Has the time come for you to institute change? Our habits govern us, but new ones can transform us. One of the things I wrote about in my previous post was giving consideration to doing things differently. "Things" is a wide open notion lacking any specific direction, but it can apply to any part of your daily/weekly/monthly/yearly routine that could stand a shake-up. Change isn't all about your routine of habits either, and can include any change related to personal or working relationships.

You have endless options to choose from, and the question to ask is this: what are you willing to let go of in order to pick up something new?

I included the picture of the snowy glacier from the Grand Tetons because that's what change usually looks like to me. Change will invariably include obstacles, loose footing, hard landings, a tough climb, you know....challenges. Our best changes usually occur when the challenges are the most difficult.

I have always embraced change, but I am not always enthusiastic about it. However, I do know change always leads to a different outcome, often better ones. Our attitude matters greatly in executing change. People with good attitudes usually outperform those with bad attitudes. Enthusiasm and attitude are not the same thing, but when they are congruent you are more likely to extract the most positive good. We have to generate both of those emotions within us, and the key word is generate. Encouragement from others goes a long way, but ultimately our attitude and enthusiasm must be generated from within.

At first, that feeling of "ugh ok, here we go," races through my veins, but as time passes, the feeling of, "ahhh yes, this is going somewhere good," takes over and washes away that uncomfortable feeling of the walls closing in. Resistance evaporates into acceptance. Go through that experience enough times and you start to jump at the chance to change or experience life in a new and different way.

I have put myself through some new changes lately, and thus far they are producing better outcomes. These changes have made the expected impact, but there's also been some unexpected benefits. That's always the case isn't it? If we knew every possible outcome for any given action, what fun what that be? I believe we learn the most from the unexpected because it's an outcome we did not see coming.

Accumulated experiences add up, provide us confidence, and help us to gain momentum in life. Then we reach a point where we've extracted all there is to gain from a "thing," and must institute change in order to get to the next level. It's that constant evolution of leveraging experiences which has propelled you to this very moment in your life. Notice I said next level and not two, three or four levels ahead of your current situation. Yes, have a big dream goal in the distance, but as my college coach Woody Hunt would say, "you've gotta be able to do the little things in order to achieve the big things."

I highly encourage you to put yourself through some uncomfortable change and see where it leads you. What habits would you like to change in order to create better ones? Start simple if you need to or go bigger if necessary. If you lack ideas, ask a close friend for suggestions. After you do this, I would love to hear from you about what you changed and how it improved your life. It's important to share your story of positive change because your encouragement may be the missing ingredient in someone else's life. Therefore, never underestimate your influence, because whether you realize it or not, you have at least one set of eyes looking up to you.

#routine #change #habits #challenge #motivation #attitude #nextlevel #goals