How do I change my life?

By dougnau on Oct 23, 2007 in Goal Setting, Lifestyle Change

How do I change my life?

What a rich question! And what a wonderful one to launch the first of my blog entries at i-grow.net.

How do I change my life? This question really is the heart and soul of what the articles throughout this website are designed to support you in answering. You notice that this website is not meant to answer this question for you, but is rather designed to empower you to find the answer to the question yourself. This is the foundation for what a coach does and is the reason that a coaching relationship is so incredibly powerful – it acknowledges that the answer you seek lies within.

This is big!

As you are reading this article, I personally want to acknowledge you for being willing to ask the question ‘How do I change my life?’. This is a HUGE question and it takes a lot of courage to make lifestyle changes when we’ve lived a certain way for so long! Action is the foundation for lifestyle change, and by simply taking the action of reading this blog entry, you are demonstrating the first steps towards changing your life.

Areas of change

How do I change my life is a very open question and the specific changes people may like to make can very enormously. People may desire to make changes in relationships, their physical health and wellness, their personal spirituality, their career, their financial situation, among a myriad of other potential areas. This blog contains a plethora of information on all of these topics (and more), and I encourage you to visit these categories for detailed dialogue on your personal area of interest. This article covers the basics for getting started.

Making a commitment

The first step in making lifestyle change is simply to make the decision that you are ready to and committed to doing something differently. Simple – eh? Well it is absolutely simple, however, undeniably challenging and the immensity of the proposition must be recognized! When you make the conscious decision that you are ready to change your life – it is an event that deserves and will be empowered by recognition. If you have made the decision to start a new career, go back to school, to make yourself available for a relationship, to retire early, to develop art, etc., commit to the decision and launch the change with a momentus event. Celebrate by engaging friends, spread the word, go out with your family, the type of event does not matter, so long as you demonstrate your decision to make change as a celebration that fits for you. This should be an actual activity in the real world (ie: thinking about it does not count). Notice what it means to ‘launch’ your change!

Once you’ve made a commitment to yourself (and potentially others), you have overcome a huge hurdle towards making the life change you desire. Too often we have ideas that never get past the very first step of making the commitment.

I’m committed, now what? What if I fail?

I love these questions – I’ve committed to something big and now I am not sure what the next step is! Well, to be certain – no one ever is 100% sure what the next step is in life. Life is not something we control, rather its a journey we participate in. The capacity to which we can allow ourselves to flow with the ongoing changes life brings to us will determine our capacity to which we will accept those changes we most want. This does not mean that we sit back on our laurels, action is certainly the foundation for lifestyle change. It does mean that life is not scripted; your actions will enable possibilities in the future, ones that you may be able to guess the outcome for, but have no way to be certain of.

When you embrace this perspective, you are ready to enter a journey without the possibility of failure – how would it be to KNOW that you will be successful?

In practical terms, there are a number of steps one can take to change their life. Each is discussed in more detail throughout this website. Here are a few important items in logical order:

Be clear on the change you’d like to make. If you are unclear, then take action to become clear
Commit to yourself verbally
Take a meaningful action to recognize the commitment
Enroll the support of friends, colleagues, coaches, family, your spiritual leaders, your social network – anyone willing to listen. Discussing the changes you are willing to make provides accountability for these changes to more than yourself
Write down your goals – this simple step is one of the most powerful techniques towards turning a thought into a reality
Invest money into your goal. Money is a form of energy and it demonstrates that we are willing to use our energy to make the goal happen. It tells us that we are really doing it!

There are many ways to change your life – many more than a short blog entry can address. Please read through the other postings to get more details on the practical and philosophical steps and concepts discussed throughout this blog post. I greatly appreciate any comments you would like to leave as well.

Be well