Change: we all want it in some areas, and yet we find it hard to translate into reality, or worse - we fear it! Kate Emmerson offers some practical tips on how to make changes that start within, and keep on going.

I know from my own personal life experience, and working with thousands of my coaching clients over the past few years, that if we start small and slowly build ourselves up, we have a much better chance at making lasting changes.

So why the “change one thing” approach? Simply wanting to make lots of changes to many areas of life and jumping straight in without a little thought is a one-way ticket to failure, guilt and disappointment due to no change happening! Most of us make the common mistake of wanting to shift too many things all at once (think here about the dratted New Years resolutions!), and we want to change it all now. We don’t even give ourselves an inch of hope, and thus set ourselves up for failure from the very start.

This leads to us feeling grossly overwhelmed, totally stressed out and beating ourselves up. So, if you want to make some significant improvements to your life, why not simply start much smaller and actually achieve the change you want for once? If you commit to exercising for just 20 minutes every day, you will probably feel much more inspired to do it, enjoy it, and thus do it regularly, and so reap the benefits. If however you start off committing to five-hour sessions in the gym every week, it is unlikely you will even make it through the first week intact.

We are far more likely to enjoy doing something in smaller, more manageable chunks, then pat ourselves on the back, feel better, and so keep on doing it some more. Unless of course you are the masochistic type that likes to punish, blame, get mad at yourself etc. If this describes you, then by all means stick with your old ways of tackling things.

I suggest that you rather opt for believing in yourself when you commit to something, by actually changing just one thing. It builds the self belief and self esteem muscles and will help you do so much more in your life. From your new place you can build up to the next level, with a much better chance for success.

The 6 easy steps to change one thing

Make a pledge you can achieve within a month

STEP 1: Contemplate all areas of your life, and decide which is the one that will have the most immediate positive impact on you right now. To begin with, pick the area of life that is causing you the most physical, emotional or mental distress.

STEP 2: Make a clear commitment pledge that reflects this change you wish to make in your life. Choose something that is achievable within one month, so that you can see the results fairly soon, thus spurring you onto the next level of change. e.g. I will drink 2 litres of water every day for 30 days

Plan it all

STEP 3: You now need to create a plan of all the ways you are going to go about your next month. Use “post-its” to brainstorm your ideas. If you have the same thing to do each day, e.g. drink 2 litres of water, you still have to plan how you are going to do that. It does not happen all on its own.

STEP 4: Keep this written pledge of your goal to change one thing with you at all times - in your diary, on your computer or in your wallet. Read it often.

 Be Persistent

STEP 5: Every day, visualize yourself actually achieving the change you want. When you get your brain to play along and think in pictures, it will really help the process.

STEP 6: Keep on track with support. Ask for support that is appropriate to your challenge and pledge. The support has to help you stick to your challenge to change one thing- when the going gets tough you have to have little things in place to help you.

Using these 6 easy steps, I guarantee that you will be able to make a significant change to your life.

About the author: Kate Emmerson is a professional coach, clutter clearer, speaker and writer. She assists you to create your life by creating space.Visit www.life-coaching.co.za to sign up for a complimentary course on “How to change one thing”.

• Add New

Comments (1)

• |2010-12-10 14:10:14 Liana Meadon  - Wow!
  Very useful article with practical tips. Thank you!
  Reply

Write comment

Name:

Email: do not notifynotify

Website:

Title:

Message:

Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.