They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions…
THE STORY
…And while “they” are in most cases totally clueless, and “they” should mind their own damn business, I’d have to say that I do agree with this particular wisdom of the “they”. Making life changes is hard. All of us, at one time or another, have had truly good intentions to change something, do something, say something, finish something…whatever your something of choice might be. And while we fully intended to change, do, say, finish said thing, life got in the way. Or we didn’t feel like it. Or we were too tired. Or it was too hard. We intended to get it done, but we didn’t have the mojo for the follow through.
Lacking the follow through isn’t necessarily a character flaw so much as it’s human nature. We’re primed and conditioned from the beginning to maintain the status quo. To not rock the boat. To not be too much. To not dream too big. And so, sometimes, even if we truly want to make a change that will be good for us, the desire to simply maintain and not upset the expected order of things is bigger than our yearning for what our heart knows that we need.
So the first step to making life changes is, and this may sound trite, but it really is the key piece…You have to want it enough. The pain of staying where you are has got to be greater than the pain of moving forward. Your internal “enough” switch has to be flipped.
- You’re only going to change if you really & truly want to. And you have to be clear on your “why”. It has to matter to you on a gut level, like if you don’t do it you just might implode.
- Baby steps my friends, baby steps. If you bite off more than you can chew you’re gonna choke. Break it down into manageable chunks. Go for the small wins. Build your confidence. Then do it all again the next day.
- Do not share the change(s) you’re working on with people who won’t be supportive. The sad reality is that sometimes people (often the people you love who should be your biggest supporters) don’t want you to change. It benefits them if you stay as you are. Don’t set yourself up for failure by sharing your desire for change with people who don’t deserve your awesomeness.
- Never ever forget that a mistake is nothing more than a learning experience. Perfect is a myth. We learn just as much, if not more, from what doesn’t work as opposed to what does.
- Focus on the right now. “What if’s” serve no purpose and do nothing but drain your energy & kill your mojo.
The reality is that change is never easy. Meaningful change takes work. Sometimes that work involves digging deep & figuring out exactly what it is we need, how we want our lives to look and who we want to be moving forward. We have to make ourselves the priority. We have to want it enough to do the hard things.
THE LINK UPS
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