Diamond Author
How can you ever change your life if you keep repeating the same mistakes? When you see that your previous way of doing things doesn't work, you know you should change your methods, but often change can be difficult.
All good things are usually difficult, and making changes is no exception. In fact, personal growth is related to your willingness to start new processes. When old methods don't work, change is needed.
We often try to make change imperative upon whether others will change. This often happens in interpersonal relationships. "I would change, if my husband would do so and so first" is just a bad excuse. You can change yourself first, and hope your positive behavior can rub off on your mate. That would be to initiate change.
Change must be started at some point, and normally never comes by itself. That is because change is good. But we don't always feel good about change. We have a comfort zone, and within that zone everything is nice and comfortable. Embarking upon a new voyage can be a bit scary, but once you begin, the road is actually much easier than others would like to make you believe.
What is the anatomy of change?
Since change feels uncomfortable to many, it's easy to fall for the idea that change is always bad. We want to postpone our starting point - we procrastinate. "Next week, I'll start my diet" or "next month, I'll stop smoking" when in fact you can already start your diet or your quit smoking project by taking little baby steps in the right direction.
I am a great fan of the Kaizen-principle. Little baby steps in the right direction can become huge advances when we see little baby steps over a period of time. If you've never eaten vegetables, eating just a little bit for lunch can be a small step towards enjoying the beautiful colors of fresh vegetables. Begin with carrots or peas. Easy to eat and not quite as big a step as beginning with broccoli.
In much the same way, quitting your smoking habit can begin with reducing just one or two cigarettes per day. Begin by going outside when you want to smoke. This causes you to make an effort to smoke. Before you know it, you have taken steps to reduce your smoking just by changing the way you live out your habits.
The anatomy of change is to make it easier to avoid an unwanted habit. When you must walk out the door to smoke, it's easier to write another article or get your report finished before you walk out the door. Suddenly, you have cut the unwanted habit to a mere half - then down to a quarter, etc.
When you begin to enjoy the behavior you want you can take larger steps. Eat healthier foods. Cut down upon fatty pork and maybe introduce chicken to your diet. On and on it goes. As you see the weight dropping, it becomes even more fun to drink more water - causing you to feel more filled in your stomach. Before you know it a good habit has become your new way of living.
So the Kaizen-principle works. You don't have to avoid things in a fanatic way. You can start by reducing, and then the final steps become much easier.
So nect time someone tells you they can't change a bad habit, it might be because they haven't read this article. Therefore they keep repeating the same mistakes. Help them by getting them to read this. It can help you and your friends in the same way as this method has helped me in many ways.
About this Author
Henrik Blunck administers numerous blogs. You can find an overview of these blogs over at http://blunckmeister.googlepages.com.
He has lectured people about communication through distance learning, and enjoys social networks. "Mingling gives new ideas, and I like that. Even disagreements can teach us something new when we are willing to listen and learn from one another" he says.
You might want to read my AdSense article which can be found right here: http://www.blunck.dk/recommends/adsense/.
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