Truth. Intellectually we understand that we are one decision away from changing our life. However, emotionally, that’s a whole other story.
We’re not the greatest at taking in this kind of information and then turning it into action. We tend to make a lot of excuses. It helps to justify why we’re not doing something. For some reason, we feel we need to be superhuman with rock solid will power if we want to make any real changes in our life.
To site a few examples; Why do we treat and feed our bodies like they were toxic dumping grounds and then hope for super energy all day long? Why do we fall into the same patterns that sabotage our efforts to find joy in our lives? Why do we work in roles that make us miserable? Why do we feed into negativity causing us undue stress and anxiety? We must know that all of these things are toxic. Don’t we?
To change the way we live, is to make other choices. It takes clicking a switch in our brain that doesn’t have us repeating the same destructive habits and patterns. But, how do we do this? How do we pivot?
One person feels they have the answer. Mel Robbins, a motivational speaker turned tv show host helps people lead happier lives. She became known when she discovered that by counting: 5-4-3-2-1 and then taking action, it worked.
What’s her reasoning behind this? It doesn’t give us time to ‘think.’ It doesn’t allow us to make excuses because the idea is to count and leap. It does work IF you take action right away. You must respond after counting.
Eventually if you do this all the time, your brain will respond faster. You’ll be creating a new pattern that moves you into action.
Is it a gimmick?
The reality is that ANY tool will work IF the trigger has you taking action.
What stops us from taking action, however, is that we are so paralyzed by our own complacency, fear and anxiety that it can become a real struggle to overcome and ignore the easier way out. Why? Because doing nothing is far easier.
However, this is no way to lead your life. You deserve more. We all do.
It’s human nature to find the easiest and least amount of resistance to doing anything. However, when you start to make the decision to change one thing, you will start to change many things.
Treat it like a game. Challenge the status quo and shake things up. You probably will have to force yourself for the first little while. After that, it’ll be become easier.
Remember, you don’t have a problem if you can solve it. Almost every single problem is solvable. That’s comforting.
How do you start?
Make one decision to change something, now. It doesn’t matter what it is. Maybe you have the same evening pattern, where, after your day you go home and watch tv. You land on that couch and don’t move a muscle. How about breaking that pattern and, one day a week you do something else? Join a group, a class, exercise, meet up with a friend, start writing a book you’ve been wanting to start, work on something that could lead you into a different career direction. It doesn’t matter.
Just start.
Remember, you are one decision away from changing your life. If you want something, start to go after it. Declare what you want. Don’t, and I mean do not allow any person to derail you. You are leading your life. You are not responsible for living someone else’s.
I’m not going to kid you. It’s really tough to make changes in our lives, even when we know that it would be great for us. Fear is a powerful emotion. Fear always appears real in our mind. We ‘feel’ it in our bones. And yet I’m here to say that it’s time to make fear our friend, rather than our foe.
Have you ever watched the Seinfeld episode where the character ‘George’ decides that if everything he’s doing now isn’t working in his life, he’s going to do the opposite? Every time he made a decision, he quickly thought about it, and then did the complete opposite. It was as simple as a woman smiling at him and he would typically not reciprocate due to being terrified that he’d be rejected. He decided to approach her. They struck up a fabulous conversation which led to a date. I love that. He mustered up the courage to respond differently in his life. It paid off.
And hey, it may not pay off every time for you and yet the idea is that you’re taking action.
You’re starting to build up your confidence in a way that perhaps you hadn’t before. That’s where the real magic happens.
In the past, I would hold myself back from sending letters and/or calling people for fear that I would get a lousy response, and worse, no response at all. Then I realized, so what. If I don’t do anything then I’m absolutely not going to get a response. It’s always worth it. Always.
When you find yourself daydreaming try and capture what it is that you’re dreaming about. Write it down. Start to pull together what it is that keeps capturing your attention. This is a clue to what it is that you really want to move into. Or, what it is that you may be lacking in your current reality. Either way, pay attention.
At any time, you do have the choice to choose any direction you want to go in. As well as where you don’t want to be going.
It starts to happen when you start deciding that you’re going to move into action.
What’s stopping you? If it’s you, then go around yourself.