In some way or another, we all want to change. We want to see growth in our lives and continue to improve. I talk a lot about change and the importance of continually seeking growth in your life, but the one question that people always ask is, How? Once you’ve decided that you need to change and you know what changes you need to make, how do you move forward to make those changes happen?
It is one thing to want to change, and an entirely different thing to actively pursue it. It takes patience, and you have to put the work in if you want it.
So, how do we begin to change?
The first step is not really anything you have to actually do. It is not an action you have to take. It is simply disidentifying with your thoughts and understanding that you are not your thoughts. You existed before your thoughts did, and they are nothing more than a result of your past conditioning. The person you are today, and the thoughts you have are a result of all your past experiences.
To change, you have to remove yourself from your thoughts and stop identifying with them. We don’t change because we are addicted to the person we currently are, and this is because we are addicted to our thoughts. To change who you are, you must first change your thoughts about who you are.
The thoughts you have now have become habitual. The same thoughts that plague you day-in and day-out have become a habit. By default, you relive your past over and over again because 90% of your thoughts are the same thoughts you had the day before, which results in us doing the say thing every day.
No wonder you can’t change… you can’t escape the thoughts.
This means that your first step is to remove yourself from your thoughts and witness the presence behind your thoughts. Understand that you are not them.
Create distance and space between being and your thoughts.
The more you bring this practice into your life, the faster you can begin to change.
The challenge is when you go through your life; when you go to work, go to the gym, pick up the kids, etc. All of these events can trigger past conditioning, and we get stuck back in our thoughts and our routines that repeat every day.
Have awareness in these moments and create space. The more you create space in chaos, the faster you will grow.
Society has done a good job of stripping us of our being, as we are trying to “Keep up with the Kardashians.” We buy stuff that we don’t need to impress people we don’t know, and all of this plays into the conditioning of your current self. Your environment shapes the person you’ve become.
The second step to changing yourself is to change your environment.
Start putting yourself in new environments and have new experiences. Your thoughts and your conditioning is created through your environment and through your experiences, so if you want to change this, you need to start building new conditioning; one that harbors growth.
If your life is simply on repeat and you do the same thing every day, how can you expect change? You simply can’t.
As we are going into 2020, I want you to practice these two steps. Put the work in and really make a change. Let go of your past conditioning and focus on the person you are becoming.
We’ve all heard the cliche, “New Year, New You.”
This year, make it a reality.
This is the year that we make a change, and it isn’t a new diet. It is not buying new supplements, getting a new mentor, or spending money on anything. The change you are going to make is free, and only you can make it happen.
This may be the hardest thing you will ever do. Shedding your identity and forming a new one isn’t easy. It wasn’t easy for me, but I can tell you the work is worth it.
You don’t have to be shackled to the habitual path anymore. You are more than just your name, your labels, and your current identity.
Life is short. It is no secret that one day we will all die, and that day will come sooner than we would like. Do the work now so you can make the most of the time that you have. Let yourself be truly happy, and I don’t mean happiness that is temporarily brought on by some small achievement or purchase that we made. These are short-lived. I mean real happiness where your life is fulfilled.
Allow your life to be abundant so that you can find happiness and live a life worth dying for.
