Are you ready to make changes in your life that last more than a few days or weeks?
You may have already tried to make changes in your life, but found that they don't last. In this article, I'll offer you some help on how you can make the changes you want in your life, and more importantly, what it takes to make them last.
Many people try to make changes in their lives, but then get frustrated when those changes don't last. They can then start to think about giving up trying to make a change, and end up settling for less than they want.
If this sounds like you, then don't worry, you've come to the right place!
Many of us want to make changes in our lives. These changes can sometimes be small, other times they can be something that changes your life significantly. Making changes can often seem difficult, or you may feel that it's too late to make a change. But the good news is that, not only is it never too late to make changes for the better, but once you have a process in place, making changes can feel a lot easier, and the change can be longer lasting.
If you've been finding it difficult to make lasting changes, the first thing you need to do is to understand what's important to you.
Ask yourself questions such as:
- "What do I love doing?"
- "What am I really good at?"
- "How do I spend my time?"
- "What do I enjoy talking about to other people?"
- "What do I think about the most?"
- "What do I spend my money on?"
Asking yourself questions like these can help you to identify what's really important to you.
Once you understand what's really important to you, you can start looking at what choices you need to make, and what actions you can take, that will help you to get where you want to be in your life.
Maybe you want to start a new career, lose some weight, stop smoking, or learn a musical instrument or new language. Whatever the change you want, it's important to understand why you want to make the change if you want to be successful and make the change last.
Your level of readiness to make a change will determine how successful you are, and how long it will take. Once you make the decision to change, and have identified what you need to do to make the changes, you must practice those new actions and behaviours one day at a time until they become a habit. Making them a habit will ensure that your changes become long lasting.
Sometimes, just embracing the concept of change can be a big thing, and many people can struggle with the idea that they can change. Why could this be? For some people, it could be a sense of fear of what will happen when they change, or they may fear failure if they think they won't be able to change. Some people may put off change because they don't think they have the time or resources to make the change. What puts people off changing may not be the same for each person. Everyone reacts differently to change, whether this is a conscious or unconscious response.
To help you start to make lasting changes in your life, you may need to let go of certain assumptions or ways of doing things. Don't be afraid to change the way you look at things, being open-minded will help make room for new ideas.
If you're normally a closed-minded type of person, work on this one day at a time until you feel comfortable with being open-minded. If you find it difficult to work on something new for a long time, break the time you spend on it into smaller chunks. If this still seems difficult for you at the start, just find one thing that you can do to get you started. Once you've started, you'll likely find that the time you spend on the actions you need to take will increase. You'll also find yourself, not only getting more comfortable with the actions that you need to do, but also becoming inspired to take those actions.
To make any change, you need to start wherever you are and stretch a bit more each time.
If you're struggling to work out where you are, I have another post on where to start when making a change, over here: Be You, Be Exceptional: Making Changes - Start With A Baseline
If you find yourself not taking the necessary actions to change, or start to experience resistance to the change, try to identify the cause or circumstances at the time, such as who you were with, where you were, or your emotional state.
Don't worry or feel guilty about set-backs, these are a normal part of change. The key is to get up and get back on the path. You may find yourself going backwards and forwards a few times, because making a lasting change can be difficult, and your level of readiness to change will determine how successful you are, and how much time it will take.
To make any real and lasting change, you need to be ready, able and willing to make that change happen.
When you're trying to make a change in your life you can sometimes feel like you've hit a brick wall. If you find yourself getting frustrated with making a change, this quote from Billy Cox may help spur you on:
"Life will only change when you become more committed to your dreams than you are to your comfort zone"
Wrapping it up!
Making changes last in the long-term is entirely possible, even if you currently feel like you're struggling to make a desired change last.
The first step to making a change is understanding what's important to you. This will help you to make sure that you're committed to making the change.
Another important thing to remember when making any change, is that change can sometimes take a long time to achieve, particularly if you're looking to make a big change. So, being patient and persistent can be critical, especially when you start hitting the inevitable challenges that you will face when trying to make changes in your life.
If you're ready to make changes, take the required action, be persistent and patient, then you're well on your way to making the sort of lasting changes in your life that you've only been able to dream about up until now.
If you haven't yet determined what's truly important to you, then I can highly recommend this FREE Values Determination exercise by Dr John Demartini. This exercise has made a significant difference in my life by helping me to determine what my highest values are. By knowing my highest values, I'm able to ensure that my decisions and actions are more in line with what is truly important to me. This helps me to identify what changes are important and necessary, and gives me the inspiration and discipline to follow through with those changes.
Try Dr John Demartini's FREE Values Determination exercise here:
https://drdemartini.com/values/?tk=8714
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