Step 1: Acknowledging the Challenges of Change
Change can be challenging. Change can be difficult. Change is a part of life; and each one of us has a choice: we can choose to live in our comfort zone and wait for change to happen to us, or we can initiate it.
If the answer is yes, the next question is what is stopping you? In most cases people are reluctant to change due to the fear of the unknown, the fear of failure, or some unknown consequence they have yet to experience. Each day of our life brings with it the unknown, and the possibility of "failure", or embarrassment - so wouldn't you rather be the one to choose these situations as best you can as opposed to simply letting them happen? The choice is yours, but remember, either way they will happen - whether you want them to or not. You have the choice: to be the engineer of these events, or simply to be the recipient. The only thing stopping you is you.
“People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves, they have the first secret of success.”
--Norman Vincent Peale
We often identify new priorities without acknowledging and understanding that our daily lives are already a reflection of our existing needs and desires - some good, some not so good. The consequence of not appreciating our daily routines means the effort to establish new priorities is doomed to fail. To be successful, we must first seek to understand our current priorities and identify how these will need to change in order to accommodate new priorities. Begin the process as follows:- Look at your schedule of daily activities.
- Make a list of what do you do, when do you do it, how long do they last, where do they take place and so on. Now ask yourself why you do each of these activities.
- Itemize the list in order of priority with "1" being the most important
- Looking at the least important activities AND the reasons as to why they are a priority - now decide if you can do away with any of them! The intent is to free up time in your day to incorporate new priorities. It is important to note that although the activity itself may not seem important, nor may the reason, some activities/priorities are habitual. With that said, it takes about 90 days to break a habit and 21 days to start a new one.
The degree to which you are willing to let go of your lower priorities is a reflection of many factors, including the habitual nature of the activity, the importance of the new priorities relative to the old priorities, fear of change, self esteem etc.
If you are willing to sacrifice something old for something new, you are ready to experience exciting new experiences.
Step 3: Know Where You Want to Go and Why You Want to Go There
For some, you may know or have now decided what you want, but simply do not understand how to do it. For others, you may know that you need to make a change, but aren't certain what that change should be. The point is to understand why we are truly seeking change. This in turn will assist us in understanding whether or not the change we seek is truly what we want and whether or not it is one we are likely to sustain. The reason being: those undertakings that interest us, AND that hold an intrinsic purpose will most likely be something that we will WANT to maintain and therefore will be successful at maintaining. The question is: Are you doing it for yourself or for the purpose of pleasing someone else? If it is for someone else there is a strong likelihood that you may not follow through on the commitment, whatever it may be. "If it doesn't come from within, it doesn't come. Fun helps remove the barriers that allow people to motivate themselves.”A person's purpose, or motivation, is defined by their values, but ask a person what three important values define them, and very few will be able to tell you. Determine what your own values are and you will determine if the purpose for your change is a reflection of your true self and one that you will be motivated to follow through on.
--Herman Cain
“If what you're working for really matters, you'll give it all you've got.”Once you have identified the purpose for change (one that is true to yourself) and determined how much time you have to make this change a priority, you have to determine the feasibility of it (given the time you have, when you have that time, and the actions required to fulfil your priority). For those seeking to change their lives by incorporating regular physical activity into their daily routine, the section on exercise outlines specific fitness goals as they relate to time availability and related exercise routines. By reviewing the requirements of each of the fitness goals, contained in that section, you will gain a better understanding of the reality of fulfilling your own expectations. Click here to go to the E3 site on exercise.
--Nido Qubein