-Step 1: Be aware
Recognizing discomfort is the first step. Without awareness of the problem, there is no problem. Change starts with discomfort or through inspiration. Both of these can generate the motivation to improve your situation.
-Step 2: Accept
The next step is to take your responsibility for a transformation, and find out «what» change you want and «why» you want it.
-Step 3: Work your goals and life projects
To clearly see your bigger goal, more ambitious, more specific and truly important to you. Only loosing weight, being healthier for example are obviously good, but not enough. Loose weight or be healthier to accomplish «what»?
This will tremendously nurture your motivation. Believe it’ s possible, this is the right mindset.
-Step 4 : Plan
When the “why” and the “what” are clear, the “when” and the “how” will naturally emerge. Answering these questions will help you plan and bring together the best tools to solve your challenge.
Break your goal of a specific change into smaller, measurable and more manageable parts. Therefore it becomes something less impressive that can be accomplished over time in several steps.
Define a specific time frame and order to achieve these successive little steps. Upon completing these steps, you’ll realize that you’ve reached the goal that you originally found overwhelming.
-Step 5: Heal your triggers and manipulators:
They are the factors preventing you from aligning your behavior with your good intentions. You need to stop the bleeding first. Your lives are often mainly determined by unconscious mechanism or habits where voluntary choices happened very little. You are often on automatic pilot mode where you do things out of habit. It takes you very little effort to keep on doing what you have always done and tremendous will power to stop and change.
By recognizing emotional and psychological patterns of reactivity (process of trigger, behavior, reward), you will learn to have a strategies ready for when you know the trigger is going to happen.When you can clearly and objectively see when and how you are triggered, you can begin to effectively deploy mental and emotional strategies to skillfully navigate those situations.
-Step 6: Act
Action is what makes the difference between fantasy and reality. If change is prepared by the above steps, it is by action that it happens.
As soon as you start to take action with these daily small steps you will build a momentum of change and the right mindset to be consistent, despite any feelings of fear or hesitation.
-Step 7: Evaluate
Take a step back and evaluate the results of your actions towards each small goals at the end of each time frames you have allocated to them. See if you need to adjust your strategy.
Remember that you may experience setbacks when working towards a goal.This is normal and you shouldn’t let it derail your progress. If you stay positive and keep working on it, you are bound to be successful.
David Tan, Osteopath DO-Physiotherapist Bsc, LifeForce Founder www.lifeforcewithyou.com
After 20 years in health care, perfecting the Art of Healing and exploring stress management, life optimization and self-improvement tools, David has founded Life Forces. A company specialized in burn out prevention, chronic stress release and optimal body and mind living. Our mission is to bring people back in touch with their optimal mind and body health. We have developed innovative and unique training programs for participants to integrate life changing tools to self manage their stress and regenerate themselves, find back their inner power and bring home these tools to enjoy a continuous regenerative routine. We teach and share how to sustain a strong and healthy life foundation so that people can pursue their life dreams and life projects.
Originally published at medium.com