LIFE IS ALL ABOUT CHANGE

Everyday life is all about change. We eat to change our feelings from “being hungry” to “being full”. We have thermostats in our houses to change our comfort level from being “too cool” or “too warm”.   Business enterprise is built on the very foundation of change. The goal of every restaurant, hardware store or attorney’s office is built on the desire to create a satisfying change toward better personal feelings.

Every business advertisement attempts to convince us we are missing out on feeling better or feeling more fulfilled if we don’t use the services or products of that business.

For most of us, we want our life to be more satisfying, more enriching, and more fun. We want better relationships, more security, and better health. “When we want “more and better”, to get it requires change on our part.”  

The most difficult and important changes we must make to get the “better things of life” are behavior changes. In virtually every walk of life good relationships are at the root of our experiencing satisfying and successful lives. Most often this means changing behaviors for the better. Widely admired business coach, Marshall Goldsmith, Ph.D. wrote a book, “What Got you Here Won’t Get You There!” all about the need to keep improving and changing behaviors to advance our careers and life.

Positive, permanent behavior change is terribly difficult. There is a significant gap between planning and executing a successful strategy for behavior change. Here is a short list of some of our beliefs that hinder successful behavior change:

• Thinking because I understand the benefits of change, I’ll take action to change
• Thinking I have the will power and self-control to make the change without help
• Even if I don’t change I’m “better than the other guy”
• Believing my initial commitment and enthusiasm won’t diminish
• Believing change, when it happens, will be permanent and won’t need reinforcing
• Believing life’s distractions won’t derail my efforts

If you sit down and give more thought to this, you probably can come up with more obstacles to change, don’t you think?

Let’s consider suggestions that have helped thousands of people to move forward in their efforts for significant behavior change:

• Be realistic. Select only one or two behaviors for improvement at a time.
• Keep the goals for improvement in front of you every single day.
• Responses that help transform behaviors quickly include kindness, sincere apologies, forgiveness of others and yourself, honesty, trustworthiness and being non-judgmental.
• Work with a good coach to help you improve in your most critical behavior needs. The more important the behavior change, the greater the need for support and competent feedback.

When you make important, needed changes in behavior, you are at the same time making important strides in your self-awareness. If you couple these changes with setting effective goals, you will be surprised at how quickly you can move toward accomplishing real growth and success in your life.