Making change stay

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on.”
— Robert Frost

Improvement and change occur when you do things repeatedly and consistently. Stopping and starting all the time will kill any of the momentum you need to succeed. Find ways to keep yourself on track and motivated. It is easy to create reasons not to stick to your goals. We get sick, we get tired, we have to travel, we get discouraged, we are stressed.

Here are some tricks to staying motivated and keeping change consistent in your life:
• Be reasonable with your goals by not taking on too much too quickly.
• Write your goals down in your calendar and make them as big a priority as every other appointment you have.
• Find support near by — a friend, a spouse, even a virtual computer buddy to keep you on track.
• Keep things fun — when it’s fun, it’s that much easier to do.
• Keep a journal so you can see your progress.

Create Yourselfl Daily

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.”
— George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

We start early in life saying certain things about ourselves, such as? I’m a shy person, or I’m intelligent, or I’m stupid, or I’m clumsy, or I’m slow, etc. At this point in our life, we can begin to understand the power of words and of the mind. We can come to the realization that all of these statements were creating self-fulfilling prophecies.

We have the power to be whoever we choose to be and however we choose to be. If you have instilled in your life that you are patient, then you have affirmed yourself into being that way. Conversely, if you’ve been saying repeatedly for decades, “I’m impatient”, that’s where you will find yourself now. But you can change all that on a daily basis starting today.

Each morning when we wake up, we have a new day ahead of us to be whatever we choose and act however we want. We can create ourselves daily. Consciously choose to let go of old resentments, grudges, habits, and fear, and fill the void with all positive and loving ways of being and growing. The power is in your words and in your mind.

It just keeps on changing

“In times of change, the learners will inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
— Eric Hoffer

This Super Law tells us that energy is always moving, transmuting and changing. It takes one form, then another, but it never stands still. Everything we see, hear, taste, touch or smell is in a constant state of change. In fact, this Super Law tells us that change is all there is.

People sometimes say, “Let’s wait until the dust settles after all this change before we do anything” or, “I just want this change to hurry up and be over so I can get back to normal!” They don’t understand that change itself is what’s normal!

Every cell in your body is replaced in less than a year. You aren’t even the same physical person you were a year ago. You can go back to your old house or your old town, but it won’t be the same, you won’t be the same and your relationship with it won’t be the same as it was. In fact, the whole world as we know it is gone the moment we know it!

What must you do to learn to embrace and leverage change? What are you hanging on to in your life and/or your business that no longer serves you?

Buddy up for permanent, positive results

I can do it by myself. Have you ever thought this or said this? I know I have. I grew up saying that. Call it independence, or stuborness, or maybe it’s just human nature. And where sometimes I still think it was better for me to do things on my own, in my own way, I have to admit that many, many times, I would have accomplished my goals easier, faster, and in a more pleasant way if I had found a “buddy” to join me on the journey.

Think about it. Have you ever taken a long road trip? I once did a marathon drive to Montreal for a New Year’s eve party with a friend of mine. I don’t think we would have made it back if there weren’t two of us to take driving shifts and keep the other awake during the “off shift”.

What about other types of tasks, like painting your house, or studying for an exam? They would go faster and probably be easier with someone else, right?

But what about some bigger goals for change in our life? Do we reach out and buddy-up to accomplish those? Unfortunately not. There was a behavioral study done regarding losing weight. They discovered that people who had some sort of partner lost twice as many pounds as those who tried to go it alone.

So find a buddy that can understand what you are wanting to accomplish and who is good at encouraging each other. If you have a spouse or friend who can fill the role, that’s great. If not, there are many other possibilities: personal coaches, support groups, even meeting people online that are going through the same situation is a great way to get support no matter where you are.

Repeating patterns

“We will have to steer clear of the habitual patterns and behaviours that offer us no rewards — the thoughts, habits, excuses, and behaviours that keep us from living our best lives.”
— Debbie Ford, The Best Year of Your Life

Do you find that you keep having the same problems crop up in your life? Some say that they keep getting in the same bad relationships, just with different people. For others, they always find the lousy jobs. Do you keep gaining weight no matter what you do. It can even be found in patterns of illness that keep arising.

Life sends us teachers in all different forms. And life will keep sending the same teachers until we learn the lesson that was attached to the challenge. If you find yourself in a loop cycle, shift your perspective so that you can see the lessons in the situation. Then you may be freed from the same repeating patterns that have challenged you in the past and you will be ready to face new, evolutionary challenges appropriate for your current stage in life.

Icing on the cake

“The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.”
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1869 - 1959)

When you have a deep, resonating belief in something—good or bad—you are putting your energy into creating exactly what you believe in. As an example, if you believe you are not going to be successful in life—I mean deep down you do not have faith in yourself—this is the cake that you are baking. You could add whatever type of tasty icing you want on that cake—such as a great, new, expensive outfit, but you are just covering up the cake. When you bite down into it, you will taste the truth of your beliefs.

When you are wanting to create change in your life, you have to start right in the heart of it all. You can lose weight, but if you don’t like what’s inside, you will still not be happy with yourself. You can have a new house, new job, new relationship, but if these are just the icings on your cake, it will not change your world the way you are hoping for it to change.

Start looking at the beliefs that resonate in you. Look to see what type of emotions you have about yourself. Are you loving yourself? Do you believe that you deserve abundance? Change the belief and you will also start to change your life.

Going on vacation to Someday Isle (I’ll)

I just listened to a great workshop with Brian Tracy and he was talking about setting goals. We all have goals whether or not we formalize them by writing them down or proclaiming them on New Year’s day. The majority of people even want the same things — to be healthy, happy, rich, thin, attractive to the opposite sex, etc.

Often there is a certain excitement about getting all the things we want in life to begin with, but then something happens. As Brian said, “We decide to go on vacation to “Someday Isle (I’ll)”.

Someday I’ll change my eating habits and be healthier. Someday I’ll change my attitude and be happier every day. Someday I’ll exercise so I can be thinner. Someday I’ll make an effort to improve my daily appearance so that I can attract a partner for a romantic relationship.

We all like to go on vacation. But eventually if we want to truly live our life to its fullest potential, we come back home to reality and take action. Someday passes with time whether or not we take action. So start now and create the life you keep talking about.

Repeat Cycle

“Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.” — Cherie Carter-Scott

As I discussed during my interview today on the Inspired Coach radio show with Sue London, change is rarely easy, and you need to have patience with yourself as you work your way through the steps. And what’s interesting is that you will continue to have certain lessons given to you, over and over, until you do make the necessary changes in your life to show that you have figured it out.

Take for example someone who really doesn’t like getting stuck in the traffic, chances are they need a little work in the area of patience. And therefore, chances are, life will probably throw them a few more traffic jams than someone else who has no issue with patience. This is not because the universe is cruel and unjust. You will just react to the traffic more than someone who has no issues with it. And remember, a lesson will be repeated again and again until it has been learned. So find a little patience and you can move on to the next lesson.

What do you want to do with it?

“The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.”
— John F. Kennedy, (1917 - 1963)

Take control of your life by finding exactly what you are passionate about and living it in excellence right this very moment. When we allow ourselves to live each day to its fullest, our appreciation and gratitude for life increases.

Find the joy in the moments of life and have passion for what you do every day. This is our only opportunity to live today and express ourselves to our fullest potential.

Don’t keep waiting, wondering, and wishing. Your life is in your hands. What do you want to do with it?

Change is natural

“As it turns out, now is the moment you’ve been waiting for.”
— Lucinda Williams

When you think about change, do you somehow feel that if you admit to needing change in your life, it would also be admitting that you were somehow not good the way you are? Or perhaps that the decisions you have made in the past weren’t the best ones for yourself? Or what about thinking that “I’m not good enough”?

What if all those thoughts were coming from the ego as a way to stop you from moving toward change and growth. Perhaps the survival instinct of the ego is so strong, it would prefer that you remain exactly the way you are, even if that means not allowing happiness, joy, health, and abundance into your life.

We have to find this “play” button in our minds that allows these types of messages to control our progress. Change is natural. Everything natural in the world changes every day. So why would we be any different? Failure is just a label of the ego. The real word would be feedback so that we can learn and improve and grow.

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