Creating Lasting Changes

I bet you’ve wanted things to change at some point in your life. Maybe it was your weight, your job, how your relationship was going. Did you find it just happened like magic? When you look back do you realize it was never about getting a change but rather making a change happen? You see, I’ve worked in fitness and personal development for 18 years and have met a lot of people who want changes to come into their life. But the question I always ask is if they are willing to make a change.

We all have extraordinary abilities inside of us. Significant, lasting change is directly related to you and comes from two places:

1. Your values for the new outcomes, not just getting away from present circumstance (though it might be a short-term motivator), and
2. Belief that you are empowered to positively affect your life and that you deserve it.

As part of my Mindset Transformation Coaching^® program one of the things I help people to uncover is their Thought and Emotion Value Scale (TEVS) for elements they believe to be important in their life. This activity requires a real, honest look at what you value, not just what you want. For example, I’d like to win the Lottery, who wouldn’t? It is obviously not that important, however, because I don’t actually play the Lottery except on random occasions. How many times have you tried to make a change to your habits with the type of commitment with which I play the Lottery? Probably more times than you realized until just now. Guess what, that’s okay. You see, not everything is high value at every moment. Learning how to focus on what you value most, not what you think you should value most is what gets results. The other stuff is just clutter. Set it aside until you are really focused on making a genuine life shift in that area.

In addition to having value for a change you want to make you must also believe that you can do it, and that you deserve the new positive outcome. During my seminar and course about Overcoming Obstacles and Limiting Beliefs I talk about just that. The very first step of the 4 Keys of Significant Change is letting go of limiting beliefs. I’ve found that the hardest part for many people is recognizing (and owning) that you have unconscious voices that hold you back. These voices are the ones that say things like “I probably won’t get the job anyway,” “I can never keep the weight off,” “I always attract unhealthy relationships,” “I’m not as good as the other people in my field.”

Lasting change requires personal effort and a good modeling strategy, and requires focus on the Value for the new, positive outcomes you want, and a Habit of Positive Belief that says “I can and I’m worth it.” Every experience you have is feedback on the continuum of reaching your goals. Every experience tells you to do more of the same or to modify your strategy. You are totally capable of making any changes you want, now, when you are willing to get uncomfortable and be flexible with your methods and resources.