

With a positive goal to guide you into the future and a nightmare vision to scare you away from the wrong path, you will be well on your way to achieving great things.