Making Real Change

Our conversation the other night was geared around the when does real change actually happen. How do we actually stop one action and start another in it's place. I will give you a for instance. I am not a great house keeper in that I don't work smarter, I work harder. Being someone that likes to do other things than keep house this has become a problem over the years. When my house is clean and straight, I feel better, my stress level is lower, I feel better about spontaneous entertainment, and I eat less. That's a big plus. But I am not going to spend all my free time cleaning anymore. I'm just not. So I need to change. I need to work smarter not harder. So I need to change the crucial action. I did this once before and it was weird but I proved to myself it could be done. The principle can be applied to anything but I'm using the example here because I can explain it.

You have something you want to achieve.You figure out what steps you need to take to achieve it.You figure out what actions you need to change to help you reach that goal.Change is hard. That's normally where the rubber meets the road and where the plan falls apart. There's a pivot point in your action pattern that you can change. If you can catch that point and make that change you will be more successful. The crucial action is the point of change. In the example the lecture I heard was "turning left on 5th street." turning left on 5th street meant he went by the gym and he would go work out rather than not go work out. So all he had to do was "turn left at 5th St". Back to changing my mess maker habit. My habit is to put something down and worry about it later. My point of change will be to put it down in it's place exactly. Touch it once. Do it now. If I don't have to pick something up and put it away later then I've already cut my work load. So it doesn't leave my hand until it's where it belongs. This crucial action is my point of change.

This is no easy task. And it takes close attention but it's worth it. What do you want to try? What crucial action could you change to change something you want? How will that work? How will that feel? Believe it or not, it may feel oddly good and uncomfortable at the same time. Sometimes we need to identify the obstacles that stop us from our changes that will allow us to reach our goals. Maybe one of the main obstacles is that uncomfortable feeling of change itself.
Let's talk about it.


Share.