Change Starts Where You Are Now

Like many of you, I'm on the brink of major changes. I'm likely to be relocating around the end of the year, but where I'm going I don't know yet. It's even possible that the options I see before me aren't the only ones I'll be guided to explore and consider.

When I want to make a major change in myself or my life, my tendency initially is to wait for someone else to get it started or to point me in a direction or provide an answer. But the truth is that any time I've successfully made a major change in myself it happened because I made a decision to change. And it didn't begin to happen until I made that decision.

The steps to real, lasting change work in a specific way and in a specific order for me every time. It may be that this sequence is how it works for you as well.

First, after all the waiting, wishing, hoping, and excuses that may arise, I get frustrated with lack of progress. I am finished with "getting ready." At that point I Decide that I will find a way to make the change I am recognizing it is time to make. Don't underestimate the power of a genuine decision. Once you've really made that decision the universe begins to act on it immediately to move you toward it.

Next I Choose the method I'll use to support me in making the change. It can take some time and research to find the right method for me. Once I chose a successful method because I had seen a friend succeed with it who had struggled for years with a particular issue I was facing. I had seen her try method after method that was only successful for her temporarily. This one produced lasting results. I was convinced enough to try that and it worked.

After deciding to begin and choosing a method, I begin to do the recommended Practices. And practices is exactly what they are, no matter what the desired outcome may be. My journey to a desired outcome requires time, commitment, effort, and changing my daily patterns of behavior. Results come about gradually, but if I continue the practices they come steadily. Sometimes I do the practices imperfectly. Discouragement, set-backs, or cheating on the practice times may occur. These obstacles can slow down progress, but I found that if I returned to the practices, progress began again. The only thing that really de-rails practice for any of us is not doing it.

Support was essential for me to keep up my practice and to return to it when I had been discouraged or experienced some other kind of set-back. Others could encourage me, help me refocus my attention on the desired outcome, and give me suggestions to help me get myself back on track. Although no one else could do the actual work for me, feeling that I wasn't alone on the journey made the difference between giving up and continuing on. I have benefitted from coaches, therapists, practitioners, great friends and colleagues, inspirational reading and personal growth workshops. These help me re-ignite my passion and inspiration and remember the vision that started me on the journey. I see myself more clearly with their help and develop greater skills to meet the challenges at hand.

There are two things I have been teaching about a lot this past year that go hand in hand together as the last steps in the transformation process for me: Persistence and Repetition.

These are never issues for tiny children. They know what they want and are able to ask for it. They easily persist past the first "No" they hear. They keep their attention repeatedly on what they want to learn, do, or have. These are inborn talents that most of us are conditioned out of early. But they are there inside us waiting to be used.

Repetition is magic because it changes the physical geography of the brain. What is repeated becomes easier and we become more skilled at it, whether it's a behavior or a way of thinking about things.

Persistence is a particular flavor of repetition. It is a consistent, regular action taken repeatedly over a period of time until the desired result is produced.

Usually to make a major change requires mental effort to overcome all the thinking that has built up over the course of our lifetime that tells us something is improbable, unlikely, irresponsible, impossible, naive...Often the mental obstacles are more difficult to put aside than the ones that show up in form.

The change that I'm currently working with is demanding that I grow in new ways again. This is very good news because I will have more to bring to everything that I do as a result. New insights, new practices, new inspiration – these are life giving. The results are worth the effort and energy required to bring myself into consistent alignment with them and live from this new paradigm.

How about you? Is it time for a change? Try this: Decide now is the time. Choose the best method you can find that you trust and feel aligned with. Do the recommended Practices faithfully. Get Support. Repeat the Practices and Receive Support Persistently and Repeatedly until the change is your new way of living.

The point of power is always NOW. What are you waiting for?