With the first day of Spring just around the corner (March 20th, 20 11) it is time to be thinking of planting flowers or a vegetable garden or maybe planning your Spring cleaning. Spring has always represented a time of Newness and change. Most people love the springtime, you remember “I love Paris in the Springtime” don’t you? It is a time of anticipation of beautiful weather and nature blooming around us that makes us love this season. But this also is a good season for personal change, why? Because people are happier and happiness will trigger self-motivation, which is what we need to complete changes that we would like to make in our life. Just think about it, when do you feel like doing something different for yourself, in the middle of Winter, when it is cold, dark and wet or when you see the changes that Mother Earth is making in the Spring, which also brings daylight savings time when we have more daylight to be in and things are blooming around us.
Along with the changes of seasons brings the thought of changes in our own life as we feel a renewing, but how is the best way to bring about these desired changes? There are a few direct simple things that you can do to implement a new change for yourself, the first is to be honest and specific about the change that you wish to accomplish. Identify what it is that you want to change, lets say that it is having better communication skills with those you work for and with. Next follow the outlined steps to setting a plan to reach this goal by doing the following;
1. Start Simple: Make a simple statement of what it is that you want to accomplish, remember the word “simple” the more complicated you make things the less likely you will make the change. “I want to improve my communication skills.”
2. Be Realistic: This goes right along with the first step, you want to have better communication skills, but lets say you are super shy, you need to take that in to consideration with what your expectation might be. Be realistic with what you can accomplish.
3. Belief: If you do not believe that you can accomplish your goal, nor have the drive too, it will not happen. You need to be able to see yourself actually doing what your set goal is for you to do.
4. Have a Strategy: How is this going to happen? Magic? No, you need to have a step-by-step plan of what you can do and are willing to do to accomplish this specific goal. Write it out, think it out, live it out!
5. Commitment: Are you committed to making this happen in your life? Only you know for sure. No one like to fail, so weighing your desire versus your commitment to following it through is serious.
6. Rewards: Give yourself rewards for the baby steps that you are taking to make positive changes in your life. If you have ever raised children you know that you cannot make effective changes without small rewards on the way to completing their goal. I remember potting training my kids and having a bag of M&Ms next to the potty to give them for rewards as they were successful each time they made it to the bathroom. Find what motivates you to continue working towards your goal and set mini-goal-steps to reward yourself as you travel along the road to successfully reaching your big goal.
Continual growth in our life is good for us. Having small or large goals keeps us moving ahead to become the person we ultimately see ourselves being. It is never too late to pick something new to challenge us to become the best that we can.
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” ~Les Brown
3/13/13
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