Life is change. You cannot live and not change. Yet change can be difficult even painful. However, if you wish to improve, expand your horizons, and explore the distant vistas then you must push change upon yourself.
You may have heard me talk about my personal mission statement to share with everyone who would listen a life changing moment from my childhood. I did not discover this moment or its relevance to my personal mission statement until a year ago. The result of this discovery has been a year of profound change.
I have learned how to blog, build a website, and how to promote myself online. Since I am in the business of self-development, I have been reading about the subject non-stop. What I am learning I have applied to myself first. This means I am constantly attempting to stretch and reshape myself so that I might reach my own goals. I also want to help others find new depth and meaning in their lives.
All this leads to a few observations on change that I have experienced.
My first observation: Change begins on the inside long before anyone else observes the change. You can feel it happen. Recently I felt compelled to speak out about a situation at work. I would normally walk away without saying anything. To grow as a leader I needed to express my opinion even though I new I would be in conflict with my boss. I agonized over what I would say all night long. The next day I had almost decided to skip it, but because I prepared the opportunity came up quite naturally. I spoke my mind.
The results amazed me. I changed the direction on a policy. People came up to me to thank me for taking a stand. My boss apologized. I felt like I had taken a giant step closer to being the leader I wanted to be.
Now for some people speaking out may not be the issue. It might be the opposite: learning to be quiet and listen.
The change however happened on the inside first long before the change became visible on the outside.
The change happened because I have a dream. To achieve my dream I have to become, in Jim Rohn’s words, "the person I need to be to achieve the dream”. I need to change.
So my next observation: Dreams compel change. If you are without dreams, you have no need to change. Things can keep on going the way they are. Many people fall into this quiet trap of comfort.
Your life is comfortable. Why mess around with that? Why go chasing around after a dream, which you might fail to achieve? Why bother? Life is good. “I’ve got no complaints” I often hear people say.
“I don’t want to change, I am happy the way I am.” I hear that one a lot too.
Unfortunately, the physical universe is not static. Change happens, even to people who do not want to change. Wouldn’t it be better to have some practice at change? We practice to improve our gulf swing (to change it for the better). Why not practice change so you are ready when change strikes close to home.
Until right this moment as I write, I did not realize that all my life I have perused a dream. I did not do it consciously. I didn’t understand the mechanism of setting goals. Yet a goal has always inspired my vision, even when for a time I would loose sight of it.
Isn’t that interesting?
I am a dreamer. So I will always be. To dream is to demand change of yourself in order to reach for your goals. Your goals are your signposts to your dreams.
When I wake in the morning, I see a mountain. On the top of the mountain, up there above the tree line, shining from the pristine snow, my dream sparkles.
Each morning I ask, “What do I need to change today to get me one step closer to my dream?”
I never use to ask that off myself. But in this year of change, I have learned to ask the question and seek the answer.
I know no other way to live.
There is the mountain. I must find a way to reach the summit.
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