Do you promise yourself to make changes in your day-to-day life but do nothing about it, and don’t even try?
Do you try to make changes, but fail?
When confronting obstacles, do you give up and quit easily?
These experiences are quite common, and they often create feelings of frustration, and sometimes, even anger. Why does this happen, and what you can you do about it?
Are You too Busy to Make times for Changes?
We are all busy all the time with work, studies, children, family matters, and various tasks and obligations.
These activities take a lot of our time and energy, and often, because we are so busy, we forget our promises and plans.
We promise ourselves to make changes in our lives, but our obligations and daily activities do not leave time for them.
You need to ask yourself, whether all your daily tasks and obligations are important.
You need to ask yourself, which obligations and activities you can dispense with, which ones you can do differently, so that can save time and energy for other matters.
Do you, sometimes, feel as if you are on a merry-go-around, and cannot get down? Do you do everything the same way every day, going through the same daily routine from the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep?
You need to get off this merry-go-around, and starting living your life. This might seem impossible, but you can do so by taking small steps.
Do One Thing at a Time
Start doing one small thing differently, for example:
- Get up ten minutes earlier in the morning.
- If you usually skip breakfast, find the time to eat in the morning.
- Show more interest in the people who work with you.
- If you want to read a certain book, and never have the time, start by reading just 3-4 pages a day.
- Do you often promise yourself to clean and rearrange your drawers but never have the time for this? Now is the right time. Clean and rearrange the contents of just one drawer.
- Do you often think of taking on the phone with a friend, with whom you have not spoken for a long time? Just pick the phone now, and call him or her, before you start looking for excuses why not to do so right now.
Take Small Steps to Create Change
To make changes, you have to take action. Otherwise, you will never make the changes you want.
As you see from the examples, you do not need to take big steps. Small steps are enough, because they are easier, and hardly evoke any inner resistance.
When you succeed with small matters, you gain the confidence and motivation to do bigger things.
There is something important that you should know. Often, when we start something new, or when we want to make some changes in our life, we often encounter various obstacles.
These obstacles are not necessarily new. They have been there all the time, but we were not aware of them.
Now, that we want to make changes in our life, we are more than ever aware of them, and we might believe that are there just to annoy us and stand in our way, which is not true.
Another obstacle we might encounter is other people’s opposition and disapproval. People do not like changes, and they therefore, instinctively oppose and disapprove change.
For this reason, it is advisable not to talk about the changes we are making in our life. This can save us a lot of confrontations and opposition.
What can you do to follow through with your decision to make changes in your life?
As I said earlier, start with just one simple, small project. This will pose less inner and outer resistance, and would be easier to follow through.
Then, proceed to another one that requires more effort or change. Gradually, you will have more inner strength, confidence and motivation, and experience less inner and resistance from other people.
To make it easier, a little stronger willpower and self-discipline would be most helpful. You can find information and simple exercises to develop these skills in my article, Willpower and Self-Discipline Guidance and Exercises.
If you need a little more motivation, the following articles might help:
10 Motivational Tips to Inspire You to Become Successful
What Is Motivation and How to Strengthen It
For increasing your inner strength and ability to make resolutions and follow them, I highly recommend reading Build Up Strong Willpower and self Discipline.
