Meaning trap
sort out
get your life together
To clarify or improve your own feelings, thoughts, or situation, especially when you feel confused, upset, or need to make important changes in your life.
Don't mix these meanings
Same phrase, different job.
To clarify or improve your own feelings, thoughts, or situation, especially when you feel confused, upset, or need to make important changes in your life.
'sort out' also has the more basic meaning 'organise'; this is the advanced sense.
Hear it in context
Notice where the phrase sounds natural.
After the breakup, he took some time off work to sort himself out.
Many young people take a gap year to travel or work abroad as a way to sort themselves out before starting university.
Fix the pattern
One small grammar move makes it sound right.
Not: I need to sort out myself.
Say: I need to sort myself out.
With a reflexive pronoun, it goes in the middle: 'sort myself out'.
Which sounds natural?
Tap the one a native speaker would say.
'Sort out' is the everyday way to talk about getting your life or feelings in order; the formal version is clinical.
Build natural chunks
Words that usually travel with it.
sort out + self/life
- myself
- my head
- my life
- things
Don't confuse it
Related
Other meanings and phrases to compare.
- sort out (organise) — 'sort out' also has the more basic meaning 'organise'; this is the advanced sense.